[After your master and martial siblings departed, an undeniable sense of urgency took root in your heart.]
[You set aside your other courses—history, literature, physics, and the like—and devoted yourself entirely to the way of the sword.]
[That’s right—you really were that absurdly talented.
Over the past year, you hadn’t just studied swordsmanship.
Your master had kept his word, bringing in experts from various fields to instruct you.]
[Yet even so, within a single year, you’d already crushed the pride of every prodigy of your generation—and by “your generation,” that meant everyone under 100.]
[But right now, you felt that no amount of breadth in other disciplines could compare to making yourself truly powerful.
What’s more, you wanted to strengthen yourself so decisively that those who dismissed you for your age would have nothing left to say—and thus, nothing left to stop you from charging into battle and cutting down the enemy!]
[August of the same year.
Cangcheng’s military might had reached its zenith!
From the front lines, tidings of great victories poured in one after another!]
[The Xianzhou Cangcheng shattered the Denizens of Abundance strongholds on four planets in succession—Greedwolf, Giant Gate, Stored Harvest, and Chaste Honor—liberating countless innocent souls in the process.]
[But behind the tremendous battle honors lay the corpses of innumerable Cloud Knights…]
“Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-eight…
nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine…
ten thousand!”
[You wiped the sweat from your brow, took a drink of water, and felt a wave of fulfillment wash over you.]
[You knew your talent was exceptional.
And because you could precisely regulate your own body, you could even clearly sense your strength climbing continuously.]
[Master had left for the front at the start of January.
Nearly seven months had passed since then.]
[Though you still returned home every Saturday and Sunday to be with Liuliu, spending those two break days playing like mad at her side, that still left four to five months of solid sword training.]
[As for your current strength?
All you could say was: in terms of raw destructive power alone, leveling an entire Xianzhou street was no issue.
Even facing hundreds of Wolf Cavalry raiders, you wouldn’t break a sweat!]
“Drip—drip—drip—”
A fine, lingering drizzle began to drift down from the sky.
Bai Qiong knitted his brows, then hurriedly gathered up the bedding belonging to his master and martial siblings.
The weather had looked so nice today, and he’d thought it’d be good to air out the blankets so they’d be comfortable when they returned.
But he distinctly remembered the weather forecast said there’d be no rain today.
The Xianzhou Cangcheng was composed of countless Realms, and each Realm’s sky and weather were entirely simulated, controlled by the Vidyadhara clan who managed the ship’s clouds and rain.
A weather forecast like this should be impossible to get wrong…
You shook your head and let it go.
It had nothing to do with you anyway.
A work error from the Vidyadhara was rare, but not unheard of.
“Thump—thump—thump—” Someone knocked at the courtyard gate.
“Coming!
One moment!”
You tossed the rest of the blankets onto the bed and hurried toward the gate.
This time of day…
it should be Master and the others returning.
Many chivalrous fighters like your master had already been rotated back.
“Senior…
Senior Brother?” You pushed the gate open, and your pupils trembled.
The Senior Brother who had always treated everyone with gentle warmth now had a face as pale as ash.
His left side was nothing more than an empty, dangling sleeve.
In his right hand, he carried two…
black wooden boxes.
[You seemed to have already guessed what they contained.
But…
hadn’t everything been fine just a short while ago?
Senior Sister had been pressing down on your head, telling you to show her more respect.
Master had been reminding you to train diligently…]
“Senior Brother?” Your voice wavered, carrying a few notes of desperate pleading between the words.
Your Senior Brother gave a stiff nod.
[You held a simple funeral for Master and Senior Sister.
Very few people came, but most of those who did wore military uniforms.
No one spoke.
The atmosphere was suffocatingly heavy…]
After the funeral, Senior Brother escorted you back to the Realm where your family lived.
You remembered that Senior Brother had once been like sunlight—always radiating vitality, illuminating everyone around him.
But these past few days, he seemed more like a fading sunset on the verge of disappearing.
Though he still treated you with the same care as always, he would often stare blankly at the tree by the training grounds, sometimes sitting there for an entire afternoon.
You wanted to reach out to him, to say something, but your mouth felt clumsy.
Every time you tried to speak, the words tangled up in your throat and refused to come out.
…
Senior Brother saw you all the way to Starskiff Haven.
He clapped a heavy hand on your shoulder.
In that instant, he no longer looked like a fading sunset.
He looked like a solar flare on the verge of eruption…
“Little Junior Brother, your talent surpasses any of ours.
Perhaps, in the future, you’ll be able to accomplish what we couldn’t.” He paused.
“But there are some things…
that cannot wait until the future to be done…”
Young as you were, you seemed to understand something—and yet, not entirely.
You watched Senior Brother’s retreating figure.
All you knew was that he had boarded another flight bound for the front lines.
“Senior Brother…
do your best,” you murmured softly.
“Leave the present to you.
In the future…
I’ll do better than you have…”
You clenched your fists tight.
[The days that followed were spent almost entirely in sword training.]
[Liuliu noticed something was off about your mood, but she’d never seen you like this before and didn’t quite know what to do.] Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
[Still, she stayed by your side in her own clumsy way.
Every day after her tutoring sessions, she’d come straight over to train alongside you.
Though wordless, her presence spoke louder than a thousand words.]
[December of the same year.
You received a scheduled email from Master.]
“To my beloved disciple Bai Qiong,
By the time you read these words, I will likely no longer be among the living.
Do not grieve for me.
I am already deeply content with the life I have lived.
In my youth, I studied under the Sword Champion’s school.
Though my talent fell short—some might even call me mediocre—my later years were peaceful and blessed.
Not to mention, I took on a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy like you!
You have no idea how those old fossils glared at me with envy and jealousy.
In terms of raw skill, I may not have matched them—but my eye for talent was far superior!
…
Your Senior Sister has suffered grave injuries on the front lines.
Should she make it home, I hope you will look after her.
As for your Senior Brother—don’t let his calm, collected surface fool you.
He is stubborn to the core!
I took him in as a child, and he grew up at my side.
After my passing, he may become…
somewhat extreme in his thinking.
But as long as your Senior Sister is there, he won’t do anything reckless.
Neither of them, like me, was truly born for the sword.
But they are also like me in this—once they have chosen a path, not even a team of oxen could drag them off it.
When the time comes, counsel your Senior Brother.
You are young, but you have your own mind.
He will listen to you.
I know that your Senior Brother and Senior Sister share mutual affection.
Help your Senior Brother along a bit, will you?
Once the two of them are together, with your Senior Sister keeping him in check, he will finally learn to temper himself.
Tell them to leave the battlefield behind.
Let them open a small martial arts school, or a little restaurant, and live out their days in peace and stability…
…”
[You closed your eyes.
Your fists, despite yourself, clenched tight.]
But…
but…
Master and Senior Sister…
they’re both dead…