Jingliu

Former Sword Champion of the Luofu, and the reason behind the Cloud Knights' mythical reputation of implacable might. Now, her name has been wiped from the records, and she is a traitor of the Xianzhou walking on the fine line between sanity and mara-struck.

A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, that weighs nothing. It is not forged from any ordinary iron, but condensed from a shaft of sharp ice. It glows with a dim light, as if it is a strand of moonlight held in the wielder's hand. "A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, weighing about 7 catties. Hold it in your hand, and stab the sharp end towards the enemy." The woman in military uniform shifts her hand slightly. As if alive, the sword leaps out of the weapon rack, unsheathing as soon as it lands in the woman's palm. The blade stabs into the ground beside the girl's feet, vibrating with a shrill hum in the aftershock. "Have you learned it? If you have, then go fight the most common war beasts the borisin use in their ground forces. Once you've killed ten Bloodshot War Wyverns, I'll consider your first lesson completed." She remains silent and only looks around her. This is the first time she has left the hospital room since she was rescued, and her first time touching the weapon called "sword." "I've asked the healers and assistants to leave. They won't come to find you without my orders." "The Cangcheng fell in calamity with very few survivors. I don't know what you experienced before the rescue team arrived... But I don't want to see you wallow in past horrors like this for the rest of your life." "It's okay if you do not open your mouth. You can speak with this." "You can use this to make the monsters that took everything from us completely disappear. There are few things as wondrous as this left in the world." The woman in military uniform does not shift her expression, simply moving her gaze to the long sword cast to the girl's side. The mirror-like blade reflects her appearance. Countless sharp and painful fragments fly up in a storm and drag the girl into the past — In the dark sky, the demonic planet named Rahu was wailing and singing, descending upon everyone with mountain ridges and continents ablaze. On the streets, people were screaming. They struggled and rolled on the ground in the apocalyptic despair, allowing golden vines to sprout and grow feverishly in their every orifice. She watched everything, unable to move. Her organs felt like they were boiling. Something suddenly burst out of her Core Esse like a ripe wheat grain about to erupt out of its casing and swell till infinity. However, the mountains crashing into her face made her recall that she was nothing but an insect, about to die from a tiny press of an Emanator's fingertip. In that spit moment before death claimed her, she grabbed the only flax next to her. A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, weighing about 7 catties.

A sword, 6 feet and 5 inches in length, weighing 14 catties. This is a Cloud Knight greatsword that must be wielded with both hands. Its edge contains enchanted fire that can split open the mechabeast's inert armor at the moment of contact. There are 12 Flying Swords providing support, connected into her spinal meridian from the acupuncture points of Dazhui to Yaoyangguan. She only needs to think for these swords to instantly span out like a sudden storm. She is still unfamiliar with the art of the sword. She still has lots to learn. The woman in military uniform had no time to teach her more before the woman was tasked to lead the army on the field. Therefore, the girl's second lesson is to be learned on the battlefield, taught by the enemies she would fall. "Stab" is easy, but swift monsters won't run into the sword's tip on their own or let the girl execute them. That is how she learned "slash." "Entangle" is next. Against monsters with overwhelming strength, the girl learned how to parry with the back of the sword to deflect enemy attacks. She believes she has learned enough of the sword, and therefore leaps onto the mechabeast war pawn "Gigantes" that dwarfs her at least ten times over. She breaks all the swords she brings with her, and only manages to leave a few dozen cuts on the opponent's huge body. She is whacked away by an enormous hand. Lying in the blood-soaked mud of the battlefield, she is once again swallowed by horror. In that split moment before death claimed her, she finally understands that even swordplay has its limits. An arrow filled with blazing fire blows off the Gigantes' head. "Get up." The woman in military uniform looks at her. "I don't want to learn the sword anymore. It's... useless." "Useless? It's pretty useful in my hands. It is the wielder who was useless." "..." "If you don't learn the sword, what do you want to learn? The alchemical arrows on the pilots' starskiffs? The blazing fire flung by divine crossbows? Or... The artillery of the Zhuming Xianzhou? Such instruments would also be enough to destroy that demonic planet. You want to learn about them? Fine. Those things can kill the enemy even from beyond visual range." "...I just don't understand why you insist on teaching me the sword!?" "From the general to the smallest pawn, every Cloud Knight starts by learning the sword. "The various constructs provided by the Artisanship Commission can certainly kill the enemy for you, but those deeds are to the merit of the material rather than the person. If there comes a day that the quivers run empty, that the starskiffs crash, that the aurumatons freeze — Who will protect you and I, then? Who will protect the Xianzhou? "Hold this sword. Remember, only when Cloud Knights wielding swords are walking upon the battlefield themselves is humanity fighting our own war. We will demonstrate our victory to those inhuman abominations with our blood and ability, instead of letting ingenia do the work for us!" The woman in the military uniform turns and departs, leaving the girl and the broken sword in the training room. A sword, 2 feet and 1 inch in length, only broken fragments remain.

