Chapter 14: The Night of Moonquake's Final Song (Part 1)
Five days after the fortress qualifiers, in the lake city of Plennelle.
As the name suggests, the Lake City is a town built entirely on an island in the middle of a huge lake. Although it is not very large, as a satellite city, it has become the only way connecting the capital Grubecia with the outside world.
Indeed, the capital city is a fortress-like city built amidst towering mountains, its foothills bordering a vast lake. With water in front and mountains behind, it exemplifies a strategically important location, easily defended and difficult to attack. Connecting the capital's main gate to the other side of the lake is a towering bridge spanning the lake, over ten kilometers long and ten meters wide—the Xingjia.
As a result, the lake city of Purennesi became the only way to the capital, a resting place for travelers heading to the capital, and a small port where ships shuttled. The flow of people coming and going was extremely large, and it was no less prosperous than the capital.
The last time Beichen was in Azanar, the capital of the Heyang Kingdom, he didn't have a good time shopping because of the Protoss mine disaster. This time, after entering the city, he finally couldn't help but start shopping and excitedly went from store to store along the street - of course, the reward given by Rui was spent bit by bit.
Various spirit crystals, weapon maintenance kits, small stuffed dolls based on jumping horses, picture books with pictures of famous scenic spots around the world, popular children's toys called Pokopoko balls, girlish dresses that Beichen couldn't possibly wear given his current schedule, local snacks, interesting hairpins, and a set of a popular chess board and pieces—
Soon, half of Xiang Ying's space was filled up, and Heihuo and Sujie's space was also much fuller.
"Xiang Ying, here, this is a gift for you!"
Coming out of a weapon jewelry store, Beichen smiled and stuffed a sword-tassel pendant with light blue crystals into his hand.
"Because I don't know what would be a good gift for a war machine... Do you like this?"
"Eh? Hey... Master... Is this for me? Why?"
Xiang Ying took the pendant from Beichen's hand, and asked hesitantly, seemingly still in a daze.
"Hmm? No reason, I just saw it suits you, so I bought it. ...Don't you like it? Then I'll take it back and talk to the boss about exchanging it..."
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Xiang Ying retracted his hand abruptly, holding the pendant and quickly putting it into his storage space. "Thank you, Master, I like it very much. Please rest assured, I will definitely keep it well!"
"Uh...but this is decorative, shouldn't it be worn?"
"No, that would wear out easily! How could I allow the gift from my master to be damaged in the slightest?!"
——Then it loses its meaning...
Beichen twitched his lips as he glanced at Xiangying's storage space. Sure enough, the pendant was carefully placed in a small compartment at the top of the space. It was covered with several densely packed gratings and inscribed in extra-large bold font: IMPORTANT! A gift from the master!
Forget it, if he likes it this way, then let him do it, Beichen sighed with a helpless smile.
"Wait, don't tell me that stupid Shadow is the only one with a present!"
Heihuo and Sujie immediately came up with dissatisfaction, Lingshuang also looked at Beichen with a bit of expectation, Yaye snorted "boring" and turned his head away, but he still pretended to be nonchalant and glanced over from time to time. Only Yagard seemed to have no interest in this, and stood a few meters away from her with an expressionless face.
"Of course everyone has it!"
Beichen took out two hard leather wristbands with beautiful patterns from the bag in his hand.
"These two are for Black Plague and White Robbery. They just happened to be available in black and white, so I bought both. If they pair with the hook claw, they should look... pretty handsome."
"Oh!" Su Jie snatched the white bracelet, put it on his hand and shook it, "How is it?"
"Yeah, that's good!"
"Oh, I'm so touched, little loach. How about I repay you with my body tonight?!"
"No, no, that's not necessary!" Beichen took a few steps back with a green face. "Yes, that's right, Yaye! This is for you!!"
As she spoke, she handed Yaye a special sickle armrest made of black iron and inlaid with clear rubies. It was a handrail about twenty centimeters long and was used to be installed horizontally in the middle of the sickle handle. Because the horizontal grip was more flexible than the vertical grip, it should be of some use to Yaye, who specialized in technical attacks.
"You're smart."
