CHAPTER 385: CH-385: ABYSS DAGGER

"Wait! If you do that, you might destroy whatever’s inside!" Feng Chang hurriedly objected.

"You have a better idea?" Wang Ming asked bluntly.

"...," Feng Chang was left speechless, clearly lacking a solution.

"Wait, I’ll activate the formation!" Jiang Hong shouted when he saw Wang Ming draw his sword. He knew exactly what kind of destruction Wang Ming’s attack could cause to the surroundings without a protective barrier.

"Heavenly Sword Art – Second Form – World Slicing Strike!" Wang Ming roared as a golden arc flew from his sword and slammed into the box.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted on impact. After the smoke cleared, Wang Ming stepped forward. When he saw the box, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"What!!" The others exclaimed as they looked at the box—completely unharmed, not even a scratch on it.

’Heavens, what the hell is this made of?’ they all wondered. If that attack had hit them, they’d have been seriously injured, yet the box remained untouched. Silence followed as Wang Ming stored the box away.

"Any ideas, anyone?" Shi Yu asked, breaking the silence, but no one answered. They were still trying to figure out a solution.

’Maybe... ’ Suddenly, a thought clicked in Wang Ming’s mind. He had just acquired a new physique, and this seemingly indestructible box had appeared at the same time. Coincidence? He didn’t believe in those anymore—he already felt something greater was controlling his fate.

Taking a deep breath, he raised his hand under the confused gaze of the others. A surge of black smoke emerged from his palm and moved toward the box.

"What is this?" Feng Chang muttered, a chill running down her spine as she saw the pitch-black mist leaking from Wang Ming’s palms. Something about the mist made her feel deeply uneasy.

"Whatever it is, for some reason I’m feeling mortal danger," Jiang Hong said solemnly. Not even facing cultivators with higher cultivation had ever made him feel the kind of dread this black mist was instilling in him.

They all watched in silence as the mist surged from Wang Ming’s hands and approached the box. As soon as the mist touched it, everyone’s eyes narrowed—the box trembled slightly, as if reacting to the black mist.

’Looks like my guess was right. It’s no coincidence,’ Wang Ming thought, pushing out even more of the black mist. Soon, the entire wooden box was covered and concealed within it.

"What’s happening?" Bai Lingxi whispered as the box suddenly began to tremble more violently. The surrounding black mist started to swirl and get sucked into the box like a black hole. Wang Ming didn’t stop pouring out the mist, not for a second—in fact, he increased the output, sensing that something inside the box was beginning to change. The more mist he released, the faster the box absorbed it.

Then, just as suddenly, the box stopped absorbing the mist, leaving the room filled with swirling black fog. Wang Ming frowned and began retracting the remaining mist—black mist imbued with traces of the Law of Darkness—back into his physique.

Everyone watched with bated breath as the box began to glow ominously black. But to their surprise, the dark aura around it suddenly dimmed.

"Eh? Did it fail?" Shi Yu asked. She had been expecting the box to open, but after all that spectacle, it simply fell silent which disappointed her as she thought it failed.

"Not quite," Wang Ming replied.

All of a sudden, the box began to shake violently. Cracks formed on the floor beneath it as pitch-black smoke slowly began to seep out.

Bang!

Before their eyes, the box exploded, and from within emerged a pitch-black sphere of smoke, ominously hovering above the ground.

"What the hell is that?" Jiang Hong muttered, sensing an immense threat from the misty black orb, all his nerves were tense.

"Hmm, something seems to be inside it," Feng Chang said, frowning as her spiritual sense detected an object within.

"It looks like some kind of dagger," Wang Ming muttered, narrowing his eyes as he discerned the outline of a weapon inside—it resembled the shape of a dagger.

As soon as the words left Wang Ming’s mouth, the black sphere of smoke began to dissipate, revealing a beautiful silver dagger floating in midair, studded with rubies and gems.

"What—Wang Ming!" Bai Lingxi and the girls cried out when the dagger, still floating, suddenly pointed in their direction—then shot straight toward Wang Ming in an instant.

Before anyone could react, the dagger stabbed directly into Wang Ming’s chest. He could have easily stopped it, but he paused when he sensed no malicious intent emitting from the dagger.

"What the..." Lei Ping exclaimed when he realized that Wang Ming wasn’t injured. Instead of blood, black mist leaked from Wang Ming’s body as the dagger slowly sank deeper into him under everyone’s astonished eyes and eventually disappeared completely.

Wang Ming looked at the new line of text that appeared before his eyes—and was stunned.

[Ding Dong]

[A foreign object is attempting to corrode your soul]

[Darkness Merging Physique is reacting]

[Darkness Merging Physique has made contact with the foreign object]

[Corrosion attempt has been stopped]

[You have encountered your first Soul Weapon]

[You have bonded with the ’Abyss Dagger’]

"A Soul Weapon?" Wang Ming swallowed hard. He had been saving points to buy the Blood Devourer Sword, another Soul Weapon, from the system. He didn’t expect to come across one even before that.

Wang Ming quickly checked inside his Darkness Merging Physique, and there it was—a dagger floating within the darkness. The silver dagger had now changed color to black and purple, emitting a soft purple glow. He could feel a strong connection to it. With a thought, he knew he could summon or store the weapon inside his body at will.

Moreover, he sensed that the dagger was feeding on the trace amounts of Law of Darkness within his physique, gradually growing stronger with each passing moment.

He brought up the dagger’s details to examine it more closely.