Martial Arts: Starting with Upgrading the Dilapidated Temple

Chapter 157 Ancient Weapon Tomb

Xu Hao loosened his arms from the rock wall and slid down the funnel-shaped cavity.

As he fell, the dark purple minerals embedded in the rock walls on both sides became denser and denser, eventually forming a whole. The light was not bright, but it was enough for him to see the whole view below.

Landing.

What I was stepping on wasn't rock, it was iron.

To be precise, it was a halberd that had been rusted for countless years. The shaft had decayed into powder, leaving only a bronze halberd head embedded in a layer of ground made up of countless weapons.

Xu Hao steadied himself and looked around.

This is a huge domed space, at least three hundred feet in diameter. The dome is a natural rock cave, with dark purple minerals inlaid all over the top, casting a cold, dim light.

Beneath his feet were knives, swords, spears, halberds, hammers, axes, battle-axes, and daggers.

Every type exists, and every weapon is covered in rust and blood that has dried over countless eons. Some are broken in two, some are bent and deformed, and some have been pierced by another weapon, maintaining their final stance of combat, freezing a moment in time on the battlefield.

The thickness of the weapons piled up was beyond imagination. Xu Hao stepped forward a few steps on this layer of weapons, and heard a dense metallic clanging sound under his feet. With each step, he could feel that there were at least a dozen more layers below.

The data presented in the Blessed Land Scroll is cold and precise.

[Ancient Weapon Tomb: The total number of weapons exceeds the calculation limit, estimated to be no less than one million. The concentration of malevolent energy is extremely high; only those with a physique above the Forging Realm can remain there for an extended period.]

Among millions of swords, Xu Hao glanced down at a broken sword at his feet. He could vaguely see inscriptions on the sword, but the characters were so ancient that he couldn't recognize them. So he continued walking forward.

Every step was difficult, not because of the terrain, but because of the Heart-Destroying Silk. The silk that Steward Li planted in his heart meridian did not weaken after being far away from the caster. Instead, it became an independent venomous snake that began to strangle him on its own.

With each heartbeat, the threads tighten, the dark gold heart desperately pumping blood to fight it, but blood circulation has already dropped to 40%.

Forty percent of his vital energy meant that the self-circulation of the Forging Realm could no longer be maintained. The wound stopped healing, and the crack on his back began to bleed again. The dark golden blood dripped onto the ancient weapon under his feet, making a slight hissing sound.

The weapons on the ground were sucking his blood.

The dark golden blood droplet landed on a rusted iron knife and was instantly swallowed up. The rust on the knife blade receded slightly by half an inch, revealing the dark metallic color underneath. Then the knife blade trembled very slightly and turned over in its slumber.

Xu Hao stopped and sensed something.

Not just this one sword, but all the weapons within a ten-foot radius that had been stained with his blood were vibrating. The subtle metallic tremors gathered together to form a deep hum, as if responding to something.

Suddenly, the scroll painting of the blessed land in the sea of ​​consciousness lit up, and a line of golden characters that had never been seen before appeared in the center of the scroll.

[Resonance of the Martial Ancestor's bloodline detected. The core area of ​​the Ancient Military School is now unsealed. Martial Ancestor Trial: Begin?]

Xu Hao stared at the line of text.

The Martial Ancestor, the creator of the Nine Supreme Divine Skills, was the one who shattered the void and broke the vast world into several smaller worlds.

Of the nine divine skills of the Martial Ancestor, he himself practiced three of them.

A line of small characters appeared at the bottom of the scroll, the font much dimmer than before, as supplementary explanation.

[Warning: The host's Qi and blood are at a critical point. The Heart-Destroying Threads are eroding the heart meridian. If not removed within six hours, the heart meridian will rupture and the host will die.]

The Martial Ancestor Trial can repair all external erosion, but once the trial begins, it cannot be withdrawn midway, and the participant bears full responsibility for their life or death.

Six hours later, Xu Hao looked down at his chest and could vaguely see a silvery-white thread wrapped around the outer wall of his heart, slowly contracting.

With each shrinking of the circle, his vision dimmed a little more; he had no choice.

"Activate".

The moment the words fell, the ancient military mound beneath their feet exploded—not a collapse, but an awakening.

Millions of dormant weapons simultaneously lit up with a dark red light, and a murderous aura surged from the weapons like a torrent, filling the entire dome space. The light of the dark purple ore was completely swallowed up, replaced by a blood-red hue.

The ground shook violently.

The pile of weapons beneath Xu Hao's feet began to sink and recombine.

