High Martial World: I Gain Passive Skills Daily-Chapter 85 - 84: Not from the Same World

"This Demon Sword of Eternal Purgatory has actually become a demon formed by the grievances of a hundred thousand unjustly dead souls."

Qi Sibai waved his hand, causing the tea to float in mid-air, forming a water mirror.

In the water mirror, the face of a middle-aged man appeared, his skin bronze-colored, his expression stern and serious, with a scar on his forehead resembling a burn.

Most peculiar was his very long arms, almost reaching past his knees.

"I have already told you all about the identity of the first host, Tie Baiyuan."

"He was the master of the swordsmith Jie Kun who forged the Demon Sword, the number two at the Sword Lodge at the time, a silent man who lived in seclusion, obsessed with studying swordsmithing, and the most hopeful candidate to become the next master of the Sword Lodge. After Jie Kun disappeared, he also vanished without a trace."

"Alongside him going mad, were the hundred seventy-plus members of his family, and the master of the Sword Lodge at the time."

"This indirectly caused the Sword Lodge to decline for a while, almost collapsing completely."

Qi Sibai paused, his gaze deep: "But what’s strange is, not all of these people were by his side at the time; many of them were scattered throughout the Great Zhou, and some had even traveled to other countries."

"For example, Tie Baiyuan’s daughter was in the Yang Kingdom, yet she couldn’t escape the calamity."

"Without exception, all these people went mad on the same day, the day after Tie Baiyuan woke up."

"Some went mad and directly committed suicide, while others simply went mad, but all unanimously believed the world before them was not the real world and was completely different from their understanding."

Chen Kuang pondered: "In other words, the condition for being affected by the Demon Sword isn’t through contact with the Demon Sword’s host, but perhaps... through relationships with the Demon Sword’s host?"

Qi Sibai nodded: "Indeed."

He continued to describe the identities and experiences of two other former hosts.

The second host was a mortal member of a small faction in the Zhou Kingdom, without cultivation, and before his madness and disappearance, had a very low status, and was an orphan himself.

Initially, faction members thought he just had a cold and fell sick, after being comatose for a few days and seeming unlikely to recover, they had him thrown into a graveyard.

Yet seven days later, this man emerged covered in mud, ragged, running wildly through the local streets, laughing as he went, running all the way into that faction.

Wherever he went, everyone started laughing with him, then the entire faction of over a thousand people committed suicide, and additionally, those who had interacted with this person also went mad.

And this person too disappeared.

The third host was a city lord in the Yang Kingdom, possessing innate cultivation, and was female.

Her experience was roughly the same, except the number of deaths had surged to a shocking level.

An entire city, seven days later, suddenly became a city of madness, a city of death!

The Emperor of Yang Kingdom, fearful of this, burned down the city and concealed the news, then invited Qingpingzi, Daoist Monarch of Earth Spirit from Mystic God Daoist Sect — Shen Xingzhu’s master — to exorcise and suppress evil in this place.

"Daoist Monarch of Earth Spirit?"

Chen Kuang raised his eyebrows; no wonder Shen Xingzhu’s master prioritized this so much, he was also involved in the Demon Sword incident.

Qi Sibai nodded: "Mystic God Daoist Sect has paid attention to the wandering Demon Sword as well, but are similarly at a loss. The Demon Sword appears and disappears too quickly each time, and can’t be predicted by ordinary methods. Qiankun Art of Divination is helpless against it."

"Hence, this heavy responsibility can only be handed to our Observatory."

"And I am the only one who can see the Demon Sword’s fate."

Qi Sibai spoke, and smiled — it was a bitter smile.

Such a troublesome fate, he was helpless about it too, but for those at the Observatory, this was also their fate.

Chen Kuang could fully understand.

These hosts shared no connection among them.

The only common point was that they fell into a coma for seven days after becoming the Demon Sword’s host, and upon waking up, they dragged those connected to them into madness.

Moreover...

"Looking at the situation of these three hosts, it seems the more people the host’s identity can contact, the more people suddenly go mad after being affected..."

