Chapter 3873: Sun Heart

With the sword halfway done and the heat no longer needed, the temperature inside the room began to cool down. The Artifact God, who had been so focused on protecting herself the entire time, could finally find time to breathe. At the same time, she finally had the time to think as well.

And there was only one thought in her mind that she hadn’t been able to get rid of.

What the hell had just happened?

She wasn’t surprised when Ray used his Divine-grade fire to heat everything up. But when the featherless corpse of the Three-Legged Crow came out, he had suddenly grown stronger by a degree that was too much for her to understand.

Celestials rarely showed off how strong they were. And when they did, it was usually far enough away from anyone else that it was hard to judge what their actual strength was like. So it was hard for Shen Yaojia to accurately discern just how strong this spirit fire bird was, but she had a sinking suspicion that it was as strong as a Celestial.

That, unfortunately, brought up more questions than answers for her.

Just how was this possible?

"I don’t like this," Alex spoke up suddenly, drawing her attention away from the bird.

"What?" the Artifact God asked.

"The aura," Alex said. "I wanted it to be more than just Yang heat and regular fire. But because we used just that, that is what it has become."

She looked down at the sword and could still feel an intense amount of heat coming from it. "It feels strong to me," she said.

"It is, but the aura within it is something I can easily produce anyway," Alex said. "More than that, it’s too basic. I wanted something more. I still want something more."

The heat was rapidly falling, and as the sword’s glow dimmed, Alex could tell that all the Death and Darkness aura that had once filled the sword was no longer there. As a result, even the color of the sword had changed as well.

"What do you want exactly?" Shen Yaojia asked.

Alex narrowed his eyes for a moment. "Something more than this. Something that aligns with me."

"Weren’t you planning on using Sunhearts? Just use those, then," she said.

Alex immediately frowned, which she noticed as well. She looked down at the sword, trying to figure out what she had missed. When she noticed it, she frowned as well.

"The heat aura is too strong, isn’t it?" she asked.

Alex nodded slowly. "Far too strong. No amount of Decaying Sunhearts will be able to replace something of this level," he said.

The woman narrowed her eyes in thought as well. "You wanted to add pure Yang into the sword, I assume."

Alex nodded. "As the Sun God, I wanted my sword to be filled with Yang aura. But I don’t have nearly enough aura to make that happen. I might have to pivot a little."

"But to what?" she asked.

"Master," Ray spoke at that very moment. "If you don’t mind, I do have a suggestion."

Alex looked at the bird. "What is it?"

"You want Yang aura in your sword, don’t you?" he asked. "We have the perfect source of Yang inside the room right now."

"Hmm?" Alex turned, his eyes falling on the corpse beside him.

The Artifact God looked toward the corpse of the Three-Legged Crow as well, her eyes narrowing the moment she did. "What? Are you suggesting that he use the corpse of the Three-Legged Crow to enhance his sword?"

"Indeed."

Alex’s head snapped back toward Ray, slightly troubled. "Is that the only option? Can you think of nothing else?"

"You deserve only the best, Master. You should use it," Ray said.

Alex hesitated. He had wanted to keep the corpse of the Three-Legged Crow so he could use it to make something else entirely. But given the current situation, it didn’t look like that was going to happen at all.

"Alright," Alex said. "But not the entire thing. I want to keep it for my family. What is the best organ inside to use for my sword?"

Ray remained silent for a second before answering.

"My heart."

Alex nodded. "Do it."

A massive aura suddenly erupted out of the corpse next to them, making everything from before pale in comparison.

The Artifact God stepped back in primal fear, the feeling of being choked and drowned suffusing through her at every moment. And even as she feared everything, her eyes watched in astonishment. First at the corpse, and then at the bird spirit.

’My heart,’ it had said.

His heart.

The heart of the Three-Legged Crow.

Staring at the shape of the bird and everything else she knew about it until now, she couldn’t help but realize just how stupid she had been not to see it.

This was no ordinary spirit at all.

This was the spirit of the Three-Legged Crow. She had been in the presence of a Primordial beast and not known it.

Yang aura erupted out of Alex at that very moment, quite involuntarily at that. The aura around him had suddenly become so intense that his Sun God’s body had chosen to protect him in that moment. And even then, he felt as though he were suffocating.

Never before had he felt this way in the presence of Yang. He was barely holding on.

And if he was barely holding on, he could understand just how the Artifact God was faring. He looked toward her and saw that she was on the verge of collapsing. After a brief thought, he reached out toward her.

"Senior, let me save you."

She was no longer needed here.

Instantly, he took Shen Yaojia into his Soul Space, feeling a spike of mental pain for a moment before the Artifact God calmed down inside his Soul Space and drew in her aura.

Then, he focused on the event before him and gave a single nod.

"Ray, let us begin."