Gaily Dressed Girl. Entering a Mystery.

After bidding Princess Jingan farewell, I exited the city; then found a secluded and quiet spot.

I wanted to finish the preparations for the fuma selection as soon as possible. There were only ten days left until the event. I was roughly seventy, eighty percent confident that I could triumph in the three contests that the Emperor had chosen. However, that didn't mean that I could sit on my laurels and still win.

We weren't told what the "to be determined" topic was, while the remaining two were peculiar. Although they were related to martial arts skills, as well, to be honest, defeating Jin Wangsun while hiding my skills in front of the Emperor was a tall order.

The first topic was 'shining edge'. As the name suggests, it was a weaponry combat contest. Besides requiring us to demonstrate martial arts proficiency, we also needed a quality weapon. Jin Wangsun was lauded as Jiangnan's Sabre King. Though his skills were far from qualifying as a Sabre King, he did possess genuine skills. Further, his family had a weaponry workshop; hence, he didn't have just one blade on him.

I had considered stealing a few of his weapons. Tiger Fang, which was wielded by his broadsword expert, A Hu, was a quality blade that could didn't pale in comparison to any of the supreme weapons. However, I scrapped the idea in the end, as all famous blades in the pugilistic world had their own origins. Hence, they couldn't be faked. If nothing else, Tiger Fang had been mentioned in the Black and White Reflection on more than one occasion, meaning that it was a famous weapon.

Jin Wangsun had his own men; therefore, there was the off chance that Gold and Silver Sect might've marked their weapons with their unique symbol to avoid losing their weapons. That, alone, was enough of a reason to dissuade me from stealing his weapons.

Mount Daluo certainly had weapons. Nevertheless, I never learnt styles involving weapons; consequently, I never paid any attention to them. I, therefore, didn't know if there were any good weapons at Mount Daluo. Shiyi, on the other hand, was well-v