Xie Residence Turmoil

East Sea City's mornings were always shrouded in a thin veil of mist, like pale ink casually splashed by a lazy painter, blurring the neat rows of buildings into hazy watercolors.

Zero Class's devilish special training had returned to normal a week ago—Wu Changkong's Heavenfrost Sword hung over their heads, with Shen Yi's Sensitive Plant healing light close behind.

The eight of them sweated profusely on the training grounds, turning the life-and-death battles of the Ascension Platform into day-after-day tempering of their bodies.

Yun Zhiyu's Xuanyuan Sword traced an arc through the morning light. Lightning patterns from Yinglong: Lightning-Calling Sword Chime flickered across its blade, reducing the training dummy before her to charred fragments. On the other side, Gu Yue's Elemental Tide flowed, the intertwining water and fire steaming the air into distorted ripples. Wu Nianbing's Icebound Frost Sword radiated biting frost, Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw left deep marks on the dummy's surface, Xie Xie's twin daggers flitted through the shadows like butterflies, Zhang Yangzi's Dark Illusion Demon Eagle circled overhead, Wang Jinxi's Bone Dragon Claw and Bone Dragon Transformation alternated with thunderous roars, and Wei Xiaofeng's Azure Shadow Serpent darted across the ground like lightning.

One week, seven days, one hundred and sixty-eight hours.

When the weekend bell finally rang from the academy clock tower, Xie Xie was almost the first to rush out of the training grounds. His brownish-gold hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, and a long-suppressed excitement burned in his dark green eyes. The Light Dragon Dagger and Shadow Dragon Dagger swayed at his waist like two hunting hounds eager to leave their sheaths.

"Class monitor!" he shouted from across half the training ground, his voice hoarse as if scraped by sandpaper. "My father is free today!"

Yun Zhiyu sheathed her sword. The Xuanyuan Sword turned into a stream of light and vanished into her body. She turned toward Xie Xie, the vertical pupils of her violet eyes narrowing slightly beneath her dark brown contact lenses, as though she had abruptly been roused from deep concentration.

"Now?"

"Now!" Xie Xie nodded hard, his brownish-gold head drawing a dazzling arc in the sunset. "He has a meeting this afternoon, but he can spare two hours this morning."

Yun Zhiyu swept her gaze across the training ground. Gu Yue was gathering her Elemental Tide, strands of hair stuck to the side of her neck with sweat. Her black eyes looked over calmly, revealing no emotion. Wu Nianbing wiped down the Icebound Frost Sword. Little Golden Light, Tang Wulin's soul spirit, rested on his shoulder with its tongue flicking. The others were sitting or lying about, all savoring this rare chance to catch their breath.

"Keep it from everyone," she said, so softly it seemed like she was talking to herself. "Let's go."

She did not explain why they had to keep it secret, and Xie Xie did not ask. One after the other, they slipped along the edge of the training ground and headed for the side gate under cover of the equipment racks, like two cats darting out of a cage while their owner was not looking.

The Xie Family, East Sea City's famed mecha clan, was located among a stretch of hills in the city's eastern outskirts. Their soul-guided car passed through the bustling central business district and climbed the winding mountain road, while the view outside gradually shifted from steel and concrete to lush green woods.

About half an hour later, an enormous estate appeared at the end of their sight—gray-white walls stretched out like a dragon's spine, while two ten-meter-tall mecha statues stood at the main gate. One held a light sword, and the other bore a massive shield, both gleaming with cold metallic luster in the morning sun.

"We're here," Xie Xie said, his voice lower than usual. A complicated emotion flashed through his dark green eyes. "The Xie Family."

As Yun Zhiyu got out of the car, her gaze lingered on the two mecha statues for three seconds. She recognized them as standard third-generation Federation mechas, powered by soul-guided cores and requiring Soul Ancestor-level soul power to control fully. Using retired military mechas as gate guardians was a lavish display even in East Sea City.

A butler had already been waiting at the main gate. He was an elderly man with graying hair. His gaze paused on Xie Xie for a moment before falling on Yun Zhiyu, a trace of barely perceptible scrutiny flashing through his eyes.

"Young Master, the family head is waiting in the study."

