Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 1051: Pawn

A sword was a very common item among Cultivators. It was a popular weapon and many branches of cultivation were formed around its usage. They were also somewhat large without being too obvious. The aim was to catch the attention of a Cultivator from the Spire and get picked up. If the form it took was too eye-catching then it would come under more scrutiny. If it was too small or innocuous then it might never get noticed. If it was too large, like a suit of armor, it might be left behind. That meant a weapon was the best choice, and a sword was quite common and easy to conceal. It also needed to be something made entirely of Blue Icesilver, so bladed weapons were the obvious choice.

Over the years that Sage was in hiding, this plot was underway. Once the Sea King left, the new sword burrowed up out of the ground next to the Spire. It stayed outside the radius of the protective formations and waited near one of the places where Sages clones were destroyed in battle. The conflict was a good reason for something like a sword to go missing. A few months later, those of the Spire were relaxed enough to again head outside for training and that was when the Blue Icesilver sword was discovered. Three different groups walked past it and none of them even gave it a second look. The last even seemed like they contemplated giving it a kick, but the naked blade turned him away.

Disdain? I guess we went too simple.

The sword sprouted a few pseudopod-like limbs and skittered away, finding a different position and then starting to change shape. It wouldnt be good to be in the exact same spot yet look differently. Now that it was in a new location, the sword started to reshape itself. Instead of the most simple and generic of looks, the guard and pommel took on a more stylized appearance, like that of a flowing wave of water. In addition, more Blue Icesilver was expelled and formed into the shape of a scabbard, which the sword sheathed itself into. Lastly, since everything was formed of a single material, the different parts of the sword were given slightly different textures. The handle was knurled for grip, the blade was mirror smooth, the guard and pommel were highly sculpted in three dimensions, and the scabbard looked like a stack of rings.

This new approach was far more successful, with one of the passing Disciples choosing to take the sword. They chose beauty over ability, using the plain Blue Icesilver sword instead of the Magic one they had previously. It was a little tricky to forge a magic item through just a Soul Fragment, especially out in the open like it was. It was a good lesson, as it proved there was no lack of vanity, even among Cultivators.

With the first Disciple picking up the sword, the first hurdle was successfully passed. With someone to bring it past the defensive arrays upon the Spire, they were much closer to their goal. By listening to the conversations around the sword, they gained more information about the hierarchy within the Spire and who they needed to target next. To get closer to the upper echelons, they needed to move from the possession of the low level outer disciple to a core disciple. With the success of targeting vanity, they gathered information about the core disciples of the Spire, picking out the most vain one and learning that they were known to carry folding fans.

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When the disciple carrying the sword was asleep, a small chunk of liquid Blue Icesilver crept under the door, leaving behind the sword completely intact yet without its Soul Fragment passenger. Blue Icesilver wasnt very valuable to the Blacksmiths or Weapon and Tool Refiners of this world, but that didnt mean it was useless. Instead of being known for its strength, weight, or flexibility, its defining characteristic was changing from a solid into a liquid. There were a few cultivators that had both water and metal nature arts combined which prized it, but they were rare enough that it was not very valued.

On the other hand, it was quite useful to Sage as the liquid state it could take made it similar to the energy based Heavenly Materials: it could be replicated. Those bonded with Heavenly Materials could produce more of them by feeding in their Qi and the more solid it was, the more Qi this process took. The other Heavenly Metals were mainly used to create weapons and this special property made it so they were effectively invincible, simply requiring more Qi to recover from damage and restore themselves to perfect condition. Blue Icesilver was very useful to Sage because of this odd quirk as he could endlessly produce metal, even if it wasnt outstanding, it was still technically higher performance than something like Spirit Steel, the most common metal used for forging Magic Tools. That made it more valuable, but not exceedingly so as its special property was only sought after by certain people.

In one of the scrolls he read, it spoke of a whole Sect of liquid metal users that had a method to bond to the Blue Icesilver and split off portions of it so that every member could be a wielder of the Heavenly Metal if they were skilled enough. They had possibly existed for thousands of years and that existence had spread the metal through the world. Or so it said. The Sect was said to be very far away and the book was hundreds of years old. The sharing of knowledge between Empires seemed to be quite limited. Sage guessed that only the higher ups in the capitals or the leaders of the different Kingdoms under them would have access to those news channels. That source was similar to Storage Treasures. It didnt make it cheap, but it did make it common enough to meet all the demand.

All this boiled down to the Blue Icesilver not being that valuable, and so simple items made of it would not be enough to tempt someone at a higher level. Sage instead relied upon the artistic talents of the citizens of the Inner World, holding a competition for metal fans and using the winners design to catch the core disciples attention. The piece of liquid metal formed into the design that looked like the feathers of a bird even to the smallest vane and formed a metallic case around itself with a simple engraving for Blue Peacock, a stylized version of the core disciples name. With just a little bit of time spent, the case was found by one of the disciples. Eager to earn the favor of a core disciple, she rushed to Blue Peacocks room and handed over the lost box without opening it.

They were both surprised when the box was opened and it was not one of his possessions or a message for him. The female disciple was demoralized as she realized shed just delivered someone elses gift, turning her into nothing more than a side character. Blue Peacock kept the gift and showed it off for a few days, trying to bait out its source only to be disappointed and hanging it up on his wall along with a hundred other fans. This was both a blessing and a curse as it gave them plenty of time alone in the mans room without any interference, but it also meant they had no access to any other members of the Spire.

They tried to target some of the other core disciples, but they cared little about things made of Blue Icesilver. Weapons, trinkets, and accessories, none of them caught the attention of another core disciple, in fact it did the opposite. While in the shape of a large hammer, the Blacksilver Pawn was picked up and sent to a smithy to be turned into a proper weapon.

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