Zhang Ruochen left the palace before Minister Ning and yet he bumped into Tuoba Linsu.
Tuoba Linsu gave him a seventh-class Genuine Martial Arms, a combat sword, and invited him to the most luxurious restaurant in Qianshui City for a drink.
After several drinks with Tuoba Linsu, it was almost dusk. When Zhang Ruochen returned to the manor, Minister Ning had already accompanied Yunwu Commandery Prince back to the palace.
Although Zhang Ruochen had had a few drinks, he was still completely sober. “Clash!” He took out the combat sword gifted by Tuoba Linsu and pulled out the sword scabbard.
“WAAA!”
A strand of glaring white light shone from the sword.
He vaguely heard the distant voice of a dragon roaring.
“Snow Dragon Sword!” Zhang Ruochen looked at the three words carved on the hilt and read it out.
It was over a meter long and two fingers wide. The hilt looked like a dragon head while the sword tip looked like a dragon tale.
There were 40 inscriptions carved on the sword. 30 of them were the Inscription of Ice Series and 10 were the Inscription of Light Series.
Tuoba Linsu was certainly generous to give out a seventh-class Genuine Martial Arms combat sword. What a precious gift!
Zhang Ruochen activated his Genuine Qi and transferred it into the sword. At the same time, he also urged the 17 strands of the Inscription of Ice Series carved on the Snow Dragon Sword to activate.
He could only activate 17 strands of inscriptions at most with his current cultivation. If he pushed himself to activate more inscriptions but couldn’t handle the powerful force, the power of the inscriptions might get him hurt.
“Sacred Guiding Sword!”
“Sacred Bell Sword!”
“Sacred Plenilune Sword!”
…
When he wielded the sword under the moon, sharp icing air emanated from the blade and condensed pieces of snowflakes in the air. They drifted down to the ground with the wind.
After an hour of practice, the Genuine Qi in Zhang Ruochen’s body had been greatly consumed. Pain started throbbing in his chest wound so he stopped practicing.
“When senior sister apprentice Duanmu displayed the sword technique, she could condense snowflakes within a 100-feet radius. Although I can manifest snowflakes, there’s still a long way to go for me to catch up with her.” Zhang Ruochen shook his head slightly and realized the weaknesses of his martial cultivation, he wasn’t happy with his performance.
“If I can break through to the Final State of the Black Realm, perhaps I will be able to condense snowflakes within a 100-feet radius.”
Zhang Ruochen put his hand tightly over the wound on his chest. He took a healing pill and entered the Time and Space Spinel for recovery.
He spent the entire day and night healing inside the Time and Space Spinel. Together with the help of the pill, he finally recovered from his injury.
When he came out from the spinel, it was already the next morning.
When he was fully recovered, he continued practicing the Sacred Sky-piercing Sword, the seventh movement of the Sacred Sword Skill.
He remained calm and peaceful and gave full effort to practicing the sword technique. As for his marriage with Huang Yanchen, Yunwu Commandery Prince would arrange it for him.
Since Zhang Ruochen had reached the peak of the Sword Following the Heart, his speed of practicing sword techniques was relatively fast. He had already finished practicing the remaining six movements of the Sacred Sword Skill within a month.
If Zhang Ruochen successfully practiced all 12 movements of the Sacred Sword Skill and blended them all together, he could master all the movements and reach the Realm of Succeed.
After he had practiced the Sacred Sword Skill, his sword technique power seemed to have improved to a certain extent. The coherence between sword movements looked relatively smooth.
That was the result of the Succeed. Going forward, the next level was called the Perfection of Martial Arts.
It was fairly easy to practice the sword technique to the Succeed level. Yet, it was relatively hard to elevate to the Perfection of Martial Arts. The only way to level up the sword technique was through countless application and practice in the future.
During this month, not only did Zhang Ruochen practice the sword technique, but he also refined 10 drops of Half-Saint’s Essence. With the aid of pills, the Genuine Qi had filled up 70% of the capacity of his Qi Lake. Hence, he was only one step away from reaching the peak of the Medium State of the Black Realm.
News of the marriage between Zhang Ruochen and Huang Yanchen had spread out, and it caused a massive shock to Qianshui City. There were numerous people who came to congratulate the Prince including both members of Ten Powerful Ministers and the Commandery Princes from other commanderies.
Undoubtfully, Zhang Ruochen didn’t care too much about it and paid attention to mastering his sword technique. Yunwu Commandery Prince would take care of the royals and nobilities in Qianshui Commandery.
Unexpectedly, Square Commandery Prince had visited Yunwu Commandery Prince in person yesterday. He brought with him a large number of valuable treasures and apologized for attacking Yunwu Commandery.
He promised that after returning home, he would withdraw the soldiers stationed at the border of Yunwu Commandery and that he would return and free the Yunwu Commandery cities, property, and people that they had conquered and robbed.
However, Yunwu Commandery Prince neither said a word nor accepted the treasures from Square Commandery Prince. Instead, he sent him out of the palace bluntly.
It should be noted that since Yunwu Commandery and Qianshui Commandery were united by marriage and the one Zhang Ruochen was going to marry was the Commandery Princess Yanchen, Yunwu Commandery Prince held the bargaining power. He would surely not be easy on Square Commandery Prince.
It was time for Square Commandery Prince to feel fear!
Square Commandery Prince headed back to his palace with frustration. He visited Yunwu Commandery Prince the next day, offering more treasures and promises.
