In the Tranquil Sun province of the empire, there exists an unremarkable lordship known as Snow Eagle Territory! This is the home of the Dong Bo clan, the clan of our hero Xue Ying! His father, a commoner turned noble; his mother, a noble who abandoned her clan for love, and his brother, an innocent toddler. But peace cannot last forever, Xue Ying’s peaceful life is shattered, and the only way to reclaim it is through power!
"Go to Water Rites Town?" Zong Ling and Tong San said in excitement. It was rare to hear this from Dong Bo Xue Ying because in the past, Dong Bo Xue Ying couldn’t afford to be distracted and he was always practicing hard. He seldomly traveled; it was rare for him to visit Water Rites Town even once a year.
"Xue Ying, are you going to buy some weapons?" Zong Ling suddenly asked.
Dong Bo Xue Ying immediately smiled. "Uncle, I would have forgotten to do that if you hadn’t mentioned it. I really should get a new spear. This time, I’m going to Water Rites Town…because it’s almost New Year. After the New Year, Qing Shi is going to be 10-years-old! He can’t keep playing this way, and I had promised him earlier that I would find him a magic teacher when he turned 10 so that he could start learning."
"Well, a magic teacher is extremely important," Zong Ling and Tong San said seriously.
A mage was knowledgeable and wise.
Without a good teacher, learning by oneself would make it difficult to become a knowledgeable and wise mage. Not to mention, advanced magic techniques involved the spirit. Being reckless might damage one’s own spirit, and once that happened, it would be too late for regrets.
"In all of Water Rites Town, there is only one mage––Bai Yuan Zhi," said Dong Bo Xue Ying. "Bai Yuan Zhi is living in the town, so I plan on asking him to accept my brother as his personal disciple. "
"A personal disciple?" questioned Zong Ling with worry. "I’m afraid this might be quite difficult."
A mage’s guidance focused on teaching of all aspects of knowledge and thoughts.
The relationship between a mage and their personal disciple was one comparable to that of a parent and child. Because of this, powerful mages preferred to accept random disciples, nonchalantly telling their disciples that their results depended on how much effort they put in themselves. A personal disciple received more careful guidance, so a powerful mage could only accept a few throughout his life. This was because even a powerful mage needed to spend time practicing on their own; taking too many personal disciples would interfere with this.
"How would I know what might happen if I don’t try?" Dong Bo Xue Ying laughed.
...
Two days later.
After all was said and done, he was an expert who had almost reached the spear master’ realm. Even though his strength had risen drastically, after adapting for two days, Dong Bo Xue Ying had already grown accustomed to it. He took his brother, as well as a hundred cavalrymen, and headed towards Water Rites Town
"I haven’t come to town with my big brother in a long time," Qing Shi said excitedly.
Dong Bo Xue Ying rode on the Frost Pegasus with Qing Shi sitting excitedly in between Dong Bo Xue Ying’s arms.
As a rank 2 magic beast, the flight of the Frost Pegasus was extremely smooth. Moreover, the current pace of the Frost Pegasus could barely even be considered a trot! After all, he had to let the cavalrymen in the back keep up with them. If he allowed the Frost Pegasus to frantically fly… he feared that it would vanish in the blink of an eye.
After little more than half an hour, a towering city came into sight.
The castle was only 50 kilometers away from the Water Rites Town!
When his parents had chosen to settle…. they chose a territory near the city! Xue Ying’s territory’s edges were all close to the city.
"It’s the Snow Eagle Territory’s cavalry." Water Rites Town’s lazy guards heard a rumble as they looked into the distance where the cavalry was headed towards them. All of the cavalrymen carried Star Breaking Crossbows, a distinctive mark of the Snow Eagle Territory.
"At the front is the Snow Eagle Territory’s young lords; in Xue Ying’s arms is his brother Qing Shi."
"I didn’t expect that the young lord would visit the town."
"It’s rare for him to come."
"His little brother comes here often, I saw him several times during the last month."
These guards stood talking to each other on opposite sides of the entrance as the cavalry entered the city.
