The moment his fingers curled around the orb, Yao Jun learned the meaning of overwhelming bloodlust. It felt like he suddenly sank into a sea of blood, a scarlet hue drenching his vision while the overpowering stench of blood wriggled its way through his nose and into his brain. His skin prickled and stung as every hair on his body stretched skyward, even his bones were moving around unconsciously, trying to force him into a position similar to a cheetah poised for the kill.
It was truly worse than any bloodlust Yao Jun had ever felt, it was like an inviolable decree from god that pushed you towards murder. But Yao Jun wasn't some fresh-faced youth any longer, he had walked down his path and he had carved a road to the future through countless bodies. He was accustomed to death and blood, he had walked hand in hand with them ever since he first started cultivating.
And so, despite the inviolable charm of that decree, he forced it down. With a determination that bordered on insanity, he forced the bloodlust to its knees, forced it to obey. It wanted blood? It wanted corpses as tribute? It wanted to drown the world in blood? Then it should just be quiet and follow him, he would give him plenty of that. Because he was Yao Jun, he was the one that had been dubbed the Demon God by his Divine Beasts.
The scarlet hue covering his vision receded slowly, his hair settling down as his bones fell under his control again. The bloodlust was repressed by three seals, and what little seeped out was not enough to force Yao Jun to bow, so it had to bow to him instead. And with the bloodlust properly subdued, the transparent orb started to morph and distort. Its new master had arrived, it was time for it to become a weapon suitable to him.
The orb elongated and grew, shifting around so that it could form the image that Yao Jun had in mind. The weapon that took form wasn't the sword he was so familiar with, it had never really been his weapon, only something he used because of his ties. No, the sword was always Yun Yantian's weapon, it was never suited for someone as violent as Yao Jun.
His weapon was the glaive, ferocious and untamed, destruction incarnate when he held it. It was the perfect accompaniment to his rampant nature, his all-or-nothing way of attacking. The glaive quickly formed, but Yao Jun's brows furrowed softly as he looked at it, it didn't quite imitate the image he had in his mind.
It was still only a bit over two metres long, ending in a somewhat curved blade with a sharp tip. But the small spikes that should have run down the blunt side of the blade had also curved, now resembling jagged teeth rather than spikes. The colour was also different from what he had envisioned. From the tip of the blade to the end of the handle, everything was pure white, a colour far too eye-catching for Yao Jun's liking.
But the weapon stopped shifting and twisting, content with the form it had acquired. It rested quietly in his hands, but Yao Jun could still feel that writhing bloodlust within it, an intense desire to eradicate life. The Thousand Arms Master also looked at the weapon, his expression still conflicted and bitter as he saw the pristine white colour.
"As expected... only a butcherer is good enough for you now, right...? Alright, you've acquired your reward. Unless you manage to accomplish the deal then I have nothing more to give you. You can come here if you accomplish it, but should things go wrong then you don't need to return here, I will simply take it as destiny running its course."
The Thousand Arms Master muttered his first sentence so quietly that only he could hear it. Perhaps he was the only person who knew just how vicious the bloodlust trapped in the weapon was, so only he knew exactly what sort of people would be able to force it to obey just like that. Yao Jun nodded his head and didn't feel the need to add anything to what was said so he simply swiped his interspatial ring to put away the glaive.
"Huh?"
He couldn't help but let out the slight exclamation as he swiped his interspatial ring. He did it a few more times, but the glaive refused to budge, actively rejecting the interspatial ring. His brows furrowed slightly and he changed his approach, but not even trying to merge the weapon into his body like he did with his previous weapon yielded any result. The Thousand Arms Master looked at the scene and quickly understood what was going on, a mixture of reminiscence and gratification surfacing in his eyes.
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"So even in death, you still despise having your freedom taken from you... you really never did change... You won't be able to store it away like that, he always did hate being locked up. Place him on your back, he'll probably adapt to make it easier."
The Thousand Arms Master didn't sound entirely convinced himself, but Yao Jun still decided to listen to him, he was the one who knew the most about these types of weapons after all. The glaive altered slightly when Yao Jun placed it behind his back, the middle of the handle splitting open so that the glaive could be folded in half. The weapon then released a cold leather-like material that was as white as the weapon itself, forming a harness that coiled around Yao Jun's body.
