Chapter 19: A rusty looking sword

Zhan Chen looked around but even the stored spirit weapons disappointed him. There were many shiny looking swords but as a renowned swordsman in his past life, he was extremely picky when it came to his sword.

"Are they treating these trash as treasures?", Zhan Chen couldn't believe his eyes as he observed the spirit weapons kept inside. Initially he was going to choose a spirit sword for himself and later bring his eldest aunt to take it away. But now as he scanned the spirit weapons with his soul consciousness, he felt disappointed.

Spirit weapons didn't have any defining levels but they were still divided according to the layers of inscription on them. Low quality spirit weapons had simple rune inscriptions on them and high quality spirit weapons had complex rune inscriptions on them.

A grade one spirit weapon had one layer of rune inscription on them and a second grade spirit weapon had two layers of rune inscriptions stacked on each other.

All the spirit weapons in the weapon house were of grade one in quality. To Zhan Chen's dismay, the rune inscriptions that were on the spirit weapons were extremely simple. These type of rune inscriptions appeared utter trash to Zhan Chen.

"Looks like I have to choose an ordinary sword first. Then I will engrave the rune inscription myself", Zhan Chen thought to himself.

He knew, the quality of rune inscriptions decided the quality of sword itself. A sword with a simple rune pattern could not be compared to a sword with a complex rune pattern. When the swords progressed by stacking another layer of inscription, the difference would be more apparent. So, he decided to lay the foundation for his sword himself.

He moved to the ordinary swords and appraised them by knocking on them slowly. A trace of surprise appeared in the eyes of the old soldier who was observing activities of Zhan Chen. Only a master blacksmith would use such technique to check the quality of the material. He felt intrigued when Zhan Chen started acting like a master blacksmith.

Zhan Chen didn't notice the surprised gaze of old soldier. He was busy in checking the quality of swords. There were many kinds of swords kept in the sword house but very few were suitable for Zhan Chen.

He didn't like short swords. Falchions were also too light for him. His preference was only great sword or long sword. There were very few swords that suited to his taste. It didn't take him long to appraise all of them.

"Hmm, there are some good swords here. Blacksmiths must have given lot of their efforts. Unfortunately, the material quality is average. I guess, I have to keep one of them for time being", Zhan Chen thought to himself.

"What is this?", Zhan Chen's gaze suddenly fell upon an inconspicuous sword kept in nearby corner. His curiousity piqued as he scanned the sword with his soul consciousness. A eerie presense suddenly assaulted his mind.

"Interesting", Zhan Chen's eyes lit up with interest. The sword was looking ancient as the line patterns on its hilt was starting to fed. The sword was rusty in appearance and from outside it was looking like scrap material. "No wonder, it is dumped in a corner!", he thought to himself after examining the sword with his soul consciousness.

Zhan Chen moved over and picked up the rusty looking sword. "Heavy", he blurted out after picking up the sword. "Young master, don't waste your time on it. It is a useless sword", he heard the voice of the old soldier. Zhan Chen slightly smiled as he heard the voice of the old soldier.

"Do you know the origin of this sword?", he asked the old soldier. The old soldier nodded and said, "Supreme general has put this sword here. He found it in an ancient temple. He thought this sword is special. So, he brought it out with him. But no matter how he tried, he didn't find anything special about it. He felt disappointed and dumped this sword here. So, young master. You better choose another sword".

Zhan Chen didn't mind his word. "No, I am taking this with me. I will also take another one", he declared. He picked up a sturdy looking long sword and took it along with the rusty one.

"It is weird. He is not behaving like how he supposed to be. A good for nothing silk pant can't act like this. Perhaps after being beaten, he changed for good", the old soldier murmured to himself.

After leaving the weapon house, Zhan Chen returned to his room. He put the longsword to side.

His entire attention was focused on the rusty looking sword. "Hmm, there is some symbols on it", Zhan Chen murmured after looking closely at the body of the sword. "What kind of symbols are these?", Zhan Chen exclaimed after examining the symbols engraved upon the sword. He had never seen such symbols in his entire life. These symbols didn't even resemble to the obscure divine symbols which Zhan Chen could recognise.

He closely observed the sword but didn't find anything else except the engraved strange symbols. The errie feeling he felt earlier didn't appear again. Zhan Chen pricked the thumb of his left hand and poured some blood drops on it. He waited patiently but didn't feel any reaction from the sword despite waiting for some time.

"What kind of sword is it?", he thought to himself. From the errie feeling he felt earlier, he could tell that it was a so called demonic weapon. If it was his previous life, he would have steered clear from such a weapon but in this life he didn't care. He had already accepted the evil emperor as his teacher. So, what did it matter, even if he took a demonic sword as his weapon!

Zhan Chen was determined to dig out the secret of this weapon. Suddenly he thought something and entered the diagram world inside his mind.

There were different types of books on the raised platform but he searched for one specific book which he had seen once. He searched for book after book and finally a thick book came to his hand. The book had a black front page. Zhan Chen poured his spiritual energy into the book and the book lit up with a shining colour.

The name of the book was "Odessy of Netherworld". Zhan Chen turned the front page and checked the content inside it. After turning the first page, he saw some familiar looking words on it. "My guess is right this time", Zhan Chen murmured with a smile.