Summary of previous chapter: Han Wu and Qin Shuang defeat Baili Changhe, but Hei Qi escapes. Master Ou decapitates the captured Baili Changhe and completes his quest for vengeance. Han Wu starts the White Tiger's trial and succeeds thanks to the Calamitous Ghost Tiger, who "defeats" the opposing white tiger via rape. He then merges the White Tiger Armament Spirit with the Locust Soul Orb.

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Qin Shuang and Jin Tuantuan completed their trials and received their own White Tiger Armament Spirits. Each Armament Spirit transformed based on the Divine Weapon it inhabited.

Having merged hers into her Sparrow Claw, Qin Shuang’s Armament Spirit became a Winged White Tiger, capable of flight and with powerful lightning running through its claws. It was a powerful Armament Spirit that excelled in actual combat.

Jin Tuantuan’s was similarly strong. She merged the White Tiger Armament Spirit into her Life and Death Seal, which elevated it into the Life and Death Tiger Seal. The power behind it was incomparable to before.

Han Wu gingerly summoned the Locust Soul Orb to check on it. Two tigers leaped out, coiled around each other for a moment, and then merged into one tiger with black and white stripes. They had become the Netherworld White Tiger.

Its fearsome soul pressure made it clear that it was far stronger than the old Calamitous Ghost Tiger. Han Wu was quite satisfied. With the Netherworld White Tiger Armament Spirit, the protection of his soul had grown stronger.

The group left the White Tiger Palace and continued exploring, with Qin Shuang slowly mapping out the areas they passed through. By working out the relative positions of the White Tiger Palace and the Vermillion Bird Palace, she calculated the possible positions of the remaining two palaces.

Han Wu trusted her judgment. Following her directions, they soon found the Black Tortoise Palace. The trial there was harder than both the White Tiger Palace and the Vermillion Bird Palace. It couldn’t be cleared without sufficient destructive power.

Even Han Wu had to fuse Locust-V and the Heavenly Demon Spike through Divine Weapon Fusion, creating an enormous armor-piercing bullet that could obliterate the Black Tortoise Envoy.

After claiming the Black Tortoise Armament Spirit, he merged it with his Abyss Armor, increasing its defensive strength several times over. Combined with Invulnerable, Han Wu was confident that virtually no 9-Star God-grade Divine Weapon could break through his defence, barring those with special effects.

With that, the group once again relied on Qin Shuang’s calculations to make their way to the Azure Dragon Palace. Without a token to open the gate, they simply punched a large hole through the wall with their Divine Weapons and barged straight in. They had mastered the art of accessing these trials.

As though punishing them for forcing their way in, the Azure Dragon Palace trial was stupidly difficult. In the end, only Han Wu managed to clear it, barely defeating the Azure Dragon Envoy by fusing the Explosive Locust Blade and a Small Locust Blade through Divine Weapon Fusion.

Upon merging the Azure Dragon Armament Spirit into the Locust Dragon Seal, the latter’s Dragon Fear became purer, and its power increased dramatically.

While the group worked their way through the Four Symbols Armament Spirit trials, Master Ou spent his time searching for historical records about this secret realm. After piecing together fragments of information from various sources, he assembled a complete history of the king.

The people of this realm had peaceful and contented lives under the king’s rule. That was, until the discovery of Royal Gold. Recognizing the metal as harmful, the king issued an order to prohibit anyone from mining it. However, certain parties spread a rumour that the king was secretly hoarding it for himself. Some civilians then started illegally mining it, spreading the metal's contamination and causing a plague.

By the time the king found out, it was already too late. He gathered his advisors to study the plague and learned that Ashsilver could effectively slow its spread. They started mining Ashsilver en masse.

Unfortunately, the methods for processing Ashsilver were rudimentary. Byproducts from the refining process spread, and the contamination caused people to turn into mummies.

The situation swiftly spiraled out of control from there. In the end, the king was forced to resort to the most desperate measure available. He sent the uninfected out of the realm and then used his own life to seal the entire secret realm shut.

Those infected or contaminated would never be able to leave, cutting off any further spread of the plague. The trapped civilians were left in an undying state: bodies immortal, and their souls doomed to linger.

Their lingering souls generated enormous amounts of grief, rage, and resentment every day. The king’s soul worked to purify these negative emotions, gathering them into one mass and releasing them once every ten years.

The descendants who had been sent out had forgotten the king's sacrifice after many generations and came to regard that release as the birth of a legendary Armament Spirit. The Divine Weapon Civilization then started holding the contest for it every decade, drawing resources from other civilizations and gradually growing stronger.

Reading through the full account, Master Ou felt as though he had glimpsed the birth and rise of the Divine Weapon Civilization.

This discovery that their origins traced back to a plague caused by a single metal left Master Ou feeling somewhat disappointed. He had expected something grander.

Setting history aside, Master Ou had also found a clue in the records regarding the legendary Armament Spirit: the king's tomb.

The king's soul was likely there. Since the legendary Armament Spirit was the product of the king purifying the accumulated negative energy, finding the king's soul meant getting to the legendary Armament Spirit ahead of everyone else.

With that in mind, Han Wu's group prepared to follow the records and search for the king's tomb. Before moving out, Han Wu checked for Sun Qingnian one more time. This time, the compass responded, and Sun Qingnian was successfully located.

The group reunited, then moved straight toward the location of the tomb as written in the records. They flew for two days until they reached a vast open plain. According to the map, this was the exact centre point of the four palaces. The Azure Dragon Palace lay to the left, the White Tiger Palace to the right, the Vermillion Bird Palace ahead, and the Black Tortoise Palace behind.

This could be considered the most sacred area in this secret realm. The records confirmed that the king's tomb was supposed to be here, so Han Wu's group descended onto the barren plain. There were no buildings, vegetation, or even a mummy in sight. Just bare earth and no clues to be found.

Han Wu called Qin Shuang over to help find the center point according to the records. Once found, he took his position, summoned the Giant Locust Blade, and used Heaven-Earth Severance on the ground.

The earth split open with a massive crack, revealing an underground structure. It was likely the king's tomb.

They flew in on their Vermillion Bird Armament Spirits and immediately felt a pressure affecting their souls. It didn’t cause any physical injury, but kept them in a constant state of spiritual fatigue.

That fatigue induced minor debuffs such as sluggish movement, slowed reactions, and the like. While still a minor effect, it could be deadly at the wrong moment.

Seeing as the Armament Spirits were unaffected, Han Wu decided to release all of them as a precaution.

When Locust-V appeared, it glanced around at their surroundings and said, "I think I've been here before."