The white light vanished. When she opened her eyes again, Ye Xinglan saw an ancient, unadorned courtyard.
The weathered marks on its walls struck hard at her heartstrings.
Where am I? Wasn't I in a match? Huh?
She seemed to have forgotten some things.
Ye Xinglan looked ahead.
In the courtyard clearing, a little girl of only six or seven, her long golden hair tied high, struggled through sword moves with a longsword far too large for her frame.
Yet her clear, bright eyes were filled with exhaustion and fear.
The little girl's stamina was already nearing its limit, and her sword hand trembled incessantly, but she bit her lip hard, refusing to let her tears fall.
"Wrong again! Ye Xinglan! What are you thinking?!"
The harsh rebuke fell upon the little girl, making her tremble even more.
Ye Xinglan followed the voice and, sure enough, saw a white-haired elder on a reclining chair in front of the courtyard.
The Ye Clan's second elder.
"You awakened the Stargod Sword, yet you don't devote every moment to the sword.
"How will you uphold the clan's century of glory?"
"Make another mistake, and you won't have dinner tonight!"
The little girl grew even more anxious, and the hand holding her sword trembled harder.
With her mind in turmoil, her sword move was still half a beat off.
The white-haired elder's expression darkened completely.
"Someone, bring me that wooden sword of hers."
It was the little girl's most treasured possession. Her parents had fallen at the hands of the Holy Spirit Cult when she was very young.
This wooden sword was a toy her mother had made for her when she was little, and it had kept her company through countless tedious hours of sword practice.
Seeing the wooden sword fall into the elder's hands, Ye Xinglan, standing far off to the side, was already streaming with tears.
Why make me come back?
The little girl's face instantly went pale. She hurriedly rose onto her tiptoes, waving her tender hands in the air as she tried to grab the object in the elder's hand.
"Elder, I'll practice hard, I promise..."
"Hmph, without a lesson, you won't remember!"
The white-haired elder stood up. Soul Power stirred slightly in his hand, and the wooden sword instantly turned to dust.
The little girl's tears streamed down.
Annoyed by the sight, the elder slapped her without hesitation.
No!
Ye Xinglan could no longer hold back. She ran up to the elder and raised her hand to block him.
But his palm passed straight through her body.
Smack!
The slap landed on the little girl's face, and a red mark quickly appeared.
Her crying stopped abruptly, leaving only quiet sobs.
The elder snorted coldly, then turned and left in anger.
Once again, the little girl was alone in the courtyard.
Before long, she sniffed hard, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and shakily raised her sword again.
Outside the tightly shut courtyard gates, the Ye Clan's children played and laughed.
"Did you know? The future Sword God is in there!"
"What Sword God? It's just that her parents are gone, and there's nobody to back her up."
"She's not the only one in our generation who awakened the Stargod Sword. She's just the only one those crazy elders push this hard."
Ye Xinglan had thought she had long since forgotten. She had been away from home for six years, challenging countless opponents to prove she was the strongest sword.
Even after entering the Shrek Inner Court, she had never stopped pursuing greater strength, tempering her heart until it was as hard as iron.
Yet seeing this scene still filled her heart with aching bitterness.
She watched the little girl's clumsy figure, even though she knew the girl could not hear her.
Ye Xinglan still could not help stepping forward.
"Stop if you're tired."
At her words, the little girl really did lower her sword.
"Big sister, I'm so tired."
Ye Xinglan covered her mouth.
"You can see me."
The little girl nodded hard and spoke softly.
"Can you take me away? This place... I don't like it."
Ye Xinglan unconsciously reached out and gently took the little girl's wrist.
Feeling that solid touch, her gaze instantly turned resolute.
"I'll take you away. I promise."
Before her stood the familiar courtyard gates. She had only first stepped beyond them at ten years old.
A bright yellow longsword appeared in her other hand.
Sword God Star!
Boom!
The gates were blasted to pieces.
The children gossiping by the gates cried out as the fragments struck them, then scattered.
Following the path outside would lead straight to the Ye Clan's main gates.
The vermilion gates grew ever larger before the two of them.
Three steps.
Two steps.
"Impudent witch! You dare abduct the future of our Ye Clan!"
The cold, commanding shout echoed throughout the space.
Ye Xinglan half turned. At some point, a dense crowd had appeared behind her.
The first elder, the second elder, her clan uncles...
Every perpetrator who had filled her childhood with nightmares was here.
"Heh, a mere four-ring cultivation, and you dare come to the Ye Clan to steal someone away."
At the center of the crowd, eight Soul Rings spiraled upward from Elder Ye's feet as he unleashed the full pressure of his Soul Douluo cultivation upon the two girls at the gates.
The other Ye Clan members released their Martial Souls one after another as well. Some had seven rings, others six; not one was someone Ye Xinglan could match at her current stage.
"I'll say it one more time. Leave our 'Sword God' here."
Ye Xinglan did not answer. She shifted slightly, blocking everyone's view of the little girl.
She brought forth the Stargod Sword, her voice cool and resolute.
"In this life, I am not the Ye Clan's sword."
"I am my own sword!"
"Such insolence from this witch. Seize her."
Everyone facing her actually attacked together, countless Soul Skills surging toward them with the force of toppling mountains and overturning seas.
They all but engulfed the two of them.
Ye Xinglan swung out that tiny strand of sword light, like a firefly beneath the radiant moon.
She did not see the little girl behind her raise an identical bright yellow longsword.
The two strands of sword light overlapped, cleaving a rift through the entire space.
The scene froze. The next instant-
The faces of the first elder, second elder, and the others slowly crumbled, revealing the appearance of a young man.
Ye Xinglan remembered. This was the opponent who had challenged her, Yan Qing.
As she unleashed that sword strike, stars from across the sky gathered above the Shrek Outer Court's arena.
Even in broad daylight, their brilliant starlight remained dazzling.
Stargod Sword, Martial Soul Second Awakening!
Watching the girl's presence surge, Yan Qing was somewhat surprised as well.
For the first time, the Heart Prison he had constructed with his Spirit Abyss Realm had been broken by an opponent at the same cultivation realm.
Six six six.
With opponents like this, you ask whether they won or lost, and they tell you they gained enlightenment.
The sword light shattered the illusion and hurtled straight toward Yan Qing at the center of the arena.
Yan Qing still wanted to use his Simulation Soul Skill to deploy a phantom while his real body left the battlefield.
But the stars summoned by Ye Xinglan's Martial Soul Awakening just now hung suspended in the void.
Countless rays of starlight locked onto him from afar, insisting that he take this strike.
Left with no choice, Yan Qing sent several streaks of light flying out of his Storage Soul Tool, rapidly assembling before him.
One-Word Battle Armor!
Bang!
The sword light slammed into the Battle Armor.
Blue light burst apart, and a great cloud of dust rose. Everyone craned their necks toward the center of the arena.
Ye Xinglan knelt on one knee, her Soul Power almost exhausted.
Yan Qing was not in great shape either. His entire set of One-Word Battle Armor had actually been blasted apart by brute force. Fortunately, he had already wanted to replace it with a spirit alloy set, or this really would have been a devastating loss.
Seeing that Yan Qing still had Soul Power remaining, Ye Xinglan propped herself up with her sword hilt and stood.
Her azure eyes remained clear and bright.
"I lost."