Walking the Path of the Artifact

On the eve of the Cangxuan Continent's fourth spiritual leyline decline, the Nine Great Immortal Sects were still squandering the last of their spiritual energy to forge their own immortal weapons. Meanwhile, Lu Zheng, a mortal blacksmith, wasn't even qualified to temper one. His ancestors had once been body-cultivation weapon smiths. His father had been caught hiding a fragmentary body-cultivation manual, and the Immortal Sects had severed the tendons in his hands and feet in the middle of the street. With his dying breath, he repeated just one thing: “Don't learn it, Zheng'er. Whatever you do, don't learn it.” Fifteen years later, Lu Zheng discovered his ancestor's remains and an unfinished copy of The Mortal Arsenal in an abandoned mine. It relied not on spiritual energy, but on hammering ordinary iron a thousand times, forging blades capable of cleaving immortal weapons. The leylines were failing, and the immortals were panicking. Meanwhile, Lu Zheng crouched before his anvil and began with a short dagger, setting out on a third path everyone said did not exist.