Windwing Saber Technique

After Ueno Kei finished handling the summoning scroll, he turned his gaze toward the sword.

Since it had been bound together with the summoning scroll, it was clear that this sword belonged to the same owner. Ueno Kei refused to believe that a sword owned by a ninja who possessed such a precious summoning scroll could be anything cheap.

The blade was clear and bright, without a single nick or speck of rust; it was merely covered in dust and grime accumulated over the years.

Judging by its style, it appeared to be a katana, with a slight curve to the blade.

Ueno Kei laid the entire sword horizontally in front of him, took a rag in his right hand, dipped it in some water, and wiped away all the grime. Before long, the entire blade became bright and clean.

To Ueno Kei's surprise, he had expected the stains to be difficult to remove, given that it looked as if it had been buried under the riverbed for a very long time.

Ueno Kei gently gripped the hilt and raised the sword slightly.

The blade was cold and piercing. Sunlight streaming through the window hit the steel, reflecting into Ueno Kei's eyes and causing him to squint involuntarily.

Hum. Suddenly, a faint, humming sound seemed to ring in Ueno Kei's ears.

Ueno Kei's gaze sharpened, and he stared at the sword in his hand with a look of astonishment. In that moment, it felt to him as if the sword were alive.

Furthermore, it seemed as though that hum had come from the blade itself, but when Ueno Kei focused his attention to listen closely, there was no sound at all.

The sword remained the same as before, unchanged—a lifeless object.

Ueno Kei's eyes flickered. He was skeptical; after all, he was certain he had heard a "hum," and it definitely wasn't an auditory hallucination.

The most suspicious thing was the katana before him.

Ueno Kei examined the sword over and over again, as if trying to find a single point of suspicion, but no matter how he checked, he was discouraged to find nothing. The only thing he could question was that when he channeled his chakra into the blade, there was absolutely no reaction.

Of course, there were two possibilities: either this was just an ordinary sword, unsuitable for channeling chakra, and its special material simply made it durable enough that Ueno Kei's weak strength couldn't damage it. The other possibility was that the amount of chakra he channeled was too small to trigger any change.

Neither situation could be confirmed by Ueno Kei at the moment. After all, he had used every ounce of his strength, channeling chakra with all his might, yet it was like a stone sinking into the ocean—there was no reaction at all.

This left Ueno Kei feeling very frustrated. He couldn't exactly go find a powerful ninja to test it for him; he wasn't that foolish. The same logic applied to the summoning scroll.

In short, after staring at the katana for half a day, Ueno Kei shook his head helplessly, concluding that he was out of options. Although today had been a day of harvest for him, for the time being, everything he had was something he could look at but not use. It was of no help in increasing his current strength. "Sigh," Ueno Kei let out a breath.

He muttered to himself, "It's a harvest, regardless. The summoning scroll will be useful in three or four years, or six or seven at the latest. This sword is definitely a treasure; I'll study it again when I'm stronger in the future, or perhaps trade it for something useful later."

Thinking this, Ueno Kei intended to put the sword away for safekeeping until a later date.

Hiss.

Ueno Kei's brow furrowed slightly. While turning the blade, he had been too engrossed in searching for its secrets and, in a moment of carelessness, the edge had sliced his palm, drawing blood that immediately began to flow down the blade.

The stinging sensation made Ueno Kei gasp. It wasn't that the wound was deep enough to be unbearable; on the contrary, the cut was quite shallow.

It merely bled a bit more than expected. However, the moment his palm was sliced, Ueno Kei clearly felt a chill pass from the blade through the wound and into his body.

It made him shiver, as if he had been frozen in an instant, and he couldn't help but gasp again to soothe the coldness within him, which only then began to subside slightly.

Ueno Kei stared in horror at the plain-looking sword in his hand. Sharpness aside—and for safety's sake, Ueno Kei had coated his hands in chakra before touching the blade to prevent any accidents—the fact that this sword, without a master to control it, could so easily cut his hand was alarming. If it were controlled by a powerful ninja, what would its lethality be? If this sword could accept chakra, what would its destructive power be once a ninja channeled their energy into it?

It could cut through iron like mud! This thought immediately surfaced in Ueno Kei's mind. Of course, this was only because he lacked other adjectives, but he had every reason to believe in the hidden power of this sword.

It would definitely exceed his imagination.

Moreover, that chill—this time, the sensation was no illusion. Ueno Kei could clearly perceive the feeling of dread that the coldness brought with it.

If he had to find a word to describe that feeling, the only conclusion Ueno Kei could reach was "killing intent."

Ueno Kei had not truly felt killing intent in this life, but in his previous life, at the moment his life was about to end, he had been stared at by that man with indifferent eyes.

Ueno Kei could clearly feel the cold, bone-chilling sensation radiating from that man.

In that moment, the only thing Ueno Kei was certain of was that the feeling was definitely killing intent; the naked desire to kill transmitted through those cold, icy eyes!

It was a feeling that seemed to freeze time and space itself.

Therefore, when that chill invaded his body, Ueno Kei didn't even need to think to know that it was a sensation of killing intent.

And it was very likely left behind by the sword's former master.

After all these years, to still have such a clear and distinct feeling, it was certain that the former master must have slaughtered countless living beings to leave such an impression.

This is a spiritual treasure of a sword! Ueno Kei was certain of it now. Just as he was excitedly admiring the sword again, he failed to notice something.

The blood flowing from his hand onto the back and edge of the blade seemed to be slowly absorbed by the sword, gradually merging into it.

Suddenly, the sword in Ueno Kei's hand began to shake violently, and a flash of brilliant light erupted. Ueno Kei subconsciously closed his eyes.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Ueno Kei immediately dropped the sword and clutched his head, screaming in agony.

In an instant, Ueno Kei stopped screaming, but his eyes were wide open, and he began to doubt his own existence, for he was now in an unknown space.

The four large characters "Wind Wing Sword Technique" appeared out of thin air before his eyes.