March 7th, Yanqing, and Yunli huddled together.
Stelle peeked in from the side, while Sylvester calmly refilled his own tea.
"Hoo~ hah~" March 7th held a crystal hand-bone with both hands and exhaled deeply. She looked at Yanqing in front of her and said, "Master, I'm ready."
It wasn't as if she'd never used a Curio before—she already hated that damned exoskeleton to the bone.
But this time was different. She wasn't just going to use two gold-grade Curios in succession—she was also about to fully uncover her master's weapon secrets.
For a strong cultivator, this didn't necessarily count as a great taboo, but very few people were willing to reveal such things. After all, the more trump cards one had, the safer one was.
"It's alright, Miss March," Yanqing replied with a calm smile. "Since you call me 'Master,' naturally I must fulfill a master's responsibility. Besides, I trust you would never leak any of this."
Yunli stepped forward, her voice crisp and firm: "Exactly, Little March. Just go ahead bravely. If it feels okay afterward, you'd better give Old Mettle a look too."
"Alright!" March 7th nodded vigorously, then grinned. "Master Yanqing, Master Yunli, just wait for the good news. Be ready to hear me explain the secrets of conceptual power!"
Yanqing gently stroked the blade of the Massacre Ruler, soothing its mood. "Behave and cooperate with Miss March. If you sense danger, give her a warning. Miss March won't actually do anything to you."
The sword hummed softly and then fell silent.
Yanqing offered the sword forward.
March 7th braced herself on the sword hilt with one hand. Feeling the weight, she took the matter even more seriously.
She said, "Here we go."
Holding the [Hand of Deconstruction] in her right hand, March 7th channeled her Path power like a flowing stream—gentle and continuous—into it, then placed the crystal hand-bone onto the sword's surface.
The instant they touched, the previously unresponsive crystal hand-bone suddenly burst with blue-green light. The light did not engulf everyone in the room; instead, it spread from the point of contact, coating the Massacre Ruler in a thin, gleaming film.
The moment the film covered the entire blade, the blue-green light began violently trembling. March 7th's eyes abruptly lost focus.
Countless profound runes streamed through her mind like ocean waves, each second containing the information of hundreds of books.
She couldn't articulate the meaning of a single rune, yet she inexplicably knew—she fully understood all of it, without the slightest deviation!
More than ten minutes passed, with March 7th standing frozen and slack-jawed, not a single hair moving.
If this were the wilderness, some spider might have mistaken her for a tree and spun a web on her.
Yanqing and Yunli grew increasingly worried.
Stelle even bluntly said, "Did the data overload blow March's brain up?"
She wasn't very smart to begin with… taking damage on top of that was just too pitiful.
Sylvester's voice drifted lazily from behind the counter, relaxed yet certain: "Relax. The [Hand of Deconstruction] is very intelligent. If the user's brain capacity is insufficient, it will simply refuse to activate. It also auto-adjusts to the user's thinking speed, ensuring the user never gets hurt by data overload. You could say it's high-performance and very reliable."
"Miss March hasn't snapped back for two reasons: First, conceptual power is among the highest tiers of knowledge in the universe. Even though the [Massacre Ruler] doesn't contain much of it, it's still not simple stuff. Second…"
He chuckled. "It's probably because Miss March has… fewer cells handling information transfer. So data takes a little longer to move around."
"Ohh, so the problem is March 7th."
Stelle nodded. In other words, March 7th was just… dumb, right?
Well… that was kind of expected?
Still, to spare her feelings, better not repeat Sylvester's comment to her.
Mm, I'm really so thoughtful, Stelle praised herself internally.
Just then—
March 7th finally moved.
"Oooh~~" She let out a long breath, her entire body softening. Her consciousness returning all at once nearly made her collapse, but she managed to step back and steady herself.
Feeling that her brain wasn't frozen like after reading a physical book for thirty minutes, she grinned wide, flashing white teeth. "Haha! I told you I'm a genius."
She held out the heavy sword. "Thank you, Master Yanqing, and thank you, Massacre Ruler."
Yanqing hadn't even reached out yet when Yunli, unable to contain herself, spoke first: "Well, Little March? Did you figure out what conceptual power is?"
"Of course!" March 7th put her hands on her hips proudly.
Hearing that, Yanqing sheathed the treasured sword and didn't utter a single word, focusing completely on March 7th's explanation.
As its wielder, he desired to know more than anyone—where exactly did the power to sever all things originate?
March 7th shut her eyes, brewing her thoughts with a solemn expression.
After a long moment, she raised a finger and spoke slowly, one word at a time: "It's a kind of… very, very, very… very powerful force!"
Yanqing and Yunli nodded repeatedly.
In their hearts: So true. Makes perfect sense. What immense information.
A textbook case of "listening to someone speak… is indeed exactly like listening to someone speak."
And then…
Nothing.
March 7th continued holding a serious gaze, her right index finger trembling, the muscles in her cheeks twitching.
After exhausting all her energy trying to form a sentence, she finally—
Failed.
She slapped her forehead and laughed awkwardly. "Ahhh, it's too complicated. I can't explain it."
"Ah—eh."
Yanqing and Yunli had expected something earth-shattering. They definitely weren't expecting this kind of anticlimax.
It felt like a race in which everyone crouched at the starting line, waiting intensely for the whistle—only for the referee to inhale deeply, then drop dead on the track.
What was even happening?
"Tsks, looks like Shopkeeper Sylvester was right after all."
Stelle thought back to the earlier conversation and nodded emphatically.
Hearing this, March 7th blinked. "Huh? What were you talking about?"
"It's just—" Stelle casually began, dangerously close to spilling the truth.
Fortunately, Yunli was quicker and stopped her from carrying out this suicidal mistake.
"Little March, come on, analyze Old Mettle next. Maybe the Massacre Ruler just didn't contain enough conceptual power for you to understand it. If you gather more samples, you might get the full picture."