A sword, 5 feet in length, weighing as heavy as three thousand catties. The ebony blade simmers with a sanguine sheen. The sword was made after endlessly tempering the glittering hearts of alien metals, a complete deviation from normal weaponry, as untamed and hubris-imbued as the short-life species craftsman who forged it. She had only had swords as her companions, but now she found herself with many friends. The day she was crowned as the Sword Champion, the craftsman attended the ceremony in a black garb and cast out the sword he bore. The sword sank deep into the ground, leaving only its hilt above the soil. All attending were shocked. "Only the Sword Champion of the Luofu Cloud Knights can tap into the full potential of this sword I have crafted." He gave a toothy grin. The high elder of the Luofu, as arrogant and aloof as the moon in the sky, even expressed a desire for competition just because he beheld her peerless skills. The spear and the sword sparred for many years without a conclusion, until she cleaved ocean tides in twain with a single strike at the Dragonvista Rain Hall, and finally won the high elder's concession. A well-traveled Nameless who had flown across the cosmos had steered vessels for her, bringing divine nectar from the other side of the universe to share with her, and gazed upon the scintillating stars by her side. "I will cut down even the stars in the sky." She still vaguely remembers the boasts she made in moments of inebriation. That burning planet rushing towards her in childhood memories, that horrible nightmare that wouldn't let her go — those scenes are no longer so terrifying. This is the first time she understands what "wanting to live" means in all her years of wielding a sword. Before this moment, she was simply someone ready to die. And there is her student. She recalls the first time they met. This young but devious child had asked the same questions as she did. "Master, why do you insist on wielding a sword? There are thousands of weapons out there that can kill an enemy. If you want to destroy that planet, the Zhuming can probably do it with its artillery." "This is like asking a poet why they wrote poems. There are many ways to express oneself, but this is the only way for me." Now, he has also become a shining star amongst the Cloud Knights. She doesn't have a master anymore. The woman in the military uniform perished on the battlefield and can instruct her no longer. Nor does she need a master anymore. She knows everything there is to know about swords. They are a part of her body. They are the intake and release of her breath as she walks and sleeps. People call her the Transcendent Flash, the pinnacle of swordmasters, a once-in-ten-millennia hero. However, she knows that her sword is still not enough to "cut down the star in the sky" — Even if she is holding the greatest sword in all the Xianzhou... A sword, 5 feet in length, weighing as heavy as three thousand catties. The ebony blade simmers with a sanguine sheen.

A sword, 5 feet in length, weighing as heavy as three thousand catties. The ebony blade is covered in cracks and the tip is broken and lost. Amid the countless wars, she wielded this sword and, alongside her comrades and disciple, battled her way into the vast ship, decapitating the wolf-like head of the borisin Warmuhtar. She also climbed the sky-piercing flying citadel, shredding off the feathers of the Feather Guards. She fought the iron cavalry of the Houyhnhnm, sealing all the riders of the six-legged steeds into prison... Whichever way her sword pointed, no abomination can escape death or imprisonment. She had never expected she would point this sword at her lifelong friend. She gasps, barely holding her wounded body together. Far away, deeper in the delve, there came the anguished roar of a dragon, as if a cry seeking deliverance. She watches as the arrogant craftsman falls into mud, and walks up to him like a wraith. "I should kill you first... but you will have your own torment to bear for all eternity..." She points the broken sword at the high elder. "Impossible. The Preceptors said... The blood of my race and the soul of my ancestor should have created another high elder. All this... It shouldn't be like this." "If your death can return everything to how it was, I would do it... But you need to tell me that dragon's weak point right now." "The top of its head..." The half-draconic abomination swims through the air in blasts of lightning. Its body, enough to swallow the very horizon, sunders yet another floating isle. Its wails are loud as the clamors of a thousand swords clashing. She feels her Core Esse boiling, like a ripe wheat grain about to erupt out of its casing and swell eternally. She sees herself trapped in childhood nightmares again. The ominous planet is swallowing her overhead, and she, but an insect, cannot even struggle. The woman tears off a spread of black silk from the edge of her skirt and covers her eyes. The thunder strikes. She leaps up with her sword towards the draconic abomination. In an illusion that feels half like a dream and half like reality, she feels her flesh has finally transcended its limits and has started to disintegrate. There are restraints binding her like strings, tightly wrapped around her limbs and organs, slicing apart her final shreds of self-consciousness bit by bit. Suddenly, she hears those words: "I will cut down even the stars in the sky." At that moment, she finally grasps the sword she had been seeking all this time. It is a sword that can transcend all restrictions. It is a sword she had been familiar with for years. It is not forged from any ordinary iron, but condensed from a shaft of sharp ice. It glows with a dim light, as if it is a strand of moonlight held in the wielder's hand. A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, and weighs nothing.

