Chapter 196: The Nine Edges Sword
“Mr. Luo, what a pleasure! How may I help you this time?” Having been in the business for decades, the middle-aged shopkeeper excelled at dealing with customers, and both his tone and expression were carefully adjusted.
But since Zen was a customer with a deep-pocket, the middle-aged shopkeeper was too excited that his voice was trembling.
“Oh? Hello, sir!” After exchanging greetings with the shopkeeper, Zen explained,“I'm here to see what weapons the Weapon Pavilion has in store for me.”
The middle-aged shopkeeper wanted to ask Zen about the weapons he bought last time. 'More than two hundred mysterious weapons, sufficient to build up a private army. I wonder what he purchased so many for.' With a second thought, the middle-aged shopkeeper decided not to pose such a question, because he might violate certain taboo and offend the customer.
Thus, the middle-aged shopkeeper asked beamingly,“I'll be more than willing to show you around. What kind of weapons do you have in mind? Our Weapon Pavilion has recently acquired a fresh batch of mysterious weapons.”
He assumed that Zen would like to take another shipment of mysterious weapon this time. But Zen shook his head and clarified,“This time I don't want any mysterious weapon. Perhaps next time. Right now, I just want to buy a sword.”
Zen was not anxious to purchase mysterious weapons to prepare the heavenly essence.
He was biding his time until Wurth auctioned the first batch of the heavenly essence, then he would act according to the circumstances. Anyway, he still had over six hundred drops of the heavenly essence at hand. Even if they were bought at the auction, next time Zen would not release so many drops of the heavenly essence to the market at a time.
In the Eastern Region, he was the only one who could offer a stable supply of the heavenly essence and no other shop or brand was in this business. Being the exclusive supplier, Zen was aware that the heavenly essence was valuable because of its rarity.
If a big volume of the heavenly essence suddenly appeared in the market, its price would surely plummet. Therefore, the best method was to sell it in several small batches.
“A sword? What kind of sword do you want?” the middle-aged shopkeeper inquired.
“I'll know once I see. Take me to your showroom so I can look.” Zen didn't have a specific idea of the sword he wanted, so he would like to look at samples first.
After all, it was hard to pin down the ideal one at first glance.
“Now that Mr. Luo only wants one sword, I won't suggest these ordinary ones on the first floor,” said the middle-aged shopkeeper with a smile. He had already witnessed how wealthy Zen was. 'He has bought over two hundred mysterious weapons. And now that he only wants one weapon, these mysterious weapons won't be good enough for him.' “Let me take you to the second floor instead. The best items of our Weapon Pavilion are on the second floor!”
Zen nodded and followed behind the middle-aged shopkeeper.
However, before he could step onto the stairs leading up to the second floor, Zen was stopped by two guards stationed by the staircase.
“The access to the second floor requires the verification of membership for the Weapon Pavilion,” one of the guards announced.
The second floor of the Weapon Pavilion housed many legendary weapons with incredible value. Thus, ordinary people were not allowed to enter it.
At this time, the middle-aged shopkeeper said,“Mr. Luo has not joined the membership of our Weapon Pavilion yet. But he is a distinguished guest of mine, so please let him pass through.”
The two guards were hesitating at first. 'This is certainly a breach of the rules. If we let this brat pass through and he tampered or stole something, we'll jeopardize our jobs.'
At this point, the middle-aged shopkeeper was losing patience. He could not afford to upset his honored guest. Thus, he snarled,“Move it, you mongrels! Get out of our way!” The middle-aged shopkeeper was desperate that he blurted out such curse at the two guards.
The two guards looked quite disgruntled. But considering the status of the middle-aged shopkeeper, they could only suck it up and retreated sideways to make a way for Zen.
When the two guards finally moved, the middle-aged shopkeeper spoke to Zen with a smiley face,“After you, Mr. Luo. I apologize that you must witness that. These two guards are just ignorant of the norms, so please don't blame them.”
Zen gave a smile and replied,“It's fine. They were doing their jobs. We are actually putting them in a difficult situation right now.” He could empathize with the two guards. Considering that they were just doing their duties, they did nothing wrong.
When they reached the second floor, Zen noticed that the second floor of the Weapon Pavilion was smaller compared to the first floor. But since there was no one there, it looked large and empty.
Although it wasn't very spacious, the room was well decorated to impress many distinguished guests. Even at a quick glance, one could see the elaborate designs of the room.
For example, the floor looked like it was carpeted with some sort of a handmade fluffy green rug. But in fact, the floor was constituted by a kind of plant called Earthy Fur Grass. The Earthy Fur Grass usually lived in the slits between high mountains in the south.
It felt soft and comfortable if you stood on it. And it would make the room it was planted in warm during winter and cool in summer. The royal palace first transplanted a turf at the back of the palace. Later, all the noble clans in Imperial Capital followed suit.
The Earthy Fur Grass was indeed an uncommon plant. Since there weren't many high mountains in the South, it immediately became rare and precious after the noble clans frenzied about it.
