"What the hell?" John blurted out as the strange energy invaded his body.
It had entered from his palm, and it clearly came from the scythe itself. A shrill cry pierced into John's mind, and the weapon attempted to break free from his grip. John grit his teeth as he struggled against this energy.
His mind focused on bringing the energy under his control, while his soul ignored the piercing pain from the shrill cries.
'Let go! You are not worthy! Let go!'
These words seemed to echo within his mind like war drums, and attempted to overwhelm his will and force him to obey. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before, as if the energy had its own will and soul.
However, this was not John's first experience with dealing with rampaging energy within his body, and so he knew exactly what he had to do.
'Hmph, I've conquered energies far more powerful and frightening than you. You will OBEY!'
His essence Qi and soul power suddenly flared with great power within his own body, slamming against the mysterious energy. At the same time, his tremendous will power resisted the shrill cries in his mind. His willpower flared out so powerfully that it overwhelmed the shrill cries, to the point where it felt like it was the one being overwhelmed.
The mysterious energy continued to be rapidly subdued by John's own power, until it was nothing more than a flickering candle in the wind. With a single burst of power, John knew he was able to snuff this energy out for good.
Another shrill cry echoed within his mind, but this time it was much more meek, as if it had lost all its power. The weapon stopped shaking in his hand, and became completely still. The resistance he felt from the weapon disappeared, and his affinity towards it suddenly seemed to increase by leaps and bounds.
John had never heard of such a thing, and looked towards the attendant with a slight look of confusion on his face.
"What just happened?" John asked.
The attendant looked back at him with a dumbfounded look on his face, as if he had seen the most unbelievable thing. After a few seconds of stunned stupor, the attendant snapped out of it, and cleared his throat.
He looked down at the scythe in John's hands, and reached out after a moment to touch the handle.
"Ouch!" the man yammered out as he quickly recoiled his hand.
After shaking his hands a few times, he looked at John with an even more astonished expression.
"You don't know what you just did?" the man asked, replying to John's question.
"Nope. What was the strange energy that just invaded my body?" John asked.
The man took a moment to recover himself, before he answered John's question.
"That energy...was the energy of an artifact spirit...or a pseudo-artifact spirit, to be more precise," the attendant replied.
"Artifact spirit!" John exclaimed.
He had heard of artifact spirits before, but it was usually related to incredibly profound and ancient items. He had run into the artifact spirit within the Elysian Lightning World trial, but that was the only artifact spirit he had come across. He also thought of the strange beast within the ancient temple trials, but didn't know if the beast constituted a normal spirit, or an artifact spirit.
"A pseudo-artifact spirit," the man once again clarified. "However, it's almost unheard of for a Core Formation cultivator to be able to subdue one. Over a hundredMeridian Forging experts have tried their hand at subduing this weapon, to no avail."
John looked back towards the scythe in his hand as he listened to the man's explanation.
'So it was an artifact spirit. No wonder it felt like it had a will of its own.'
"How come I've never heard of artifact spirit's being placed in weapons before?" John asked as he looked back towards the man.
"Artifact spirits are almost exclusively reserved for Heaven Tribulation grade weapons and above," the man explained. "Artifact spirits require heavenly energy to be created, and only Heaven Tribulation grade weapons and above are capable of containing such energy."
John cocked his head to the side as he heard this. "Why's that? Couldn't you just make a Meridian Forging grade weapon with incredibly rare materials and house an artifact spirit?"
The man chuckled slightly as he heard this, as clearly John was not well versed in weapon creation and artifact spirits.
"A Heaven Tribulation grade weapon is not only so due to its rare materials used, but also the fact that the weapon itself transcends a heavenly tribulation itself," the man explained.
"What? Weapons have tribulations as well?" John replied, shocked by the man's response. He had never heard of such a thing.
"Indeed," the man replied. "If a weapon, formation, or any item nears the level that the heaven's deem worthy of note, they go through a tribulation as well. Items deemed worthy are imbued with heavenly energy, transforming them to new heights, while items that do not transcend are destroyed," the man explained.
John stood there in silence as he listened to the man's explanation. He was learning quite valuable information regarding weapon creation.
"Only after ascending their own tribulation do weapons become capable of housing artifact spirits. The only exception are pseudo-artifact spirits, which are not truly one hundred percent sentient. These types of spirits can be infused into Meridian Forging grade weapons, but only the ones made of the absolute highest grade materials," the man explained.
He pointed to the scythe in John's hands. "That scythe you're holding is made from Onyxite Ore, which is profound enough to make Heaven Tribulation grade weapons. However, the creator of this weapon kept it below the level of a Heaven Tribulation grade weapon, and thus infused a pseudo-artifact spirit into it," the man continued his explanation.
John glanced at the weapon in his hands as he inspected it closely. It was as if his mind was linked with the weapon itself, making it much more natural to wield. Not only that, but he could tell his Qi flow through the weapon was much smoother than any other weapon he had wielded, which would allow for faster and stronger attacks.
A smile formed on his face as he held the weapon firmly in his hand. While the material itself was not as profound as his battle axe, the artifact spirit would make up for that difference and raise its power to the same level.
He glanced at the price tag located at the top of the pedestal housing the weapon, which read eight hundred thousand spirit crystals, before glancing back at the man with a content look on his face.
"I'll take it."