Fleeting Years

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

Yun Zhiyu was nine years old.

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

Her morning meditation was with Ye Xinglan.

The two sat cross-legged on the open ground beside the forging room, backs pressed together, their breathing synchronized and soul power intermingling. At first, each cultivated separately, but gradually, their spiritual power wove into a net, forming an invisible field between them. Fallen leaves drifting into it would strangely freeze for a moment before slowly descending, as though 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 rose and brushed grass clippings from her skirt. "Violet Firmament Starfall Strike. I'll draw down the heavenly stars, and you'll bear righteous qi. Area burst."

"Not enough soul power." Ye Xinglan shook her head. "We'll simulate it."

The two held their fingers together like swords and made empty motions through the air. Violet-gold sword qi condensed around Yun Zhiyu's fingertips, while silver-white starlight gathered around Ye Xinglan's.

The two rays intertwined and coiled together, eventually becoming the phantom of an enormous sword of light—though it lasted only a brief instant before dissipating due to their lack of soul power. Still, the tacit understanding behind 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 infinite possibilities!"

"..."

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

Their morning sword practice was with Yuanen and Xinglan.

Yuanen's Titan Giant Ape strength could already partially possess her body. Beneath her gray-white skin was a faint rocky texture, and when she threw a punch, the air itself boomed.

Yun Zhiyu did not take it head-on. Using the intent of the Xuanyuan Sword, she guided that tyrannical force aside before borrowing its momentum to counterattack. Their sparring had long ceased to be mere exchanges of moves; they fought with real force. Occasionally, blood would be drawn, and Yali would promptly heal them from the side.

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

"You've gotten stronger too." Yun Zhiyu rubbed her numb arm. "Same to you."

Ye Xinglan sheathed her sword nearby. The slender blade resonated with the scabbard forged from Moonlit Gold, releasing a clear, ringing dragon's cry. After two years of nurturing, the star patterns on the scabbard's surface had completely come alive, brightening and dimming with Ye Xinglan's soul power as though a living thing were breathing.

"Sister Xinglan," Yun Zhishu called from where she lay over her drawing board, pencil scratching away, "are you done practicing? It's my turn to draw!"

Yun Zhiyu walked over and bent to look at the board. Yun Zhishu was designing a complete set of Battle Armor sketches. Though the proportions were often off, her ideas ran wild—lotus-shaped shoulder guards, a breastplate of a phoenix spreading its wings, and greaves patterned with dragon scales. She said it was to make Sister Yuanen "look more impressive when holding a drawing board."

"Good." Yun Zhiyu smiled and rubbed her hair. "Dragon-scale patterns are good. They have presence."

"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 forge burned without rest throughout the afternoon.

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

"The key to Fusion Forging," Zhen Hua's voice came from behind the smoke, "is not forcibly joining two metals together. It is making them mingle on an atomic level and form an entirely new alloy. That requires your understanding of every metal to be as natural as breathing."

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

Within her perception, the two metals were like living beings with utterly different temperaments—one as steady as the earth, the other as nimble as flowing wind.

Dialogue, she silently told herself. Not conquest, but understanding, resonance, and fusion.

The hammer began to ring. At first, the two tones were entirely different—one dull, the other clear. Gradually, under the guidance of her spiritual power, the sounds drew closer, intertwined, and finally formed a strange chord, like stars murmuring beneath the night wind.

The metal beneath her hammer slowly changed shape. The two colors blended, becoming a deep violet-silver hue, as though the starry sky and moonlight had been compressed within it.

"She did it!" Feng Wuyu's voice trembled.

Yet Yun Zhiyu slumped to the ground, her soul power so depleted that she could not even lift a finger. Still, a smile curved her lips as she looked at the fist-sized piece of fused metal, which gave off a gentle, mysterious glow beneath the hammer.

At dusk, Yun Zhiyu would spend two hours in the library with a book in her hands.

They were not cultivation manuals, but histories, geographies, soul beast encyclopedias, analyses of martial soul traits, and even incomplete passages passed down from the Tang Sect concerning hidden weapons and poisons. Her reading was broad, but always serious. She had filled three thick notebooks with dense, tiny handwriting.

"Sister is reading again!" Yun Zhishu somehow slipped inside, holding soul beast jerky 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 Star God's Sword has sword intent that resonates with the stars. I want to know what kind of soul beast's star core would be best embedded in her scabbard to aid its nurturing."

"What did you conclude?"

"Star-Crowned Soul Beasts." Yun Zhiyu tapped an illustration on the page with her pen. "But that kind of soul beast has been extinct for nearly ten thousand years. Perhaps... we might encounter a surviving star core in some ruin someday."

Nighttime was when she honed her sword intent.

Yun Zhiyu sat alone in the open ground beside the forging room, the scabbard forged from Moonlit Gold laid across her knees. The phantom of the Xuanyuan Sword floated within her sea of spirit. She did not draw her sword, but simply sat quietly, sensing the night breeze, the insects' chirping, the distant waves of Sea God Lake, and the slow circulation of the bloodline within her body.

The Torch Dragon Bloodline had completely merged with her body after its fusion three years ago. It no longer required deliberate circulation, instead becoming as natural as breathing. The phantom of the Winged Dragon would occasionally turn over within her sea of spirit, bringing a warm, tingling sensation, like an ancient protection.