The small patch of the Earthy Fur Grass under Zen's feet was almost worth a hundred cubic crystals. And that had not even included the fee for the daily maintenance of the Earthy Fur Grass.
The poor could hardly imagine that a patch of that grass was too much and that they couldn't afford it even if they kept working for the rest of their lives.
Aside from the floor, the whole room was designed with other good things. For instance, the window beside Zen was made of transparent colored glaze, while the decorating frame around it revealed strips of natural cloud pattern, which showed that it was made of equally precious mica wood.
“This way, please!” Seeing Zen was looking around, the middle-aged shopkeeper was happy that his distinguished client was amazed by the glory of the second floor.
The boss of the Weapon Pavilion knew well his customers' mindset very well. The purpose of pouring so much time and money to decorate the second floor of the Weapon Pavilion was exactly to create such an effect.
At the sight of the expression of the middle-aged shopkeeper, Zen smiled faintly instead. He did not find luxury and comfort off-putting. He could also do with a lousy environment.
Following the lead of the middle-aged shopkeeper, Zen weaved through all the goods on the second floor.
Although the second-floor room was not as large as the first floor, there was a lot of good stuff in the exhibition.
As Zen walked along the hall, he saw an exhibition stand on the floor, and in the middle of it laid a weapon.
There were no mysterious weapons on this floor. Everywhere Zen looked, he could only see spiritual weapons and more advanced ones.
As Zen examined the stand, he saw a fully scarlet broadsword hanging on the middle of several iron sticks. And when he got closer, a wave of powerful force hit him. It was blazing and emitting enormous heat that scorched the Earthy Fur Grass around it.
From the looks of it, this broadsword must be a supreme spiritual weapon. It was certainly quite expensive.
Though he was curious about the broadsword, he didn't intend to own one. When the middle-aged shopkeeper noticed that Zen was interested in this broadsword, he eagerly turned around to introduce the sword to Zen.
But Zen shook his head and gestured the middle-aged shopkeeper to keep going.
They went on and passed by assorted weapons that Zen just skimmed through.
After passing by so many exhibitions, Zen finally stopped in front of one stand.
This stand displayed three swords
of different styles, shapes, and colors.
Zen was curious as to why they put the three swords together.
Sensing that Zen began to scrutinize the three swords, the middle-aged shopkeeper told Zen with a beam,“They are three top-grade spiritual weapons forged by the elder Chase when he was alive!”
“Chase?” Zen was taken aback. He did not know many weapon-refining masters.
But he remembered buying the Weapon Refining Principle of Chase at an auction. And after reading it, he was quite astonished by the ways Chase employed in weapon refining. This man had spent all his life researching about the art of weapon refining, and he indeed achieved a marvelous level unreachable by anybody else. Therefore, upon learning that these swords were forged by Chase, he became suddenly intrigued.
At the sight of Zen's expression, the middle-aged shopkeeper certainly knew that his client was eyeing for these treasures. So, he immediately flipped the lid open with his hands and unbuckled one of the swords. He took it out as he said,“These swords have a story full of twists and turns.”
The middle-aged shopkeeper fished out the white sword first, turned the handle towards Zen and handed it to him.
Zen reached out his hand to take the sword. As it landed in his palm, he felt his arm was yanked downwards. “This sword is heavy!” Zen's arm strength was actually quite amazing. Even without the help of the dragon scales, Zen's strength was still impressive and above any other ordinary men. But grasping the sword singlehandedly, he still found it rather heavy.
Normally, swords tended to be light and the blade was thin and nearly weightless. The thinner and lighter it was, the faster it could be thrust out and the sharper its energy would become.
But this sword was refined in the opposite norm. Zen had no idea what it was made of to be this cumbersome.
The middle-aged shopkeeper obviously knew the secret. He chuckled,“Mr. Luo, please let me tell you the story!” He called the handyman beside him,“Hurry up, fetch us two chairs here.”
Zen found this funny but annoying at the same time. 'The shopkeeper is being overly helpful on the second floor. Why do we need chairs for just a story?' But as Zen was explaining that he did not need to sit, the handyman already put two chairs behind him and the middle-aged shopkeeper.
The middle-aged shopkeeper motioned him to take a seat. When they were finally settled, the shopkeeper began,“This sword is called 'Nine Edges Sword'. It weighs a hundred times of an ordinary sword.”
“Nine Edges Sword?” Zen unlocked the sheath, drew it gently until half of the blade was already out.
Generally, when a sword was unsheathed, the blade would rub against the iron buckle on the sheath and create a clear whoosh sound.
But due to the weight of the Nine Edges Sword, Zen only heard a muffled thud as he drew it out.
The edge of this sword was also wider and thicker than other swords. The sword looked quite good with coated grid-like metal grains.
“This sword is named Nine Edges Sword because it has combined the edges of nine different swords,” the middle-aged shopkeeper stated with a smile.