Waking up as the sun was rising, Cao Yun felt more rested than ever. At last, he had a sense of accomplishment in his ambition. True, he had no lead on the murderer of his family, but he had enrolled into the Wubei Sect. From now on, he would get more and more powerful. With more power, he could roam through the entire kingdom to find the man. He could forge connections and most importantly, he could kill him once he was found.
Still in bed, he sat cross-legged and cultivated for an hour or two. During this time, Huang Cixi woke up. Last night, he had trained for hours before sleeping. And there he was again when she woke up. The young woman was beginning to wonder how long he had slept for. Anyway, she cooked some breakfast and tidied the room.
When he was done, Cao Yun ate with Huang Cixi who was waiting for him.
"Mei Yuzhi, you don't have to wait for me to eat. In the future, you just go ahead and enjoy your meals. I'll just eat whenever I'm done."
"I understand." She had let go of formalities as he had asked the day before.
"I was thinking of going to the armory to get a spear. Do you know anything about this place?"
"Yes, of course. The armory is managed by Elder Tian. He does not really care about what's going on outside of the armory, but he's strict concerning the rules. There probably won't be anyone to help you as it's not compulsory and Elder Tian is not overzealous."
"I see. Well, I'll just go and see. If I'm not sure, I think Brother Ren could maybe help me out." Cao Yun got thinking. "Although I'm not too sure whether he is a good blacksmith or not..."
-
Cao Yun lost no time and went toward the armory with Huang Cixi following him. He had tried to dissuade her but she insisted it was her duty. In order not to tire her, he walked a bit slower than he could.
"Young Master, do not worry about me, I know where the armory is, I can still meet you there."
"Nonsense! If you're accompanying me, you'll accompany me. I won't ditch you in the middle of the road."
-
The armory was a large pagoda with three stories.
"Each story corresponds to a level of weapon. The last one is said to also harbor some Spirit or God rank weapons but apart from the elders, no one can go up there. And until you break through to Mortal Warrior, you can't even ask the permission to get to the second floor."
"So this armory is one-story high for us."
Cao Yun walked in and saw that it was mostly empty. After all, it was still early in the morning and everyone had gotten excited yesterday.
An old man was sitting at the front desk almost sleeping. When the doors opened, he turned his head and asked without emotion. "What's your business?"
"This junior pays his respect to Elder Tian. I'm a new disciple, Chen Guo. Here is my token. I'm looking for a spear." From the description Huang Cixi had given him, Cao Yun decided to just cut to the chase with this man.
The elder casually looked at the token. With his spiritual senses, he did not need to lay eye on it to analyze it. "The spears are in the fourth alley to your right. You can only choose one, so choose wisely."
"Thank you, Elder Tian." Huang Cixi also bowed to Elder Tian and followed Cao Yun.
He casually looked at the other alleys. There were many swords, sabers and staffs of all shapes, materials and sizes. These were the most numerous weapons. Next were the spears and bows. Finally the other weapons of the Eighteen Classical Weapons were pretty few in number.
Cao Yun was really wondering about also getting a ranged weapon like a bow, but he could only choose one right now. And he wanted to advance his mastery of the spear and the 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. There was neither any name nor any rank on the weapons. It was up to the cultivator to choose wisely.
Cao Yun tried to use his intent to find a good spear. He took several in hands to try and feel them in his grasp. Some of them were nicer but he wasn't quite sure. About swords, he was confident enough, but he had just picked up the spear as a weapon only a few days ago.
As he was ready to call it quits, he had another idea. By touching the spear next to him, he focused on the Horn Star. It was almost imperceptible but the star reacted a little.
Huang Cixi saw Cao Yun grasp all the spears, twice. And she was wondering if he knew what he was doing.
While he was busy touching hundreds of spear a second time, almost an hour had passed and some people were entering the armory. They were second-years who came here to find out what weapon the new first-years would choose.
"Brother Lun, it seems there's already someone there."
"Oh? An early bird? Let's see who he is!"
