The black blood in front of John was proof of his breakthrough into the Blood Refinement realm. When one successfully refined all their blood and stepped into the Blood Refinement realm, the impurities of the blood would be expelled, which was the black blood that John had just thrown up.
John was now at the peak of the Body Refinement realm. He felt as if all this was too good to be true. Just a week ago, John was still unable to cultivate, but now he was ready to tackle the Mist Creation realm. John sat there for a few moments before picking up the barrel containing the remaining pills.
"I did promise Elder Barus that I would return the remaining pills once I'm done. I hope he doesn't get too mad at me for using so many pills" John thought as he strode out of his room with the barrel in his arms.
Arriving back at the Medicinal Pavillion, John walked in and found Elder Barus still cataloging his medicinal ingredients. John walked over to the elder, but was unsure of what to say. Elder Barus looked up from his work and noticed John standing there, barrel in hand. He scanned John with his divine sense, before smiling slightly.
"Ah, I see you finally broke through to the Blood Refinement realm. I guess you really were using the pills after all. Tell me, how many did you use to break through?" asked the elder as he stood up and strode over to John.
John didn't answer the elder, and instead just handed the barrel over to the elder, a wry smile on his face the entire time. Elder Barus received the barrel and looked inside, a shocked expression flashed across his face until it turned into slight anger.
"John, what did you do with the other pills. Don't tell me you ate over fifty pills from this barrel. No one would believe such nonsense" said the elder with a raised voice.
"I really did eat all those pills, Elder Barus. I don't know what else to tell you" John replied back, a sheepish look on his face. The elder carefully studied John, but saw no expressions from him that led the elder to believe John was lying.
Elder Barus sighed before saying "Maybe it was a defective batch, and so the potency was diminished. I'll just have to make another batch of pills for now."
John thanked the Elder for not getting too angry before he bid farewell and left the building. After exiting the Medicinal Pavillion, John noticed that it was pretty late and headed back towards his mansion. After greeting his parents and having dinner, John walked up the stairs to his bedroom and fell on his bed before falling asleep.
The next morning, John went about his normal morning routine before heading out his front door.
"What should I do today?" thought John. "I guess I'll go to the weapons hall and get another weapon. The sword I have now still works fine, but it will become too light and weak before long."
John turned down the road to his right and walked towards the Thousand Weapons Hall. The Weapons Hall was located across the street of the White Feather Martial Library, both in close proximity to the martial training ground.
After walking for a few minutes, John arrived in front of the Thousand Weapons Hall. The hall was named as such because there were approximately one thousand different weapons that one could choose from. The weapons hall stood five stories tall, and was made out of pure black stone, giving it quite an imposing feeling.
Each floor housed weapons for different cultivation levels, with Body Refinement grade weapons existing on the first floor, Mist Creation grade weapons on the second floor, Qi Condensation grade weapons on the third floor, and finally Core Formation grade weapons on the fourth floor. As for the fifth floor, only the clan leader and important elders knew what was up there.
John observed the building for a few seconds before walking up the front stairs and entering the building. Looking around, John saw that the front entrance area was quite small, with only a desk in the middle and a doorway behind it. At the desk sat the elder of the clan that was in charge of the weapons hall.
John walked forward towards the elder and called out "Greetings Elder Lawson."
The elder looked up at John, slightly surprised to see him. "Greetings John, this is the first time I've seen you in here if I'm not mistaken" replied the elder.
"Yep, this is my first time here. I'm here to get a weapon" replied John. He took out his sword from his storage ring and showed it to Elder Lawson. "This is the sword I've been using, but I need to upgrade as It'll soon become obsolete."
The elder observed the sword for a few seconds before replying, "I heard today that you broke through and are now able to cultivate? Seems like the rumors are true." He grabbed the sword and quietly observed it before continuing, "I do suppose you'll be needing a more powerful weapon now that you can cultivate. Come with me, I'll take you to the Body Refinement weapons section. I can point out some good swords for you that are similar to this one in size and shape."
The elder handed back the sword to John before turning around and heading to the lone door behind the desk, John following behind. Elder Lawson took out a set of keys before putting one into the door lock, turning the key it sideways to unlock it.
