“I can rush this for you, Fellow Daoist Xie. I will definitely return this sword to you fully repaired within five days.”
Xie Wujiu finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you.”
This sword had been damaged during today's match.
Before coming to the sword shop, he had been worried that it wouldn't be repaired in time, which would definitely affect his upcoming match for the top eight.
Fortunately, the standard of the sword shops in Tiandu City was quite high.
Xie Wujiu handed the spirit stones required for the repairs to the proprietor. Instead of leaving immediately, he began to browse around the shop.
The sword shop was very spacious.
Various longswords and sword-refining materials were displayed on the walls and inside the glass counters, their quality far superior to those found in the shops of ordinary cities in the Eastern Region.
Looking at the displays, Xie Wujiu couldn't help but sigh with admiration.
As expected of the number one city in the Central State.
Even a random sword shop on the street had a richer collection than many large-scale shops in the Eastern Region.
Xie Wujiu walked slowly along the counter toward the back.
As he passed an inconspicuous corner of the shop, the natural sword bone inside his body suddenly reacted strongly.
Xie Wujiu's footsteps ground to a sudden halt.
What was going on?
The sword bone vibrated gently, and a faint trace of sword intent welled up from the depths of his bones, as if drawn by something.
Xie Wujiu followed the sensation of his sword bone and looked toward the corner.
No precious longswords were displayed there; instead, there was only a dusty, old wooden box.
A pile of miscellaneous items was thrown haphazardly inside it.
Noticing that Xie Wujiu was staring at the box, the proprietor spoke up, “Little Friend Xie, those are just some useless old artifacts and trinkets.”
“Some were bought at low prices from other cultivators, while others have been sitting in the shop for many years, completely unwanted.”
“If you're interested, feel free to take a look.”
“Alright.”
Xie Wujiu immediately walked over to the box, squatted down, and began rummaging through it.
Just as the proprietor had said, it was filled almost entirely with useless junk.
Heavily damaged low-grade artifacts, jade pendants that had long lost their spirituality, and a few scraps of waste material that could no longer be used for refining.
A thick layer of dust had accumulated inside the box.
Xie Wujiu searched for a long time, getting plenty of dust on his fingers and sleeves, before finally pulling out a dilapidated sword box from the very bottom.
The sword box was about an arm's length, made of a black wood whose original color could no longer be discerned.
The lacquer on the surface had almost completely peeled off, the wooden panels were covered in tiny cracks, and the corners were bound with a few pieces of rusted, blackened copper.
There were no patterns on the front of the sword box, only a few blurry scratches near the clasp.
It looked utterly ordinary as a whole, and not a single ripple of spiritual energy could be felt from it.
Yet the moment Xie Wujiu held it in his hand, the reaction of the sword bone inside his body grew even more intense.
This was it.
He turned the sword box over and over, examining it for a long time, but still failed to find anything special about it.
But the sensation from his natural sword bone could not be wrong.
Xie Wujiu trusted his instincts.
Holding the sword box, he walked back to the counter.
“Shopkeeper, how many spirit stones for this?”
The proprietor glanced at the broken sword box. He clearly had no recollection of it and did not care in the slightest.
“Just give me one high-grade spirit stone.”
Xie Wujiu directly took out a high-grade spirit stone and placed it on the counter.
After purchasing the sword box, he headed straight back to Lanying Pavilion.
Throughout the journey, the sword bone inside Xie Wujiu's body continued to vibrate gently.
Once back in his room, he immediately closed the door and placed the dilapidated sword box on the table.
Xie Wujiu fetched a clean cloth and wiped away all the dust on the surface of the sword box.
But no matter how he tried, he could not open the sword box.
Although the clasp was clearly rusted and broken, and there was no obvious seal on the sword box itself, it seemed completely locked from the inside by some force.
Xie Wujiu first tried channeling spiritual energy into it.
There was no reaction.
He then tried to probe it with his divine sense, but his divine sense was similarly unable to penetrate the surface of the sword box.
Brute force was definitely out of the question.
If he broke it by force, he would likely destroy whatever was inside as well.
Xie Wujiu sat at the table and pondered for a long time, suddenly thinking of the most common method of claiming ownership.
He took out a small knife and lightly sliced a wound on his fingertip.
Blood seeped out.
Xie Wujiu let a drop of blood fall onto the surface of the sword box.
The moment the blood touched the black wooden panel, it was rapidly absorbed by the sword box.
The previously unresponsive sword box vibrated slightly.
Xie Wujiu's gaze narrowed, and he reached out to touch the clasp again.
Click.
The clasp popped open on its own.
Holding his breath, Xie Wujiu placed his hands on both sides of the sword box and slowly lifted the lid.
There was no longsword inside the sword box.
At the very top, there were only three long, narrow slots.
Two of them were empty.
In the first slot on the far left, an extremely faint, silver-white sword light floated quietly.
The sword light was only a finger's length and looked incredibly illusory, as if it might dissipate at any moment.
Yet the instant the sword box was fully opened, the natural sword bone inside Xie Wujiu's body suddenly vibrated violently.
It was countless times stronger than when he was in the sword shop earlier.
Xie Wujiu's expression shifted slightly.
Before he could react, the silver-white sword light suddenly flew out of the slot, shooting straight toward the space between his eyebrows.
Xie Wujiu instinctively tried to dodge.
But the speed of the sword light was simply too fast.
In the next instant, it plunged directly into the space between his eyebrows.
Boom!
A sudden sword chime echoed in Xie Wujiu's mind.
An exceptionally sharp sword intent instantly rushed into his sea of consciousness.
Xie Wujiu let out a muffled groan, his hands slamming down onto the table to support himself, as a layer of cold sweat quickly broke out on his forehead.
The sword intent gave him absolutely no time to prepare.
Upon entering his sea of consciousness, it began to relentlessly batter his divine sense.
A sharp pain radiated from the depths of his sea of consciousness.
At the same time, as if stimulated, the natural sword bone inside his body began to release streaks of sword intent from deep within his bones on its own.
The two forces continuously clashed within Xie Wujiu's body.
His face grew increasingly pale, and his body trembled slightly.
He had no idea how much time had passed before the foreign sword intent finally quieted down.
Xie Wujiu's hands supporting him on the table were now drenched in cold sweat.
He slowly opened his eyes, a silver-white sword light faintly flashing deep within them.
Xie Wujiu raised his right hand.
With a thought, a silver-white sword qi emerged from his fingertip.
This was just an extremely simple strand of sword qi.
But compared to the sword qi he usually condensed, it was much sharper and more solid.
The surrounding air was even sliced with a tiny tear by the sword qi.
A flash of pleasant surprise instantly crossed Xie Wujiu's eyes.
He finally understood why his sword bone had reacted so strongly to this dilapidated sword box.
What was left inside the sword box was not some ordinary sword qi at all.
It was a complete sword intent heritage.
Xie Wujiu looked back at the sword box on the table.
The first slot that had originally stored the silver-white sword light had now gone completely dark.
But the remaining two slots were still there.
Xie Wujiu stared at the two slots for a moment, his heart gradually beating faster.
Rate on N.U.