To the Xianzhou, I am but an abandoned pawn — a wandering swordmaster. If you wish to avoid trouble, pretend we never met.

I, too, once drew the gaze of an Aeon. The only difference was, it was a path I chose for myself — through the deep recesses of the Ten-Lords Commission on the Xuling, through the Gate of Wonders, and onto a path of redemption.

Hmph, Exalting Sanctum has seen little change in the past millennium — a little dull, I would say. However, Starskiff Haven has grown on me since it was rebuilt after the war.

I wouldn't say he's a natural swordmaster... but being gifted shouldn't be a determining factor when choosing an apprentice. Mentors who place importance on natural talent either lack the skills to teach, or seek to take credit for their apprentices' easy success. Fame, background... none of those matter. I will teach my techniques to anyone willing to put their heart into them.

I put him under great pain and suffering when I taught him. On the day his skills are perfected, he vows to return the favor. I look forward to it.

To take the throne, the high elder of the Vidyadhara needs to pass a series of trials during which their physical features slowly transform to resemble that of their predecessors. I see that loss of identity as a curse, rather than a gift. He managed to break free eventually, but should have done it in a different way...

We talked about the stars we flew past, the views we saw together, and the dangers we escaped. But... I can't remember the details. The things we said and did together have all been shrouded in a layer of mist... a mist I cannot see through...

He is still a fledgling, but I see great potential. Still, one cannot truly understand swordsmanship without sustaining injury and drawing blood in the thick of battle...

He is just like me — there is a hole in his heart. No matter what he does to fill it, the hole remains. The harder he tries, the more exhausted he becomes.

The blade's reflection illuminates the past.

If I am to cut through the heart of a star, more time is needed.

Let's forgo the pleasantries — what do you want?

Pushing my limits is what made me who I am today. I will not stop here.

There is a story in every scar.

Young man, show me your progress.

Break the enemy's strategy, Jing Yuan — that's what you always did best.

Imbibitor Lunae... It feels like an age since we stood shoulder to shoulder.

That broken sword... You don't want to let go of the past, do you, Blade?

The universe is vast... Will we meet again as friend or foe, dead or alive...?

Fame is like the clouds — fleeting and elusive. I am viewed as a sinner in the eyes of the Ten-Lords Commission, and the Xianzhou has erased my name from its memory. So be it. A sword cuts with its edge, not its name.

I have already surpassed my limits and may soon succumb to the influence of mara... but given the choice between staring into the abyss with a troubled mind and marching forward blindfolded, I choose the latter.

Unworthy of my time.

Another soon to be departed.

Blade fodder!

Tedious.

Stand down and I'll spare you.

Nowhere to run!

Ready for death...?

An endless lifespan is just a bitter wait for insanity.

The Cangcheng was once the most bustling of Xianzhou ships, a place I called home. But when it was devoured by an incarnosphere bred by the Plagues Author, the long-life species had to face the truth that their lives were but a grain of sand in the river of time.

Can't stop... Can't stop now!

Swordward!

Fleeting light, roaring flood!

Try harder.

You can't kill me!

All will be revealed...

...in lunar flame!

A blade of moonlight.

Finally, the end of it...

Did you think my lifespan would be cut short?

Techniques relying solely on the physical form are but second-rate disciplines. Similarly, swords forged with mortal steel don't serve me well. I have stolen a sliver of moonlight that can shine over the earthly world — a "sword" I control with ease.

Save it for your own skin...

The moon shines on the truth.

Do not concern yourself with the outcome.

Mere worldly possessions.

These trifles are of no use to me.

These are nice trinkets — but nothing more.