Chapter Fifty-Three: Blood Drips into the Sword, Treasure Appears in the World

  Taigong held the sword in both hands for a long time before he was satisfied, "Young friend, do you know what this sword is called?" He asked Ma Chao.

  Does this sword also have a name? Is it true or false? But even if it's really famous, how would I know, thought Ma Chao.

  "This kid really doesn't know!" He could only tell the truth and didn't dare say anything else.

  Ma Tiao Gong listened and gave Ma Chao a "I knew it" expression, "A treasured sword covered in dust! You're really not qualified to be a master!"

  He spoke to Ma Chao in a tone of an elder teaching a younger one, and said two sentences. To say that previously when Taigong was being bullied by Ma Chao he didn't say anything about Ma Chao, but now because of this mysterious black sword, the old man wasn't stingy with his words towards Ma Chao, it can be seen how much he loves antiques and rare treasures.

  Ma Chao heard it was all vague and unclear, what treasure sword, what dust-covered, what situation is this.

  "Is what you said true? Is this black sword a treasure?" Ma Chao asked in an inquiring tone.

  Old Master Taigong heard this and got angry, thinking to himself: "This young whippersnapper dares to doubt my authority? Does he know how many people in the world are seeking me out to appraise their treasures?"

  "What's wrong with you, young man? You still suspect me, an old man? I'm at this age, what's the need to cheat you?" Old Man Tai Gong said angrily.

  He's generally not a bad-tempered person and usually wouldn't speak in such a tone, but only when someone questions his authority as an antique appraiser would Old Master Qi get this angry. To say that he must be absolutely certain before speaking like this, otherwise he'd be ruining his own reputation.

  Ma Chao heard that the old man didn't even call him "young friend" anymore, but instead directly called him "you little brat", it seemed he was truly enraged. So he hastily said: "Grandfather, please calm down, calm down. This young one doesn't understand these things, isn't he just about to ask for your guidance?"

  Seeing Ma Chao's attitude, Zou Taigong's face slightly improved, "Young friend, this sword is indeed famous. If old man me guessed correctly, this sword is one of the famous swords forged by Ou Yezi, a great swordsmith of the Spring and Autumn period - the Zhu Lu Sword!"

  Ma Chao's brain stopped working for two seconds as soon as he heard it. He thought to himself, "If this is really the Zhan Lu sword, then I've hit the jackpot!" Although Ma Chao didn't know much about swords, he had at least heard of the fame of this particular one. He didn't know anything else, but what he did understand was that if this sword was indeed the Zhan Lu, then he would be greatly rewarded. It seemed that good deeds were truly rewarded, and from now on, he should do even more good things.

  Looking at Ma Chao's expression, a bit silly, also shocked, excited, confused and so on, Zou Taigong was quite satisfied with this effect.

  Ma Chao regained his composure and asked Taigong again: "Taigong, are you telling the truth?"

  As soon as the words were spoken, he regretted it and looked at Ma Tais changing face. Ma Chao hurriedly said: "No, no, what I meant was that you let me open my eyes wide, so that I can see the true appearance of this extraordinary treasure sword!"

  Looking at Old Man Taigong's recovered complexion, Ma Chao thought to himself, "This old man could go perform Sichuan opera's face-changing act, and he doesn't even need any props."

  "Little friend, you've asked the right person! Old man that I am, I happened to see a detailed account of the Zhan Lu sword in an ancient book several years ago. Of course, it also included the detailed method for bringing this precious sword into the world!"

  So the old man simply introduced the famous sword to Ma Chao, and he had already seen that Ma Chao had never heard of these things.

  It is said that when the Zhanlu sword was forged, Ouyezi couldn't help but stroke the sword and shed tears, for he had finally fulfilled his lifelong dream, and had at last forged a precious sword that could vanquish any hardness without containing even a hint of murderous energy.

  It is said that after the treasure sword was first forged, it was obtained by the King of Yue at that time. Later, it was passed on to King Goujian of Yue. However, after Goujian's defeat in battle, he reluctantly presented the Zhanlu Sword to King Fuchai of Wu. But Fuchai was an unrighteous ruler, and the Zhanlu Sword miraculously left him on its own accord, flying to the side of the wise and just King of Chu. From then on, the Zhanlu Sword became a symbol of righteousness and benevolence. The benevolent are invincible, and the Zhanlu Sword is indeed the sword of benevolence.

