“Master’s wife, this disciple would like to visit the arsenal to see if there are any weapons suitable for me. The swords at the academy always feel awkward to use.” Di Renjie earnestly helped wash the ink off Yun Baobao’s body while speaking to the worried-looking Xinyue.
“Xiao Jie, you’re the most well-behaved among these children. Don’t go learning from Shishi and the others. What’s so good about practicing martial arts? A perfectly good young lady jumps around all day without peace. Boys even more shouldn’t learn any martial skills. Look at your Uncle Cheng and the others—which of them isn’t covered in scars? And they’ve only been to the battlefield how many times?”
“Study well with your master. He doesn’t know martial arts, yet among his generation he has the most distinguished military achievements. Lying on city walls with a knife fighting people isn’t what men of our family should do. Men of our family should stand far away and command others to go fight—that’s proper. Your constitution has been weak since childhood. Even Master Sun hasn’t been able to adjust it well for you. In a year you fall ill more times than Xiao Wu. Listen to me—only fools labor with their strength. You’re a smart person. We only need to labor with our minds.”
After finally washing the ink off Yun Baobao, Di Renjie walked out with his head hanging. Xinyue couldn’t bear to see this, so she said: “I’ll give you the key. You must only pick the lightest things to take. Your master made many strange and peculiar items. I hear they’re very powerful. Some are said to explode—you can’t take those. They’re very dangerous.”
Receiving the key, Di Renjie immediately cheered up. After thanking Xinyue, he left. He rubbed his cheeks—having put on a pitiful expression for so long, his cheeks were quite uncomfortable.
The Yun family arsenal was beneath the artificial mountain. There were guards stationed there year-round. Seeing Di Renjie approaching with the key, they said with a smile: “Young Master Jie, what brings you to the arsenal? Why didn’t the lady come with you?”
“Uncle Zhang, Uncle Li, Master’s wife is busy washing and bathing little junior brother, so she sent me alone. Don’t worry, I won’t touch things randomly. I’m just going in to look and take a couple of light weapons to practice with.”
The guards saw Di Renjie insert the key into the lock and open the iron lock, so they stopped obstructing him and let him light the oil lamps in the cave as he walked into the arsenal.
Only upon arriving here did Di Renjie discover how rich the Yun family’s weapon collection was. Under the dim candlelight, various steel products glinted with cold light—some snow-bright, some emitting a dark ghostly glow. Dozens of wooden mannequins wore iron armor with pitch-black darkness inside their helmets, like black demon gods.
Walking slowly forward along the weapon racks, meteor hammers were not something he could wield, nor were flails. Just looking at the dark iron spikes on the hammer heads, one knew these were not good things. A huge Mo sword rested on the sword rack. Other Mo swords had no edge, but only the Yun family’s Mo sword had a blade section full of jagged teeth—it looked terrifying even sitting still. Three swords were wrapped in pale green sharkskin with bronze mouths. Di Renjie gently drew out the foremost one, held it in his hand and swung it lightly a few times—he liked it very much. On the base beneath the sword was a line written by his master: This sword is named Duo Xiong, weighing three catties, six liang and seven qian. It is truly hundred-times refined steel, mixed with the Yun family’s unique craftsmanship. Cutting nails and severing iron is a small matter. Who knows when a hero will wield this precious sword and make all heroes under heaven yield.
Di Renjie regretfully placed this Duo Xiong precious sword back on the sword stand. His constitution was unsuitable for martial practice. Old Eunuch Wu She had examined him countless times. What a pity! Otherwise, with this sword, how satisfying it would be to traverse the world freely. Stroking this sword with closed eyes, he imagined himself standing before a mass of dark crowds, slowly drawing the precious sword and shouting loudly: “Who dares fight me!” All heroes under heaven would retreat. What heroic spirit! What a hero!
Reluctantly leaving that sword, he walked to the blade rack. The Yun family’s blades were also different from the horizontal swords outside. Their horizontal swords were all straight, but only the Yun family’s blades had beautiful curves. A precious blade tied with red silk had no scabbard, just clamped between two copper blocks. The blade was covered with pitted marks from iron hammer strikes—it looked extremely crude. The handle was simply wrapped with some hemp rope, but approaching it, one couldn’t help being awed by this blade’s domineering aura. The blade edge didn’t seem particularly sharp, yet it gave one the illusion that it could split mountains and cleave rocks. The taotie counterweight at the handle raised its head toward heaven, seeming to want to devour the sky.
Looking at the text below, sure enough, Master had given this blade a very fitting name: This blade is called Tun Tian. Made from meteorite essence, it remained unmoved through three days of forging. Only after adding coal essence did it melt. Poured into the mold, it naturally took shape. Iron hammer strikes couldn’t move it—only water hammer bombardment worked, taking three months to complete. None but heroes may use it lightly. In the world, only one person is worthy of this blade—Xi Tong. Others are mediocre. Though some may surpass Xi Tong in martial arts, their breadth of mind and bearing are far inferior.
After reading the inscription, Di Renjie felt extremely oppressed. He could freely take any of the weapons here, but alas, having no strength to truss a chicken, he could only watch them gather dust here. Not being able to practice martial arts was his life’s greatest regret.
