Night of the Broken Gliph

“Gliphs are ever-changing, and so are gliphers. There are many different weapons to counter different kinds of gliphers. The most commonly used and versatile style of weapon crafting is fire forging. You can make many different weapons using fire forging.

“But the fire element does not go well with wood and water;it’s grass and water that allows each other to exist. 

“Since we’re the grass hall, every weapon here is of the grass element.” As he was explaining to his young master’s friend, the shopkeeper did a thorough job. Furthermore, the sight of Chui Yim listening attentively and even taking down notes motivated him to teach sincerely.

“This is a spiky wood sword,” the shopkeeper said as he took a sword from the shelf. “It’s made from branches of the spiky tree. After it’s processed, it has a gliph carved on it. Here, have a feel.” The shopkeeper wore a cheeky smile on his face as he passed the sword to Chui Yim. 

Chui Yim kept his notes and took the spiky wood sword. However, he was taken aback once he picked it up. It’s as heavy as a metal sword!

The shopkeeper was surprised to see that Chui Yim didn’t drop the heavy sword. Kids these days are strong! But since he’s an academy student, it’s not that shocking.

“The Grass style only became famous in the south about a hundred years ago. Look at the spiky wood sword in your hands; it’s made of gliphic plants. Because it’s not too heavily processed, it brought out the features of the plant fully instead.”

The shopkeeper gave a thorough explanation, but Chui Yim wasn’t listening anymore because he was busy inspecting the sword in his hands.

In his previous life, he was a legendary metalsmith who forged divine weapons, the best around. With a glance, he deciphered how the grass refining style worked.

The books that Chui Tin forced me to read didn’t go to waste at all. Thanks to the “Continent’s Botanic” that I’ve already memorized, I could understand the spiky wood sword.

The spiky tree was a gliphic plant. Born with a botanical gliph, the tree had a trunk as strong as steel. Moreover, the spiky wood sword was forged with grass refining style. Unlike the fire forging style, liquids were used to tattoo gliphs in the wood to strengthen the original botanical gliph found on the wood. One could even say that the twig of the spiky tree was a natural weapon. By forging and processing it with grass refining techniques, the branch was now more suitable for battle after its appearance was changed and features strengthened.

It sounded like fantasy, but it was very suitable for places like the south, which was filled with gliphic plants. 

“What about water casting?” 

“Water casting?” The shopkeeper scratched his head. “Wait here,” he said as he walked into the shop.

In no time, the shopkeeper came back with a box. “Since this is a grass hall, it'd be better for you to visit a water hall if you're looking for water element weapons. But we just so happen to have a water element weapon here. I’ll let you take a look so you won’t need to waste time travelling.”

The shopkeeper opened the box, and acool mist escaped from the crack.He looked around cautiously. “Because you're young master’s friend, I’ll show you this. It’s a newly forged grade two gliph weaponthat we’re going to auction,” he whispered.

“This is the grade two water casted gliph weapon, Water Reflected Moon,”the shopkeeper said proudly.  

Chui Yim held the box, surprised by its weight. However, the box made up most of the weight, and there were even gliphs on the inner part of the box. Chui Yim didn’t recognise the gliphs, but he could guess that they were used to seal off the weapon’s aura. 

His eyes landed on the weapon. 

“This Water Reflected Moon is made with the frost galactitethat our elder, Elder Chan Sing,collected from the bottom of the Frosty Lake personally, made with water casting.

“He even added the ‘Frozen’ and ‘Bone Creeper’ gliphs to the weapon. When the weapon comes into contact with one’s opponent, the wielder can activate the Frozen gliph with his energliph to freeze the opponent or the Bone Creeper gliph to seep its chilly energy deep into the opponent’s body. This is most suitable forassassination or speed typegliphers.”

The shopkeeper shut the box carefully and turned to Chui Yim. “Remember to keep this a secret from the young master. I’m violating the rules by showing you this.”

“Thank you.” Chui Yim agreed, nodding his head.

Chui Yim left the grass hall, but he wasn’t planning to leave the street. Instead, he continued his journey down Weapon Street.

The shopkeeper heaved a sigh of relief. Even he was surprised by his actions. It might be because the boy was cute, and that he listened attentively. 

He took the box and walked back into the backroom of the shop slowly, placing it on the table carefully. All he needed to do now was wait for the Chan clan guards to escort him to the auction house. But just when he turned around, he felt an intense pain in his neck. 

“Wha… what…” He blacked out and fainted.

Chui Yim walked onwards with his head low, pondering. 

Other than the grass hall, he went to some other shops too and used his likeable, cute face to get information from other shop keepers. But all the information was similar. 

What surprised him was that grass refining and water casting styles were the most popular weapon forging styles now, and it was all because of the way the southerners tattooed gliphs. In the south, most people used gliphic plants as their ingredients. It was gentler this way, and they preferred to use natural ingredients.

This was why the water casting and grass refining style, which processed and refined natural ingredients into weapons, was more popular than the fire forging style, where the smith had to smelt down and re-forge the materials. The water casting style was very similar to grass style, just that water style made use of more water type gliphs and processed ingredients with them.

Chui Yim was greatly interested in the weapons of this world. It might be the gliphs, but the weapons in this world were of way better quality than the one back on the Sallow Continent. Perhaps also because of gliphs, the weapons here had much more function and power. 

Before he knew it, he reached the end of the weapon street.

Chui Yim looked around. Just as he was going to return to school, an ordinary store caught his eyes. To be exact, it was the sign that caught his eyes. The shop was called  “Kiu Clan’s Divine Weapons.” 

Divine weapons?

When Chui Yim walked into the store, warm air hit his face.

The entire shop looked old. The counter was made of wood and looked like it had been around for a very long time. The whole shop even smelled ancient. However, it was sparkling clean, and there was hardly a speck of dust to be seen. 

Soon enough, a sword caught Chui Yim’s eyes. It wasn’t sharp, and it looked like a metal rod instead.

But it still piqued Chui Yim’s interest.