Deep within the Valley of Ten Thousand Buried Swords, the thunder was no longer a mere roar but had transformed into a heavy, rhythmic pulse.
Jiang Li leaned against the damp, freezing stone wall, gasping for air. Her Evil God origin was on the brink of total depletion following the forced transference of her destiny. She looked down at the Mirror of Profound Inquiry, now webbed with cracks; the glass reflected her battered face and the cinnabar mark on her brow—dim, fractured, and fading.
"These forests of discarded blades... they are all the 'impurities' purged by the Sacred Ground over the last three millennia." Jiang Li ran a hand over a rusted longsword nearby, the chill from the metal sharpening her senses. "They refuse to accept being discarded. The resentment here is purer than even that of the God-Graves."
Cang Yaochen, gripping his broken blade, slowly stood up. Beneath the flashes of lightning, the War God's spine in his back glinted with a grim, dark-gold luster. Though he had tanked the brunt of the Cloud-Ascension Throne's self-destruction, the shockwave had utterly shattered the last remnants of his Buddha-nature. Now, he was a total Asura—the physical manifestation of the world's slaughterous intent.
"Since the Heavenly Dao deems them filthy, I shall show this world what it means to be 'filth' pushed to the absolute extreme."
Cang Yaochen's double pupils contracted as he slammed the broken sword into the scorched earth beneath his feet.
BOOM—!
Centered on him, a wave of dark-gold energy mixed with Nirvana Karma-Fire instantly swept across the canyon. Thousands of discarded blades, long dormant among the jagged rocks, began to vibrate in unison. The resonance of ten thousand swords rose into a single shriek, tearing through the thunderclouds above the gorge.
At the valley's entrance, the enforcement squad of the Spirit-Severing Sect hesitated, not daring to venture deeper. Their leading elder watched the unnatural red glow and the swirling fragments of broken blades within the canyon, his face pale with terror.
"This is bad! They intend to use the resentment of ten thousand swords to reforge a demonic body! Order the men to deploy the 'Evil-Breaking Array' at once! We cannot let that monster come to power!"
Dozens of disciples fanned out, laying down golden runic patterns across the entrance. Artifacts bestowed by the Sacred Ground erupted with dazzling divine light, attempting to forcibly suppress the resentment rising from the gorge.
However, it was too late.
Watching the swirling storm of discarded steel, Jiang Li bit her tongue and spat a mouthful of essence-blood onto the Mirror of Profound Inquiry.
"With the mirror as the medium, let all Karma return to one! Ten Thousand Blades—RISE!"
At Jiang Li's piercing cry, the mirror erupted with a blinding, scarlet beam of light. This beam did not target any single individual; instead, it connected directly to every discarded sword in the valley.
Three thousand years of hatred for being cast aside finally found an outlet.
Cang Yaochen stood at the center of the storm, allowing the violent sword-qi to slice through his demonic frame. Every cut stripped away the lingering aura of his mortal shell; every baptism fused the War God's bones deeper into his own.
"Asura Path of War—God-Slaughtering Ten Thousand Blades!"
With a thunderous roar, Cang Yaochen shot into the sky. He no longer needed a single blade, for the entire canyon of discarded steel had become his weapon.
The swarm of broken swords resembled a roaring bone dragon. Carrying a resentment that could devour all things, it slammed ruthlessly into the "Evil-Breaking Array" at the valley's mouth.
RUMBLE—!
The golden runes shattered in an instant. The artifacts the Spirit-Severing Sect took such pride in were as fragile as glass before the collective hatred of the blades, disintegrating into dust. Screams were instantly drowned out by thunder as the so-called sect elites failed to hold for even a single breath, ground to nothingness within the tide of steel.
Jiang Li propped herself up against the stone wall, watching the golden light vanish beneath the wave of swords. A cruel, triumphant smile touched her lips.
"Cloud-Ascension is dead. The Spirit-Severing Sect is ruined... The false gods sitting on their high thrones in the Sacred Ground—it's time they started feeling fear, isn't it?"
She looked up at Cang Yaochen, standing in the void like a god-demon descended upon the world. Their gazes met amidst the lightning and fire, and the searing sensation of their entwined destinies surged through her body once more.
The mortal realm was no longer enough to contain their fury.