The hidden ruins are traces of the civilization of ancient kingdom hundreds of year-old, whose inhabitants were at the peak of their strength and development. However, like any civilization, no matter how great it was, it could not withstand the merciless river of time. But for an unknown reason, the land of this mysterious kingdom has vanished from the face of the world of Altanya, and from time to time, gates connecting to the lands of the lost kingdom appear in different places, and these gates are known as The Hidden Ruins.

When Artesia and Arfi arrived in front of the gate, they could see a different landscape of rocks and stones around the gate. Excitement was clear on Arfi's face.

"Hidden Ruins Gate, information confirms that there is treasure here. If we are lucky, we might find a holy weapon.”

Artesia interfered, so Arfi doesn't overstate raising his hopes, and said."Don't be too happy, we haven't found anything yet."

"Artesia, why do you keep bringing me down? Let me enjoy my dream. Everyone considers me the weakest because my spirit form is defensive," said Arfi sadly.

The two young men found themselves in a vast green area empty of buildings. Arfi took out a compass then charged it with his qi energy. The compass began to rotate, finally stopping in the east direction. Both of them headed to the east and eventually reached an empty area with nothing but green space. Arfi started scratching his head and looking around, saying,

"This is where the compass pointed at, but there is nothing here. Should we try and dig here?"

Artesia looked around, narrowed her eyes, and said, “No, this place is surrounded by illusion-type magic, but it's weakened now because of the passage of time. Just close your eyes and try to seal your qi energy, then allow your body and senses to accept the magical energy.”

Arfi did everything Artesia told him. In the end, he took a long breath and slowly opened his eyes to be surprised that everything around him had changed, the green spaces had turned into the ruins of an ancient city, and the place indicated by the compass there was a large coffin in the middle of the city ruins.

Arfi immediately hurried and lifted the coffin top, the coffin was covered in layers of dust and spider webs. Then, with some effort, he removed the cover and fell to the ground. Neither the dust nor the smell of the rotten corpse could ruin Arfi's happiness. He finally found what he was looking for. He didn't care about the books and tools that were inside the coffin. Instead, he was looking at the sword that the corpse was holding.

He pulled the sword from the corpse's fist and began examining it, "It's an Imperial sword with lightning law, I'm not the weakest anymore."

Artesia looked at the sword and said, “It might not be a good idea to use an imperial weapon.”

Some ancestral warriors at Fusion Realm or above were able to transform their weapon spirit form from its spiritual form into an actual physical weapon, retaining its strength and laws. These weapons are known as imperial weapons and are extremely rare.

Unlike holy weapons used by those in soul-realm or above, an imperial weapon is the dream of any person who doesn't have a spirit form yet. However, the same cannot be said for anyone in the soul realm or above. Even a weapon of this strength has its disadvantages; Since it was another person's spirit form, it negatively affects the spirit form of the person who uses it. That's why only those who were below the soul realm uses it.

Arfi knows about this more than anyone else, but he has no choice. He could stand against the strongest warriors and block their attacks, but he was powerless and couldn't defeat them because he barely owned any offensive power. The imperial weapon was his only hope for advancement. At first, he wanted a holy weapon to use along with his defensive shield. However, now he is thinking of merging his spirit form with the imperial weapon, which was extremely dangerous.

Weapon spirit form warriors would do the impossible and pay anything to get an imperial weapon that matches their spirit form. If the merger were successful, their spirit form would become stronger, and they would be able to activate the laws of the imperial weapon and train early on the laws of its elements before breakthrough the law realm.

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But the danger rate increases the more the difference between the spirit form and the imperial weapon increases. And in Arfi's case, he had a shield spirit form which is completely different from the spirit sword, so it was extremely dangerous to merge the both of them together.

Arfi still had some fears in his heart, so he spoke out loud while encouraging himself.

“Do I have any other choice? Relying only on defense will always make me weak. If I couldn't obtain a holy weapon to increase my attack power, then I will just adjust my spirit form with this imperial weapon, so I will take the sword, and as we agreed before, the rest of the treasures are yours.”

