Mu Yunyao drew the Long Sword from his waist.
It was a wooden sword fashioned entirely from peach wood, its blade carved with intricate patterns, like peach branches stretching in the spring breeze.
Several loops of yellowed silk thread were wound around the hilt, and at the end of the thread hung a long-dried peach blossom.
He held the wooden sword upright before him, its tip pointed at the sky, while his other hand untied the wine flask at his waist and tipped back his head for a drink.
As the wine slid down his throat, his eyelashes trembled faintly, as though something infinitely fine had pierced a corner deep within his memories.
He lowered the flask, a crystalline drop of wine still hanging from its mouth.
It refracted an amber glimmer in the light. The drop lingered for a long while before slowly falling.
"My sword is made of peach wood because my master said that when the peach blossoms bloom, spring arrives."
Phantom Shadow tilted her head, the light in her vertical pupils flickering brightly.
"Your master must have been a very gentle person."
"She died."
Mu Yunyao's voice was so soft that it resembled the whisper of petals brushing against branches as the wind passed through a peach grove.
"She died at the hands of the Chaos Ancient Clan."
The fleeting courtesy and tranquility on the arena shattered like thin ice the instant he spoke those words.
The still peace in the air was abruptly replaced by an almost imperceptible chill.
Phantom Shadow's expression did not change, but her figure had already begun to glide backward.
The shadow beneath her feet suddenly writhed and swelled wildly, as though some ancient consciousness had been awakened, spreading in all directions.
Her tail lifted from the ground, and a pitch-black