  Ma Chao didn't know much of what Taigong said, he had only heard that the Zhanlu sword was somehow related to Ren De, but that's all. He really couldn't tell that this unremarkable black sword was actually the legendary Zhanlu. But Ma Chao didn't feel that this legendary treasure sword was invincible at all.

  "Little friend, in the ancient book, it is recorded that the last method to make the Zhanlu sword reappear in the world!" The old man continued to talk about the method of making the treasure sword appear.

  Ma Chao didn't feel anything invincible because Zhan Lu hadn't fully appeared in the world, it wasn't originally like this, so he naturally couldn't feel anything.

  The method of making the treasure sword reappear is simple, that is to use the owner's blood to awaken the still sleeping treasure sword.

  Ma Chao felt like it was as if he had shed blood to recognize his master, how mysterious could that be? He really needed to experience it for himself. However, he thought again, since soul transmigration and the Southern Huashu's ascension to the Heavenly Way were possible, then other things weren't impossible either.

  He bit his right index finger, according to the words of Taigong Wang, and dripped a drop of fresh blood onto the sword. The drop of blood quickly disappeared into the body of the sword.

  As the master of the sword, Ma Chao was clearer than ever. The sword was changing, but outsiders couldn't notice much. After his own blood had entered the body of the sword, he felt a magical connection with the sword. Anyway, Ma Chao couldn't explain it clearly, in short, his feeling was that the Zhan Lu sword was alive and seemed very excited.

  Ma Chao looked at the sword again, and the Zhan Lu sword was all black in color, a sword with no marks on it. Now what made him feel was not its sharpness, but its width and kindness.

  "As expected of the Benevolent Sword!" Ma Chao couldn't help but praise.

  "That's for sure! The dark one is indeed dark. Zhan Lu lives up to his name!"

  Taigong was also sighing on the side, although he didn't have as much feeling as Ma Chao, but the change in Zhanlu after Ma Chao's blood awakened him was obvious. Before that, Zhanlu gave people a feeling of just an ordinary black sword, otherwise Ma Chao wouldn't have been unaware all along.

  But now if you look at this sword again, it's absolutely different from before. Anyone who slightly understands the treasure sword can see that this is absolutely not an ordinary sword.

  Mi Taigong looked at Ma Chao and Zhan Lu Jian, he was truly happy for Ma Chao from the bottom of his heart. Although the treasure wasn't his own, it had also appeared in his presence, and it was precisely because of his treasured sword that it hadn't continued to collect dust. So Mi Taigong felt a special sense of accomplishment, it seemed that meeting Ma Chao today was indeed the right thing to do, otherwise he probably wouldn't have had the chance to witness this kind of thing in his lifetime.

  Zhan Lu appeared in the world, Ma Chao obtained a precious sword, and his previous bad mood also changed because of this. He bid farewell to Mi Zhi again, but this time the old man refused to let him go.

  "What does this mean, little friend?" asked Tai Gong.

  "Little one, you've troubled me enough today, it's time for me to take my leave!" Ma Chao replied.

  "Where are you from, little friend? Have you forgotten why you came here today?" asked Cao Taigong to Ma Chao.

  Ma Chao smiled and said, "The young man also knows that it's hard for the old master. As the head of a family, he has many worries. It's normal not to agree with cooperation!"

  Taigong listened and nodded, "It's rare for a young friend to understand old man me like this, but now old man me has changed his mind again!"

  Ma Chao's eyes lit up at this, it was truly a case of "the dark willow and bright flowers reappear in another village", he hadn't expected the old man to change his mind again.

  "Is this true?" Ma Chao hastily asked.

  "It's really true, it can't be any truer!" Old Lady Meng exclaimed with a smile.

  "What made Taigong change his mind?" Ma Chao asked with some puzzlement.

  "If it were still like before, I wouldn't have changed my mind about the old man. But now..." Zou Taigong glanced at the Zhuolu Sword.

  Ma Chao said: "Isn't it that Taigong wants this sword?"

