Chapter 704: Crimson Star
At this point in time, it was silently agreed that the branch clan scions would go in order of their father’s birth order in regards to acquiring their aether treasures from the vault space. As such, after Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai managed to find and acquire their choices, it was now Zhen Guo’s turn to go since he was the son of the Third Elder of their clan, Zhen Lao.
With confidence in his…float, Zhen Guo positioned himself where his two other cousins were earlier. He had a feeling that that spot might’ve been blessed with good fortune.
“Y’all think I’ll get anything good as that belt and club?,” Zhen Guo asked as he began to circulate aether into his palms. A lovely green colored shower of light began to be emitted from Zhen Guo’s hand, floating through space like delicate feathers flowing on the wind. These delicate particles of light soon made contact with several of the stars in the distance, causing them to react and fly towards Zhen Guo’s direction with equal ease and grace.
“Oooh, here they come!,” Zhen Guo excitedly exclaimed as he saw over a dozen or so aether treasures reacting to his aether. A majority of the aether treasures had a green color to them, an indication that they were affiliated with Aeroqi aether, but there were also a few treasures that seemed to carry a touch of lighting aether to them. However, in the midst of this happy moment, something unusual occured.
*Crack!*
“Huh? What the hell was that?”
The sound of what could only be described as glass in the process of being shattered into pieces, echoed throughout the space.
*Crack! Crack!*
“Oh shit, did Zhen Guo also summon a crazy aether treasure that wants to eat his face too?”
“I don’t think so…this feels…different.”
Accompanying this ominous sound was this strange aura of dread that was similar to the one that Zhen Hai’s shark-tooth club had, but in a very different manner. Zhen Hai’s club came with this feeling that it was an incoming storm, ready to flood and destroy everything in its path. This new aura though…felt like the arrival of a force of pure malevolence.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
“Guys…I don’t think this is Zhen Guo’s doing…”
“What makes you say that?”
“The literal cracks in space.”
“Uh oh…”
In a corner of the void space, the branch clan scions could see glowing crimson fault lines appear in space, as if something was trying to breach it. Or to be more precise, it felt as if something was trying to escape.
*Shatter!*
“What the hell?!”
And it just succeeded.
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After being shown the strange sealing array on the scrying mirror, Zhen Jun Yao couldn’t help but be enraptured by its design. From what he could see, and based on what little knowledge he had in regards to aether arrays such as this, it was four layer seal that was meant to suppress…something.
Four layer seals were traditionally used to seal sixth tier aether beasts and Aether Kings, so why was something like this in a treasure vault of all places?
The Zhen Clan’s treasure vault couldn’t possibly be used to keep someone imprisoned…right?
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<<[Spirit Treasure]?,>> Zhen Jun Yao repeated, vaguely familiar with the term. <>
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It should be noted that all aether treasures have some level of consciousness, but nothing that could be considered “alive” or at least nothing to write home about. This consciousness tends to scale with the power of the aether treasures in question, meaning, the average Bronze grade aether treasure had the same level of sentience as a well-trained maggot, while the highest tier Diamond grade treasure had the same intellectual capacity of a zako. However, [Spirit Treasures] were a subversion of this rule.
Independent of their grades, [Spirit Treasures] are able to learn and grow in unpredictable ways thanks to the simple fact that they now have the gift of life. It’s actually been said that some famous warriors throughout history were originally [Spirit Treasures] that managed to become human through unknown means. Of course, this was merely a fairytale…to most people.
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And as if to punctuate the stupidity of Zhen Jun Yao’s request, the seal being displayed on the mirror had finished undoing itself, allowing the aforementioned [Cursed Treasure] to break out of its seal.
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If one cursed weapon was that devastating, whst would happen if the other five got involved?
In this moment, Zhen Jun Yao realized that his plans for destruction for the Zhen Clan hadn’t ended yet. If anything, it had been renewed. All he needed to do after this was to pass on this information to the right people.
‘But for now…I might as well enjoy the show.’
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As quickly as the crack in the space formed, it disappeared, leaving behind a crimson star that had this sinister aura to it.
Whatever aether treasure this star was exactly, it was powerful enough and intimidating enough that it caused many of the stars near it to suddenly disperse and fly away in a myriad of directions. Whether that was a testament to how powerful this treasure was or how sinister its ability was was unknown. All the branch clan scions knew for certain though, was that it was probably very bad thing for it to suddenly appear like this.
“What is up with that star?,” Zhen Tai asked. “Why does it feel so…angry?”
“I don’t know, but we should probably be getting out of here before -”
“INCOMING!”
“WHOA!”
Before Zhen Xing could even finish suggesting that they exit the vault to ask the matriarch what was going on, the dark crimson star they were all worried about had suddenly blasted forward and had almost smashed his jaw into his skull. Thankfully, he saved at the last minute by Zhen Tai, who had grabbed him by the shoulder to pull him down for a duck.
Before anyone could release a sigh of relief at the last minute save though, the crimson star had already begun to fly back towards the group in yet another attempt to take one of their heads clean off. However, this time, someone was ready.
…
‘Alright,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he mentally prepared himself for the absolute worst game of baseball in his life.
‘I just need to position myself so that it has no choice other than to fly directly towards me and-‘
“Dammit! I’d prefer something a bit more refined and elegant looking, but whatever! You’re mine!”
“What?! Zhen Guo, don’t!”
Before Zhen Liu could put his plan into action, Zhen Guo had launched himself directly at the dark crimson star at the exact same time the aforementioned star was launching itself towards Zhen Tai. As Zhen Guo intercepted the dark crimson star, grabbing it with both of his hands. The son of a peacock spun in the air for a few moments before finally stopping, his hands now gripping a proper handle. Needless to say, the other scions were quite shocked at the sight, but also celebratory.
“He got it? He caught it!”
“Good shit, Zhen Guo, good shit!”
“Hey, wait, guys, the light is fading away.”
“Great! Now we can see what had almost killed us.”
As the crimson light began to disappear and fade away, the scions could make out more and more details of the treasure that had almost killed them. Absolutely none of them could’ve predicted what this rowdy treasure actually was.
“Is…is that a blacksmith hammer?”
