Chapter 256: Ten Thousand Weapons Crouch in Submission, The Immortal Blade Rings!

Deep within the Corpse Liberation Ground, near a sheer cliff.

Ji Wuhen was bragging to his traveling companions. "Thinking back to those days, I obtained my divine weapon, the Hegemon Spear, right on this very cliff."

"When I walked this path back then, a hundred weapons rang out in unison. Almost every weapon I passed extended an olive branch, shining brilliantly as they approached me of their own accord. But I rejected them all, one by one. Only then could I make it all the way here to claim the Hegemon Spear, embarking on my path of invincibility..."

Ji Wuhen had been living quite well lately.

Ever since his fortuitous encounter in that bizarre place, he found his Divine Intent had inexplicably achieved a breakthrough. The time needed to reach the Grandmaster Rank had suddenly been cut in half.

Originally, it might have taken him another five years, but now, he would need two and a half at most.

On the Armament Manual, he was already the fastest-advancing Titled Martial Master. Being only in his early thirties, calling his future boundless was no exaggeration.

He even had hopes of reaching the Great Grandmaster Rank!

At the thought, Ji Wuhen's heart burned with passion. However, as a certain figure surfaced in his mind, he quickly calmed back down.

'Well... there is always a higher mountain.'

Reaching the Grandmaster Rank in two and a half years was certainly fast, but he would never forget his experience in Shuzhong, nor everything that had happened afterward.

'I can't be arrogant. Compared to me, that Wang Ping is the real monster. He had just killed a Loose Immortal, and immediately after, he broke through to the Grandmaster Rank...'

'Fortunately, I reacted quickly.'

Looking back, Ji Wuhen felt a little smug. He had seized an unprecedented business opportunity from Wang Ping's breakthrough.

He had immediately spurred his horse and rushed back to the Capital.

There, he sought out Li Wenzheng, the Minister of Rites who had originally hired him to assassinate Wang Ping. Ji Wuhen accused the minister of hiring a Loose Immortal to secretly eliminate him in a double-cross, demanding more money or else the matter wouldn't be settled.

Li Wenzheng had been scared half to death, never expecting Ji Wuhen to return alive and extort him. The minister subsequently ran to the Renown Oversight Terrace to verify the facts, only to find that Wang Ping's name had indeed vanished from the Armament Manual. Left with no choice but to part with his wealth to avoid disaster, Li Wenzheng paid him three times the original price.

Ji Wuhen had been living lavishly off that sum ever since, and even today, he still hadn't spent it all!

As for whether Li Wenzheng later discovered that Wang Ping wasn't actually dead, Ji Wuhen naturally couldn't care less. He had already collected the money; if the minister was upset, he only had his own stupidity to blame.

At this thought, Ji Wuhen sighed with emotion. 'A Grandmaster. Incredible. Compared to me, who relied on a fortuitous encounter, he is a true heaven-chosen genius.'

Ji Wuhen still remembered buying a horse and preparing to leave Shuzhong. Yet, before he had even made it out of Changle Commandery, the title Dragon Head Guillotine suddenly disappeared from the Armament Manual. Looking back, he saw an anomaly like burning clouds blanketing the sky.

Without a doubt, it wasn't because the man had died.

It was because he had broken through to the Grandmaster Rank!

His jaw had nearly dropped to the ground at the time. He had to slap himself several times before he could accept that he hadn't succumbed to cultivation deviation and hallucinated the whole thing.

'Forget it, forget it. Why bother comparing myself to someone stronger than me?'

Ji Wuhen let out a long breath and pulled his thoughts back from his memories. He figured he would never encounter a monster so favored by the Martial Dao a second time.

"Big brother, big brother!"

Right at that moment, a martial artist suddenly ran over from a distance, his face flushed with excitement. "Something happened on the other side! A very strange martial artist showed up."

Ji Wuhen cast a sidelong glance at him, completely unconcerned. "How strange could he be?"

"He's climbing the mountain!" the newcomer said.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Ji Wuhen's expression turned slightly serious. Being able to climb the mountain in the Corpse Liberation Ground meant the person had earned the acknowledgement of at least a significant portion of the weapons.

As for the extent of that acknowledgement...

With this in mind, Ji Wuhen immediately asked in a deep voice, "Did you count? How many weapons rang out for him on his way up?"

If ten weapons rang in unison, it meant the climber could obtain at least a Famous Treasure grade weapon. The more weapons that chimed, the higher the grade of the final weapon. If the person could induce a hundred weapons to chime together like he had back then, it meant a divine weapon was going to emerge. Such a person would warrant a great deal of his respect.

However, the newcomer's answer in the next second left Ji Wuhen stunned.

"None!"

The man curled his thumb and index finger into a circle, his tone incredibly amazed. "That's why he's strange! It's actually zero!"

Zero? Not a single weapon rang out?

"Impossible!"

Ji Wuhen subconsciously shook his head. "Without any weapons chiming, how is he climbing the mountain? If someone tries to force their way through the Corpse Liberation Ground without the weapons' acknowledgement, they'll be slaughtered!"

This was exactly why the Corpse Liberation Ground was filled with so many weapons, yet no one ever dared to forcefully steal them. People could only follow the rules to claim one. Because the weapons possessed spirits, anyone who broke the rules would immediately be attacked by all the weapons inside. No one could possibly evade that.

A Grandmaster had once tried exactly that.

That Grandmaster had boasted highly of his martial skills and tried to take a Famous Treasure for his son. But before he could even exit the Corpse Liberation Ground, he was confronted by a full twelve divine weapons.

The dignified Grandmaster was left without an intact corpse on the spot.

Ever since then, no one dared disobey the rules of the Corpse Liberation Ground. Even when a Grandmaster visited, they would behave respectfully without overstepping in the slightest.

