"Senior Bing Ao," Meiyi said with bright alertness, "Is it possible to repair this Netherworld Holy Sword?"

Bing Ao turned his head coldly, waved his sleeve, and declared, "I cannot, but Old Ghost Yan Luo can. I battled him over artifacts for so long, and finally, I have the chance to see the day I triumph over him! It proves that I am the number one smith in the world, hahahaha!"

"What is your relationship with Yan Luo?" Old Liu's voice was very small, suggesting that Bing Ao and Yan Luo were mortal enemies. "Do you mean you are both smiths?"

"Hmph, I, Bing Ao, am the true smith, and Yan Luo is merely a pitiful lost soul!" Bing Ao pointed toward the starlight above the nine heavens for explanation. "To forge a Peerless Divine Weapon requires the essence of the Solar Corona, the splendor of the Lunar Halo, and the Solar Flare. These three necessities were all secrets I shared with Yan Luo. Tens of thousands of years ago, Yan Luo was nothing more than an insignificant blacksmith in the mortal realm."

"Yan Luo was a mortal!" Ye Xiu could hardly believe what he heard.

Meiyi crossed her arms, seemingly sensing a hidden meaning. "I have heard from ancient texts that the Sun, Moon, and Stars are used as the core of divine weapons, but I truly don't understand the specifics."

Old Liu, sensing Bing Ao was about to tell a story, sat down right there. "I think I understand now. Those beams of starlight that just attacked us must be what the elder refers to as the Solar Flares. But why can those things harm us and not you, Elder?"

Bing Ao seemed not to have seen a living person in a long time, so he confided his deepest thoughts. "Ancient legends say that when the God of War descends upon the world, he manifests in three forms, creating these three fundamentals: Sun, Moon, and Star. Old Ghost Yan Luo established the Yu Yu Sealing Blade Alliance specifically to find and guard the materials for these Three Fundamentals. I, Bing Ao, was entrusted by him to guard this Star Sword Peak."

Old Liu found the story contradictory and asked with confusion, "If Yan Luo was a mortal, how could he possibly arrange for you? What exactly is this Yu Yu Sealing Blade Alliance?"

"I can explain that," Meiyi interjected with a proud smile. "Our Yu Yu Sealing Blade Alliance is a powerful organization that spans every corner of the world. Any smith with ability could potentially be our ally. However, most smiths, like myself, can only forge simple weapons. Those smiths left in the ruins of the Sealing Blade Alliance must be peerless geniuses."

"Have you heard of Ou Yezi?" Bing Ao spoke while inhaling the Solar Flares from the sky as if drawing breath. He said coldly, "The guardians of the Three Fundamentals resources were able to endure tens of thousands of years only because they received Yan Luo's grace. Unfortunately, we must rely on the power of the Three Fundamentals to survive; without the Solar Flares, we cannot live. They have become my very lifeblood."

Ye Xiu furrowed his brow and asked curiously, "These Flares have kept you alive until now, so does that mean you, Senior, are also an ordinary person? Isn't Ou Yezi the famous smith from the Spring and Autumn/Warring States period? Legend says he was the progenitor of swordsmithing, the founder of the Longquan Sword!"

"Gasp! What does an ancient figure have to do with this organization?" Old Liu's history was indeed poor; he had only heard the name but didn't know what the man did.

Meiyi leaned closer to Ye Xiu and whispered, "Does the Senior mean Ou Yezi is connected to Yan Luo?"

"That fellow Ou Yezi was indeed the very first swordsmith in the entire realm at that time. The series of magnificent bronze swords he forged surpassed all others in China. During the wars between the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period and the Seven Warring States, they displayed infinite might and mesmerizing artistic charm, but..." Bing Ao scanned the crowd and swallowed mysteriously.

"But what?" Ye Xiu began to feel that something was seriously wrong.

Bing Ao tapped the ground with his withered finger. "No one knows that the renowned Ou Yezi was a narcissistic and extreme individual. To reach the zenith of forging technique, he didn't hesitate to degenerate into a god or demon. He secretly established the Yu Yu Sealing Blade Alliance, widely recruiting famous smiths to join his ranks. Openly, he promoted theories on sword forging, but secretly, he was gathering materials to create world-shattering divine weapons. He is utterly unworthy of being called human!"

"Degenerate into a god or demon?" Meiyi glanced at Ye Xiu. In her view, that fellow Ye Xiu was also unworthy of being called human, as he was a Death God. Was a Death God counted among the gods and demons people often mentioned?

Bing Ao recalled the past and recounted in detail: "After Ou Yezi achieved fame, he focused solely on forging transcendent swords that would live forever. But people fear death, especially those named individuals who have attained a certain level of power or glory, just like the master of this mausoleum, the First Emperor. Thus, they all desired longevity."

