Chapter 238: A New Sword
Translator: TYZ Editor: X
A sword shrouded by an ash-gray cloud levitated silently above the table.
The ash-gray cloud differed from the white cloud that engulfed the Cirrus in that it was much denser. Tiny streaks of lightning zigzagged through the cloud, resembling a small thunder cloud.
The strip-like dark cloud looked like a sword sheath, but was actually not.
Seven silver daggers andered rapidly in the cloud like swimming fish. Each dagger was six centitres in length. Their silver surfaces were so smooth that one could see his or her reflection in them. Each dagger was embedded with a lightning-based artifact remnant as well.
The occasional lightning sparks on the body of the sword were induced by the high-speed flight of the seven daggers.
"It’s so beautiful! Is this made of that snake vertebrae?" Shi Xueman could not believe her eyes and took a closer look. "Is this a sword? Does it need to be unsheathed?"
"No need, Xueman, that is a honing cloud," Lou Lan explained seriously. "It’s the blade of the sword."
The honing cloud was a special type of cloud. When one imbued it with elental energy, it would produce a sharpening effect. The honing cloud was a special local product of Palette Cloud Village. Palette Cloud Village produced various kinds of weird clouds, such as heavy and dense lead clouds, colourful and gorgeous rosy clouds, green poison clouds, fla-spouting fire clouds, etc.
Just like the Jadeite Forest, where there were countless species of plants, Palette Cloud Village had countless types of clouds. Only water elentalists could appreciate the spectacle of these clouds.
"Blade? Using the honing cloud to make the blade of the sword? That’s a clever idea!" Shi Xueman’s eyes lit up and praised, "Lou Lan is really fabulous!"
"Thank you, Xueman." Lou Lan’s eyes were smiling brightly, but soon after, his tone was filled with regret. "The snake vertebrae is highly functional and was a top-grade material. Looking at it from the five elents’ perspective, it is both tal-attributed and water-attributed. tal collects water, which is why I used the honing cloud to make the blade of the sword. However, due to differences in the grade level of the materials used, the power of the snake vertebrae are not optimized. The sword tassel is made up of fire prairie stones, which are a low-grade material. Still, it’s better than nothing. As for the seven daggers, they are made up of silver glow wood, which is strengthened by the water elental energy in the honing cloud. The honing cloud and the silver glow wood are roughly the sa grade, therefore, combining them provides a great boost to one’s elental energy. This sword can only be considered as a Mysterious-grade weapon. However, its unique lightning properties and the outstanding qualities of the snake vertebrae would make this sword a rather powerful Mysterious-grade weapon.
"If the honing cloud was replaced by heavenly honing cloud, the silver glow wood was replaced by thousand-traced silvery wood, and the fire prairie stones were replaced by molten core stones, then this sword will be an exceptional Earth-grade weapon. With the lightning properties, it would be considered a rare Earth-grade weapon."
Everyone understood what Lou Lan was talking about. Even though they did not know how to specifically craft weapons, they still knew the fundantals. The grading system for weapons was not as complicated as the classification of food ingredients. The highest and most powerful grade were the Heaven-grade weapons, followed by the Earth-grade weapons, then the Mysterious-grade weapons, and finally the most common grade, the Grass-grade weapons.
Other than unique materials, the grade of a weapon was usually dependent on its weight, sturdiness, and other physical attributes. However, the most important factor was still the availability of elental enhancent in the weapon.
The elents of tal, wood, water, fire, and earth made up a complete cycle, growing and multiplying without an end. The enhancent between the five elents was one of the most important characteristics of the five elental energies. Weapons were based on this theory as well. So types of elental energy could enhance each other while so could restrain each other.
If a weapon possessed all five elents and they enhanced each other, that weapon was considered a Heaven-grade weapon. Heaven-grade weapons had very low elental energy consumption requirents for elentalists. Furthermore, they could produce many wondrous effects during the process of elental enhancent.
An Earth-grade weapon had one less elent than a Heaven-grade weapon. There were only four elents in an Earth-grade weapon. This was why there was a huge disparity between a Heaven-grade weapon and an Earth-grade weapon. Having one less elent, the elental cycle was broken, disrupting the natural flow of the elents and differing in terms of quality.
