The universe was split apart. One after another, the most brilliant rays of immortal light flew outward, illuminating the dark and frozen cosmos in this moment with a radiance that blazed across everything.

It was as though a new era had been inaugurated — shining upon the past, the present, and the future, penetrating through all of ancient and modern time!

No one could say how many emperor-grade weapons had revived, shattering ten thousand things as though splitting heaven and earth apart anew, descending to suppress the darkness upheaval together!

The aura of the ancient great emperors erupted. The entire universe trembled. One vast dharmic form after another swelled in different star regions, then tore through the fabric of the universe and were gone.

One after another, those figures once worshipped by the most ancient peoples seemed to have returned, descending upon this world once more — to pacify the most terrifying dark blood upheaval in ten thousand ages.

All things in heaven and earth, every blade of grass and every tree, shook in fright. One star river after another trembled and shuddered. And that was to say nothing of the tens of thousands of living beings across the cosmos.

Never before in any age had so many great emperor weapons revived at once, advanced together, and all converged upon a single domain in unison — it was as though the world itself was being destroyed.

This was not a simple reawakening — but true and complete revival, comparable to a single strike from the ancient great emperors. With so many weapons descending in unison, heaven and earth alike would wither.

The several ancient Supremes were shaken for the first time — no longer as composed as before. Each and every one wore an expression of grave solemnity, each treating the situation as though facing the most formidable enemy.

These emperor-grade weapons had been refined and tempered by beings of their level. To destroy them outright would be extraordinarily difficult — and moreover, their immortal platforms were now imperfect, no longer flawless.

With this many weapons appearing at once, there was not a single person in all of history who could have handled it. It was too terrifying.

If not for the five Supremes standing together, there would be no suspense whatsoever — a single one of them alone would be reduced to ash, and turned to dust.

“Clang!”

The black war halberd in the Stone Emperor’s hand shook violently. Its dark radiance split open the sky. The enormous halberd blade flashed with terrifying light — as though it could cleave apart anything that stood before it.

But the incoming weapons showed not the slightest hesitation, each unleashing its supreme strike.

“Rumble!”

The demon-suppressing pestle came crashing down, savage beyond measure. The universe collapsed in an instant. With a resounding clang, it slammed against the black war halberd — and the impact sent a wave of numbness racing through the Stone Emperor’s arm, his expression betraying genuine astonishment.

These weapons’ fury exceeded all expectation. Each one had revived, as though the great emperors of former ages had personally returned to walk the world.

The demon-suppressing pestle had been forged by the Amitabha Emperor as his supreme treasure — a supreme weapon of Buddhist demon-suppression from the most ancient times. It had always been wreathed in auspicious light, sacred and tranquil. But on the Immortal Road, it had been splattered with the blood of too many Buddhist disciples, and was nearly transformed by it.

In this moment, it was like a violet lion consumed by fury, its roar shattering the universe. Its entire body blazed with violet light as it smashed downward, over and over again.

“Clang!”

A world-shaking crash rang out. The demon-suppressing pestle erupted with violence, smashing down once more. The violet weapon released a light of hundreds of millions of zhang in height — and within it, faintly, a great Buddha seemed to stand in the void, ready to suppress the Stone Emperor.

The war halberd in the Stone Emperor’s hand shook. That strike had sent another wave of numbness through his arm, and he was genuinely shaken. “Excellent Amitabha — watch how I destroy your weapon and smelt it into my own celestial armament!”

But the moment those words left his mouth — just as he was about to unleash a forbidden secret art specifically targeting the demon-suppressing pestle — a blazing celestial sword immediately slashed down from the side. It was too fierce, too brilliant; its radiance was so blinding that even the Stone Emperor could barely keep his eyes open.

The Supreme Emperor Sword descended. Its attack power was utterly matchless throughout the world. With a dragon’s head as its point and a dragon’s tail as its hilt, it wielded supreme offensive might — able to cleave through the universe, its edge never once withstood by any living being.

The Stone Emperor jolted, evaded its edge, struck at the demon-suppressing pestle, and strained to dodge the Supreme Emperor Sword — but he was just a fraction too slow. A brilliant light swept past him, his dark hair fell away, and a lock of it was severed from his head. Just a hair’s breadth more and that celestial sword would have sliced through his flesh and blood.

In his time, the Supreme Emperor’s attack power had been utterly unmatched in the world. His title was said to rival the ultimate offensive-power technique of the Dou character secret — a supreme immortal art — and the offensive power of his weapon was naturally no different.

