Jiang Yue yawned as he interlaced his fingers behind his back.
"You seem relaxed." Yu Nianzhen commented as he looked at him.
It was early morning, and they had just left the Three Boars inn to walk around Fengying city.
Jiang Yue nodded, "I feel better after we decided to join the Sea Cloud Sect."
Although it didn't seem like it, they had both been very stressed with their position in the Cangxing world.
Now that they had made such a life-changing decision, they felt more relaxed.
The only thing left to do was pass the recruitment and join the sect.
"Do you miss it?"
"Miss what?"
"Earth. Our previous life."
In the seven months since they transmigrated, Yu Nianzhen hadn't had time to really think about his previous life.
However, he couldn't help but think about it now that Jiang Yue had brought it up.
His previous life was glamorous and filled with all kinds of luxury, but it was also full of strife.
He had to navigate various industries while avoiding schemes from within and without his family.
Compared to that life, Yu Nianzhen preferred the more straightforward life in the Cangxing world.
"What about you?" He asked without answering Jiang Yue's question.
"I miss performing."
Yu Nianzhen chuckled, "you have a pipa and a few music scores. I will listen to you any time you want."
Jiang Yue rolled his eyes but didn't continue with the topic.
"The compass is reacting." He suddenly said with a hint of excitement.
"Where?"
They had been in Fengying city for close to two months, and other than the first time, the treasure compass hadn't reacted once.
"I think it's the sword store over there."
Yu Nianzhen turned to where Jiang Yue was pointing and saw a rather prominent sword store.
"Let's go in." He said.
The store's interior was about ten metres by seven metres. The walls were painted an earth brown, and wall hooks were placed one foot apart on all the wall surfaces.
One bladed weapon hung from each wall hook and the overall appearance reminded the two of modern stores that specialised in medieval weaponry.
There were long swords, greatswords, sabres, broad swords, short swords, daggers, and other types that the two had never seen before.
As a cultivator with a sword origin, this store was a paradise for Yu Nianzhen, and he instinctively walked toward the long swords section.
'It seems that I have a preference for long swords.' He thought.
"Does the young master need an introduction?" The shopkeeper asked as he gauged the two young men.
"No, we will look around first."
The longswords were divided into two categories. The first was artefact long swords, but only three swords were in this category.
This type of sword was a flying treasure that could also be used in fights.
However, the three in the store weren't real flying swords, but normal swords that had been inscribed with a temporary flying incantation.
They had limited usage, and the flying effect couldn't be activated unless a cultivator was in the origin forging realm.
Among the three flying swords, two had a red lustre, and when Yu Nianzhen got closer, a scorching heat emanated from the blade.
'These are better suited to fire origin cultivators.' He thought and turned his attention to the third sword.
He was about to reach for it when he felt a deep hunger from within his body. The hunger was an insatiable longing, and he instinctively rubbed his stomach to ease the discomfort.
This was the first time that Yu Nianzhen had encountered such a strange thing and he didn't dare to ignore it.
He allowed his consciousness to examine his body but after a long search, he didn't discover anything.
He frowned in worry and turned to Jiang Yue, but the other had moved several metres away and was standing in front of a huge bin.
Yu Nianzhen walked towards him, but the more he walked, the more intense the longing became.
'What's going on?' He wondered but still made his way to Jiang Yue.
When Yu Nianzhen arrived in front of the bin, his body began to throb in excitement.
He instinctively knew that whatever was affecting his body was within the bin so he bent down to examine the items.
The bin was full of swords.
To be clear, it was full of sword fragments, rusted swords, or otherwise undesirable blades.
"Young master, those are for disposal." The storekeeper said when he saw that Yu Nianzhen was going through the bin.
Before the two arrived, the store had received a lot of new merchandise, but not all the goods could get on the shelves.
In such cases, the store would smelt the useless blades and use the metal to forge new swords or other weapons.
When they entered the store, the storekeeper was on his way to deliver the bin to the smelt smith, but because of their arrival, he had placed the bin down
"I am just looking." Yu Nianzhen said and didn't wait for the storekeeper's approval.
The bin had close to twenty broken swords, but it took less than a minute to discover the source of his discomfort.
The source was a sword in a black sheathe, and as soon as Yu Nianzhen took it out from the bin, the shopkeeper spoke.
"That one doesn't come out of the sheathe, and from the top part, you can tell that it is rusted."
The storekeeper was honest and didn't want to sell such a poor-quality item, but Yu Nianzhen was set on it.
From the moment he held it in his hand, he could feel that it wasn't an ordinary sword. However, he needed to wait until they returned to the inn to investigate it carefully.
"I will take it, together with that flying sword." He pointed to the third flying sword that he had previously seen.
The storekeeper sighed.
"Excluding discount, the flying sword is five hundred thousand gold coins. The one you are holding will be a gift."
Yu Nianzhen paid for the flying sword and turned to Jiang Yue.
He lifted his eyebrow in question, and the other nodded in answer.
The answer was clear, 'the sword that Yu Nianzhen had grabbed was the treasure.'
After leaving the store, the two didn't continue their exploration. Instead, they walked back to the Three Boars inn.
"At least this sword is pretty straightforward." Jiang Yue said as soon as they entered the room.
He was still sour that they had yet to discover a use for the hourglass.
"What a waste of gold coins." He complained as he looked at the flying sword.
"We are not lacking gold coins. Also, it's not a complete waste, we can use it a few times when we break through to the origin forging realm." Yu Nianzhen placated.
He didn't care about the gold coins or the flying sword, he was more concerned about the waste sword.
"The storekeeper said that it can't be unsheathed." Jiang Yue worried.
Yu Nianzhen frowned as he looked at the black sheath, "I will try it."
He took a deep breath and placed his right hand on the sword hilt while his left held the sheath at the middle position.
Because of the storekeeper's words, he had expected some resistance, but to his surprise, there was none at all.
The sword slid out of the sheathe, and a black sword was revealed.
"What…, why?" Jiang Yue was flabbergasted.
"Maybe it can only be unsheathed by a sword origin cultivator." Yu Nianzhen guessed.
Although the majority of cultivators used bladed weapons, there were very few cultivators who had sword origins or sabre origins.
It is because of this that the shopkeeper had failed to discover the worth of the sword and instead deemed it useless.
"What's that?" Jiang Yue pointed at the surface of the blade.
At first, the blade was plain black, but after a short while, nine runes appeared on the surface.
The runes radiated a golden light, and when Yu Nianzhen looked at them, his consciousness began to fade.
He could see Jiang Yue saying something to him, but his voice seemed to be travelling from an infinite distance away. Only the last vestiges of an echo arrived in his ears, and all of it sounded like meaningless noise.
Their inn room began to blur, and when his vision cleared, Yu Nianzhen found himself in a black void.
He was standing on air, completely unaffected by gravity.
However, this exciting situation only made him feel restless.
"Where am I?"
"Jiang Yue?"
Yu Nianzhen forced himself not to panic, but his earliest impression was right.
There was nothing in the void.
There was no sound, no light, and no smell.
The only thing that was present was an overwhelming nothingness and the longer he stayed, the deeper the emptiness permeated his core.
The void gave him a feeling of inexistence. As if he was a formless entity without a name or identity.
Time passed, and his consciousness began to erode.
At first, he could still remember his name, but after a long time in the void, all he was seemed unimportant, and it disappeared with the flow of time.