Fleeting Years of Stars and Frost

Two years passed, and the phoenix trees by Sea God Lake shed their leaves and grew anew.

Yun Zhiyu was nine years old.

She had shot up in height, her silver hair already reaching her waist. She usually tied it loosely with a strip of cloth, and it flowed like water spilling across the ground when she walked. The vertical slits in her violet eyes had grown more restrained, appearing only faintly when her emotions fluctuated, as though some ancient being occasionally opened its eyes to scrutinize the world.

She meditated with Ye Xinglan every morning.

The two sat cross-legged in the open space beside the forging room, back to back, their breaths synchronized and their Soul Power intermingling. At first, they each cultivated separately, but gradually, their spiritual power intertwined into a web, forming an invisible field between them. Any fallen leaves drifting into it would strangely freeze for a moment before slowly descending, as if held aloft by some gentle force.

"What are we practicing today?" Ye Xinglan opened her eyes, the starlight in her dark pupils not yet faded.

"The third move." Yun Zhiyu stood and patted the grass clippings from her skirt. "Violet Firmament Starfall Strike. I'll draw down the heavenly stars, and you'll bear righteous force. Area detonation."

"Our Soul Power isn't enough." Ye Xinglan shook her head. "We'll simulate it."

They formed sword fingers and made empty gestures through the air. Violet-gold sword qi condensed at Yun Zhiyu's fingertips, while silver-white starlight gathered at Ye Xinglan's.

The two lights intertwined and wound together, ultimately forming the phantom of an enormous sword. Though it lasted only a brief instant before dispersing due to their insufficient Soul Power, the tacit understanding of their martial soul fusion had already seeped into their bones.

"It scattered again." Ye Xinglan panted, sweat beading on her forehead.

"That's normal." Yun Zhiyu handed her a towel. "We're only nine, after all. The future holds endless possibilities!"

"..."

"So," Yun Zhiyu said with a smile, "what's the rush?"

In the morning, she practiced swordsmanship with Yuanen and Xinglan.

Yuanen's Titan Giant Ape strength could now partially possess her body. Beneath her grayish-white skin lay a faint, rocklike texture, and every punch she threw made the air explode.

Yun Zhiyu did not take her attacks head-on. Instead, she used Xuanyuan Sword Intent to guide that tyrannical force aside before borrowing its momentum to counterattack. Their sparring had long ceased to be mere exchanges of moves; it was the collision of real blades and real force. Blood was occasionally drawn, and Ya Li would promptly heal them from the side.

"Your reactions are getting faster again." Yuanen withdrew her fist. Sweat dotted her grayish-white face, but it could not hide the light in her eyes.

"You're getting stronger too." Yun Zhiyu rubbed her numbed arm. "Same to you."

At the side, Ye Xinglan sheathed her sword. The slender blade resonated with its scabbard forged from Moonlit Gold, releasing a clear dragonlike cry. After two years of nurturing, the star patterns on the scabbard's surface had fully come alive. They brightened and dimmed with Ye Xinglan's Soul Power, as though a living thing were breathing.

"Xinglan!" Yun Zhishu lay sprawled beside her drawing board, her pencil scratching away. "Are you done practicing? It's my turn to draw!"

Yun Zhiyu walked over and bent down to inspect the drawing board. Yun Zhishu was designing a full set of Battle Armor blueprints. Though the proportions were often off, her ideas ran wild—lotus-shaped shoulder armor, a breastplate with a phoenix spreading its wings, and greaves patterned with dragon scales. She said it would make Yuanen look more imposing when she held up a drawing board.

"Good." Yun Zhiyu smiled and rubbed her hair. "Dragon scales are good. They look imposing."

"What about your Battle Armor, Sister?"

"My Battle Armor..." Yun Zhiyu paused and looked out the window. "It's still on the drawing board."

The furnace in the afternoon forging room never went out.