The disparity between an Earth-grade weapon and a Mysterious-grade weapon was not too big. A Mysterious-grade weapon was composed of materials from three different elents. Hence, the power and variability of a Mysterious-grade weapon were inferior to an Earth-grade weapon.
As for Grass-grade weapons, most of them were roughly-made and crude. They were made up of materials that usually contained only one elent or two poorly combined elents on occasion.
In theory, weapon crafting seed very easy, but in reality, the process required imnse and ticulous attention. For example, materials that were of the sa grade were preferred so as to achieve a complete enhancent process. The grades of the honing cloud and silver glow wood were much lower than the blood snake vertebrae, causing the weapon to be unable to fully utilize the tal elental attribute of the blood snake vertebrae.
Many wood materials actually contained more than one elent. These kinds of material posed an extrely huge challenge to the weaponsmith, himself.
The suitability and availability of materials, together with outstanding crafting techniques, could produce a good weapon. So unique materials possessed exceptional qualities and did not need to take elental enhancent or restrainnt into consideration. However, professional weaponsmiths despised such reckless weapon crafting technique as they felt it would be a waste of good materials.
Lou Lan was extrely unsatisfied with the sword, but Ai Hui’s gaze had not left the sword for a second.
This sword had many outstanding qualities, displaying Lou Lan’s skillfulness in crafting swords. For example, the use of the honing cloud as the blade of the sword had perfectly resolved the issue of the blood snake vertebrae’s lack of a blade. Ai Hui would not have thought of this even if he racked his brain.
The honing cloud could bend and twist according to the form of the blood snake vertebrae. It could be firm and rigid or soft and flexible.
The design of the seven daggers was even more amazing. Their design was inspired by the bronze sword box and extrely marvellous.
Within a short period of ti, Ai Hui had thought of several new sword moves.
For example, he could hide the daggers within the cloud, and if his opponent was to block his attack, the daggers could launch a surprise attack to catch his opponent off guard. Furthermore, the seven prismatic crystals had a mysterious connection between each other, which ant that they could devise nurous complicated attacking combinations.
Such a good sword!
"Ai Hui, don’t you want to give the sword a try?" Lou Lan slanted his head and asked. "This sword doesn’t have a na yet."
Ai Hui held the hilt of the sword excitedly. The mont his hand made contact with the icy and sturdy blood snake vertebrae, his palpitating heart cald down.
When Ai Hui picked up the sword, it appeared to everyone that he had beco a completely different person. An indescribable aura silently extended outward from Ai Hui’s body.
He looked very serene, but dangerous at the sa ti.
Suddenly, Ai Hui grinned, revealing his white teeth and said, "I need a sparring partner. Who’s willing to be my sparring partner?"
Duanmu Huanghun’s eyes lit up imdiately. He had witnessed the whole process of how Shi Xueman utterly defeated Ai Hui and wanted to add insult to Ai Hui’s injury. Ai Hui was not stupid either as he rejected Duanmu Huanghun without hesitation.
Ai Hui approached everyone except him.
Duanmu Huanghun had been itching to beat Ai Hui into a pulp. If just by watching Ai Hui get pumled had already made him so happy, how happy would he be if he got to personally beat Ai Hui up?
Thinking about it, how much had he suffered in Ai Hui’s hands so far?
Duanmu Huanghun began to beco restless, but he did not have a chance. No matter how many tis he volunteered, Ai Hui pretended not to see him. As such, he beca increasingly furious.
When he heard Ai Hui say that he needed a sparring partner, Duanmu Huanghun volunteered himself without any hesitation. "!"
When Ai Hui passed Duanmu Huanghun, the latter purposely mocked the forr by saying, "You already have a sword, what excuse do you have this ti?"
"Since you insist, co on then," Ai Hui replied helplessly.
Fatty turned his face around, unable to bear watching what was going to happen. However, in the blink of an eye, he whistled and yelled, "Everyone, co! It’s a rare opportunity! Let us gamble and have so fun! Ai Hui and Bangwan, who are you betting on to win the fight? You are born with nothing and will die with nothing. One has to take a gamble in his or her life. A small amount of gambling is entertaining, but excessive gambling is harmful. I, Fatty, shall be the banker and will treat everyone fairly. It’s okay if you don’t have money now, we can put it on a tab."
