A sudden glint of cold light flashed, and in an instant, there seemed to be the roar of a tiger and the song of a phoenix.
The entire hall seemed to freeze instantly. The boundless fighting spirit on the sword and the overwhelming murderous aura rushed towards everyone.
Bai Zheng held the sword in her hand, raised it high, and waved it to the side. The teacup that Zhuo Lingxiao had casually placed on the table shattered in response.
What a wonderful sword! Bai Zheng couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Just the sharpness of the sword's edge could shatter the teacup. With such imposing manner and such hair - cutting sharpness, who could say it wasn't the Phoenix - Song Sword?
Grasping the long sword steadily, Bai Zheng gave a calm glance at Zhuo Lingxiao, who was staring intently at her from the opposite side, and then sheathed the sword.
Zhuo Lingxiao looked at the shattered teacup with the tea stains spreading all over the table. He was in a daze for a while before he let out a long sigh.
"Sure enough, it's the Phoenix - Song Sword. It's truly a precious sword."
Bai Zheng's movements were so fast, and the teacup shattered so timely.
Everyone's attention shifted to the broken teacup.
As a result, no one noticed that on the Phoenix - Song Sword that Bai Zheng had just drawn, the silver - white sword back was covered with faint rust, and there was a pale yellow sheen of oil flowing on the sword body.
"My lord has not slandered the young master," Bai Zheng said with a gentle smile. "The Phoenix - Song Sword is actually quite easy to deal with. Why did the young master deceive me?"
At this moment, Zhuo Lingxiao had already forgotten about asking Feng Linyuan to apologize. He just stared at the sword in Bai Zheng's hand and murmured, "Could it be that the precious sword became so docile and obedient because it knew it was now by its master's side?"
Obviously, he still couldn't quite accept how the Phoenix - Song Sword had suddenly changed from being difficult to draw to being easy.
But no matter how it happened, Bai Zheng had successfully drawn the Phoenix - Song Sword as Zhuo Lingxiao had requested.
Although Zhuo Lingxiao was extremely puzzled, he had to accept this fact.
Facing this situation, King Wen and the old duke of the state both stroked their long beards contentedly, with smiles that couldn't be contained on their faces.
What Bai Zheng had protected now was not just the precious Phoenix - Song Sword, but also the dignity of the Marquis of Dingyuan's Mansion and the face of the entire Great Zhou!
Bai Zheng looked at Zhuo Lingxiao, who was still a bit in a daze, and showed the sword in her hand. "Young master, this sword..."
Zhuo Lingxiao looked up in response. He looked at the woman in front of him and then at the sword in her hand. After a while, he said with a frown, "I didn't expect that even I could draw the Phoenix - Song Sword. Then how can we be sure whether Miss Bai has really been recognized by the Phoenix - Song Sword..."
Hearing this, Bai Yinan immediately stood up anxiously. "What does the young master mean by this? Just now, it was clearly said that as long as my daughter could draw this sword, it would be given to her. It was never said that it wouldn't count if someone else drew it first!"
"Dad," Bai Zheng interrupted. "This sword was found and brought here by the young master. If he really doesn't want to give it away, others can't say much."
As she spoke, Bai Zheng carefully placed the sword back into the wooden box.
Feng Linyuan watched Bai Zheng's actions and nodded with a smile. "Zheng'er is right. Now that I already know the whereabouts of the Phoenix - Song Sword and have been fortunate enough to see it, I'm at ease. I don't have any other requests."
Hearing this, Bai Zheng bowed to Zhuo Lingxiao. "I hope the young master will take good care of the Phoenix - Song Sword in the future and don't let it wander around again."
Hearing their conversation, Zhuo Lingxiao suddenly had a bad feeling.
Since he entered the Bai Mansion today, he had been tricked by these two people more than once. How could he let his guard down now?
Most importantly, before he came, his father, King Zhuo Yi of Xuanning, had told him.
