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The Wardance Festival has come to the Xianzhou Luofu, and the streets are abuzz with excitement and anticipation. Street vendors are setting out their finest product for the oncoming visitors, and betting pools are forming on who will emerge as the ultimate sword champion. But none are more excited than the Arbiter-General of the Luofu, who is at this very moment in Cloudford to greet the arriving delegates from the Zhuming.
His retainer, however, is significantly less enthused. “I just don’t see the point of all this,” Yanqing complains as he watches the Zhuming delegation disembark. “I’m going to be facing her in the Wardance anyway, so why bother going to all this trouble to introduce us?”
Jing Yuan simply chuckles. “It would do you some good to have more friends your age. Besides, young Yunli is quite the master of the sword herself, I hear. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two from her.”
Yanqing looks up at Jing Yuan and scoffs. “Please. I’ve seen immersia of her fighting. All she does is swing that giant hunk of metal around and smash everything in sight. There’s no finesse in that! How would I ever learn anything from her?” Yanqing then turns his gaze back to the delegates – only to realize that General Huaiyan is now right in front of him. He gulps. “N-not that I’m trying to show disrespect to you or your student, General…”
Huaiyan, for his part, lets out a hearty guffaw. “Oh, no need to worry, I’ve heard worse lip from Yunli quite frequently. Ah, but speaking of…” he says, turning to Jing Yuan, “I’m afraid the meeting between our retainers will have to be delayed. It appears Yunli has run off.”
“You… only landed five minutes ago,” Jing Yuan says cautiously. “And she’s already disappeared.”
“Yes. Quite a rambunctious child, isn’t she?” Huaiyan answers cheerfully.
. . .
As far as she’s concerned, Yunli hasn’t actually done anything wrong.
Because yes, she did promise Grandpa Huaiyan that she would play nice with the Luofu’s junior sword champion and participate in the Wardance according to the rules. And she still totally intends to do that!... a bit later, that is.
It’s not like she’s missing much. From what she’s heard of Jing Yuan’s retainer, he’s all about collecting fancy, useless swords and putting them in a display case rather than actually using them. How pretentious! There’s no way that Yunli could ever learn anything from him.
And besides, at present there’s another matter that requires her full attention. There’s a song that has filled her ears, a tune she first caught hints of as soon as she boarded the Luofu. She’s followed it across four delves as it grew stronger and stronger, and now she’s close to finding it: the perverse melody of a cursed sword. Yunli’s blood is boiling just thinking of it.
The guidebook application on her Jade Abacus tells her that this place is called “Fyxestroll Garden”. It’s a pretty spooky place, with low lightning, creepy silhouettes, and sudden noises in the dark. Not that Yunli would ever be frightened by any of those, of course… just an observation. Which is why, when she hears sudden footsteps to her left, the way she yelps and draws Old Mettle is out of pure logic and caution. “Who goes there?” she shouts.
In response, a little green-haired Foxian with a flaming tail(?) bursts out from the bushes, then immediately stumbles and falls flat on the ground. “A-aah! D-don’t hurt me, please!” it shrieks in a high-pitched voice.
The flaming tail, meanwhile, starts wagging energetically, like it has a mind of its own. “Hey! Who’s there? You wanna fight?” it growls in a deep voice.
Yunli squints at the tail – she recognizes that shade of supernatural fire from the Flamewheel Forge. “You’re a heliobus!” she realizes, pointing Old Mettle at it. “Okay, bring it on!”
“Finally, a real challenge!” the heliobus says, flaring up dramatically. “Prepare to feel my power!”
“N-no! Don’t fight!” the Foxian pleads, scrambling to her feet and grabbing hold of her tail. She’s cute, Yunli thinks, in sort of the same way a scruffy stray cat is cute. Her hair is mussed up, her ears are droopy and pushed back, and she has deep circles under her eyes. Yunli kind of wants to pet her, to feel that floofy-looking hair flow through her fingers. She knows, however, that petting a Foxian is a serious faux pas (she’s learned that the hard way from General Feixiao), so she refrains.
Instead, she draws her sword back and says, “Okay, no fighting. But… you’re aware you have a heliobus attached to your butt, right?”
“That’s just Mister Tail. D-don’t worry, he’s harmless!” the Foxian claims.
“Hey! Who are you calling ‘harmless’?” the hilariously named heliobus retorts.
“S-sorry!” the Foxian stammers. Then she takes a deep breath, straightens her back, and says, “Hello, citizen! I-I’m Judge Huohuo, of the Ten-Lords Commission!”
“Oh, hi. I’m Yunli,” the eponymous girl says, giving a little wave.
“Miss Yunli, I’m going to have to ask you to vacate the area,” Huohuo continues. “I-it’s not safe here.”