Three books, energy pills, and wooden beads remained in the coffin. These tools can be sold for a good amount, but the books will depend on their contents. While Artesia was busy estimating the tools, Arfi was focused on his new weapon and seemed to get used to it quickly.

When Arfi finished getting used to his weapon, he suddenly said, "Uh, there's a problem that had happened. I can't abide by our previous agreement. The agreement was with my partner Artesia, not with you."

The girl stopped browsing the books, took a few steps back, and said. "So you figured it out quickly, well, that was expected. I usually need a little longer to study the character of the person I'm going to disguise as, let me guess, your friend knows nothing about illusion magic."

Arfi gripped the sword handle tightly and curiously watched the person who disguised as his friend. That person's body began to shrink. White smoke was coming out of his body to show a young man with snow-white hair.

Arfi said while looking at Jin, “So my guess was right, my friend had a bad experience with magicians, so I hope that you didn’t hurt her.”

"She's fine. I used teleportation magic to teleport her into the middle of the woods, then I used her blood to use the illusion magic to look like her. Maybe you should hurry and go back to check on her. Who knows what might happen to a girl who is being alone in the middle of the woods," Jin said with a smile on his face.

"You are really brave. You are still calm even in a situation like this, but it doesn't matter. I'll make sure you pay for what you did to her." Arfi said.

“Braveness has nothing to do with it. I just don’t see someone who despises the strength of their spirit form as a worthy opponent.” Jin said while he stared at Arfi in disgust.

“You bastard…” Arfi cursed and ran towards Jin angrily.

Arfi waved his sword in Jin's direction, who bent his body back, dodging the attack, and jumped a step back, but Arfi quickly followed him and attacked again, cutting off the air. Fortunately, the Autumn Leaf skill gave him an advantage in defense. It made him able to dodge his opponent’s attacks. However, it wasn’t that easy as his opponent was in the soul realm and was using an imperial weapon. If Arfi had been skilled with the sword, the situation would have been much more dangerous.

'This is not good. I have to try something else,' Jin thought to himself, then dodged Arfi's attack, picked up small stones from the ground, and threw it at Arfi.

*smack*

The small stones hit Arfi on his forehead.

“As I expected, you can't use your spirit shield and the imperial sword at the same time,” Jin said as he looked at Arfi, smiling.

Arfi rubbed his forehead and smiled mockingly, "All you have is a good defensive skill. Let's see how long you could escape from my attacks."

He pulled the sword, held it with both hands, and raised it, attacking with all his might.

*bam*

The sword passed through Jin, and then a punch landed on Arfi's nose, forcing him to take a step back.

"I didn't learn this skill just for dodging the attacks, but because it helps me see the things slower than reality," said Jin, looking at his opponent sarcastically.

Arfi ignored Jin's words and waved his sword again.

*Bam* *Bam*

Once again, the sword passed through Jin's body, and two punches fell on Arfi's body. The two punches were so fast that he felt like he was being hit twice at the same time. Arfi was stunned a little, but he just shook his head and gritted his teeth. Those punches only boosted his anger.

Jin's fist was completely numb, his opponent's body was very stiff.

The human body often takes on the attributes of its spirit form. Because of that, Arfi's body was as solid as his shield.

Jin sighed and shook his numb hands.

'Fighting with bare hands is not a good choice. Now I'm in a bad situation. It looks like I will have to kill him.'

Jin wasn't planning on killing the poor guy, so he didn't use any weapons when he attacked Arfi earlier. But now he was seriously considering killing him, although he was in a difficult situation, fighting and killing in Jin's eyes are completely two different things.

To kill, all he needs is one hit at the right time and place to finish his enemies, and due to Arfi's bad sword skills, it won't take him more than one hit to kill Arfi's.

Jin made up his mind and decided to get rid of him quickly.

Just as Jin was about to use his weapon and kill his opponent, the imperial sword suddenly flashed, and a magical formation appeared that was surrounded by lightning, it shot several thunderbolts around Arfi.

Arfi, who felt the sword's power in his hand increase, flared up in the excitement and looked down on his opponent.

"Kid, it seems that you are out of luck. This battle is over."