An Aberration in the Arsenal

Jizhou Arsenal was located beneath the Governor's Office.

For safety's sake, only the accompanying grinding craftsmen—namely, the chief armorer—were normally qualified to enter and leave the arsenal. As for everyone else, even Commander Liu himself had to obtain the chief armorer's permission before entering.

The reason was that unspeakable things had once happened within such underground arsenals.

"That happened long ago, over at the Youzhou Governor's Office. There was no such prohibition then, and the arsenal was built aboveground. Places like arsenals carry extremely heavy Sha Qi and are prone to trouble, but so long as the chief armorer maintained the weapons properly, it did not stop the soldiers from coming to collect arms and drill their formations."

When Du Chengfeng asked, Commander Liu roughly explained the whole matter.

After all, it was related to the problem facing Jizhou Arsenal.

Unlike Wang Gaocheng of Jizhou, who had been stabbed to death with a single sword, Youzhou's chief armorer had been willing to work. Thus, nothing had happened in ordinary times. Every blade was polished to a brilliant shine, and whenever soldiers came to collect weapons, no one had ever suffered Sha Qi entering the body.

That was precisely why the chief armorer's failure to report for a day or two did not greatly affect the arsenal's normal operation.

Nothing happened for one or two days, and three or four days were still bearable. But when the chief armorer had yet to appear after seven or eight days, the Youzhou Governor's Office realized that something was wrong. Yet when the Governor commanding Youzhou opened the arsenal to see what had happened, one weapon caught his eye.

"Then half the people in the Youzhou Governor's Office died."

Walking through the dark passageway, Commander Liu's brow remained tightly furrowed.

"According to those who escaped, the Youzhou Governor had been completely invaded by Sha Qi and turned into a monster. And it was not just the Governor's Office—the transformed Youzhou Governor even slaughtered his way out... That disaster directly destroyed all of Youzhou's defenses. It was because Youzhou descended into utter chaos that those grassland people had the chance to seize the moment, send troops in, and carve Youzhou into their territory."

"This..."

For a moment, Du Chengfeng could not find the words.

He had originally been worried that Sha Qi might enter his body in the arsenal and make him slaughter all of Ji Town. So someone had really done exactly that before. No wonder entry to and exit from the arsenal required a grinding craftsman's inspection. Compared to others, grinding craftsmen who dealt with Sha Qi year-round were at least somewhat more resistant when it entered the body.

That little extra resistance gave the grinding craftsmen a chance to escape. If they could not grind it down, then they simply would not grind it down—at worst, they could flee out to raise the alarm, then seal the entire underground arsenal shut.

After all, there was more than one underground arsenal.

Having learned from Youzhou's bitter lesson, arsenals everywhere had been rebuilt. Not only were the main structures buried underground, but they were also divided into dozens of separate chambers—just as Du Chengfeng would not put all his eggs in one basket, Governor's Offices across the land stored weapons in separate batches. If something went wrong in one armory, they could simply bury it on the spot. There were several other armories still available for use.

Yet no one knew why these arsenals developed problems in the first place.

"Isn't that strange?"

Du Chengfeng keenly spotted an obvious flaw in that explanation.

"The weapons in an arsenal are all already polished. They are sealed away inside under normal circumstances, and no one takes them out to kill people. So where does this Sha Qi of blades and weapons come from?"

"That is exactly where the problem lies."

Commander Liu sighed.

"Youzhou fell, and the chief armorer vanished without a trace. The only intelligence we could obtain came from statements recorded by those who fled Youzhou. No one knows how that calamity began. Some even said that Youzhou's chief armorer did it deliberately... It was from that time onward that the imperial court prohibited local authorities from recruiting chief armorers themselves, changing it so they were uniformly assigned by the court."

"Mm..."

Du Chengfeng nodded.

That was understandable. It was nothing more than one of the measures the imperial court had used to tighten its control over the frontier armies, as in Wang Gaocheng's memories. But when he thought of Wang Gaocheng's experiences, Du Chengfeng felt that something was still off.

Ever since Wang Gaocheng had arrived in Jizhou, he had barely entered the arsenal a few times. So how had Jizhou's arsenal developed a problem?

"Perhaps it is like what happened in Youzhou."

Commander Liu's voice sank.

"I originally thought Youzhou fell because the chief armorer had betrayed them. But now that I think about it... perhaps he was truly wronged. This may not have had anything to do with the chief armorer. It is more likely some other aberration."

With that, Commander Liu stopped walking.

"Enough. I cannot go any farther. I am not a grinding craftsman; if I keep going, I fear something will happen. I leave the rest to you. It should be Jia-Character No. 7 Armory ahead. If you cannot grind it down, come out immediately. I will have someone seal this armory shut for good."

"Don't worry. I should be able to handle it."

Though he said so, Du Chengfeng's expression had already turned grave.

For even from this distance, he could already sense that dense Sha Qi of blades and weapons.

A ferocious, baleful aura filled the passageway. Even each breath carried a faint tang of rust.

But Du Chengfeng knew it was not the smell of rusted weapons.

It was the long-absent scent of blood.

"Looks like a big job..."

With a bundle containing whetstones on his back, Du Chengfeng raised his torch and strode onward.

The closer he drew, the more strongly he felt that heavy Sha Qi. It was an aura far denser than that of his broad, heavy saber.

His great saber had been passed down through the Yang Clan before falling into his hands. Over that entire course, it had killed a full four or five hundred people.

And how many had the weapon inside, fiercer and more baleful than even that saber, killed?

A thousand? Or ten thousand?

"Remarkable. Something like this."

Du Chengfeng could not help drawing a deep breath.

The danger ahead was unmistakable, yet it only made him more excited.

The more dangerous the weapon, the greater the gains it could bring him.

It was then that Du Chengfeng found Jia-Character No. 7 Armory and yanked open its door.

Yet to Du Chengfeng's surprise, the weapon before him carried no bloody aura at all. He could scarcely sense any Sha Qi of blades and weapons from it.

It might not even have killed anyone.

"This..."

Though doubts still lingered in his heart, Du Chengfeng followed that feeling within him and took the weapon down from among the racks displaying sabers, spears, swords, and halberds.

It was an old general's banner.

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