Yaye snorted, patted Beichen's head, and put the auxiliary armrest away - in fact, he already had several auxiliary armrests, some of which were of better quality, but for some reason, this one felt particularly comfortable to hold this time.
Beichen then walked up to Lingshuang, holding a gorgeous ice-colored chain made of intricately patterned parts.
"Um... that... this... is..."
Ling Shuang took the chain and whispered:
"For me?"
"Well, I don't know what you like...so..."
"Anything you give is fine."
Ling Shuang lowered her head and said this in a voice so small that it was almost inaudible. She took the chain, then suddenly gritted her teeth, stretched out her hand, raised her head and stared at her:
"Put it on for me."
“—Huh?”
"You bought this bracelet, didn't you? I won't wear it."
Using the lameest excuse, Ling Shuang extended her hand to Beichen.
“…”
Beichen felt a little regretful about giving him the bracelet. He should have given him something that would be less likely to make him think too much.
Now she was in a difficult situation, so she had to bite the bullet and quickly put the bracelet on Ling Shuang, then took a few steps back with a red face.
"Thanks."
Ling Shuang thanked him softly, then focused on touching the bracelet on her wrist, a somewhat unreal smile appearing at the corner of her mouth.
──For some reason, this smile suddenly made Beichen feel a chill down his spine.
So, she found an excuse, chatted a few words, and walked towards Yagad.
"Agad, this is for you."
She raised her head and handed a pair of large gloves to the warrior who was forty centimeters taller than her. There was a beautiful inverted cross tattooed on the back of the gloves.
"Miss Beichen, what is this?"
Yagard showed a flattered and happy smile and half-knelt down in front of Beichen. She was so scared that her hair stood up and she quickly pulled him straight - this was on the street!
"Well, take them," she said, pointing to the inverted cross on the gloves. "Even if it's 'immoral', it can only be 'borne' by the standard of 'morality'. These gloves... use them as your shackles. A sword's purpose in life is indeed to kill enemies, but at least I hope I can choose which enemies to kill."
"Yes, thank you for the gift."
The knight held the gloves respectfully with both hands, his tone almost distorted with excitement.
"It's not 'give'." Beichen scratched his head in a troubled manner. "In short, although I really don't want to interfere with and influence other people's life philosophies, because it would be too self-righteous. But you are really exaggerating! I hope you can at least think of yourself as a human being. Look, the priestess you are loyal to is a thorough human being, right?"
“……?”
The knight didn't seem to fully understand Beichen's words. He just nodded blindly, as if thinking about something.
"Since this is Miss Beichen's request, I will try my best to return to being human. So, in order to understand the average human data, I will first find a few hundred standard humans to dissect and perform deep hypnosis to collect data—"
“Stop it right there!!”
Finally, amid Yaye's ridicule, Beichen decided to set off for the capital dejectedly.
When they arrived at the Xingjia Bridge leading to the capital, it was already dark, but the entrance of the bridge was still bustling with people, especially many Lingwu Division members who were gathered together discussing something.
"It looks like this might be the location for the next game."
Yaye looked around, then looked at a huge signboard next to the bridge. Many Lingwusi were standing in front of the sign, watching.
"Hey, Matcha, don't you want to go check it out? That's probably what this competition is about."
"Well, I'll be over then. Yaye, Lingshuang, Yagad, you guys can just find a place to rest nearby?"
Beichen nodded to them and walked towards the sign with Xiangying and Gemini Hook Claw.
The time period for this preliminary round is unusually flexible. From the moment you arrive at the bridge entrance until the official opening of the martial arts competition, contestants can challenge at any time.
There is only one content in the competition. You don't need to walk on the Star Frame Bridge to reach the other side of the lake. There are ten referees on the lake near the other side. Find one of them, get their approval, and exchange the existing engraved spirit crystal for a new one.
Do not do anything that damages the lake's ecology (such as poisoning the lake) or kill other contestants. In addition, the official is not responsible for any life-threatening situation of the contestants due to participation (such as drowning).
There is no limit to the number of weapons you can carry, and no limit to the competition techniques, as long as you can get the approval of the referee.
"Hmm...crossing the lake..."
Beichen touched his chin a little worriedly.
"Master, how is your swimming ability?"
