Forging a weapon

"Was this what it felt like to be a plant life-form?"

Jiang Zhu stretched his body, the leaves on his vines ringing like metal. With a thought, all his vines danced, as easy to control as his own arms and fingers.

After spending a while adjusting to his new body, Jiang Zhu suddenly remembered something. Instinctively, he looked down beneath himself. Um... nothing.

That seemed perfectly normal, but according to the high school biology he remembered from his previous life, many plants were hermaphroditic. Could that mean...

A sentence suddenly popped into Jiang Zhu's mind: Yin and yang in one body, transformed through heaven and humanity, all things flourishing.

So mastering the Sunflower Manual meant turning into a sunflower? Come to think of it, did sunflowers have male and female flowers on the same plant?

Later, however, Jiang Zhu confirmed that he was exclusively male. His gaze involuntarily shifted toward the places on his vines where flowers could bloom.

According to his shallow knowledge, plants reproduced through stamens and pistils. Did that mean his little brother might grow all over his body? Jiang Zhu could not help shuddering.

If pollen filled the sky when he bloomed someday, wouldn't that make him a seed-sowing machine? Get pregnant just by passing him?

Having temporarily lost his little head, his big head began running wild.

Jiang Zhu shook his head and stopped letting his thoughts wander. He tried extending a small vine from beneath the Demon-Refining Pot's protection. A comfortable sensation traveled from that stretch of vine, and then he cautiously withdrew the Demon-Refining Pot, exposing his entire body.

Warm and comfortable, as though he had come home. Jiang Zhu kept moving deeper into the Solar Essence Flame.

At last, he stopped a short distance from Chisongzi's coffin. The Solar Essence Flame there held the most terrifying energy, blazing like a great sun. Even Jiang Zhu's fire-vine body dared not approach. After all, he was only a baby fire vine; consuming too much Solar Essence Flame could still kill him.

Jiang Zhu tried drawing on the Demon-Refining Pot's power. With its support, he intended to enter the very heart of the Solar Essence Flame and close Chisongzi's coffin.

"Hm?"

He discovered that his Fire Vine body actually could not move on its own. Could this also have been one of the reasons the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass had fought to the death without retreating?

Perhaps it was also because it hadn't taken human form, Jiang Zhu thought.

He then extended his vines, closed Chisongzi's coffin, and began forging a weapon with the help of the Solar Essence Flame.

His cultivation had advanced too quickly, and he was following the path of One Weapon Breaks Ten Thousand Techniques. Yet his "weapon" was still a lump, not even shaped like a bell.

For its shape, he planned to take inspiration from depictions of the East Emperor Bell in anime and games from his previous life.

After all, strength was only a matter of the moment, but looking cool was a matter of a lifetime.

He repeatedly modeled the great bell in his mind, using his divine sense to simulate Divine Markings and begin constructing and tempering them.

After tireless effort, the Divine Markings finally condensed into a fist-sized bell. Majestic and imposing, it was rounded and substantial, its surface covered with carvings of clouds, lightning, and other patterns. Finally, he also copied the True Spirit Totems and inscriptions from the Demon-Refining Pot onto it. The whole thing shone with divine radiance, very much to his liking.

Having settled on its shape, Jiang Zhu immediately began tempering the Divine Markings.

He continuously refined the scorching fire energy and used it to temper the Divine Markings. After thousands upon thousands of rounds of tempering, the brick of Divine Markings within Jiang Zhu finally began taking the shape of a bell.

Above Jiang Zhu's Bitter Sea rested the rough blank of a small bell, about the size of a fist. All its brilliant divine radiance had withdrawn inward, leaving it looking ancient, simple, and natural.

After thousands upon thousands of rounds of tempering and repeated copying of the True Spirit images and inscriptions on the Demon-Refining Pot, the little bell already possessed an extraordinary air, giving the impression of a naturally formed resonance with the Dao.

With a thought, the little bell flew out of his Bitter Sea and floated before Jiang Zhu. He reached out and flicked it lightly.

Dong-

A deep, vast bell note rang out. Invisible waves rippled outward, pushing back the sea of fire around him.

Jiang Zhu was extremely satisfied. The simple, natural little bell gave him a sense of the Dao following nature, as though it truly had already nurtured the "Dao" and "principles" of heaven and earth within itself. It seemed mysterious and profound.

Though only newly formed, the little bell already counted as a powerful weapon. It could attack and defend, and nothing could withstand it. The totems and inscriptions from the Demon-Refining Pot bestowed strange powers upon it, allowing it to keep transforming.

Since it was forged in the image of the East Emperor Bell, he might as well call it the East Emperor Bell.

