Oblivious to the gathering of big-shots outside, Yu Xuan sat in what could only be described as the most overqualified waiting room in existence.

No decorations.

Just a quiet chamber that screamed, "Important things happen here."

Then space folded.

A square body with a triangular head stepped out of space.

It was Prime Architect Jiyx.

"So you are the one..." Jiyx muttered, crystalline eyes scanning Yu Xuan.

Yu Xuan blinked.

To him, the Architect looked like someone was very bad at geometry.

"So how are we going to create a weapon?" Yu Xuan asked casually.

"It is not we," Jiyx corrected flatly.

"It is I. The question is how I am going to create a weapon."

Yu Xuan coughed lightly.

"Right. Of course!"

Jiyx ignored him.

"And before that, I require a sample of your blood essence." the Architect continued.

Yu Xuan narrowed his eyes at the square–triangle being.

This squarangle sounds annoyed.

Still, dying was currently off the table due to the loop mechanics, so he didn’t hesitate.

With a flicker, his Heaven-grade sword appeared.

And without dramatic buildup.

He stabbed it straight into his own heart.

The blade pierced slowly.

Pain exploded through his body as he suppressed his scream.

And he was controlling his blood essence with [Telekinesis].

Black.

White.

And faint threads of gold.

His blood essence gathered above his palm.

The darkness was dominant. The white flickered like annihilating purity.

And now, streaks of golden radiance, his increasingly refined [Light Origin] threaded through it.

Jiyx’s triangular head tilted.

"...Interesting."

Yu Xuan’s face paled slightly as he handed over the condensed essence.

"I know you are thinking something disrespectful about me," Jiyx said calmly.

Yu Xuan immediately put on his most innocent expression.

"Senior, I would never."

Jiyx did not reply.

He truly would not lower himself to care about the mental slander of a mortal child.

"Stand in the center of the formation," Jiyx instructed.

The ground beneath Yu Xuan ignited.

Lines and circles appeared.

Three-dimensional arrays folding into four-dimensional geometry.

Symbols layered atop symbols, some physical, some conceptual, some just scribbles.

Yu Xuan adjusted his footing as the structure locked onto him.

"Now, no matter what happens," Jiyx said.

"Do not move."

And then he vanished.

The entire realm reacted.

A deep resonance pulsed outward like the heartbeat.

Far above, in layered folded space, materials began to converge.

***

The Prime Architect Jiyx, stood within the sealed refinement chamber.

In his palm rested a crystal.

The True Primordial Chaos Crystal.

It did not shine.

It did not radiate.

It simply existed and everything around it unconsciously aligned.

Jiyx rotated it slightly between his two fingers.

’What exactly did Ximen Juesheng bribe Hundun with to get this?’ he wondered.

Hundun was not generous, nor sentimental.

Sometimes, Hundun was not even reasonable.

Which meant the Human Emperor must have paid something outrageous.

Jiyx clicked his tongue and turned toward the assembled materials floating around him.

Immortal-grade and Celestial-grade Treasures.

None of them could be obtainable casually because of their rarity.

But then.

He saw that.

And the Prime Architect swore internally.

’...Where the fuck did he even get those?’

Before him floated hundreds of Myriad Karmic Lotuses.

Each one rotating slowly, petals inscribed with karmic threads so dense that even looking at them too long could trap one’s destiny.

The Myriad Karmic Lotus was not a simple treasure.

It was a karmic buffer.

A backlash absorber, even a philosophical scapegoat.

The Myriad Karmic Lotus allows a Cultivator to gain profound insight into the workings of karma itself.

More than simple comprehension, it enabled the user to redirect their karmic burden onto the lotus, shifting threads of cause and effect away from their own body.

However, the Cultivator would still bear the backlash, whether of immense misfortune or overwhelming fortune, but only in proportion to what was transferred.

A Treasure that could redirect cause-and-effect itself.

And beside it.

Stacked like colorful, innocent sweets.

Were the Casualty Erasing Candies of Fate.

Jiyx stared.

The name was ridiculous but its function was not.

Each "candy" was a crystallized condensation of Fate.

Consume one and a chosen action could be rewritten.

A mistake undone.

A consequence denied.

A death declared nonexistent.

It was, quite literally: "I didn’t do that."

Of course, there were limits to this.

After all, if you annihilated a billion worlds and tried to erase it?

Heaven would not accept your correction and might even "spank" you.

Still, these were Ancient Grade treasures.

One full tier above Celestial Grade.

Treasures that beings of their level would not easily part away with.

And Ximen Juesheng had provided them in bulk.

Jiyx’s triangular head calculated many possibilities.

’Did he empty the entire Human treasury? Or... Is Humanity preparing for something much larger in future?’

This was not just creating a weapon.

Jiyx exhaled slowly, this could even be one of his greatest projects if all those beings give their blessings to this weapon.

"...You humans are either geniuses or suicidal."

He then turned toward the suspended blood essence of Yu Xuan.

This essence would be the anchor.

And the weapon would not merely recognize Yu Xuan.

It would be him.

Bound by origin.

Bound by destiny.

Bound by existence itself.

If Yu Xuan lived, the weapon would evolve with him.

If Yu Xuan died, the weapon would not fall into another’s hands.

It would disperse back into Heaven and Earth.

A true bound weapon.

One that lives with its master.

And dies with its master.

Because of that principle, it would not possess a separate spirit.

Only absolute resonance and synchronisation with Yu Xuan.

Just then, space rippled and a figure stepped through.

Taishang Shenji, the Divine Intelligence of the Machigen Race.

Its eyes scanned everything in front of him.

"The Human Emperor is an opportunistic bastard, he wants all the benefits without inheriting the causal burden." Taishang Shenji stated calmly.

Jiyx gave a low hum of agreement.

"These figures will later fume when they realize they blessed a weapon that does not respond to them even slightly, and that they had been scammed." Taishang Shenji continued.

"They are greedy, every one of them and if they bless it today then they will attempt to claim it tomorrow." Jiyx replied flatly

His triangular head rotated slightly.

"But that Human Emperor... he is greedier than all of them combined."

Because Ximen Juesheng had designed this perfectly.

The gathered legends would contribute yet, the final Treasure would acknowledge only one master.

Just Yu Xuan.

After all...

Ximen Juesheng was gambling as well.

And he was not wagering mere resources.

He was wagering Humanity’s future.