Weapon seller in the world of magic

It crossed the distance in a blink, and Shang Jiao’s eyes widened. She reacted on instinct, lifting her staff and angling it just right.

The arrow struck the staff with a sharp crack, sending a shock through her arms.

She was pushed backward several steps, boots scraping against the platform as she struggled to keep her balance.

She stopped herself, breathing hard, anger flashing across her face. ”You cheater!” she snapped. ”You changed weapons!”

Zetian chuckled softly. ”When did I ever say I would fight you with a sword?” he replied. ”A true warrior doesn’t depend on a single weapon or lock themselves into one profession. In the end, it’s all just energy manipulation.”

As he spoke, the bow dissolved as well. Zetian brought his hands together, and a dense ball of glowing energy formed between his palms. The power within it pulsed steadily, restrained but dangerous.

Without hesitation, he drew his arm back and threw the energy sphere straight at her.

Shang Jiao reacted at once.

She swung her staff forward and released a sharp ice blast straight at the incoming energy sphere.

The two forces collided midair.

Frost spread instantly, wrapping around the glowing ball of energy until it froze solid. With a dull thud, the frozen mass lost momentum and fell to the platform, shattering into icy fragments.

Zetian’s eyes narrowed slightly, not in annoyance, but interest.

He pushed his qi outward, and crackling arcs of electricity wrapped around his body, crawling over his arms and shoulders like living snakes.

The air around him hummed as his presence grew sharper and more dangerous. With a flick of his hand, an energy sword formed once again, its blade buzzing with power.

He pointed the sword toward her and said calmly, ”Are you ready to now face close combat, Lady Shang?”

Shang Jiao didn’t answer with words.

Her aura surged, and frost erupted from her back. In an instant, large icy wings spread open, shimmering with layers of crystal-clear ice. The temperature around her dropped sharply as she flapped her wings and rose into the air, hovering several meters above the platform.

Zetian looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. ”Why bother?” he said lightly. ”We can all fly the same.”

Shang Jiao’s lips curled into a confident smile. ”But you can’t do this.”

”Ha!”

She flapped her wings hard.

A powerful gust of freezing wind burst forward, carrying razor-sharp ice particles with it. The chilling blast roared across the platform, rushing straight toward Zetian, the air itself turning white as frost spread in its wake.

Meanwhile, in the Ice Palace;

Mark sat alone in his study, the room quiet except for the faint crackle of a warming formation etched into the floor. Scrolls were spread across the long table before him, layered one over another, their corners weighed down by small crystal paperweights. Ancient diagrams, half-faded notes, and complex spatial formulas filled his vision.

These were not ordinary texts.

They were theories on portal creation, teleportation formations, void anchoring, and inter-planar stabilization. Many of them carried familiar handwriting. His own.

Mark exhaled slowly and rubbed his temples.

”Of course...” he muttered. ”I really did design all of this myself.”

The world gate at the sect grounds.

The portal that was embedded beneath the Ice Palace.

Both are connected directly to the Null Point.

They all followed the same core logic.

After reading through the final scroll, Mark leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

”So in the end,” he said quietly, ”Elerium stone is mandatory.”

The same pale metal that was used to carve the ancient statues.

The same material that was inside Lan Jing’s spatial relic.

His fingers tapped lightly against the table as he continued thinking.

”One void stone,” he murmured, ”and massive quantities of stardust.”

Stardust wasn’t the problem. He had more than enough. Creation could handle Elerium as well, once he fully understood its internal structure.

But the void stone...

That was the real bottleneck.

Mark frowned.

”If I knew what a raw void stone looked like,” he muttered, ”I could just create it directly.”

But he didn’t.

Void stones were rare even among immortals. They weren’t something you could casually find in a market or dig out of a mountain. They were usually formed under extreme spatial collapse, places where dimensions had torn and healed incorrectly.

His gaze drifted to the side of the room, where Unnamed rested inside a sealed weapon stand.

”I could dismantle Unnamed,” he said softly.

The thought lingered for only a second before he dismissed it.

”No. That’s not an option.”

Unnamed wasn’t just a weapon. It had saved his life more times than he could count. Taking it apart just to extract a void fragment felt wrong.

And he would need two void stones anyway.

One portal on Earth.

One portal on the moon of this planet.

Two anchors. Two fixed gates.

Mark stood up and began pacing slowly.

”I’ll ask around first.”

