Flowers Bloom 鲜花盛开 [ZSWW]

Chapter 5: Rongyao and Sishen

Xiao Zhan felt his body aches after hours of walking. He wondered if all cultivators just walk for a long time to such a far place every single day, because they don't seem to be tired at all. Luckily Xiao Zhan learned about having golden core for cultivators to survived. He even developed one for himself but it's not as strong as the other cultivators because he rarely practise or meditate it.

"Tell me Bo-di, do all of you preferred to walk on your feet when hunting or wandering?" He asked.

Wang Yibo hummed as the answer. Xiao Zhan nodded.

"Oh..."

"Walking strengthen the energy," Wang Yibo said again.

Xiao Zhan make an o shape sound, he threw his hands up, stretching up his sore muscles. He groaned as he heard his bone cracked.

"Ah, Bo-di, you haven't tell me where are we going yet?" He said.

All this small talks, to keep Xiao Zhan from feeling bored and giving up. He stares at the slim figure in front of him. One hand on his back, while the other gripping his sword. He walks steadily, not letting his guards down. There is a dominating aura come from him. Still Xiao Zhan is aware at how tense Wang Yibo is. He wondered why? Is it because of the nickname? He can't quite tell.

Wang Yibo ended up not talking to him at all and just listened to Xiao Zhan rambling. What felt like day of walking, they finally arrived in town in the border of Xiao Hu and Biyu Land. The town isn't huge but it's packed with villagers, foreigners, cultivators and so on.

They entered the town and all of sudden, Xiao Zhan was surrounded by beautiful prostitutes in colorful dresses.

"Gongzi, gongzi come and drink with us~" they said.

Xiao Zhan smiles awkwardly at them. Seriously, in a broad daylight, in the middle of the street, in front of everyone. Wang Yibo stop walking as he turned around at the sight of Xiao Zhan hugged, tugged, pulled and even kissed on the cheeks by those girls. Wang Yibo rolled his eyes as he piss off by it. Xiao Zhan and him accidentally made an eyecontacts with each other, Xiao Zhan apologised to the girls as he forced himself out of the circle. He ran towards Wang Yibo who staring blankly at him.

"Ah, sorry... I got block by them," Xiao Zhan said, giggling.

Wang Yibo didn't say a word as he continue to walk forward. Xiao Zhan pouted at him as he followed behind. They passed around a lot of shop until they saw a man moulding swords in the far corner of the street. Wang Yibo steps closer toward the owner of the shop as he clasped his hands before him and bowed.

The owner look up, staring with confusion before his eyes flashing with surprised.

"Ah, Jian Zi Jun! Welcome, welcome" he said, inviting them to enter the shop.

As both of them followed the shopkeeper, Xiao Zhan took a look around. He found various of swords hanging on the walls or even displayed on a table. There ain't much people here and the building wasn't that huge either, but the design and the shopkeeper's effort to keep the building as grand as possible, makes it even more interesting.

The owner turned to look at them, "What can I help you two with?" He asked.

Wang Yibo took out something from his long and huge sleeve, it was the sword from yesterday. Still looked new as it just moulded today. He hand it to the shopkeeper.

"Do you know anyone with the sword like this?" He asked.

The shopkeeper took it from his hand and take a closer look. He even unsheathed it to inspect it's every little detail. Once he let out a few hummed and nodded at something he saw that Xiao Zhan can't figured out what it is. The shopkeeper sheathed the sword back. His face lifted up like a sun, grinning wide as he stares at Wang Yibo.

"I know, I know. This sword was made by me. Let me go grab the record of the customers that buy my sword first, ah," he said.

Wang Yibo nods, "Please do," he said politely.

The shopkeeper invites them to take a look around the shop while he go at the back of the counter and look for the record book. Xiao Zhan twirled around as he went towards each sword that lay out nicely on the table. Wang Yibo stay on his spot, probably meditating.

Xiao Zhan look and look and look but none of the swords look interesting to him. All looks like they have the same design and too colorful in the eyes. He went around to the back of the store, eyes dragged towards one sword that stood perfectly in the hill of circle there. It looks like it made out of black metal because Xiao Zhan can't see it shining like any other sword. It too have something special about it, when Xiao Zhan look closely, he can see how thick the sword is, blended with blood red color. The sword sheathed so it hard to see how it look like inside. Plus, he can feel a strong energy coming from the sword itself that he can't specify.

"Laoban, what material does this sword made of?" He asked, still standing close to the sword.

The shopkeeper tilted his head to look at Xiao Zhan and laughed.

"Ah, the sword was found by one of my workers. There is no information about the owner of that sword so my worker thought he might picked up a dead cultivator's sword. We call it Sishen since it was found stabbed into someone's body. But if you asked me the material, I can see it just made of normal metal. It just moulded carefully and has lived more than 10 years," he said.

"Ah, found it!" He said and stand up. He went closer towards Wang Yibo and gave the book.

"Rongyao must be in one of this pages," the shopkeeper said.

Wang Yibo took it and started to flipped the page one by one.

Xiao Zhan hummed. Sishen or the grim reaper really has caught Xiao Zhan full attention. He wondered why it still here then, does nobody want this strong sword?

"Then laoban, why nobody has taken this sword yet?" he asked.

The shopkeeper sighed as he steps closer towards Xiao Zhan.

"It's not that we don't want to sell it, later we found out that the sword has sealed itself right after we sheathed it and nobody has able to pull out the sword since then. I'm actually about to remove the sword since it don't give me any profi-"

Swing!

The sword slid out of the sheath making an earful of metal noise. The shopkeeper gawked at Xiao Zhan who hold it casually as it doesn't being sealed for years. Xiao Zhan tried it again, he sheathed it back and unsheathed it again. It wasn't seal. Xiao Zhan wondered if the shopkeeper is lying to him.

Meanwhile Wang Yibo widened his eyes as he finally found the owner of Rongyao.

"Zhu Zanjin," he murmured. He close the book. He look at Xiao Zhan who playing with the sword in the back of the store. He went closer and give the book back to it's owner.

"We leaving," he said. Xiao Zhan whined, "Ah, we leaving already-" and he gaped as a sudden waves of painful screams filled his ears. These screams reminded him of... that night. He was too distracted by the sounds he don't realised Wang Yibo was calling out for him.

"Zhan gongzi!"

Xiao Zhan gasped as he felt like he just drowned in the sea of screams, he wondered what's going on. Something wrong with him. Wang Yibo stares at him, brows furrowed in worries.

"Are you alright?" Wang Yibo asked.

Xiao Zhan shook his head, "I'm fine," he said.

Both of them ended leaving the shop with Xiao Zhan and his new sword. The shopkeeper eager for him to take it as a gift instead of paying him. Xiao Zhan didn't want to argue a lot, so he accepted it. Wang Yibo also left with the mystery sword and the owner's name engraved perfectly in his mind.

"Zhu Zanjin"

•••

To Be Continue.