Millions of weapons came to life, moving, flipping, and nesting on their own, the sound of metal clashing deafening, an unseen army arrayed in formation.

The weapons piled up within ten feet of him were cleared, revealing the true ground beneath: a huge, seamless, dark gold metal platform.

The platform's surface was engraved with extremely intricate patterns, the style of which was exactly the same as the dark gold patterns on the Devourer Blade, no, a thousand times more complex than the patterns on the Devourer Blade.

In the center of the platform stands a long sword without a scabbard.

The sword is entirely dark gold, three feet and seven inches long, without a blade. There are no inscriptions or patterns on the blade, and it is as smooth as a mirror. However, the way it is stuck on the platform has nailed the heart of the entire ancient weapon tomb.

The air around the sword was distorted, not by heat waves, but by some more fundamental force forming a vortex near the sword.

The scroll painting of the blessed land trembled violently, and golden characters popped out one after another.

[The Martial Ancestor's Lost Sword: Nameless. This sword was the key to the Ancient Weapon Tomb forged by the Martial Ancestor. Drawing the sword means entering a trial, and the trial is battle.]

[Trial Rules: Face a million ancient soldiers as your enemies. Defeat them all to advance. There is no time limit, no requests for reinforcements, and the battle will not end in defeat.]

Xu Hao stood at the edge of the platform, staring at the nameless sword. His qi and blood were at their peak, the Heart-Shattering Silk was twisting, and the wound on his back was still bleeding.

As he stepped onto the platform, the instant his feet touched the dark gold metal, a massive flow of information flooded into his consciousness.

It is not words, nor images, but will—an ancient, profound, and all-powerful will.

Without a word, only the feeling of "draw your sword or die" lingered. Xu Hao reached out his hand.

The moment his fingers touched the hilt of the sword, an extremely cold force exploded from the blade, flowing down his arm and into his meridians, rushing straight to his heart.

With a hiss, the power of extreme cold collided with the Heart-Destroying Silk.

The silvery-white silk thread was frozen by the extreme cold for half a breath, and the twisting force suddenly stopped. In that half breath, Xu Hao clenched his five fingers, gripped the hilt of the sword, and suddenly lifted it up.

With a resounding clang, an extremely clear and melodious sword cry rang out.

The sound waves spread outward from the platform, penetrating the entire dome space, the two-hundred-foot-high rock layer, and the surface of the Ten Thousand Poison Forest. At the same time, the beast horde, hundreds of miles away, lay prostrate and trembled.

The sword is drawn.

The moment the nameless sword was drawn, all the patterns on the dark gold platform lit up, and light burst forth from the patterns, forming a halo with a diameter of ten feet around Xu Hao.

Outside the aperture, a million ancient weapons floated up together; they were no longer rusted scrap iron.

The malevolent energy permeated every weapon, causing rust to peel away and blades to reappear, broken spears to rejoin themselves, bent blades to straighten, and chipped swords to be repaired.

Millions of weapons hovered in mid-air, their blades all pointing towards Xu Hao. This was an undead legion awaiting orders. Then, the first blade flew over.

It was a ring-pommel sword with an extremely ancient design.

The blade is three feet long, with a faint character for "soldier" engraved on the pommel.

The speed was not fast, roughly equivalent to the full-force slash of a mid-stage Bone Forging Realm martial artist, Xu Hao sidestepped and slashed horizontally with his nameless sword.

With a clang, the ring-pommel sword was cleaved in two, and the fragments instantly transformed into a cloud of malevolent energy upon hitting the ground, which was absorbed by the dark gold platform.

The second handle, the third handle, the tenth handle.

Weapons flew in from all directions, gradually increasing in speed and becoming more and more tricky at angles. Xu Hao held the Devouring Abyss in his left hand and the Nameless Sword in his right, unleashing both blades simultaneously.

The dark gold blade light and the cold sword light intertwined within the light circle to form an impenetrable net, precisely shattering, knocking away, or blocking every ancient weapon that flew in.

However, only 40% of his Qi and blood were in his body.

When the thirtieth ancient weapon flew over, Xu Hao's right arm began to ache, and when the fiftieth weapon arrived, he took his first step back.

The hundredth spear came from a blind spot, its tip grazing his ribs and leaving a shallow cut. Dark golden blood splattered out and fell to the ground, where it was absorbed by the platform.

The platform lit up, and an extremely pure energy surged into his body from the soles of his feet, repairing the wound on his ribs and incidentally raising his blood and qi from 40% to 45%.

Xu Hao narrowed his eyes. The platform was using his blood as fuel, but it was also giving back to him with the murderous aura of the ancient weapon. The more he killed, the greater the reward.

