Chapter 226

Chapter 226: An Ordinary Weapon With Its Own Flame

This sword was one Lou Yun forged when he participated in the forging conference within Yao Lin Valley and issued a challenge to Short Winter Melon. After the sword was finished, it surprisingly harbored a Weapon Contract, something only spoken of in legends! This was a natural seal that could lock away the energy within a common weapon, and only a skilled weapon maker using his own blood could release the Weapon Contract!

Generally, a common weapon containing a Weapon Contract not only possessed an absolutely supreme quality grade, but might even have certain special abilities!

Lou Yun still hadn’t grasped the specific purpose of the Weapon Contract to this point, so he found it rather strange that Chang Xiang seemed to be trying to stop him now. “Yeah, is this sword unsuitable?”

“Have you examined this sword yourself carefully?”

“No!”

“Let me tell you, this is the first common weapon you forged containing a Weapon Contract, and likely the first such weapon on Spirit Weapon Star and that world! It may possess certain special abilities. You don’t even know what abilities it has specifically, yet you want to give it away? Isn’t this being recklessly wasteful?”

Truth be told, no matter what special abilities this sword possessed, Lou Yun simply had no use for it. Chang Xiang was perfectly aware of this point. However, Chang Xiang occasionally had a bit of a miser’s temperament, especially when he saw a fine common weapon or something like heavenly fire; he’d inevitably feel the urge to keep it.

Lou Yun thought Chang Xiang’s words made sense. It was best for him to first figure out what special ability this common weapon truly possessed, then gift it to Feng Yang. That would also save Feng Yang the trouble of discovering its special ability on his own, whenever that might be.

At this very moment, Feng Yang was watching the sword in Lou Yun’s hand with a face full of doubt and bewilderment. He truly couldn’t understand: after burning his technique manual, why did Lou Yun not only intend to compensate him with a new set of techniques but also add this seemingly utterly ordinary common weapon?

He’d already condensed a magical weapon. As a magical weapons master, what use was holding a common weapon?

Lou Yun wasn’t concerned with Feng Yang’s thoughts right now. He was carefully examining the treasured sword with his spiritual sense. The sword contained powerful energy. Due to having only a Weapon Core of mystery rank, no matter how strong its energy was, it could only be considered a top-tier mystery rank common weapon!

After examining it twice over, Lou Yun still couldn’t detect any special ability within the sword.

“Brother Chang, is it possible that a common weapon possessing a Weapon Contract might not have any special ability?”

Chang Xiang pondered for a moment. “A common weapon with a Weapon Contract… this is also my first time seeing one. But according to the legends I’ve heard, such common weapons are indeed supposed to possess special abilities!”

“Then what kinds of special abilities might there be?”

“That I don’t know!”

Lou Yun knew he wouldn’t get any answers from Chang Xiang either, so he gave up asking. He gripped the treasured sword and casually waved it. Out of habit, while swinging it, he channeled a wisp of spiritual energy into it.

Suddenly, Feng Yang, who was to the side, let out a loud, “Aya!” The entire man scrambled backwards, tumbling and flailing!

Lou Yun was completely baffled by Feng Yang’s extreme reaction. He glanced down casually at the sword in his hand and was instantly stunned.

The entire body of the treasured sword in his hand was actually emitting a faint red glow! At the same time, he could feel waves of scorching heat radiating outwards from the blade.

Lou Yun was certain: even though he now possessed two heavenly fires within his body, when he’d waved this sword just now, he absolutely hadn’t channeled the tiniest trace of heavenly fire into it. Yet, the red light glowing on the sword and the intense heat radiating from it were both generated spontaneously by the sword itself!

A jolt went through Lou Yun’s heart. Could this be the special ability possessed by this sword?

Even though Lou Yun felt nothing from this scorching heat radiating from the sword, for someone like Feng Yang who had just condensed his magical weapon, this temperature was more than enough to feel intensely searing. To him, it felt as though a large fire had suddenly sprung up all around him, naturally frightening him into scrambling away!

To test his suspicion, Lou Yun abruptly channeled spiritual energy, forcing it into the treasured sword!

With a whoosh, flames suddenly surged forth from the body of the sword!

Seeing this, Lou Yun was both astonished and delighted. Swinging the sword a couple of times casually, the flames roared fiercely. The surrounding temperature noticeably rose significantly in an instant.

Being able to release flames on its own in response to the wielder’s channeled spiritual energy, with those flames being quite hot – clearly, this was the sword’s special ability!

Lou Yun withdrew the spiritual energy. The flames on the sword’s body vanished instantly. He reached out and lightly touched the blade. The metal was icy cold, nothing like something that had just been blazing with flame!

“Feng Yang, give it a try with this sword. Channel your spiritual energy into it!” Lou Yun said with a grin and directly tossed the sword over to Feng Yang.

Seeing the sword flying towards him, Feng Yang instinctively wanted to dodge, fearing the high temperature he’d just seen. However, noticing a flicker of distinct displeasure cross Lou Yun’s face, his heart tightened. He hurriedly reached out and caught the sword.

The moment his hand gripped the hilt, Feng Yang felt overwhelming surprise. Why was it so cold? But he just definitely felt that intense, scalding heat – his skin still ached faintly from the earlier burn! How was that possible?

