Ordinary prodigal sons and foppish young masters were everywhere in the Imperial City and the Royal Academy. One more Ye Lang made no difference, one less Ye Lang made no difference either. He was dispensable, and the easiest sort to overlook.
This situation might have seemed rather strange. Back when Thirteenth Young Master Ye had been a fool, plenty of people had paid attention to him. But now that everyone knew he was no longer foolish, fewer and fewer people cared about him. His fame and the attention he received had plummeted in a straight line.
Ah, fine. Let me be an "ordinary person" again!
There were reasons for his declining fame as well. Perhaps he had been too flamboyant before; perhaps he had grown used to an ordinary life in his previous life. He had always kept a low profile, only occasionally doing something out of the ordinary, but people quickly forgot it. After all, this was the Imperial City, where storm clouds gathered and heroes converged; something happened every day.
Of course, there was another reason: he had not displayed his talent, making people think his aptitude was very ordinary. Everyone knew Thirteenth Young Master Ye had become smarter, but only compared to before. His aptitude was merely that of an ordinary person. Some even had the strange feeling that Thirteenth Young Master Ye was less clever than before.
Yes, in certain respects, that was true. When the former Thirteenth Young Master Ye answered certain questions, his answers had been strange, but he often possessed unique insights. If people asked him now, his answers were correct, yet those unique insights were gone.
The more this was the case, the less anyone paid attention to him. Added to that, everyone knew he was a worthless failure without any Talent Attribute. No matter how much he tossed and turned, he could not make any waves.
To the people of this continent, strength was still the most important measure. Thus, Ye Lang, this once-in-ten-thousand-years "waste," was gradually forgotten.
"Waste? Young Master is no waste. He simply disdains competing with you." Whenever Tiger Girl heard others speak of her young master that way, she felt deeply displeased and snorted inwardly.
In Tiger Girl's heart, her young master was the best. Even when he had been foolish, he had still been the best; now, there was even less need to say so. If he truly were a waste, how could he have guided her martial skills and found her a set of martial techniques and a Battle Qi formula suited to her?
After Tiger Girl finished practicing her fist techniques, she moved on to weapons. She took out a long-handled weapon: the Mo Dao, one of the four Tang saber styles. The Mo Dao had been an important military resource for the Tang army. By the middle Tang period, private manufacture and possession had been strictly forbidden. Its predecessor had evolved from the horse-cutting swords used by the heavy infantry of the Feathered Forest Guard, the Han dynasty's main foot soldiers against Xiongnu cavalry.
The Mo Dao was double-edged, with a four-foot handle, and was equipped by heavily armored infantry. It was an exceedingly lethal weapon, unstoppable and invincible on the battlefield. Yet after the Tang dynasty, Mo Dao rarely appeared in historical records. The reason was that they were too expensive to make—luxuries, really. Without the flourishing golden age of the Tang, few dynasties could likely withstand such military expenditures.
Still, if it was only one, many people could probably make it. For a prodigal son like Ye Lang, it was a piece of cake.
After designing it, ordering the materials, and having it forged under an onslaught of gold coins, a long-handled Mo Dao made of carefully selected materials and exquisite craftsmanship, capable of being passed down for generations, came into being.
Actually, the design was not Ye Lang's own. He had forged it according to a book called the Weapon Compendium from the Martial Arts Treasury. Besides records of Chinese weapons from every dynasty, the Weapon Compendium also contained some obscure and unusual weapons. It even included the legendary Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, capable of firing the Song dynasty's three-bow siege crossbow in volleys, and it even recorded firearms.
The value of this Weapon Compendium was probably no less than Ban's Alchemy Notes. However, it existed only in Ye Lang's memory, and he would not take it out for anyone to see.
As for why Ye Lang remembered the Weapon Compendium, it was really a shared hobby among most boys: they enjoyed studying weapons, whether cold weapons or modern weaponry.
So when he discovered the Weapon Compendium, it was as if he had found a priceless treasure. He read it from beginning to end with painstaking care and studied it thoroughly.
Getting back to the point, his choosing the Mo Dao from among so many weapons was no coincidence. He had considered it carefully and believed this Mo Dao suited Tiger Girl best. The Mo Dao design pages also came with a modified Yang Family Spear Technique, specially tailored for the Mo Dao and capable of drawing out its full potential.
The Yang Family Spear Technique had been distilled from the battlefield. Every move was simple and direct, yet its power was far from insignificant. Moreover, the simpler the move, the greater its potential for adaptation, and the more easily it could develop into techniques suited to the user.
When Tiger Girl saw this Yang Family Spear Technique, which could no longer really be called a spear technique, her eyes shone even brighter. Clearly, she loved this martial technique, and loved the Mo Dao Ye Lang had custom-made for her even more.
In truth, this Mo Dao differed somewhat from the genuine Mo Dao among the four Tang saber styles. The Weapon Compendium had two versions of the Mo Dao: one original version, and one improved version suited to martial artists. It had been modified to better suit martial artists rather than being designed solely for the battlefield. After all, it came from a Martial Arts Treasury.
This improved version also had a rather interesting mechanism in its middle. Ye Lang felt that such a mechanism did not suit the martial techniques of this world, but since he thought one more would not hurt, he kept it anyway. He did not care about spending a little more on forging costs. Wasn't that an even better way to squander money?
But he had never told anyone about it, including Tiger Girl. It was not that he wanted to hide it from her; he simply felt Tiger Girl would never have occasion to use those mechanisms. More importantly, he understood her personality and knew she would not use them.
When Tiger Girl asked what this Mo Dao was called, and what this martial technique was called, Ye Lang thought for a moment before saying, "This Mo Dao will be called Tiger Girl's Blade. The martial technique will still be called the Yang Family Spear Technique."
As mentioned above, Ye Lang did not want to claim the achievements of those before him as his own, nor did he want to casually rename them. They deserved respect. Just like the person who had modified the Yang Family Spear Technique back then—wasn't it still called the Yang Family Spear Technique, merely with a certain modified version appended afterward?
"...Young Master, can't you be a little more serious? How am I supposed to tell people that name?" Tiger Girl said irritably.
"Is that no good? Then... Taiya's Blade."
"...Fine. At least that's a little better." Tiger Girl figured that changing it again would not produce any better name. This would do; at least it was passable.
On this continent, many things were named this way, after their owners or makers—things like Azshara's Claw, Kro's Blade, and so on.
It was so cold today. It had started snowing where Xiao Xiao was last night, and this morning everything was blanketed in white. Everyone, remember to keep warm. If possible, go to bed early...
Before you continue