“I can probably enchant your weapon, but I have a condition.” Ye Xue said, smiling confidently.
Examining the other’s party qi, Zhu Jingyi frowned. The young man in front of him was just at the early-stage of the Elementary Qi Gathering, which means that he recently become a cultivator.
Could he truly enchant a middle-tier human sword with his level of cultivation? The answer was obvious. Of course not, but Zhu Jingyi did not directly refuse the other’s party offer. She needs to teach that fellow a lesson.
“Sure, as long as you can enchant my weapon, I’m willing to fulfill your conditions...” Zhu Jingyi said while emphasizing the “as long as you can” with a smile on her face. After a pause, she continued. “But it turns out that I’m also a runesmith apprentice. Can you enlighten me on what kind of enchantment you can enchant on my weapon?”
She wanted to test him to know if he was knowledgeable about runesmithing or if it was just a blunt lie. If he was spouting nonsense, then she was going to teach that fellow a lesson.
Without knowing what Zhu Jingyi has in mind, Xe Yue said. “There are many enchantments that I can make on your sword...If I tell you all of them, we’ll be standing there for an eternity.”
‘So arrogant!’ Zhu Jingyi did not trust that young man at all. She believed that he does not know anything about runesmith and was just trying to dodge his incapability regarding it. She felt like she was going to explode but forced herself to restrain from doing so. After all, she was a composed young lady and it was unfitting for her to get angry all of sudden.
Sneering, she coldly explained to him. “There are a total of six enchants known for middle-grade human weapons within the Cloud Empire. How can you know so many of them that it needs you an eternity? If you drop your stupid act, I am willing to forgive you! Otherwise, I won't be polite.”
Wiping the sweats on his forehead, Ye Xue proposed. “Then how about I enchant a weapon in front of you? Like this, you’ll see if I am a runesmith or not.”
“Alright, go ahead.” Zhu Jingyi affirmed. She was impatiently waiting for this young lad to drop the act and apology in front of her but since he stills acted as if he was a runesmith, she will not abandon until that he begs her to forgive him before giving him a hard beating.
“The problem is that...I don’t have enough money to buy a weapon.” Ye Xue said, shrugging his shoulders. “Can I borrow you some money to buy one?” He asked.
Zhu Jingyi could not believe it. Not only he was faking to be a runesmith but he was also shameless!
Looking around her, She ordered the shop owner. “Bring me that sword.” After buying the sword, she gave it to Ye Xue. She wanted to end this funny joke as soon as possible. ‘Now let me see how you’ll enchant that sword...you fake runesmith!’ She almost wanted to say that out loud but forced herself to remain silent.
Seeing that Zhu Jingyi was willing to buy him a sword, Ye Xue sighed in relief. In fact, he did have knowledge regarding runesmith but he was not sure if the runesmith from the Heavenly Realm was similar to the runesmith from the mortal world. But he could no longer back off now.
Ye Xue needs to increase his funds to cultivate and break through the early-stage of the Elementary Qi Gathering, and in order to do that, he needs a large amount of money. The quicker, the better. If he succeeds to enchant the sword in front of him, he could earn a massive amount of money through runesmithing.
Believing in the knowledge of his ancestor, Ye Xue took the sword and started to proceed to engrave the inscriptions. Infusing his qi on his finger, the qi on his finger formed a thin needle, and with it, Ye Xue started to engrave the inscriptions on the sword.
The process was slow but extremely precise. The more complex the inscription was, the more qi Ye Xue needs to infuse. Fortunately, it was still a simple common sword and enchanting such a sword did not require him to use a tremendous amount of qi. Thanks to that, his limited qi was enough to engrave an acceptable enchant on the sword. If a master runesmith watched such a scene, he will probably faint from the shock.
Zhu Jingyi did not have a deep knowledge on runesmith but she was aware of the capability of Ye Xue the moment he started engraving. She widened both of her eyes upon seeing him engraving with his finger. It was the first time that she saw such a way to enchant a sword.
Normally, one needs a needle to enchant a sword. The better quality the needle, the better enchant one could produce. But the young man in front of her discarded all common senses and used his finger as a replacement for the needle! Not only the inscriptions were unknown to her, the precision of his work was beyond amazing. Her master could not realize such a feat, not even mentioning herself.
It was at this moment that Zhu Jingyi realized how talented the young man in front of her was. Not only he has a deep knowledge on runsmithing, he even broke all the common senses of this mortal world. She remembered that she once reads a book about people engraving inscriptions with their finger, but it was an extremely difficult technique that was lost thousands of years ago and she never thought once to see this technique here let alone by that young man.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
‘His master must be a grandmaster runesmith...’ Zhu Jingyi thought.
But who in the world was that young man? She was no longer angry, on the contrary, her eyes were filled with respect. This young man has a deeper knowledge on runesmithing than her master. He was a peerless runesmith genius that could only be found once every thousand of years!
“I apologize for doubting about your capability brother senior.” Ashamed of herself, Zhu Jingyi bowed and apologized to Ye Xue. She truly thought that he was an ignorant idiot a few minutes ago, but that was no longer the case.
