Within the world, at each of the four poles stood a palace hall, with a gate before each hall separating it from the world.
Above the northern Kan Palace hung a single sword—the Immortal-Ending Sword. Corresponding to the world's evolution, streams of Sword Qi were born and contained within it.
Its Sword Qi carried the intent that, once unleashed, it could annihilate anything beneath heaven and earth.
Above the eastern Zhen Palace, Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi coiled around the Azure Palace. Though it lacked a sword to bear it, its aura merged with that of the Azure Palace, allowing it to endure without end.
Above the southern Li Palace, ten thousand years of starlight had formed the embryonic blade of an Immortal-Slaughtering Sword.
Dim sword lights drifted leisurely through the air. Anything touched by them became like maggots clinging to bone, entangled without cease.
Above the western Dui Palace, an embryonic sword formed from pure qi hung high in the air. This was the Immortal-Trapping Sword.
Threads of red radiance emanated from its Sword Qi, carrying an intent of endless entanglement.
Immortal-Slaying was sharp, Immortal-Slaughtering brought death; wherever Immortal-Trapping rose, red radiance flared.
Immortal-Slaying lay in its sharpness. Whoever was struck by the Immortal-Slaying Sword would be cleaved in two on the spot, their vitality severed.
Immortal-Slaughtering lay in death. It was a sword that severed the Dao; whoever was struck by its Sword Qi would suffer its torment forever, dying only when their Dao dissipated.
Immortal-Trapping, meanwhile, lay in confinement.
To trap was for the void to become a valley, for what stood high to plunge below—this was trapping.
The Immortal-Trapping Sword possessed neither the absolute killing sharpness of Immortal-Slaying, nor the bone-clinging death of Immortal-Slaughtering, nor the boundless finality of Immortal-Ending.
Yet if one were struck by it, they