A dog licks to the end, only to end up with nothing.
The boy looked at the others with scorn, his face full of indifference.
"Who are you?" Xu Zimei stepped forward and asked.
"My name is Cui Yuan, and my grandfather is an Inner Sect Elder, Cui Yaoguang," the boy declared proudly.
Lin Ruhu slapped the back of the boy's head and exclaimed, "My grandfather is a Great Elder, and I haven't spoken up, since when did an Inner Sect Elder's grandson become so badass?"
In the True Martial Holy Sect, since the Sect Master had left, the one with the greatest power ought to be Deputy Sect Master Xu Qingshan.
Then came the seven Great Elders, followed by the Inner Sect Elders and the Outer Sect Elders.
"What right do you have to hit me?" Cui Yuan said defiantly. "If you have the guts, let's have a proper fight."
"Do you want to compete with me?" Xu Zimei asked with a smile. "Then, do you have a wager that would satisfy me?"
"Yes, let's fight directly, no tests of insight," Cui Yuan said.
He had started his cultivation a year ago and had already opened his first Vein Gate, reaching the Spirit Vein Realm, making him an Outer Sect Disciple of the True Martial Holy Sect.
"If you win, I can mortgage this Dragon Ball to you," Cui Yuan said, pulling out a dark yellow sphere from his Storage Ring.
This sphere had many intricate and seemingly chaotic patterns.
Xu Zimei originally didn't care much, but the moment he saw the sphere, he was stunned.
"In my past life I walked through iron shoes in endless search, now in this life it is effortlessly found," Xu Zimei snatched the sphere, excitedly inspecting it closely, and finally made sure.
He looked at Cui Yuan and asked, "Where did you get this bead from?"
Cui Yuan was startled by Xu Zimei's intense gaze and stammeringly replied, "I, I found it playing by the river behind the mountain."
"Very good," Xu Zimei nodded in approval and said, "This bead is now mine."
"But we haven't competed yet," Cui Yuan quickly said.
"What competition? If Brother Zimo wants your stuff, it's because he sees potential in you," Lin Ruhu chimed in with wide eyes, speaking threateningly.
"You're bullying me," Cui Yuan stepped back, his voice filled with grievance.
"Piss off," Xu Zimei waved his hand dismissively and said to Cui Yuan, "Go play on the side, or else I'll beat the crap out of you."
"You'll see," Cui Yuan cried, tears streaming down, as he hiccupped and ran toward the exit of the Gravity Tower.
Xu Zimei was not afraid. These were children's quarrels, and as long as they weren't too excessive or life-threatening, adults generally didn't intervene.
Moreover, as a qualified antagonist, deceit and theft were all part of the norm.
Would you expect a villain to fairly compete with you? You're dreaming!
The Prison Suppression Pearl, maybe no one knew the secret of this bead yet, but Xu Zimei was well aware of it, being one of the former protagonist Chu Yang's strongest trump cards, it had caused him a lot of suffering.
After securing the Prison Suppression Pearl, Xu Zimei cultivated in the Gravity Tower for an entire day.
The double gravity of the first layer was starting to feel insufficient, so Xu Zimei directly ascended to the second layer.
Because the gravity on the second layer was twenty times that of the first, and the large gap could prove too much for some disciples, the Sect Gate feared they couldn't withstand such intense gravity.
He added some gravity to the staircase going from the first to the second floor, from threefold, fourfold all the way to nineteenfold, just enough so that reaching the second floor would equate to twentyfold gravity.
Xu Zimei just sat on the stairs leading from the first to the second floor, exactly at the place where the gravity was tenfold.
He cultivated for an entire day, and only when the sun set behind the Western Mountains did Xu Zimei let out a long sigh.
His foundation within his body became more and more solid, he exhaled a long breath of white air, preparing to advance to the Spirit Vein Realm in the next few days.
As night fell, Xu Zimei bid Lin Ruhu farewell and didn't return to the Goose Southern Peak where he resided.
Instead, accompanied by the escort Zhang Chongtian, he made his way to the Divine Armory of the True Martial Holy Sect.
He was there to select his own weapon.
"Saber, spear, staff, club, sword, halberd, axe, hook; the eighteen types of weapons," Xu Zimei still remembered the words his father had once told him, "every weapon has a soul; never treat it as just an ice-cold tool.
Indeed, many powerful individuals' weapons have been with them ever since the very moment they embarked on the Martial Path.
Between a Vein Practitioner and a weapon, there lies a mutual fate; you choose it, and it also chooses you.
It is your companion on the Martial Path, not a tool for slaughter.
A true Vein Practitioner is one who can activate the spirit within the weapon, allowing the weapon's spirit to acknowledge you.
Only then can you truly claim to own your weapon."
The Divine Armory had a total of ten floors, and, on the Yuan Central Continent, the hierarchy of weapons was actually the same as that of Vein Skills and Cultivation Techniques.
There were eight tiers, Cosmic Stars, Heaven and Earth Mysterious-Yellow.
The first floor of the Divine Armory housed ordinary weapons forged from superior materials.
Many disciples would wonder, given that the materials are of high quality and could forge Earth Tier or even better Heavenly Tier weapons, why would Forging Masters deliberately reduce the quality to that of ordinary weapons.
This was a question many disciples of the True Martial Holy Sect did not understand, so when they chose weapons, they typically started from the second floor of the Divine Armory.
From the second to the ninth floor of the Divine Armory, there were weapons of the eight different tiers, including Cosmic Stars and Heaven and Earth Mysterious-Yellow.
On the tenth floor of the Divine Armory, stored there were the Great Emperor's True Artifacts left behind after the successive Great Emperors ascended.
Great Emperor's True Artifacts had accompanied the Great Emperors throughout their lives in battle, and during the time when the Great Emperors bore their Destiny, their weapons were also tempered by Destiny.
Their power was far more formidable compared to Universe Tier weapons.
Xu Zimei did not choose any of those weapons with known tiers; he went directly to the first floor where the ordinary weapons were displayed.
"Young Master, all the weapons here are ordinary ones that have not been tempered by Spiritual Energy, what use would choosing them be?" the escort Zhang Chongtian asked in confusion.
"It is precisely because they retain their most natural state that I choose them," Xu Zimei explained with a smile: "An unshaped piece of jade, given to you to polish, will it be discarded as is, or will it become a priceless gemstone, all depends on the skill of the polisher and carver."
Xu Zimei uttered reflectively, "Art pieces of inestimable value, indeed!"
While everyone yearns for weapons of Universe Tier or Cosmos Tier, in fact, many weapons evolve step by step from being ordinary ones.
They have not accompanied those weapons through their weakest periods, so how could those high-tier weapons recognize them?
In his past life, Xu Zimei knew a Forging Master, an old man who throughout his life only forged ordinary weapons and never created those with a tier.
He told Xu Zimei that if a weapon was a Universe Tier at the time of its forging, having not gone through the phases of ordinary, Yellow Tier, or Mysterious Tier weapons, its spirit would inevitably be incomplete.