BXBX NOVEL Chapter 44: Skeleton
"That pair of swords was used by our Matriarch before. It was found in a secret realm. I don't know much about it other than the name 'Twin Frostbites,' and it possesses a beast's soul."
MingYue, feeling intrigued, didn't ask further.
Instead, she took out the swords from their sheath and began infusing her qi into them.
The twin swords started to vibrate, emanating a frosty qi, even the one that MingYue wasn't holding.
A silhouette of twin arctic foxes appeared in her mind, both baring their fangs, trying to attack her soul.
Seeing what happened, the old man sneered.
He had purposefully not told MingYue the details about the artifact with the beast's soul.
To bond with it, a cultivator needed to gain acknowledgment from the soul inside. Otherwise, they would face backlash from it.
The old man wasn't worried since the worst that could happen was MingYue suffering some minor internal injuries.
He just wanted to teach MingYue a lesson to respect him more.
In MingYue's inner world, two arctic foxes the size of an adult human bared their fangs at her, but just as they were about to pounce, another silhouette appeared behind MingYue.
Vesa grinned, showing its fangs towards them.
This made both foxes stop in their tracks; they instantly turned into docile foxes and shrank to the size of a toy dog.
Seeing this, MingYue smiled.
She didn't know much about beast souls, but she dared to infuse her qi to check anything because of Vesa's existence.
MingYue then walked toward the foxes and started petting them.
Back in the real world, both swords stopped vibrating, making the old man's sneer turn into speechlessness.
He shook his head, realizing at this point he should just stop being surprised by what MingYue did.
MingYue's lips curled into a smile, and then she placed both swords inside her storage ring.
The old man admitted defeat and started explaining the other weapons, even without MingYue asking.
With a dispirited voice, he explained, "The hammer on the left was used by our founder to fight and craft artifacts.
It was found in the same secret realm as the sword you used, and it also contains a beast's soul.
It has the ability to convert your qi into the fire element, as well as change its weight and size from one-tenth to ten times its original size. Its name is EmberShift Warhammer."
He then pointed at the last weapon, "The last one, as you can see, is a bow. It can convert your qi into arrows. I don't know much about this one since I have never even seen it being used. But they all should be of the same quality and strength."
MingYue felt satisfied with the weapons. She knew they would boost her combat power tremendously.
She wasn't sure whom to give the bow to, but she knew she could exchange the Warhammer with Alex.
Through their interactions, she learned that Alex preferred using them.
In his words, the feeling of smashing something gave him more dopamine.
MingYue didn't know what dopamine was before this, which made her ask him.
In response, Alex gave her a biology book.
She just turned a few pages before placing it in the furthest corner of her storage ring.
All the words there were so foreign to her that it made her head hurt even trying to read them.
After emptying the vault, MingYue moved to the last room in the area.
She expected to find some artifact or item, but, to her surprise, she found a skeleton sitting on a simple wooden chair with a storage ring on its finger.
The skeleton was carved with many formations, making MingYue realize it was the core of the array.
The old man's eyes turned nostalgic upon seeing the room.
It was the place where he had spent his last few years alone, away from everyone else.
With a sigh, he said, "There are only the formation cores here, nothing important. Inside my storage ring, it's filled with scrolls, but they're not secret techniques or anything.
It's the history of the Xueqi family. You can find out what happened in the past in detail from there."
Seeing this, MingYue started to respect the old man more.
'He really sincerely wishes for the Xueqi family to rise, even going as far as using his own cultivation to sustain the array,' she thought.
She then looked at the old man with a solemn expression.
"The real formation core should have been destroyed, and then you used your own cultivation to sustain the array. Why would you do that?"
The old man sighed, "I was waiting, waiting for a prodigy like you who could use all these resources to rise and bring the family back up. But as you can see, my gamble resulted badly.
Now, I'm just a wisp of a soul, barely living. If you hadn't come here within a year, my soul would also have dissipated. In that case, Zhang would need to step up and take over my place."
MingYue chuckled; she felt like she was hearing a hilarious joke.
"That selfish bastard? Sacrificing himself? You are dreaming."
The old man's shoulders slumped.
"You are right. I think what happened to you is also because of the pressure on his shoulders.
He doesn't know about the vault, but I told him my soul would dissipate after a year, and with it, the root of the family would be gone if he didn't step up to replace me. To think, instead of becoming determined, he did that."
[Queen, should we start? I will affix his soul into the storage ring on the skeleton's finger.]
"Let's start then."
MingYue walked toward the skeleton, her amber eyes with a red hue glinting as her palm touched it.