The Stone Emperor flew into a rage. He blasted away the demon-suppressing pestle, then shot out one great hand, seizing directly toward that blazing celestial sword — intending to grip it and refine it away.

He was the supreme being of ten thousand ages, unmatched beneath the heavens. Since the day of his attainment of the Dao, it was not merely the severing of a lock of his hair — not even an individual who had dared approach his presence had existed.

And yet, this day, a lock of his black hair had been directly cut away. This was an unspeakable humiliation.

“Boom!”

Heaven and earth shook. Endless tear-rain flew in all directions. A jade-green gold pagoda pressed downward, shaking the six harmonies and eight desolations into a collective cry of lamentation — the universe was on the verge of a great explosion.

The Western Emperor Pagoda came crashing toward that great hand, its power flooding the sky — its imperial laws endless, its radiance boundless. In an instant, that great hand trembled, very nearly struck.

The Stone Emperor’s fury was absolute. In that moment, multiple weapons were all attacking him simultaneously. He was not incapable of withstanding them with his emperor body directly — but the cost would not be small. The vital essence of his life was far too precious to him.

“Roar!”

He let out a great shout. From his mouth, he spat out a blazing torrent of light — the imperial law made manifest, transformed into flame, intent on engulfing the Western Emperor Pagoda and refining it away through supreme law.

“Crash!”

An ancient scroll, mottled with age, swept across the sky. The Nine Li Diagram intercepted the path ahead. Within it lay a vast and brilliant starry expanse, boundless and immeasurable. Its defensive power was absolutely extraordinary.

Every tongue of flame was drawn inside. Its own radiance surged tremendously, dismantling the laws — and what it could not handle, it diverted directly into a separate starry expanse.

“A mere collection of weapons dares to show such impudence before me!” The Stone Emperor was truly furious now. His whole body blazed with light. Imperial law erupted. Order chains rang with resonance — like rows of celestial gold chains flying out from within his body.

But the emperor-grade weapons, too, blazed with light. The laws of the ancient great emperors interwove in every direction. The revived divine gods within them fought with all their might — and this time, four weapons at once came soaring in, suppressing from all sides simultaneously.

The ancient Supremes were undeniably powerful — as the very creators of weapons of their level, they possessed absolute and peerless dominion. But faced with an assault of the same caliber, they could not simply dominate everything.

Four weapons — equivalent to four strikes from the ancient great emperors. For if these weapons had not possessed correspondingly formidable offensive power, they would never have been worthy of resting in the palms of the Supremes of former ages.

The Stone Emperor was immediately put in a difficult position — surrounded and suppressed by four weapons on all sides. Without pushing to the extreme heights of sublimation, it was entirely possible that something unexpected might truly unfold!

“Kill!”

On the other side, the remaining Supremes were faring no better, each caught in this same kind of battle. They had intended to rescue the Stone Emperor, but rays of immortal light came soaring in one after another to suppress and slay them.

“Weapons think they can claim supremacy? You are all still far short!” The Samsara Supreme roared, struggling fiercely, suppressing the immortal light closing in around him.

“Slash!”

The ancient Luan Gu war axe shook heaven and earth. It had two forms — one of Dao inscriptions, one an axe that could break through anything — and could shift between the two, capable of refining ten thousand things, capable of slicing through the universe.

The cyan-gold battle armor on the Lord of Samsara blazed with light. He used his bare fingers to withstand the blow, attempting to shatter the blade — the power was boundless.

“Boom!”

A great crash rang out. A massive seal came slamming down — the great seal of the Taiyin Human Emperor appeared. Though one corner was chipped and missing, it remained supremely powerful, suppressing all things in the universe. Especially now that it had revived — it seemed to carry a thread of the Human Emperor’s living will from before his death, resolved to protect all living beings, its might extraordinarily formidable.

The Samsara Supreme was caught off guard. Under the simultaneous assault of several weapons, he nearly took the Human Emperor’s seal head-on — it grazed his cheek, leaving it a mass of bloody ruin, terrifying beyond measure.

For anyone else, being struck by an emperor-grade weapon would mean absolute annihilation — body and soul destroyed, scattered as cosmic dust.

But the ancient Supreme only staggered — he sustained no grievous wound, having blocked those laws with his own power. This kind of world-defying divine ability was almost enough to drive people to despair. How was anyone supposed to fight this?

Yet the number of emperor-grade weapons that had arrived was considerable — over a dozen in total, swamping the several Supremes and giving rise to the most terrifying battle in all of history.

Never once, in all the ages since the beginning of time, had anything like this occurred — so many weapons emerging at once, together suppressing the Supremes. It was a sight seen only this once in all of antiquity.