He understood that this was not just a trial, but a tempering process.

Nourish his body with the murderous aura of a million ancient soldiers, and force him to break through his limits with the pressure of battle.

The Heart-Shattering Silk was still twisting, but every time he killed a batch of ancient soldiers, the energy fed back by the platform would suppress the Heart-Shattering Silk for a moment.

Not enough, far from enough. To completely remove this thread, he doesn't need 40% or 50% of his vital energy; he needs a qualitative change.

On the first day, Xu Hao shattered three thousand ancient weapons.

His Qi and blood recovered from 40% to 55%, and the wound on his back was completely healed. However, the Heart-Destroying Silk was still coiled on his heart meridian. The energy fed back from the platform made his Forging Realm more stable, and the dark golden color of his internal organs deepened.

The strength of the ancient weapon also increased, rising from the Bone Forging Realm to the Tendon Changing Realm.

The incoming weapons were no longer single-handled, but rather three or five weapons working together to form a simple combined attack formation, with swords and spears attacking from both sides.

Xu Hao was forced to use the Surging Waves Step to dodge, and the Devouring Abyss's Sinking Abyss property was repeatedly activated, slowing down and shattering the incoming weapons.

The nameless sword became increasingly fluent in his hands. This sword had no set moves, but when Xu Hao held it, he could feel an instinct; the sword told him where to stab and where to block.

It's not swordsmanship, but sword intent—the fighting instinct left in the sword by the Martial Ancestor.

On the seventh day, the number of ancient weapons shattered exceeded 20,000.

With his Qi and blood restored to 70%, the ancient weapon's strength climbed to the Inner Strength Realm. Every flying weapon was wrapped in dense Qi, and the combined attack formation changed from three or five weapons to a formation of more than ten or even twenty weapons.

They began to simulate real battle formations, with spear formations in front, sword formations behind, and sword formations flanking from both sides.

Xu Hao was forced to the edge of the aperture for the first time.

A heavy hammer came crashing down from the front, but he parried it with his Maw of Devouring, causing his tiger's mouth to split open. At the same time, three spears thrust at him from behind.

He twisted his waist, and the nameless sword swept horizontally with a backhand motion. The blade swirled up a vortex, deflecting three spears. The spear tips grazed his back, leaving three streaks of blood.

Dark golden blood fell onto the platform, energy surged into the wounds to heal them, and the battle resumed.

He began to get used to this rhythm: getting injured, killing enemies, recovering health, getting injured again, killing enemies again, an endless cycle.

On the fifteenth day, Gu Bing's strength broke through to the late stage of the Inner Strength Realm.

The combined attack formation has expanded to more than fifty blades, and the formation changes have become increasingly complex. Sometimes, there are even feint attacks. The blade formation in front may seem to be launching a fierce attack, but in reality, it is to cover a dagger below that bounces up from the ground and stabs straight at the throat.

Xu Hao was caught off guard by this trick; the dagger pierced his left shoulder, penetrating three inches deep.

The excruciating pain halted his movements for a moment, during which seventeen weapons struck him simultaneously, leaving him no time to parry.

At this moment, the dark gold heart burst forth with an overload of blood pumping, its blood and qi instantly surged to their limit, and a violent force exploded from within its body.

Boom! A dark golden shockwave spread outward from him, sending seventeen weapons flying.

Xu Hao knelt on one knee, panting heavily. He pulled the dagger out of his left shoulder, and the wound healed within three breaths.

But he noticed something.

The burst of energy just now wasn't simply a compression of blood and qi; it was his will. His will materialized at that moment.

It was only a fleeting moment, but he truly felt his spiritual power break free from the constraints of his body at that instant, forming a brief field.

The threshold of the Divine Transformation Realm: Martial Will.

He couldn't touch it yet, but he could see where the door was.

On the thirtieth day, Gu Bing's strength reached the Opening Aperture Realm.

This means that every incoming weapon carries the power equivalent to a full-force strike from a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm.

With over a hundred weapons in a combined attack formation, the battle formation is no longer a simple encirclement and pincer attack but a true military formation, with vanguard, central army, rear guard, guerrillas, and ambush troops. The hundred weapons work together seamlessly, commanded from behind the scenes by a top strategist.

Xu Hao was beaten terribly and struggled on the brink of death every day, but he was also making rapid progress.

He advanced from the beginner to the intermediate stage of the Forging Realm. The color of his dark gold internal organs changed from dull to bright, and his heart's pumping efficiency increased by 30%.

The Myriad Transformations Heavenly Vault Scripture was constantly pushed in actual combat, and its true meaning became increasingly refined.

