"I killed my whole family for this blade." The words sent an uproar through the crowd.
Martial World wanderers took no sides. They all began to condemn him, and insults and jeers rang out everywhere. Loudest of all was a rather sleazy-sounding man's voice.
"Your father should've shot you against a wall!"
He had killed his entire family to avenge one person. Was the man an idiot?
But most of the Innate Masters in the main hall said nothing. Their faces were as dark and still as water.
They were powerful, and they knew many of the Martial World's secrets. Naturally, they knew that blood could indeed be used to consecrate a blade—and that the result was formidable.
An ancient book, the Sword Classic, once said: "A sword is metal and men. Metal makes a weapon; men make an army. The weapon held to command an army is a sword, the token of command among soldiers. A sword bears the faith of an entire army, and must therefore have a spirit. Without a spirit, it cannot turn courage into the strength of an army. Thus, one with a spirit is a sword; one without is merely copper. A ranger who wears three feet of copper through the marketplace and boasts, 'I carry a sword,' is gravely mistaken."
The ancient book dated back, it was said, to before the Sky Hero Dynasty. Among blacksmiths and foundry workers, it was a textbook worthy of being called a cultural relic.
The book made it clear that master craftsmen had valued a weapon's spirit since ancient times. Some even believed that a weapon without one was nothing but metal.
And a spirit truly did make an enormous difference to a weapon's power. A spirited weapon could increase its wielder's combat strength by thirty to