Slaying Duanmu

The Treasure Wheel blazed brilliantly, rising like a great sun and bearing down with an aura that could crush the void across the ages. In an instant, it felt as though heaven and earth would collapse. The surrounding cultivators sprang up like startled rabbits, running and leaping as they fled headlong, wishing they could escape to the ends of the earth in a single instant.

A mere wisp of a Saint Weapon's aura could wipe out a Great Ability without the slightest effort. Now, its saintly might surged as though it would destroy heaven and earth, inspiring the terror of a Saint Weapon whose indwelling deity had fully awakened.

"With might this terrifying, you're telling me it's a damaged Saint Weapon?"

Someone stamped his feet and cursed, feeling that some cultivators were utterly unreliable.

"This makes no sense. How could a Great Ability fully awaken a Saint Weapon?"

Other cultivators were puzzled too. Ahead, the aura of an intact Saint Weapon blanketed heaven and earth, terrifying beyond compare, as though a true Saint held it and was about to wage war against gods beyond this world.

This defied everything cultivators knew. Even draining every last drop of a Great Ability's divine power could not truly awaken a Saint Weapon. The gulf was too vast, as absurd as a little stream dreaming of filling an ocean.

Yet it was happening now. Had the sentient deity awakened of its own accord?

That was quite possible. Some undying legacies possessed similar methods, using secret arts to awaken a weapon's deity so that it could fight independently and protect their traditions.

Ordinarily, however, such methods were rarely employed outside matters of life and death. Without a supply of divine power, forcibly awakening a weapon's deity to wage war would damage its soul if sustained for too long.

Some cultivators knew little of the legendary Extreme Dao Emperor Weapons, but certain great sects understood Saint Weapons inside out.

Their deities spent most of their time asleep. Although weapon souls were a different form of life, they were usually muddleheaded, acting only upon the weapons' instincts. The older a Saint Weapon was, the more pronounced this became. Thus, great sects would not lightly awaken their deities without sufficient divine power to sustain them, as doing so would impair the weapon souls' might.

Although killing a single Great Ability meant nothing to a Saint Weapon, no one believed Duanmu Yun would dare stick his neck out without any means of countering one, knowing his opponent might possess a damaged Saint Weapon.

Sure enough, Duanmu Yun snorted coldly. Within a single breath, a bone-piercing chill spread throughout heaven and earth, freezing eternity itself.

At that moment, even the cultivators who had fled unimaginably far away could not help trembling, their bodies shuddering under that unbearable cold.

This was Lunar Saint Power, supremely yin and yielding, capable of freezing everything and turning all vitality into a realm of death. Most terrifying of all, a skull resembling black jade flew out, shocking everyone. It was crystalline, flickering with dark light.

Dao Patterns were engraved upon it, densely interwoven into intricate designs. Its seven apertures spewed the most primal Lunar Saint Power, as though it could refine this entire world.

The skull of an ancient Saint!

Everyone was astonished, scarcely able to believe their eyes. This was truly a priceless sacred relic, something even untold millions in gold could not buy.

"That's right. It belonged to a descendant of the Taiyin Ancient Emperor. His inheritance was seized back then, and he himself was slain and refined into this."

"Indeed, there is such a legend. Though he died, his rage and resentment lingered, making it impossible to refine him into a Saint Weapon."

Remembering those distant events, everyone was shaken. This weapon had an extraordinary history.

Under ordinary circumstances, a Saint's skull could certainly be refined into a Saint Weapon, but this one was an exception. Its resentment was too intense for the refinement to be completed.

Even so, it was terrifying enough, only a single step away from transforming from a King Weapon into a Saint Weapon, far beyond what other weapons could match.

This was also what gave Duanmu Yun the confidence to oppose a damaged Saint Weapon. What he had never anticipated, however, was that his opponent wielded an intact Saint Weapon-and that it had now fully awakened.