Further on were various crossbows and arrows. Among them was a longbow with pulleys placed upside down on the bow rack. Di Renjie knew about this one. This bow used the same materials as the one used by Hei Chi Chang, who was sent to the palace as a bow slave, but the bowstring was made from that roll of silk thread in Master’s hands, while Hei Chi Chang’s bow used tanned dragon sinew—the two were worlds apart. Though both were five-stone bows, this one was far superior to his.
Tapping his finger on the bow’s back, with no string attached now, who knew this bow was almost the strongest bow under heaven? An eagle shooter with such a bow would be almost invincible. He had told Master this at the time, but Master just smiled and shook his head. Di Renjie couldn’t understand then what long-range weapon could surpass this powerful bow.
The Zhuge repeating crossbow. Di Renjie curled his lip. Though this thing could fire densely, its force was insufficient—it could only be used at close range. Even slightly far, it was useless waste.
Finally he saw the small and exquisite swallow-wing crossbow. Now this was good stuff. Originally it could only fire one shot at a time, but after Master and the Gongshu family improved it, it could fire three shots—either in volleys or individually. Moreover, it was very powerful—within a hundred paces it could penetrate heavy armor. Light and convenient, very light. After Master repeatedly improved it, he reduced the swallow-wing crossbow’s weight to two catties and seven liang—almost the extreme for this type of weapon.
Master forbade Di Renjie from using other weapons but commanded that he must master the use of this weapon. Therefore, he was extremely skilled with this thing. Taking the leverage device from beside the rack, he easily attached the bowstring, installed an arrow magazine below the crossbow—the magazine had a spring and held a total of six arrows. With one motion he pulled the trigger. After a humming sound, three arrows formed a triangle pattern nailed into the circular target on the wall. It took great effort to pull them out. He loaded them back into the magazine and hung the swallow-wing crossbow on his belt. This crossbow was originally his. Beside it was a pink one—that was Xiao Wu’s Little Swallow. Even killing implements were decorated beautifully with strange names. Not like his own, named Chasing Star—how imposing! Little Swallow—ugh, just a toy.
Xiao Wu could practice martial arts, but she herself was unwilling to practice, thinking that being confined in a study reading those classics was far more interesting than jumping around. As the Heavenly Demon Princess said, beauties couldn’t practice martial arts—the flesh on their chests would move to their arms, the flesh on their bottoms would move to their thighs. Not pretty at all.
Di Renjie previously couldn’t understand why women needed such large chests and round bottoms. Now he understood. Just look at Hypatia—if he looked at her one more time, his heartbeat would accelerate. Women indeed should have large bosoms and pretty bottoms. His future wife must be like this. Xiao Wu with a figure like a hairtail fish was absolutely not to be considered. If Master insisted on betrothing Xiao Wu to him, he would resist unto death. Thinking of Xiao Wu’s domineering ways gave Di Renjie a terrible headache. But Master seemed to have this intention—he’d mentioned it several times in his words, though jokingly. Di Renjie knew Master never did meaningless things. Eighty percent certain he wanted to betroth Xiao Wu to him. It wouldn’t do! He must push Xiao Wu to the other Xiao Jie. That fellow wasn’t bad either—also an outstanding student at the academy, from a distinguished family, the future Emperor’s brother-in-law. By any measure he counted as an outstanding person. Sister Xiao Wu marrying him wouldn’t be degrading.
Thinking of this made him happy. There really were fools in this world who rushed into the fire like moths. Xiao Wu tormented him so much, yet he still pressed forward—this was the standard husband-and-wife compatibility! One liked tormenting people, the other liked being tormented. What a perfectly matched pair! If those two could marry, he’d definitely send a generous gift.
He took out six more arrow magazines from the box—three per person, more than enough. Thinking of how terrifying those people were, Di Renjie took a small medicine bottle from the shelf. Inside was the strongest anesthetic—he’d coat the arrowheads just in case.
He also took two daggers that could eject blades. Giving weapons to Xiao Wu was fine, but giving them to Xiao Ya would throw the world into chaos. Shishi had long taken her weapons—no one knew where she kept them, no need to worry about her. Finally everything was gathered. He put the arrow magazines and daggers in the box. Xiao Wu’s Little Swallow was also placed in the box. His own Chasing Star was hung at his lower back, covered by his robe so others couldn’t see it.
The arsenal guards Old Zhang and Old Li inspected the weapons one by one, found the account book for Di Renjie to sign, used his seal, and only then agreed to let Di Renjie take the weapons away.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard Grandfather Jiang on the artificial mountain laughing “gaga” and saying: “Little fellow, you’re quite cunning, specially picking weapons for underhanded tactics. Well, you have a weak constitution—there’s no help for it. Protect yourself well, and let Martial Girl Wu also be more careful. It’s not peaceful around here lately. Your master instructed that if you discover danger, immediately enter the maze forest without any delay. No one’s life is more important than yours, understand?”
“Grandfather Jiang, what have you discovered?”
“Nothing discovered, but this old man’s sense of urgency grows closer. My heart jumps with fright all day. So, boy, be careful. Don’t let the enemy take advantage.”