  Ma Taigong hastily waved his hand, "Young friend is joking, as the saying goes, a gentleman does not take away what others love. This sword belongs to young friend, and old man I will naturally not want it. Moreover, if the precious sword has spirit, even if young friend gives the sword to old man today, perhaps tonight the sword will fly away on its own!" Ma Chao heard this and smiled again.

  "The old man has thought it through, since the Ren Dao sword is in the hands of a young friend, then even if the old man were to gamble with him once more, what's the harm!" Zou Taigong felt as though he had returned to his youthful and passionate era.

  "Good, it's great that Master Taigong can do this! He won't regret today's decision in the future!" Ma Chao said with a big laugh. Who would have thought that business matters would take such a dramatic turn and bring about such a huge opportunity? It's all thanks to the Xuanlu Sword.

  Ma Chao felt that today was his lucky day, not only did he get the world's precious sword, but also successfully negotiated such a big business deal, this feeling is really cool.

  "Little friend, we should discuss our profit-sharing issue again." Zou Taigong said to Ma Chao.

  "Taigong, can't these three be any less? You have to leave some soup for my brothers to drink!" The evil capitalism, Ma Chao thought. He regarded Taigong as the capitalist and himself as the proletariat.

  Others may not be clear, but Ma Chao can't be unclear, this grain storage is absolutely a lucrative business. The Mou family invests and takes the lion's share, that's a given, but 30% is already his bottom line. If he had more capital himself, he would never have looked for partners in this deal.

  "Little friend, you've misunderstood, completely misunderstood! Old man that I am, I'm not trying to increase the share, but rather decrease it!" Zou Taigong hastily explained upon seeing Ma Chao misinterpret his meaning.

  "In my old man's opinion, what our young friend said earlier about a 50-50 split is just right! We businessmen value fairness and cooperation!"

  What he said was actually a bit fake, even to himself. But in order to get along with Ma Chao, this old man would have thought of marrying his own daughter to him and making him his son-in-law.

  Ma Chao heard this and was overjoyed in his heart. This is truly a great good thing, 50-50 split, this way he can balance his mind even more, but on the surface he still didn't show any emotion, "Ta Gong, this, this isn't too good, right? In my humble opinion, it's better to stick with 30-70!"

  Old Man Tai heard this and thought to himself, "This is a great opportunity, five divided into many is indeed wonderful."

  "Alright, let's just split it fifty-fifty, don't make things difficult for me, being the master of this household isn't easy!"

  If there were outsiders present at this time, they would probably be stunned and speechless. Look at these two people discussing business cooperation, one side insists on giving the other side a discount, while the other side is pretending to decline but actually wants it, if other businessmen saw this, they really wouldn't know what kind of play these two are performing.

  The two men ended up talking and both got what they wanted. Ma Chao made a profit of 50%, while the old man also got his wish.

  However, this made Ma Chao extremely angry. He cursed in his heart, "You little rascal, I've been doing business for a lifetime, and this is the first time I've ever been so humiliated." Begging someone to accept the discount he himself offered, who would believe it if it got out?

  Ma Chao was overjoyed, thinking that the Zhan Lu sword was too powerful. As soon as it appeared, not only was the matter settled, but also two more successes were added. He would never understand the significance of the Zhan Lu sword in the eyes of Mi Taigong, nor would he understand the status of the Ren Dao sword in the hearts of the ancients.

  Is Taigong a fool? Obviously not. Both of them got what they wanted, and it can be said that they each took what they needed.

  Ma Chao accepted the invitation of Mi Zhu Gong and stayed at his residence. They discussed some specific cooperation issues, especially the five-five profit-sharing ratio, where Ma Chao specifically stated that three-tenths would be grain, while the remaining two-tenths would be money.

  He certainly had his own plan, at that time having grain was like having money, and there would be people following you to do it. But if you have money, you may not necessarily be able to buy a lot of grain, and no matter how much money you have, it can't be eaten as food, so Ma Chao took 30% of the grain and 20% of the money.

  Ma Taitai naturally had no opinion on this, and nowadays Ma Chao is a treasure in his eyes. As long as it's not an excessive request, he will definitely grant it, let alone something that doesn't count as anything, so he went to do it with great relish.

  Because he already has feelings, perhaps the rise and fall of the Ma family in the future may be on this person Ma Chao.

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