The words had barely left Miguel’s mouth.
The air inside the room shifted, turning distinctly strange.
It was obvious enough why.
Everyone present understood exactly how much weight the name “Azure Empyrean Sword” carried.
That blade was not merely Yunkui Summit’s greatest treasure.
It was also the death warrant that hung over the head of every Sword Master in its long line.
For all these years it had behaved like a bottomless pit that could never be filled, devouring the memories and the senses of one owner after another.
And at the very end, it would strip its Sword Master’s soul out of this world entirely.
Whether it was Yixuan, who had already lived through all of that, or Ye Shiyuan, who was enduring it at this very moment.
Neither of them wanted Little Guang to keep using that sword.
What the blade handed over was never just power.
It was grief carved into the bone.
After signaling to the others, Miguel had turned away.
Since he would soon need the Azure Empyrean Sword to trace back the fundamental authority of that Void Hunter weapon, he figured he might as well reinforce the stability of Yijiang’s physical anchor point a little further.
But that was all the time it took.
One turn away, one turn back.
When he faced the room again, ready to call Little Guang over with the sword case, the sight in front of him stopped him where he stood.
In the reasonably spacious room, Yixuan’s disciples had somehow arranged themselves into a full battle formation around Little Guang.
Ju Fufu’s petite frame blocked the very front, her two fluffy ears standing bolt upright, the yellow-and-white tail behind her puffed out like a feather duster.
Her arms were crossed over her chest in a gesture that admitted no argument: absolutely forbidden.
Pan Yinhu used his considerable bulk to keep Little Guang tucked close at his side, his round body sealing off the doorway behind him without leaving a crack to spare.
As for Ye Shiyuan, her own blood brother, he had planted himself on Little Guang’s right.
His face had gone a little red, but nothing about him suggested retreat.
Looking at the three of them, Miguel found himself, for a moment, entirely at a loss.
Was he about to do something so monstrous that it would anger heaven and man alike?
Little Guang, penned in the middle by her senior brothers and sister, was watching Miguel with an embarrassed look that had clearly long since become routine for her.
Plainly, this was not the first time the three of them had thrown up a wall like this.
Miguel blinked, and his face ran through a whole series of expressions.
“And what, exactly, is all this?” He pointed at the airtight formation, his voice caught somewhere between exasperation and amusement.
The question left the room distinctly awkward.
Ju Fufu cracked first.
She burst out in a way that was fierce and squeaky at once.
“Protecting Junior Sister Little Guang, obviously!
Nobody knows better than we do how dangerous that lousy sword is!
If you make her take it out and it starts going crazy and sucking people dry again, then what?” The girl might be a glutton who loved making noise, but when it mattered she carried her duty as Senior Sister without a shred of hesitation.
Pan Yinhu nodded along beside her, his honest face all seriousness.
“That’s right, Mr.
Miguel.
Junior Sister Little Guang’s health is poor to begin with.
Every time that Azure Empyrean Sword is drawn, it burns through an enormous amount of her vitality and spirit.
We can’t stand here and watch her take that risk.” Ye Shiyuan said nothing.
But his tightly pressed lips, and the way he held his ground in front of his sister with an apology written all over him, said everything that needed saying.
Being guarded against like a burglar did not anger Miguel in the slightest.
If anything, he found the whole picture rather entertaining.
In a New Eridu where danger waited around every corner, a girl with this many people ready to shield her was lucky indeed.
Standing at the center of that protective ring, Ye Shunguang listened to her seniors fuss over her, and her eyes went red at the rims.
She knew perfectly well how much they cared.
All these years, to keep the Azure Empyrean Sword from eating away at her, their master had forbidden her from accepting a single dangerous commission, and her senior brothers and sister had handled her like a porcelain doll.
Every time they went down the mountain, Ju Fufu would stuff the best wound medicine into her pocket.
Every meal, Pan Yinhu would pick the most nourishing cuts of meat into her bowl.
And her brother, Ye Shiyuan, would have swept away every potential threat in advance if he could.
But she did not want to spend her whole life as a burden hiding behind other people’s backs.
“Brother.
Senior Sister Fufu.
Senior Brother Yinhu.” Ye Shunguang called out softly, reaching out slender fingers to gently part Ju Fufu and Ye Shiyuan where they blocked the way.
The girl walked out of that warm, faintly stifling circle of her own accord.
She turned around, gave them all a brilliant smile, then raised a hand and drew a pull through empty air.
The black-and-white metal sword case hovering behind her drifted slowly forward with the motion.
All that was left to Ju Fufu and the others was her back, a little thin, but held perfectly straight.
At that sight, something in Ye Shiyuan’s chest wrenched hard.
He knew his sister too well.