He hoped that one day it would possess the might to suppress chaos, the power to turn space and time throughout the heavens, and the ability to refine earth, fire, wind, and water.

The weapon formed from Divine Markings had taken its initial shape. Next, he needed to refine materials into it.

For now, he had no suitable forging materials at hand and could only search for them gradually in the future. Kunlun did contain a weapon blank refined by a Quasi-Emperor, and it had even been forged from divine mark purple gold, one of the nine great varieties of immortal gold.

But setting aside whether he could obtain it, even if he did, his current cultivation would not allow him to melt down the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda!

"It's time to leave..."

Jiang Zhu bowed toward Chisongzi's coffin, then turned and left the sea of fire.

The instant he emerged from the burial chamber-

Clang!

A clear sword cry rang out. The sword light was especially dazzling in the pitch-black ancient tomb, illuminating a vast stretch of the underground palace as it thrust toward Jiang Zhu like a sweeping river.

At the same time, sabers, halberds, and spears thrust toward Jiang Zhu from other directions.

It was the same everywhere: wherever there were people, there were cultivators. The cultivators searching this underground palace for treasures had come seeking opportunities. Seeing him emerge from below, they joined forces to attack him.

Clink, clink, clink...

A series of metallic clashes rang out. The longsword struck Jiang Zhu's body first, with the other weapons close behind, colliding with him one after another.

Yet this certain-kill trap for a Sea of Bitterness cultivator, launched jointly by one Other Shore cultivator and several Divine Bridge cultivators, failed to so much as scratch Jiang Zhu's skin.

Jiang Zhu raised his hand into a claw and swept it lightly. Every weapon attacking him was instantly sliced into several pieces, falling to the floor in a clattering heap.

The leading Other Shore cultivator blanched in horror, turned, and fled. The others who had attacked scattered as well.

"Run!"

"Split up! Everyone for themselves!"

They were all Sea of Bitterness cultivators and could not fly through the air. They did not believe Jiang Zhu could stop every one of them.

"Die!"

Jiang Zhu gave a quiet shout and unleashed the Dragon-Calling Hand. Vast dragon power instantly spread outward, energy surging around him until space itself seemed to distort.

The fleeing cultivators jolted in terror. They felt as though an ancient heavenly dragon had awakened behind them and was reaching its claws toward them!

Bang, bang...

Several figures hurtled away even faster than before, their bones shattered and flesh mangled, leaving their bodies imprinted against the tomb walls.

Jiang Zhu did not linger. Killing them had taken no more than a snap of his fingers. These people had no techniques, no weapons, and no treasures worth mentioning to him now.

Changbai Mountain.

Its terrain was majestic, like a dragon lying across the land. Famous since ancient times as one of China's ten great mountains, it rose to a lofty elevation and was known as the roof of the northeast.

Although winter was already ending and spring approaching, the Changbai region remained sealed beneath heavy snow, a world of silvery white with snow several feet deep.

"A thousand years of snow, ten thousand years of pines, rising straight to the foremost peak beneath heaven!"

This was the praise of the ancients, but it also indirectly spoke to the grandeur and beauty of this place. Snow lay everywhere, sometimes so deep that a person stepping into it could disappear entirely.

Towering snowy peaks rose one after another in a magnificent vista. The rocks on the mountains were unusual, mostly white pumice, unlike those found elsewhere.

No one knew how many years the ancient pines had grown. In the uninhabited regions, king trees often appeared, frighteningly tall and thick, like little mountains.

Jiang Zhu walked through a primeval forest, constantly sensing the course of the dragon veins.

Suddenly, heaven and earth reversed, and the scenery changed completely. A broader expanse of wild ridges appeared, great goose-feather snowflakes swirling through the air. A bleak, desolate aura swept over him as he entered an unknown wilderness of snowy mountains.

This was the true Changbai Mountain. A great formation had originally protected this place, keeping it hidden from mortals.

Some time earlier, Crocodile Ancestor had attacked and battered the formation into ruins, allowing Jiang Zhu to enter with ease.

The Heavenly Scale Tribe of the Primordial Dragon Cave here possessed the Celestial Snake's bloodline. This Celestial Snake had been a demon god. With the Dao difficult to cultivate on Earth, he had departed. Some of his descendants had chosen to evolve into flood dragons, while others remained great snakes, hence their name, the Heavenly Scale Tribe.

Crocodile Ancestor had caught the entire Heavenly Scale Tribe on Changbai Mountain in one net. Even the shed skin of their progenitor, the Celestial Snake, had been taken away. Only a few tribespeople who had been scattered elsewhere when it happened remained here now.