The Price and the Noise

Ji Juechen hugged his sword and returned to his modest, almost shabby dormitory at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. To outsiders, his battle with Xiao Hongchen had been an effortless crushing victory, but only he knew how immense the drain on his Spiritual Power had been to maintain [Weakness Insight] for those few brief breaths and precisely strike that tiny weak point.

The instant the door shut, the calm he had been forcing himself to maintain collapsed. His face turned visibly pale, cold sweat beaded at his temples, and needle-like pain throbbed through his head. He did not even make it to the bed. Leaning against the cold metal door, he slowly slid down to the floor, and the Iron Sword in his arms fell beside his feet with a clang.

He closed his eyes and panted heavily, trying to suppress the storming dizziness in his mind.

"Warning: The host's Spiritual Power has been severely overdrawn and has fallen below 20% of the safety threshold."

The cold mechanical voice abruptly rang out in his mind again, devoid of the slightest concern, stating nothing but facts.

"According to Article One of the core protocol: the law of conservation of energy, some advanced system functions will automatically enter cooldown."

"[Weakness Insight] module forcibly offline. Estimated recovery time: twenty-four hours."

"It is recommended that the host immediately enter Deep Meditation to avoid irreversible damage to the soul's origin."

Ji Juechen did not respond. He merely raised a trembling hand with difficulty and massaged his aching brow. He had not experienced this hollow, soul-drained weakness in a long time. This system... was astonishingly powerful, but its cost was equally terrifying.

"Shut up." At last, he coldly rebuked that noisy "voice" in his mind.

The system notification in his mind stopped abruptly.

The dormitory fell completely silent, leaving only his own ragged breathing.

After a long while, the intense dizziness finally eased somewhat. Supporting himself against the door, Ji Juechen staggered to his feet and walked to the room's only metal mirror.

The young man in the mirror was pale as paper, his lips bloodless. Only his eyes remained deep, though they were now filled with exhaustion and a trace of... irritation at having been disturbed.

He looked at his reflection as though he were also examining that uninvited "Foreign Object" in his mind.

"What exactly are you?" he asked inwardly again, this time with an unquestionable demand for answers.

The System Interface flickered, seemingly responding to his authority, but the answer it provided remained vague:

[Retrieving information... Critical data missing...]

[This system originated from... (Data Stream disrupted; large amounts of garbled text detected)...]

[Final directive: Assist the Sword Master in ascending to the pinnacle.]

One relatively clear line appeared at last:

[Looking forward to serving you again, my Sword Master.]

Then the entire System Interface dimmed completely and fell silent. No matter how Ji Juechen called out inwardly, there was no further response, as though it had never existed.

Ji Juechen stared at his pale reflection in the mirror and remained silent for a long time.

This system had arrived strangely. Its power was formidable, its price clear, and... it was noisy.

He did not need a "companion" that chattered endlessly in his head. He only needed something that could help him temper his swordsmanship. For now, this system truly was an unprecedentedly sharp "whetstone" when it came to "insight."

As for its origins... since they could not be investigated, he would set them aside for now. Power itself was neither good nor evil. What mattered was the one who wielded the sword.

"A... noisy whetstone." He gave his reflection this preliminary assessment in a low voice.

He stopped dwelling on it, sat cross-legged on the bed, cast aside all distracting thoughts, and began circulating his Soul Power in the most traditional manner. He entered meditation to nourish his parched spiritual world.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the academy.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Donger sat in their dormitory, the atmosphere somewhat heavy.

"Yuhao, are you still thinking about Ji Juechen?" Wang Donger could not help asking as she looked at the tightly furrowed brows of Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao nodded, his expression grave. "Yes. Donger, don't you think it's strange? When he left at the end, his steps seemed a little less steady than usual. It was extremely subtle, but my Spirit Detection cannot be wrong."

"You mean... he paid quite a price himself to defeat Xiao Hongchen?"

"More than that." Analytical light flickered in Huo Yuhao's eyes. "His method of attack... was too abnormal. That was not a soul skill. It was more like... a kind of 'understanding.' It was as if he 'knew' where Xiao Hongchen's cannon platform was most vulnerable, then struck that point with one sword. That simply is not normal combat logic."

He paused, looked at Wang Donger, and spoke with unprecedented seriousness. "I have a feeling that him seeing through my Spirit Detection may not have been a coincidence. This person... is hiding a secret we cannot understand."

Wang Donger also sensed the gravity of the matter. "Then we..."

"Observe and wait," Huo Yuhao said gravely. "But he is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous and extremely... special opponent. Perhaps he is also an opportunity."

The next morning, Ji Juechen woke from Deep Meditation. His Spiritual Power had recovered to seventy or eighty percent, and color had returned to his face. He picked up the Iron Sword from the floor, carefully wiped it clean, and held it in his arms again as though it were part of his body.

When he opened his dormitory door and prepared to head for his usual practice spot, a purple figure was already waiting outside, idly kicking pebbles with the tip of her shoe.

It was Jing Ziyan.

The moment she saw him emerge, Jing Ziyan's eyes lit up. She immediately rushed over, her face brimming with undisguised excitement and gossip. "Juechen! You were incredible yesterday! One sword! Just one sword! You completely crushed that Xiao Hongchen's arrogant swagger! The entire academy is talking about you now!"

She circled Ji Juechen as though observing some rare animal. "And you even used a four-character phrase! 'Flashy but impractical'! That assessment was absolutely perfect! Do you know how amazing Xiao Hongchen's expression was after you left..."

Ji Juechen listened expressionlessly to her chatter without slowing his pace, continuing onward.

Jing Ziyan had long grown accustomed to his indifference and kept talking to herself. "But seriously, what exactly was that move you used yesterday? Why have I never seen you use it before? It didn't seem like pure sword intent..."

Just then, a somewhat cool voice, carrying a trace of complicated emotion, sounded from nearby.

"Ji Juechen."

Ji Juechen and Jing Ziyan stopped and turned toward the voice.

Meng Hongchen stood some distance away. Her expression was somewhat awkward, but she still said, "My brother... locked himself in his laboratory after he returned yesterday. He refused to see anyone. He asked me to... thank you."

"Thank him?" Jing Ziyan raised a brow, thinking she had misheard.

Meng Hongchen nodded, her gaze falling on the Iron Sword in Ji Juechen's arms. "He said... thank you for letting him see clearly what true 'precision' and 'efficiency' are. Perhaps he really had been walking the wrong path before."

Having said that, she seemed to have completed her task. She gave a slight nod, then turned and quickly left.

Jing Ziyan stood dumbfounded. It took her a while to recover, and she abruptly slapped Ji Juechen on the shoulder—only for her hand to be brushed aside by an invisible sword intent just before it landed. "Not bad, Juechen! Beating someone into submission wasn't enough—you even beat some sense into him?!"

Ji Juechen neither approved nor disapproved of this little incident. He was merely wondering whether the system's so-called "complaint energy" included such... unexpected consequences.

Holding his sword, he continued toward that quiet corner that belonged to him. Sunlight fell over his body, yet it could not dispel the aloofness and chill that radiated from within.

Yet no one knew that beneath that coldness, a variable called the "system" had quietly slipped into the gears of his fate and begun to turn slowly. What it connected to was a magnificent future far beyond anyone's imagination.