Inside the Qiongguan Matrix
A single tear trailed down Fu Xuan's cheek.
Just like that day long ago, her choice had made Jingtian the sacrifice. And now…
It was her turn to choose again.
Fate offered only one path. Only one answer.
No one would willingly choose a future of failure. But what if failure was the only answer?
Destiny unfolded before her once more, merciless and unyielding. The vision granted by her third eye revealed nothing but despair.
The Seat of Divine Foresight
Qingque leapt down from the rooftops, flashing Fu Xuan's jade token to the Cloud Knights guarding the entrance. "I must see the general immediately!"
The guards recognized her—Luofu's rising sword prodigy, though one more likely found at a mahjong table than a training ground. With Fu Xuan's token, she was swiftly ushered inside.
Jing Yuan, unsurprisingly, was awake—as if he had been expecting this moment.
"General! Master Diviner ordered me to investigate transmissions from Yuque!"
"Scheduled communications ceased fourteen system hours ago," Jing Yuan replied grimly, sliding a data slate toward her. "The only signal received was from a merchant star raft—just a scream before it cut out."
No response to Luofu's hails. Yuque had fallen silent.
"No beacon was lit. This was a planned ambush."
Jing Yuan's eyes darkened. So this was the fate you spoke of, Anming. You knew it would come to this.
No wonder Fu Xuan had seemed unsettled when she returned to Luofu. As a diviner, she must have sensed it too—only to be soothed by Anming's reassurances.
Now it was clear. He had sent her away to keep her safe.
"Dispatch distress signals to the other ships. Mobilize reinforcements."
Jing Yuan exhaled. Why must you face this alone, old friend?
He understood Anming's resolve. But it pained him all the same.
Soon, the Alliance would lose another Sword Sovereign worthy of respect.
The War Beacon Ignites
Luofu's signal fires blazed to life. Cloud Knights boarded battleships, their battle cries echoing through the docks:
"The Xianzhou soars! The Cloud Knights triumph!"
No explanations were needed. They were Cloud Knights.
To protect the Xianzhou was etched into their souls.
Fu Xuan stepped onto a battleship bound for Yuque, her grip on Wuming's hilt trembling.
She was afraid.
Afraid of the future she already knew awaited her.
Nearby, Cloud Knights whispered:
"I heard General Yaoguang hasn't returned to Yuque yet. Does that mean there's no one left to hold the line?"
"New recruit, huh? You've never heard of him?"
"Him?"
"Yuque's Nameless Sword Sovereign—"
"Anming." Fu Xuan's voice was soft but firm. "His name is Anming. A hero of the Xianzhou."
Her hero.
15 System Hours Earlier
Tendrils of emerald crept across the branches, blooming with Abundance's cursed flowers. Vines slithered through the streets like venomous serpents, their advance silent and unchecked.
A ghostly white mist spread without warning, smothering Yuque in an instant. Communications died. Signals vanished. The ship became an island, severed from the outside world.
Only one man in all of Yuque could have foreseen this.
The mist thickened, mocking like fate itself—unreasonable, inescapable, drowning all hope.
Even the Radiance of Ten Directions dimmed, its light snuffed out.
Was any of it ever worth it?
Above, the Wolf Legion's fleet emerged from the fog, blotting out the sky—a perfect reenactment of Fanghu's tragedy. This was no spontaneous raid.
It was a trap.
A calculated sacrifice—an entire strongpoint abandoned to lure Yaoguang away.
With her gone, Yuque had no one left to turn the tide.
Victory belonged to the Abundance.
Anti-air defenses faltered. Cloud Knights scrambled through the streets, blind in the mist, their formations crumbling. Battleships that dared ascend either lost their way or were shot down by unseen attackers.
"Slaughter them all!"
"Claim Yuque!"
"Take back what was stolen from us!"
The last light of dusk faded, swallowed by the suffocating fog.
Night fell.
Spears of the Abundance forces pierced through the haze. Torches flickered amidst the thunder of marching boots. The Cloud Knights fought desperately, but the mist rendered them blind.
They could barely see their own blades, let alone the enemy. Screams and the wet crunch of steel through flesh filled the air.
A Small, Unremarkable Courtyard
Peach blossoms drifted down, undisturbed.
A withered hand reached out, catching a petal. Hair once dark was now white as snow.
On the stone table, a sword darker than night rested beneath the moonlight, its edge refusing to gleam.
"Old friend."
The hand closed around the hilt. A familiar voice echoed—not from memory, but from the sword itself.
The voice of the Sword Heart.
The petals kept falling.
But the courtyard stood empty.
The Streets of Yuque
The fog swallowed the lamplights, their glow reduced to faint halos. Monstrous vines choked the roads. Visibility dropped to nothing.
Cloud Knights fought by sound alone, their enemies striking from the mist like sharks in dark water—here one moment, gone the next.
Leaderless, outmaneuvered, outnumbered.
But they did not retreat.
Behind them were homes. Families.
To turn back was unthinkable.
They were Cloud Knights.
"We are as clouds shielding the heavens—the Xianzhou's bulwark!"
That was their oath.
And so they held.
Even when no hope remained.
Then—
SHIIING—
A sound like the sky itself being split.
The mist parted.
The sword had not even left its scabbard.
Yet the mere act of gripping the hilt unleashed a shockwave—an invisible ring of pure edge that blasted the fog apart.
From above, it would have looked like a divine hand had swept the haze away.
A Memory
"I will become the greatest Cloud Knight!"
"Even if no one acknowledges you?"
"Even with just a hundred years to live?"
Yes.
Just like back then—
Draw the Sword.
And so he did.
Like a single stroke of light cutting through the dark.
He stood there.
And Yuque was no longer without its dawn.