Finally, Yunwu Commandery Prince agreed to talk peacefully with Square Commandery Prince. They closed the door and started discussing a concrete compensation agreement.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t know how many cities Square Commandery Prince would compensate for Yunwu Commandery. Yet, he noticed that when Square Commandery Prince left, he looked awful.
Unexpectedly, Yunwu Commandery Prince let out a loud laugh from his room and said, “My dear ninth son, let’s head back to our commandery today!”
“Oh! Okay!”
Zhang Ruochen put his sword in its sheath, ready to return to the School of the Martial Market. He didn’t want to stay in Qianshui City any longer.
There were 20 more days until the Intermediate Relic Exploration Test. Zhang Ruochen wanted to return to the School as soon as possible and continue practicing without any disturbance. He was striving hard to break through to the Final State of the Black Realm before the exploration test.
“If I reach the Final State of the Black Realm, I can go challenge the ‘Profound Board’. I wonder where my ranking stands.”
It was no doubt that he had to pay a visit back to Yunwu Commandery before returning to the School of the Martial Market.
He was worried about his mother. It would be ideal if he could take his mother back to the School with him. However, it all depended on whether his mother wanted to leave the palace and go with him.
When Yunwu Commandery Prince went to Qianshui City, he had brought with him 20 boxes of treasures. Surprisingly, he returned to Yunwu Commandery with 50 boxes of valuable treasures. Most of them were the compensation reward from Square Commandery while some of them had been given by other visitors.
He had gained much more than he had expected during his journey to Qianshui City and thus he felt wonderful.
Most importantly, the greatest gain was the arranged marriage with Qianshui Commandery.
With Qianshui Commandery backing them up, Yunwu Commandery Prince was confident that his commandery would soon develop to become a medium level commandery.
20 guards clad in armor lifted the heavy boxes of treasures repeatedly onto the Golden Feather Eagle’s back.
Zhang Ruochen carried the Snow Dragon Sword and stood next to the Golden Feather Eagle. He looked tiny compared to the claws of the eagle.
The voice of Huang Yanchen came from behind. She asked, “Zhang Ruochen, I’m heading back to the School of the Martial Market. Can you give me a ride?”
Before Zhang Ruochen could even say anything, Yunwu Commandery Prince had already walked up to Huang Yanchen. He smiled and responded, “Of course. It’s our pleasure to have the princess come along with us.”
Huang Yanchen looked at Yunwu Commandery Prince and nodded with satisfaction. Then, she displayed Shadow of the Royal Wind Dragon. She thrust up to the sky and descended onto the back of the Golden Feather Eagle steadily.
Zhang Ruochen and Huang Yanchen had become engaged half a month ago. The wedding would be held in three years.
In other words, Huang Yanchen was Zhang Ruochen’s fiancée, and their relationship had turned fascinating.
Two days later, Yunwu Commandery Prince, Zhang Ruochen, and Huang Yanchen returned to Yunwu Commandery.
News of the marriage between these two had spread all over Yunwu Commandery, therefore, when they arrived back to the Royal Palace, a grand welcoming ceremony had been arranged.
Everyone had been drowned in the joyous atmosphere especially Concubine Lin, Zhang Ruochen’s mother. When she saw Huang Yanchen, she liked her very much.
What surprised Zhang Ruochen was that Huang Yanchen had turned sweet and gentle. She held Concubine Lin’s hand tightly and displayed a filial affection.
He could only shake his head and gasp. He couldn’t believe how good she could act.
The only person that Zhang Ruochen didn’t see during the welcoming ceremony was the Queen.
In fact, this was under his expectation as the Queen wouldn’t be pleased by the fact that he had arranged a marriage with the princess of Qianshui Commandery.
Zhang Ruochen recognized that Blackie was standing behind Concubine Lin. He grabbed Blackie in his hand and asked sincerely, “Blackie, while I was away, did anyone attempt to kill my mother?”
When Zhang Ruochen and Yunwu Commandery Prince left for Qianshui Commandery, he had asked Blackie to stay in the palace and protect Concubine Lin from the Queen.
Blackie shook his chubby head and said, “No! Zhang Ruochen, you’re over-reacting and hence you’re so worried. You have to understand that YOU are the threat in the Queen’s eyes, not your mother. As for your mother, she’s just a Concubine, not a threat to her. If she kills your mother, she won’t benefit from it, yet she would irritate Yunwu Commandery Prince. This cunning woman will never do such stupid thing.”
Zhang Ruochen looked frustrated. He nodded and said, “You’ve got a point. As long as Yunwu Commandery Prince is still alive, she won’t dare go near my mother.”
“You’re just too closely involved and over-worried about your mother, and thus can’t see as clearly as the people outside the circle.”
Blackie added, “Don’t worry! Since you’re engaged to the princess of Qianshui Commandery, Yunwu Commandery Prince will only pay more attention to you and treat your mother even better. What you need to do now is to elevate your martial cultivation and become an internal student of the School of the Martial Market. By that time, the assassinates will have to reconsider whether they can bear the anger of Martial Market Bank before killing you.”
Zhang Ruochen responded, “I’ll return to the School of the Martial Market tomorrow and focus on my cultivation in preparation for the Intermediate Relic Exploration Test.”
Then, Blackie took out a green wooden box. He let out a mysterious laugh and said, “Here you go. This is a pill I refined according to the Middle Ages formula. Perhaps it can help with your cultivation.”
“This is a pill you refined?”
Zhang Ruochen furrowed his eyebrows and stared at the green wooden box. He looked puzzled.
…