Chapter 22 - Selecting a Saber

Ao Wen looked over the saber that Qing Chen had placed before her. The hilt was a full hand longer than the hilt of Dragon Fang and it ended in a stout iron ring. The blade itself was also longer by a hand, broader than Dragon Fang and it ended in a shark fin tip. "May I?" She asked. Receiving a nod, she lifted the blade and stepped smoothly into a warm up exercise. The saber felt sluggish in her hands at first but she slowly began to adjust to the extra weight and length of the weapon.

Qing Chen stifled a snort. Clearly the weapon was more than the little lady could handle but she stubbornly refused to admit it. If she had been one of the hot blooded young masters that lusted after power they weren't ready for, he wouldn't mind. Such idiots deserved their misfortune. Little ladies like Ao Wen though needed more guidance and protection, even if that meant protecting her from herself.

"Perhaps I can help by standing as a practice partner," Qing Chen offered, picking up a heavy ringed saber. "While I'm not a middle stage Brawler like yourself, I've lived my whole life around weapons and swinging a hammer for a living gives me more strength than the average Aesthete. Would that be helpful?"

Ao Wen frowned at his tone but then smiled. "Aesthete Qing is a most accommodating shop master," she said. "But it wouldn't be appropriate to trade blows in your shop. Let me see what else may be suitable and then we can step out front to test the ones that may suit me."

"Very well," he said, shaking his head at her stubbornness. "How about this one?"

The next blade he offered had an even longer hilt with a blade that widened to three times the width of its base by the time it reached the tip. To Ao Wen, it felt more like a polearm than a saber. "No," she said, frowning. "The one to your left with the extra point on the spine, it reminds me a bit of the inside of a scorpion's pincer," she said, asking about a long handled saber with a less flared profile than the one on the polearm.

Ignoring Qing Chen's barely audible sigh as he handed over the weapon, Ao Wen started to work through a different set of moves, sliding her left hand along the spine of the blade as she focused on blocking and close fighting techniques. The extra flared point slightly shortened the amount of space she had on the spine of the blade but it was rare for any technique to extend a hand that far along the spine. Still, the balance point of the blade was further forward than she liked and several movements required a bit more strength to manage to compensate for the change. It wouldn't be impossible to adapt to if she chose to, just like she was adapting to being nearly six centimeters shorter than Jun Biyu.

"How does it compare to Dragon Fang?" Feng Xi asked, wondering about the saber Ao Wen had wielded as Jun Biyu.

"Heavier," Ao Wen said. "And balanced further forward. It's more aggressive, less defensive. Against something like the Blood Rage Cougars, it's probably a better weapon," she said, thinking of the two different types of beasts she had experience with. "Against the Wind Howl Coyotes, it would have been worse but I'm not sure if it would have been fatally so. There was a moment when Dragon Fang bound in the skull of one of the coyotes while a second one attacked me from behind. This saber would cleave deeper. If it cleaved cleanly through the skull, that would have been preferable, but if it bound more deeply, it would have been a struggle to get it free in time. Wind Howl Coyotes aren't just fast, they fade into the dust storm and attack from surprising directions so being able to pivot quickly is important," she rubbed a shoulder, recalling the pain that went with that lesson learned. "I think it's a question of tradeoffs. Not better, not worse, just different," she concluded. While she hadn't fought many different forms of beast, Teacher Xie's lectures had covered a wide range of topics and she remembered each of them. He'd often said that once they achieved sufficient proficiency with their primary weapon, they should handle variations of that weapon because a warrior couldn't always choose what they might need to work with when deprived of their preferred weapons. Becoming too inflexible was a weakness. Equally, scattering one's focus too much prevented a person from accomplishing the most challenging of feats. As with all things a saber wielder must learn, a path of balance the width of a blade had to be walked at all times.

Qing Chen frowned at the tall tale spun by this young cultivator. There had been a rumor going around that he hadn't wanted to believe, saying that she hadn't actually killed any Blood Rage Cougars but had fabricated the story. People pointed out that she'd brought back no trophies of the hunt, and that they hadn't felt the trace of so much as a single beast core in her possession. Now, hearing her make up a fight with beasts he'd never heard of, his opinion of her sank even lower.

"If you want more balanced," he said, giving up his previous kind intentions. "I have something that may suit you, however, the price is considerably greater," he said. "Twenty spirit crystals, not a single one less," he added as he retrieved an elegant long saber from a shelf under the counter. "The hilt has been carved from the spine of a Savage Thunder Bear," he explained. It seemed that the individual vertebrae of the spine had been separated, carved into rings and reassembled along the length of the tang, giving the hilt a sculpted feeling of slight indentations where fingers would rest. "The blade itself includes a finish of Lightning Glass powder and is forged from layers of Storm Steel and Black Sand Iron, that's what creates the swirling cloud pattern on the blade. It carries the name 'Thunder King,'" he added, pride in his work strong in his voice. It was a glorious blade, well worth the price of ten, perhaps fifteen spirit crystals, but he was done entertaining this little girl with her made up stories of besting pretend monsters. If she was the kind of fool he took her for, she'd leap at the opportunity to own a blade worthy of her tall tales. After all, without hunting trophies to show for her work, there had to be something to make people believe that she was capable of the deeds she boasted of!

"No," Ao Wen rejected the blade instantly. "I'm sure that it's a fine blade, the shape and balance are quite to my liking, but this saber is better suited to someone else."

"Wen," Feng Xi said, still gazing at the beautiful blade. "If it's about the price…"

"It's not about the price, elder sister," she replied quickly. "This blade actually suits you more than it suits me. Your bloodline resonates with the wind and storms. If you'd like, I can teach you the saber. I'm not Teacher Xie, but I can show you what I know. But for me, it's hard to call on the power of Thunder. When I opened the gates of my inner world, I actually had to discard the lightning energy that came with the awakening incense because it wasn't my power to begin with. This saber would be the same."

"I think you're underestimating how much this can multiply your power," Qing Chen said. "How about this, you're clearly an experienced and well trained warrior," he continued, playing to her ego. "In a fight, you should best me easily. Take either of the other sabers you've looked at and let's have a match in the square outside. Equally armed, I'm sure that I'm not your opponent," he said, further flattering her. "But if the weapon makes the difference, allowing me to overpower you, then you'll buy it. If it isn't as overwhelming as I believe and you're able to best me with a more ordinary weapon, I'll gift you the sword you defeat me with."

"That's hardly a fair wager," Feng Xi began to protest. If he won, he stood to make a sizable profit off the sale of the Thunder King. If he lost, he only suffered a loss of a few taels of gold! How could she let her little sister be taken advantage of like this?

"It doesn't need to be fair," Ao Wen said. "Fights aren't fair. Stakes aren't always even. Jun Dan and his army of a thousand brawlers staked their lives to delay the march of Emperor Mo Shang's army of five thousand men. Behind them were their families, their homes, and hundreds of years of the Jun Clan's foundation. Emperor Mo Shang risked five thousand men of the hundred thousand soldiers under his command. The odds weren't fair, the stakes weren't even, but Jun Dan fought anyway. The stakes here are much less, we're not wagering lives. Worst case, I spend money on a gift for my big sister," Ao Wen finished.

"The more I hear about the Jun Clan, the more I wish I could meet those extraordinary people you talk about," Feng Xi said, smiling in admiration for the soldiers who had risked everything to protect their clan.

"Maybe one day we will," Ao Wen said in a voice tinged with nostalgia. She didn't know if any of her martial siblings were still alive, or even Teacher Xie but she hoped that some of them still lived. "For now, Aesthete Qing has given me an opportunity to test his work. How could I refuse?"