The two made their way back to the fourth room, and the weapon specialist turned to Jia Yuan. “So, what kind of weapon are you looking for?”
“I am looking for a straight hand a half sword with the balance slightly ahead of the guard.”
Jia Yuan had been practicing with a straight sword, after all. As for the change to the hand and a half sword, when he used to spar with Dou Di, at points he had wanted to be able to grip the sword with two hands so that he could swing with more power.
Furthermore, since Jia Yuan had only ever wielded a sword and had never practiced with a shield, he was accustomed to using his blade to defend against attacks, so it would be easier to block attacks if he had two hands gripping the sword.
However, he didn’t want a two-handed sword, as two-handed swords would most likely be too big compared to the sword he had practiced with, and many of the stances he had practiced were one-handed. With these factors, he had concluded that a hand and a half sword would be the best choice.
“Hmm… could I recommend some swords to you, sir?”
“That would definitely help.”
“Alright, lad. Er, uh, sir. We only have ten swords in this room that fit your description. Unfortunately, RockFire City isn’t exactly the largest city around, so when it comes to the lesser-used swords like the hand a half sword, we don’t carry many here.
“We still have some pretty good ones, though. Usually, people only buy the cheaper swords, so we still have a chance at finding a fit for you.”
“Here. This is a one and a half hand sword specially designed to maximize one’s fiery aura. It’s made from some extremely rare stones that conduct and enhance fiery energy. The materials are incredibly hard, but was forged in a way to maximize flexibility, so the sword is unlikely to break from stress in battle.”
Jia Yuan looked at the swords, then grabbed it and swung it a few times to test the balance.
“It’s okay, but it’s also not exactly what I was looking for. Do you have any swords that are also compatible with the air, water, and earth elements?”
This startled the weapon master, who quickly gave Jia Yuan another glance.
“No, but you could probably get one custom made at a larger city. It’ll cost you an arm and a leg, though. For someone to be able to forge stones of the four elements together would mean that they would, at the very least, be a master blacksmith. Even then… I can only think of maybe two or three master blacksmiths that have a good chance of being able to pull a job like that off.
“You would probably be looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of...at least million large fire shards...quite a sum for even the royal family.”
Jia Yuan suddenly felt incredibly bitter. Just minutes prior, he’d felt that he was on top of the world with his newfound fortune, but now he had just discovered that this fortune of his wasn’t even enough to cover even a single percentage of the costs needed to buy the type of sword he wanted.
After a few seconds, Jia Yuan snapped out of his bitterness and said, “Fine, I guess I’ll have to make do with these swords. I still didn’t really like the weight of the last one, though, so let’s keep looking.”
“Alright then. Did you feel that the last sword was too light or too heavy?”
“It was a little heavy for my tastes - I’ve only ever used a wooden sword for sparring.”
“Hm… alright. So I’m guessing you’ll be looking for something that has some wind stones in it.
The weapons specialist walked down the aisle, muttering to himself.
“...Aha! You’re in luck. This right here is a hand and a half sword made out of 70% fire stones and 20% wind stones. The last 10% consists of some other metals to increase flexibility, just like the sword we tried out earlier.”
“The wind stones are lighter and can improve the speed of the sword. However, you’ll lose a bit of the fiery aura. Also, as a practitioner of a Song of Fire, the wind aura gained from the wind stones will go to waste. As such, swords like this usually aren’t popular amongst cultivators, but if you want a light sword without sacrificing the structure of the sword, this is probably your best bet.”
Jia Yuan took a moment to think about it. In all honesty, this sword was probably the best for himself. What the weapon specialist said was true. For any other martial cultivator, training in more than one element was out of the question. After all, Jia Yuan was the only one in the world in possession of a Song of the Sword element.
However, Jia Yuan could just train in the wind element in the future, at which point the sword would be of better use to him than any sword that only contained stones of a single element.
“Can I test the balance of the sword?”
“Go right ahead.”
Jia Yuan reached out with his right hand and tightly gripped the sword. He then unsheathed the sword, and swung it with some rigid, jagged cuts. He then relaxed his grip, and performed some wide slashes, as well as some more intricate maneuvers.
He was rather delighted with this new sword. The balance was exquisite, and it wasn’t too heavy for him.
“Heh. I’ll take it.”
“Alright, then. Hey, Shi Guo, come over here. This guy...er, this esteemed customer wants to buy this sword.”
“Thank you, I will bring him to the boss.”
Shi Guo led Jia Yuan to the top floor of the building, and the two quickly arrived in front of a giant set of double doors, over ten feet tall, and ten feet wide. The most marvelous thing about the doors, is that they seemed to be made from solid gold.
Shi Guo knocked on the door. “It’s me. I’ve brought a customer who wishes to buy a sword from the 4th room.”
An aged voice sounded from within the room. “Come in.”
The doors opened, and Shi Guo motioned for Jia Yuan to enter.
After entering the room, Jia Yuan saw that despite the absurdly ornate doors leading to the room, the inside of the room was rather bare. Inside, there was nothing but a single man, standing over the room’s lone piece of furniture, an ordinary table.
On the table was an axe, which the man seemed to be examining.