“No need to apology.” Ye Xue waved his hand. He was relieved to know that the method the runesmiths used from the Heavenly Realm was the same here as well. If Zhu Jingyi was to hear his thought, she will probably faint from the shock.
“Can I…take a closer look at the sword?” Zhu Jingyi faintly spoke.
The sword was leaking a thin yet magnificent qi energy. She could not help but wanted to identify what kind of enchant did the young man used to upgrade this common sword.
“Sure. This sword is yours after all.” Ye Xue affirmed. It was her who bought the sword in the first place, there was no way he could claim that the sword belongs to him.
But on the contrary to his expectation, Zhu Jingyi shook her head and said, “This sword was yours the moment you engraved the inscriptions on it.”
Infusing her qi on the sword, the thin qi energy from the sword became thicker, giving her the same impression that she was wielding a middle-tier human sword instead of a common sword. The sword looks stronger but sharper as well. She could no longer restrain the temptation to swing the sword.
*Swoosh*
The moment she swung the sword in the air, a flame ignited from the sword. It became a blazing sword! Shocked, she could not help but drop the sword from her hand. The sword could now match with a middle-tier human sword. How is it even possible? Not only it could match it, it even had a magic effect on it.
“Just what kind of enchant was that..?” She could not help but mutters.
The enchantment was beyond any common sense.
Regaining her composure, she turned her head to Ye Xue and said. “This sword no longer belongs to me the moment you enchanted it.” After a short pause, she proposed, “But if you don’t mind, I am willing to buy this sword for 200 gold coins.”
Hearing her words, Ye Xue’s eyes widened. What was 200 gold coins? It was ten times the amount he possessed. He definitely could not refuse such offer.
“Of course, I am willing.” He said, with a smile.
Zhu Jingyi was relieved once she knows that Ye Xue accepted the offer. She absolutely needs to win the favor of this young man and build a good relationship with him. It could bring her more benefits than the losses. Although his cultivation was still weak, he was on par with any master runesmith of the Cloud Empire. On top of that, she could help him to increase his cultivation by giving him cultivating pills and other resources. It was not a problem at all that his cultivation was weak.
“Now that I’ve proven my ability in runesmithing, how about we start our business?” Ye Xue asked.
Although 200 gold coins was a large sum, it was not enough for Ye Xue. As the saying goes, people die in pursuit of money, just as birds die in pursuit of food¹. It was totally fitting Ye Xue’s situation in his pursuit to become stronger.
Zhu Jingyi excitedly asked. “What are senior brother’s conditions?” She even used “senior brother” on her sentence, showing her respect to the other party.
Pondering for a few minutes, Ye Xue said. “The first condition is that I need a payment in advance. I am quite broke at the moment you see…” Scratching his head with a wry smile, he continued. “The second condition is that you need to wait two days before I can enchant your sword. If you think that I am scamming you, you can always find me at the Snowy Humble Inn. This is where I’m actually lodging. These two requests are my conditions.”
The reason why Ye Xue delayed to two days was quite simple.
For middle-tier human weapons, he could only enchant them after reaching the middle-stage of the Elementary Qi Gathering. As for why only two days, it was because he was confident enough to break through the early-stage of the Elementary Qi Gathering after buying the necessary resources to forge a cultivating pill.
‘Senior brother is broke at this point? To actually stay at the Snowy Humble Inn…’ Zhu Jingyi thought. But without hesitation, she said. “I accept these two conditions.” It was quite impolite to directly ask him, which is why she accepted without asking the reason for these conditions.
Thinking that she may be able to get on his good side, she proposed a price. “How about 1500 gold coins as the cost of the enchant? Normally, the based price for an enchant of a middle-tier human weapon is around 1000 gold coins, but with brother senior’s amazing capability, 1500 gold coins should be enough.” Without waiting for the other’s party answer, she directly took out a purse from her storage ring.
Opening the purse, Ye Xue saw the countless gold coins within it. Shocked, he directed his eyes back to Zhu Jingyi and noticed that she nodded, he realized that she indeed intended to directly pay the 1500 gold coins. His heart felt warm when he thought about how much she trusted him. After all, 1500 gold coins were in no way a casual amount someone could spend without hesitating.
Keeping the purse on his hand, Ye Xue said. “Alright. Come to see me in two days at the Snowy Humble Inn.”
Completing her objective, Zhu Jingyi thanked him. “I was desperately looking for a good runesmith to enchant my sword. I honestly thank you, senior brother, for saving me such trouble. Since my objective is completed, I am going to take my leave.” Before leaving the runesmith shop.
Zhu Jingyi has many things to do today and did not see the time. As for the main reason, she needs to inform her master about today’s encounter as well.
Delighted to obtain more than he expected, Ye Xue was preparing to leave the runesmith shop until that a sudden thought stopped him.
Walking back towards the counter, he tipped 5 gold coins to the shop owner.
Looking at the back of the young man who was leaving his shop, the shop owner almost coughed blood.
With tears that could be seen on his cheeks, he thought. ‘Young man… Although you calmed the ruckus made by that young woman at least tip me a little bit better! With that much money, at least gave me 50 gold coins…’