Chiyou stared at Phoenix, who stood before him unscathed, utterly baffled. How could she emerge completely unharmed from his attack?
His hesitation lasted only an instant. Regaining his composure, Chiyou fixed Phoenix with a serious gaze.
"Slayer of Luo... I suddenly find myself intrigued by you. I'll indulge in some proper play with you now. Don't disappoint me!"
Chiyou recalled his other weapons, retaining only a colossal tiger-headed greatsword, dozens of meters long.
"The Lord of Armaments must first master the battlefield."
As Chiyou uttered the incantation, his figure vanished in a blur. In the next instant, he reappeared before Phoenix, his gargantuan blade arcing down.
Despite his colossal size, Chiyou moved with surprising agility.
Yet once again, his strike missed. Phoenix appeared to be cleaved in two, but in the next moment, her body transformed into a single feather.
Unable to check his momentum, Chiyou's blade shattered the mountain below, causing the peak to collapse.
"Hey, big guy! I'm right here! Immortal Art: Blackbird Dispersion!"
The vanished Phoenix instantly reappeared beside Chiyou's head, appearing no larger than a bee in comparison to the towering deity.
Yet this bee-sized Phoenix brazenly punched Chiyou on the head, sending the mighty warrior crashing to the ground with a single blow.
To Chiyou, Phoenix's fist looked no bigger than a mosquito, perhaps even smaller. How could such a tiny fist unleash greater force than his own colossal strength?
Chiyou immediately rose to his feet after collapsing, visibly enraged. He extended his numerous arms, lunging for Phoenix.
But in the next instant, Phoenix vanished once more.
When she reappeared, she was three hundred meters away from Chiyou, soaring high above the battlefield.
Phoenix stood poised in mid-air, clutching a golden Great Sword.
"Chiyou, do you recognize this blade?"
Raising the golden Great Sword with both hands, Phoenix summoned lightning above her head, flames swirling around her body, and ice manifested beneath her feet.
Like a god commanding the elements, she pointed the sword's tip at Chiyou.
"That's..."
Chiyou stared at the golden Great Sword in Phoenix's hand, a flicker of familiarity stirring within him, yet he couldn't quite place it.
"This sword is named Xuanyuan!"
"And... you will fall beneath the Xuanyuan Sword once more, Chiyou."
The Xuanyuan Sword in Phoenix's hand was not the legendary blade of myth, but the divine artifact from the Honkai Xuanyuan Chapter, the very weapon she had been searching for. Upon its appearance, it had seized control of Himeko and bestowed upon her extraordinary power—a superweapon from a bygone civilization.
This transcendent divine arm freely wielded Honkai energy to manipulate the elemental forces of lightning, fire, and ice. Its power far surpassed the comprehension of humanity in this era.
"The Xuanyuan Sword?!"
"How dare you wield the Xuanyuan Sword, brat! What relation do you have to that shameless Xuanyuan wench? Today, I will slaughter you!"
Upon hearing these words and realizing that the Campione before him wielded the Xuanyuan Sword, Chiyou's mind flooded with fury and hatred.
How could he ever forget Xuanyuan Huang Emperor's blade? It was this very sword that had claimed his life!
In that moment, Chiyou completely lost control.
"Forge the Five Armaments! Transform cloud and mist! Swords, halberds, spears, glaives, and Yi spears! Instruments of slaughter, bathed in the blood of the battlefield!"
In Chiyou's time, alchemy was used to craft weapons, and leather was fashioned into armor. Thus, he pioneered the creation of the Five Armaments.
Legend has it that Chiyou had long mastered the art of metal smelting. He obtained metal ores from Mount Lu and forged them into five types of weapons. This was during the late Neolithic period.
While others still relied on stone tools, Chiyou had already crafted metal instruments of slaughter.
Moreover, Chiyou was the first true commander of a standing army. Armed with his five deadly weapons, his soldiers achieved victory after victory in countless battles.
His relentless brutality led to constant warfare with neighboring tribes, culminating in the defeat of the Yan Emperor's forces and forcing them into retreat before the advancing Huang Emperor. This compelled the Huang Emperor and Yan Emperor to unite against their common foe.
Simultaneously, Chiyou pioneered the earliest forms of criminal law. His tyrannical rule instilled such terror that people would flee at the mere sight of him, abandoning battle before it even began.
These five weapons were the sword, the ge (dagger-axe), the spear, the ji (halberd), and the yi spear!
Chiyou, once again confronted with the Xuanyuan Sword that had slain him, unleashed his Authority as the Lord of Armaments and the God of War.
The earth transformed into a battlefield as cursed power materialized into countless weapons of war. An army of armaments materialized around Phoenix.
Glaives, spears, halberds...
Amidst a storm of flashing blades and clashing steel, tens of thousands of lethal weapons hurtled toward Phoenix.
The scene bore a striking resemblance to Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon, yet with a crucial difference: each weapon, empowered by Chiyou's Authority as the Lord of Armaments, surpassed even the mightiest legendary armaments.
A single weapon could easily obliterate a small mountain. Tens of thousands of such weapons... could effortlessly level several major cities.
"Lightning, fire, ice... Lord of All Manifestations, Origin of the Elements, transform into war beasts!"
Faced with the endless barrage of weaponry, Phoenix dared not underestimate the threat. Gripping the Xuanyuan Sword with both hands, she activated the Grips of Tai Xuan, channeling their domineering power to amplify the sword's might.
With a single sweep of her sword, the thunder above her head transformed into roaring Thunder Dragons, the flames around her into majestic Flame Divine Birds, and the ice beneath her feet into regal Ice Kirin.
Hundreds of these three elemental Divine Beasts—Thunder Dragons, Flame Divine Birds, and Ice Kirin—instantly materialized, surging forward to meet the incoming tide of slaughtering weapons.
The clash between the elemental Divine Beasts and over ten thousand instruments of destruction lasted barely a minute before the beasts began to falter. However, the Xuanyuan Sword continued to supply them with an inexhaustible stream of energy.
They barely managed to temporarily block Chiyou's Lord of Arms Authority.
Of course, this was merely the Heretic God Chiyou of this world, not the true Chiyou himself.
"So you're the one who wields the Xuanyuan Sword and slays gods. No wonder you possess such confidence," Chiyou observed, his gaze fixed on Phoenix as she withstood his Authority. "But remember... you're never facing just one opponent." He realized he had underestimated her.
Truly worthy of inheriting the Kingly Way Weapon of Ji Xuanyuan.
As Chiyou, the Lord of Armaments, knew, if the weapon Phoenix wielded were merely ordinary, it would have turned against its master long ago, killing her outright.
Chiyou was the master of all weapons, the king of war...
Yet against the Xuanyuan Sword, he was powerless.
Chiyou embodied slaughter, while Xuanyuan represented benevolence and righteousness—utter opposites. The Xuanyuan Sword itself inherited Xuanyuan's virtuous nature.
The Guanghuangdi Dongxingji records: "The Yellow Emperor forged the Xuanyuan Sword from copper mined at Shoushan, inscribing it with ancient astronomical glyphs. Upon his death, he was buried at Qiaoshan. Five centuries later, the mountain crumbled, revealing an empty tomb—save for the sword. One day, it too vanished."
One side of the Xuanyuan Sword's blade depicted the sun, moon, and stars, while the other bore images of mountains, rivers, and vegetation. Its hilt was inscribed with techniques for agriculture and animal husbandry on one side, and strategies for unifying the four seas on the other. Within it resided immeasurable power, making it a divine sword for slaying demons and banishing evil.