Yunli tilts her head to the side. “Really? What’s so dangerous?”
As if to answer her question, a series of dissonant mechanical whirls come from the bushes nearby. A second later, a trio of aggressive-looking ingenium – a cloud toad, a dracolion, and a dragonfish – storm out into the open. They glow with a bluish-green aura, showing they’re under the thrall of a heliobus.
“Eek!” Huohuo cries, stumbling back from the ingenium, even as the dracolion charges at her.
Figuring that these heliobi are probably fine to beat up, Yunli uses her free hand to grab the panicked Huohuo by the scruff of her neck and sling her over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this!” Yunli assures her, Old Mettle at the ready.
The dracolion wastes no time in launching its entire body weight at Yunli. This might pose a danger to a normal person who isn’t carrying a hunk of metal weighing several tons, but for Yunli, parrying the blow with Old Mettle is child’s play. She then follows up with a simple overhanded swipe that neatly cleaves the dracolion in two.
The dragonfish’s belly begins to glow, and that’s all the warning Yunli gets before it spews a jet of fire at her. If Yunli was feeling dramatic – and unencumbered by any extra passengers – she would probably flip out of the way. But as it stands, she simply leaps back out of range. Then she winds up and throws Old Mettle into the dragonfish, shattering its metal casing like glass. A moment later, its internal combustion engine destabilizes, and it explodes.
The blast stuns and weakens the golden toad, so it doesn’t have any time to react before Yunli rushes in, grabs it and throws it on the ground, then stomps on it for good measure. It goes to pieces without difficulty.
“Anyone else?” Yunli calls out to her surroundings. When no one answers, she gently lifts Huohuo off her shoulder and back onto her feet. “There ya go. You alright?”
Huohuo bites her lip and fidgets with her sleeves. “W-wow. You’re…” she trails off, and it might be a trick of the light, but Yunli thinks she can spy a blush dusting the Foxian’s cheeks. “You’re really strong.”
“I know,” Yunli giggles. “So, now that I’ve proven that I can definitely handle myself… I don’t suppose you could tell me if you’ve seen any cursed swords around here that I can destroy? That would really help me out.”
“O-oh, um…” Huohuo murmurs, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, “I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that around here. Sorry.”
“Huh, really? Could’ve sworn I sensed something…”
“I promise I’ll let you know if any cursed swords show up, though!” Huohuo offers. “I’d really like to help…”
Mr. Tail makes a retching sound. “Ugh, this is painful to watch.”
“S-shut up, Tail!” Huohuo hisses. Then, to Yunli: “B-but, come to think of it… maybe what you were sensing was Apyra? It’s a heliobus that likes to possess swords. It’s what I’m trying to catch right now, actually…”
“She let it out,” Mr. Tail adds.
“The suppression tower malfunctioned! It was an accident!” Huohuo pleads. “A-and now I’ve got to get it back before Hanya and Xueyi find out, otherwise I’m going to be in big trouble…”
Yunli thinks on that. “Well… it’s not technically a cursed sword, but it’s close enough. I’ll help you out!”
“You’d really do that for me?” Huohuo asks, starry-eyed.
“Of course! As a member of the Flamewheel Octet, I could never abandon someone in need! Especially someone as cute as you,” Yunli says with a wink.
Huohuo’s eyes go wide, and she lets out a little squeak. “U-um… right! Let’s be on our way, then!”
. . .
The pair swiftly make their way through Fyxestroll Garden. It transpires that Huohuo actually has a pretty good idea where Apyra is, and had in fact previously cornered the heliobus before being chased off by the ingenium it was controlling. But since those ingenium are now in pieces on the ground, there’s nothing stopping Yunli and Huohuo from making their approach.
Even so, as the unlikely duo stroll along the winding paths of the garden, Huohuo’s entire body is trembling with every step.
“Are you scared?” Yunli eventually asks unprompted.
“She’s always scared,” Mr. Tail remarks.
“N-not always! Just… most of the time,” Huohuo murmurs.
Well, that doesn’t make sense. “Why?” Yunli wonders. “Aren’t you a Judge? I though you guys were all supposed to be real badasses.”
“You’re probably thinking of Hanya and Xueyi,” Huohuo sighs. “They’re the cool ones. I-I don’t really have anything special about me, besides Mr. Tail attracting evil spirits. He’s the only reason I’m still here…”
Yunli scoffs. “I don’t buy it. You aren’t ‘Judge Tail, and also Huohuo’. You’re Judge Huohuo. So you must’ve done something right.”
“That’s what everyone keeps telling her!” Mr. Tail adds. “Good luck getting that through her thick skull, though…”
“I bet she’s got some super secret, super powerful technique that no one knows about. Too dangerous to be used recklessly!” Yunli gently pokes Huohuo on the cheek. “Am I close?”
