Stone Soldiers

Hodan was overjoyed to have earned Huoxie's friendship. At last, at last, his safety was assured. As long as he didn't provoke Paragons, the children of Chief Sovereigns, or freaks like Beirut, he could feel secure in Hell.

From now on, he would focus on cultivation and strive to gain the strength to take his fate into his own hands as soon as possible.

Silvermoon had benefited from Hodan's good fortune, but he didn't mind. How many people dreamed of getting acquainted with a Paragon?

And this Paragon wasn't an ordinary one, either. Even before becoming a Paragon, he had been able to fight Bamer, a Fire Grand Perfection, without giving ground.

He would only grow stronger after becoming a Paragon. Of course, to find out just how strong, they would have to ask Huoxie.

After congratulating Huoxie, Hodan and Silvermoon asked him what had changed now that he had become a Paragon.

Huoxie held nothing back and told them. After becoming a Paragon, his body had been strengthened by the Laws of the World until it truly reached the level of a Sovereign Artifact. Before, it had only been called a Sovereign Artifact; there had still been a slight difference.

Now his body had finally reached the true level of a Sovereign Artifact. Even if a Paragon wielded Sovereign's Might, they couldn't hurt his body in the slightest. His Sovereign Artifact body also gave him roughly ten times the attack power. And Huoxie had a complete set of Sovereign Artifacts. With attack power ten times greater than a Paragon's, he was absolutely invincible among Paragons.

After all, Huoxie was one of the few in this world to reach Paragon status with a body at the level of a Sovereign Artifact.

In fact, a newly ascended Paragon had merely fused one more Mystery than an ordinary Asura-level expert and gained an additional share of Willpower. That made a Paragon roughly a hundred times stronger than an ordinary Asura.

However, every Asura who could fuse Mysteries to the peak had a signature technique suited to them. So when neither side used Sovereign's Might, a newly ascended Paragon's attack power was only around ten times greater than that of an Asura at the peak.

The advantage was that Paragons had no weak points. With Willpower bolstering them, even an earth-type Paragon, who wasn't skilled at speed, wasn't much slower than Paragons of the Thunder and wind elements, who excelled at speed. And when Willpower amplified their strengths, those strengths grew even greater.

Of course, veteran Paragons had their own signature techniques. With those techniques boosting them, most veteran Paragons were at least twenty or thirty times stronger than peak Asuras. No wonder Paragons slaughtered Asuras like cutting through vegetables. Against someone who had only just reached Asura level, it would be an outright massacre.

Paragons also had another special advantage: they could control Sovereign's Might perfectly. When Asuras used Sovereign's Might, it constantly leaked away. A single drop of a Paragon's Sovereign's Might was enough to leave an Asura with nowhere to run, either in the heavens or on earth.

By then, Hodan and the others had gained a clear understanding of Huoxie's strength: he was absolutely dozens of times stronger than a Paragon. After all, his body was a Sovereign Artifact, possessing a terrifying power that could overturn rivers and seas and tear apart the heavens and earth.

With that formidable body, Huoxie could unleash power even greater than a Paragon's. He didn't need to defend himself and wasn't even afraid of the recoil. He could simply fight you head-on. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call Huoxie the strongest beneath the Sovereigns.

After explaining all that, Huoxie also told Hodan about what he had learned from his breakthrough. Perhaps because he had such a talent for the Fire Element, he had begun understanding and fusing the higher-level Mysteries. The last Mystery he fused turned out to be the lowest-level one: Fire Element.

Because Fire Element was so basic, Huoxie hadn't paid it any attention. That was why he had been stuck at the peak of Asura level for so long. When Hodan mentioned drifting with the current and resonance, Huoxie finally understood.

As the most common element in the world, Fire Element was spread throughout heaven and earth. It was the most fundamental, and also the most important. Though it was a low-level Mystery, its very ubiquity caused people to overlook it.

It was like breathing: people needed to breathe, but few ever learned much about the air. At most, they looked at a few important indicators.

Huoxie had reached Paragon status by resonating with Fire Element and then connecting the fusion of all his Mysteries.

After hearing this, Hodan couldn't help but sigh. Sometimes what tripped you up wasn't a mountain, but a tiny pebble. He also realized that becoming a Paragon was something one could learn from, but not replicate.

After everyone had congratulated Huoxie and shared their insights into reaching Paragon status, it was time to forge a weapon for Hodan.

Silvermoon's purpose in bringing Hodan here had been accomplished, and he had also earned Huoxie's friendship. On top of that, he was busy with his duties as a city lord, and the main task ahead was forging a weapon for Hodan, which had little to do with him. The process would also be rather dull, so Silvermoon took his leave.

Watching Silvermoon disappear into Flame Mountain, Huoxie turned and headed toward a cave behind him on the right. As he walked, he called to Hodan and the others, "Come along, young man!"

Hodan followed Huoxie. After walking for a while and rounding a bend in the mountain, he saw a row of stone weapons ahead.

There were all kinds of weapons: knives, swords, spears, forks, halberds, and more. The one thing they had in common was that they were all made of stone.

Hodan walked up to the stone weapons and studied them for a long time. Then he exclaimed sincerely, "To imitate these divine weapons with such crude, brittle stones, and make them not only flawless in shape but also perfectly sharp—that's incredible. The stone weapons may look alike, but there's a subtle difference between them that I can't quite put into words. They feel even deadlier than real divine weapons."

"Heh, good eye. These stone weapons have been tempered by the heat of Wanlian Mountain for countless years, and I often nourish them with divine power." Huoxie's proud voice came from behind Hodan.

It turned out that Huoxie had seen Hodan staring intently at the stone weapons, so he had doubled back and answered his question.

"These stone weapons are every bit as good as the main weapons of Seven-Star Fiends."

Hodan was startled to hear this. He hadn't expected stone weapons to rival the main weapons of Seven-Star Fiends.

"By the way, what do you want from your blade?" Huoxie asked Hodan.

"Hard and sharp!" Hodan answered without a second thought.

Huoxie stared at Hodan for a while before slowly saying, "Since ancient times, no matter how many ridiculous restrictions a smith placed on the weapons he forged, they all adhered to one unchanging principle: never let a weapon's edge be too keen!"

"Why? Aren't sharper weapons better?"

"Sharp weapons break easily!"

"Besides, a weapon's strength depends on its owner. If the weapon's own power surpasses its owner's, then no matter how skilled the owner is, he won't be able to wield it properly and bring out his full strength.

"On the other hand, if the owner's power completely overwhelms the weapon, then even the finest weapon will inevitably break. Isn't it best when a person and his weapon work together?"

"But what if a weapon isn't just a weapon, but part of the body? To the strong, a weapon isn't merely an extension of the arm or a good partner in battle. What if it's a living whole, sharing life and death with its owner?"

I'm begging for votes and follows—anything you can give! If you like it, you can invest in the book. It's already finished writing; I just need to revise it before uploading.