The Xie Family study was on the third floor of the main building, a spacious south-facing room. An entire wall had been converted into floor-to-ceiling windows, offering a complete view of the verdant mountains in the eastern outskirts. The bookshelves were made from thousand-year iron birch and packed with dense rows of books and scrolls. The air was filled with the rich scent of old paper mingled with ink cakes.

Xie Xuan sat in a leather chair behind the desk. He was Xie Xie's father, the current head of the Xie Family, a Five-Ring Soul King, and a One-Word Battle Armor Master. He was taller and broader than Xie Xie, like a mecha honed even sharper by time. His face bore a thirty-percent resemblance to Xie Xie's, but lacked the youth's defiance and possessed instead the composed gravity of someone long accustomed to authority.

The instant Yun Zhiyu stepped into the study, his gaze locked onto her like a tangible searchlight, carrying scrutiny, assessment, and a certain aloof indifference from on high.

"You're the... classmate Xie'er mentioned?" His voice was deep and resonant, like a vibration from the depths of his chest.

"Just over ten years old, and you can solve the martial soul shackles that have plagued my Xie Family for centuries?"

Yun Zhiyu stopped three steps before the desk. Her figure appeared especially small before Xie Xuan.

She wore a moon-white short jacket, deep blue-green trousers, and her black hair was simply tied behind her head. She looked like an ordinary neighborhood girl from a common household. Yet when she raised her eyes and met Xie Xuan's gaze, there was none of the timidity or fear expected of someone her age in those dark brown eyes. There was only an almost transparent calm, like moonlight reflected on the surface of a deep pool. Its depths could not be seen, yet it inexplicably stirred unease.

"Yes."

One word, neither servile nor overbearing.

Xie Xuan's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. He released a thread of soul power, and the pressure of a Five-Ring Soul King crashed toward Yun Zhiyu like a tangible tide. It was not an attack, but a test, a rebuke meant to make her understand the vastness of heaven and earth—like an elephant lightly prodding a reckless ant with its trunk.

Where the pressure passed, the books on the shelves rustled, and the floor-to-ceiling windows trembled faintly.

Xie Xie's expression changed abruptly, anger and alarm flashing through his dark green eyes. "Father!"

"Leave." Xie Xuan's voice was calm but beyond question.

"Father, she is my—"

"Leave."

The second "leave" was deeper than the first, carrying the domineering authority of one long in power. Xie Xie froze in place, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned pale.

He turned to look at Yun Zhiyu, guilt and worry burning in his eyes, only to see her tilt her head slightly and curve her lips into a faint smile.

"It's fine," she said softly, as though soothing a cat with raised fur. "Wait outside."

Xie Xie gritted his teeth, but ultimately turned and left. The study's heavy wooden door shut behind him with a dull boom, as if some invisible barrier had suddenly sealed itself.

The pressure intensified in an instant.

Xie Xuan did not rise from his leather chair, but he released his Five-Ring Soul King soul power without reservation. The air grew thick and heavy, as though it had been filled with liquid metal.

Every breath required twice the effort. The books on the shelves no longer merely rustled; invisible force pressed them inward, and their spines groaned beneath the strain.

Yun Zhiyu stood where she was, unmoving. The hem of her clothes fluttered faintly beneath the pressure, and her black hair streamed behind her, revealing her smooth forehead. Yet her back remained perfectly straight, like a sword planted in the earth. Let the winds blow from every direction; she remained unmoved.

The vertical pupils of her violet eyes beneath the dark brown contact lenses narrowed slightly. It was not fear, but a nearly instinctive vigilance that had been provoked.

"Family Head Xie," she said. Her voice remained clear in the heavy air, like morning sunlight piercing dense fog. "Using power to suppress others is not the way to treat a guest."

Xie Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly and increased the pressure. Soul King-level soul power formed visible ripples within the study. Fine cracks began spreading across the floor-to-ceiling windows, as though some invisible power were crushing them from within. Books tumbled from the shelves one after another, striking the floor with dull thuds.

Yun Zhiyu's toes sank slightly into the carpet. Her expression remained calm, though fine beads of sweat seeped from her temples and glimmered in the morning light. The Xuanyuan Sword hummed low within her dantian like an enraged ancient beast, ready to burst free at any moment.

