Only I Am A Reader
chapter-41

According to a certain theory surrounding Sword Fall's creation, upon the Sword of Epoch's penetration of the ground, the Sword Breath that flooded out of it didn't stay contained underground. Instead, it was released from another outlet, causing the rise of several abnormal rocky structures.

Building upon this theory, the countless rumors suggested that the tremendous flood of Sword Breath didn't completely dissipate into the air. Rather, what was left of it agglomerated to form a peerless treasure that would turn whoever uses it, even an ordinary person, into a sword master!

However, among the outrageous rumors that were only bound by the limit of the people's imagination, one specific rumor was far too detailed to even count as a rumor. It was the rumor that suggested the existence of a 'Cleansing Sword'.

Unlike its exaggerated peers, the rumored 'Cleansing Sword' was said to be a flower birthed from the 'plowing' done by the pure Sword Breath, combining its essence of sharpness and the gentleness of plants, giving it the ability to 'cleanse' anything while being safe to consume by living beings.

"He didn't use it for this, but…"

After an unfortunate encounter with the Poison King, despite managing to decapitate his foe, Ray was inflicted with an incurable poison that threatened to take his life at any time.

'Luckily', proving her family's deep history in the field of botany, the heroine confirmed the existence of the 'Cleansing Sword' at Sword Fall. The only problem was that she didn't know its exact location.

However, the lucky streak of a protagonist continued as they managed to access the hidden canyon, allowing Ray to consume the 'Cleansing Sword' and successfully cleanse his body from the deadly poison.

"He did suggest it."

Naturally, Leo's reason for coming here wasn't to obtain a cure for poison. What he was after was the 'Cleansing' property of the flower.

[This bountiful Sword Breath… It feels like a waste to use to cleanse poison. If what I felt wasn't wrong, this could be even used as an 'Elixir' for people with blocked meridians. Perhaps, if Arthur was still…]

After experiencing the 'Cleansing' upon consumption, Ray was quick to guess the flower's most meaningful use, but all it seemed like was an afterthought by the author to make the readers shed a tear or two.

Nonetheless, in Leo's current case, he depended on this guess to seek a path ahead. Since this world mostly conformed to the author's words, it wasn't too far-fetched for the 'Cleansing Sword' to work.

"It's worth a try in any case."

Despite the novel being shorter than its peers, more than one solution to his 'Blocked Meridians' was introduced with the introduction of more characters. It was just that the closest and simplest solution lay in the 'Cleansing Sword', if it didn't work, Leo wasn't completely out of options.

Ending his deep contemplation, Leo used his dagger to carefully remove the 'hilt' of the 'Cleansing Sword', leaving the blade-like stalk standing tall in place.

'This should be okay?'

According to the botany expert, only the petals holding the pistil held the true value of the 'Cleansing Sword'. Moreover, after deep analysis, even Ray concluded that there was a constant stream of Sword Breath feeding the roots. If the stalk was left unharmed, another flower would grow in due time

This was precisely why Leo cut the 'hilt' so carefully and also the reason why he specifically chose to try this solution to his 'Blocked Meridians' first.

Although other methods were confirmed to work, using any of them would deprive the original character of their chance. The possible butterfly effect could be tremendous.

On the other hand, the regenerating 'Cleansing Sword' was sure to have as little effect as possible, otherwise, Leo wouldn't dare to gamble with the life of the protagonist if he wanted to safely reach the epilogue.

[ Hidden event occurrence has been detected. Discovered Hidden Piece, 'Cleansing Sword'. ]

Suddenly hearing the voice in his mind, Leo was startled at the possibility of having triggered a plot change leading to Ray's death, but after hearing the message's content, his beating heart calmed down.

[ You have received 20 Reading Points. ]

"Phew…"

After waiting for a few more minutes to see if he would receive another message, Leo finally let out a sigh of relief. Ray's protagonist aura might find another method to save him if the 'Cleansing Sword' disappeared, but Leo didn't want to bet on it.

"Let's get this processed then…"

Taking out a wooden bowl from his pouch, Leo removed the pistil before putting the rest of the 'hilt' into the bowl. He then took out a wooden handle to use as a pestle.

Borrowing the heroine's method of preparing the 'Cleansing Sword' for consumption, Leo used the bowl as a mortar, pounding the petals into powder.

Bang! Bang bang!

After a dozen minutes of pounding, Leo scooped some water from the pool surrounding the 'Cleansing Sword' into the bowl, using the pestle to give it a quick stir.

Putting the bowl of silvery 'medicinal soup' in front of him, Leo sat down cross-legged and took a deep breath before bringing the pistil close to his mouth.

'Here goes...'

As a fantasy plan that was closely related to the plot device of the whole story, the 'Cleansing Sword' was different from other flowers. The piece that looked like a pistil wasn't actually the flower's reproductive organ, rather, it was the carrier to the core essence of the Sword Breath.

On the other hand, the petals covering it carried the gentle essence of a plant, containing the Sword Breath within the pistil from 'exploding'.

In order to properly consume the 'Cleansing Sword' following the heroine's prescription, Leo bit into the 'pistil' before grabbing the bowl and hurriedly drinking the 'soup'.

'Gahh!'

On biting into the 'pistil', tyrannical energy invaded Leo's whole body, he felt like he was on the verge of completely breaking about from the inside before the 'soup' finally made its way inside.

Calming down the flood of sharpness rampaging through his body, the 'soup' transformed it into thin streams, spreading it around his body as the agony Leo felt soon turned into clear relaxation.

Not knowing how much had passed, Leo was completely immersed in the sensation of 'Sword Cleansing', only to be woken up by the voice once more!