Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Collaboration Chapter

The Golden Sword and Sheath

PROLOGUE

A burst of sunlight pierced the darkness within the cave, along with a resounding bang of metal hitting its cavernous walls. Bits and pieces of rock and dirt flew by, and along with it, a boy holding a sword as red as blood came sauntering into the cave with a satisfied smile on his face.

After days of searching, Zheng Jin had finally found the so-called Cave of Secrets—something he had dismissed at first as a tall tale made up by the locals of the Greengate City. It was a cavern full of wonderful treasures, they said. Some even predicted that a Divine Artifact might be sealed at this very cave…

Filled with excitement that was spurred on by the extravagant legends about the cave, Zheng Jin immediately searched the whole place as he went deeper and deeper underground.

After half an hour, however, he finally found…

Nothing. Nothing at all except rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.

"Damn it. Where are all the treasures?" Zheng Jin thought as his steps echoed throughout the cave. He did not lose hope yet, however, as considering that the locals had very high praises for the place, surely it can't end with just like this, right?

A full hour had gone by as he went deeper and deeper, and to his irritation, there were absolutely no treasures, heck, there wasn't even a single piece of spirit crystal inside the godsforsaken cave...

Zheng Jin sighed, his steps slowing down as he wondered if he should just give up and leave this place. After all, if there really was a treasure in this place, then he would have seen even the slightest clue of it by now.

"Oh?"

Just before he made up his mind, however, a tiny, yet still barely-noticeable glint of metal caught his attention from the back of the cave. Carefully, he approached the source of the light with a serious expression on his face, before finally cracking into a surprised grin just as he saw what it was.

A golden sword—adorned by countless beautiful gems and jewels had been buried deep into the ground.

As soon as Zheng Jin saw this, his eyes immediately narrowed whilst he thought. "Hmm, The craftsmanship certainly is...unique."

After seconds of thinking, he immediately compared the Burning Bloodsword to it, and as he suspected, the sword was indeed strange.

After all, double-edged, straight-bladed swords like this one were something he hadn't seen that much, and like the Burning Bloodsword, the swords in this world usually had slightly-curved edges at the very least—a minor detail he read from books about weaponry, and took note of.

If anything, the golden sword's design actually reminded him of the ornamental swords that the Estellian royalty used to carry for appearances, with all the fancy gems attached to it and whatnot.

"Now, what are you doing all the way out here?" Zheng Jin grinned as he sized up the golden sword, looking for traps or hidden formations that might trigger once he came into contact with it.

Zheng Jin intended to take the sword of course, as he already knew someone that would pay a great price for it just because of its beauty. This only applied, of course, if the sword wasn't something he could use, as truthfully, he had a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, that this sword might be a Divine Artifact...

And furthermore, who doesn't like free things?

With his senses improved by spirit energy, Zheng Jin strained as he watched the buried sword for a long time. Sensing that there's no spirit energy fluctuations or anything of the sort around it, he finally relented with a smirk. With no inherent dangers surrounding the sword—it was as good as his.

Zheng Jin's hand stretched out, fully confident about obtaining yet another treasure for free.

"Hehe, just how lucky am I—"

Just as soon his fingers touched the golden sword's hilt, however, a flash of light flooded his sight completely—drowning out the darkness that pervaded the entire cave before.

With the realization that the might have triggered something just by touching the seemingly-normal sword, Zheng Jin's eyes widened, along with the words:

"Ah shi—"

Before finally disappearing from the cave altogether, as if he had never been there at all.

It was a very rare day for Connie. A day where she had the chance to walk around without anyone with her. The feeling was odd, not that she did not feel nostalgic about it. Being alone used to be her path. The path of a conqueror, the path of a monster.

They just had a very long night of drinking yesterday and her companions had passed out in her room in celebration of a successful hunt. Thankfully she was spared the pain of hangover as she could evaporate the alcohol using her breathing technique.

But after she was done she found herself having nothing to do, so she asked the innkeeper for something to do.

And that was how she decided to spend the day looking around the flea market. A foreign concept brought on by the otherworlders. They said that it was a matter of ‘a man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.

While she was there, her beauty had caused some unsavory characters to try their luck, but she took care of them easily. They were quite unharmed, except for their ability of siring any child in the future.

“Hello, love. Howsabout a look at me wares, eh?!” a buck toothed old man with dirty beard said out loud from behind a pile of stuff. He was sitting on a stool with one hand on his knee. Despite his unsavory look, he was dressed with old but fine clothes.

Connie humored the man with a thin smile. “Oh, and what would you say might garner my attention, old man?”

“All my items are interesting, love. See, unlike all these buggers selling fake, scrubbed up trash, I had my people dug these up from the Dungeon nearby.”

“You mean - ?”

“Aye. The Cruelwind Dungeon. Cost me a pretty penny, and some lives. But I digress. High risk, high return, me pa always said,” the old man laughed merrily. “So have a gander, I’m sure you will find sumthin interestin’.”

“Hmm…” she raised an eyebrow and gave the pile of trinkets and gewgaws in front of her a cursory glance.

Broken goblets, some worthless rings…, and some strong looking weapons. But nothing interesting.

The old man, hearing her disappointing sigh panicked and said. “W-well, I have something more interesting in tow. You can have a look.”

He then presented an item wrapped in tattered cloth, it was stained with something black and crusty. By the shape of it, it seemed to be a sword.

“This here, is something my people found at the very depth of Cruelwind Dungeon,” he slowly opened the wrappings. “I lost two men in the process, but it is something truly...unique.”

It was actually a golden sheath.

She had seen many sheaths in her time, but this one was so garish that whatever sword was in it, she knew that it had never seen battle. There was no holy energy that she could feel from it so it was clearly not a ceremonial item. In fact, she could not detect any kind of power at all. It also looked as if it was new.

“Are you trying out a scam? This thing looks like it isn’t even a day old. At least scrub on some dust on it, old man. GIve it a nice scraping with coarse rock.”

The man looked offended. “I don’t scam people! This is how they found it.”

“Fine, whatever you say. Anyway, even if what you say is true, are you really selling me a sheath? Where is the sword?”

“Sadly. There is nothin’ to it. This is all there is. Look, there is even an ancient writing on it,” he said with an eagerness to prove his innocence.

“Alright, old man. I’ll have a look.”

She received the sheath and peered at the small writing on its side. It was a familiar writing.

In fact, it was very similar to the Dharmic text.

“I-impossible!! This is -”

Just as she exclaimed her surprise a bright light swallowed her, blinding the old man. When it dissipated, the seller looked this way and that, confused.

His expression changed from bewilderment and then to anger.

“She stole my sheath!!”