Miguel stood beside Yixuan, hands hanging at his sides, watching it all in silence.
He was in no hurry to interrupt.
Letting the feelings out was necessary.
Only by pouring out every drop of the grievance, fear, and bitterness they had bottled up for years could this group walk into the next challenge unburdened.
Still, the fire had cooked long enough.
Ye Shiyuan’s spirits had bottomed out, and there were faint signs he was sliding into outright self-loathing.
Miguel lowered his arms and cleared his throat.
“All right.
Now hear me out for a minute.” His voice cut clean through the heavy air in the room.
Every pair of eyes swung toward him at once.
Miguel met their stares and spread his hands.
“The thing is…
I don’t think I ever said Little Guang had to take that trial by herself, did I?” “Ehh—?!” Four voices leapt an octave in perfect unison and went off like a bomb inside the Tranquil Heart Pavilion.
Ju Fufu forgot to wipe her tears, amber eyes going wide and round as she stared at Miguel.
Pan Yinhu’s little eyes bulged until they were fixed and glassy.
Yixuan’s head whipped around, her golden pupils full of shock.
The biggest reaction came from Ye Shiyuan.
His head snapped up, and hope flared in eyes that had been dull and lightless a moment before.
This Senior Brother, who had always been so careful about propriety and measure, strode right up to Miguel and seized him by both arms.
“Mr.
Miguel!
What did you just say?!” Ye Shiyuan’s voice shook, and the words tumbled out fast, as though a single second’s delay might change what had just reached his ears.
“Little Guang doesn’t have to face the trial alone?!
Is that true?!” Miguel looked at the handsome face now practically pressed against his own, leaned back on reflex, and stuck out one finger to push Ye Shiyuan away.
“Easy.
Easy!” “Don’t stand so close.” Then, seeing that the man had no intention of retreating until he got a straight answer, Miguel gave up on drawing out the suspense.
“What I said was that a Void Hunter weapon’s trial can normally only be undertaken by the weapon’s own bearer, and that is indeed standard for most Void Hunter weapon trials.
But this ‘Azure Empyrean Sword’ of your Yunkui Summit is a special case.” Miguel raised a hand and pointed at the Azure Empyrean Sword hanging in midair, wrapped airtight in the Power of Creation.
“Because the ‘Azure Empyrean Sword’ isn’t made from a single Authority-being.” “And that changes how many people its trial allows in.” At that, Pan Yinhu scratched his round head and cut in, his face a picture of confusion.
“Mr.
Miguel, shouldn’t more Authorities make it stronger and harder to beat?” The Panda Thiren laid out his own reasoning.
“It’s like taking a commission into a Hollow.
Handling one Ethereal is way easier than handling a whole swarm.
What’s that got to do with whether you can bring people along?” “Good question.” Miguel snapped his fingers.
“It’s exactly because there’s more than one Authority that the trial’s difficulty climbs by orders of magnitude.
If only the weapon’s bearer were allowed to challenge it, the trial would be brutally unfair compared to what every other Void Hunter weapon bearer faces.” “And naturally, the people who forged this sword weren’t about to create a weapon that could never be ‘tamed.’ So the moment it was born, they wrote a patch into its underlying rules.” Miguel paused there, then looked at Yixuan and her disciples, all of them listening with their ears pricked.
“Its trial allows more than one participant.” “To put it in plain language, this isn’t only a solo quest.
You can think of it as a party raid.” A party raid!
The instant those words landed, Ye Shiyuan’s eyes blazed.
His mind began racing.
If it was a group trial, everything became so much simpler!
Master Yixuan was genuine Void Hunter tier combat strength, a top-ranked expert even by New Eridu’s standards.
Senior Sister Fufu’s fighting power was a match for the elite combat operatives of the Defense Force.
Junior Brother Yinhu could handle logistics and defense for everyone.
And with himself added in…
As long as master and disciples all moved out together and entered the trial with Little Guang.
No matter how vicious the trial, no matter how brutal, this group could carve a bloody road through it by sheer stubborn force and bring Little Guang back out without a scratch on her!
