In the context of the Thirty-Six Nations of the Central Plains, with their thousands of years of history, fifty years seems like nothing at all.
To most common people, life continues on with little noticeable change.
However, slowly but surely, the royal families of these nations began to detect subtle disturbances over the past fifty years.
At the root of these changes was the Godslayer Society, an underground organization that had long been shunned and hunted by the Thirty-Six Nations.
They had always been the 'rats in the alley', recruiting followers discreetly.
Yet, in recent years, the remnants of the Godslayer Society have grown increasingly audacious, even daring to recruit openly in the streets.
The most shocking thing for the royal families was that every time they orchestrated a raid against the society, it seemed like the society's remnants had preemptive knowledge and escaped just in time.
This realization set in motion a series of intensified suppression efforts by the Thirty-Six Nations against the society.
In fact, thirty-six and nineteen years ago, the nations employed ‘weapon masters’, hoping to utilize the might of supreme divine weapons to crush the Godslayer Society.
Unfortunately, the society's own weapon masters intervened, stalling the nations' masters and allowing the society's elite to escape.
The Thirty-Six Nations boasted nation-guarding divine weapons capable of bestowing power on weapon masters.
Despite lacking a complete divine weapon, the Godslayer Society possessed numerous fragments, known as cursed weapons.
These cursed weapons, though incomplete divine fragments, still surpassed the limits of the mundane.
If complete, a cursed weapon could nurture a weapon master.
In straightforward clashes, cursed weapon masters were naturally inferior to their counterparts wielding nation-guarding divine weapons.
However, they could still manage to disrupt their opponents somewhat.
Weapon masters typically refrained from fully awakening their divine weapons, avoiding a drastic reduction in their lifespan.
Each complete awakening of a divine weapon could siphon so much soul essence that a master would lose ten years of life.
Within a concealed underground plaza, a grand man sat cross-legged at its center.
Scattered around him were dozens of weapon fragments.
If any of the Godslayer Society's cursed weapon masters were present, they would be astounded to see that these fragments were indeed cursed weapons.
Despite their supreme status, they lay strewn about like ordinary items.
"It's been fifty years," the grand man, Lin Yuan, murmured as he slowly opened his eyes.
For most of those fifty years, he immersed himself in the study and understanding of the rules embedded within the weapon fragments.
Various affairs of the Great Flame Dynasty had been delegated to competent and loyal ministers selected over forty years ago, leaving Lin Yuan free to merely check in occasionally.
As emperor, personally attending to every matter was a significant error; such were the multitude of national affairs that one would easily exhaust themselves if they tried to oversee everything.
However, Lin Yuan’s might was so awe-inspiring that no one dared challenge or undermine his authority.
"Fourth Stage."
Lin Yuan glanced at the divine weapon fragments surrounding him, pondering briefly.
Even twenty years ago, he had reached the peak of the Heavenly Being Realm.
In the main world, this marked him as nearly at the Fourth Stage.
Crossing from the Third to the Fourth Stage, however, remained a massive barrier and challenge even in the main world.
Reaching the zenith of the Third Stage required nothing short of legendary talent among millions, if not billions.
Despite this, many died at the pinnacle of the Third Stage, never surmounting the final hurdle, even when guided by a structured evolution path.
To tread an entirely unknown path of evolution like Lin Yuan, the difficulty of stepping into the Fourth Stage multiplied by hundreds or thousands of times.
Still, with his heaven-defying comprehension, Lin Yuan should have broken through already.
Yet, he hesitated.
Not all Fourth Stages were equal; evolving through various forces like moon essence or Taiji naturally led to different Heavenly Master achievements.
This time, Lin Yuan aspired to reach the Fourth Stage through the intrinsic rules within divine weapon fragments, maximizing potential through such an evolution.
Over the past fifty years, he gathered dozens of fragments, integrating their rule essence into his martial path.
However, the essence gleaned from fragmented rules was still insufficient for his advancement.
"Those cursed weapon masters," Lin Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.
Over the years, the society's support in collecting weapon fragments provided him only with weaker pieces.
Divine fragments possessed their consciousness, and Master Sikong Lun might mislead those less formidable fragments, but the strongest fragments were beyond the society's acquisition.
Strong fragments typically lay dormant within their masters.
The society worked in cooperation with these cursed weapon masters, unable to order them around.
Any assistance required substantial compensation.
Yet Godslayer Society and these masters stood united against the suppression by the Thirty-Six Nations.
Cursed weapon masters obeyed their weapons’ wills, which harbored naturally ingrained resentment against the Thirty-Six divine weapons, given their status as defeated remnants from the great battle eight thousand years ago, scattered after being broken by the Thirty-Six.
In a similar struggle, the Godslayer Society aimed to defy divine weapons’ rule, forming a shared enmity with them.
Enemies’ enemies make natural allies.
Thus, the society and these cursed weapons coexisted in an alliance.
Sikong Lun had aligned several society bases under Lin Yuan’s command, aided by a fragment of the Holy Heart Mirror.
Lin Yuan dispatched twenty martial saints to swiftly eradicate one such command center, so quickly that the Holy Heart Mirror Fragment hadn’t even reacted before the threat was neutralized.
Engrossed in his contemplation, Lin Yuan was interrupted by the subtle approach of footsteps.
"Greetings, my lord," Sikong Lun greeted upon arrival.
The years visibly aged him, adding many strands of white to his hair.
"Speak," Lin Yuan said directly.
Over five decades, he had learned that Sikong Lun wouldn’t seek him out unless it was urgent.
"The cursed weapon masters wish to meet you to discuss a decisive battle against the Thirty-Six Nations," Sikong Lun hesitated.
"A decisive battle?" Lin Yuan arched an eyebrow.
"Are they not wary of another ‘calamity by arms’?"
The so-called 'calamity by arms' referred to the disasters wrought by clashes between divine weapons.
Eight thousand years past, after the Hundred Divine Weapons War concluded, the situation normalized.
Each of the Thirty-Six weapons retained dominion over a nation, sustained by the blood sacrifices of all beings.
Yet, how did the Great Flame Dynasty have a history of only three thousand six hundred years? The same applied to the other Thirty-Five Nations.
The reason dated back three to four thousand years to when a large-scale battle was instigated by many cursed weapons and the Godslayer Society, directly provoking the Thirty-Six.
The Thirty-Six divine weapons synchronized their awakening, suppressing many recovering cursed weapons.
Their battle permeated the Central Plains, toppling dynasties and causing widespread despair.
While divine weapons subdued and harvested the essence of everyone, humanity bore trauma, only recovering over centuries.
The aftermath reshaped the political landscape, old dynasties toppled, giving birth to the Thirty-Six Nations we know today.
Historians refer to this period as the Calamity by Arms.