Dragon 15, year 8690 of the Grand Wulin Era,Alexander Grandstar

As the party ended, Papa and I headed for the Sect’s armory. It was between the Enchanter’s Pavilion and the Blacksmith’s Forges, which I guess made a lot of sense. It was a no-nonsense generic square building about 3 stories tall that looked kinda like the warehouse we used for storage and to prepare the materials that would be sold in markets or to other Sects and clans. We entered and walked over to the clerk behind the reception desk. The Clerk was a chubby, friendly-looking guy who resembled a legendary Mage known as the Laughing Buddha , if the Laughing Buddha had short, spiky hair and liked to wear flower-print kimonos.

“What will it be today, Vice Sect Master? Is it official or personal business? I assume it involves Young Master Alexander?”

“Yeah,he’s picking his first weapon. He’s reached the peak of the Misty Sea Stage at at only 9, so I figure you understand what we’d like to see?”

The man fumbled around in the desk drawer for what looked like a fancy bookmark with a dragon and a phoenix on it. “So, Senior, you’d like to see the Spirit Weapons at the..Mortal Teir? This talisman should get you past the security formations.” He said, a bit shocked but trying to maintain his calm in front of Papa. Papa disliked overly obsequious people or people who would freak out just because of his position of authority, and this was pretty well known throughout the Myriad Existences Sect.

Oh, about the teirs of weapons. As far as I knew, weapons were divided into Mortal,Soldier, Earth, Heaven, and Mythic teirs.Each tier was split into 4 grades:Low,Intermediate, High, and Peak. Their were probably teirs above those, but the Myriad Existences Sect wasn't powerful enough to have any concrete knowledge of any weapons like that, let alone possess any. Spirit Weapons were different from regular weapons, but as far as I knew, they followed the same ranking system.

“Thanks… I uh, forgot your name? It’s been a while since I came to the Armory.”

“Zhang Lie, sir!”

“Well, Mr. Zhang, you’ve been a great help to us. Keep up the hard work, you hear?”

“I’ll do my best, Vice Sect Master.”

Papa sighed as we walked towards the room the Spirit Weapons were kept in, and I waved to the clerk. He wasn’t big on formalities or titles, they stressed him out. He was the kind of person who, upon becoming a god, would proclaim it was no big deal and that nobody should worship him unless they had a good reason to.

“Alex, you know what Spirit Weapons are, yeah?” He asked , making sure to walk slowly enough that my shorter legs could easily keep up.

“Uh.. sorta? I know they bond to a user and kinda grow in power alongside the user, but that’s it.” I replied.

“That’s the basics, but it’s incomplete. Spirit Weapons are a kind of weapon , forged from whatever materials, that has given birth to a soul, and are thus able to cultivate. There are many ways this can happen, such as being made of incredibly mana rich materials, having Spirit Energy and mana infused into the weapon regularly, long use by powerful cultivators, a living soul choosing to take residence in a weapon, or a few other ways.The ones i’m going to be showing you are spirit weapons that have never had owners, and as their souls were created deliberately during the process of forging, they’re kind of like blank slates. When you pick one that suits you, everything about it, from weight to sharpness to the grip, will change to suit you. As you use it, it will become a more powerful weapon as you grow, and it will remain uniquely suited to you, though others may use it if you and the weapon themselves allow it.”

He paused to take a breath, then continued.” You’ll have to occasionally give it materials it needs to grow, but usually using it is the best method to ensure stable, beneficial growth. It’s also possible to bond and use the Spirit Weapons whose owners have died, but that’s more often done by people who are already far down their cultivation paths and either have no more room to grow, or sought out a spirit weapon specifically suited to them , but were too impatient to wait for it to grow. Also, you can’t use a spirit weapon that’s more than certain amount stronger than your own cultivation.” Father explained.

“What benefit would say, pre-made custom weapons of a given tier have over Spirit Weapons?”

“They can be used by anybody, and they’re cheaper to make and improve, but when they’re broken, they’re broken, and it is very rare for a weapon to transform into a Spirit Weapon. Even if they do, it’ll take a long time for one to become as intelligent or useful as a weapon that was forged as one. Also, a normal weapon, even one made by a grandmaster, won't be as suitable for you as a Spirit Weapon that changes with your growth.”

“Oh, I see.Let’s go pick one then.” I said.

Papa, knowing what I liked, lead me over to the spears. There were large spears, short spears, thick and thin ones, lances, pikes, nagitana, yari, qiang, podao, glaives, halberds, assegai, and so on. Spears for throwing, spears that could thrust and hack, spears with flexible shafts, spears with firm ones, spears that were more a spearhead attached to another weapon than anything else! Damn, did one of our sect’s blacksmiths like spears as much as me? I was drawn to a specific spear, though.

It was a Qiang spear, rather short for the type of spear,about 6 feet instead of the usual 9 or longer, fitting well with my height of about 4 feet, with a spearhead that looked like ordinary steel and a shaft that looked like it was carved from ash wood. I was sure that the materials weren’t exactly that normal, but wasn’t sure why. The spear emitted a cold, piercing aura, as if it wanted to pierce every obstacle in its way. I felt no trace of any elemental mana, or really any mana at all from it, just the aura it gave off, and a suspicion that the spear felt...lonely? That was weird. Even if the spear had a soul, could a weapon that was essentially an infant feel lonely? Well, babies were pretty capable of feeling lonely, so even if its body was different , and its soul wasn't exactly a person's yet, it could probably feel lonely. That must be pretty bad, especially if it had no way to communicate with the other weapons or with the people who came in to clean or to pick weapons.

As I was sympathizing with the spear, it flew off the rack, nicked my arm slightly with its point, absorbed a tiny bit of my blood into itself, and jumped into my hands.

“Alexander, the weapon chose you, so you need to circulate your mana and Spirit Energy through it to complete the bond. It’s really important that you do that right away, or you might miss this chance.” Papa said, excitement creeping into his voice.

I did so, reaching and feeling inside the spear with my energies, familiarizing myself with it.I saw it change, the shaft becoming slightly more flexible and the spearhead changing shape slightly to balance between piercing and cutting a bit better. The butt of the spear even seemed to use some of the metal elemental energy it absorbed to forma a metal cap over itself, to make using the butt of the spear in combat more viable and to balance the weight of the spear. I felt that the spear began to give off an aura similar to my own, a mixture of elements that at first seemed a bit chaotic but was actually fairly balanced and ordered, and I felt a tickling sensation in the corner of my mind that was a bundle of emotion and words-that-were-not words. Pretty quickly, I figured out that this was my spear, that the spear was both nervous and happy, and that the spear wanted..a name?

“Since you’ve taken on my elemental affinities, and you seem like you really like to break through stuff, i’ll call you Rainbow Breaker.What do you think?”

The spear was very happy about that, giving off a a happy feeling in my head and a bright rainbow light that cycled through the color spectrum.

I’d used up most of my mana and spirit energy infusing it into the spear, so after we left the armory, I asked Papa to let me go back to my room and cultivate, and he promised to send Mom to help me pick the techniques i’d use when I was done. I sat down in my room, slowly gathering energy to refine and recharge myself.