‘What a waste of time!’
Lin Ming rubbed his eyes as he made his way through the streets of the Sky Fortune city. He wasn’t tired, after all, the Gamer ability made it so that he could never be tired. ‘Man, maybe even the elements are too difficult for me?’ A sigh was released as he continue to trudge forward. ‘Just because I have the Gamer ability doesn’t mean everything would be easy.’ The fact hit him a little harder than he had expected. After all, he thought that with the Gamer ability, breezing through would be expected. Yet, now he had hit a roadblock. ‘Right, a roadblock,’ he looked down at his clenched fist. A grin spread across his face, ‘makes it feel so much more real.’ He drew a deep breath in, feeling the humid air embracing the inside of his lungs. The chirping of birds echoed in his ears, the cool breeze caressed his cheeks. Even the coarse texture of his hemp shirt was vividly felt through his skin. ‘I really don’t need to be so disheartened, after all, people literally spend decades trying to understand these Concepts and Laws. It makes sense that I won’t be able to understand it through only one night of meditation.’ Shaking his head, his steps were slightly lighter as he made his way through the relatively empty streets of the capital. Very soon, he was standing in front of a large estate with two guards holding guandaos standing in front of the gate. ‘This should be the place.’ He walked up to the guards, whom glared at him.
“Brothers, I’m here to see my cousin, Lin Xiaodong. I was wondering if someone could call him?”
The two guards looked at each other before one of them tilted his head towards the gate. “Its your turn, I went last time.” The other guard frowned before heading inside. Lin Ming simply waited outside the estate, looking off into the distance, or at least that's what he appeared to do. In reality, Lin Ming was using his Divine Sense to probe the guard. ‘What is this chaotic mess?!’ Indeed, as he surveyed the guard different colored particles appeared all over the guard, looking like a constantly shifting mess of different multicolored sands. ‘I guess if understanding something was that simple then everybody would be an expert.’ Just as he was about to give up, an idea struck him. ‘I wonder what would happen if I used Observation?’ It was an idea simply born out of curiosity, nothing more. As he activated Observation, the scene in his mind suddenly changed. It was like everything was filtered as the view almost completely changed, from a man made of constantly shifting and moving sand, to a man made of glass with different colored liquids flowing through it. As soon as his attention was focused on a certain part of the projection, the corresponding information would show up.
Blood
Human blood. Nothing particularly exciting.
True Essence
Tempered through basic Martial Arts Manual, resulting in an extremely poor and uneven distribution of strength.
The overall projection was labeled in a more enlightening way.
Lin Family’s Guard
A human essence cultivator in Initial Bone Forging stage. Due to using an extremely poor quality martial arts to train, the tempering is severely uneven and cultivation beyond Pulse Condensation is impossible.
The projection had some places glowing brightly, whereas others were dull to the point of almost not glowing. ‘These glowing areas should be the areas that have been well tempered, and the dull areas should be the ones with minimal tempering.’ Just to confirm his guess, he focused on the fist that was glowing brightly.
Tempered Flesh: 80/100
Comparing it to the armpit, Lin Ming confirmed his guess.
Tempered Flesh: 5/100
‘This imbalance is actually quite deadly.’ He frowned whilst staring at the somewhat dull muscles located in the guard’s body. It was like having a weak tendon; by applying enough force it can easily be snapped. ‘If someone knows this form of weakness, they can easily be bullied.’
“Brother Ming!” Turning around, he saw Lin Xiaodong walking out of the compound. At the same time, his glance towards the guard caused the projection to perfectly line up with the actual body of the guard. ‘Alright, that’s another weapon in my arsenal.’
“I thought you were heading to the Zhou Mountains this morning brother Ming.”
“Yeah, I was, but then I thought that I should grab a weapon before going.”
“A weapon?” Lin Xiaodong’s eyebrows shot up as he stared at Lin Ming. “Brother Ming, there are no ferocious beasts in the forest surrounding the Great Zhou Mountain, they have all been cleared by the students of the Sky Fortune and Seven Profound Martial Houses.”
“I know, I just wanted to get some practice in with a weapon whilst training.”
“Practice with a weapon?” Lin Xiaodong scratched his head as he stared at Lin Ming. It was a well known fact practicing with a weapon in the early stages of martial arts was pretty useless. After all, the early stages have a fast growth rate and purchasing weapons wasn’t cheap, so it was frowned upon to get weapons early on in the training. Unless of course one was rich, so having a low martial level but a high grade weapon was also a way of showing off. His cousin wasn’t rich, neither did he like to show off.
“Yes, a weapon brother Xiaodong.” Lin Ming’s eyes flicked over to the guard before going back Lin Xiaodong. Seeing this action, Lin Xiaodong released a sigh.
“Very well brother Ming, let me show a weapon store I think you will like.” Lin Xiaodong led Lin Ming away from the Lin Family Compound. They walked down the main street leading to the courtyard before turning a corner. “Brother Ming, what is going on?” Lin Xiaodong furrowed his brows as he stared at Lin Ming.
“Brother Xiaodong,” Lin Ming turned towards Xiaodong, “I promise to tell you everything, but before that, I really need a weapon.” Lin Xiaodong didn’t say anything and just stared at Lin Ming. A silence dawned between the two of them, before it was broken by a heavy sigh.
“Very well brother Ming, but I really hope everything is okay.”
He placed his hand on Lin Xiaodong’s shoulder and nodded. “Don’t worry, it’s actually good news but I need a weapon first.”
“Right, follow me, I know just the store.”
….……………
The Sky Fortune city was the capital of the Sky Fortune Kingdom. As such, it wasn’t a surprise that it covered a fairly large space. Not to mention main streets, the back alleys created a maze full of twists and turns that hid some ugly and some beautiful parts of the city. Some even had hidden gems, such as the shop Lin Ming currently staring at.
“Hundred Weapon Pavilion” Lin Ming stared up at the wooden board with the sharp calligraphy, before looking down at the shabby store. ‘This is interesting.’ He followed Lin Xiaodong into the store.
“Welcome to Hundred Weapon Pavilion! We sell the most reliable weapons in Sky Fortune City!” A smiling face with plenty of baby fat greeted him from behind the wooden counter.
“Little Ying, where is your mother?” Lin Xiaodong fired off the first question before Lin Ming could even properly take in the shop’s interior.
“Big brother Xiaodong, mother is gone to secure some materials from the latest shipment.” The girl jumped up from behind the counter and ran to Xiaodong giving him a hug.
“Tell your mother to relax a little. She just recovered, it isn’t good for her to be moving around so much.” Lin Xiaodong smiled and patted the girl before turning to Lin Ming. “Brother Ming, you can look around, I have to go see uncle Ye.”
Lin Ming simply nodded and began observing the interior, whilst Lin Xiaodong was led inside the store by Ye Ying. The store had a small interior with only normal weapons being showcased all over the shop. He ignored everything and went to one corner of the shop, which held a sole spear that appeared to made from dark grey wood. “Indeed, it seems like this body has an innate affinity with spears.” Lin Ming, like the average person in this world, was seven foot tall. The spear in front of him appeared a lot taller, being nearly nine feet. He extended his hand and picked up the spear, it weighed down on his hands as he held it.
[Spear Mastery <Passive> Lv. 1 has been obtained]
“That's a good choice for a weapon.”
I wanted to read a cultivation story where the MC's weapon was his body