The resonance between him and the Abyss reached a new level. He didn't need to deliberately activate the Abyss; as long as he had a thought, the gravity within a ten-zhang radius would automatically change.

The nameless sword didn't teach him swordsmanship, but rather an understanding of weapons.

Every weapon has its own temperament: the knife is domineering, the sword is sharp, the spear is direct, and the hammer is heavy.

When faced with millions of different weapons, you either learn to understand them or be overwhelmed by them. Xu Hao chose to understand.

On the sixtieth day, Gu Bing's strength stabilized at the mid-stage of the Tongqiao Realm.

The number of weapons no longer increased, but the formations became unbelievably complex, with the same batch of weapons changing into seven different formations within three breaths.

Swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, and forks—every weapon was positioned to maximize its power, and the speed of attack and defense transitions was so fast that even Xu Hao's dynamic vision couldn't capture it.

He began to fight with his senses, not his eyes, but his body's perception.

The power of this blessed land is connected to the earth's veins in the Myriad Poisons Forest; the subtle vibrations of these veins transmit the location and speed of each weapon.

Trajectory.

He closed his eyes, sidestepped when the knife came, parried when the sword came, deflected when the spear thrust, and dodged when the hammer fell. Every movement was just right, not too much or too little.

This is a fighting style that transcends the visual, a rudimentary form of martial arts will.

Over the past two months, the Heart-Destroying Silk has been continuously suppressed, and the energy fed back from the platform has acted as a blunt knife, gradually wearing down the strength of the silver-white silk thread.

The silk thread, originally as thick as a thumb, was worn down to the finest hair, but it was still intact; the work of a master craftsman was more stubborn than he had imagined.

The ninetieth day, three months.

The ancient weapons' strength has broken through the late stage of the Tongqiao Realm, and the battle formation composed of 150 weapons is equivalent to the combined power of three peak Tongqiao Realm experts.

On this day, Xu Hao broke through to the late stage of the Forging Realm. The dark gold color of his internal organs had deepened to nearly pure gold. The frequency of his heart pumping blood had decreased to thirty times per minute. It was not that he had become weaker, but that the efficiency of each pumping blood had increased tenfold.

A single heartbeat sends blood and energy rushing throughout the body.

The cultivation of the Myriad Transformations Heavenly Vault Scripture was also continuously advanced in the battle. The concept of Heavenly Dao controlling the universe became more and more profound. He could feel a power brewing within his body, just one step away, a seed about to explode.

Day 120, four months.

The strength of the ancient weapons did not increase, but their number doubled. Three hundred ancient weapons at the late stage of the Qi Refining Realm formed an unprecedentedly massive battle formation that pressed in from all directions at the same time.

Xu Hao had no room to dodge within the circle of light; he was simultaneously stabbed in the chest, abdomen, and thigh by dozens of weapons.

Dark golden blood gushed from his left arm.

But he did not fall. With the Abyss in his left hand and the Nameless Sword in his right, he swung both weapons at the same time.

It wasn't two different attacks, but two slashes driven by the same will. The dark gold blade light and the cold sword light converged in front of him, forming a spiral-shaped slash wave.

Boom! The ancient weapons within a radius of ten zhang were all shattered.

The malevolent energy surged into the platform like a tidal wave and then into Xu Hao's body from his feet, causing his wounds to heal and his blood and qi to surge.

But this time, the surging energy didn't stop at repairing the wounds; it continued to rise, breaking through the limits of the Forging Realm and plunging into a realm it had never touched before.

Day 150, five months.

Xu Hao sat cross-legged in the center of the platform, and for the first time, the ancient soldiers around him stopped attacking.

They hovered outside the aura with their blades facing outwards, guarding something. Xu Hao closed his eyes, his entire body radiating a thin layer of dark golden light.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the operation of the Myriad Transformations Heavenly Vault Scripture reached an unprecedented speed, and the true meaning of the Heavenly Dao's control over the universe was constantly condensing, condensing, and condensing again.

What was once a vague concept permeating his entire body transformed into a clear pathway, and from a pathway into a single point, which floated in the very center of his consciousness.

The dark gold color was extremely small and bright; it was a star, the core of martial arts will.

But this star has not yet been lit; it needs the final spark, the heart-wrenching thread.

The silver-white thread, worn down over five months, is now reduced to a single strand, as fine as spider silk, wrapped around the outermost layer of the dark gold heart.

It was still twisting, weak but persistent, like a dying enemy determined to take one last bite even in death.

Xu Hao opened his eyes and stared at his chest, where the almost invisible silver-white thread through his skin was still slowly contracting.

