The Lord's Empire

Chapter 15 – Refined Martial Soul

Translator: Mr Voltaire

Editor: Modlawls123

This Skeleton Swordsman was much faster than normal Skeletons, and it did not seem to be clumsy at all. Instead, it was quite agile and appeared right in front of Zhao Fu and Bai Qi in a few moments. Bai Qi quickly blocked the path to Zhao Fu and unsheathed his sword, meeting the Skeleton Swordsman in battle.

Facing Bai Qi, the Skeleton Swordsman slashed down with its sword.

Bai Qi lifted his sword to block the Skeleton Swordsman’s strike, after which the Skeleton Swordsman brought its sword back and savagely slashed at Bai Qi numerous times. Clanging sounds continuously rang out as the Skeleton Swordsman and Bai Qi fought. The Skeleton Swordsman was completely focused on offense and had no regard for defense at all.

After blocking the Skeleton Swordsman’s attacks a few times, Bai Qi started to become familiar with the Skeleton Swordsman’s attack patterns. As the Skeleton Swordsman slashed downwards, Bai Qi pivoted his body, his sword covered with a trace of sword qi, as he slashed upwards.

Bang!!

The Skeleton Swordsman was sent flying six or seven meters away and fell to the ground. However, only a few of its ribs were broken, and it still seemed fine. It twisted its bones and slowly started to stand up.

At this moment, Zhao Fu launched a blood-colored fireball at the Skeleton Swordsman. An explosion sounded out as the Skeleton Swordsman was once again sent flying.

However, after falling to the ground, the Skeleton Swordsman once again twisted its bones and started to stand up. Zhao Fu was about to release another Hell Fireball when he realized that he would not be able to fire them that quickly, so he chose to use normal Fireballs.

An orange-colored fireball flew towards the Skeleton Swordsman, hitting it when it was about to stand up again. This time, however, the Skeleton Swordsman did not stand up again, and it was instead blasted into a pile of bones.

A blue tongue of fire flickered within the pile of bones, and after walking up to it, Zhao Fu saw its information:

[Refined Martial Soul]: After using it, one can obtain one or more skills that the owner had during his or her lifetime.

So it was a Refined Martial Soul. After seeing this information, Zhao Fu understood that Refined Martial Souls were things that were created during someone’s lifetime when he or she practiced a skill to the point that it fused with his or her soul. After the owner became an Undead, anyone who killed him or her would be able to obtain that skill.

The difference between this skill and a normal skill was that one would only be able to fully grasp normal skills through a lot of practice. However, after using a Refined Martial Soul, one would gain a skill that they would become proficient in immediately.

The Skeleton Swordsman was clearly a melee profession. Zhao Fu knew that he was not suited to melee battles and his stats made him more suited for Magic, so he gave the Refined Martial Soul to Bai Qi.

He then looked curiously at the rusty sword and picked it up.

[Taiqing Sword]: Grade: Blue, Stats: Strength +1, Description: A Gold grade weapon that became rusty after over 10,000 years, becoming a Blue grade weapon.

“What? This was a Gold grade weapon before?”

Zhao Fu felt quite shocked. Who would have thought that this rusty sword, which looked almost useless, had previously been a Gold grade weapon? It was only because of the passage of time that it had fallen to Blue grade and become so rusty.

There weren’t even any Gold grade weapons in the market, and a Silver grade weapon was worth thousands of silver coins. At the very least, Gold grade weapons were worth hundreds, if not thousands, of times more than Silver grade weapons. At the minimum, Gold grade weapons would be worth 1,000 gold coins.

Even though 1,000 gold coins did not seem like much, in the Heaven Awaken World, 100 copper coins were worth 1 silver coin and 100 silver coins were worth 1 gold coin. Thus, 1 gold coin was worth 10,000 copper coins and 1,000 gold coins would be worth 10 million copper coins. Based on the current exchange rate of $10 in the real world for 1 copper coin, at the very least, a Gold grade weapon would be worth $100 million. However, currently, even if someone had $100 million, all he or she could do was dream about buying a Gold grade weapon.