Thanks to this, the weapon was safely secured to his back. But not only was the weapon and harness pure white, but how many cultivators actually carried their weapons on their bodies? In short, it was far too eye-catching for Yao Jun's liking, it was out of the norm and would draw an annoying amount of attention.
But there was nothing he could do about it, it was the first time he had ever encountered a weapon with enough personality to reject the pull of an interspatial ring. He removed the harness and the weapon, removing his shirt from the interspatial ring and putting it on again before he returned the weapon to his back.
The two had already said everything they needed to say so neither of them bothered to spend any more time on words. The Thousand Arms Master started walking away and Yao Jun left the mausoleum and followed him, the two heading down the direction that Zhuan Yi had been sent.
The two met up with her before long, and just like Yao Jun had a new weapon strapped to his back, she had a new piece of armour stuck to her body. A jungle-green armguard covered her right arm, going from her wrist all the way up to her shoulder, a wavy pattern that twisted into intermingled circles covering the entire item.
"Good, at least you were able to restrain your greed. Has it told you how to activate it properly?"
The Thousand Arms Master nodded his head when he saw Zhuan Yi, but his words couldn't exactly be called praises, his tone certainly didn't fit the bill. But Zhuan Yi didn't let it get to her and simply nodded her head, just the fact that she got to talk to the soul-fragment of her esteemed ancestor and feel his aura was a heaven-sent boon.
"Good. Go, see if it really is an unnatural extinction or the decree of destiny."
The Thousand Arms Master waved his hand, ushering the two towards the doorway they had used to enter the sanctum. The two passed through the screen of light and arrived outside the roiling dome-shaped building, Ba-Shei and the others patiently waiting for them. Their gazes immediately skipped over Zhuan Yi and landed on Yao Jun, settling on the folded glaive he wore on his back.
Seeing the weapon, while it didn't look like something Yao Jun would use, they heaved a collective sigh of relief. They could feel the subdued bloodlust coursing within the pristine weapon, like a hungry beast waiting to be let loose. That alone was enough to tell them that this was no ordinary weapon, which meant that they had accomplished what they had come here for.
They hadn't been able to be of proper use to Yao Jun, them helping him had even made it so that he had to endure a tougher trial, but at least the goal was achieved. Of course, what the three of them didn't know was that Yao Jun was bound to face a tougher trial than the others here, because he was the man chosen by the deceased brother of the Thousand Arms Master.
None of the five people had the chance to really say anything after meeting up again, space around them started to fold up, a clear sign that they were about to be kicked out of the tomb. And sure enough, after their vision was blinded by a flash of multicoloured light, they arrived on the vast plain outside the tomb. The faded yellow grass still towered above them like trees, a faint touch enough to make parts of the grass collapse into dust.
"You should know where this Teardrop Lake is, correct? I assume you know a good place from where we can observe it?"
Yao Jun glanced at Zhuan Yi as he spoke, this Teardrop Lake wasn't included in the list he had seen earlier so it didn't seem to be one of the more popular places to hunt for resources. Little Gray changed into his natural form, Sirius and Ba-Shei stepping onto his back while Zhuan Yi responded.
"I do. It's tied to the ancestor so it's not terribly far away from here, maybe six days if we fly at a normal pace."
The normal pace she mentioned was, of course, the pace that was expected of an Earthly Deity realm Divine Beast, it would take a bit longer should it be a normal cultivator that tried to cross the distance. Yao Jun nodded his head slightly and hopped onto Little Gray's back, Zhuan Yi stepping forward to follow him. But Little Gray flapped his wing before she could reach him, sending her a slanted glance.
"You can fly on your own, can't you?"
Zhuan Yi halted slightly at his rather brusque words, but she didn't look offended by them. She knew that he was a Divine Beast, an extraordinary one at that, it was normal for him to be filled with extreme pride. In fact, it was already strange for him to let the three others ride on his back.
She didn't argue about it and simply stretched out both her arms, her entire body wriggling unnaturally. Before long, her arms turned to wings and her legs to talons, in only a single second she had turned from a human to a grayish-white eagle.