Waves of dread swept through him, making his skin crawl, but he could not allow any fear to show on his face. He controlled the skull and sent it straight against his opponent's Saint Weapon.

Uncle Jiang was unafraid. The Saint Weapon had only just been completed, and its indwelling deity was already at its strongest. Moreover, the accumulated essence of myriad Daos had deliberately been left within it to nourish and replenish the deity. Barring anything unexpected, the Saint Weapon would remain independently awakened until it had finished absorbing that essence of the Great Dao.

Even against another Saint Weapon, it stood a strong chance of victory as long as its opponent was not a Saint. What, then, was a Great Ability wielding a weapon that was not even a Saint Weapon?

Between the realms of the saintly and the non-saintly, a single step meant the distance between heaven and earth.

Sure enough, the Treasure Wheel swept across the sky, blazing like a great sun. It scorched the entire world into a bronze furnace of purgatory, surging with endless golden saint power of utmost firmness and yang, as though it would boil the four seas dry. In an instant, it shattered vast quantities of Lunar Saint Power, knocked the Saint's Skull away, and pressed inexorably down upon Duanmu Yun.

"No!"

Duanmu Yun screamed in terror. He had never imagined that the Saint's Skull would fail to withstand even a single blow from a fully awakened Saint Weapon. He wanted to flee, but the Saint Weapon's might reached everywhere and had already sealed off the entire surrounding expanse of heaven, earth, and void.

There was nowhere to hide. Driven almost mad in an instant, he unleashed one mighty King Weapon after another-the nether bamboo, the Death Knell, the Divine Banner-all flowing with terrifying Lunar Saint Power and nearly invincible.

But to his despair, what could even a true King amount to before a fully awakened Saint Weapon? How much less mere weapons of that rank?

"You truly intend to oppose our Taiyin..." Before Duanmu Yun could finish his threat, Uncle Jiang wielded the Saint Weapon and blasted him to pieces.

If one were to ask who on Ziwei harbored the greatest hostility toward the present Taiyin God Sect, then apart from the vanished Human Emperor Descendants of the Lunar Lineage, it would be the Sun God Sect.

As fellow descendants of a Human Emperor, their killing intent toward the clan that had stolen the Taiyin legacy was fiercest of all. But the Sun God Sect had likewise declined to the brink of extinction. Though they had wished to slay those thieves, they had lacked the strength to turn the tide.

Now that the Sun God Sect was about to rise to glory once more and possessed the strength to resist, why would they show mercy to anyone from that clan?

Once the Divine Son fully matured, even if the Taiyin God Sect did not come looking for trouble, they would settle accounts with that clan sooner or later.

"A truly intact Saint Weapon is terrifying beyond compare!"

"Indeed! And according to legend, an intact Saint Weapon in the hands of a true Saint can bring down stars beyond this world. Even gods would tremble!"

In the distance, everyone who witnessed the scene felt waves of dread. The once nearly invincible King's Divine Weapon, the Saint's Skull, had been wielded by a pinnacle Great Ability, yet before a true Saint Weapon it had proven so fragile that it could not withstand a single blow.

This made some cultivators' skin crawl. They finally understood the terror of certain undying traditions, and why some sects could endure for hundreds of thousands of years without perishing.

"That Treasure Wheel looks rather familiar."

Far away, an unusual look crossed the beautiful woman's face. She felt that this Treasure Wheel closely resembled Li Shenzhou's sealed King Weapon, but the thought itself made her laugh. Who in this age could still refine a Saint Weapon?

A Saint Weapon and a King Weapon might seem only a step apart, but in truth, an abyss separated them. Moreover, her discerning eye could tell that although this Treasure Wheel likewise flowed with saint power of utmost firmness, it was not a sacred artifact created through Buddhist methods, whereas Li Shenzhou's weapon was a genuine Buddhist treasure.

Starting today, the protagonist's name will be changed to Li Wangxian.