Master Huang's heart lurched, and an ominous foreboding crept over him.
The next instant, his eyes widened, his pupils contracting sharply!
In his right hand, the Pitch-Black Short Ruler he had dismissed as shoddy workmanship and casually selected remained completely unscathed, without so much as a scratch, as though that violent collision had been nothing more than a passing breeze.
And his left hand...
The masterpiece in his left hand, the First-Rank Lower-Grade Immortal Sword he had painstakingly forged through a stroke of good fortune, with its chilling sword qi and biting cold gleam, had snapped in two.
The upper half of the blade fell limply to the floor with a clear clang.
That sound seemed to strike Master Huang straight in the heart.
His mind went completely blank.
"No... impossible!"
After a brief, deathly silence, Master Huang suddenly raised his head, his face turning liver-red. Pointing at Zhao Hai outside the formation, he roared himself hoarse:
"You cheated! This can't possibly be an immortal artifact! It must be some one-time spirit treasure that burns through its potential! Pay me back for my immortal sword!"
He could not accept it.
He absolutely could not accept that his masterpiece had lost to this crudely forged piece of "trash"!
He had to fling the dirty water onto someone else, to blame his defeat on his opponent's scheming. Otherwise, his reputation among Northern Garden Immortal City's artifact refiners would be utterly ruined!
His roar sent the cultivators, who had only just recovered from their shock, into another uproar.
"A one-time spirit treasure? I think I've heard of those. They're made using some extreme rune inscriptions and can unleash a single burst of power far beyond their own grade, but afterward, the treasure is ruined."
"Exactly! Master Huang is a veteran artifact refiner from