They were five young men wearing an emblem with a red cliff. When they arrived in the alley, they saw Cao Yun touching every weapon. As he was busy, they only saw his back and his little servant, so they didn't know who he was.
"What is he trying to do?"
"I don't know."
"Hey, you!" Brother Lun talked to Huang Cixi. "Is this your master?"
"Yes, Senior."
"What is he doing?"
"He's looking for a spear, Senior." Huang Cixi did not know how to answer as she was as baffled as they were.
"Who needs to grasp every spear in existence to choose one?! Either you know what you're doing or you don't! What a clown! Does he maybe just want to look cool with his spear and doesn't care about its quality?"
"Senior, please, my young master is not trying to stir up trouble. We're really just here to choose a spear." Since Huang Cixi had chosen the role of a little servant, she had to play the part.
"What makes you think you can answer to my brother Lun like that, you insolent brat!" The other man was ready to slap Huang Cixi. Just as his hand fell, another arm grabbed him.
"You little..." The boy did not end his sentence because as soon as he raised his eyes he saw Cao Yun. Of course, they had been watching the duels yesterday. Someone who could best Fairy Zhi was clearly beyond their reach. "Oh? Brother Chen, I didn't know it was you..."
"What were you going to do to my servant?"
"Oh? Your servant? I didn't know... I thought she was annoying you. Really brother I'm not at fault here."
"According to the rules, no disciple may discipline his or anyone else's servant with physical violence. Only an elder may issue such a punishment. And according to the rule, the punishment for hitting a servant is five lashes or one small spirit stone."
Spirit stones were one of the main resources of the Wubei Sect. These were stones formed by the condensation of the Qi in the air around special minerals. They were the blue stones that were used to power up the array during the entrance examination. They were pretty useless before 3rd-grade Mortal as the cultivator was only training his body, and after the first stages of Spirit Warrior as the cultivator would then focus on his spirit.
But for cultivators in the middle or late Mortal and Mortal Warrior realms, these were very important. By absorbing the Qi from these stones, the process would be way faster than by absorbing it directly from the air. Another way was to use medicinal pills, but they could be terribly expensive and they would always contain small amount of toxins. If you relied too much on pill, the toxins could poison you or harm your body and prevent you from breaking through to higher grades.
Every month, the disciples received resources based on their performance and spirit stones were a part of it.
"Brother Chen, please, I'm really sorry. I truly thought that..."
Cao Yun tightened his grip around his arm.
"Senior Brother, I do not make the rules. But if you think I'm mistaken, we could go see Elder Tian for him to give out the appropriate punishment."
Elder Tian was known to stick to rules, the disciple knew he was in the wrong but most servants would not dare report a second-year.
"Okay, Brother Chen." Brother Lun took the side of his friend. "My friend went a little overboard. We don't need to implicate Elder Tian, that would be a waste of his time. What do you say my brother just gives you a small spirit stone and we forget about that?"
Cao Yun finally let go of the man's arm. "What Brother Lun says sounds about right. But you should give the small spirit stone to my servant since she was the one who almost got slapped."
Huang Cixi looked surprised. She was sure that Cao Yun was doing that to extort a spirit stone for himself.
"Sure, Brother, sure." Brother Lun turned toward the friend who was rubbing his reddened arm. "Brother Hu, give the little servant a small spirit stone."
"But, Brother Lun, it's my last..." Seeing the anger in his brother's eyes, he did not dare say anymore. "Of course." Searching around in his clothes, he took out a small blue stone and gave it to Huang Cixi. "Sorry, Little Sister, I was mistaken."
"Brother Chen, we're sorry to have disturbed you. But if you don't know how to choose a spear, I know people who could help."
"Thank you, Senior Brother. But I think I found my weapon already." Everyone had failed to notice a very long metal rod in his right hand.
This spear was nine chi long. Its shaft was entirely black with a little bit of gold at the bottom end. The upper part was wrapped in a dark red cloth and the tip was a very dim metal. Nothing was eye-catching about this spear except for its size. It was at least twice the size of Cao Yun himself as he was still growing up.