She looked soft and fragile from the outside, yet down in the marrow she was more stubborn than anyone alive.
But this was the Azure Empyrean Sword!
The instant the blade cleared its sheath, even for the space of a single breath, that irreversible devouring force would begin its work.
Little Guang’s memories, her soul, all of it would be gnawed away by that sword, piece by piece.
Ye Shiyuan strode forward and planted himself between Ye Shunguang and Miguel.
“Mr.
Miguel.” The Senior Brother of Yunkui Summit had always been the steady one, yet now there was an unmistakable tremor running through his voice.
He looked Miguel straight in the eye, his tone torn between anguish and resolve.
“I hold you in the highest regard.
You came here to treat our former Sect Master, and all of Yunkui Summit owes you a debt we can never repay.” His fists clenched tight, the knuckles giving off a small string of cracks.
“But as Little Guang’s brother, I have to ask plainly.
What exactly does this treatment require of her?
Will it put her safety at risk?
Will it… will it push the Azure Empyrean Sword’s side effects even further?” The questions were blunt to the point of insult.
He was long past caring about that.
If the price of saving Yijiang was driving his sister faster toward that wretched ending, he would rather be branded a traitor to his master and his ancestors than let it happen.
Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu made no sound, but both of them edged forward, stating their position beside Ye Shiyuan’s without needing a word.
Watching all of this unfold, Yixuan felt her emotions twist into a knot beyond untangling.
On one side lay her own sister, thirteen years unconscious in that bed.
On the other stood the youngest disciple she doted on most, the girl she had raised as if she were her daughter.
Palm or back of the hand, it was all her own flesh.
She could not bear to give up either.
Yixuan drew a deep breath.
She stepped over beside Ye Shiyuan, faced Miguel, folded her hands together and bowed deeply.
“Mr.
Miguel, Shiyuan’s words may have offended you, but they are also what I feel as his master.” Yixuan lifted her head, those golden eyes brimming with entreaty.
“None of us want Little Guang walking into danger for the sake of this treatment.
If it is at all possible, please tell us what the treatment involves.
If some price has to be paid, then I, Yixuan, am willing to bear all of it myself.
I cannot let this bring her a single further wound.” Then she bowed her head once more.
“We have given offense just now.
I hope you will be generous with us, sir.” Listening to the master and her disciples lay bare what they truly felt, Miguel laughed.
He did not feel insulted at all.
As far as he was concerned, it was only natural that Yixuan and the rest of them cared this much.
In this rotten world there was no shortage of filth, people scheming against one another for profit and survival, selling out their own kin without a second thought.
A sect like Yunkui Summit, which held the bond between fellow disciples higher than the sky, was exactly to his taste.
This bunch was worth lending a hand to.
“All right, all of you can stop looking so grim.” Miguel waved a hand, the easy smile never leaving his face.
He looked at Ye Shiyuan and spoke gently.
“Set your minds at ease.
When Miguel does something, he’s never gone in for tearing down one wall to patch another.” He raised his right hand, three fingers up, and let some gravity settle into his voice.
“I swear here and now: bringing Little Guang in to help will not endanger her body or her mind in any way.
That lousy sword isn’t taking so much as a single hair from her.” Miguel’s gaze swept across every person in the room.
“And if at any point during this you see her in the slightest discomfort, or you decide I’m stringing you along, you can step in and cut me off whenever you like.
I won’t lift a finger to stop you.
Does that settle it?” He laid it all out in the open, without a trace of hedging.
With that guarantee, the tension finally began to drain out of Ye Shiyuan’s body, though he still did not fully step aside.
He glanced at his sister, then at his master, as if measuring how much faith to place in the promise.
Little Guang, meanwhile, had already poked her head out from behind her brother, her red eyes bright with a sunny smile.
“Big Bro Miguel, I trust you.
Just tell me what you need me to do.” “Nothing complicated.” Miguel snapped his fingers.
“Open the case.
Then hand it to me.” The words had barely landed.
The black-and-white sword case hanging in midair began to shudder violently.
Something inside it seemed to wake, sensing a threat of the highest order, and let out a piercing drone.
The seal patterns across the case’s surface flared to life layer by layer, straining to hold down the riot within, yet under the surge of Ether energy they looked ready to give way at any moment.
The amusement drained from Miguel’s face, and a crimson glow began to dance across his fingertips.
“Don’t be nervous, Little Guang.” Miguel took a step forward, and that suffocating pressure descended over the room once more.
“Now then.
I’m going to have a good long talk with this so-called ‘illustrious’ Azure Empyrean Sword.” ____ 👻🔥Walnut-chan 😉 — Zenless Zone Zero: Rewriting Fate in New Eridu — live on The_Mikudayo 📚 Tired of waiting?
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