"Longevity, always longevity!" Old Liu straightened up, a sense of ominous premonition rising in his heart.

"Ou Yezi achieved longevity and became the Netherworld's foremost smith, Yan Luo!" Ye Xiu gasped, managing to guess the words Bing Ao was about to utter. "How did he accomplish that?"

"A woman," Bing Ao tilted his head back, the memory of that woman’s appearance still vivid. "She was an exceptionally beautiful woman, always clad in luxurious robes, with an aura between her brows that sent a chill down the spine. It was precisely this woman who reformed Ou Yezi. She granted Ou Yezi the ability of eternal life, allowing him to forge a divine weapon capable of world destruction."

"A woman capable of granting eternal life?" Ye Xiu murmured, looking toward Old Liu. "Could it be Hong Ling..."

"Hoo..." Old Liu let out a long breath. He clutched his head as if every topic related to eternal life in this world somehow connected back to Hong Ling.

Bing Ao paid no mind to their speculation and continued his lecture. "Everyone in the Yu Yu Sealing Blade Alliance began searching for the materials needed to forge the divine weapon. Though the world is vast, we found the legendary Three Fundamentals materials—Sun, Moon, and Star—but this marked the beginning of the Sealing Blade Alliance's demise."

"You completed the forging of the divine weapon?" Ye Xiu could easily guess that the divine weapon they were discussing was the Imperial Slaying Blade held by Sha Jun Tianxia.

"The divine weapon was completed with me presiding, assisted by the other two smiths, and Ou Yezi, who was Yan Luo, performed the final touches. I never imagined its birth would lead to the destruction of the entire Sealing Blade Alliance. It is all that woman's fault; she was the one who guided Sha Jun Tianxia into the Human Realm. She is simply a monstrous fiend."

Ye Xiu’s scalp tingled upon hearing this. In his view, Hong Ling, Mo Xi, and Mo Shu might just be interchangeable names; they shared one collective title: the Myriad Demon Empress. Although he wasn't entirely clear on the Empress's true nature, one thing was certain: almost every major and minor conflict in this world seemed linked to her.

Meiyi, being an inheritor of the Sealing Blade Alliance across countless generations, was primarily interested in the weapon King Ksitigarbha used to defeat Sha Jun when he entered the fray. "When Sha Jun entered the realm, the entire Human World fell into crisis. King Ksitigarbha stood up and cleaved Sha Jun with another divine weapon—what was that weapon?"

Bing Ao shook his head mournfully. "I have been confined to this mountain peak for tens of thousands of years; I never knew what was happening outside. Back then, the Sealing Blade Alliance fragmented. Yan Luo the old ghost used sorcery upon the three of us—Bing Ao, Jian Chi, and Dao Kuang—binding us forever within the domain of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. All the causes and consequences are likely known only to Yan Luo and that mysterious woman."

Ye Xiu gradually pieced together the story Bing Ao told. Ou Yezi transformed from a mortal into an immortal being possessing great power. If that mysterious woman was the Myriad Demon Empress, perhaps she transformed Ou Yezi just as she influenced Han Xin, giving him the essence of the Death Kingdom's Underworld Sovereign. This would mean Yan Luo must be a Death God! How did he travel to the Netherworld? And why would Hong Ling lead the Overlord of the Demon Realm into the Human Realm? What benefit did this blurring of boundaries bring her, and how could she travel freely between the Human Realm and the Demon Realm?

Old Liu stretched languidly and stood up. He said with resignation, "The story is good, but it doesn't give us the answers we want. Senior, do you know how to find Yan Luo?"

"Heaven knows where that old ghost might be. Perhaps he is still in these ruins, or perhaps he was already killed by someone like Sha Jun Tianxia," Bing Ao said lazily as he slowly walked back toward the simple dwelling atop the mountain peak. "Star Sword Peak has always possessed a powerful gravitational pull since ancient times. It is easy to ascend, but getting down is not so simple."

This statement struck Ye Xiu like a sudden jolt. He walked to the very edge of the peak. The starlight below converged toward Bing Ao’s head, but he was keenly aware of the danger from those laser beams. He tried to carefully jump down the mountain, but the moment his feet left the summit ground, his body entered a state of weightlessness. This meant descending the mountain was absolutely impossible.

"This..." Old Liu made the same attempt. He jumped forcefully, trying to push downwards, but was subtly bounced back to the summit, landing in a heap. "Damn it, Senior, how are we supposed to get down from here? If we stay here, how can we find Yan Luo? We'll just be trapped on this peak forever."