“I-I swear, I don’t have anything like that!” Huohuo protests.
“C’mon, you can tell me! I’m super trustworthy.”
“I really don’t!” Huohuo slumps her shoulders. “All I’m good at is attracting bad luck.”
“Hey, that isn’t useless. I wish I had that power,” Yunli says.
“Really? Why?”
“It would make my job so much easier!” Yunli exclaims. “Instead of having to travel all over looking for cursed swords, I could just have them all come to me! Then I can melt ‘em all down in one go.” She rubs her hands together maliciously.
“Too bad I can’t give you that power then, huh?” Huohuo sighs.
“Yeah. Shame.” Yunli gives Huohuo a light jab with her elbow. “Guess I’ll just have to keep you around so you can work that magic instead, huh?”
Huohuo gulps and – it definitely isn’t Yunli’s imagination this time – blushes fiercely. “U-um… thanks, I think!”
A warm, unfamiliar fluttering feeling appears in Yunli’s chest. Weird. “A-and you know what? It’s totally fine if you’re not good at fighting!”
Huohuo’s wide, innocent eyes feel like they’re softly staring into Yunli’s soul. “Really?”
“Hey, not everyone can be a super strong expert sword master like me. I mean, I’ve been training for ages!” Yunli says, her mouth now running without any input from her brain. “B-but it’s okay, right? ‘Cuz I’m here to protect you now! There isn’t any sort of bad guy or evil spirit that can get past me.”
Huohuo tucks some hair behind her ear again. “…D-do you promise?”
The warm feeling ripples out across Yunli’s body, from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers and toes. She smiles. “Yeah. I promise.”
. . .
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Yunli and Huohuo both scream as the towering aurumaton envoy slams its massive greatsword into the ground between them. The two girls dodge out of the way, then back up and regroup.
“I thought these things were only supposed to fight with, like… tiny fans and junk!” Yunli says.
Huohuo nods. “I-I thought so too, but…”
“You again!” comes a cruel-sounding voice from within the greatsword - Apyra. “You are small, and weak, and unworthy of the sword… yet you try once more to confine me? I will paint these cobblestones with your blood.”
Yunli glances at Huohuo. “I think it means you,” she says, incredibly unhelpfully.
Huohuo nods nervously. “Yeah.”
The aurumaton rushes forward, sword pointed at Huohuo’s throat. Yunli doesn’t hesitate – in the blink of an eye, she crosses the distance between them and intercepts the strike with Old Mettle. She can feel the vibration ripple through her body as the two swords collide. “Hands off,” Yunli growls.
“Your resistance is respectable, but futile,” Apyra says. “I am the most powerful sword master the universe has ever seen.”
“Well, clearly you haven’t heard of me, then,” Yunli fires back. “So why don’t you try picking on someone your own size?”
“Very well. Prepare yourself!” And with those words, the aurumaton draws back its blade, then takes a swing at Yunli. She blocks it, of course, and the fight is on.
Forget all that diplomacy and festival stuff – this is where Yunli truly feels alive. Their battle is like an intricate dance of footwork and sharp metal, each blade moving at incredible speeds beyond the realm of imagination or the perception of the eyes. A momentary gleam of light off her opponent’s sword is all the warning Yunli ever gets before another crushing blow is sent her way. Fortunately, it’s all the warning she ever needs, and she parries every attack flawlessly. Any normal person would never be able to use a weapon as heavy as Old Mettle to meet so many strikes so quickly – but Yunli, quite obviously, is no ordinary person.
Unfortunately, blocking is currently just about all she can do. The heliobus-possessed aurumaton is, quite annoyingly, right in the sweet spot of being both quick and sturdy. If it was slower, Yunli could create an opportunity to strike at it while its guard was down, and if it was weaker, she could simply put so much force into her parries that its arms would be dislocated. As things stand, however, it’s all Yunli can do to keep her guard up and not let anything slip through. At least Huohuo has managed to scurry away during the fracas – Yunli isn’t sure she’d ever forgive herself if the gentle Foxian was hurt on her watch.
Just as Yunli is considering going for a risky counterattack, if only to switch things up a little, the aurumaton suddenly draws back. Yunli, sensing a big attack coming, raises her guard again – and come an attack does, as the aurumaton charges forward and slams its blade against Old Mettle once more. But this time, the reverberations from the blow travel up Old Mettle and swim around in Yunli’s brain, and her vision goes fuzzy. “Urgh…” she groans, stumbling back a couple steps.
And that’s all the opening the aurumaton needs to disengage and chase down Huohuo, who’s been watching from behind a stone bench. “Eep!” she shrieks as the bench is destroyed in a single swipe of the greatsword. “I-I know you’re awfully upset, but you really do need to go back into the suppression tower now!”
