Hu Xiaotian looked the weapons over and finally settled on a Greatsword. He chose it for one reason alone: its shape resembled the Black Iron Sword. It also felt solid and weighty in his hand. Though it could not match the Black Iron Sword, it weighed several times as much as an ordinary longsword.
Zong Tang could not help laughing. "My father forged this sword himself, but he never got around to putting an edge on it."
"I'll take this one," Hu Xiaotian said.
"All right!" Zong Tang said.
Hu Xiaotian reached out and lifted the Greatsword. The heavy blade had no edge, and its most distinctive feature was its spine, which rose and fell in an interlocking pattern like fish bones.
"If you've made up your mind," Zong Tang said, "I'll sharpen it for you now."
Hu Xiaotian nodded, and the two went outside. Master Craftsman Zong Yuan had already restored Hu Xiaotian's black iron plaque to its original state and handed it back to him. Seeing that he had chosen this sword, he laughed. "This sword has been around for quite a while. Someone commissioned me to forge it twenty years ago, but unfortunately, he died before I could deliver it. I only received his deposit. The balance still hasn't been paid."
Hu Xiaotian could not help laughing. With the man dead, of course no one would pay the balance.
"The materials used in this sword are excellent," Master Craftsman Zong Yuan said. "Refined steel blended with thirty-seven other materials, including some extremely rare iron mother. The customer supplied all of them. Since I couldn't deliver it, I tossed the sword into the storeroom. It's too heavy, while swordsmanship calls for lightness and agility, so no one ever took a liking to it. I never expected you to