The Imperial Weapon Recognizes Its Master

At the Dao Comprehension Platform in the Cangyun Secret Realm, the First Patriarch was cultivating.

Sensing a disturbance at the entrance, he opened his eyes and saw the Second Patriarch and Fourth Patriarch enter together. However, the Third Patriarch was nowhere to be seen.

He could not help frowning slightly.

“Hmm? Why are only the two of you back? Where’s the Third Patriarch?”

A strange expression flashed across the Second Patriarch’s face, and his tone carried a complicated meaning that was difficult to describe.

“He had some personal business to take care of. He’ll probably—perhaps—maybe be back soon.”

“Personal business?”

The First Patriarch was taken aback, but did not pursue the matter.

“Did you gain anything in the Imperial Mausoleum?”

“It was all right. We obtained a few Saint-level treasures.”

He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts, then slowly added, “It’s just that we had a slight… unexpected gain.”

“Oh?” The First Patriarch stroked his beard, his interest piqued.

The Second Patriarch did not answer immediately. Instead, he raised his hand and instantly set up nine layers of powerful restrictions around the three of them—restrictions that isolated divine senses and distorted the workings of heaven’s secrets. His expression grew solemn to the extreme.

Seeing the Second Patriarch act with such gravity, the smile on the First Patriarch’s face gradually faded, and his brows drew together.

What kind of gain required them to set up such exaggerated restrictions at the very heart of the secret realm, on the Dao Comprehension Platform?

“What exactly did you obtain?”

The First Patriarch’s voice turned calm and serious as he questioned him.

The Second Patriarch leaned half a step forward and spoke one word at a time.

“We seem to have… picked up an Extreme Dao Imperial Armament.”

The moment those words were spoken, the First Patriarch froze.

At first, he looked bewildered, as if he had not heard correctly—or could not understand what those words meant when put together.

“An Extreme Dao… Imperial Armament?”

The First Patriarch slowly repeated the four words.

“Picked up?”

He repeated the most important word, the absurdity in his voice almost overflowing.

“Second Patriarch, Fourth Patriarch. Did I hear wrong, or have the two of you gone mad?

“An Extreme Dao Imperial Armament? And you picked it up? Do you even understand what that means?!

“That isn’t some cabbage lying by the roadside!

“It is an unparalleled treasure capable of suppressing the destiny of an entire region, powerful enough to provoke wars between sacred grounds and attract the attention of even the Supremes from the forbidden zones!

“It is the extension of an ancient Emperor’s life and Dao! Every single one possesses the might to destroy heaven and earth, and every one of them is accompanied by shocking karmic consequences!

“Picked it up? What kind of unprecedented joke is this?!”

Even the Fifth Patriarch, who had just broken through to the Great Saint Realm and had been concentrating on consolidating his cultivation, could not help opening his eyes.

He looked at the Second and Fourth Patriarchs as if he had seen a ghost.

The Second Patriarch understood their reaction.

In fact, if the object had not been genuinely sitting inside his storage space—if he had not touched and sensed it himself—he would never have believed that anything so outrageous could exist in this world.

He offered no further explanation. Instead, with extreme solemnity and caution, he took out the object from his most secure storage space.

It was wrapped in layer upon layer of sealing runes.

The dark-gold tower was covered in ancient markings. Its power was restrained, yet it seemed capable of crushing the ages. Even though it was sealed beneath countless restrictions, the Imperial Armament’s vast and subdued imperial might still caused the entire core of the secret realm to tremble faintly.

Spiritual energy gathered of its own accord, emitting a pleasant hum.

A series of suppressed exclamations and gasps rang out throughout the secret realm.

“This… Oh… Hiss…!”

“No way! It’s real?!”

“It’s actually real?”

“Imperial might! Such pure imperial might!”

“Good! Good! Good!”

“What a treasure! It really is an incredible treasure!”

“Hiss… I can’t take it anymore. It’s trying to force its way into my body!”

“He… he… it actually recognized me as its master on its own!”

“Heaven is helping us! Heaven is helping our Azure Profound Sect!”

“Put it away quickly! It must become the sect’s foundation. No one can be told about this!”

