Chapter 30 – Appearance of the Black Iron Staff

Ma Zhurong’s eyes flashed with intensity as his hand darted to his belt, tearing it free in a single, fluid motion. In his grasp, a rope unfurled—thick at the base, tapering to a slender end.

When fully extended, the rope stretched more than five meters, a serpent ready to strike.

Qin Yun frowned. He expected Ma Zhurong to possess a relic, several in fact, but he wasn’t expecting this. His earlier exchange with Ma Zhurong had proven that the man’s ability in martial arts was close to zero.

Why reveal a weapon now, and of all things, a whip?

Yet his doubts vanished as Ma Zhurong snapped his wrist, sending the whip cracking through the air.

The whip coiled and undulated, a wave racing along its length, hurling the tip forward at blinding speed.

Infused with Etra, the whip glowed, its tip incandescent. It ripped through the air, creating a visible haze as if the world itself was on the verge of ignition.

The tip struck the ground, shattering the stone tiles that served as footing, but more than the impact, what surprised Qin Yun was to see the stones melt into each other from the heat, fusing into one analogous blob.

The molten stone spread so rapidly that Qin Yun was forced to retreat, widening the gap between them.

Ma Zhurong’s Ghost Flame coated the whip, making every strike deadly. Even the ground wasn’t spared, for they were currently riding on a giant artifact containing untold Etra, fueled by the Flowing Light.

Had Xiao Liuguang not reined in the flame’s spread, it would have engulfed its entirety, the crowd as well.

This whip is dangerous! Qin Yun thought. I shouldn’t let him swing it around.

Ranged combat was already risky, and the whip made it perilous. Without hesitation, Qin Yun surged forward, his feet skimming the ground in an unpredictable dance.

Qin Yun’s footwork was a blur, impossible to read. Every attempt Ma Zhurong made to anticipate his path ended in frustration.

However, Ma Zhurong was nothing if not decisive.

He gave up on precise strikes, instead lashing the whip to carve out a fiery barrier. Ghost Flame lingered in its wake, blocking Qin Yun’s advance.

The fight settled into a tense stalemate. With the whip in hand, Ma Zhurong dictated the rhythm, holding the upper hand.

Qin Yun’s speed kept him untouched, but without a weapon, he dared not risk a real attack. The danger was too great.

“Fine,” Qin Yun said. “If you want to play with weapons, then let’s play.”

Qin Yun reached into his black box and drew forth a rod, matching his own height.

The moment it appeared, Xiao Liuguang’s eyes narrowed, something on his mind, yet he could hardly focus on it, for too much of his attention was on making sure the invisible flame wouldn’t spread beyond the arena.

Even for someone of his strength, it was an arduous task. The flame’s ability to infect nearby Etra made it difficult to handle. Thankfully, Ma Zhurong’s control of that flame was rather poor, making it possible for the Flowing Light to deal with it somehow using his divine will.

Had it been one of the Ma Clan elders instead, this artifact would be as good as gone.

“A rod?” Ma Zhurong sneered. “You think this can stand up to my Netherflame Binding Whip? You must be dreaming!”

Ma Zhurong attacked with fresh confidence, convinced his opponent was grasping at straws. What threat could a mere black rod pose to him?

What Ma Zhurong didn’t consider was the material the rod was made of. Of all those present here, possibly only two people were aware of what that rod was, namely Yun Jingfei and Xiao Liuguang.

For his part, as the owner of this floating arena, Xiao Liuguang could feel everything that happened to his artifact. The moment the rod touched the ground, he felt its immense weight. Had it not been for his reinforcing the ground they stood on with his own Etra, the rod would have bored a hole straight through the floor and fallen back to the earth, creating a massive crater in its wake.

“Is he insane, taking out something like this?” Xiao Liuguang muttered.

Even he would have difficulty retrieving something like this while in freefall.

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Yun Jingfei, by chance, recognized the weapon. She had seen enough of Qin’s training tools to spot black iron at a glance.

This rod was an extremely pure, very dense piece of black iron, shaped into a staff.

She wondered if Qin Yun could even wield that thing. It looked to be many times heavier than his regular chains.

Yun Jingfei’s concerns were warranted. In regular circumstances, a martial artist of Qin Yun’s calibre would be unable to even lift it off the ground, but Qin Yun was nothing if not extraordinary.

His regular training was for the express purpose of wielding this beast. While everyone had labelled black iron as a useless metal, too heavy to do anything with, Qin Yun had spent most of his life acclimating to it.

He had uncovered secrets in the metal that others overlooked.

Black Iron was special.

Qin Yun gripped the rod and, with effortless grace, swung it onto his shoulder as if it weighed no more than a walking stick.

Xiao Liuguang and Yun Jingfei both frowned. She accepted the impossible sight quickly, but Xiao Liuguang struggled to believe his own eyes.

He knew about black iron. From his own artifact, he could roughly estimate how much this block of metal weighed. There was no way Qin Yun should have been able to lift, much less with one single hand.

The rod weighed several tons—enough to crush any mortal. Even Xiao Liuguang, a mighty Nascent Soul practitioner, would find himself unable to lift it.

How did Qin Yun do it?

The answer was deceptively simple. Dismissed as worthless, black iron had never been truly understood.