Before starting the trial, Han Wu first reported back to Qin Shuang and Master Ou. While there were no dangerous traps in the Vermilion Bird Palace, there were also no Divine Weapons either—a fact that had Master Ou a little crestfallen.

Once he entered and spotted the large number of rare ores on the shelves, however, his eyes lit up. It didn’t matter if there were no Divine Weapons. He could just forge one himself.

After a quick discussion, they all agreed that Han Wu would go first to gauge the difficulty of the trial.

Han Wu touched the largest ore he could find, and the temperature inside the palace instantly shot up dozens of degrees. A regular person would’ve burned to a crisp in minutes. Thankfully, both Qin Shuang’s and Master Ou’s constitutions were reinforced enough that they only felt slightly uncomfortable, not in any real danger.

A series of teleportation arrays lit up across the palace as the heat rose. The trial had officially begun!

Twelve Vermilion Envoys teleported in one after another, each dressed in vivid red robes that covered them from head to toe, their bodies wreathed in flames. They looked both divine and formidable.

Han Wu’s Small Locust Blades shot forth and stabbed into the envoys’ bodies, but their wounds closed in the blink of an eye, and the Small Locust Blades paid heavily for it in durability.

That told Han Wu all he needed to know. These Vermilion Envoys were mummies too. Regular Small Locust Blades wouldn’t work against them; he needed to switch to the Royal Gold-coated ones.

All three hundred of his coated Small Locust Blades shot out, tearing through the twelve envoys. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as well as he had hoped.

Although their wounds no longer closed as easily, the flames wreathing the envoys granted them a regenerative power that gave them something akin to an undying body. Their offensive strength was equally troublesome. The combined fire they unleashed was intense enough to outright melt a large number of Han Wu’s Small Locust Blades.

They unleashed an unrelenting barrage of fireballs. While these couldn’t break through his defenses, they effectively stalled his progress.

As the Small Locust Blades were failing to deal any real damage to the envoys, Han Wu had no choice but to summon Locust-V.

Locust-V sized up the twelve Vermilion Envoys, eyes gleaming with delight as it teased, “You’ve at least grown strong enough to face opponents like these. I’ll give you that much.”

Han Wu was speechless. It seemed Locust-V still hadn’t quite grasped its place. He was its master, and it was supposed to respect him, but he decided to let it go for the moment.

“What’s the best way to deal with them?”

“The Vermilion Envoys have mastered control over their own flames, and their resistance to countering elements is high,” Locust-V explained. “Taking them down won’t be easy.”

Han Wu’s brows creased. That told him absolutely nothing useful. He wanted a solution, not a review of how impressive the envoys were.

“Get to the point. No solution, and it’s back to isolation for you,” he threatened.

Locust-V flinched at the unpleasant memories of isolation. Even a Divine Weapon perceived being locked away was a punishment, but the loneliness really took its toll on an Armament Spirit.

“You’re no fun,” Locust-V muttered sulkily. “Their resistance to other elements is strong, so countering with a different element won’t get you far. But using fire against them will get you a much better result.”

Han Wu was stunned. What did Locust-V take him for? Using fire against the Vermilion Envoys? How senile did one have to be to come up with that? Their bodies were already burning with roaring flames!

“Just try it,” Locust-V insisted, catching the look on his face. “I guarantee you every single one of them will go quiet!”

With no better option available, Han Wu decided to try anyway. He took out the Explosive Locust Blade and hurled it at one of the envoys. Just before it made contact, he triggered it remotely.

Flames blasted out with a resounding boom. The fiery blaze surged wildly, swallowing all twelve Vermilion Envoys in an instant. Han Wu watched in shock as the envoys, already wreathed in flames, were scorched half to death.

Seizing the opening, he sent his Small Locust Blades in, piercing their hearts. Their regeneration slowed to a crawl, and they fell one after another until none remained.

Han Wu had cleared the trial.

A Vermilion Bird Armament Spirit wreathed entirely in flames descended into his Explosive Locust Blade. The Vermilion Bird Armament Spirit and the Firebat King Armament Spirit then burst out from within the blade, fighting each other for the right to inhabit it.

Both were God-grade Armament Spirits, but the Vermilion Bird was the stronger of the two in quality. Thus, it won by a wide margin and claimed the Explosive Locust Blade as its own, with the Firebat King reduced to nothing more than food for it.

The new Armament Spirit gave the Explosive Locust Blade a renewed gleam. The firepower contained within it had at least doubled.

Satisfied, Han Wu rewarded Locust-V by letting it out to roam for a while longer.

With Han Wu’s trial done, Qin Shuang stepped up for her turn. Her Divine Weapons were closely tied to her core race, the Thunder Sparrows. The Vermilion Bird and Thunder Sparrow shared a great deal in common, so her Divine Weapons naturally also had exceptionally high compatibility with the Vermilion Bird Armament Spirit.

Her twin-blade Divine Weapon in particular had a compatibility rating of 98, a near-perfect match. Clearing the trial would mean a tremendous boost to her individual combat strength.

As Qin Shuang reached out for a rare ore, a long staff suddenly extended through the tunnel Han Wu had made through the wall and knocked the rare ore clean off its shelf before Qin Shuang could activate the trial.

Han Wu followed the length of the seemingly endless staff back to its source. The captain of the Wanyao City team, Sun Qianqian, strode in through the tunnel with the other end of the Sea-Calming Staff in hand.

“This palace belongs to Wanyao City now. Everyone else, scram!” Sun Qianqian ordered, walking in like she owned the place.

It was as though Han Wu and the other two weren’t even worth acknowledging in her eyes.