“Xiao Xuanzi, should we tell him?”

“Don’t tell him. Otherwise, he’ll get carried away.”

…

After a bout of chaos, the entire Dao Comprehension Platform finally settled down a little.

Only the First Patriarch was still repeatedly attempting to communicate with and sense the Imperial Armament, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Every now and then, a few words drifted from his mouth.

“Oh, it came out. It went back in again.”

The First Patriarch was having the time of his life when another disturbance rippled through the entrance to the secret realm.

The Third Patriarch entered with his head drooping and a look of heartbroken anguish on his face. His robes even seemed to be stained with a little dust.

“Third Patriarch? You…”

Seeing him look as if his entire fortune had been stripped away, the First Patriarch’s heart gave a jolt.

“What happened to you?”

“Don’t mention it!”

The Third Patriarch dropped heavily onto a stone stool nearby and let out a long sigh, as though he had suffered some great injustice.

“That little brat Wan Shan blocked my way! No matter how I tried to reason with him, he refused to budge! He insisted on taking back every little thing I ‘picked up’ from the Imperial Tomb back then—not a single item could be missing!”

He slapped his thigh, overcome with grief and indignation.

“The worst part was that he specifically demanded the wolf-toothed club I’d kept with me for years! He said that seeing it would make him think of ‘that person,’ and that he wanted to keep it as a reminder to stay vigilant!”

Seeing how genuinely pained the Third Patriarch looked, the Second Patriarch’s lips twitched. He could roughly imagine what a brutal repossession had just taken place outside.

He coughed lightly and decided to skip over the subject. After all, they were in the wrong.

“The important thing is that you’re safe. Material possessions are external things. If they’re gone, we can find more.”

For a moment, the First Patriarch did not understand what had happened.

However, seeing that the Third Patriarch was unharmed, he casually offered a few words of comfort before returning to playing with his Imperial Armament.

On Purple Bamboo Peak…

Gu Changge took in every sound coming from the secret realm—the exclamations, the gasps, and the First Patriarch playing with the Imperial Armament without any intention of stopping. A faint, amused smile appeared on his face.

Just then, Xuanyangzi happened to emerge from the Heaven’s Pride Tower. Gu Changge immediately restrained his smile.

“Junior Brother, didn’t you say earlier that you picked up something good near the Imperial Mausoleum?”

Xuanyangzi slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing something.

“Oh, my memory! Changge, if you hadn’t reminded me, I would have nearly forgotten!”

He began rummaging through his storage treasure. A moment later, he carefully took out an object.

It was a broken fragment of a strange weapon, covered in dark-red rust. It resembled a spear, yet not quite; it was like a spike, yet not quite. Its entire body was pitch-black, its broken edge jagged, and its original, vicious shape could still be faintly discerned.

The moment it appeared, the temperature in the surrounding area plummeted.

A terrifying aura of murderous ferocity and brutality spread outward, as if it intended to slaughter every living thing beneath the heavens. Even Xuanyangzi’s hand trembled involuntarily.

Gu Changge’s gaze fell upon the broken weapon, and a look of understanding flashed through his eyes.

It should be the weapon that Emperor Qingcang had once used to suppress that great fiend. This remnant must have been part of the fiend’s personal murder weapon, shattered and left behind during that earth-shaking battle in the past.

“So it’s this thing,” Gu Changge said calmly as he reached out.

The broken weapon obediently flew into his palm.

At Gu Changge’s fingertips, a wisp of chaotic energy quietly circulated and gently brushed across the remnant.

Ssshh—!

The dense, almost tangible fiendish aura covering the broken weapon instantly melted away like snow beneath the sun, rapidly purified.

The remnant’s true material was revealed. It was dark and gloomy like nethersteel, covered in naturally formed Dao patterns of slaughter.

Not only that, but as the fiendish aura dissipated, the chaotic Dao patterns did not stop. Instead, they moved as if they possessed a life of their own, completely enveloping and refining the entire broken weapon.

In the end, it transformed into a three-foot-long battle halberd with a simple, ancient design, smooth lines, an entirely pitch-black body, and a restrained yet razor-sharp edge.