"I have a few unrelated questions and requests that I was hoping you could help me with," Alex said.
Lady Ren looked at him curiously with an amused look on her face. "Requests? I didn't think you would be bold enough for that. But still, go ahead. If it's something I can give easily, I will. Don't try to push your luck though," she said.
"I promise, I won't," Alex said. He quickly brought out a storage bag and stopped. "Um, is there someplace where you wouldn't mind having your floors destroyed?"
The jaguar and puma looked at Alex weirdly, while Lady Ren still had her amused face with her. It even looked like she was enjoying it all.
"If you can put a single dent on this marble, I will fulfill whatever these requests of yours are," Lady Ren said.
"Oh, are these floors very strong then? I guess it's fine then," Alex said and brought out the sword from inside of his storage bag. The brown-ish black sword flew out of the storage bag and immediately fell onto the floor.
It made a very large 'clank' sound and even clattered on the floor for a while, but there seemed to be no signs of a dent on the floor. Just some minor scratches.
Alex was really surprised to see that the sword that could dig through the ground if just kept on it was actually so effortlessly kept away from damaging the marble.
"Woah, is this some sort of special marble? I have never seen something like this," he said in surprise. "That makes me even more curious how you guys managed to carve it to such perfection in the first place. The craftsmen must've been really strong," Alex said. He still couldn't believe that the sword that killed Pearl's mother couldn't even do anything against this marble.
"That's… just an ordinary marble," Lady Ren's voice came from in front of him.
"Is it?" Alex asked as he looked up and saw genuine surprise from all of their faces. "What's wrong? Why do you guys look like that?" Alex asked.
"Where did you find this sword?" Lady Ren asked. Her face was a shade of fascination he hadn't seen before.
"Uhh… this is the sword that was stuck in Pearl's mother, the one I told you guys about," Alex said. He bent down to pick it up and tried to move it, but even with his incredible power, he couldn't do anything.
Lady Ren's face immediately changed from fascination to anger when she heard that. "This is the sword that killed my descendant?" she asked in a solemn voice.
"Yes," Alex said. He was starting to get a little scared when he saw her angry face. He did not want to face the anger of someone this strong.
"Let me see," the jaguar said, intervening to stop Lady Ren from ruining her own mood. "You said you couldn't pick it up, right? Let me check."
The jaguar grabbed the sword by the hilt as well as he could with his paws and tried to pull it up.
He was doing it with one hand and he could barely lift the handle off of the ground, with the tip still touching the ground. He tried with both of his paws the second time and barely got the sword to go up higher than a meter before dropping it as well.
The jaguar was full of sweat in just a few seconds of trying to pick up the sword. Alex watched in surprise as he realized that not even the jaguar could do anything.
'Not even a Saint realm expert could pick this sword up? Is it a very high-grade sword by some chance?' he thought before immediately remembering that was incorrect. 'No, it's an earth-grade sword. It says so in the description. Then the rank must be very high then. What sort of person could use such a heavy sword in this world though?' he wondered.
"Sigh, as expected on the sword that made scratches on the marble. Even without being used it nearly broke our formation," the jaguar said.
"Formation?" Alex asked.
"Yes. This hall has a formation on all of its walls and floor such that even a Saint realm expert couldn't easily destroy it. Yet, this sword is able to do such a thing. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a Saint rank sword," the jaguar said.
"It's not a saint rank sword? Then… can it be an Immortal rank sword?" Alex asked.
"You know about the immortal rank? That's unexpected," the jaguar said. The puma walked up and he too couldn't pick the sword up very well. He too had to drop it in the end.
"Lady Ren, this sword really is very unique," the Puma said. "This reminds me of that other sword for some reason too."
"You 3 have got me very curious. Let me try as well," Lady Ren said and walked up to the sword.
Alex waited for her to pick up the sword, but she didn't. Instead, the light started shining from all around her so bright that Alex and the others had to guard their eyes against the light.
As the light faded away, Alex finally put down his hand and was very shocked to see what he did.
In front of him was a middle-aged woman with thick white hair flowing up to her waist. Her skin was very fair as well, and she saw wearing a white robe with hints of yellow here and there.
Her human face looked very familiar to Alex too. "Lady Ren?" he questioned as to her facial features somewhat matched to that of her cat form.
The woman said nothing and simply got low to pick up the sword. "Careful, it's hea—" Alex's voice stuck in his face as he watched Lady Ren simply pick up the sword with no problem whatsoever.
She moved the sword left and right. "Hmm, I see what's going on. This is definitely not an Immortal ranked, but just a Saint ranked sword. There is no doubt about that," she said.
"Huh? Lady Ren, but then why is it so heavy? A saint-ranked expert couldn't possibly fight with that sword," the jaguar said.
"That's because it's not meant to be used by just any saint-ranked expert. It can only be used by the one it accepts as its user," Lady Ren said.
"Oh," the jaguar said as his eyes shined with understanding. "This sword has an artifact spirit?" he asked.
"Yes, a very rudimentary one, but there is one nonetheless. All it can do is choose whether or not it wants the person carrying it to use it. If it allows, the weight becomes insignificant."
"If it doesn't, you will have to bear the weight while carrying you. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be advanced enough to completely stop you from using it," Lady Ren said.
The jaguar and the puma nodded in understanding, while Alex stood there dumbly, not understanding a thing.
"Um, what is an artifact spirit?" he asked them.
"You don't know?" Lady Ren asked.
"No," Alex said. "And I would also like to know how you look like a human right now."
"Oh, never mind this," Lady Ren said. "You will learn about transformations later on. For now, all you need to know is that I, as well as a few others in this world, can transform as one."
"As for an Artifact spirit, when an artifact is made up of incredibly high ranked material or crafted to perfection, there is a chance that it will grow a spirit of its own that has consciousness," she said.
"I have never seen a saint realm artifact have a spirit before, but it seems they aren't quite impossible. Its users must've left it alone to take in a lot of energy and refine itself a consciousness. That is also another way artifact spirits can be born," Lady Ren said.
"No wonder I thought they were similar. This one also has a spirit in it, huh?" the puma said.
"Well, at least we won't have to worry about this one," Lady Ren said. "The spirit in this one is not as bad as the black o—"
Suddenly, Lady Ren noticed something on the surface of the sword and stopped. She brought it up and looked at it through the shine of the ceiling at a certain angle. Her face suddenly turned all serious and even a little bit worried.
"Why would they attack her?" she mumbled to herself.
"Lady Ren? Are you okay?" the jaguar and puma got worried.
"Yes, I'm fine," Lady Ren said.
"What did you find?" Alex asked.
"Nothing of import to you," Lady Ren said and handed the sword back. Alex let it fall to the ground and then went to pick it up.
He wondered what she saw and he too tried to look at the sword-like she did. At a certain angle, through the light's shine, he could see a sword with something wrapped around it.
"A sword with a snake wrapped around it?" Alex asked in confusion.
"A snake?" the jaguar looked confused.
"That is no snake. That's a dragon," Lady Ren said. "A Dragon wrapped around a sword, that is the crest of the Azure Imperium. Blessed by the Azure dragon himself, they rule the eastern continent in his stead."
"If that sword can bear their crest, then it has to belong to someone important in the Imperium. Whoever killed my descendant belonged to the Azure Imperium," Lady Ren said.
"The only question left to answer now is why?"
