Chapter 149: The Sealed Sword

With the beast wave finally over, Miracle City returned to peace, and the students' lives settled back into their usual routines.

Nearly ten days later, the first semester of Blue Emperor Academy concluded, and the academy granted a three-day short break. Luo Chen did not go out hunting because the monstrous beast tide had only just subsided, and the forest remained somewhat turbulent; it was best to wait until things stabilized. Besides, during the internship mission, he had killed several hundred fierce beasts every day. Even after splitting the acquired crystal cores and materials evenly with his team members, he had still made a small fortune.

Combined with the volunteer subsidy from Miracle City, he temporarily did not have to worry about living expenses and had managed to save a considerable amount of money. Luo Chen planned to buy a good weapon. Equipment played a huge role in combat; Luo Chen, who had used the Moon-Glaze Dagger for some time, understood this deeply. Even if it was impossible to obtain something as legendary as a divine artifact, he at least wanted to replace his current weapon with something slightly more decent.

Looking at his crude blue-grade equipment, Luo Chen could not help but smile bitterly, feeling that upgrading his weapon was imperative. Therefore, on the very next morning after the academy's break began, Luo Chen headed straight for Miracle City's equipment market.

With a little money in his pocket, while he could not afford overly expensive equipment, bronze-grade items were just barely within his budget. Thus, this time Luo Chen did not bother browsing the street stalls for bargains, as street vendors only sold plain white equipment and blue-grade gear. Bronze-grade equipment was exclusively sold in formal shops.

Luo Chen walked into one equipment shop after another. The merchandise sold in these stores was entirely different from street stall goods; the interior decoration was much finer, and the weapons and sets of armor displayed inside the glass counters gleamed brightly under the lights, visually raising their class by quite a margin.

Luo Chen was not in a hurry. He first browsed several dozen shops to get a solid grasp of the market prices for bronze-grade weapons, and then began bargaining. Since every shopkeeper's lowest psychological limit differed—some being generous while others stingy—Luo Chen naturally wanted to find the store offering the most favorable price so he could save as much money as possible.

Thus, when Luo Chen entered a certain shop and, after a brief conversation, discovered that the owner was relatively generous and not overly petty, with decent quality across all weapons and quite favorable price concessions, he made up his mind to select a weapon right in this shop.

Bronze-grade weapons were mostly forged from fine iron or metals of similar quality. Although still produced via assembly-line manufacturing, thanks to the material, they looked very shiny, and their appearance felt much more comfortable than blue-grade gear.

Having decided on this shop, Luo Chen began making his selection. He still needed a longsword, as he was already used to wielding this type of weapon.

There were many bronze-grade longswords in the shop, all smelted from fine iron ore. However, even among weapons forged from the same fine iron ore, there were subtle differences in quality, which only martial artists with acute spiritual energy could test out.

Although Luo Chen's spiritual energy had not yet reached the sixth rank, it was remarkably keen, giving him a great advantage during the testing process. He tested them one by one, setting aside the ones that showed relatively better spiritual energy conduction.

Seeing Luo Chen's performance, the shopkeeper understood the situation instantly. This young man would definitely be able to pick out the best weapon, because the few pieces he had set aside were among the highest-quality batches of bronze weapons. Even though it was only a tiny margin of difference, only a professional could tell them apart.

He truly had not expected that this young man, who looked only seventeen or eighteen years old, would possess such a discerning eye.

The shopkeeper was also very patient, allowing Luo Chen to test the swords one by one. Being an old hand, he could tell that Luo Chen was definitely in need of a weapon and likely a customer who had decided to spend in his shop; sooner or later, the gold coins in his pouch would be drawn out.

After testing nearly dozens of bronze longswords, Luo Chen finally noticed a longsword placed at the very back of the counter. Strangely enough, this longsword lacked any of the luster typical of fine iron, and at first glance looked no different from the cheap street stall goods outside, yet it was displayed right inside the counter.

Luo Chen could not help asking curiously, "Shopkeeper, this longsword..."

Noticing Luo Chen's confusion—since the reaction of many customers upon seeing this longsword was quite similar—the shopkeeper explained, "Oh, that longsword is indeed not a bronze-grade weapon."

Luo Chen grew even more puzzled. "Plain white? Blue grade? Then why is it being displayed for sale here?"

"No, it is neither plain white nor blue grade. The spiritual energy conductivity of this longsword is extremely poor; you could even say it is an insulator! But it is exceptionally sturdy. Even if you use it to continuously hack against bluestone, the blade will not suffer the slightest damage. If you were to use it to continuously clash against a bronze-grade longsword, the one that would eventually break is the bronze-grade longsword, not this one."

"There is such a thing?" Luo Chen smiled. "What a strange sword. Shopkeeper, where did you get it?"

"Around this time last month, a miner brought it to my shop to sell. That miner claimed he dug this sword up while mining. It had likely been deeply buried underground for quite some years, yet it showed no signs of corrosion whatsoever. After discovering that it was impossible to infuse spiritual energy into it, he brought it to my shop to offload it. To be honest, this sword should be forged from a rare mutated material. It is certainly hard, but because spiritual energy cannot be channeled into it, it's rather like a tasteless chicken rib."

