**[Age 10: Through daily sword practice, you gradually emerge from grief. Fu Xuan breaks her oath to return to Yuque, fearing Jingtian's emotional incompetence. You come to regard her as true family]**
Jingtian revealed Fu Xuan had sworn never to return, determined to prove destiny wasn't singular. Yet she appeared every peach blossom season, her visits weaving new threads into Anming's healing heart.
"We Cloud Knights, like cloud veils shielding the sky—"
"Guard Xianzhou unto death!"
Anming watched Yao Guang address the troops. The Blade-Monarch embodied martial perfection - every gesture radiated lethal grace. Since joining formal training, Anming found standard drills laughably simple compared to his mentor's brutal tutelage.
Initial skepticism toward the short-lived recruit dissolved beneath his blade's authority. Respect followed strength, regardless of lifespan.
"Morning, Anming."
The blue-haired girl saluted with her regulation steel sword. "Honored to spar."
Among predominantly long-life Cloud Knights, Anni was rare company - another mortal bound to Yuque by circumstance. "I'll go all out," Anming warned, carefully sheathing his wooden practice blade. Though obsolete, it remained his first sword-soul's vessel.
Anni paled. "Thirty percent! Just thirty!"
Steel whispered from its scabbard. The air crystallized as Anming's presence transformed - no longer a boy but a honed blade catching dawn's first light.
No thought. Only motion.
Hundreds of phantom strikes materialized around Anni's throat before she blinked. Her armor blossomed with engraved sword patterns, a master's signature etched through air alone.
"Your concession."
Anming bowed, reverting to the polite youth who'd emerged from grief's crucible. Maturation needed no decades - one shattered night had sufficed.
"You've grown formidable."
Peach blossoms swirled around Fu Xuan's approach. Anming's radiant smile startled Anni - she'd never seen winter thaw so completely.
"Sister Xuan..."
A flick to his forehead. "Senior Sister in public."
"Senior Sister."
Fu Xuan nodded primly before addressing Anni. "My junior troubles you."
"Hardly..." The protest died as Fu Xuan led Anming away, their synchronized steps painting an exclusionary harmony.
"Your swordsmanship eludes even my third eye." Pride warmed Fu Xuan's chiding. "Though still far from surpassing me."
Anming's ears reddened. "Who kept claiming 'diviners are for girls'?"
"Not me!"
Fu Xuan arched an eyebrow. "Now it's 'diviners are adorable like Sister Xuan'?"
"Learned from the best!"
Their laughter faded as Fu Xuan sobered. "The Abundance's spawn grow active near Fanghu and Luofu."
Anming nibbled his candy skewer. "Master's recent seclusions... he foresaw this?"
"The Ten Directions Stellar Revelation alone might unveil specifics." Fu Xuan's fingers tightened around her half-eaten treat. The Matrix's visions haunted her - Jingtian's bloodied fan, her own blade trembling with filial betrayal.
If destined meetings only bred inevitable loss, what meaning existed in connection?
"Master's divinations never err." Anming's faith cut deeper than any blade.
Precisely why terror coiled in Fu Xuan's gut. As Yuque's Grand Diviner, Jingtian's prophecies were immutable reality. Her recent calculations revealed only tangled threads binding Anming's fate to hers - a future too clouded even for the Matrix to parse.
What role did this mortal blade play in a celestial drama spanning millennia?
The question lingered as peach petals settled in Anming's hair, his guileless smile oblivious to the storm ahead.