But she restrained it. It was not that she could not act, but that she did not wish to—before understanding the details of the Xie Family's martial souls, revealing too much would not be wise.

"Interesting." There was a hint of surprise in Xie Xuan's voice, but more disdain. "You can withstand thirty percent of my pressure. Among your peers, that counts as backbone. But backbone does not put food on the table, little girl. My Xie Family's martial soul inheritance has lasted for centuries. Generations of family heads exhausted every effort yet failed to break this shackle. What makes you think you can?"

Yun Zhiyu slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

That breath condensed into a fleeting wisp of white mist in the thick air before being torn apart by the pressure. She raised her head, met Xie Xuan's eyes, and curved her lips into an almost mocking smile.

"Because I dared to come." The four words landed with force.

Xie Xuan's pupils contracted sharply. He felt the pressure he had released strike an invisible wall. The wall was not hard, yet it possessed an indescribable resilience, dissolving and devouring his soul power layer by layer until it vanished into nothingness.

Yun Zhiyu took a step forward. Her pace was slow, but each time her foot fell, a faint ripple spread through the carpet beneath it, as if some ancient formation had silently activated.

Her voice remained calm, but carried an unnerving certainty. "Family Head Xie, you cannot harm me. It isn't that you do not want to. It's that you cannot."

She raised her left hand, the silver bracelet on it gleaming with a dark luster in the morning light. "I have a Quasi-God Strike given to me by my father," she said as though commenting on the weather. "A protective jade pendant from Elder Long, and..."

She paused and lightly tapped the bracelet's surface with a fingertip. A faint light glowed from its dragon-shaped pattern. "Numerous defensive soul-guided devices. Let alone you, even if a Titled Douluo came in person, they would not be able to do anything to me."

Xie Xuan's expression finally changed. Quasi-God Strike, Elder Long—those words were like two heavy hammers slamming into his mind.

A Quasi-God was an existence beyond Titled Douluo, one that had touched the divine realm. There were only a handful publicly known throughout the Douluo Federation. And "Elder Long"—that surname, that title, sent a chill up his spine.

Yun Zhiyu took another step forward. They were now close enough to smell each other—the deep steadiness of authority and the richness of ink cakes clung to Xie Xuan, while Yun Zhiyu carried an unsettling freshness of vegetation entwined with thunder.

"Besides," she said, softly enough to sound like a whisper, yet with bone-chilling certainty, "if anything happens to me here, it will not just be the Xie Family. All of East Sea City will suffer. My father, Yun Ming, the Master of Sea God's Pavilion, a Limit Douluo, Shrek Academy, the Tang Sect—"

She tilted her head slightly, the curve of her lips deepening. "They will certainly pursue the matter to the end. Family Head Xie, can you bear that responsibility? Or rather, can your Xie Family bear it?"

The study fell into dead silence. Xie Xuan felt his heart pounding violently in his chest, like a caged beast ramming wildly against its prison.

He looked at the girl who did not even reach his chest, at the faint violet-gold light beneath the dark brown contact lenses covering her eyes, and at her indifferent expression that seemed to say, I'm stating facts. Believe them or not.

Arrogant. Far too arrogant.

But behind that arrogance was genuine confidence, a background powerful enough to crush the entire Xie Family, and the composed ease of someone saying, I am not standing here to beg you. I am giving you an opportunity.

Xie Xuan slowly withdrew his pressure like a receding tide. The Soul King-level force vanished completely within a few breaths. The books on the shelves stopped trembling, the cracks in the windows ceased spreading, and the heaviness in the air disappeared. Leaning back in his chair, he studied the girl before him seriously for the first time, with equality rather than condescension.

"Sky-Piercing Douluo..." he murmured, repeating the name with a tremble of disbelief in his voice. "You are the daughter of Sky-Piercing Douluo Yun Ming?"

"Yes." Yun Zhiyu nodded slightly, her tone as calm as though she were acknowledging something insignificant. "I am also the Young Mistress of the Tang Sect and the personal disciple of Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua. Family Head Xie, can we discuss proper business now?"

Xie Xuan was silent for a long time. His gaze swept over the books on the shelves, records of centuries of Xie Family glory, before finally resting on Yun Zhiyu's tranquil face. He suddenly realized how laughable his earlier contempt had been—this was no fledgling unaware of the world's immensity. This was a giant dragon from the Abyss, wearing the skin of a young fox.