"Sis-ter—" Yun Zhishu's voice drifted over from afar, the final syllable drawn out. Yuanen was clearly stopping her from coming closer. "Time for bed!"

Yun Zhiyu opened her eyes, and the vertical slit in her violet pupils flashed away. She stood, brushed the grass clippings from her skirt, and headed toward their residence.

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

The metals in her system storage were piled high as mountains, their names each 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...

The Torch Dragon Golden Blood was a drop of natal essence blood the Winged Dragon had given 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 glow.

There were ten-thousand-year and hundred-thousand-year growth-type soul spirits, complete sets of spear, fist, sword, and movement techniques, Martial Soul Evolution Pills, spiritual power tonics, and several immortal herbs and spiritual pills.

There were even blueprints for all manner of top-tier soul tools and Battle Armor components.

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

That was because, within that piece of metal, she had felt for the first time the humming that resembled weeping when two different spiritualities clashed, collided, and ultimately barely managed to coexist.

Failure was wealth too, she told herself.

After two years, Yun Zhiyu's soul power had still risen to level twenty-nine despite her deliberate suppression. She was only one step from becoming a three-ringed Soul Elder. Yuanen Yehui was level twenty-seven, and the tyrannical strength of the Titan Giant Ape could already cover both her fists, allowing a single punch to produce a sonic boom cloud. Yun Zhishu was level twenty-five, and the golden lotus of the Sky-Pillaring Sacred Lotus Spear had become increasingly solid, able to form a physical shield for brief defense. Ye Xinglan was level twenty-six, her Star God's Sword intent resonating with its scabbard, starlight flowing naturally whenever she drew her blade. Xu Lizhi was level twenty-four, a food-type soul master with steamed buns as his martial soul, but under Yun Zhiyu's "abuse," he had trained the Tang Sect's Controlling Crane, Seizing Dragon, Mysterious Jade Hand, and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Steps to a respectable standard. He could even use soul-power-condensed buns to block attacks and launch short-range assaults.

"Lizhi," 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, watching the chubby boy listen with utmost seriousness. "When your soul power becomes sufficiently solid, buns can take any shape. Shields, spikes, even... wings."

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

Everyone's spiritual power had also improved greatly.

Yun Zhishu had gone from seventy points of spiritual power upon awakening to two hundred and seventy points. She could now initially project her spiritual power outward, forming invisible tendrils that could grab small, light objects within thirty feet.

Yun Zhiyu had risen from one hundred points upon awakening to four hundred and sixty-seven, reaching the high level of the Psychic Realm. Her sea of spirit could now transform into a vast lake, with the phantoms of the Xuanyuan Sword and Winged Dragon roaming above it. With a single thought, her spiritual tendrils could extend beyond three hundred feet and sense every stirring of wind and grass.

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

[Congratulations, Host. You have signed in for a cumulative total of nine years.]

[Obtained: A batch of divine-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-tier soul tools (defensive, offensive, healing)]

[Obtained: Hundred-Thousand-Year external soul bone—Divine Phoenix Wings ×1 pair]

Within her sea of spirit, Yun Zhiyu "watched" the phantom of those wings unfold. Scarlet-gold feathers blotted out the sky, sacred flames flowing along every plume as they faintly resonated with her Xuanyuan Sword martial soul.

But she had no time to inspect them closely.

Because the system's notification had not yet ended:

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

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

[In one year, the Divine King's son, Tang Wulin, will turn nine and travel to East Sea Academy to study.]

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

[Change the tragic ending of the original story and make up for its regrets.]

Yun Zhiyu's eyelashes trembled.

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

She recalled Na'er's fate in the original story—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, the boy with blue-gold eyes and dragon patterns on his forehead even while wrapped in swaddling clothes.

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

And there were the destinies of the group of children from the original story whom she was about to face—the Silver Dragon King identity of Gu Yue's primary personality, Xie Xie's twin martial souls, Xu Xiaoyan's Star Staff inheritance, and the bloody storms that Tang Wulin's still incompletely awakened Golden Dragon King bloodline would bring.

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

She opened her eyes. The forge's fire 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 in the distance rippled silver beneath the moonlight. Farther away, the lights of the Inner Court glimmered sparsely, like a future not yet reached but one she would inevitably arrive at.

"One step at a time," she softly said, her voice scattering into the night breeze. "Steady and sure."

Outside the window, a fallen leaf drifted indoors 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. Within it were records of her nine years of sign-ins, her cultivation insights, forging diagrams, and—

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

A faint rustle came from behind her. Yun Zhiyu did not turn around, merely smiling. "Still not asleep?"

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

"I won't fly away."

"Then will you become a star?"

"I won't."

"Then what will you become?"

Yun Zhiyu turned and gathered her little sister into her arms, resting her chin atop her head. Her voice was as soft as a dream's murmur:

"I'll become... your sister, and stay with you forever."

Outside the window, the first ray of dawn pierced the clouds, dyeing Sea God Lake a faint gold. A new day, a new beginning, a new story.

And Yun Zhiyu knew that her era was steadily, step by step, drawing near.