I didn’t have time to react, when I knew it, I was near the City Lord. “Why have you cheated?” he asked me. I didn’t understand what he was talking about, I never cheated. I tried to explain him, but he silenced me. “I’m a friend fo the turtle —he said—, so I will judge fairly, but if you have cheated, you will suffer the consequences.” Then he released a little of killing intent and I was frozen.
I was again transported to another place. “Call Chan Fong, Mao Tang and Seng Dao right now”, the City Lord ordered to one of his servers. He immediately obeyed. I didn’t know what was happening this? Perhaps he saw the help of Tenth Turtle in my inner self as a kind of cheat? That was the only thing I could think about.
“Tell me, who give you that knife?” The City Lord asked me. The knife? All this was because of the knife? I couldn’t believe it. I explained that it was a gift of my Master for becoming an apprentice of her. “Why this Master of yours would give you so powerful artefact?” I began to understand what was happening but even so, it was strange. I told him how that knife was before: a simple knife and my Master tinkered with it, nothing more. He didn’t show any change of attitude and his face was as ice.
“City Lord, we greet you! How do we can service you?” two men and a woman said at unison. “Come here and take a look at this knife, you are all experts and could tell me if this knife is beyond the quasi-divine realm.”
The first one who touched the knife was called Chan Fong, later I learned that he was the master blacksmith of the City Lord. He was a semi-mortal, but his experience at smiting was legendary in the city. He analyzed the knife, like if he was toying with it. “City Lord, I don’t’ know what uses could have this knife, but I could say that even in our kitchen we have better quality of knives that this one. It even began to rust, and the sharpness is laughable.
The second one who took the knife was an artefact refiner. He observed the knife and used qi to analyze it. “City Lord, this knife is not and artefact. It doesn’t have any kind of energy within, is empty. If I saw this knife in any other place, I would even look at it. As Master Chan Fong said, we really have better knives in the kitchen, some even are real artifacts! This one is not.”
I felt relaxed when I hear the first two. I knew that I didn’t cheat and what I was telling them it was true. So, they were helping me in this way. I expected that the third one would say something similar, but life is not that easy.
She analyzed the knife and was surprised of what she saw. She was an array master. She had the duty of repairing and maintaining the arrays of the city. She was one of the most important figures in the city, and all the Sect, even the powerful ones had to be courteous to her even if she was only a semi-divine. “City Lord, I have many years study arrays, and even thought of me as a master, but seen this knife I now understand that I was a frog inside a well all this time. I can’t understand at full the complexity of the arrays in this knife, but what I can say is that whoever did these arrays is a true array master, perhaps even a legendary one.”
The city Lord was surprised by that. He knew Seng Dao well and knew that she was very haughty and proud of her work. She even competed with many array masters that come to the city and she never lost. She had gained her reputation with years of study and sweat and blood. But now, she was saying all that, it was not a little matter. “Could you tell me what exactly is the function of this knife?” the City Lord asked her.
“I can’t be really sure of all the arrays here, but in general, it allows to use more efficiently your qi. When you use your qi in an array is you are not a Master you will waste a lot of your qi activating it, but what I can see with this knife you can use your full power without lost. It’s amazing.”
“Could you make something like this?” the City Lord asked.
“Make something like this? If I could have a knife with the size of this palace, I think I could do it; but doing this in something so little like this, with this precision? Impossible.”
“So do you are telling me that this knife is a weapon beyond the quasi-divine level?”
The Array Master was thinking how to respond. First, she asked to Chang Fong if the materials where really that bad. He asked that it had cheap iron, it was something that it was worthless. Then asked Mao Tang if he really didn’t feel any kind of artifact’s qi in that, perhaps something than could strengthen the material. He responded that it was merely a bad knife and if it wasn’t for her mastery in arrays, he would consider that weapon, trash.
While she was still thinking my Master tell me to say some word for them. I didn’t want to do it, but if not probably my life would be at risk. “City Lord, great Seniors, —I said while bowing— this humble junior have to interrupt you, knowing that is an offense for your majesties, but this junior have to said that my Master told me that this knife could only be used by me, any other person would suffer. And when I grew stronger, she would make a better weapon.”
“So only you could this knife? Show us how do you use it!” said the City Lord, allowing me to take the weapon. I put my vital qi in it and stabbed the air. They could feel the shockwave. The smiting master was surprised. “Is that all the power you can use with the knife?” said the City Lord without showing any kind of emotion. I poured more qi to the knife and a more power shockwave started, this time blew some minor things in the room. Now the Artifact Master was shocked. “It’s that really all the power?” the City Lord kept asking. “If he wants you to show power, show it”, my Master told me, so I used vital and lighting qi this time and stabbed the air again. This time, it was not only a shockwave but lighting attacking everywhere. The City Lord had to protect the blacksmith, and the room was partially destroyed. This time, both the Array Master and the City Lord were surprised. It was obvious that this knife was a powerful weapon and greediness begin t show in the eyes of the Array Master. However, things were not so easy for her. The knife was fractured, it couldn’t resist the power. The City Lord as seeing how the state of the knife was, understood that although very powerful for someone of my level, it was not a quasi-deity weapon. If it were, it would be a very terrible weapon for a cultivator of that stage. Also, he understood, how powerful was actually my Master as an Array Master. “Please, go to the waiting room and give me the knife, we have to make a verdict” he said to me, this time very politely.
Letras aburridas 