Anan came to mind immediately. The Sky Sect Pavilion also had access to rare materials gathered from countless worlds. If anyone had stumbled upon a void stone, it would be them.

Then there was Bael.

”The Netherworld has everything,” Mark muttered. ”If a void stone exists anywhere, there’s a chance it passed through there.”

Chang’e also crossed his thoughts.

She was connected to the Celestial Plane. If void stones existed in the higher heavens, she would know.

But the moment her name surfaced in his mind, Mark stopped walking.

His chest tightened slightly.

Images rose unbidden.

Moonlight.

Silence.

A woman standing alone, eternally distant.

Houyi’s memories stirred.

Mark clenched his fist and shook his head hard.

”No,” he said quietly. ”That’s not a door I’m opening.”

Chang’e was his past life’s wife. That bond ran too deep, too dangerously close to the core of his heart. Song Yue was his anchor now. His love for her was steady, hard-earned, and real.

If Chang’e entered his life again, Mark was almost certain it would disrupt everything.

He exhaled slowly and forced his thoughts back on track.

”Yujiang,” he said at last.

The guardian god of the mortal realm.

Mark felt a faint sting of guilt as the name left his lips. He had taken the Four Holy Beasts and never returned them. Technically, Yujiang had failed to keep his own promises as well, but still...

”It’s complicated,” Mark sighed.

At the very least, Yujiang would know where to find rare spatial materials. Void stones were tied to the balance of worlds, and that was exactly his domain.

Mark returned to the table and gathered the scrolls, stacking them neatly.

”Alright,” he said to himself. ”Step one: ask Anan and the Sky Sect Pavilion. Step two: contact Bael. Step three: Yujiang.”

If none of those worked, then he would have to consider riskier options.

Mark’s thoughts were cut short by a sudden surge of violent energy rippling through the air.

His brows knitted instantly.

”That’s Jiao...”

Before the echo of the disturbance could fade, Mark vanished from his study and reappeared high in the sky, his figure hovering silently above the training grounds. From there, he looked down, eyes sharp and focused.

Below him, the scene was intense.

Shang Jiao hovered in midair, her Blizzard Wings fully spread, icy feathers glowing faintly as cold mist rolled off them. Her expression was bright and excited, completely different from her usual calm self.

Beneath her stood an Ice Knight, a towering construct formed from condensed frost and ether, radiating immortal-realm pressure. Every step it took caused the ground to frost over.

Facing it was Prince Lei Zetian.

He held a simple energy sword in his hand, nothing ornate or divine about it. Lightning crawled across his body like living veins, snapping and crackling with restrained power. His breathing was steady.

His eyes were focused.

The Ice Knight swung its massive blade down with terrifying force.

Zetian met it head-on.

Steel-like ice and pure energy collided with a sharp explosion.

Zetian slid backward through the snow, boots carving deep trenches, but his stance never broke. He twisted his wrist, deflected the blade, then spun sideways to evade the Knight’s follow-up strike.

In that opening, he lunged.

His body blurred. He slashed low in a tight arc, the energy sword tearing into the Ice Knight’s leg. A deep crack split through the construct, frost scattering like shattered glass.

Before the Knight could even stagger, Shang Jiao lifted her staff.

Ether surged from her body.

From above, a stream of cold-blue energy poured down and wrapped around the Ice Knight’s leg. The fracture sealed almost instantly, ice reforming as if it had never been damaged.

Mark raised an eyebrow.

”She’s healing mid-battle now...” he murmured.

Shang Jiao laughed, her voice carrying clearly through the air.

”What happened, Prince?” she called out, amusement clear on her face. ”You were speaking so confidently earlier. Is this all you’ve got now?”

Zetian’s face twitched.

”Fine,” he muttered. ”You asked for it.”

He suddenly raised one arm high toward the sky.

A pillar of energy shot upward, tearing through the air like a spear. The clear dawn sky darkened unnaturally as clouds rushed in from all directions. The temperature dropped again, but this time it wasn’t Shang Jiao’s doing.

Thunder rolled.

Zetian didn’t wait.

He dashed forward, lightning erupting under his feet. The Ice Knight swung again, but Zetian ducked under the blade, slid past its side, and then leaped high into the air.

He twisted his body mid-flight and drove a dropkick straight into the Ice Knight’s chest.

The impact was brutal.

The Knight was sent crashing into the ground, snow and ice exploding outward in a wide shockwave. The earth beneath it cracked from the force.