Chen Kuang rubbed his temples, feeling the matter was perhaps more severe than he imagined.

"And the current Demon Sword host is that Little Garbage Bucket."

"He is the royal descendant of Liang Kingdom, if he succeeds in restoring the kingdom in the future... dammit, that would be catastrophic!"

Chen Kuang took a deep breath, focusing on the question: "Brother Qi, alongside the three previous Demon Sword hosts who went mad, is it only those they knew and had interactions with?"

Qi Sibai shook his head: "There are also those who had no connection whatsoever."

"For example, the second host, simultaneously suspected to have gone mad due to the Demon Sword, included a woman from Liang Kingdom a thousand miles away."

"In my later investigation, it was said that when she went mad, she kept saying the host was her husband, and they had a child together."

"In the other madmen’s mouths, the host’s identity was not a small faction member, but a renowned hero."

Qi Sibai spoke solemnly: "The same situation occurred with the third host."

"Coupled with the vague fate I saw, I had already been able to confirm the Demon Sword’s influence was actually in another world within the host’s ’dream’, interacting with those connected to them."

Qi Sibai looked at Chen Kuang and Shen Meinan.

"And now, this ’dream’ should be called the ’Void Illusion Realm’."

"Void Illusion Realm, Eternal Purgatory, Sun and Moon unified, replacing this world — these few phrases mean this Demon Sword intends to use the host as a medium to turn the world of illusions into reality!"

"Once succeeded in replacing, for those in the illusion world, if vastly different from reality, it would naturally lead to utter madness."

Chen Kuang understood now.

This Demon Sword... is indeed demon-like, directly creating a place akin to a parallel world, extrapolating another possibility.

And it wants to flip that world over, covering the real world!

Considering the Demon Sword hosts’ pattern, it’s indeed transitioning from a family, to a faction, to a city... to potentially a nation now!

Truly terrifying!

Chen Kuang frowned: "Given this, the Little Princess is already trapped within the Void Illusion Realm, which means the extrapolation of the dream world has already begun."

"Even waking her now might manifest part of the dream world as reality, at least those closest to her would certainly be influenced..."

This equates to yet another trolley dilemma.

Moreover, it’s unconfirmed to what extent the dream world’s progression has reached now.

Chen Kuang mused for a moment, saying: "Choosing is futile, isn’t it unsolvable?"

Qi Sibai shook his head: "Since I asked Brother Chen to find me if there was a clue, I naturally would not let you return without results."

Qi Sibai paused, saying: "I saw the fate a while ago..."

He spoke word by word: "The first Demon Sword host, Tie Baiyuan, should not be dead! Moreover, he’s in Dongting Lake! He should possess a method to rid that Demon Sword!"

...

Chen An calmed his little sister, feeling uneasy, he came to the pier, seeing a familiar old fisherman bending down to cast a net.

He casually engaged in small talk: "Old Ape Head, where’s your Xiaohong?"

The old fisherman lifted his head, his dark skin weathered by time, messy white hair spread beneath his straw hat, almost hiding the eyes sunken into wrinkles, with unusually long arms, quite fitting to his name.

He chuckled: "Young Master Chen always asks about Xiaohong whenever he visits, but it seems Xiaohong doesn’t really fancy talking to you."

Chen An was slightly annoyed: "When do I always ask? I only inquire when I don’t see her."

Old Ape Head replied: "Xiaohong went to the market in the east."

Chen An asked: "Is someone with her?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"A girl from the Li family in the west."

"Oh..."

Chen An paced back and forth two steps, then lifted his foot heading east.

Old Ape Head straightened his back, set down the net, the eyes beneath the straw hat were clouded: "He left."

"Young Master Chen is a good person; why do you always avoid him?"

From the cabin of the fishing boat emerged a girl with large braids, clear and beautiful face like snow, naturally flushed cheeks, as a lotus on water.

Xiaohong gazed steadily towards where Chen An departed.

For a while.

She smiled and said:

"Grandpa Yuan, you know, he and I aren’t from the same world."