Under Feng Wuyu and Zhen Hua's guidance, Yun Zhiyu could now reliably complete Spirit Forging and had even begun touching the threshold of Fusion Forging. Her forging hammer had been changed from the Thousandfold Forging Star Hammer to the Soul-Forged Star Hammer, which was better suited to delicate work. The hammer was light, and a small fragment of Moonlit Gold was embedded in its head. Each strike could draw upon lunar essence and resonate with the spirituality within the metal.

"The key to Fusion Forging," Zhen Hua's voice came through the smoke, "isn't forcibly joining two metals together. It's allowing them to blend at the atomic level and form an entirely new alloy. That requires your understanding of each metal to become as natural as breathing."

Yun Zhiyu closed her eyes and let her spiritual power seep into two different metals. One was Astral Black Iron, immensely dense and infused with Stellar Force. The other was Moonlit Gold, light and swift, capable of drawing in star power.

In her perception, the two metals resembled two lives with utterly different temperaments—one as steady as the earth, the other as nimble as flowing wind.

Speak to them, she silently told herself. Not conquest, but understanding. Resonance. Fusion.

The hammer began to ring. At first, the two sounds were completely different—one dull, the other clear. Gradually, guided by her spiritual power, they drew closer, intertwined, and finally formed a strange chord, like stars murmuring in the night wind.

The metal beneath her hammer slowly changed shape. The two colors merged into a deep violet-silver, as though starlight and moonlight had been compressed within it.

"It worked!" Feng Wuyu's voice trembled.

Yun Zhiyu collapsed to the ground, her Soul Power so depleted that she could not even lift a finger. Yet she smiled as she looked at the fist-sized piece of fused metal, which gave off a warm, mysterious glow beneath the hammer.

At dusk, Yun Zhiyu would hold a book and remain in the library for two hours.

They were not cultivation manuals, but histories, geographies, soul beast encyclopedias, analyses of martial soul traits, and even fragmented texts passed down from the Tang Sect concerning hidden weapons and poisons. She read widely, but always seriously. Her notes filled three thick volumes, packed densely with tiny neat handwriting.

"Sister is reading again!" Yun Zhishu slipped in at some point, clutching dried soul beast meat Yuanen had given her. "You'll ruin your eyes!"

"I won't." Yun Zhiyu turned a page. "I'm reading a soul beast encyclopedia. Xinglan's Stargod Sword resonates with the stars through its sword intent. I want to know what kind of soul beast's star core would best be embedded in the scabbard to assist its nurturing."

"What did you conclude?"

"Star-Crowned Soul Beasts." Yun Zhiyu tapped an illustration on the page with her pen. "But they went extinct nearly ten thousand years ago. Perhaps... we might find a surviving star core in some ruin someday."

Nighttime was for tempering her sword intent.

Yun Zhiyu sat alone in the clearing beside the forging room, the scabbard forged from Moonlit Gold resting across her knees. The phantom of the Xuanyuan Sword floated within her sea of consciousness. She did not swing her sword. She simply sat still, feeling the night wind, the insects' chirping, the waves of distant Sea God Lake, and the slow circulation of the bloodline within her.

After its fusion three years ago, the Torch Dragon Bloodline had completely merged with her body. She no longer needed to deliberately circulate it; it had become as natural as breathing. The Winged Dragon's phantom would occasionally turn over in her sea of consciousness, stirring a warm, tingling sensation, like an ancient guardian.

"Sis-ter—" Yun Zhishu's voice came from afar, the final syllable drawn out. Yuanen had clearly stopped her from coming closer. "It's time for bed!"

Yun Zhiyu opened her eyes. The vertical slit in her violet pupils flashed and vanished. She rose, brushed the grass clippings from her skirt, and headed back to their residence.

On the way, she recalled the rewards she had received from signing in over the past few years.

