“A trial?” Yixuan and Ye Shiyuan blurted it out in the same breath.
Both of their faces were blank with shock and confusion.
For years now, they had combed through every ancient text on Yunkui Summit searching for a way to break the Azure Empyrean Sword’s curse.
They had even risked venturing deep into high-danger Hollows, into the swallowed territories of old civilizations.
And in all of it, not a single record had ever mentioned the word “trial.” That was hardly surprising.
Throughout all of history, the people who had passed a Void Hunter weapon’s trial could be counted on one hand.
And the conditions for triggering a trial in the first place were harsh past the point of cruelty.
The Azure Empyrean Sword was a peculiar weapon even among its peers.
With the double toll it extracted from memory and soul alike, the overwhelming majority of Sword Masters were drained into empty husks long before they ever grew strong enough to activate the trial.
Hoshimi Miyabi knew the trial existed for two reasons.
First, an ancestor of the Hoshimi family had once passed the trial of “Tailless” and left clues behind.
Second, Miguel had simply told her.
Back when Miguel first met Hoshimi Miyabi, he had poured the Power of Creation, the highest authority there was, straight into “Tailless.” The blade had never even considered resisting.
It wagged its tail and folded on the spot.
That was the difference between walking a road someone else had paved and groping your way across a river in the dark.
It was not that “Tailless” was weaker than the “Azure Empyrean Sword.” Void Hunter weapons all sat at roughly the same rank.
It was that the “Azure Empyrean Sword” carried more than one authority within it, and the price it charged was subtler, and far more lethal.
It was like the difference between a game you can save at any moment and a game that wipes your file the instant you fail.
As for how hard the second one is to clear, that needs no explanation.
Looking at the two of them, faces full of doubt and worry, Miguel started from the basics and walked them through the rules of a Void Hunter weapon’s trial.
“The trial is the weapon’s will passing final judgment on the one who wields it,” Miguel said, his voice carrying through the room.
“Pass it, and the owner gains total mastery over the weapon.
No side effects will ever eat at them again.” “For whoever holds the ‘Azure Empyrean Sword,’ that means wielding it will no longer cost them memories or senses.
They’d even be able to turn that power around and feed it back into themselves.” “But if they fail…” Miguel let the sentence hang.
Everyone there understood what came next.
Failure meant being devoured, completely.
Ye Shiyuan’s hands clenched so hard his nails nearly bit through his palms.
“Mr.
Miguel.” His voice had gone terribly hoarse.
“Little Guang, her body, the state she’s in now, she could never survive a trial on that level!
You said it yourself, you wouldn’t let her come to harm!” Yixuan strode up to Miguel as well, her tone urgent.
“He’s right, sir!
Little Guang has burned through far too much of herself these past few years just holding the backlash down.
If you force the trial open now, there’s no way she’ll last through it!
Isn’t there some other way?” Miguel understood their fear well enough.
If he suddenly learned that Wise and Belle were heading out to complete some wildly dangerous commission, he doubted he would be handling it any better than Yixuan was.
Fortunately, Miguel was not a man who liked leaving a sentence half-finished.
He raised a hand for them to settle down, then went straight on.
“Relax.
Let me finish.” Miguel turned toward Ye Shunguang, who had stayed silent all this time.
“I promised I’d keep her safe, and I don’t break my word.” “The reason I asked Little Guang to think about whether she wants to accept her fate…” “…is precisely because she still has a choice.” Ye Shiyuan, frantic a moment ago, let out a long breath at those words.
Intervening in a Void Hunter weapon’s trial.
Even breaking it off by force.
He was more and more certain that this Mr.
Miguel standing in front of him could actually do it.
“However.” Miguel’s tone shifted.
“It also means that from this day on, Little Guang loses any chance of the Azure Empyrean Sword recognizing her as its master, and loses the right to use it at all.” Far from dimming, Ye Shiyuan’s expression brightened.
Wasn’t that exactly the outcome he had been chasing all along?
All these years of bitter searching had been for one thing: severing the bond between his sister and that cursed Azure Empyrean Sword.
And now they could save Martial Uncle Yijiang and free his sister from the sword for good.
It was a win on every front.
The joy came so suddenly that Ye Shiyuan felt half unmoored by it.
And then it happened.
A girl’s voice rang out in the room, clear and utterly unyielding.
“Then what happens to the Azure Empyrean Sword after it loses me as its Sword Master?” It was Ye Shunguang.
She had finished her conversation with the other personality.
Turn the clock back a few minutes.
In the depths of Ye Shunguang’s consciousness, that conversation about fate had been going on for who knew how long.
“Have you really made up your mind?” The other “Ye Shunguang,” white-haired, a single red horn growing from her forehead, sat in the void and looked down at her from above.
“Even though nobody ever expected anything of you, you’re still choosing that damned trial?
It might drag me down with you.
Both of us, gone for good.” Little Guang tilted her head up and looked at the “Clear-Mind State” personality who had always taken her pain for her.
“I’ve made up my mind.” Little Guang’s voice was calmer than it had ever been.
“I don’t want to keep worrying my brother.
I don’t want to keep catching Master sighing when he thinks no one’s looking.
Senior Sister Fufu and Senior Brother Yinhu have been so good to me.
I want to remember them forever.” “Besides, Big Bro Miguel is out there watching over us.
I trust him.” “And…” “I don’t want anyone else to lose precious memories because of the Azure Empyrean Sword.” Ye Shunguang’s voice was quiet, but every word came through with perfect clarity.
It was a decision the girl had settled on long ago.
And not for her own sake alone.
It was for everyone who valued her, everyone who cared for her.
The white-haired personality studied the self in front of her and stayed silent a long while, then finally let out a cold snort.
“Suit yourself.
You’re the one in charge of this body anyway.
Just make sure you’ve got some backbone.
Don’t come crying to me to bail you out when it goes wrong.” Hearing that, Little Guang did something rare and fired back at her Clear-Mind State self.
“Honestly, aren’t the two of us the same person?” That shut the white-haired Little Guang up on the spot.
After all, her true self wasn’t wrong.
All she could do was huff and turn her face away.
The mind-space shattered with a roar.
Back to the present.
Inside the Tranquil Heart Pavilion.
Ye Shiyuan turned around in disbelief and looked at his sister.
As sharp as he was, how could he not guess what would happen to the Azure Empyrean Sword once it lost its current Sword Master?
A new contract.
A new Sword Master.
And new regrets, and new tragedies.
But so what?
There had only ever been one thing Ye Shiyuan cared about, and that was his sister.
The sister who always put on a brave face in front of him, who cried in secret night after night, and who then dragged herself through the pain of lost memories the next morning and acted like nothing had happened at all.
She was still so young.
She should have had all her youth, all those years, still ahead of her.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Ye Shiyuan didn’t understand.
Tears slid down his cheeks before he could stop them.
In all his life, Ye Shiyuan had never lost control the way he did today.
The chance to save his sister was right there in front of him.
All he wanted was for her to live.
That was all.
Just as the air around him seemed to press down harder and harder, a pair of small, callused hands gently lifted his lowered head.
Two pairs of red eyes, so alike, the eyes of blood siblings, met in silence.
And Ye Shiyuan heard his sister’s voice, absolute and without hesitation.
“Brother.” “Because I’m not living just for myself.” Walnut-chan🔥👻 🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: