Chapter 1663: Autumn Sorrow

Every angle and contour of this sword was flawless, as exquisite and pure as unblemished jade, like a maiden slumbering in an autumn world. Yet, behind every glint of light, a profound sense of desolate sorrow was etched into its ancient form.

The sword seemed to embody eons of history and countless transformations, as if its wielder had experienced them all. Although only the nascent outline of the sword's soul had formed within the center of the Emperor's Cauldron, without a complete physical form, Xu Yang was still immensely satisfied with his second masterpiece.

The Dao of Autumn had perfectly merged into this weapon's soul. This was undoubtedly a sword full of character, and Xu Yang found himself liking it immensely. In fact, the emotion poured into crafting this sword soul surpassed that of the previous Ling Xu.

The weapon soul of the Emperor's Cauldron reappeared in Xu Yang's spiritual world, engaging in a heartfelt conversation with its sole master.

“I never imagined, Master,” the Cauldron's soul began, “that your inner emotional world is so rich. If every weapon soul can possess its own emotional fluctuations in the early stages of its conception, it would be highly beneficial for cultivating its growth potential.

Simply put, just like the formation of this second weapon soul before you. Influenced by the inherent melancholic aura of the surrounding laws of heaven and earth, combined with the sorrowful emotions you, Master, have poured into it – if this divine artifact takes shape in the future, and you wield it in a state of sorrow, it will undoubtedly unleash its unparalleled potential!”

This law was transformed by Xu Yang with his purest disposition. Therefore, no one knew better than him how to perfectly unleash the true power of this weapon soul. This was also a significant reason why he was striving to create his own exclusive weapon soul.

Whether it was the Divine Artifact Tu Tian or the Divine Artifact Ice Emperor Pagoda, although Xu Yang currently possessed many powerful divine artifacts, none of them were created by his own life-bound weapon soul. They were all artifacts inherited from other ancient top-tier powerhouses.

To be frank, no matter how powerful others' artifacts were, they were ultimately still just that—others'. Xu Yang could increasingly feel this truth as his own strength and cultivation realm continuously improved.

A satisfactory weapon soul, one that truly understood its wielder, could bring an immensely significant boost in power and practical combat ability to its host.

Limited by the influence of weapon souls not created from his own core essence, the destructive power Xu Yang could unleash when wielding Tu Tian had already reached its limit. He relied more on his methods of superimposing sword auras with void laws to maintain his unparalleled attack capability. However, achieving further breakthroughs and improvements from this foundation was already very difficult.

Therefore, Xu Yang's ascent to the peak of Kunlun this time also had a personal motive: to forge his own exclusive life-bound weapon soul.

Only this way could his practical combat ability achieve another significant leap forward.

As he watched this second exclusive life-bound weapon soul being born, the sorrowful emotion it exuded felt like a delicate woman resting in his embrace.

Just as one feels an inherent closeness to their own child, Xu Yang now felt this sentiment profoundly.

“Master, the second weapon soul is complete,” the Cauldron's spirit inquired, “Shall we give it a name?”

Xu Yang seemed to have already had this idea, nodding repeatedly with a smile.

“Let's call her Autumn Lament,” Xu Yang said. “As I told you before, this sorrow brings a unique emotional elevation to my heart, holding a completely different significance compared to Ling Xu.

I even believe that once this life-bound divine artifact, exclusive to me, is perfectly formed, I can create a very unique, exclusive combat domain around it. Only then can its inherent qualities be utilized to their fullest extent.

If, in the future, I encounter more exclusive laws within this Coiling Dragon Mountain Range that exist independently of heaven and earth, I will try to consciously categorize them by emotion.

At any rate, on the path of crafting exclusive weapon souls, I already have a clear direction. Next, I will rely on your assistance, Emperor's Cauldron.”

When Xu Yang spoke to the Emperor's Cauldron's soul, he never used a condescending tone, as if commanding a servant. Instead, he communicated with it carefully, as an old friend.

Therefore, every time, the Emperor's Cauldron could wholeheartedly provide Xu Yang, its host, with important guidance and insights. After all, Xu Yang was not particularly proficient in artifact refining, but because of the Emperor's Cauldron's guidance, his mastery in this area had been rapidly improving recently.

After completing the forging of the Autumn Lament weapon soul, Xu Yang naturally broke free from the illusion's blockade immediately. However, when he saw the hundreds of thousands of demon beast soldiers, each one appearing exceptionally dazed,

He finally realized that most of his companions present had apparently not yet broken free from the weapon soul's sorrowful autumn-like enchantment. They needed completely different methods to shatter the dream spaces that trapped their respective souls.

However, Xu Yang did not have a good idea of how to intervene in their spiritual worlds. Previously, he could simply rely on his powerful spiritual aura to forcibly guide his comrades out of an illusion space.

However, having just experienced the dream created by the Autumn Lament weapon soul in its human form, he deeply understood that the horror of this dream was far from as simple as ordinary environmental interference.

For every warrior present, this was a unique and special soul challenge. If they failed, they would forever remain asleep in their dreams.

It was not like illusion techniques that directly shattered the corresponding soul, but rather made them willingly drown in it forever, unable to extricate themselves.

This was far more terrifying than instantly obliterating the warriors' souls. The principle was similar to the fable of boiling a frog slowly.

Striking a cultivator's soul with pure illusion-weaving mental attacks was like scalding their soul with boiling water. If the fierce clash failed to tear apart the cultivator's soul defense limit, the ensnared cultivator would instinctively recover from the illusion space.

However, the current dream state was akin to being slowly boiled in warm water, preventing these hundreds of thousands of elite demon beast warriors from instinctively raising their soul defenses. For them, it was merely an enchanting dream within a sleep.

Unless they realized the illusory nature of their surroundings within the dream and genuinely wished to leave it, they would never wake up.

Even if Xu Yang forcibly interfered with them using external power, the only outcome would be to forcibly separate their souls from their physical bodies. For these demon beast warriors, the damage would likely be even more irreversible.