The metals in her system space had piled up like mountains, each name more frightening than the last—Human Sovereign Gold Crystal, Chaos Divine Gold, Sun-Torch Gold, Lotus-Heart Ice Jade Iron, Creation Sacred Lotus Gold, Dragon-Patterned Purple Gold, Heavenfrost Flowing Silver, Boundless Star-Sea Gold, Soul-Star Sword Jade, Twin Chaos Demon Gold, Nine Heavens Divine Thunder...

Torch Dragon Golden Blood was a drop of the Winged Dragon's natal blood essence, gifted to her when they fused with the Soul Spirit. She had carefully stored it in a specially made Soul Tool container, where it gave off a faint violet-gold sheen.

There were ten-thousand-year and Hundred-Thousand-Year growth-type Soul Spirits, one set each of spear techniques, fist techniques, sword techniques, and movement techniques, Martial Soul Evolution Pills, spiritual power potions, and several immortal herbs and spiritual pills.

There were even blueprints for all kinds of top-grade Soul Tools and Battle Armor components.

Yet what she treasured most was a palm-sized, pockmarked lump of metal—the result of her first failed Fusion Forging attempt. Feng Wuyu had laughingly scolded her for wasting precious materials, but she had secretly kept it.

Because within that metal, she had felt for the first time the crying-like hum produced when two different spiritualities conflicted, collided, and ultimately managed to coexist.

Failure was wealth too, she told herself.

Over the past two years, Yun Zhiyu's Soul Power had still risen to level twenty-nine despite her deliberate suppression, leaving her just one step from becoming a Three-Ring Soul Elder. Yuanen Yehui had reached level twenty-seven, and the tyrannical power of the Titan Giant Ape could already cover both her fists, each punch producing a sonic boom cloud. Yun Zhishu had reached level twenty-five, and the golden lotus of the Sky-Pillaring Sacred Lotus Spear had become increasingly solid, able to form a tangible shield for brief defense. Ye Xinglan had reached level twenty-six, and her Stargod Sword Intent resonated with her scabbard, causing starlight to flow around every sword strike. Xu Lizhi had reached level twenty-four. He was a food-type Soul Master with a Martial Soul Bun, but under Yun Zhiyu's "abuse," he had practiced the Tang Sect's Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, Mysterious Jade Hand, and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track until they looked convincing. He could even use Soul Power-condensed buns to block attacks and launch short-range assaults.

"Li Zhi," Yun Zhiyu had once told him seriously, "food-type Soul Masters don't have to stand in the back. Your buns can be shields, bombs, or even—"

She paused, looking at the chubby boy listening with complete attention. "When your Soul Power becomes solid enough, buns can take any shape. Shields, spikes, even... wings."

Xu Lizhi's eyes lit up like two chubby little stars.

Everyone's spiritual power had improved greatly as well.

From seventy points of spiritual power at awakening, Yun Zhishu had reached two hundred and seventy. She could now initially project her spiritual power outward, forming invisible tendrils that could grasp small, light objects within thirty feet.

Yun Zhiyu had risen from one hundred points at awakening to four hundred and sixty-seven, reaching the high rank of the Spirit Connection Realm. Her sea of consciousness could now transform into a vast lake. The phantoms of the Xuanyuan Sword and the Winged Dragon wandered above it. With a single thought, her spiritual tendrils could stretch hundreds of feet away and sense every movement of wind and grass.

One day, Yun Zhiyu was suddenly startled awake from meditation by a system notification.

[Congratulations, Host. You have accumulated nine years of sign-ins.]

[Obtained: A batch of god-grade metals (Human Sovereign Gold Crystal ×1, Chaos Divine Gold ×1, Sun-Torch Gold Lotus Heart ×1, Ice Jade Iron ×1, Creation Sacred Lotus Gold ×1, Dragon-Patterned Purple Gold ×1, Heavenfrost Flowing Silver ×1, Boundless Star-Sea Gold ×1, Soul-Star Sword Jade ×1, Twin Chaos Demon Gold ×1, Nine Heavens Divine Thunder ×1)]

[Obtained: Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Spirit ×10 (growth-type)]

[Obtained: Several top-grade Soul Tools (defensive, offensive, healing)]

[Obtained: Hundred-Thousand-Year External Soul Bone—Divine Phoenix Wings ×1 pair]

Within her sea of consciousness, Yun Zhiyu "watched" the phantom of those wings unfold. The crimson-gold feathers covered the sky and earth, sacred flames flowing over every plume as they faintly resonated with her Xuanyuan Sword martial soul.