It was because this dark upheaval had spread across such a vast range that it had roused all the weapons to wakefulness, causing them to revive in succession and join this epoch-defining great war.

“Useless — they are ultimately only weapons. We can forge them, so we can destroy them!” The Light-Dark Supreme screamed. The light staff and dark shield in his hands crashed together, light and darkness merging — the energies detonated in a great explosion. He released his most terrifying power of law, sending several weapons flying in all directions.

The other Supremes were equally ferocious. Short of ascending to absolute sublimation, each deployed their most fearsome forbidden laws, pulverizing the sun, moon, and stars — destroying all things in heaven and earth.

“Kill!” The Supremes roared.

The universe trembled. The hearts of all living beings went cold. Many people knelt and prostrated themselves, and no matter how vast the distance separating them, they sensed the crushing oppression — as though standing face-to-face before the ancient great emperors.

This epoch-defining great battle moved from one place to another, and inevitably swept across many star rivers in its wake — some star regions were reduced to ash and smoke, erased from existence forever.

The battle was more ferocious than anything that had come before. Some emperor-grade weapons were destroyed — shattered apart across the cosmos, becoming part of the past — a most sorrowful ending, enough to draw lamentation from the hearts of all.

The Supremes fought with everything they had — and yet even so many weapons together could not suppress them. Instead, it was certain emperor-grade weapons that were obliterated. Of course, there were also Supremes who sustained wounds — blood splattered across the starry sky, the crimson color an assault upon the eye.

“Kill!” The people who had come from the Hangu Pass moved. The man who looked exactly like Ji Zi — viewing death as a return home — launched his most terrifying strike, causing a spray of blood to erupt from the Stone Emperor’s body.

But he could not deliver the killing blow. The backlash of the imperial law struck him in return — he coughed up great mouthfuls of blood and stumbled backward in a stagger.

He stood at the very pinnacle of the quasi-emperor’s peak. Most critically, he possessed an emperor body — in theory, he could fight a Supreme. But regrettably, he could not unleash the imperial law, and in a life-or-death struggle, he could not be a match in the end.

“Void — what a surprise. To think we would still meet under these circumstances — how truly wonderful this is. You… shall be offered as a blood sacrifice, transformed into vital life matter, and become part of my own body!”

The Stone Emperor laughed cruelly. The black war halberd in his hand pointed forward, and the snow-bright radiance at its blade shattered the nine-layered heavens. His entire being was enveloped in primal chaos energy — like a peerless divine fiend.

“Good — then today I am Void, and I fight you as him!” The man whose appearance was ordinary was, in this moment, resolute without limit — advancing without the slightest hesitation, resolved to wage this final blood-battle with his life.

The Stone Emperor’s heart jolted. That expression — that absolute resolve — reminded him of the great war of former days, when Void had waged a blood-battle across the eight wildernesses with the will to die, entering the Undying Mountain alone to face multiple Supremes.

Too alike. The Stone Emperor had already known this was not Void — yet in this moment, the slightest waver touched his heart.

“Good — since you say you are Void in this moment, I shall treat you as him. Too much enmity, too much blood — you slaughtered the Supremes of my Undying Mountain. Today that reckoning is due!” The Stone Emperor roared. His war halberd split open the heavens. “Void — where is your weapon? Can you still fight?!”

Many weapons had come flying in — but the Void Mirror had yet to appear.

“The Void Mirror has arrived!”

At the edge of the starry sky, a man stood cradling an ancient mirror. He was swaying, his entire body drenched in blood, and that mirror too was crimson — stained red with blood.

Ji Haoyue, the Divine King, appeared at the far end of a distant star river. He spoke: “This is the blood of every member of the Ji Family — all of it poured upon this mirror. Our bloodline carries the hope of our ancestor within it. It is the continuation of his life — containing fragments of his great Dao. Today I ask our ancestor to revive, and to wage the final battle for the sake of all living beings!”

“Peerless Void Emperor — where are you? This heaven and earth have need of you…”

Across the endless star regions, in countless ancient lands of life, an unknowable number of people were praying, weeping in anguish, wailing in sorrow. That thought-force transformed into a boundless ocean — surging and billowing — and even the ancient Supremes were stirred by it.

“…Void Emperor — please fight once more for your people. We beg the heavens — let him return!”

“Mirror — come, and fight alongside me!” In that very instant, the man of ordinary appearance had his eyes erupt with a blazing light. With a single roar, his voice caused the entire universe to tremble.