Ye Shiyuan’s head snapped toward Yixuan.
Yixuan had clearly arrived at the same thought.
She knew perfectly well what her second disciple was thinking.
She stepped forward.
“Mr.
Miguel!” Yixuan spoke first.
There was undisguised excitement in her voice.
“In that case, when do we begin?” She turned her head and swept a glance across the three disciples behind her.
“Yunkui Summit, top to bottom, will hold nothing back!
Even if it costs me my life, I will keep Little Guang safe!” Ju Fufu waved both little fists and joined in, doing her fiercest impression of fierce.
“That’s right!
I’m going to go strip ‘Tiger Might’ down and oil it up again right now!
This time I’m beating that lousy sword until it calls me Grandma!” Watching this master and her disciples crack their knuckles, ready to round up a crew for a brawl, Miguel had to smile.
“Stop, stop, stop.
Everybody hold it right there.” Miguel put out both hands and pressed down, dumping a bucket of ice water straight over the hot-blooded lot of them.
“You really think you’re going out for a street fight?” The group, who had already gotten as far as planning what they’d eat after Little Guang’s trial, went blank.
The excitement froze on Ye Shiyuan’s face, and a bad feeling crawled up through him.
“Sir, then what you mean is…” Miguel put his smile away, his face turning serious.
“Like I said, the Azure Empyrean Sword’s trial rules are highly unusual.” “It does permit multiple participants, but the requirements for who those participants can be are savagely strict.” Miguel turned his head and looked at Ye Shunguang, who had stood quietly in the same spot through all of it, and spoke one deliberate word at a time.
“Whoever wants to walk into that trial beside her must be a person fated to Little Guang.
Someone whose destiny is woven together with hers.” ?
This time, it was pure bewilderment.
“Fated…
destinies woven together?” Yixuan’s brow drew tight as she turned the words over.
“What does that mean?
We are her fellow disciples.
We watched her grow up, taught her to read and write, practiced the sword and cultivated at her side.
Does that not count as woven destiny?” Miguel shook his head.
“It doesn’t.” “The bond between fellow disciples is affinity.
It isn’t fate.” Miguel paced a couple of steps across the room, sketching a shape in the air with one hand.
“Put simply, this person’s life-path has to be wound tight around Little Guang’s, inseparably.” “There has to be an absolute bond between them.
At some point in the future, their choices will directly decide whether the other lives or dies.
A bond like that has to reach across the barriers of time and space, even.” “Only a person who meets that condition can be acknowledged by the Azure Empyrean Sword’s rules and earn the right to set foot on the trial ground.” Miguel stopped pacing.
“If someone who doesn’t meet the condition forces their way in, the Azure Empyrean Sword’s rejection mechanism fires the same instant.
Forget the trial.
The power inside the sword will tear the intruder to pieces on the spot, and Little Guang will immediately be judged a failure by the ‘Azure Empyrean Sword’ trial right along with them.” Those words cut off any hope Yixuan and the others had of muscling through by sheer numbers.
Ye Shiyuan grew frantic.
He had finally caught sight of a thread of hope, and now he was being told that seizing it meant fishing a needle out of the ocean.
“Then where are we supposed to find a person like that?” Ye Shiyuan took a step forward, his voice raw with urgency.
“New Eridu is enormous.
We can hardly drag people off the street at random and test them!
And if we never find anyone, doesn’t that leave Little Guang facing it alone all over again?” Miguel turned around and looked at Ye Shiyuan.
He hadn’t been putting them through this roller coaster on purpose.
It was simply that where Little Guang was concerned, every one of them was running far too hot right now.
“Calm down, Brother Shiyuan.” Miguel reached out and patted the young man, who was growing more agitated by the second out of sheer worry for Little Guang.
“Since I’ve brought it up, I’ll obviously be bringing the person here myself.” He tilted his head, his gaze passing over the group to the lush green bamboo grove outside the Tranquil Heart Pavilion.
Straight east, past the bamboo.
That was where Miguel’s home stood.
And at the same time.
That was also Sixth Street.
Walnut-chan🔥👻 🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: