Seven Black Objects

Blake became dazed.

A blood geyser had suddenly appeared in front of him, before it disappeared back into the ground shortly after spitting out seven black objects.

Seven black objects…It had the same exact number as his seven deadly sins' artifacts too.

Could this be a coincidence? Or was his teacher sending him gifts to aid him in his cultivation journey?

At the thought of this, Blake simply shook his head. It was his teacher, Chaos after all.

His teacher wasn't one to pamper him, much less give him gifts whenever he improves himself.

It was already good enough that Chaos had left him a heavenly treasure that was the Seven Deadly Sins. Oh right, his teacher left him a sect to inherit too.

So strictly speaking, Blake was in a daze because he couldn't figure out whether his teacher had given him new gifts or not.

'I guess I will inspect those black objects first.' In the end, Blake gave up on guessing.

He picked up the nearest black object near his feet before he lifted it up to inspect the object.

"This is…a sword? No, a rapier."

Despite being covered in a layer of black substance, Blake understood that the rapier he was holding was an incredible artifact just by feeling the buzzing aura the rapier exuded.

He then tried to inject mana into the black rapier, but the rapier simply bounced off his hands the moment the first drops of mana touched the hilt of the rapier.

'An artifact that bounces away when someone tries to figure out your worth? Interesting. It seems like you already have an owner. Else, you would have accepted my mana without care.'

But as Blake glanced at the rapier once more, he felt that it looked somewhat familiar to the rapier his friend once used.

Just like his friend's rapier, this black rapier's basket was decorated with various jewels of all sizes.

There was a dark blue seashell encrusted into the middle of the basket, while its grip was made from Hippocampus leather.

'This…Isn't this Daniel's Deep Blue Rapier?!' Blake looked at the black rapier in shock.

His shock didn't last long however.

After thinking about it some more, he dismissed the thought.

Because Blake was close with the owner of the rapier, he knew that his friend took his rapier to the grave back then.

So the chances of his friend's rapier appearing before him was zero. It wouldn't make sense if his friend's rapier dug itself out of the grave before it came to find him, right?

Thinking so, Blake put the rapier aside as he picked up another black object.

This time, it was a pair of black shields attached to the wrists of a pair of gauntlets.

He noticed that the shield gauntlets were heavier than they seemed, so he guessed that the shields could expand and contract with the touch of a mechanism inside the gauntlets.

Since the shields were covered in the black substance, Blake couldn't identify the logo found on the shields.

He tried to inject mana into the shield gauntlets, but got rejected the same as the shield gauntlets bounced away from his grasp.

With that, he put the shield gauntlets aside.

Blake then picked up a black utility belt with a black drive compartment attached to it.

Looking at the drive compartment, Blake wondered whether the owner of this utility belt was a fan of masked riders from ancient times.

Ancient records have stated that masked men who ride bikes and fight otherworldly monsters have existed at one point in time.

Not only that, the masked riders have even achieved godhood, although it was rare among the masked riders themselves.

On the other hand, the utility belt in Blake's hands were once again covered in the black substance, thus blocking him from knowing whose driver it was.

He wasn't a fan of masked riders so he put the belt aside without even trying to inject mana into it.

Just like that, Blake spent 2 hours inspecting the seven black objects that appeared from a blood geyser.

And just like that, Blake learned nothing about the seven black objects he had inspected. Thus, making him feel like shit as he had just wasted his own time.

'Haiz, so besides these artifacts looking like they belonged to seven of my old friends, they are a useless pile of junk lying in my backyard, great.'

He then wiped the blood off his pants before he stood up and walked towards the community hall, leaving the seven black items lying in his backyard.

He guessed that his friends were going to question him about why he was 2 hours late to the clan meeting.

And…he was half right.

Because upon entering his community hall, besides his usual friends, there was a group of unknown people waiting for him too. Furthermore, he saw that an old man was sitting in his favorite chair.

'Well he deserves death.' Blake silently thought to himself.

"Well well well, look who decided to show up…The man, the myth, the legend…Blake Chaos. A brat bold enough to open and operate a clan without a sect operating license! Who do you think you are to ignore the alliance's rules and open a sect by yourself, huh?"

"Well, let me first ask you this. Who are you people? What are you guys doing in my house?" Blake looked at the group calmly as a suffocating aura slowly filled up the room.

The boy made sure to control his emotions well so that the other party doesn't find out about his plan.

I mean, it would be faster for Blake to kill them off. But Blake wanted to know about his intruders' background first.

Collect info now, kill them off later. This was Blake's method to pluck out the roots of his problems.

"Who are we? We are the Nine Martial Alliance who have a say in every clan and sect around the globe! Our Nine Martial Alliance was created by the United Nations to keep tabs on all existing and new sects in the current era. Hmmm, now that I think about it. It might be because you're dumb that you don't know of our alliance's existence. That's fine. We'll overlook it if you pay us triple the fees." The old man sitting in Blake's chair replied.

He looked to be around 70 years old, sporting a bald head and a long gray beard. Blake sensed that the old man was a Martial General, so his haughtiness was quite normal to the average mortal.

Nonetheless, it seemed that the old man came to collect money from him under the false pretense of operating a sect without a license.

'Since when did sect leaders need a license to open and operate a sect? Don't tell me that the United Nations actually agreed to set this rule to monitor the old sects and factions?' At the thought of it, Blake couldn't help but burst out laughing.