Lou Yun had indeed felt a pang of displeasure at Feng Yang’s apparent reluctance even to catch the sword. But on second thought, he realized the man had only just condensed his magical weapon; he was a complete novice. Things that seemed trivial to Lou Yun were genuinely terrifying in Feng Yang’s eyes.

Seeing Feng Yang catch the sword, Lou Yun said with a smile, “You have spiritual energy within you now, right? Give it a try channeling your spiritual energy into this sword!”

“Oh!”

Feng Yang nodded and began concentrating fully on channeling his spiritual energy into the sword.

Lou Yun’s spiritual sense saw clearly. Even though Feng Yang’s spiritual energy was very weak, as soon as it entered the sword, the blade emitted an extremely faint red glow, and its temperature increased!

“Increase the spiritual energy output! Don’t hold anything back; put every bit of your spiritual energy into that sword!”

Feng Yang had naturally noticed the change in the sword too. For a novice magical weapons master like him, this was utterly marvelous and profoundly satisfying. Therefore, he hurriedly channeled every ounce of spiritual energy he had throughout his body into the treasured sword.

With a soft puff sound, a weak little fire sprout flickered feebly at the sword’s tip, swaying lightly in the breeze. It looked like a slightly stronger gust would extinguish it immediately.

Seeing this, Lou Yun nodded approvingly. “Not bad, Feng Yang! Well done!”

Now Lou Yun could say definitively: the special ability produced by this Weapon Contract sword was that it could spontaneously generate flames based on the strength of the spiritual energy channeled by the wielder!

Though he didn’t know the reason, Lou Yun recalled when, during his weapon forging process that day, a Fusang Tree grew within him. That had been the true Heavenly Fire Fusang. It was likely that back then, this sword had inadvertently absorbed a trace of the Heavenly Fire Fusang’s flames, thus gaining this special ability!

Feng Yang stared at the flames on the sword, a mixture of delight and shock in his voice. “Brother Lou, wh-what’s going on? How come I can make it shoot flames too?”

When Lou Yun had generated flames with this sword moments ago, Feng Yang assumed it was a result of Lou Yun’s formidable cultivation. But now, even he could make the sword emit flames – even if they were smaller and could only be called fire sprouts.

Lou Yun said with a laugh, “Don’t underestimate this sword. Although it is a common weapon, its grade is mystery rank five-star. Moreover, it possesses this ability to convert your spiritual energy into flames! The more abundant and potent your spiritual energy is, the hotter and larger the flames it can produce!”

“Do you like it? If you do, I’ll give this sword to you!”

A mystery rank common weapon, let alone a five-star one, even the most common one-star, was exorbitantly costly! Moreover, this sword could transform spiritual energy into flames—it was practically a miraculous treasure! Its value was simply beyond estimation!

Feng Yang hesitated for a moment, conflict clearly visible on his face. Ultimately, with deep reluctance, he held out the sword by the blade, offering the hilt back to Lou Yun. “Brother Lou, this sword is far too precious. I can’t accept it.”

Feng Yang’s attitude genuinely impressed Lou Yun. Smiling, Lou Yun said, “With my current abilities, this sword is entirely redundant to me. But for you, this sword is extremely practical. Before engaging anyone in combat, using it would likely be more advantageous than using your own magical weapon!”

Lou Yun didn’t give Feng Yang a chance to speak, continuing firmly, “Plus, weren’t you saying earlier that you had many questions for me but didn’t know how to ask them? I can tell you this: whatever questions you have, if you trust me, starting now, while cultivating your magical weapon, you must also practice cultivating common weapons. You need to combine both paths of training, supporting each other. Only then, in the future, do you have the possibility of becoming a truly great master!”

“Practicing both magical and ordinary skills?” Feng Yang’s eyes revealed confusion.

“Correct, practicing both magical and ordinary skills. I noticed your magical weapon is also a sword, and you only just condensed it, so practicing spirit and common cultivation won’t be too difficult for you. I’ll teach you this technique now. Come here!”

Feng Yang couldn’t fully grasp the depth of Lou Yun’s concern at this moment. Still, he had one significant strength: he was exceedingly obedient to Lou Yun’s words. Thus, from then on, he genuinely followed Lou Yun’s instructions, diligently pursuing both spirit and common cultivation. The final result, as Lou Yun had predicted, was that he became a truly formidable master!

Although Feng Yang didn’t understand the significance of cultivating common weapons, he was absolutely stunned when Lou Yun gave him the cultivation technique manual. It turned out to be a high-level rank cultivation technique! When he snapped out of his awe-struck examination of the manual, his knees involuntarily weakened, and he started to kneel to express his profound thanks.

Lou Yun, familiar with people’s tendency to kneel in gratitude, was already prepared. With a gentle wave of his arm, he exerted a force to support Feng Yang, preventing him from kneeling.

However, at that precise moment, the ship which had been sailing smoothly suddenly shuddered violently beneath their feet! Lou Yun, though startled, managed to keep his balance. Feng Yang, however, completely unprepared and already slightly off-balance from Lou Yun’s rising arm, couldn’t steady himself. He staggered and slipped in a heap onto the deck!