Shennong World-Creating Cauldron, Shennong Ruler

"Ha... ha..."

Lianshan lay beside a cliff on a verdant mountain, exhausted like a fish tossed onto shore, his mouth hanging open as he panted heavily.

Xu Yanwu looked at Lianshan with utter disdain. "Pathetic. How far did we even run? Five or six hundred li at most, and you're already worn out like this?"

"..."

Lianshan opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but considering that anything he said would probably end with Xu Yanwu beating him up, he did not dare speak.

Xu Yanwu brushed the dust off a bluish stone beside him and plopped down on it, crossing one leg over the other. "I'll give you five minutes to recover your strength. We'll hunt around here today."

Xu Yanwu took a deep breath of the mountaintop air, a glint of excitement appearing in his eyes. "There's actually so much Honkai Energy in the air. Feels like there'll be some good prey here!"

Xu Yanwu removed the large beast-hide pack from his back and untied it, revealing a massive dark-green cauldron within.

It was a square cauldron with four legs. Its walls bore elegant, majestic bronze patterns, within which dense writing could faintly be seen. At the center of those bronze patterns stood five archaic characters.

Shennong World-Creating Cauldron

"I'll set our pot down here first. Once we're done, we can cook the meat right here."

After speaking, Xu Yanwu glared fiercely, held his index and middle fingers together, and pointed at the Shennong Cauldron before him. "Grow!"

With Xu Yanwu's shout, the Shennong Cauldron abruptly expanded, growing from the size of something one person could wrap their arms around to over three meters tall before slowly stopping.

"Mm, this size will do for now."

Xu Yanwu nodded in satisfaction.

By then, Lianshan had caught his breath and climbed to his feet. "Brother Xu, there's something I've wanted to ask for a long time."

"What do you want to ask?"

Xu Yanwu glanced sideways at Lianshan.

"Uh..." Lianshan scratched his head and asked, "Why did you name the cauldron you forged the Shennong Cauldron, Brother Xu?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

Xu Yanwu looked at him with disdain. "It's a cauldron for you to use, kid."

"But didn't you also give me this..."

Lianshan reached for the box on his back.

"That's something you take out to fight with. This is a pot for stewing meat. How can they be the same?"

Xu Yanwu still wore a disdainful expression, as though Lianshan had asked an incredibly stupid question.

"But..."

Lianshan still wanted to say something.

Why are both things you gave me so miraculous...

Like this Shennong World-Creating Cauldron, which can grow and shrink, and makes whatever is brewed in it mysteriously effective.

And the one on my back...

Xu Yanwu glanced at Lianshan and said flatly, "Enough with the buts. Looks like we still have time. How about the two of us spar first?"

"..." Lianshan's lips twitched. "Let's not, Brother Xu..."

"Why are you chickening out? It's not like I'm going to bully you. Hurry up, take out your weapon!"

Xu Yanwu assumed a stance and raised both hands. A huge square shield appeared in his left hand, while his right gripped a great axe.

This was the shield and axe Xu Yanwu had specially forged for himself. After all, they had to suit Xing Tian's identity...

"Haven't you bullied me enough already..."

Lianshan muttered quietly. His hand rested on the wooden box behind his back as he put some distance between them and stared intently at Xu Yanwu in the distance.

"What? Still not taking it out? The great treasure I specially forged for you." Xu Yanwu wore a sinister grin. "Take it out and show me."

"What great treasure... Didn't you name it the Shennong Ruler yourself?" Lianshan complained. With a flick of his finger, he opened the lid at the top of the wooden case and pulled out the object inside.

Its ruler body was covered in dark-green patterns, roughly four and a half chi long, one chi wide, and two fingers thick.

Like the Shennong World-Creating Cauldron yet unlike it, the face of the Shennong Ruler also bore archaic writing. However, those words were formed from the dark-green patterns themselves, giving it an air of natural perfection.

Shennong World-Creating Cauldron, Shennong Ruler.

These two items were the greatest treasures Xu Yanwu had given Lianshan over the past two years.

Created using the power within Xu Yanwu's body, the strength of these two tools far exceeded Xu Yanwu's own expectations. He even had a feeling that they would not lose in the slightest to the Divine Keys created by Dr. MIE using Herrscher Cores!

If the thirteen Divine Keys forged by Dr. MIE were weapons of humanity, created by mortals through borrowed divine power—

Then the Shennong Cauldron and Shennong Ruler were divine gifts sincerely bestowed by Xu Yanwu, a god from another world, upon Lianshan, a mortal—arms for mortals.

Which of the two was stronger was truly impossible to say.

But for Lianshan, this was undoubtedly a tremendous blessing!

Even if both Xu Yanwu and Lianshan, those two idiots, had no idea of the true value of the Shennong Cauldron and Shennong Ruler...

"Isn't the Shennong Ruler a great treasure?"

Xu Yanwu swung his great axe. The blade whistled sharply through the air, proving just how keen it was.

"Come on, attack me. Let me see what level your strength has reached now."

Lianshan crouched slightly, his spinal column compressing like a spring, ready to unleash a fierce assault at any moment.

"Brother Xu, please instruct me."

Lianshan's spine suddenly snapped straight, sending his entire body shooting toward Xu Yanwu like an arrow released from a drawn bow. He spun sharply in midair, driving the Shennong Ruler in his hand down with tremendous force, as though he intended to split apart the very earth beneath them.

"Good!"

A sharp glint flashed through Xu Yanwu's eyes. Lianshan's fighting style had been honed through two years of relentless battles against Honkai Beasts, but Xu Yanwu had fought Honkai Beasts for just as long. More than that, Xu Yanwu had been surprised to discover that his body seemed to possess muscle memory for incoming attacks. Coupled with his immortality, his combat skills were no worse than those of veterans who had fought for decades.

I keep saying it... What exactly did my body go through before I found it?

But complaints aside, he still had to properly receive the attack already upon him.

He raised the bronze shield in his left hand, blocking the Shennong Ruler's path as it came crashing down from above. The two collided with a deafening impact.

"Clang——"

The tremendous sound spread from the mountaintop, startling flocks of birds nesting on the mountain into flight.

It also woke some Honkai Beasts slumbering among the mountains.

As Lianshan's attack landed, Xu Yanwu's body sank involuntarily, and several cracks split across the mountain rock beneath his feet from the force.

"Good kid! Your strength's gotten this great already!"