Sword Heart and Spiritual Eyes

Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, afternoon.

Sunlight was sliced into fragments by the dense forest of metal soul tools, scattering miserly across the ground. Compared to the ancient simplicity and vitality of Shrek Academy, everything here carried a cold, efficiently ordered beauty.

Ji Juechen leaned against an ancient tree reinforced with metal supports, his seemingly ordinary Iron Sword cradled in his arms as he stood with his eyes closed.

There was no one within three meters of him. It was not due to academy rules, but an invisible field—the keep-out aura naturally radiated by his sword intent, pure to the extreme. The students had long grown accustomed to it and consciously avoided the area, as though a slumbering ferocious beast lurked there.

He was not sleeping. He was "sharpening his sword." Not with a whetstone, but with his "heart." In his mind, he dismantled and reviewed every moment of yesterday's battle with Jing Ziyan, searching for even the slightest hesitation or discord within his sword techniques.

Just then, an extremely faint yet omnipresent fluctuation spread soundlessly, like mercury flowing across the ground, sweeping over his body.

There was no malice in that fluctuation, no aggression, not even the slightest emotion. It was merely "observing"—an absolute, calm observation from the perspective of a god.

Yet it was precisely this sensation of "being observed" that instantly stirred Ji Juechen's sword heart, pure to the extreme!

Clang—!

The Iron Sword in his arms did not move at his command. Instead, it emitted a piercing, urgent tremor on its own! Like a furious dragon whose reverse scale had been touched by an invisible hand, it erupted with the most instinctive warning and hostility!

Ji Juechen's eyes snapped open!

There was no waking confusion in those eyes, no anger at being disturbed. Only two almost tangible, bone-chilling Sword Lights burst forth!

"High-level Spiritual Power scan detected!"

An utterly cold, absolutely rational mechanical voice, devoid of all human emotion, exploded within the depths of his mind.

"Autonomous defense mechanism triggered!"

"Core protocol activated... conditions met... Binding 'Sword Scabbard'... 10%... 50%... 100%! Binding successful!"

A torrent of Information Streams washed through his consciousness like a waterfall. Ji Juechen's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. An illusion? A heart demon?

He ignored the sudden, inexplicable noise in his head. All his focus had already locked onto the source of that invisible fluctuation—the group of young men and women who had just passed through the academy gates and were looking around curiously.

His gaze, like a beam calibrated by the most precise Soul Tool, pierced through the crowd in an instant and pinned itself onto one person with flawless accuracy.

It was an ordinary-looking blue-haired youth, not particularly tall, with delicate features. Only his eyes were clear and lively.

But to Ji Juechen's senses at that moment, this youth was the sole light source in the area, the core of that omnipresent feeling of being watched!

Almost instinctively, Ji Juechen moved.

Holding his sword, he walked step by step toward the group. His pace was not fast, yet every step seemed to fall upon an invisible rhythm. The surrounding clamor seemed to be shut out, while even the light appeared to warp slightly with his movement.

Wherever he passed, the students enthusiastically welcoming the exchange students parted like seawater cleaved by an invisible blade. Their voices abruptly fell silent as they instinctively made way for him.

Everyone's eyes inevitably focused on the black-clad youth holding a sword. Fear, curiosity, wariness... all manner of emotions filled the air.

Jing Ziyan followed several steps behind him, her beautiful brows drawn tightly together as a wisp of purple smoke flickered faintly at her fingertips. She could sense the unusual, almost stress-induced sword intent radiating from Ji Juechen.

Wang Donger, beside Huo Yuhao and still dressed as a man, instinctively stepped half a pace forward to shield him. Her beautiful eyes were filled with vigilance. The sword-bearing fellow gave her an extremely dangerous feeling.

As for Huo Yuhao himself, the instant Ji Juechen's gaze locked onto him, a chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head! His Spirit Detection instinctively tried to probe deeper into the other party, but the feedback made his heart quake—

Empty!

It was not blocked. Rather, in that area, his ever-reliable Spirit Detection seemed to have encountered an invisible "rift." Once all probing signals entered a certain range around Ji Juechen, they vanished without a trace like clay oxen sinking into the sea! They were not defended against—they had been... "severed"!

Ji Juechen stopped five steps in front of Huo Yuhao. For soul masters, that was already a dangerous attack distance.

He ignored Wang Donger, who faced him as though confronting a great enemy, and ignored all the uncertain, astonished gazes around him. He merely looked quietly at Huo Yuhao.