Zhao Fu looked at the Taiqing Sword with pity while feeling quite curious. Why did a random Skeleton have a weapon that was once a Gold grade weapon? Zhao Fu said, “Bai Qi, fuse with that Refined Martial Soul and see what sort of skill you receive.”

Bai Qi nodded and closed his eyes, pressing the Refined Martial Soul against his chest. The blue tongue of flame slowly fused into his body, and after a while, Bai Qi opened his eyes and said happily, “Your Majesty! I received a B grade skill: Qi Slash!”

“What? A B grade skill?” This caused Zhao Fu to feel quite shocked.

When Zhao Fu thought of how powerful his D- grade skill, Hell Fireball, was, he could only imagine how powerful a B grade skill would be. Zhao Fu became even more curious as to what sort of place this place was.

Zhao Fu and Bai Qi raised their torches and advanced. A few minutes later, they encountered another skeleton lying on the ground with a blue tongue of fire in its head. It raised its rusty saber and twisted its bones, about to stand up.

Zhao Fu immediately launched a Hell Fireball at it, sending it flying.

The Skeleton soldier was about to stand up when Bai Qi rushed up and unleashed his new skill, Qi Slash.

A wave of white sword qi burst forth from the sword, slashing into the Skeleton soldier’s chest.

Bang!

The Skeleton soldier was sent flying backwards by more than 10 meters. Its body instantly collapsed, fragmenting into tiny pieces of bone. This Skeleton soldier did not have a Refined Martial Soul, but it dropped its large saber, which Zhao Fu picked up.

[Hundred Mountain Sabre]: Grade: Blue, Stats: Constitution +1, Description: A Gold grade weapon that became rusty after over 10,000 years, becoming a Blue grade weapon.

Indeed, this was yet another weapon that had once been a Gold grade weapon. Just what was this place? Zhao Fu felt more and more curious.

Filled with curiosity, Zhao Fu and Bai Qi continued exploring. They encountered a few more Skeletons, and after killing them, they obtained two more Refined Martial Souls, and their weapons were also all weapons that had been Gold grade weapons in the past that had become Blue grade weapons due to the passage of time.

After obtaining the two Refined Martial Souls, Zhao Fu used one that had been dropped by a Skeleton Archer and received the C- grade skill ‘Rock Crushing Arrows’.

This place was like a treasure trove. Here, they could obtain many Blue grade weapons and good skills. A Blue grade weapon was worth between 100 to 1,000 silver coins, while this sort of weapon, which used to be a Gold grade weapon, could be sold for around 300 silver coins.

In this expedition, they had obtained six weapons and three Refined Martial Souls. Just Bai Qi’s B grade skill was worth more than 10 gold coins. Altogether, the things they had obtained were worth roughly 31 gold coins, which was 310,000 copper coins.

Zhao Fu couldn’t help but feel delighted after gaining such a haul. He had wanted to continue with Bai Qi, but as they progressed, they discovered more and more Skeleton groups. Smaller groups had five or six Skeletons, while larger groups had 20 to 30 Skeletons. For the sake of their safety, Zhao Fu and Bai Qi decided to leave for now.

……

After returning to the surface, Zhao Fu ordered his people to hide this place and to construct a set of stairs so that large numbers of people could enter in the future.

Following this, Zhao Fu took the six rusty weapons to the Smithy and asked if they could be repaired.

When Wang Dawu took the weapons and examined them, he looked incredibly shocked, but there was also a hint of pity on his face – such good weapons had fallen to such a state. After looking over them, Wang Dawu nodded and said, “I can give them a simple repair, but I need materials.”

This made Zhao Fu feel quite awkward. Right now, most of the Great Qin Village’s weapons were made of Iron Wood, and they barely had any iron weapons. Zhao Fu immediately sent people to look around to see if there were any open-pit iron mines nearby.