Among all the spear, it was the one who reacted the most with the Horn Star. When he touched it, the two stars rotating around each other stopped for an instant and then accelerated as though they were a little surprised then excited. Cao Yun knew little about spears so he couldn't tell anything about the overall weapon, but when he examined the tip, it was one of the sharpest weapon he had ever seen. It was almost on par with 'Star-Devouring Dragon', his 3-star Human rank sword.
"I see. Then we'll excuse ourselves. Sorry for this incident."
"Senior Brother Lun, you said it yourself. Let's forget about it, now that the crime has been compensated."
"Thank you, Brother Chen." Brother Lun left with his friends as Brother Hu looked awful.
When they were away he asked his friend. "Brother Lun, why did you..."
"Silence, moron!" Brother Hu was dumbfounded. "Who asked you to antagonize Chen Guo's servant? If the faction leader hears about this, you'll beg for these five lashed! Everyone wants to get him on their side and you, you try to push him away?! Idiot! You should know that offending anyone without knowing better is the shortest path to death. What if that servant was the grandchild of an elder, did you think about that?"
Brother Hu realized his mistake. "Sorry, Brother Lun, sorry. I didn't realize..."
"Idiot!" Brother Lun wanted to vent his anger. Of course, they were used to being arrogant with the servants, but they had to know when to draw the line to avoid any problem. "It seems like Brother Chen didn't take it to heart, you're lucky."
Indeed, Cao Yun preferred to avoid any conflict. However, it didn't mean that he was ready to overlook someone hitting his servant. When his family was alive, he was very protective of them and now that they were dead, he vowed to never let someone who was by his side suffer any injustice.
"Mei Yuzhi, are you fine?"
"Yes, Young Master, he didn't hit me after all. But, about this stone..."
"I feel very little Qi around you, so you should only be a 3rd-grade Mortal, correct? Then this stone can be useful. But control the amount of Qi you use to temper your Lower Dantian. With the Qi within the stone, it will be quicker than just using the Qi you have already in you. But it can also be dangerous if you overdo it, so please be cautious."
"I'll remember your words, thank you." Of course she knew all that, given the legacy of her family. Her grandfather had even wanted to give her some spirit stones himself. She had refused in order to play the poor little girl.
When they left the armory, Cao Yun went to disturb Elder Tian and register his weapon.
"Elder Tian, this junior is sorry to bother you. I've chosen this spear."
The old man looked up and his eyes stayed on the spear a little longer than usual.
"'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. Good choice!"
There were some people inside the armory right now. Most of them were juniors who did not know Elder Tian and the others were disciples wanting to know which weapons would be chosen by the new guys. These disciples were astonished. Usually Elder Tian gave no praise at all. This spear should have been exceptional, or very suited for Cao Yun.
"Wait! I know this spear! The 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear' is a 5-star Earth weapon that borders on the 1-star Human rank. It's said that a blacksmith forged it after witnessing a fight between two Ebony Snake Dragons. Apparently he was able to obtain a scale from one of them and melted it in the metal of the shaft."
"Ebony Snake Dragons? Aren't they 3-core demonic beasts?"
"Yes, and even in their rank they're pretty powerful. Their blood has a strange power that can turn them berserk for a time and they can rival an early 4-core demonic beast."
Cao Yun was listening as he knew nothing of the spear he had himself chosen. And he did not think that asking Elder Tian was a good idea. Hearing all of this, he understood why the Horn Star had reacted, it probably resonated with the dragon scale in it.
"This junior thanks Elder Tian."
Cao Yun finally left the armory pavilion with Huang Cixi behind him, a strange look on her face. As a servant she already had received one small spirit stone and with this one, she had enough to temper her Lower Dantian until the next batch. With this, she would probably break through in five to six months, just before she turned 16. And this quick breakthrough would be thanks to Cao Yun...