Alex paused in the rocky wilderness he had claimed as his makeshift workshop, the same barren stretch of land where stone jutted out from sand at crooked angles. The wind tugged at his hair, carrying sand and faint remnants of distant travellers he had yet to meet.

  His gaze lingered on the weapons a moment longer, though his thoughts began to stray. The upcoming registration loomed large in his mind, like a storm creeping over the horizon. The weight of his registrar’s reputation clung to his thoughts. The Crown’s Hand—a man who would take jobs even the houses avoided. They call him the Hand for a reason. But what does the Hand break? What does it build? What kind of techniques does he use? How does he fight? Questions hung unanswered, shadows coiling at the edges of his thoughts. The name was a statement of power wielded without restraint, a force that crushed those unworthy. And tomorrow, I’ll be standing in front of him. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, but it held no amusement. Only anticipation.

  The old man, Osrick, had been surprisingly strong. But considering this world’s higher rank, Alex should have expected to encounter some of the rare few who could at least challenge some of his base stats, though if he boosted his stats with his skills by four-hundred percent or utilised techniques the competition would fade to nothing.

  Tomorrow, he hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed.

  [System Notification: Skill 'SwordSaint’s Domain' has discerned the energies of the items you have inspected. Appraisal Initiated — Domain-Assisted Analysis commencing]

  [SwordSaint’s Domain - Mastery: 0 > 11%]

  Thick lines of script materialized, each line shaped by the energies that poured through his domain. He saw the silhouettes of the items he’d dropped in front of him—two slender swords, one massive greatsword that continued to push heat into the air, and a thick manual with an ornate cover. The items before him caused the air to feel heavier and denser, as though they were relics plucked from another age.

  And that’s exactly what they are, Alex thought, regarding the interfaces hovering before him with subdued light, causing his domain to crackle faintly as it synchronized with the system’s influence.

  [Martial Manual of the Ben Nui - Rank U?????????nk???????n????????ow????????n?????

  Effects: U?????????nk???????n????????ow????????n?????

  An elaborate volume transcribed by scribes in the Ben Nui charging divine bull sect. The manual’s binding was fashioned from the hide of several spirit beasts, gaining resilience against mundane assault. The pages chronicle feats and methods, culminating in knowledge extracted from the minds of the sect's ancestors. The user is capable of grasping its contents, and its secrets can only be fully understood through personal study and comprehension.]

  The text might hold monstrous truths about the sect’s ancestors. No mention of the technique inside, he noted, so the system still requires me to work at deciphering techniques to learn them. I guess I can’t complain about that, he shrugged, unphased.

  [Sun and Moon Dual Blades - Rank U?????????nk???????n????????ow????????n?????

  Effects: Solar Edge, Lunar Edge, Twin Orbit Severance (Unsealed),

  Forged under a cosmic eclipse by the master artisans of a hidden sect, each sword holds the core fragments of celestial bodies, hammered upon a stolen sunstone anvil once used by the wandering artisan known as the Divine Heart-smith until the blades and cores became one. These twin swords operate as a pair to embody the traits of a distant planetary system’s sun and moons. Together, they allow the wielder to bridge the forces of solar might and lunar influence, granting the fusion of the sun and deeper resonance of the moon. When wielded together, their opposing forces synchronize, creating an unparalleled balance of power.]

  Alex’s gaze flicked through the text, a flash of curiosity sparking in his eyes. Alex squinted as his domain embraced the Sun Blade, his hand recoiling slightly as if burned. “Alright, so we’ve got fire and whatever it is the moon does,” he muttered under his breath. He flexed his fingers, shaking off the residual heat before turning his focus to the Moon Blade. Unlike its counterpart, the Moon Blade felt heavier than its physical weight, as though holding it would mean shouldering the weight of the heavens themselves. He observed the swords, one so bright it seemed to cast invisible rays, the other quietly radiant and emitting a steady flow of Qi that slowly Engulfed the area. Solar and lunar resonance… that’s not exactly the same as simple concepts like light and shadows, he thought. It feels more like balancing extremes. He could feel the sun blade’s edge vividly, sensing a slow heat that surged in sync with his heartbeat. “And both were hammered on a ‘cosmic’ anvil. I wonder if that means they can handle collisions with high-level Techniques— and if they can, how high of a level could they handle?” he murmured to himself, turning to focus his domain on the moon blade and feeling a faint tug in his Dantian that reminded him of high tides under a full moon. “And this one’s calm in a scary way,” he noted. “Like it’s capable of submerging everything.”