Following the elder through the doorway, John observed the room in front of him with awe. The room in front of him was one hundred feet long and one hundred feet wide, and had hundreds of weapons of various types lining racks placed all around the room. The weapons were sorted by type, with each rack holding dozens of weapons. There was a staircase on the right side of the room, leading up to the floors above.
"Here are all the weapons suitable for Body Refinement cultivators" Elder Lawson stated before continuing. "Swords of comparable size and shape to your current one are over there in the right corner of the room, although they're made of much better quality metals, providing more weight and power."
John walked all around the room, perusing the different kinds of weapons that were available. Spears, halbers, maces, swords, greatswords, bows. Every type of weapon that John was familiar with was available to choose from. Due to his intense weapon skills training, John was proficient at almost all these weapon types.
After glancing over the other weapons, John figured that none of them were as suitable for him as his greatsword and walked over to the section that the elder pointed out. Arriving in front of the rack, John could see dozens of greatswords of all different shapes and colors. After observing the various swords for some time, John reached out to pick up one greatsword that he liked the most. It was dark blue, and the blade was almost five feet long and six inches wide at the hilt, eventually narrowing to a point at the tip of the blade.
Grabbing the handle of the sword, John tried to casually pick it up to inspect it, but was surprised to find it a lot heavier than he was used to.
"This sword must weigh almost a hundred pounds" thought John as he put his strength into picking up the sword. After struggling for a second, John steadied the sword in front of him. He started swinging the sword around, trying out the various movesets he had trained for greatswords, albeit with some difficulty.
"This sword is made from azurite iron ore, much heavier and stronger than regular iron ore. This is one of the best weapons on this floor in terms of quality" said Elder Lawson as he watched John swing it about.
"I like it," replied John. "I think I'll go with this one." John studied the blade for a few more seconds, admiring its craftsmanship before storing it away in his spatial ring.
John and the elder started walking back towards the front door, at which point a bashful look appeared on John's face. "Elder Lawson, do you think I could go up to the next floor and take a look at the Mist Creation grade weapons?" asked John.
Elder Lawson turned around and looked at John's bashful expression before replying "That's against the rules."
A dejected look appeared on John's face before it was quickly replaced with delight. "But I've never been one to follow rules anyways," replied Elder Lawson before turning around and walking towards the staircase.
John followed the elder up the staircase, before eventually arriving at the second floor. The second floor was quite similar to the first, with dozens of weapon racks housing weapons of all kinds. John walked forward and started inspecting each weapon rack.
"The quality and aura of these weapons are much more profound than the weapons on the first floor," thought John. John eventually came to the greatsword section, and started looking at all the swords present. Like before, there were swords of all sizes and shapes, with various colors present as well.
John reached out and grabbed one of the swords, putting his might into picking it up after his lesson on the first floor.
"Gah. This is heavy." John struggled to say through gritted teeth as he picked the sword up, managing to raise it to waist level.
"Well of course it is" stated Elder Lawson. "This greatsword is two hundred pounds and is meant for cultivators in the Mist Creation realm. You're still only in the Body Refinement realm. The fact that you can pick it up at all is already astonishing."
John struggled for a few more seconds before running out of energy and dropping the sword.
"Thud!"
The sword collided with the black stone floor, sparks flying everywhere.
"Ah sorry" John exclaimed as he reached out to pick up the sword and put it back in place. As he was reaching out, John yelled out slightly in shock as the sword started floating in front of him before gently settling down on the weapons rack. He turned around to see Elder Lawson moving his hands slightly while smiling.
"Don't worry about it. Both the sword and the floor are sturdy enough to not get damaged from that" replied the elder.
John looked towards the elder but said nothing. According to what he knew about cultivation, cultivators at the Qi Condensation realm and above were able to use their control over Qi to move items without touching them. In the Fenix Clan, in order to become an elder, one had to have a cultivation level of at least the early Core Formation realm.
"Thank you for showing me the second weapons floor," said John. He started following the elder back towards the staircase, his eyes still lingering on the weapons in the room.
All of a sudden, John stopped, staring at a section of the weapons floor that he hadn't noticed before. John turned around and started walking, before eventually arriving in front of a lone weapon rack in the far corner of the room.
Elder Lawson was surprised at John's sudden actions, before he too turned around and walked to where John was standing. John stood there for quite some time before he reached out towards the weapon.