21 Return

When she came out, the entrance closed up and the ruins went back to what it originally looked like. Ming Yue looked at it before going to meet up with her team. After their ordeal, they would be going back to Cloud Dawn City. Everyone was exhausted but happy, they might not have gotten any amazing treasures but at least they managed to live. No one would've thought that this mission would be so dangerous.

After they arrived back at the city, everyone went to separate inns to rest before sending in a report to the Jade Dragon Pavilion. Each and every city had a pavilion and they were all part of one network tracing back to the emperor himself. Each of them were the same, reporting and taking a mission here was no different than back at Luan City. With this, they did not have to go back to report, everyone could take their time resting and recuperating. Furthermore, each and everyone of them had gained their reward from Cloud Dawn City's Pavilion.

Ming Yue, herself, now had some wealth and over 2000 contribution points. According to the pavilion, she was instrumental in saving the exploration group from certain death and uncovered valuable information. She took a seat at one of the benches with a Jade Dragon Catalog and started flipping through the tens of hundreds of options. Of the many choices, she only wanted two things: the appraisal for her equipment and sparring with an expert. She wasn't too knowledgeable on equipment and wasn't sure about the rank of Parting Sun Blade and the Dusk Lily Pin. She wasn't even sure where to estimate. If she didn't even know this basic information, how can she have the right to own them.

As for the latter option, she wanted to know how strong these "experts" were. The only person that she could compare herself to was Elder Fei, he was the strongest person she has met after all. With just Elder Fei, she didn't really have a goal, no one to aim for, no way to compare herself. She didn't have a direction, so to speak.

The appraisal was 500 contribution points per item while the sparring was 2300. Ming Yue had just enough for the latter but wasn't sure which one to go for. Both options were equally important. She needed to know the full capabilities of the things she used, so that she would better understand the best way to use them. On the other hand, sparring gave her more chances to improve her skills and think of new moves. After several minutes of thinking, she finally chose the appraisal option. This was because she had already gained an abundant amount of combat experience from this mission already. She still needed time to fully assess her gains before testing herself.

Without waiting any longer, she went up to the receptionist and asked for the appraisal of her sword and her hair pin.

"Please wait for us to call you while we get someone", said the receptionist.

He then sent a message to someone for an appraisal and asked Ming Yue to sit and wait. After several minutes, she decided to get up and check the mission board. It was much larger than the one at Luan City and probably had 4 times as many requests. She read through several of them and considered taking one before she went back to Luan City. She still had to go to the Immortal Rain Establishment after all.

Before she could finish looking through the board, the receptionist called for her.

"Please follow me", he said.

The receptionist led her into a small room with an old man, seated behind a table. The room was quite plain with only torches for lighting, a wooden table and 2 chairs. Ming Yue felt that there was something familiar about this old man but she could not think of a reason why. He had quite a mysterious aura around him as he looked and smiled, waiting for her. She inspected him as she sat on the chair opposite of him.

"If you would, please give me the items that you would like to be appraised", he said.

She handed him the sword and her pin, to which he began to examine. The man was maybe around 60 years old, he had a little beard and a kind look on his face. He wore blue robes with some gold decor on it. Even his voice was familiar. She felt as if she had seen him somewhere but couldn't put her finger on it. After several minutes, he had several looks of surprise before sighing and handing it back to her.

"To have obtained two treasures is quite lucky for you. If I'm not wrong this is the Parting Sun Blade and the Dusk Lily Pin", he said.

Ming Yue was surprised, she had said nothing about these items but he had already guessed their identities. Then again, he was an appraiser, he should have known this information.

The man then continued.

"The Parting Sun Blade was said to have been created by a grandmaster for his son. It was to be strong enough to be able to cut the sun in half, thus the name Parting Sun. This sword is considered to be a legendary sword due to its sharpness and durability. However, it does not contain an element which makes it somewhat incompatible with many swordsmen who generally use the elements in their techniques. If they were to use it, their strength would have decreased by 20 percent then if they were to use an elemental weapon. Furthermore, the grandmaster had made another sword to pair with it, Splitting Moon. It is at best a Lower Divine-ranked weapon by itself, if you had Splitting Moon, than it would've been Peak-Divine Rank."

Divine Rank weapons were incredibly strong and rare. Out of possible 10 million weapons, there was 1 divine ranked weapon. This was because Divine weapons were masterpieces, they are said to be 5 times as strong as Sage weapons and 100 times the strength of Mortal weapons. It would not be a lie, if people say Divine weapons were capable of destroying armies. Above Divine weapons were World and Star weapons but those were even rarer, numbering at 1 out of 100 million for World and 1 out of a billion for Star.

"Now there are ways to alter the weapon so that it can contain an element, but the price can be astronomical depending on the grade," he said.

As the old man gave back her items, he began to talk about the Dusk Lily Pin.

"The Dusk Lily Pin was a gift from the Blue Fire Scion to Tian Xing, the Midnight Valkyrie. This is a Sage ranked item. It is a protective item that grants the wearer 2 uses a day to block an attack from anyone below the Sky realm. At the time, they were both at the Sight stage of the Earth realm. Who would've known that this would be in those ruins from before."

"So the sword is divine ranked and the pin is sage ranked. Hmm, I'll think about altering it since I use the dao of wind," she thought.

Although other people would be surprised or even shocked by this information, Ming Yue took it well but that was mostly because she didn't know much. These words of sage and divine didn't carry much meaning. But the extra information that the appraiser gave her about equipment ranks was quite helpful. She might not be able to identify the exact rank of a weapon, but she would be able to give a rough estimate.

After getting back her items, she took in the information before looking at the appraiser. He looked back and smiled, before drinking some tea. Her mind suddenly clicked.

"It's him!" she thought.