Apotheosis

"Mr. Luo, what a pleasure! How may I help you this time?" Having been in the business for decades, the middle-aged shopkeeper excelled at dealing with customers, and both his tone and expression were carefully adjusted.

But since Zen was a customer with a deep-pocket, the middle-aged shopkeeper was too excited that his voice was trembling.

"Oh? Hello, sir!" After exchanging greetings with the shopkeeper, Zen explained, "I'm here to see what weapons the Weapon Pavilion has in store for me."

The middle-aged shopkeeper wanted to ask Zen about the weapons he bought last time. 'More than two hundred mysterious weapons, sufficient to build up a private army. I wonder what he purchased so many for.' With a second thought, the middle-aged shopkeeper decided not to pose such a question, because he might violate certain taboo and offend the customer.

Thus, the middle-aged shopkeeper asked beamingly, "I'll be more than willing to show you around. What kind of weapons do you have in mind? Our Weapon Pavilion has recently acquired a fresh batch of mysterious weapons."

He assumed that Zen would like to take another shipment of mysterious weapon this time. But Zen shook his head and clarified, "This time I don't want any mysterious weapon. Perhaps next time. Right now, I just want to buy a sword."

Zen was not anxious to purchase mysterious weapons to prepare the heavenly essence.

He was biding his time until Wurth auctioned the first batch of the heavenly essence, then he would act according to the circumstances. Anyway, he still had over six hundred drops of the heavenly essence at hand. Even if they were bought at the auction, next time Zen would not release so many drops of the heavenly essence to the market at a time.

In the Eastern Region, he was the only one who could offer a stable supply of the heavenly essence and no other shop or brand was in this business. Being the exclusive supplier, Zen was aware that the heavenly essence was valuable because of its rarity.

If a big volume of the heavenly essence suddenly appeared in the market, its price would surely plummet. Therefore, the best method was to sell it in several small batches.

"A sword? What kind of sword do you want?" the middle-aged shopkeeper inquired.

"I'll know once I see. Take me to your showroom so I can look." Zen didn't have a specific idea of the sword he wanted, so he would like to look at samples first.

After all, it was hard to pin down the ideal one at first glance.

"Now that Mr. Luo only wants one sword, I won't suggest these ordinary ones on the first floor," said the middle-aged shopkeeper with a smile. He had already witnessed how wealthy Zen was. 'He has bought over two hundred mysterious weapons. And now that he only wants one weapon, these mysterious weapons won't be good enough for him.' "Let me take you to the second floor instead. The best items of our Weapon Pavilion are on the second floor!"

Zen nodded and followed behind the middle-aged shopkeeper.

However, before he could step onto the stairs leading up to the second floor, Zen was stopped by two guards stationed by the staircase.

"The access to the second floor requires the verification of membership for the Weapon Pavilion," one of the guards announced.

The second floor of the Weapon Pavilion housed many legendary weapons with incredible value. Thus, ordinary people were not allowed to enter it.

At this time, the middle-aged shopkeeper

that his client was eyeing for these treasures. So, he immediately flipped the lid open with his hands and unbuckled one of the swords. He took it out as he said, "These swords have a story full of twists and turns."

The middle-aged shopkeeper fished out the white sword first, turned the handle towards Zen and handed it to him.

Zen reached out his hand to take the sword. As it landed in his palm, he felt his arm was yanked downwards. "This sword is heavy!" Zen's arm strength was actually quite amazing. Even without the help of the dragon scales, Zen's strength was still impressive and above any other ordinary men. But grasping the sword single-handedly, he still found it rather heavy.

Normally, swords tended to be light and the blade was thin and nearly weightless. The thinner and lighter it was, the faster it could be thrust out and the sharper its energy would become.

But this sword was refined in the opposite norm. Zen had no idea what it was made of to be this cumbersome.

The middle-aged shopkeeper obviously knew the secret. He chuckled, "Mr. Luo, please let me tell you the story!" He called the handyman beside him, "Hurry up, fetch us two chairs here."

Zen found this funny but annoying at the same time. 'The shopkeeper is being overly helpful on the second floor. Why do we need chairs for just a story?' But as Zen was explaining that he did not need to sit, the handyman already put two chairs behind him and the middle-aged shopkeeper.

The middle-aged shopkeeper motioned him to take a seat. When they were finally settled, the shopkeeper began, "This sword is called 'Nine Edges Sword'. It weighs a hundred times of an ordinary sword."

"Nine Edges Sword?" Zen unlocked the sheath, drew it gently until half of the blade was already out.

Generally, when a sword was unsheathed, the blade would rub against the iron buckle on the sheath and create a clear whoosh sound.

But due to the weight of the Nine Edges Sword, Zen only heard a muffled thud as he drew it out.

The edge of this sword was also wider and thicker than other swords. The sword looked quite good with coated grid-like metal grains.

"This sword is named Nine Edges Sword because it has combined the edges of nine different swords," the middle-aged shopkeeper stated with a smile.