"Really completely unable to infuse spiritual energy?" Luo Chen asked in disbelief. "Judging by its material, it should be metal, right? No matter how junky the scrap iron, you should be able to infuse at least a tiny bit of spiritual energy."

The shopkeeper took out the longsword. "Try it for yourself, and you'll know!"

Luo Chen channeled his spiritual Qi, attempting to pour it into the longsword, but the moment it reached his hand, the spiritual Qi struck a barrier-like layer and could not advance even half an inch further. At this, Luo Chen finally believed it and shook his head. "Shopkeeper, just as you said, sigh, a weapon that cannot channel spiritual energy is more than just a tasteless chicken rib—it's practically useless scrap!"

"Heh, for spiritual martial artists above the fourth rank, it is indeed useless scrap. But for martial artists below the fourth rank who have not yet reached the level of outputting spiritual Qi, it still holds great utility. Customer, calculated from an economic perspective, a plain white weapon made of poor material might break down very quickly. However, although this longsword cannot conduct spiritual energy, it can be used continuously. That means its durability is equivalent to countless plain white weapons. Therefore, I priced it similarly to bronze equipment; its cost-performance ratio is still very high!"

This shopkeeper was quite clever, coming up with different selling points for different customers, turning waste into treasure. Although his words made some sense, Luo Chen was already a fifth-rank spiritual martial artist, so naturally he was not very interested in a weapon that could not conduct spiritual Qi. He immediately prepared to return it to the counter. At that moment, he suddenly heard a "caw caw" sound echoing in his mind. Needless to say, it was that creature.

"Buy this sword! It might be of great use to you!"

Luo Chen replied mentally, "What? Fat bird, what do I want with this scrap iron? It's being sold at a bronze-grade price, you know! Do you think my brain is fried?"

"It's not scrap iron. The moment you infused spiritual energy into the sword, I sensed a faint aura!"

Luo Chen frowned. "Why didn't I sense it? Are you mistaken?"

The entity desperately wanted to retort that its aura-sensing capabilities as the King of Illusionary Demons were naturally superior to his, but instead it said, "It's real, I guarantee it! If you buy it, you definitely won't lose out, and in fact, you'll make a huge profit!"

Luo Chen hesitated. The gold coins he had obtained in this beast tide were all earned through his hard sweat and blood, and they were barely enough to buy a single bronze-grade longsword. If he bought this piece of junk, he wouldn't be able to buy a second bronze longsword, yet the creature's tone was extremely certain.

Well, I might as well trust it for once. This fat bird still has some capability, if only for how much it boosted his mental strength.

Thinking of this, Luo Chen gritted his teeth. "Shopkeeper, I'll take this sword."

"Oh, you want to buy it?" The shopkeeper was quite surprised, because this sword was truly useless trash to Luo Chen.

Luo Chen explained, "I'm buying it for a cousin of mine. He is still a second-rank spiritual martial artist; he should be able to make use of it!"

"Alright!" The shopkeeper did not suspect anything and was quite pleased. He had originally thought this sword would take quite a while to offload, never expecting it to sell so quickly.

After paying and stepping out of the shop, Luo Chen viciously muttered, "Fat bird, because of your words, I've just staked my entire net worth. If you tell me you were mistaken, tonight's late-night snack for me and Shiban will be fat bird hotpot!"

*What a vulgar and violent master!*

The little bird felt a bit ashamed, but it wasn't afraid. It currently existed purely as consciousness, and its summoned physical form was merely an energy body, so it wouldn't have any flavor no matter how it was boiled.

Luo Chen impatiently urged, "Fat bird, spit it out quickly. What's the deal with this longsword?"

"This is..." The bird said slowly, "a sealed weapon!"

"Sealed?" Luo Chen was hearing this term for the first time. He frowned and said, "What does that mean? Explain it to me clearly."

"Simply put, this longsword was originally capable of transmitting power, but someone slapped a lock on it, locking the door to power transmission. You're like a person standing outside the door, naturally unable to use it. That's a seal!"

Hearing this explanation, Luo Chen began to worry again. "According to you, what the hell use is it to me then?"

"No, no, no," the bird hurriedly said. "If you can open that door, this weapon can be used properly!"

Luo Chen's spirits lifted. "How do I open it?"

"Find the key—meaning the special method used by the person who sealed this sword—and you can break the seal!"

Luo Chen felt dizzy. "How am I supposed to know who sealed this sword? The shopkeeper said it's been around for ages; the one who sealed it probably kicked the bucket ages ago. Where am I supposed to look? Even if he isn't dead and I knew where he was, could I really take this lost sword to him and say, 'Boss, please do me a favor and unlock this sword for me?'"

The bird hurriedly said, "Don't be impatient. What I just mentioned is only the most conventional method. Aside from that, there are other ways to crack the seal!"