But she had no time to examine them closely.

Because the system notification had not yet ended:

[Special reminder: The plot is about to begin.]

[In three days, Na'er, the secondary personality of the Silver Dragon King's avatar, will become Yun Ming's disciple.]

[In one year, Tang Wulin, the son of a God King, will turn nine and travel to Eastsea Academy to study.]

[Host, please travel to Eastsea City in one year to meet Tang Wulin, Gu Yue, Xie Xie, Xu Xiaoyan, and the others.]

[Change the tragic endings of the original work and make up for its regrets.]

Yun Zhiyu's eyelashes trembled.

Na'er—the secondary personality of the Silver Dragon King's avatar. In the original story, she was a girl half a year younger than Tang Wulin, yet only a year and a half younger than Yun Zhiyu.

She recalled Na'er's fate in the original story—being taken back by her family, separated from Tang Wulin, and ultimately forced to merge as a "secondary personality," a tragedy.

And Tang Wulin...

She recalled the infant Tang Ziran and his wife had found at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. She recalled the boy who had possessed blue-gold eyes and a dragon mark on his forehead even while swaddled.

She recalled the sugar figurines she had prepared for Yun Zhishu, the sword and shield she had forged for Yuanen, the scabbard she had cast for Ye Xinglan, and the training plan she had designed for Xu Lizhi.

And there were the fates of the children from the original story whom she would soon face—the Silver Dragon King identity of Gu Yue's main personality, Xie Xie's Twin Martial Souls, Xu Xiaoyan's Star Staff Legacy, and the bloodshed that Tang Wulin's not-yet-fully-awakened Golden Dragon King Bloodline would bring.

Change the tragic endings of the original work, she silently repeated the system's words. Make up for the regrets in my heart.

She opened her eyes. The forging room's furnace had already gone out, and moonlight streamed through the window lattice, spreading silver-white across the floor. The Star Hammer lay quietly in the corner, the five-pointed star on its head faintly glowing.

Yun Zhiyu rose and walked to the window. Sea God Lake shimmered with silver waves in the distance, while the lights of the Inner Court flickered even farther away, like a future she had not yet reached but was destined to arrive at.

"One step at a time," she whispered, her voice scattering into the night wind. "Steady and sure."

Outside the window, a fallen leaf drifted into the room and landed in her palm. Its veins were clear, its edges slightly curled, carrying the chill of autumn.

She tucked the leaf into the notebook beside the window. Inside were records of her nine years of sign-ins, cultivation insights, forging diagrams, and—

An unfinished map of Eastsea City, marked with several names circled in red: Eastsea Academy, East Sea City Blacksmiths Association, and a question mark beside the name "Tang Wulin."

A faint sound came from behind her. Yun Zhiyu did not turn around, only curved her lips into a smile. "Still awake?"

Yun Zhishu shuffled out of the shadows, one side of her nightgown tie fallen loose again. She hugged a pillow, her amber-gold eyes glimmering in the moonlight. "Sister, I dreamed you turned into a dragon and flew away."

"I won't fly away."

"Then what if you turn into a star?"

"I won't."

"Then what will you turn into?"

Yun Zhiyu turned around and gathered her sister into her arms, resting her chin on the top of her head. Her voice was as soft as a dream:

"Into... your sister. I'll always stay with you."

Outside, the first ray of dawn pierced the clouds and dyed Sea God Lake a pale gold. A new day, a new beginning, a new story.

And Yun Zhiyu knew that her era was approaching, one steady step at a time.