It had been over 9000 years since the founding of the empire. As a result, the lowest level city guards had become complacent long ago, and were only able to intimidate some small bandits. Some great lords were so ferocious that even the powerful bandits didn’t dare to provoke them.
...
"It’s Snow Eagle Territory’s young lords."
"Make way."
"Make some room."
The townspeople were curious to see what was going on, so all of them made way as this was one of Water Rites Town’s top ten families, and a lord who was personally traveling here. This was considered a big spectacle.
"Xu Ming Goods Store!" One particular giant store’s front was very eye catching.
"Just here."
"neigh~~~" Dong Bo Xue Ying reined in his horse and ordered, "Everyone is to wait for me outside."
"Yes, my lord." The soldiers respectfully replied.
"Uncle, let’s go in." Dong Bo Xue Ying gave his horse’s reins to one of his men. He held his brother’s hand as they entered the store.
Although it said it was a good’s store, but the store was hundreds of square meters large and had dozens of clerks and customers.
This was the largest, and therefore best, place to buy weapons in Water Rites Town.
"In the end, Water Rites Town is just a county-level town. Few people can buy refiner weapons," Zong Ling laughed. "A rank 2 refiner weapon requires several tens of thousands gold coins and is worth as much as the entire Snow Eagle Territory. Just how many nobles in Water Rites Town can buy one? If you want to buy one, I’m afraid that you must go to a prefecture city. Even specialists will go to the provincial capital to buy one! Most of these aren’t ranked. A rank 1 refiner weapon would be considered the peak here. Or perhaps, there are rank 2 refiner weapons in this shop, which the shop would consider as treasures."
Dong Bo Xue Ying nodded slightly. His own spear that had been broken earlier could not be fixed.
"So this is the legendary Snow Eagle Territory’s Dong Bo Xue Ying, haha. I’ve long heard of this little brother’s big name before, but this is the first time I’ve met you." Clad in a purple robe, a middle-aged man entered while laughing.
"Xue Ying, this is the owner of the store, Earl Quan Xu Ming," Zong Ling introduced.
"Nice to meet you, Earl Quan." Dong Bo Xue Ying smiled.
The number of powerful figures in Water Rites Town could be counted with one’s fingers, and Quan Xu Ming was one of them! This person was once a great merchant who had a large business outside, but because he had been unwilling to always rush about, when the chance came, he returned home. Afterwards, he had bought land and opened a store in the city. It was said that the store… had all kinds of rare treasures and weaponry and so on. Nevertheless, it was best in the entire Water Rites Town.
From the sheer number of treasures, one could see the power the store held.
"I’m older, so I’ll call you little brother Xue Ying," The purple-robed, middle-aged man laughed, "Litte brother, what have you come to my shop to buy?"
"A spear," said Dong Bo Xue Ying.
"Show us your best spear," said Zong Ling
"Yes, the best, bring out your best," said an excited Qing Shi beside them.
"Haha….. so bold. However, when all is said and done, my store is only a small store. I only have three spears that can be considered the very best here." After hearing their request, the purple-robed middle-aged man humbly thought within his heart, most people don’t have the strength to use a ranked refiner weapon, so it seems that this young lord is rather powerful! Perhaps he has even stepped into the realm of the Heaven Knights. He turned around and instructed, "Go get our best three spears for my little brother Xue Ying to choose from! Xue Ying, little brother, let us head inside first to sit down and leisurely talk."
By then, quite a few guests had noticed Dong Bo Xue Ying and had quietly begun to talk about him.
Although Xue Ying rarely entered the town, the town people still frequently discussed about him. He had become the lord of a territory at eight years-old,and reportedly, he practiced his spearmanship every single day as if he had been possessed. Some people also said that his parents were arrested, but others claimed that they were killed… There were all kinds of rumors, some more outrageous than others.
Within the room.
Tea and pastries were served while they chatted lightly.
Six maids brought in three ancient weapons,with two maids carrying a weapon case between them.
"Open them all and let little brother Xue Ying have a look.," ordered the middle-aged man clad in a purple robe.
Pun pun pun. All three weapon boxes were opened.
Dong Bo Xue Ying’s eyes immediately lit up when he viewed the weapons.