Jingliu

Former Sword Champion of the Luofu, and the reason behind the Cloud Knights' mythical reputation of implacable might.

Now, her name has been wiped from the records, and she is a traitor of the Xianzhou walking on the fine line between sanity and mara-struck.

A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, that weighs nothing.

It was not forged from any ordinary iron, but condensed from a shaft of sharp ice. It glowed with a dim light, as if it were a sliver of moonlight held in the wielder's hand.

"A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, weighing about 7 catties. Hold it in your hand, and stab the sharp end towards the enemy."

With a gentle flip of her hand, the woman in armor called her sword. As if alive, the sword lept out of the weapon rack, sliding into her grasp and out of its sheath in one fell swoop. The blade then stabbed into the air beside the girl, humming intently.

"You got that yet? If so, go fight the most common war beasts the borisin use in their ground forces. Once you've killed ten Bloodshot War Wyverns, I'll consider your first lesson completed."

She remained silent, her eyes darting left and right. This was her first time stepping out of the ward since being rescued, and the first time ever in her life she had touched a weapon known as a sword.

"I have dismissed the healers and helpers. They won't come to you without my orders."

"The calamity in Cangcheng left few survivors. I don't know what you've been through before the rescue arrived... But I don't want to see you wallow in past horrors like this for the rest of your life."

"It's okay if you don't wanna talk. You can speak with this."

"You can use this to vanquish the monsters that took everything from us. There are now few things as wondrous as this left in the world."

The woman in armor remained composed, her gaze cast onto the long sword by the girl's side.

The mirror-like blade showed her reflection. Then, a swarm of razor shards swirled up in a tempest, dragging the girl into her past —

In the dimly lit sky, the demonic planet named Rahu was wailing and singing, hurling towards everyone with lands and mountains ablaze.

On the streets, people were screaming, writhing and rolling in apocalyptic despair, as the golden tendrils sprouted and grew feverishly in every orifice of theirs.

She watched everything unfold, paralyzed. Her organs felt like they were boiling. Something suddenly surged and churned in her Core Esse, like a ripe wheat grain about to burst out of its husk and swell to infinity.

The mountains hurling towards her face made her realize, she was but a mayfly, about to perish at the mere flick of an Emanator's fingertip.

In that split moment before death claimed her, she grabbed the only thread she could hang by.

A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, weighing about 7 catties.

A sword, 6 feet and 5 inches in length, weighing 14 catties.

This is a Cloud Knight greatsword that must be wielded with both hands. Its edge contains enchanted fire that can split open the mechabeast's inert armor at the moment of contact.

There are 12 Flying Swords providing support, connected into her spinal meridian from the acupuncture points of Dazhui to Yaoyangguan. She needed only to think for these swords to instantly span out like a blistering storm.

She was still unfamiliar with the way of the sword. She still had lots to learn.

The woman in armor had no time to teach her more before the woman was tasked with leading the army on the field. Therefore, the girl's second lesson is to be learned on the battlefield, taught by the enemies she would fall.

"Stab" is easy, but swift monsters won't run into the sword's tip on their own or let the girl execute them. That is how she learned "slash."

"Entangle" is next. Against monsters with overwhelming strength, the girl learned how to parry with the back of the sword to deflect enemy attacks.

She believed she had learned enough of the sword and therefore leapt onto the mechabeast war pawn "Gigantes" that dwarfed her at least ten times over.

She broke all the swords she brought with her and only managed to leave a few dozen cuts on the opponent's gigantic body.

She was whacked away by an enormous hand. Lying in the blood-soaked mud of the battlefield, she was once again swallowed by horror. In that split moment before death claimed her, she finally understood that even the art of swordplay had its limits.

An arrow filled with blazing fire blew off the Gigantes' head. "Get up." The woman in armor looked at her.

"I don't want to learn the sword anymore. It's... useless."

"Useless? It's pretty useful in my hands. It is the wielder who was useless."

"If you don't learn the sword, what do you want to learn? The alchemical arrows on the pilots' starskiffs? The blazing fire flung by divine crossbows? Or... The artillery of the Zhuming Xianzhou? Such instruments would also be enough to destroy that demonic planet. You want to learn about them? Fine. Those things can kill the enemy even from beyond visual range."

"...I just don't understand why you insist on teaching me the sword!?"

"From the general to the smallest pawn, every Cloud Knight starts by learning the sword.

"The various constructs provided by the Artisanship Commission can certainly kill the enemy for you, but those deeds are to the merit of the material rather than the person. If there comes a day that the quivers run empty, that the starskiffs crash, that the aurumatons freeze — Who will protect you and I, then? Who will protect the Xianzhou?

"Hold this sword. Remember, it would not be a true fight for humanity if Cloud Knights didn't wield swords and march onto the battlefield themselves. Rather than letting ingenia do the work for us, we will show our final victory to those inhuman abominations by our own blood and prowess!"

The woman in armor turned and departed, leaving the girl and the broken sword in the training room.