As the man heard Jia Yuan enter, he looked up then saw the sword in Jia Yuan’s hands. Then, he saw the...unique getup Jia Yuan was wearing. He raised an eyebrow, curious.
“Quite an interesting sword you have there. Come in, come in. Now, would you be up for a spar?”
“Ah, sorry?” Jia Yuan wasn’t quite sure he’d heard correctly. After all, why would this old man in charge of this prestigious Guild Hall want to spar with someone like him?
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just a bored old man who likes to spar with the people who buy weapons from our guild. I’ve made a fun little game out of it. If you win, you will receive an additional 20% off of your purchase. The sword in your hand is worth about 700 large fire shards. With the 10% off from the black and gold Currency Card, it’ll cost 670 large fire shards. If you spar against me and win, it will be a total of 30% off, so it will only cost 490 large fire shards.”
“Of course, I’ll lower myself to the level of cultivation you are currently at. If I am forced to go over that, I will admit defeat. Oh, of course, I will make sure to not harm you - the duel will end once one’s weapon is sufficiently close to someone’s fatal point. After all, the Guild wouldn’t condone murder in a Guild Hall.
Jia Yuan was slightly skeptical of the situation, but he couldn’t resist - the promise of an additional 20% discount was just too juicy for him to ignore.
“Sure. I’m at the 3rd level of Absorption.”
“Not bad, not bad. Hmm… Okay, I’ve lowered my cultivation to the 3rd level of Absorption as well. Now, come at me!”
Jia Yuan took a deep breath and readied himself. He unsheathed his new sword, and settled into the first stance he’d learned from the Song of Swords - the stance ideal for amplifying his fiery aura.
The elder opened a door on the side of the table, and pulled out an axe. After swinging the axe around a few times, he settled into his own stance, then charged toward Jia Yuan, while thrusting his axe back in preparation for a strong forward slice.
This was the way members of the Fire Kingdom usually fought - they were very forthright and fought with power.
The overwhelming method of battle was to pit strength against strength, and that was that.
However, Jia Yuan didn’t subscribe to this method of battle - he had trained to be both strong and mobile. After all, as he and Dou Di had grown, Dou Di always had the advantage of being a year older, a year more developed than he. Therefore, Jia Yuan had been forced to develop mobile and creative ways to fight back.
Jia Yuan dashed past the elder to dodge the axe’s forward strike, then gripped his sword with two hands, and dashed back toward the elder.
To add to his speed and power, he shot out raging flames behind him to propel himself forward. As he neared the elder, he raised his sword for an overhead strike.
In a fight where the two combatants had the same cultivation base, there were only three factors that could decide the outcome.
The First: The strength and speed of each combatant’s body.
The Second: Each combatant’s proficiency with their weapon.
The Third: The quality of each cultivator’s song.
The man was very old. As such, even though his body might have been strong from the result of his cultivation, it could only be so much stronger than Jia Yuan’s when his cultivation was being so heavily suppressed.
A forward and direct clash between the two weapons, meant that the proficiency with one’s weapon was minimized. This left only the third factor - the quality of each cultivator’s Song.
Actually, the elder had known from the start that it would be possible for a challenger to negate the first two factors.
The reason why he had still issued the challenge, was because he was confident in the quality of his Song - only the Kings of the respective countries would be able to outclass him in this area. At least, on the Continent of the Five Elements
But what kind of Song was the Song of Swords? It was simply unmatched - again, if one only counted the Continent of the Five elements.
As Jia Yuan’s sword came crashing down, a long streak of flame followed it. The full strength of this blow came crashing down towards the old man’s head.
As he saw the blow fall, the old man sighed, and muttered wistfully. “Some of these new kids are truly frightening. It looks like the old guard will have to prepare for the new era, haha…”
Seeing that it would be impossible for him to defend against the blow using his strength while at the 3rd level of Absorption, he stopped suppressing his own power and raised his axe toward Jia Yuan’s sword, easily blocking the blow.
Jia Yuan was knocked back, but unharmed.
“Ha! You had to raise your cultivation to block the blow! I win!”
“Indeed, young one, you win. Now, can you let this old man see your Currency Card?”
Jia Yuan dropped his sleeves to his side to discreetly withdraw the card from his ring. After doing so, he raised his arm back up and handed the card over to the elder.
He took the card and walked back to the table in the room - he opened the side of it again, and took out another Currency Card. However, this card was entirely made of gold, and the engravings on it were even more detailed than the black and gold counterpart.
With the black and gold card in his left hand, the gold card in his right, the old man closed his eyes for a few seconds. He then opened them, and handed the gold Currency Card to Jai Yuan.
“Here, young one. I’ve placed your fire shards in this gold Currency Card. With it, you’ll have the ability to purchase items from any of our Guild Halls, 30% off. Furthermore, you will be able to request military aid from our guild - once.”
“Now, go. I need to examine the make of this axe. The old man turned away and walked back towards the table with the axe on it. After a few steps, though, he suddenly stopped and turned around.
“Oh, yes. What is your name?”
“Jia Yuan.”
“Nice to meet you, Jia Yuan. I’m Guo Huo.”