  Satisfied, he moved on to the next panel his eyes briefly shifting to the fiery greatsword as laid amid molten slag. It was thick and massive, as wide and tall as Alex, carved from what looked like a glowing metal that burned with eternal light. Flames seeped from hidden seams, sealed by intricate fractal patterns of Qi that appeared to barely keep the inferno in check.

  [Phoenix WingSword - Rank U?????????nk???????n????????ow????????n?????

  Effects: Ego - Ancient Phoenix (Partial), Eternal Flame (Sealed),

  A colossal greatsword hewn from the phalanges of an ancient phoenix. Within this blazing relic lies a fraction of the lingering essence of a phoenix’s undying Qi, rumoured to burn foes to ash with living fire. The forging methods drew on ancient rites from a distant mountain fortress where phoenixes once soared, the stolen crafting method once used as a means to punish the worst among their number…]

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He paused in his reading. So that’s how they did it. Someone stole their techniques and turned a phoenix’s bones into a sword as large as my entire body. It’s not metal but bone. Even the system calls it destructive.

  […The treasure was shaped by the Heavenly Demon clan’s matriarch, who battled one among their number for sixty days and used stolen techniques paired with the final remains of a Phoenix that had outlived ancient empires to create a weapon that could boil entire seas.]

  Boiling seas? Overkill, maybe, but if you’ve got a phoenix bone sword, I guess that’s what you do, he mused. “Still… That’s too much energy for one weapon,” he muttered aloud, shaking his head. His gaze lingered on the slag bubbling beneath the greatsword before he forced himself to move on, the heat following him like a shadow and a bead of sweat trickling down his temple.

  "This thing is alive," he murmured, his eyes widening slightly as he studied the faint flame-like patterns glowing along the surface. It’s almost like it remembers the phoenix it came from. Its Qi feels familiar—fiery, unyielding, and eternal, far more deadly than the young thing from the trail. Like comparing a lion to a mouse.

  He could almost feel the phoenix’s wrath brimming at the edges of the scalding heat. He pictured a woman draped in roiling fire, forging the greatsword from the preserved remains of an ancient being, atop a mountaintop dotted with volcanic vents. “No wonder it felt so intense when I touched it the first time… The phoenix’s ego must still be inside the blade,” he murmured, eyeing the sword’s fiery ridges. Stolen techniques…Undying Qi… I wonder if it was as powerful as the old Phoenix from my first vision, he thought, remembering countless pseudo-immortal cultivators easily slain by the truly immortal divine beast that had held the appearance of an old man. He brushed his domain over the weapons myriad seals, admiring the complicated ritual formations that caged the flames and entity within. “Even contained, you’re still threatening to torch me,” he noted in a tone laced with grudging respect. When the time came, he would have to use every tool in his arsenal to consume the blade and the ego it held within it. The very thought caused his heart to race with both dread and excitement.

  “You’ll have to wait for our showdown, buddy,” he spoke to the blade, though he doubted it could hear him. “Eclipse comes first.”

  Alex retrieved all items except for the sun blade, storing the moon blade and the Sunder-Phoenix Ancient Blade. He summoned Eclipse and threw it so it landed atop the sunblade. Alex reasoned that although the sun blade was powerful when coupled with the moon blade, it was too similar to the Ancient Phoenix blade, yet weaker without its counterpart. He would sacrifice the Sunblade in order to grant Eclipse its qualities and hopefully the ability to store Qi without self-destructing. He was likely weakening the moon blade by erasing its other half, but the possibility of his soul-bound weapon's growth seemed worth the sacrifice.