"After five months of this, it's time to give up."

He raised his right hand and held the nameless sword across his chest, then pressed the tip of the sword against his heart. This was not suicide, but surgery.

The tip of the nameless sword pierced the skin, passed through the muscle layer and the gap between the ribs, and precisely pressed against the outer wall of the dark gold heart, where the Heart-Destroying Silk was wrapped.

The moment the sword tip touched the silk thread, the two forces collided violently. The silver-white Heart-Shattering Silk thread desperately tightened, trying to cut off the sword tip, but the Nameless Sword belonged to the Martial Ancestor.

An extremely cold power surged from the sword, freezing the last strand of the Heart-Shattering Silk into ice crystals. Xu Hao then twisted his wrist.

With a snap, the ice crystals shattered, the Heart-Shattering Silk broke, and the shackles of five months crumbled.

The dark gold heart throbbed violently the instant the Heart-Destroying Silk broke. This throb was different from every throb in the previous five months; the blood and qi were no longer simply pumped throughout the body.

It is compressed to its limit in the heart and then released in a completely new way, not as a fluid but as a pulse.

Each pulse carried an extremely pure wisp of will, and the dark golden star suspended in the sea of ​​consciousness suddenly lit up.

Boom! A shockwave suddenly erupted from Xu Hao's body. It wasn't qi or blood, but willpower, the will of martial arts.

It has no color, no shape, yet it exists.

All the ancient soldiers suspended within a radius of ten zhang simultaneously emitted a buzzing sound, not a buzzing sound of battle, but a buzzing sound of submission.

The blades of hundreds of ancient weapons simultaneously turned inwards, not to attack him, but to pay their respects.

The scroll painting of this blessed land gleams with golden lettering.

[Host Breakthrough: Peak of the Qi Opening Realm → Beginner of the Divine Transformation Realm.]

[A preliminary martial arts will has been formed; the spirit can interfere with reality.]

Xu Hao looked down at his hands. The dark gold patterns on his palms were several shades deeper than they had been five months ago, etched into his bones. But the biggest change was not in his physical body, but in his senses.

He could see the location of every weapon in the entire ancient weapon tomb without using his eyes; his will permeated the space.

Inside, the vibrations of every weapon and the flow of every wisp of malevolent energy were clearly visible.

This is the divine transformation realm's spiritual interference with reality. He stood up, and the ancient weapon stopped attacking. The trial had already ended the moment he condensed his martial will.

The scroll painting of the blessed land offers new and delightful hints.

[Martial Ancestor Trial Completed, Evaluation: Passed]

[Reward: Sovereignty over the Ancient Weapon Tomb; one million ancient soldiers can be mobilized by the host's will (requires continuous consumption of Qi and Blood).]

[Bonus: The sword has suddenly recognized its master; it can be integrated into the host's consciousness and summoned at any time.]

Xu Hao glanced at the Zha Ming sword in his hand. The sword, which had been with him for five months, transformed into a streak of light the instant he looked at it, piercing into his brow and disappearing into the depths of his consciousness.

He glanced down at the Devouring Abyss again; the dark gold longsword lay quietly on the ground, without even a sound.

"Jealous?" Xu Hao patted the hilt of the knife.

The Abyss gave a buzzing reply.

However, the end of the trial does not mean the end of cultivation; entering the Divine Transformation Realm is just the beginning.

Xu Hao continued to stay in the ancient weapon tomb. There were no attacks from the ancient weapons, but there was something even more important: the residual baleful aura and battle memories on millions of weapons.

Each ancient weapon is more than just a former warrior; their masters have long since turned to dust, but their final battles have been remembered by the weapons.

Xu Hao sat in the center of the platform, touching one ancient weapon after another with his martial arts will.

A broken sword, its owner a foot soldier. The last strike was aimed at a huge beast. The sword broke and the man died, but the trajectory of that strike was recorded on the broken edge.

A broken spear, its owner a cavalryman, who threw it before he died, piercing through three enemies. The vibration marks on the spear shaft recorded the force and angle of that throw.

A shattered shield, belonging to a shield bearer who used his body and shield to block an attack powerful enough to split a mountain. The shield shattered, but the man's spine remained intact.

The final blow of a million warriors, a million different ways to fight.

Xu Hao greedily absorbed these combat memories, not to learn the moves, but to understand the combat itself.

Knowing when to advance and when to retreat, when to fight back and when to dodge, when to trade one for another and when to retreat unscathed is the true victory.

These secrets are not written in any martial arts manuals; they only exist on the real battlefield, in the lives of those who risk their lives.