A sword, 2 feet and 1 inch in length, only its broken fragments remained.

A sword, 5 feet in length, weighing as heavy as three thousand catties. The ebony blade shimmers with a sanguine sheen.

The sword was forged from the nonstop tempering of extraterrestrial ores, a complete deviation from conventional weaponry. Untamed and unyielding, the sword mirrored the defiance and hubris of its short-life species creator.

Once, she had only swords as her companions, but now she found herself with many friends.

The day she was crowned as the Sword Champion, the craftsman attended the ceremony in a black garb and cast out the sword he bore. The sword sank deep into the ground, leaving only its hilt above the soil. All attendees were shocked.

"Only the Sword Champion of the Luofu Cloud Knights can tap into the full potential of this sword I have crafted." He gave a toothy grin.

The high elder of the Luofu, as haughty and detached as the high moon in the sky, felt an irresistible temptation to duel with her upon witnessing her peerless martial prowess with just one simple glance.

The spear and the sword sparred for many years without a conclusion, until she cleaved ocean tides in twain with a single slash in the Dragonvista Rain Hall, and finally won the high elder's concession.

A well-traveled Nameless who had flown across the cosmos had steered vessels for her, bringing divine nectar from the other side of the universe to share with her, and gazed upon the scintillating stars by her side.

"I will cut down even the stars in the sky."

She still vaguely remembers the boasts she made in moments of inebriation. That burning planet rushing towards her in childhood memories, that horrible nightmare that wouldn't let her go — those scenes are no longer so terrifying.

This is the first time she understands what "wanting to live" means in all her years of wielding a sword. Before this moment, she was simply someone ready to die.

And there was her student.

She recalled the first time they met. This young but devious child had asked the same questions as she did.

"Master, why do you insist on wielding a sword? There are thousands of weapons out there that can kill an enemy. If you want to destroy that planet, the Zhuming can probably do it with its artillery."

"This is like asking a poet why they wrote poems. There are many ways to express oneself, but this is the only way for me."

Now, he has also become a shining star amongst the Cloud Knights.

She doesn't have a master anymore. The woman in armor perished on the battlefield and can instruct her no longer.

Nor does she need a master anymore. She knows everything there is to know about swords. They are a part of her body. They are the intake and release of her breath as she walks and sleeps.

People call her the Transcendent Flash, the pinnacle of swordmasters, a once-in-ten-millennia hero. However, she knows that her sword is still not enough to "cut down the star in the sky" —

Even if she is holding the greatest sword in all the Xianzhou...

A sword, 5 feet in length, weighing as heavy as three thousand catties. The ebony blade shimmers with a sanguine sheen.

A sword, 5 feet in length, weighing as heavy as three thousand catties. The ebony blade is covered in cracks and the tip is broken and lost.

Amid the countless wars, she wielded this sword and, alongside her comrades and disciple, battled her way into the vast ship, decapitating the wolf-like head of the borisin Warhead. She also climbed the sky-piercing flying citadel, clipping the wings of the Feather Guards. She fought the iron cavalry of the Houyhnhnm, sealing all the riders of the six-legged steeds into prison... Whichever way her sword swung, no abomination could escape death or imprisonment.

She had never expected she would point this sword at her lifelong friend.

She gasped, barely holding her wounded body together. Far away, deeper in the delve, there came the anguished roar of a dragon, as if pleading for death.

She watched as the arrogant craftsman fell into the mud, and walked up to him like a wraith.

"I should kill you first... but you will have your own torment to bear for all eternity..."

She pointed the broken sword at the high elder.

"Impossible. The Preceptors said... The blood of my race and the soul of my ancestor should have created another high elder. All this... It shouldn't be like this."

"If your death can return everything to how it was, I would do it... But you need to tell me right now where that dragon's weak point is."

"The top of its head..."

The half-draconic abomination swam through the air in blasts of lightning. Its body, enough to swallow the very horizon, sundered yet another floating isle. Its wails were as loud as the clamors of a thousand clashing swords.

She felt her Core Esse boiling, like a ripe wheat grain about to burst out of its husk and swell to infinity.

She saw herself trapped in childhood nightmares again. The ominous planet is swallowing her overhead, and she, but an insect, cannot even struggle.

The woman tore off a spread of black silk from the edge of her skirt and covered her eyes.

The thunder struck. She leapt up with her sword towards the draconic abomination.

In a dreamlike illusion, she felt her flesh surpass its limits, beginning to disintegrate. It was as if innumerable silken threads bound her, taut across every limb and bone, each one slicing through the last vestiges of her consciousness, bit by bit.

Suddenly, she heard those words:

"I will cut down even the stars in the sky."

At that moment, she finally grasped the sword she had been seeking all this time.

It was a sword that can transcend all restrictions. It was a sword she had been familiar with for years.

It was not forged from any ordinary iron, but condensed from a shaft of sharp ice. It glowed with a dim light, as if it was a strand of moonlight held in the wielder's hand.

A sword, 3 feet and 7 inches in length, and weighs nothing.