Chapter 77

For the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms, with their history of thousands of years,

fifty years did not amount to much.

To most ordinary people,

it probably wasn’t any different from the past.

However, the royal families of the Thirty-Six Kingdoms

subtly perceived the slight abnormalities of the past fifty years.

It mainly involved the remnants of the Defying Divine Society, whose actions were growing increasingly bold.

The Defying Divine Society, as an underground organization expelled and wanted by the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms,

was always like a rat crossing the street.

To recruit new members, they always operated in a stealthy manner.

Yet in recent years, these remnants of the Defying Divine Society became more arrogant, even daring to “pull in people on the streets”?

The most shocking thing for the royal families was that every time they launched an encirclement campaign,

the remnants of the Defying Divine Society seemed to receive advanced warnings, managing to escape coincidentally.

This made the royal families realize that the Defying Divine Society had come prepared.

As a result, the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms stepped up their suppression of the Defying Divine Society even further.

In fact, thirty-six and nineteen years ago, the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms even deployed ‘Divine Weapon Masters’.

Aiming to harness the power of the Nation-Protecting Divine Weapons to deal a heavy blow to the Defying Divine Society.

Unfortunately, the ‘Divine Weapon Masters’ of the Evil God Association intervened in time.

Tying up the ‘Divine Weapon Masters’ of the Thirty-Six Kingdoms allowed most of the elite members of the Defying Divine Society to leave in advance.

The Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms possessed Nation-Protecting Divine Weapons.

By leveraging the power of Nation-Protecting Divine Weapons, they could train Divine Weapon Masters.

Although the Defying Divine Society did not have complete Divine Weapons, they possessed many Divine Weapon fragments.

These were known as Evil Soldiers.

Evil Soldiers were essentially Divine Weapons in their essence.

Provided an Evil Soldier’s completeness met a certain standard, it was possible to train a Divine Weapon Master.

Of course, the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms referred to such masters as ‘Evil Soldier Masters’.

In direct combat, Evil Soldier Masters naturally did not match up to Divine Weapon Masters.

But the former could slightly interfere with the latter.

Unless the Divine Weapon Master invoked the full awakening of their Divine Weapon, it was difficult to capture an Evil Soldier Master.

In general, a Divine Weapon Master would not allow a Divine Weapon to fully awaken.

Because doing so meant their lifespan would be drastically reduced.

The soul essence drawn by a fully awakened Divine Weapon would reach a horrific level.

Every time a Divine Weapon fully awakened, the Divine Weapon Master would live ten years less.

…

In a secret underground square,

a towering man sat cross-legged in the very center.

Around him were scattered dozens of weapon fragments.

If there were an Evil Soldier Master from the Defying Divine Society present, they would be horrified to discover that these weapon fragments were indeed Evil Soldiers.

Evil Soldiers, the fragments of Divine Weapons.

Although far less powerful than Divine Weapons, they too transcended the limits of the mundane.

Yet at the moment, these supreme Evil Soldiers were treated like ordinary items, carelessly strewn across the ground.

“Fifty years…”

The towering man, Lin Yuan, slowly opened his eyes.

For the majority of those fifty years, he was cultivating, contemplating the essential nature of the laws within the Divine Weapon fragments.

As for the many state affairs of the Greater Yan Dynasty… Over forty years ago, Lin Yuan had specially selected a group of capable and loyal officials, establishing The Cabinet to handle state matters on behalf of the Emperor.

Lin Yuan only needed to return from time to time to check on things.

As an Emperor, the most taboo thing is to micromanage everything—how many matters can one country have? If one were to inquire into each one, wouldn’t it be exhausting to death?

Of course, like Lin Yuan’s long periods of disengagement, this was rare and typically a major taboo for emperors, as it easily led to being sidelined.

But with Lin Yuan’s strength, who could afford to sideline him, as he held immense force in one body?

“Fourth Rank…”

Lin Yuan looked towards the Divine Weapon fragments around him, his face falling into brief contemplation.

With Lin Yuan’s speed of cultivation, he had reached the Completion of the Heaven-Man Realm twenty years ago.

And the Completion of Heaven-Man Realm, if placed in the Main World, would be considered just short of Fourth Rank.

But to break through further, to formally step into Fourth Rank… Lin Yuan was somewhat hesitant.

The transition from Third Rank to Fourth Rank, even in the Main World, was a major bottleneck and shackles.

Any Evolver who could cultivate to the extreme pinnacle of Third Rank was one in a million, ten million, or even one in a hundred million—a prodigy.

Even so, to cross this major bottleneck and shackles, one would need at least hundreds of years, with many dying old at the extreme pinnacle of Third Rank.

This was under the premise of having a complete Evolution Path for guidance.

For someone like Lin Yuan, who was carving out an Evolution Path, every step taken on a completely unknown road, breaking through to Fourth Rank was going to be thousandfold or even ten thousandfold more difficult.

Of course, this ‘thousandfold or ten thousandfold’ is relative to Lin Yuan’s current strength at the extreme pinnacle of Third Rank.

If it were a higher-level Evolver, such as at Fifth Rank or Sixth Rank, overseeing from a high level, carving out an Evolution Path would naturally be much easier.

