Chapter 55: The Black Sword

The King walked in, motioning for everyone else to follow.

“Here you are. You all have 10 minutes to choose a weapon.

If several of you want the same weapon, whoever touches it first will be the

rightful owner. Don’t cause trouble in the royal armory, or you’ll be

disqualified from the tournament, and you will not be allowed to bring any

weapon out of the armory.”

“Besides, there’s no real point for you guys to fight over

weapons. All of the weapons here are unique treasures, and there are so many of

them. Now go.”

Jia Yuan and the others rushed into the armory, looking for

weapons that fit their needs. About five instantly ran toward the axes, while

Jia Yuan and another ran toward the swords.

One, strangely enough, headed over to the section of the

armory that was full of staffs. There weren’t many staff users in the Fire

Kingdom. It could only be used with mellower Songs of Fire.

However, Jia Yuan didn’t think much of it. Instead, he

focused on finding a sword that fit his needs.

However, almost all of the swords were either too heavy or

had the wrong balance. However, he kept trying new swords.

The number of swords in the royal armory was not to be

scoffed at. Although the number was less than half of the amount of axes, there

were still easily more than a thousand swords, even over a hundred swords of

the hand and a half variety.

It was these swords that Jia Yuan was testing. After briefly

testing out each of the hand and a half swords, Jia Yuan was rather disappointed.

The weapons were all of wondrous quality… but none of them really fit his

requirements. They were all either too heavy or too light, or the balance was

wrong.

Just as he was about to give up, he noticed a pitch black

sword. He reached over and picked it up. Instantly, his Song reacted to the

sword, inadvertently releasing its full aura for a split second.

~Clang, clang~

Various sounds of clanging metal sounded through the royal

armory as all of the other invitees collapsed. Even some of the guards

collapse, and the King himself felt a hint of danger.

Jia Yuan was both incredibly happy and panicked at the same

time. He had actually found a sword that suited his needs! However, if he chose

this sword, it would instantly be a red flag for the King and his ministers.

After all, why would anyone who only cultivated a Song of Fire be so interested

in such a sword? Furthermore, the aura that had been involuntarily let out had

caused a scene in the royal armory, and the guards were beginning to spread out

through the armory.

If they saw Jia Yuan with the sword, they may be able to put

the two together and guess that Jia Yuan had some sort of special connection to

the sword!

Jia Yuan couldn’t afford that!

He was panicking, but his mind worked very quickly despite

that.

He instantly dropped to the floor, grabbing another sword on

the way down, letting it fall to the floor with a clang. As for the black

sword, Jia Yuan drew it into his ring, hoping that the others wouldn’t realize

that he had effectively stolen a weapon from the armory.

When the guards arrived at the swords section, they saw Jia

Yuan and the other youth sprawled on the ground. One of the ministers quickly

followed the guards and saw the same.

“Urrrghh…” Jia Yuan made a show of massaging his head as he

slowly crawled up from the ground, blatantly using the sword in his hand as a

support. “What happened?”

At this time, the other youth also began to lift himself off

of the ground.

“Jia Yuan, Chen Ying. Come with me, it may not be safe in

the royal armory. The King says that a powerful enemy spy may have used their

aura to scout the area. While it is impossible for anyone other than the King

to open the door to the armory, this could mean trouble for the Fire Kingdom.”

“Can we still choose a weapon to bring out?” Jia Yuan asked.

“Of course, of course. But you will have to make the

decision right now. We cannot tarry any longer.”

Chen Ying, the other boy, held on to the sword in his hand,

while Jia Yuan did the same with his. At this point, he didn’t really care what

sword he brought out, since he already had the black sword in his ring.

While Jia Yuan maintained a slightly worried and anxious

look on his face, on the inside, he was gloating. He obviously didn’t feel any

real danger because he understood that the aura had come from himself-there was

no actual danger.

Haha, I’ve really

found a treasure this time. If they don’t find out, then I’ll really have made

a killing. Even if they do find out…

Nobody other than Guo Huo knew about Jia Yuan’s ring. To

keep suspicions from appearing, he had kept HiRyu by his side the entire time,

in plain sight. There were so many weapons in the royal armory, they shouldn’t

miss one… right?