If the other party could draw the sword, just give it away.
It wasn't that Zhuo Yi was really kind - hearted. It was because everyone in the world knew that the Phoenix - Song Sword was a national treasure of the Great Zhou and a precious sword that was hard to find in the world.
Now that the Phoenix - Song Sword had been shown in front of everyone, I'm afraid from now on, there would be many thieves coming, even breaking into his house.
It would be better to fulfill his reputation of keeping his word and give the Phoenix - Song Sword to Bai Zheng, so that the thieves could go to the Bai Mansion instead.
It could also be considered as finding some trouble for Feng Linyuan.
Thinking of this, Zhuo Lingxiao waved his hand repeatedly and laughed. "I was just joking. This sword was originally a congratulatory gift for the future wife of the Marquis of Dingyuan. Now that Miss Bai has drawn the sword, it's only natural to return it to its rightful owner according to the will of the Phoenix - Song Sword."
Then he turned to look at Feng Linyuan beside him. "I've also completed what my father asked me to do. By the way, my father also asked me to pass on a message to the marquis."
"What message?"
"My father said that he wishes the Marquis of Dingyuan and his new wife a long and happy marriage, growing old together." Zhuo Lingxiao raised his eyebrows and smiled.
Feng Linyuan responded with a smile. "Thank you for the king's kind words."
Seeing that his mission was completed, Zhuo Lingxiao stood up and bowed to everyone. "Now that the gift and the message have been delivered, I won't bother the marquis with his betrothal gift. I'll come to drink with the marquis on the day of the wedding. I'll take my leave first."
"Take care, young master."
After seeing Zhuo Lingxiao off, King Wen and Duke Zhou rushed forward and couldn't put the Phoenix - Song Sword down.
"Now you should tell us what's going on, right?" King Wen looked back at Feng Linyuan.
Feng Linyuan raised his eyebrows slightly. "Uncle Wang knows the Phoenix - Song Sword. It's not as hard to draw as what the young master Zhuo said. But I don't know what tricks Zheng'er played. You should ask Zheng'er."
Bai Zheng lowered her head and smiled. "Your Highness, if you draw the sword out and take a closer look at the sword body, you'll naturally understand the reason."
Hearing this, King Wen immediately drew out the sword and looked at the sword body carefully. He said hesitantly,
"Is this... rusty? What's this oily stuff on it? It doesn't look like lard. It seems to have a sour smell... and there seems to be a fragrance?"
"This is peanut oil," Bai Zheng replied.
People in this era didn't know how to refine oil. Usually, their food was either boiled or steamed. They didn't know anything about stir - frying.
They were even more ignorant about oil. Only a few people knew how to refine a little lard.
But lard was usually a milky - white solid. An oil like peanut oil, which became liquid when the weather was a bit warmer, was unheard of.
It was probably that during the last battle when the Phoenix - Song Sword accompanied the old marquis Feng Zhen, it was covered in too much blood. After being buried in the sea of corpses for a long time, it got rusty after being soaked in blood and fused with the scabbard. It was very difficult to draw without a bit of skill.
Although dealing with rust was a trivial matter for Bai Zheng, who was from a chemistry major, the situation was sudden, and there were no high - purity chemical supplies in the Bai Mansion.
She had to find an excuse to run to the kitchen and bring the peanut oil that she had squeezed out in the past month and the highly concentrated white vinegar that she had refined.
In order to cover up the sour smell of the white vinegar, she also mixed in some self - made perfume to suppress the strange smell.
She used white vinegar to dissolve the rust and peanut oil as a lubricant.
Even so, after dropping the vinegar, the rust couldn't be completely dissolved in a short time. With Bai Zheng's strength, she still couldn't succeed at once.
So she had to provoke Zhuo Lingxiao into drawing the sword with her words.
"You little sly one!" King Wen couldn't help but poke Bai Zheng on the head, and his white beard fluttered with laughter.