"It's just okay. I could swim a few laps around the pool, but the lake is so big. I'm afraid I don't have the energy to swim the whole way."
As they were talking, a burly man with a strong body tied his weapons to himself, stripped off his upper body and jumped into the water. He swam slowly towards the other side - it seemed that he was very confident in his swimming ability.
"Speaking of this," Beichen turned to look at his three warriors, "Xiang Ying, Hei Huo, Su Jie, how are your water skills?"
The three warriors' eyes immediately shifted.
"Well... Master, metal-type weapons... can't swim."
“Eh!?”
Beichen was surprised for a few seconds - but then he thought again, they were made of iron, and they would probably sink to the bottom as soon as they entered the water. But...
"Even in human form?"
"No," Black Harm scratched his head irritably. "Water is our weakness. Even getting in the bathtub makes our limbs go numb, let alone the lake. Getting wet is bearable, but if you don't dry yourself off right away, it might be okay once or twice, but if it happens too often, you'll get sick."
Beichen nodded: I understand... maybe it will rust if it is soaked in water for too long?
Then she felt worried about the future: taking three landlubbers across such a huge lake - how on earth would she be able to do it?!
Just when Beichen was worried, the figure of "Mad Dog" Glenshe appeared in the sight of several people.
He walked to the lake with a dozen A4-sized pieces of cardboard in his hands. He then reached out and threw a few of them out like skipping stones.
Swish, swish, swish, several pieces of paper floated slowly on the surface of the lake at an even distance.
Then, this man Glenn She did something that made all the onlookers' jaws drop to the ground.
He actually jumped directly, using the papers as his footholds, and after a few bounces he reached the lake surface dozens of meters away. While jumping, he continued to send out papers to pave several footholds for himself - he just rushed away like light steps!
The piece of paper he stepped on, soaked by water, slowly sank to the bottom of the lake. The shore instantly fell silent. Almost all the contestants, including Beichen, roared in their hearts: How could there be someone so agile? How could we win against such a person?!
"Wow... I suddenly don't want to participate anymore..."
Beichen, overwhelmed by the scene, held his head and cried out in a coquettish manner - of course, it was not that he really did not want to participate in the competition, but after discovering the huge gap in strength between himself and the old enemy he had wishfully identified, he felt an inevitable sense of frustration.
"Hey, don't give up so quickly. Well, you can do it if you try hard."
A pleasant yet unfamiliar voice sounded, and Beichen was startled. She immediately stopped being discouraged and raised her head, while Xiang Ying and the Twin Claws reflexively protected her.
The visitor was a woman with long dark indigo hair. She was extremely beautiful, with a pair of watery eyes that flickered, terrifyingly long eyelashes, and a curvy figure. Several male spiritual warriors around her often involuntarily turned their eyes to her. Behind her followed a tall black-haired man and a brown-haired young man. The former had a blank expression on his face, while the latter had a frivolous smile on his face. They must be her weapons.
Beichen swallowed and took a step back calmly.
"Hello, may I ask?"
"Don't be so nervous. I'm not the kind of idiot who would go around flirting with competitors and framing them."
The woman smiled and winked at her, revealing a bold smile that was slightly inconsistent with her beautiful face.
"I simply feel that you haven't yet discovered your potential—ah, or rather, haven't been able to fully utilize the abilities you already have, so I came to butt in."
Seeing Heihuo and Sujie showing obvious disbelief, she laughed and turned to look at the weapons behind her.
"Hey, have you seen how nervous other people's weapons are about their owners? You guys should at least show me that attitude once in a while to make me feel better."
"Rather than worrying about you, Master... I'm more worried that the person you beat up will suddenly die, and then we'll have to live a life of being wanted again."
The black-haired man complained with his eyes downcast expressionlessly, and the brown-haired young man beside him followed up with a fake smile.
"Don't say that, Master. We care about you too, but we are tsundere types and not good at expressing our feelings."
"Would a tsundere ever admit to being a tsundere, you bastard!? Or is your concern just putting laxatives in my lunch?!"
"Please rest assured, master. That amount will not make you show your ugliest side in front of others. We have carefully considered the excessive amount." The brown-haired young man said this with a smile, completely ignoring the blue veins on the beautiful woman's face.