  He issued a command through their connection, his will pressing against Eclipse’s sentience. “Mana Burn,” he ordered, his voice firm and unwavering.

  Eclipse responded swiftly. The dark weapon shuddered faintly with power as it activated the skill, burning through its mana reserves with the brilliance of a dying flame. Alex counted the seconds, feeling the circulating mana within Eclipse dwindle to nothing. Thirty seconds had passed, at which point the blade’s mana had all but vanished.

  “Trigger Omega,” Alex commanded.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  He felt it through their bond—the hesitation, the flicker of distrust from Eclipse. The blade was wary, resisting the order. That distrust lingered in their connection like a weight pressing against his thoughts. Alex clenched his jaw. Why are you hesitating?

  A breath passed, and then another. Alex took a step forward, shortening the distance between him and the two blades. The unease from Eclipse deepened, but he pushed through it with sheer will.

  Then, without warning, the air warped.

  A vortex erupted from Eclipse, carving through everything around it. Stone, sand, and air were consumed in an instant, torn apart and sucked into the spiralling void, carving a sphere of destruction into the earth. Sound itself seemed to vanish, drowned in the hungry silence of the skill. The swirling energy cut through the landscape, erasing even the faintest traces of what had once been there until nothing but an empty sphere of nothingness remained, perfectly carved as though some distant god had simply erased a small piece of the landscape.

  Alex leapt back instinctively, his body moving with practised precision. His feet barely touched the ground before panels of Phoenix Cascade erupted around him, platforms of condensed mana forming underfoot as he manoeuvred through the chaos. Each platform dissipated as quickly as it appeared, allowing him to stay just out of the vortex’s reach while maintaining perfect control of his movements.

  When the vortex finally subsided, Alex dropped lightly to the ground. He approached the remnants of the scene, his gaze locked on Eclipse.

  The dark weapon was slowly reforming, its shape twisting and shifting as though being rewritten by the energy it had consumed. Fiery red streaks ignited along its surface, burning with an intensity that made the air waver with heat.

  Alex picked up Eclipse and sensed a shift deep within the blade. The flow of circulating mana felt disrupted, altered in a way he hadn’t expected. Probing deeper, he detected a void within its circuitry—a deliberate emptiness, as though the enchantments and pathways had been rewritten to create space for something else. The mana now flowed carefully around that void, never making contact with whatever lay buried beneath.

  He pushed further, focusing on the dense core of fiery solar Qi nestled within the blade. The energy was tightly packed, arranged into an indecipherable fractal pattern more complex than anything he had ever seen.

  “Omega doesn’t just absorb and rebuild things,” he murmured in realization. “It rebuilds them in the most optimal way. Even if it’s an impossible rebuild.”

  A wave of shock rippled through him. “But where did it come from?”

  The answer felt further than ever.

  He traced a finger along Eclipse’s newly altered edge, feeling the faint hum of energy beneath its surface. The weapon had changed. It hummed with dormant rage and simmering focus, as though waiting for the perfect moment to unleash the chaos it now contained. Tomorrow would be the start of something. He could feel it.

  Satisfied with his growth, but still filled with questions, Alex turned and began heading back toward the city, feeling a little more prepared.

  The wind kicked up dust around Alex’s feet as he turned to glance down at the empty sphere left by Omega’s aftermath. The ground itself seemed hollow, stripped of its former weight, a perfect representation of what he felt. Soon, he would walk into the unknown. The city’s system felt broken, twisted by hidden fingers—and the registration would be his first step toward understanding just how deep those twists ran.

  You’ll remember him soon enough. The old man’s words rang faintly in his mind as he walked. The crown’s Hand will decide who passes and who doesn’t, Alex mentally repeated the words.

  Dawn would bring answers. The registration would begin then, and with it, the Hand’s judgment.

  Osric said I’d want to be careful. We’ll see.

  The is up and running. So if you like, you can read ahead there!