"I am betting on Bangwan! 500 yuan!"
"Ai Hui hasn’t recovered yet, I am betting on Bangwan! 800 yuan!"
"Ai Hui is too anxious, he should rest for another two days first. I am betting on Bangwan too! 1,000 yuan!"
"..."
Everyone was stressed out after so many days of continuous fighting. Therefore, they jumped in joy when there was a rare opportunity for recreation.
"I am betting on Ai Hui. 10,000 yuan!"
Shi Xueman’s cold voice rang across the air, catching everyone’s attention. No one had expected Shi Xueman, who utterly defeated Ai Hui previously, to bet on Ai Hui to win the fight.
Beads of cold sweat flowed down Fatty’s forehead as he replied, "The maximum bet is 5,000 yuan."
"5,000 yuan then."
Shi Xueman’s firmness caused a lot of students to hesitate in making their bets. When Fatty saw this, he intentionally asked Shi Xueman, "Big Sister must have never played this before, right?"
"Never," Shi Xueman shook her head. She had been extrely self-disciplined since young, how could she have gambled before?
Upon hearing Shi Xueman’s reply, all the students suddenly realized what was going on.
So she was new to gambling, no wonder she bet on Ai Hui!
Without any hesitation, they bet on Bangwan.
Everyone’s gaze was directed toward the two figures in the arena.
Both Ai Hui and Duanmu had trendous improvents in their fighting capabilities. From their auras, everyone had an inkling of what was going to happen. Both of them were abnormally calm.
However, the next mont, both of them surged forward at the sa ti.
Two shadows flashed across the arena as the two figures who were previously stationary disappeared.
Ai Hui’s attack hit nothing but air.
Duanmu Huanghun was hovering in the air while the lotus patterns slowly swirled under his feet. Ai Hui continuously rejected him in the past, so he could only watch the fights between Ai Hui and other students. As he watched the fights, he kept thinking: how would he deal with Ai Hui if he was the one fighting him?
Duanmu Huang did not underestimate Ai Hui at aall. Even though Ai Hui had poor fundantals and was limited in terms of elental energy, his swordsmanship had improved imnsely and reached an extrely formidable level. To last so long against Shi Xueman without using any elental energy was not an easy feat.Even Duanmu Huanghun had to admit that he could not have done so.
After watching so many of Ai Hui’s fights, Duanmu Huang made a big discovery.
Ai Hui had a fatal weakness, which was that he could not fly. On the contrary, Duanmu Huanghun could.
Duanmu Huanghun’s strategy was very simple. The first thing he would do was to fly up into the sky and then attack Ai Hui from there.
His [Viridescent Flower] was capable of making long-ranged attacks.
Upon seeing Ai Hui raise his head and look at him helplessly, Duanmu Huanghun could not help but smile wickedly and feel extrely happy.
Finally, it’s ti for payback!
Today is the day to pay back Ai Hui for all the humiliating tis!
The more Duanmu Huanghun thought about it, the more excited he got. The smile on his face involuntarily grew wider and wider. It was finally the day to slay his inner demon! Today shall be the day that he surpassed Ai Hui. His smile eventually exploded into a howling laughter. "Hahaha! Ai Hui, have a taste of my [Viridescent Flower]!"
His frenzy-filled eyes began to flicker. Surging elental energy gushed through Duanmu Huanghun’s body. The slender fingers from both of his hands spread out like a blossoming flower. Nurous elegant shadows appeared montarily and faded from his fingers.
Green ripples appeared under Ai Hui’s feet and extended outward. Ai Hui’s body froze as if there was an invisible power confining him. Nurous green branches and tendrils erged from beneath his feet. They grew at a terrifying speed, as if they were alive.
The intertwining branches and tendrils eventually ford a cage around Ai Hui. Looking at it from the sky, it resembled a green openwork longevity lock.
[Viridescent Flower, Perennial Lock]!
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