Chapter 23: The Forgotten Purple Equipment

Looking at the few pieces of equipment laid out before him, Wang Liang fell into deep contemplation.

The Life-Slaying Saber (Purple), the Revolving Light Ruler (Purple), the Warning Bell (Blue), the Thorny Crown (Blue), the Chieftain's Tie (Blue), the Jade Bowl Lamp (Blue), the Shuttle of Time (Blue), the Demon Tiger Heaven-Swallowing Armor (Purple), and the Bronze Warhorse (Blue)—he recognized all of these. They were entirely the spoils of his previous two games.

Some he had already put to use, while others he could not use yet, but they would definitely come in handy in the future. In short, he remembered every single piece of equipment.

However, what was the deal with this very last item placed here?

It was something resembling a token, made of peach wood, treated with a matte black finish. The characters "Imperial Decree" were inscribed on the front, while the reverse bore the words "Commander of the Feathered Forest Guard."

What on earth was this? When did it appear in his inventory? How was it that he had no idea?

Three massive question marks filled Wang Liang's mind.

He rapidly flipped through his log, finally finding a line of text recorded when he first entered this game.

[Quest Reward: Random Epic (Purple) equipment piece, one century of Han Dynasty national fortune and merit, three liters of dragon vein subterranean fluid.]

This was the quest reward given when he released Liu Xiu. Wang Liang remembered very clearly that back then, in order to forge the Ancient Wengzhong, he had impulsively poured the century of national fortune and dragon vein subterranean fluid directly into the Ancient Wengzhong.

As for what this purple equipment was, Wang Liang hadn't had the time to care at all back then.

But afterwards?

Why had he forgotten about it later on? If not for the fact that today he needed to take out all his magical treasures and equipment, he might never have remembered this item at all.

Holding this token in his hand, the system didn't even prompt him. Wang Liang picked it up, gazed at it against the sunlight for a long while, and finally, a prompt popped up before him.

[Ding! You have inadvertently discovered an item you do not understand. As this happens to be an antiquity, would you like to trigger the Archaeology cleaning special effect to investigate the attributes of this item?]

Wang Liang blinked. You could play it this way too?

[Warning! This item is fundamentally of Epic (Purple) quality. If the player takes it to a professional institution for appraisal, it will retain its Epic quality. However, if the player investigates it through their own methods, the quality of this item may be downgraded to Rare (Blue).]

Had it not been for this warning, Wang Liang might have just let it be; after all, he didn't know what kind of impact the Archaeology cleaning special effect would have on this item.

But the moment this warning popped up, Wang Liang threw caution to the wind. He picked up the token and began turning it over and over in his hands.

Wang Liang's experiences were quite extensive. Aside from serving as a general and a statesman, his mind also held the experiences of a massive library of unknown origin. Combined with the fact that during his leisure time, he had specifically read books concerning the conferring of gods, he had a relatively good grasp of many things.

Judging by the calligraphy on the token before him, this should be the style of the late Western Han Dynasty. Yet judging by the carving skill, the person who carved this was no master; rather, it looked like the casual handiwork of an ordinary person.

Yet precisely because it was such a casual piece of work, it carried a certain obsession, as if the carver had carved every single one of their wishes onto this token.

"To be an official, one should strive to be the Commander of the Feathered Forest Guard; to take a wife, one should marry Yin Lihua."

Wang Liang slowly recited the famous line from the *Book of Later Han* buried in his memory. Thinking of Liu Xiu, upon whom meteors had fallen from the skies, Wang Liang suddenly understood the significance this token represented.

This was an obsession born of unfulfilled desires.

The moment Wang Liang recited those words, the token began to tremble slightly. A phantom image appeared before Wang Liang's eyes, and he witnessed the Han court's requirements for the Commander of the Feathered Forest Guard dating all the way back to the Emperor Wu era.

He witnessed scenes of the Commander of the Feathered Forest Guard battling wandering knights, rebels, and monsters.

[Ding! You have recognized the origin of this item and triggered its resonance. The item's attributes have been activated.]

[Heart's Desire (Token)]

[Quality: Epic (Purple)]

[Equipment Requirements: Strength 15, Agility 14, Constitution 15, Spirit 21]

[Trait 1: Han Imperial Guard. The pinnacle combat unit of the Han capital, innately superior to others. Deals 100% increased damage to malevolent entities, demons, and evil objects.]

[Trait 2: Majestic Celestial Might. Blessed by the fortune of the Han dynasty, capable of mobilizing heaven and earth vital energy to cast natural spells (spells including but not limited to floods, forest fires, gales, torrential rains, landslides, thunder and lightning, falling meteors, etc.).]

[Trait 3: Obsession Within. What is left unsaid does not exist. As long as the incantation is not spoken aloud in the enemy's presence, the enemy will remain completely unaware that they are being targeted by magic until the moment they are struck.]

[Description: This is a good thing, but it has one very serious problem: when you aren't paying attention, you might completely overlook its existence.]

Wang Liang truly didn't know what to say about the attributes of this token, but one thing was certain: a large part of the reason why this token had remained undiscovered in his inventory for so long was precisely because of this token's bizarre final attribute.

He truly had no idea what kind of consequences the appearance of this token would bring him, but he knew one thing for sure—his magical treasure forging was now guaranteed.

Wang Liang picked up the token and placed it onto the magical treasure crafting interface.

In the very next instant, out of the seven slots on the front, the slot representing sorcery lit up.

This meant Wang Liang could place this magical treasure into it.

This discovery brought a satisfied smile to Wang Liang's face.

He reached out and placed [Heart's Desire] right into the slot.

Shortly after, at the very bottom of the magical treasure interface, all three traits originating from [Heart's Desire] were retained, followed by a small note placed right beside them.

[The effect of this trait will increase as the level of the magical treasure increases!]

Faced with such attributes, Wang Liang couldn't help but sigh in admiration. The ability to grow alongside the upgrade of the magical treasure meant it would only grow stronger the more it was used.

This cheered Wang Liang up considerably, but in the next second, his expression turned grave.

Because he noticed that the slots, which had originally been black, had now all turned purple.

When he tapped his finger upon them, he found that a prompt popped up.

To ensure the quality of the magical treasure, the quality of all seven magical treasures must be identical. If Wang Liang had previously placed Rare (Blue) magical treasures or equipment into it, he could simply continue placing other Rare (Blue) magical treasures inside.

Now, because [Heart's Desire] had been placed in, the requirement here had shifted to all-Epic (Purple).

This left Wang Liang somewhat speechless. He only had three pieces of Epic (Purple) equipment on hand right now; one of them was his Life-Slaying Saber, which had been accidentally upgraded due to various reasons.

Another piece was the Demon Tiger Heaven-Swallowing Armor, which was a reward obtained from defeating the demon tiger last time. Coupled with the Revolving Light Ruler, those made a total of just three pieces he could pull out.

Now that everything needed to be Epic (Purple), where on earth was Wang Liang supposed to go find so many magical treasures?