There were even rumors in the martial world that the number of divine weapons buried across this mountain in the Corpse Liberation Ground exceeded the total number circulating in the outside world!

Who could possibly force their way into such a place?

Yet in the next second, Ji Wuhen saw the newcomer looking confused. After a moment of thought, the man said with certainty, "But there are absolutely no weapons stopping him."

"...What?"

Hearing this, Ji Wuhen's curiosity was piqued. He immediately commanded, "Take me there!"

He rushed over without stopping. Along the way, he encountered several groups of people who were evidently coming to watch the spectacle after hearing the news.

Soon, a figure came into view.

"Wang... Wang Ping!?"

Ji Wuhen's eyes instantly widened. The shock he felt back in Shuzhong surged up once more, mixed with a sense of relief that whispered, 'Then this isn't strange at all.'

But why had this monster come to the Jiangnan Circuit?

Looking ahead, he saw Wang Ping walking straight up. The weapons along the path parted to make way, and some of the originally radiant weapons even actively concealed their glow.

Ten thousand weapons crouched in submission, without a single one ringing out.

By the time he arrived, Wang Ping was already on the verge of disappearing from sight.

At this thought, Ji Wuhen didn't hesitate, immediately wanting to follow him. As someone who had induced a hundred weapons to chime in unison, he had also walked this mountain path back then.

Although these weapons hadn't made way for him back then, he had lit them up one by one. They had eagerly curried favor with him, wanting him to take them away. He figured that now they would also—

"Clang! Clang!"

In an instant, countless flashes of cold light erupted. Ji Wuhen's footsteps ground to a sudden halt, a drop of cold sweat rolling down his temple. His intuition told him that he absolutely could not take another step forward!

If he took even one more step, these surrounding weapons would definitely erupt and hack him to pieces.

Looking at the numerous weapons that used to be so sweet to him but were now turning hostile and disowning him, Ji Wuhen felt a sudden lump in his chest, completely at a loss for words.

What made him feel even more stifled was that these weapons were so damn particular. Although they glowed, they only emitted a threatening light on the side facing him. The side facing Wang Ping remained dull and dark, terrified of disturbing him. He could even sense a strong wave of disdain through his Divine Intent.

Did this mean... he was unworthy of walking the path Wang Ping had just taken!?

Ji Wuhen widened his eyes and abruptly took a step back, subconsciously gripping the Hegemon Spear strapped to his back, because this divine spear... also seemed to be acting strangely.

"You want to go over there too?"

"Then what about me?"

He looked at the divine spear he normally treasured beyond measure and polished three times a day, now vibrating incessantly as it tried to fly in Wang Ping's direction.

Ji Wuhen finally snapped.

"Goddammit! When you saw me back then, you eagerly ran over, and now that you see someone better, you want to run off! You weapons are such fickle snobs!"

And they had to make it so exaggerated.

'Is that guy's talent really that much better than mine?'

...

At the peak of the Corpse Liberation Ground.

Wang Ping encountered no resistance along the way, smoothly making his way to the top of the mountain. What entered his sight was a circular pool of water as clear as a mirror.

A stone stele stood beside it, bearing three large, blood-red characters. The aura was blazing and oppressive, as if a Great Grandmaster had exhausted their lifelong Divine Intent to write them.

[Saber-Washing Pool]

Looking at these three characters, Wang Ping felt confused. So whatever was in this pool was what the First Seat wanted him to bring out from the Corpse Liberation Ground?

With this in mind, he immediately walked to the edge of the pool and focused his gaze. However, all he saw was the reflection of the sky on the clear surface. It was currently noon, so a fiery sun sat dead center on the water's surface, its sunlight rippling wantonly within the pool.

There was nothing there.

Wang Ping blinked. But right at that moment, a talisman in his sea of consciousness suddenly lit up, unexpectedly establishing some sort of connection with the Saber-Washing Pool!

"Zzzing—!"

Finally, Wang Ping seemed to hear the melodious ring of a blade emanating from the bottom of the pool before him, bringing with it an intense crisis that sent his Divine Intent into a frantic warning.

'No... I was wrong!'

In a flash, Wang Ping came to a sudden realization. His eyes locked dead onto the center of the Saber-Washing Pool, staring at the fiery red sun he had thought was merely a reflection of the sky.

That was what was glowing.

The chime of the blade was also coming from its direction. The fiery red sun was not a reflection of the sky at all; it was an object at the bottom of the pool emitting light!

A second later, guided by the trembling talisman deep within his sea of consciousness, Wang Ping's gaze pierced through the glare on the pool's surface. He finally saw clearly the object resting at the bottom—the so-called "spark" that one of the four great sects, the Corpse Liberation Ground, had passed down through generations, exhausting thousands of years of outstanding Martial Dao heroes to barely suppress.

Following that, his heart filled with understanding.

'So that's how it is. No wonder I met no resistance entering the Corpse Liberation Ground. It wasn't because my talent was better, but because I have its personal signature...'

The true form of the spark was a blade.

"Good heavens... this thing can actually be suppressed? Holy shit, these contemporary Martial Dao sects might keep quiet, but they're actually packing some hardcore stuff in secret!"

Wang Ping exhaled deeply.

He had seen this blade before. However, compared to its true body, the one before him was slightly smaller, its projection blurry. It was merely a single strand of blade qi.

Yet it was exactly this single strand of blade qi that had caused a three-year severe drought in the Jiangnan Circuit after falling to the mortal realm, bringing disaster to hundreds of millions of people and requiring generations of Great Grandmasters to relay the duty of suppressing it. It was also this kind of blade qi that had cleaved the sky and pierced the Cosmos earlier, nearly slaying a Corpse Dissolution Immortal who only barely escaped with its life.

It was exactly the Heaven's Will Profound Blade!