"That's just so the master can restrain his violence." The black-haired man then delivered an additional blow.
"That wouldn't be enough to give your own master diarrhea, would it?! You're not even a male warrior if you gave a lady diarrhea!?"
"Before confirming whether we are males, the master should first confirm whether he is a lady."
"And whether we are male or not, our master, who has sharpened his sword with us so many times, doesn't even know? It turns out that you, the master, are a woman with confused sexual concepts."
"Ahhhhhhh! I'll kill you!"
After a few words, the woman's true colors were revealed. She pounced on her weapons with her teeth bared and started fighting with them with her bare hands. The impression of beauty and nobility that she had previously given to Beichen was almost destroyed, leaving the disillusioned Beichen with a twitch of his lips.
I want to ask you what are you doing here - aren't you here to chat up people?
The beauty started quarreling with her own weapon. Beichen was embarrassed for a while and then simply ignored them. He turned around and discussed the strategy of crossing the lake with Xiang Ying and Gemini Hook Claws. But before he could say a few words, the beautiful woman, panting and with disheveled hair, ran back to her.
"Uh, that, sorry, I'm sorry."
The beauty tidied her hair a little embarrassedly.
"Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Ringil Ain. ...Hey, you two idiots, hurry up and introduce yourselves!"
The black-haired man sighed and took a step forward.
"My name is Changji Xuanming Qihen Yeyuezhong. Our master doesn't know how to talk to others properly. Please don't be offended, young lady."
"Don't say unnecessary words, Xuanming, or I'll beat you up, okay?"
The other brown-haired young man also smiled and nodded to Beichen. "My name is Mechanical Crossbow Aaron Jiuyao Quantized. Please advise me. Our master has no ill intentions. It's just that along the way, she can only attract a few brainless men with her big breasts. Others are either beaten to death or scared away by her. She can't find any suitable travel companions, so she can only flirt with people everywhere out of vain. She is not a bad person, just a little stupid."
"Aaron, are you really defending me? You just want to expose my ugly deeds to others!" The beauty jumped up and down, and then seeing Beichen's embarrassed face, she immediately coughed a few times and smiled at her awkwardly.
Beichen suddenly felt a sense of sympathy (?) for the beautiful woman in front of him:
"Um, hello, my name is...Ash Tuling."
It was a close call. I almost revealed Xiang Beichen's name. Now I am participating in the competition with this identity. If it is exposed, I will probably be disqualified.
"Hey! You're from the Tuling tribe too, no wonder. I was wondering how ordinary people could be so agile."
“—Huh?”
A cold sweat ran down Beichen's face: Actually, I am indeed an ordinary person, not a member of the Tuling tribe.
"Um, Miss Ringdel, how did you know my skills?"
"Just call me Ringdel. I'm looking at the grass."
"Grass?"
"Well, I saw you at the previous competition. Wasn't there grass along the official road in front of the fortress? The grass you walked on was different from the grass others walked on. Where others have stepped on it, the grass won't stand up again for a while, but where you walk, the grass will immediately return to its untouched state."
"So that's how it is!" Beichen suddenly realized, then turned around and looked at his own weapon with some joy: "It turns out that my skills are also very light!"
"Yes, congratulations, Master."
Xiang Ying said this with a smile - it seemed that Beichen was concentrating all his attention on Mad Dog and had forgotten that he had knocked down more than a hundred opponents in the preliminaries.
Black Disaster rolled his eyes. "Don't be too happy, little loach. The problem now is, even if you can't step on the grass, it doesn't mean you can step on the water and fly over it, right?"
"Uh-huh..."
"I have an idea."
Ringdel spoke from the side.
"How about using spirit crystals? The spirit crystal 'Ice Field', if you crush it in water, it can freeze a small area of water. Then we can step on it, right?"
“Yes!”
Beichen turned around and looked at his weapons:
"I remember I bought some Spirit Crystal Ice Fields, Xiangying, Heihuo, and Sujie. Can you tell me how much we have in stock?"
Xiang Ying immediately took out ten coins. Hei Huo and Su Jie fumbled (?) for a while and also took out thirty coins.
