Zhang Wuyong walked into a secluded corner of the park.
It was not fully dark yet; a band of afterglow still lingered in the western sky, and the moon was only a pale, faint outline overhead. Bamboo groves surrounded him, and a river flowed in the distance. A stone path wound up the hill, with a small pavilion perched halfway up.
He reopened the system interface and selected the Gold Card.
Even now, hesitation tightened in his chest.
What if he actually pulled a Heart of the Sea or a Qin Tun Chang?
Would it not be unfair to Tongtong if he took her home and kept her as a mistress?
He had never been this anxious in his life.
A streak of golden light flashed across his vision like a shooting star.
When the radiance faded, a dazzling golden blade appeared.
[Obtained Gold Item: Supreme Dragon-Slaying Blade!]
[Supreme Dragon-Slaying Blade: Supreme weapon of the Mirage Sea Realm, a treasured blade forged specifically to slay dragons. Rank: Heaven. Cast from ten‑thousand‑year black iron, fused with Dragon‑Slaying Mystic Crystal and Candle Yin Dragon Scales. Its power is unrivalled against dragons and extremely effective against demons.]
[Six thousand years ago, the supreme ruler of the human realm, the Holy Candle Emperor, personally forged this divine blade to slay the demonic dragon Mirage King and save humanity. For the next thousand years, the Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade was the empire's greatest treasure. Whoever held it was the supreme ruler of the Mirage Sea Realm, commanding the world with absolute authority.]
[Four thousand five hundred years ago, the Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade vanished. Now, it has reappeared in the mortal world.]
The golden weapon flashed once more and flew into the system's inventory.
He opened the inventory.
Rows of square slots spread out before him. Most of them were dark, as if locked and unusable.
Beside them was the item grid, previously empty—now displaying the image of a sword.
The weapon was shown with a golden blade and a hilt wrapped in crimson dragon scales. With a thought, he rotated the image in three dimensions.
Zhang stretched out his hand and silently called, "Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade."
The image vanished from the inventory.
A heartbeat later, the Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade materialized in front of him, exuding a chilling killing intent.
The instant his fingers closed around the hilt, he knew something was wrong and immediately let go.
Boom.
The blade crashed into the ground with a deafening thud, dirt and gravel exploding outward as cracks spider‑webbed across the earth.
The shockwave knocked Zhang straight onto his backside.
He sat there for a long moment, staring blankly at the sword embedded in the ground.
Picking up his crutch, he scrambled to his feet and hobbled closer.
The Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade lay half‑buried in the soil.
Its golden edge gleamed coldly in the last light of dusk.
The red dragon‑scale hilt coiled like a living fire dragon, ready to surge into the sky at any moment. Just looking at it was enough to inspire fear.
The blade had struck the ground so hard that the surrounding earth had sunk around it.
Bending down, Zhang gripped the hilt with both hands.
Nothing. It did not budge.
The sword must weigh several thousand kilograms.
He glanced back at the system description.
Forged from ancient black iron, of course.
If he truly were a demonic monk in some other world, or if he had already cultivated the Heavenly Demon Bliss Technique to its first level and gained monstrous strength, lifting it would be trivial.
But in this world there was no spiritual energy.
Right now, if he tried to carry one hundred jin, he would not get far.
And this sword, heavy enough to shatter rock under its own weight, was something he was supposed to pick up?
Supreme ruler of the Mirage Sea, dragon‑slayer with the sacred blade.
He who commands the world, whom none dare disobey.
Wonderful. With this weapon, he could crush the other world with ease.
If only he were actually in that other world.
At this rate, either he or the system was going to lose their mind.
He considered selling it instead.
There was no doubt this sword was unique. If he could quietly sell it to some Middle Eastern oil tycoon, it might fetch hundreds of millions.
Unfortunately, he had no such connections.
Maybe, once he started working and building a real network, he could get in touch with that level of buyer and move it as a "mysterious artifact."
For now, he was just a high school student.
"I'd rather have drawn the ensemble leader," he muttered. "If nothing else, even Qiqi would've been fine."
With a thought, the sword dissolved into golden light and flew back into the inventory.
Zhang continued to examine the interface.
The item grid sat beside the locked, dark slots of the inventory.
Those squares were clearly meant for storage. Why, then, were they all grayed out?
Maybe they would unlock once he had more points. He could only comfort himself with that thought.
For the moment, both the Heavenly Demon Bliss Technique and the Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade were impressive, but completely useless to someone who had not transmigrated.
He looked up at the setting sun sinking slowly in the west.
"Well," he sighed.
He tucked the cane under his arm and turned to head home.
After a few steps, he suddenly remembered something.
Raising his left hand, he pointed into the distance and silently called, "Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade."
The blade instantly appeared where he had indicated and then plummeted downward.
Just before it hit the ground, he recalled it back into the inventory.
After a few more experiments, he confirmed that he could indeed make the Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade manifest at any spot within his line of sight with a single thought—and could also retrieve it instantly, no matter how far it had fallen.
"Huh," he murmured. "That's… something."
Exactly what it was good for, however, he could not say.
It felt like the kind of function that was "technically useful, but not really useful."
He thought of all the gadgets he had seen in the short videos his mother scrolled through: miracle kitchen tools, juicers, far‑infrared therapy devices.
They all looked incredibly practical when advertised, but once bought, they ended up gathering dust in some forgotten corner.
His father had even bought a treadmill, loudly declaring that he would use it every day to keep fit.
Two years later, it had been hauled off by a scrap dealer because it took up too much space.
This function felt about the same.
If he saw a murderer, he could drop the Supreme Dragon‑Slaying Blade right onto the man's head and kill him on the spot.
If he saw a car driving recklessly, endangering everyone around it, he could crush its engine block and force it to stop.
Admittedly, that sounded quite effective.
But at the moment, he was just a high school senior heading into the college entrance exam.
Being hit by a dump truck once was misfortune enough. It was unrealistic to expect dramatic emergencies every day.
Forget it. He would shelve the idea for now.
Once he entered the workforce and had real connections, he could see whether there was a way to contact some Middle Eastern magnates and sell them an "otherworldly relic," getting rich overnight.
Leaving the park, he flagged down a taxi.
When he returned to the residential complex, he did not go straight home.
Feeling his pocket, he found he still had a bit of money left.
So he headed to the supermarket and went straight to the snack aisle.
Compared to someday courting foreign oil tycoons and selling mysterious artifacts to become a true billionaire, there was something more urgent right now.
He needed to go and appease the childhood sweetheart next door.