The crowd fell into Deathly Silence.

The air seemed to freeze into ice, weighing heavily upon everyone's chest.

Then Ji Juechen spoke. His voice was like the man himself—calm, cold, utterly flat, yet carrying an unshakable certainty:

"Your eyes are very interesting."

"..."

An uproar broke out!

No one had expected that this menacing fellow, who looked as though he had come to kill someone, would say something so baffling.

Yet Huo Yuhao, who had been directly singled out, felt entirely differently. Those five words sounded merely strange to others, but to him, they were like five bolts of thunder!

He wasn't commenting on the shape or color of my eyes... He was talking about... Spirit Detection?! He can "see" it?! He can even tell that this power comes from my eyes?!

The clothes on Huo Yuhao's back were instantly soaked through with cold sweat.

After speaking, Ji Juechen did not linger any longer. He turned around sharply, cradling his sword as he walked step by step back along the path he had come from beneath countless watching eyes.

As though he had come solely to say that one sentence.

Only after his back disappeared at the end of the tree-lined path did the suffocating pressure slowly fade. The students looked at one another as murmurs rose like a tide.

"Who was that guy just now? What a terrifying presence!"

"Was that a sword in his arms? Are there still people using such primitive weapons these days?"

"What did he mean by that last sentence?"

Jing Ziyan quickly caught up with Ji Juechen. Lowering her voice, she asked in disbelief, "Juechen, you... you actually spoke to someone first just now?! And said something so... so strange?"

Ji Juechen did not answer. His consciousness was sinking into his mind as he conducted his first "conversation" with the abruptly appearing [Complaint Feedback System].

A system panel clearly emerged within his consciousness. Its style was extremely simple, exuding a cold technological feel:

[Initial contact mission completed.]

[Target: Huo Yuhao.]

[Analysis: Martial Soul: Spirit Eyes (Innate Martial Soul, Spirit Type). Potential rating: SSS.]

[Complaint Analysis Report generated:]

[His Spirit Detection possesses broad range and high accuracy, but its usage is crude. Energy efficiency is 37.5% below the optimal value. Furthermore, scanning others without permission constitutes a serious invasion of privacy and demonstrates a lack of basic social etiquette.]

[Host precisely roasted him by saying, "Your eyes are very interesting," directly striking at the essence. Completion rate: 100%.]

[Reward issued: Skill—[Weakness Insight (Beginner)]. Can slightly perceive energy flow nodes and structural weak points.]

For the first time, Ji Juechen's mind rippled because of this inexplicable thing.

"System?" he tried asking internally.

[I am here.] The cold mechanical voice responded at once.

"What are you?"

[Insufficient authorization. This information cannot be accessed. This system is dedicated to assisting the host in embarking upon the supreme path of the sword through Precise Roasting and feedback.]

Ji Juechen fell silent for a moment. Though obsessed with the sword, he was not foolish. The appearance of this thing was strange, but the "insight" it had demonstrated did indeed possess a certain compatibility with the sword path he pursued—the path of severing all things.

"How do I use the reward from earlier, 'Weakness Insight'?"

[Thought-activated. No consumption. Can remain continuously active. Enhances vision and highlights weaknesses.]

With a slight shift of thought, Ji Juechen saw a faint layer of nearly imperceptible Data Streams appear over the world before his eyes. He looked toward a soul tool sign by the roadside. Where his gaze focused, the bolts connecting the sign to its base glimmered with nearly invisible red light.

He withdrew his gaze and ignored the system's explanation. Whatever this thing was, wherever it had come from, it appeared to be a decent... Sharpening Stone.

Elsewhere, Huo Yuhao finally managed to recover from his immense shock.

"Yuhao, are you all right? That person just now..." Wang Donger looked at him worriedly.

Huo Yuhao shook his head. His face was still somewhat pale as he communicated through Spiritual Power with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in his Sea of Consciousness. "Brother Sky Dream, just now... did you sense it too?"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice had also lost its usual liveliness, carrying an unprecedented gravity. "A monster! Another monster! Bingbing, did you sense it?"

Ice Empress's cool voice sounded. "No. His aura is completely restrained, but that 'purity'... extreme purity itself is a terrifying power. Yuhao, be careful around this person. He... is very dangerous."

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath and looked in the direction Ji Juechen had left. In Her Heart, he replied solemnly:

"I understand. But he... seemed able to directly 'see' my Spirit Detection..."

His life as an exchange student had begun with a cold opening he had never anticipated.