Forging a weapon, for a weapon refiner, one’s state was undoubtedly the most important.
Suddenly, the moment Rock Solid opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flickered through them.
A wave of spiritforce was flowing away from his body.
“Fire, come,” he called lightly.
The Nine-Curve God Flame seemed to sense something and leapt on its own into his palm.
The flames then began to spread wildly, enveloping Rock Solid’s entire body.
When the Nine-Curve God Flame had become like his own limbs, able to be driven at will, Rock Solid finally lifted his right hand.
He raised the fragments of the True God Sword.
The Nine-Curve God Flame turned into a long dragon, directly swallowing the five fragments in one gulp.
The sound of burning flames echoed through the air.
Recasting the True God Sword was a long and arduous task.
Especially the True God Sword, it was far more difficult than forging any ordinary weapon.
Rock Solid controlled the temperature of the Nine-Curve God Flame, not a trace too much or too little.
This too was a test of his mastery over fire.
Xu Zimo did not rush. He and Venerable Nu sat at the edge of the mountain peak, letting the fierce winds blow against them.
It was autumn; in the distance, maple trees swayed in the wind.
A vast spread of crimson leaves drifted through the air, covering the ground in a thick layer.
“When the sword is finished, you’ll be leaving, won’t you?” Venerable Nu asked.
Xu Zimo nodded slightly, smiling. “There’s no meaning in staying here. I plan to look for some interesting matters.”
Venerable Nu lifted his right hand, pointing toward the distant sky.
The Heaven’s Will was growing ever larger, as though that section of the sky had been dyed over.
Winds shifted, clouds churned, and storms of spiritforce gathered.
A storm was brewing, one fiercer than any before.
It would determine the destiny of an entire era of the Primordial Heartlands.
“You’ll be going there, won’t you?” Venerable Nu asked, pointing toward Heaven's Will’s direction.
Xu Zimo nodded.
“Be careful. Don’t stumble in some gutter,” Venerable Nu warned. “No matter when or where, never forget, you are a student who once walked out from Celestial Dao Academy.”
“How much do you know of the past?” Xu Zimo asked.
“The past? What do you mean?”
“The founder of the Desolate Era,” Xu Zimo replied.
“You mean the Holy Progenitor?” Venerable Nu was startled, then asked.
It was well-known that the history of the Primordial Heartlands was divided into three great periods.
The Legendary Era, the Desolate Era, and the Imperial Era.
The Imperial Era had been founded by the True Martial Celestial Ground.
In the records of history, the opening of the Legendary Era was already obscure, but it was ended by the War God, who brought the twilight of the gods.
And the founder of the Desolate Era was the Holy Progenitor.
In the Flower Valley, blossoms bloomed and withered again. The man who carried the True God Sword walked out of the valley, and from then on opened an entire new age.
He established the Ancient Celestial Court, suppressed one era after another, and in the end, vanished into the mists of history.
What he left behind in the world was only the True God Sword.
“I have left all my treasures and secrets within the Ancient Celestial Court, and the True God Sword is the key to reaching it.”
From then on, this legend was passed down across the Primordial Heartlands.
The man who tended the flowers was revered as the Holy Progenitor.
As for his identity, later generations speculated endlessly.
Some said he was the incarnation of the beast race.
Otherwise, how could the beast race have flourished during the Desolate Era, suppressing all other races?
Others said he was human, only that the Holy Progenitor had always been fair, never taking part in the struggles between races.
The rise of the beast race, they claimed, had nothing to do with him.
……
“You’ve asked the right person,” Venerable Nu chuckled. “For a time, I specifically studied the history of our Primordial Heartlands. I’ve read through all the ancient records in the academy.”
“Then do you know where the Ancient Celestial Court lies?” Xu Zimo asked.
“You mean to go there?” Venerable Nu asked.
When he saw Xu Zimo nod, he continued, “Though I can’t be one hundred percent sure, by my estimate, the Ancient Celestial Court should be within the Blood Rune Domain.”
“The place where the Blood Rune Beasts are sealed?” Xu Zimo was slightly startled.
He knew that if all went smoothly, the True God Sword would surely be reforged.
But as for the location of the Ancient Celestial Court, he still had no certainty, for he hadn’t deeply studied the Desolate Era.
“So it seems even the Holy Progenitor had his little schemes,” Xu Zimo laughed.
Within the Blood Rune Domain, if one wanted to enter the Ancient Celestial Court, one would first have to slay the Blood Rune Beasts guarding its periphery.
Back when the War God ended the twilight of the gods, with no gods remaining, these Blood Rune Beasts had nearly ruled the entire world.
Their strength needed no explanation.
Even the Holy Progenitor’s seal, it was only a matter of time before it would be broken.
……
At this moment, Rock Solid had been using the Nine-Curve God Flame to melt the fragments for nearly seven hours.
The sky overhead was gradually darkening.
The fragments of the True God Sword were beginning to glow red-hot.
“Divine Hammer,” Rock Solid called again, waving his right hand. The Supreme God Hammer, bearing overwhelming might, descended into his grasp.
He took the hammer and struck heavily upon the heated fragments.
The sound of pounding, “boom, boom, boom,” rang out above.
Xu Zimo knew that this hammering was not to alter the True God Sword’s appearance.
It was to cleanse the impurities, reforging the cracks in the fragments, so that it could be made whole again.
In the heavens, the moon shone bright and gentle.
The autumn night was cool.
Xu Zimo leaned against a massive boulder, watching Rock Solid’s busy figure.
As the hammering continued bit by bit, the five fragments fused once more, and the cracks upon them gradually disappeared.
Rock Solid hammered for an entire night. By the time dawn broke the next day,
A fire dragon suddenly soared into the sky. With a light cry from him, “Sword soul, go!”
The sword soul of the True God Sword was directly infused into the blade.
All things have spirit; the sword soul was its essence.
The moment the soul entered, the heavens seemed to sense something.
The skies instantly shifted, winds and thunder transforming. Dark clouds replaced the blue sky and white clouds.
Like a massive vortex, black clouds churned overhead, slowly rotating counterclockwise.
Within that vortex, lightning began to spread.
It was lightning of a gray hue.
It carried the aura of destruction and death.
The lightning gathered bit by bit, and even the faint traces that leaked out carried astonishing power.
“This is… Chaos God Tribulation,” Xu Zimo muttered.
He knew well, for his Heavenly Tribulation God-Eyes had three layers.
The strongest among them was precisely the Chaos God Tribulation.
No one understood better than him the terrifying power of such lightning.
“Seems this will be tricky,” Xu Zimo stood up and said.
“I’ve heard heavenly tribulations are divided into nine tiers. I wonder how many levels this one will draw,” Venerable Nu said, also rising to his feet.
“No matter how many levels, we must protect Rock Solid,” Xu Zimo replied.
As the Sword God Spirit fused with the True God Sword...