"Forty crystals... I have fifty here. I don't know if they'll be enough if I add them up. It seems a bit overwhelming. ... I don't know if it's because of the competition, but the crystal shops in the city don't sell ice crystals anymore. It's really troublesome. Forget it. Even if I can't walk all the way across on the ice, swimming the rest of the way should be no problem, right?"
Lingdier stamped his feet a bit irritably, then looked at Beichen expectantly:
"How about crossing the lake together?"
Beichen was delighted and was about to agree when he heard a voice of "Wait a minute" from behind - Yaye, Lingshuang and Yagad came over.
"Hey, didn't you guys... go take a break?"
"I saw you being approached by a strange person, so I came over to take a look." Yaye frowned impatiently, "Why do you have such a physique that attracts strange people?"
As soon as Ling Dier saw Yaye, his eyes turned cold.
"Fallen Darkseed? —Ash, are you traveling with the Fallen Darkseed?"
Beichen saw the change in her eyes and felt a little unfair for Yaye. "Although Yaye is a Fallen Dark Seed, he takes good care of me. Is there any problem?"
"Yaye...ah, Vampire Scythe Yaye, I bumped into someone famous."
Lingdi'er's expression softened, and her hostility subsided a lot - was there any grudge between her and the Fallen Dark Race?
"If there's a celebrity, this one is one of them."
Yagad on the side suddenly spoke.
"'Cold Flame Witch' Lingdiel, 20 years old, a pillar of the Spiritual Martial Union 'White Crow', skilled in the use of halberds, bows and crossbows, and daggers. She is a citizen of the Principality of Arcadia. Her true identity is—"
"Stop."
Lingdi's tone suddenly became extremely cold, and her expression was no longer as bold and leisurely as before. She straightened her back, raised her head, tucked in her chin, and narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly, becoming like a queen who was high and mighty.
"No wonder you look so familiar. I remember who you are now. If you don't want me to reveal your true identity here, you should just hold back."
"That's exactly what I'm saying. If you try to use the people I'm protecting for your own ends, I won't allow it."
"Guardian? You? A guy like you?!"
As if he had heard some huge joke, Lingdir's face was almost twisted with laughter, and he pointed at Yagad with an expression of disbelief.
The atmosphere suddenly became extremely solemn, and two completely different murderous auras poured out from Lingdir and Yagad respectively. Seeing this, Beichen thought for a moment and then grabbed Yagad.
"I think the plan proposed by Lingdiel to cross the lake together is feasible."
"...Ms. Yashu?!"
Yagad looked at her with an expression as if he wanted to say something but hesitated - perhaps he knew Lingdi's true identity and was very wary of her.
Beichen smiled and shook his head at Yagard:
"Actually, this isn't a matter of exploitation or not. If Lingdiel is planning to use me to get through this, then isn't that also the case with me using her?"
"but……"
"Besides, no matter how scary your true identity is... is it as scary as mine?"
I am the destroyer of time, the Red Moon Priestess, you know? — She winked at Agard.
"Since this is a martial arts tournament, naturally all participants must be warriors. Other identities can be put aside for now—otherwise, the word 'combat' will make you cry."
Most importantly, her intuition told her that Ringdir held no ill will towards her.
"Hahaha, well said!"
Lingdier laughed and stepped forward to pat Beichen on the shoulder:
"I was right. Now that you've said that, I won't bother you about two strange guys. Happy working together!"
“It’s a pleasure to work with you!”
Beichen also smiled brightly and high-fived Lingdir.
"Ah, that's great." Aaron sighed, "I wish our master could say something so wise someday."
"If you really say that, the master must have a stomachache."
"Hey Xuanming! I'm really going to beat you up!"
"No, no," Su Jie suddenly laughed in a polite tone, "Although our master is good in every way and not timid or easily crushed, the only flaw is his skinny figure, which gives my brother and I a headache."
"Yeah." Aaron nodded seriously. "Indeed, it seems that it's hard to find a perfect master. Perfect weapons like us can only compromise ourselves a little."
"Yes, that's right!"
"Aaron!"
"Su Jie!"
As night fell by the lake, two angry female voices rang out at the same time.
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