Chapter 0108

Guilt tried to sneak into Tempest’s mind but she stomped it flat. She refuses to feel guilty because she had nothing to feel guilty about.

If the little weapon spirit wants her to take it out, all it had to was asked.

Tempest understood what the weapon spirit was trying to do once she saw how it looked like.

Ugly.

It was really ugly.

Humans are vain creatures like the weapon spirit said. They want a powerful weapon. They want a powerful weapon that looks good and makes them look good.

Any cultivators walking around carrying that pathetic looking swords would have mocked by their peers and jeered at by the beautiful women they hope to impress.

It would have been a different story if the power of the weapon was awe inspiring enough to shut up the peanut gallery, but the weapon spirit said so himself, he can only amplify the wielder’s power by three times. In the hand of a mighty cultivator, a fraction of their powers can rearrange the geography of an area. Cardis and his chain of volcanoes are a perfect example.

Amplifying Cardis power by three times would be impressive if Tempest didn’t know Eternal Blight, that big broadsword Cardis brought out to tease her with, can amplify his power by ten times the amount and this is when it lacks a weapon spirit.

As a sword with a weapon spirit, it is very lacking.

Visually, it was lacking as well.

It was humiliating for a weapon with a weapon spirit to be bypassed for a shiny weapon with no other advantages provided aside from the aesthetic value. It might have felt better if it realizes Tempest was bypassing all weapons with weapon spirits, but it was too caught up in its emotion to notice.

The slight it perceived wasn’t the root cause of its attack towards Tempest. No, what spurred its attack was the desire to leave the vault.

All weapon spirits desire an owner. Weapon spirits came into being when the wielder possess a strong desire, whether it is to get revenge or protect their love ones, and that desire fused with the weapon through countless trials they overcame. Weapon spirits are the embodiment of their owners will. It is their direct and their purpose.

Many weapon spirits lose their owner. It is part of their life, kills or be killed. Once the weapon spirit loses an owner, it would languish for a while before looking for a new owner to give them purpose.

Locking the weapons and their weapon spirit in a vault like the mages did is the worst form of torture for the weapon spirits.

Weapons spirits won’t lower their pride and chose any Tom, Dick, or Harry to be their new owner and mages are the last type of cultivators suitable for them.

Tempest coming in and tossing any weapon that suits her fancy into her space ring gave the weapon spirit hope.

They knew she wasn’t the owner for them. A mage spirit is very forthcoming to a weapon spirit who might evolve into an elemental spirit and join their collective.

Tempest’s spirits, however, made it know far and wide through the aura they were projecting, there was no place for a weapon spirit beside their mortal.

There must be another reason for a mage who doesn’t need a weapon with a weapon spirit to grab every expensive piece of equipment she sees. Whatever her reason may be, it will give them a chance to find an owner suitable for them.

It is better than languishing in this dark, damp vault.

All the weapon spirits were watching Tempest, trying to figure out the best method to approach her.

The most desperate among the weapon spirits was too impatient to wait. He attacked Tempest, trying to get her attention.

Tempest isn’t one to take an attack lying down, even if she kind of knew the reason behind the attack. Her verbal teasing the weapon spirit was a kindness on her part.

Because weapon spirits have the potential to become elemental spirits, they store massive amounts of mana in their spiritual form. The elemental spirits can eat the weapon spirits to increase their strength. Although it is frown upon, it is not unheard of. The elemental spirits value the potential of the weapon spirits very much to even attempt to devour the weapon spirits.

To a complete collective with one hundred spirits in all of their elements, the weapon spirits lose their potential value. Hence, Tempest’s spirit wouldn’t mind eating the weapon spirit if Tempest asked them to.

Tempest considered it a bit, then chased after the ugly weapon spirit.

He was hiding in a small corner of the room, crying like a little baby.

“I can take you out, but that’s all I can promise you.” Tempest offered.

“Who wants your help?” the ugly weapon spirit answer belligerently. He was trying to save a little bit of his dignity. Throughout the years languishing in the Weapon Pavilion without a purpose, the only thing that kept it going was its dignity. It can not abandon it for a promise with no substance.

“We’ll take your offer.” Three weapon spirits materialized in front of Tempest.

All three were wearing outfits similar to the one Tempest sees the Elders of the guild wearing, a white tunic style shirt, loose pants with a large black robe covering the whole ensemble. Mage robes differ from the Ancient Chinese style clothing favored by the cultivators from the Heavenly Mountains in their lack of frills.

Ancient Chinese style clothing compromise of thin silk layered several times to create the flowing fluttery appearances cultivators from the Heavenly Mountains favor so much.

A mage ensemble is a shirt, pants and a long trench coat style robe with lined with many pockets on the inside of the robe.

Mages don’t have a divines sense which they can send into their space bag or space ring and bring out the items they want right away. They have to dump out their items in the storage bag, look for the items they want then put everything back.

In the middle of a fight isn’t the best time to go looking for gear. Mages solve the problems by having multiple small compartments created in their robes for ease of access to their treasure.

“Do all weapon spirits look alike?” Tempest asked the trio. Not only were they garbed in black mage robes, they shared the same coloring, brown hair, black eyes and a sallow complexion.

The middle of the trio was the one who spoke out previously, accepting Tempest’s offer. He answered Tempest question, “Weapon spirits share similar characteristics if they were forged by the same person or if their owner were similar. In our case, we look like this through neglect. I use to have a mane of silky soft silver hair. Once my body began to degrade, I came to look like this.”

“I see. Your current appearance resembles the condition of your weapon.”

The three grimace, “Correct.”

Tempest eyed the weapon spirit critically. If what they said was true, then their power diminished greatly ever since they entered the Weapon Pavilion. A weapon spirit’s power does diminish over time. The rate varies from weapon to weapon. The stronger the weapon, the slower the rate.

“What is in it for me?” These weapon spirits weren’t weak. Not by a long shot. The consequences won’t be a slap on the wrist if she was going to take them out of the Weapon Pavilion.

Although Cardis said she is his Successor, she doesn’t know how much protection the position offered her. She need to get more out of these weapon spirits if she was going to take the risk and sneak them out.

The three weapon spirits looked at Tempest, the spark of hope they had dimmed down greatly.

“We have nothing but ourselves to give.” the spokesman of the trio said sadly, “We are too powerful to let loose in the world. Everyone looks at us with greed and our wielder, envy and jealousy. Every tricks and schemes were used to kill our wielders and obtain us. Our wielders could trust no one. Honor, duty, friendship and love were bled from them through betrayal after betrayal at the hands of parents, siblings, spouse, children, mentors or friends. No one can survive overwhelming odds over and over again. And so our wielder died and we became another’s possession. Possession by betrayals leads to another betrayal and another betrayal until nothing remains but a mountain of corpses and a river of blood.

“We can not be blamed for the greed of men, yet we were held responsible for the aftermath. We’re too strong to be allowed in enemy's hand, yet they don’t have the aptitude for weapons. Their only recourse is to lock us up in here, like the monster they believed us to be, yet it is the monster in their heart they should be wary of.

“Little girl, you asked if we have anything to trade you for our freedom. We have nothing but ourselves. For all that is worth, we offer ourselves for a chance.” the spokesman got on his knees and presented his weapon to Tempest like an offering.

“We offer ourselves for the chance.” a wave of voices echoed through the room as weapon spirit after weapon spirit kneeled down and offer their weapon to Tempest.