Yu Ningsui stood on the stone steps before the Sword Palace gates, clutching the World-Binding Sword Talisman in her hand, her fingertips tracing the fine patterns on its black jade surface.
The night wind poured in from Sword Forest Ravine into the tranquil Sword Palace, lightly stirring the stray hairs at her temples.
She lowered her head to look at the sword talisman, then raised it again toward the distant Main Peak. The mountain towered high, like Mount Buzhou.
At that moment, it seemed the outline of the Sword Pavilion Scripture Library had already become a hazy shadow in the night.
The sword-shaped ornament had not vanished into the clouds. It was so real, as though it truly was the Sword Pavilion.
The clamor and sword qi within Cloudrise Sword Palace—the collisions, the shattered stone slabs—had all been carried away by the night wind.
From Green Jade Mountain Sect to Hibiscus Jade Spirit Sect, then to the Azure Heaven Sword Domain; from the Spirit Awakening Stage to Core Embrace; from the lowest gatekeeping disciple of the Mountain Sect's outer sect to the final disciple of the Azure Heaven Sword Domain's Supreme Sword Lord—she had ascended to the heavens in a single step, so swiftly that she had not even had time to plant her feet firmly upon the road beneath them.
Standing on the stone steps, the fingers clutching the sword talisman tightened slightly.
"Ningsui." Yan Jueshuang's voice came from behind her.
She looked up. The old woman stood with her arms folded, her eyes bright and keen as she watched her, silver hair drifting faintly in the night wind.
Bai Yunqi, meanwhile, sat before Yan Jueshuang. He picked up a chess piece and set it down upon the board, teasing, "Could it be that Junior Sister Yu is missing