Chapter 30: The Black Scale Sword

Chapter 30: The Black Scale Sword

If only his streaming account had more followers, Chen Huai’an thought wistfully. He could’ve made an unboxing livestream out of this moment.

Grinning from ear to ear, he carried the two boxes into his room, locked the door, drew the curtains, and switched on the bedside lamp. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he rubbed his hands together in excitement.

“Let’s start with Qingran’s adorable little gift!”

Using a nail clipper, he carefully snipped the tape and opened the box. His expression darkened immediately.

Inside was a sealed bag containing a bracelet strung with beads. The material looked suspiciously like glass marbles.

“Emmm... so lazy.”

Chen Huai’an took out the bracelet, feeling its smooth, cool surface. As he breathed in, the air seemed to grow fresher, and the morning grogginess lifted from his mind.

“Sure, the material’s mediocre, the craftsmanship is shoddy, and the engraved blessing looks so bad it makes me want to cry.” He squinted at the crooked characters on the beads. Still, he slipped the bracelet onto his wrist with a smile. “But knowing it’s a gift from Li Qingran makes me feel energized already.”

He attributed the refreshing sensation to the “power of love.”

Not far away, the black cat lying in the shoebox twitched its nose and cracked open an eye.

“Now for the main event!”

This time, Chen Huai’an wasn’t gentle. With a few rough tears, he revealed the contents of the large package: an ancient-looking longsword.

The sword measured 1.5 meters in length and had a bronze hue, with black scale-like markings on the blade. The hilt bore intricate carvings in archaic script, which Chen Huai’an assumed might be the blacksmith’s name.

“A fitting name: Black Scale Sword.”

He held the sword up to the light. The lamp’s glow reflected off the blade, revealing a cold gleam that seemed to belong to another era.

It felt as though this sword didn’t belong to his world but to Li Qingran’s—the realm of the Cangyun Realm. This wasn’t a mere decorative piece but a genuine flying sword from that world.

“Ugh, I must be sleep-deprived,” Chen Huai’an muttered, shaking his head at his own fanciful thoughts.

Still, he couldn’t help but admire the game developer’s attention to detail. Even the protective talisman he’d received previously, despite its fading ink, had seemed genuinely crafted by Li Qingran. The bracelet, with its faint fragrance, shared the same aura of authenticity.

As for the sword, it was clearly the real deal—perfect as a wall decoration, and undeniably stylish.

“Is this thing sharp?” Chen Huai’an scratched his head, tempted to test it with his hand before pulling back instinctively.

Instead, he picked up a stray black hair from the floor and gently let it fall onto the blade.

Ring!

A faint sword hum echoed, and the hair split cleanly in two, drifting to the ground.

“Holy sh—! It’s that sharp?!”

“This thing must count as a restricted weapon. How the heck did it get delivered?”

Panicking slightly, Chen Huai’an quickly sheathed the sword. Spying a nail on the wall where a painting had once hung, he mounted the sword there.

Surprisingly, the ancient weapon didn’t clash with the room’s modern decor. It looked perfectly at home.

“Decision made: Black Scale Sword, you’ll join me in the crematorium someday. Heh heh heh!”

Black Scale Sword: “…”

Black cat in the shoebox: “…”

[What’s with this weirdo? A flying sword? A real magic weapon?]

The black cat’s wide eyes peered from the shoebox, fixated on the sword.

It had been awakened by the spiritual energy radiating from the spirit stones used in the sword’s creation. To its weakened body, even inhaling air infused with spiritual energy hastened its recovery.

Gold needle techniques, Ancestral Dragon protection... now spirit stones and a magic weapon?

The cat’s thoughts raced in confusion. It couldn’t comprehend how this strange human possessed so many treasures in an era where spiritual energy had supposedly vanished.

When it awoke, the world seemed to have lost all remnants of cultivation. But this human… how did he have it all?

Deciding to put aside these questions, the black cat resolved to recover its strength using the spiritual energy in the room. The Ancestral Dragon’s protection posed a problem, but as long as it didn’t harm the human, it wouldn’t trigger the dragon’s wrath.

Preparing to feign a pitiful meow to attract Chen Huai’an’s attention, the cat realized he had already left the room.

[Where’d he go?]

Dragging its weakened body, the cat climbed onto the windowsill and saw Chen Huai’an, still in his pajamas, running toward the hotel square with a drying pole in hand.

In the square, Old Man Li had practiced tai chi under the same tree for 20 years. Among the elderly tai chi enthusiasts in the area, he was unmatched.

“Watch where you’re going!” he shouted at two kids crossing the street while playing mobile games.

One of them flipped him off. “Mind your own business, old man!”

“You little…!”

Shaking his head in disappointment, Old Man Li muttered, “Kids these days… no energy, no discipline. Always glued to their screens. Back in my day…”

He sighed, lamenting how modern technology, while advancing society, had stripped away much of its simplicity and charm.

“Ahhh…” Another heavy sigh. He approached his usual tree, only to find someone had beaten him there.

A young man in pajamas was crouched awkwardly with a drying pole, sweating profusely as he maintained a bizarre posture.

Though the man’s form was rough, Old Man Li saw a spark of hope in the darkness—a vigorous young person, something he greatly admired.

“Hey, young man, you’re doing it all wrong!” Old Man Li said, walking over. “Your stance is unstable. That’s not how you do a horse stance!”

Chen Huai’an, struggling to practice the Green Lotus Sword Manual, turned to see an elderly man behind him.

Suddenly, a firm hand pressed down on his shoulder, forcing him lower. A foot nudged between his legs, correcting his balance.

The adjustment sent sharp pain through his casted leg, but Chen Huai’an wasn’t angry.

As the old man corrected him, Chen Huai’an noticed with astonishment that his cultivation progress in the Green Lotus Sword Manual had skyrocketed from 2% to 13%!