In fact, even with the ‘thousandfold or ten thousandfold’ difficulty, with Lin Yuan’s unreasonable Against-Heaven’s Understanding, he should have broken through to Fourth Rank by now.

But Lin Yuan kept hesitating.

Fourth Rank and Fourth Rank, are also not the same.

For example, a Heavenly Master who ascended through the Power of Taiyin or Taiyin.

Is naturally of a different concept from one who ascended through the Dao of Taiji.

This time, ascending to the Fourth Rank, Lin Yuan wanted to ascend through the essence of the rules contained within the Divine Weapon fragments.

Ascending to the Fourth Rank in this way would definitely be the kind with the greatest potential.

Over the past fifty years, Lin Yuan had collected dozens of Divine Weapon fragments, integrating their essence of rules into the Martial Tao Cultivation System.

But these fragmented essences of rules were still too few for Lin Yuan.

They weren’t enough to support his ascension to the Fourth Rank.

“Divine Weapon Master…”

Lin Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Over the years, the Defying Divine Society had helped him collect Divine Weapon fragments that were naturally weaker.

There was no help for it, for Divine Weapon fragments had their own consciousness.

Even if Sikong Lun borrowed help and coaxed, he could only fool those ordinary Divine Weapon fragments.

As for the truly powerful Divine Weapon fragments, the Defying Divine Society wasn’t able to track them; usually, these fragments had already cultivated their own Weapon Masters and lay dormant within them.

The Defying Divine Society and these Evil Soldier Masters tended to have a cooperative relationship—neither could command the other.

Each time the Defying Divine Society asked these Evil Soldier Masters to take action, a great price had to be paid.

Even so, the Defying Divine Society and these Evil Soldier Masters, under the suppression of the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms, were considered to be in the same camp.

Evil Soldier Masters answered to Evil Soldiers, but Evil Soldiers were the losers of that war of a hundred Divine Weapons eight thousand years ago.

Broken by the strongest thirty-six Divine Weapons, scattered across the world.

Therefore, Evil Soldiers had a natural grudge against the thirty-six Divine Weapons,

Their positions inherently opposed.

As for the Defying Divine Society, it was a power made up of people who wished to rebel against the rule of Divine Weapons.

They, too, were opposed to the thirty-six Divine Weapons.

An enemy’s enemy is a friend.

Therefore, the Defying Divine Society and the Evil Soldiers naturally had an alliance.

The previous Antigod Association Headquarters of Sikong Lun was suppressed by fragments of the Martial Saint Realm.

It was just that Lin Yuan had sent over twenty Martial Saints to trample that headquarters, a task completed too swiftly.

So quickly that the Martial Saint Realm fragments didn’t even react before the fight was over.

….

As Lin Yuan was deep in thought,

Sequence of faint footsteps grew closer from afar.

“Greeting the master.”

The person arriving was Sikong Lun.

Fifty years had passed, and Sikong Lun had aged much, with many white hairs on his head.

“Hmm…”

Lin Yuan glanced at Sikong Lun and nodded slightly.

Over the years, Sikong Lun had done quite well, continuously traveling between the Central Plains Thirty-Six Kingdoms.

Now many Antigod Association Headquarters were obedient to Lin Yuan, and Sikong Lun’s efforts were indispensable.

After all, Lin Yuan was immersed in cultivation and, to avoid attracting the attention of the real Divine Weapons, he made very few appearances.

“State your business.”

Lin Yuan spoke bluntly.

After fifty years of acquaintance, he knew Sikong Lun quite well and understood that the other wouldn’t come here without an important reason.

“Master.”

“Those Evil Soldier Masters… wish to meet with you to discuss the matter of a decisive battle with the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Central Plains…”

Sikong Lun hesitated for a moment before speaking softly.

“Decisive battle?”

“Aren’t they afraid of another ‘Calamity of Soldiers’?”

Lin Yuan frowned slightly.

‘Calamity of Soldiers’ referred to disasters caused by battles between Divine Weapons.

Eight thousand years ago, when the war of a hundred Divine Weapons ended, the situation was clear.

The thirty-six Divine Weapons each dominated a kingdom, feasting on the lifeblood of the living.

But why does the history of the Greater Yan Dynasty span only over three thousand six hundred years?

It wasn’t just the Greater Yan Dynasty; the histories of the other Thirty-five States of the Central Plains were also three to four thousand years old.

The cause lies in the great decisive battle initiated by many Evil Soldiers and the Defying Divine Society, three to four thousand years ago.

That decisive battle enraged the thirty-six Nation-Protecting Divine Weapons.

All thirty-six Divine Weapons awakened and began suppressing the Evil Soldiers, who had regained significant strength at that time.

Their battles affected the lands of the Central Plains, leading to the downfall of dynasties and the lamentation of all beings.

The thirty-six Divine Weapons suppressed on one hand and harvested the blood, spirits, and souls of the people on the other.

It resulted in a major setback for the Human Race, which only recovered after several hundred to a thousand years.

But the effects of the battle continued—old dynasties fell, and new Thirty-Six Kingdoms were established.

This was the origin of the Greater Yan Dynasty and the other thirty-five states.

This period was later referred to as—

The Calamity of Soldiers.