"Miss," he said slowly as he rose to his feet, using an honorific for the first time. His voice carried a solemnity that was almost bitter. "Please forgive my earlier offense."

He walked around the desk to Yun Zhiyu and bowed slightly. For a Five-Ring Soul King, a One-Word Battle Armor Master, and the head of a mecha clan, such a gesture was almost unimaginable. Yet Xie Xuan did it naturally, as though it were instinctive submission before someone of greater standing.

"The Xie Family's martial soul inheritance truly has been shackled for centuries." He straightened, his gaze settling on the verdant mountains outside the window. His voice held exhaustion he could not conceal.

"The Light Dragon Dagger and Shadow Dragon Dagger are Twin Martial Souls, one light and one shadow. They seem complementary, but in truth they restrain each other. Generations of family heads have exhausted every effort trying to make the two martial souls truly merge, yet none succeeded. By Xie'er's generation, the rejection between the martial souls has grown ever stronger. If we cannot find a solution before he comes of age, then I fear..."

He did not continue, but Yun Zhiyu understood.

In the original story, Xie Xie spent his entire life struggling against the rejection of his martial souls, only awakening the Space-Time Dragon through a fortunate coincidence much later. Now that she stood here, she intended to change that "fortunate coincidence" and turn it into an inevitability.

"Take me to the library," she said. It was not a request, but a statement. "I want to understand the complete history of the Xie Family's martial souls, starting with the first awakener. Every detail."

Xie Xuan was slightly taken aback, then revealed a complicated smile. It contained bitterness, relief, and an almost devout anticipation, as though he had finally waited for this day.

"Please follow me, Miss."

He turned and walked toward the depths of the study, stopping before an ordinary-looking bookshelf. He lightly pressed a raised carving with his fingertip. Amid the dull sound of turning mechanisms, the bookshelf slid apart to either side, revealing a stone stairway leading underground. The damp air was filled with the scent of aged paper mixed with ancient soul power, like a secret sealed for far too long finally seeing daylight again.

"The Xie Family Library," Xie Xuan's voice echoed through the stairway, carrying nearly solemn gravity. "Since the first family head founded our clan, every study, attempt, failure, and... hope concerning our martial souls has been kept within."

He turned his head, and his gaze briefly met Yun Zhiyu's. In those dark green eyes resembling Xie Xie's burned a long-suppressed obsession that was nearly despairing.

"If Miss can truly resolve the matter of our martial souls," he said in a low voice, like an oath from the depths of his chest, "my Xie Family is willing to give everything for you, to follow you through life and death."

Yun Zhiyu looked into his eyes. There, she saw the same stubborn refusal to be controlled by fate that Xie Xie possessed. She thought of Xie Xie's mother dying with regrets in the original story, of Xie Xie's resentment toward his father, and of this family's hardship as it struggled to survive amid the tide of the times.

"You need not give everything," she said softly, as though promising some distant future. "But when the crucial moment comes, I want the Xie Family to stand with me."

She paused, her lips curling into a very faint smile. "Choosing the right side matters more than standing high, Family Head Xie. Do you understand?"

Xie Xuan was silent for a moment before nodding heavily.

The stone stairs stretched beneath their feet, descending deep underground. At the end of them, lights within the library flickered on like an ancient summons awaiting the moment of awakening.

Yun Zhiyu followed behind Xie Xuan, her black hair swaying gently in the damp air. Her gaze fell upon the faded murals lining both sides of the stairs—portraits of the Xie Family's successive heads, every face carved with the same exhaustion and unwillingness born from fighting against the shackles of their martial souls.

She would change all of it. For Xie Xie, for the Xie Family, for the web of connections gradually being woven tightly enough to cover the entire Federation, and for that distant future yet to come—Shrek's lights would never go out, the Tang Sect's banner would never fall, and the darkness of the Abyss would forever remain beyond the defensive line.

At the end of the stone stairway, the doors of the library slowly opened before them.

Yun Zhiyu stepped inside, her figure swallowed by the ancient lamplight like a fish swimming against the current into the depths of time.