“Back off, small fry! Don’t you know who I am?” Mr. Tail growls. “I eat heliobi like you for breakfast!”
“A sword master cannot be swayed by your pleas, nor your paltry threats,” Apyra gloats. The aurumaton lazily swings the sword again, and Huohuo dives for cover as a massive gouge is taken out of the ground. “True strength is all that matters.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’ve got plenty to spare!” Yunli shouts, blinking the stars out of her eyes. She raises up Old Mettle and points it at the aurumaton. “I’m not through with you yet.”
The aurumaton, thankfully, takes the bait and turns back to face her. “Such heroic nonsense. Your recklessness will be your downfall. I have been a master of the sword for over a thousand years.”
Yunli shrugs. “True. But there’s something else you haven’t considered.” She points Old Mettle to the sky, and with a simple mental command, allows it to grow to its true form – the accumulation of hundreds upon hundreds of cursed swords, all melted down and added to its body. At Old Mettle’s full size, its tip scrapes the bottom of the clouds. “Mine is bigger than yours,” Yunli boasts.
If the aurumaton had a face, it might have done a double take. “…Oh,” Apyra mutters.
“Judge Huohuo, move!” Yunli orders, and as soon as Huohuo as sprinted out of the way, she brings down Old Mettle on the aurumaton with some of her strength. There’s a flash of light as the gargantuan blade makes contact with its target, then a screech of metal and a rumbling of thunder.
When the dust clears, the aurumaton is in several pieces at the bottom of a miniature crater.
Huohuo creeps up to the edge and looks down. “W-well… I think Xueyi and Hanya are probably going to notice that no matter what I do.”
Yunli purses her lips and shrinks Old Mettle back down. “Ehe… sorry.”
“I-it’s okay. Right now, we need to focus on getting Apyra!”
“On it.” Yunli sprints down to the aurumaton’s remains and grabs the greatsword, knocked to the side during Old Mettle’s climactic blow. It’s quite the heavy weapon, but well-balanced and of quality make. She swings it around a couple times, getting used to the feel of it. “Not bad,” she remarks.
“Hm. It appears I underestimated you,” Apyra’s voice comes from within the sword once again.
Yunli smiles smugly. “Yep, you did.”
“You are indeed a master of the sword,” the heliobus continues. “But… you could be so much more.”
Yunli pauses… then gazes at the sword with curiosity. “…Go on.”
“You possess great potential, but your attachments are holding you back from achieving your true strength. With your full power unlocked, you could rend worlds apart.”
Yunli’s eyes widen. “Wow, really?”
“I can help you,” Apyra says. “Where your previous teachers have failed you, I will not. Accept my power, and I will make you a god among legends.”
Yunli thinks on that for a moment, scratching her chin.
“D-don’t trust it, Miss Yunli!” Huohuo cries out from the edge of the crater. “Please, listen! It’s trying to trick you!”
“Well? What do you say?” Apyra asks.
Yunli shrugs. “Eh. C minus. I’ve heard it all before.”
“…What?”
“Come on, you’re supposed to be some super fearsome spirit! Where’s the originality? The imagination?” Yunli exclaims. “You’re trying to convince me to sell you my soul here, you’ve got to spice things up a bit. Really sell it! You’ve gotta make me really believe you’re my only option!”
“I am promising you power beyond belief!”
“Bo-ring!” Yunli yawns. “This is like, bog-standard cursed sword cold reading stuff. You need to get personal! Don’t just give me the same generic sales pitch as everyone else, or you’re gonna lose my interest!”
“You impudent child.”
“And here come the insults. I’m just giving you some constructive feedback!”
“And I am out of patience. You will swear fealty to me.” And before Yunli can react, Apyra’s flames come pouring out of the sword and encircle her body.
Yunli can feel the tips of her fingers go numb, then her hands, then her forearms, as her nervous system falls under Apyra’s control. She drops the greatsword, but it’s too late – her limbs aren’t responding to her mental commands. She tries to shout for help, but the heliobus’ smoke fills her lungs, and all that comes out is a raspy cough.
That’s when the thoughts start trickling in. You should kill the Judge. What are you talking about? Teach her a lesson. No, she shouldn’t! Useless weakling. Holding you back. No, she isn’t!
But even so, Yunli’s hands raise Old Mettle, and her mouth morphs into a smirk…
But suddenly there’s a flash of light, and a tugging sensation, and Yunli gasps as air rushes back into her lungs.
Huohuo stands in front of her, holding something that looks like a gourd, into which Apyra’s flames are being drawn. “G-get away from her!” Huohuo shouts with indignation. “She isn’t yours!”
“No!” Apyra hisses.
Yunli’s body still isn’t fully under her control, but she manages to grab at the flames surrounding her body and pull at them, trying to pry them loose. Her palms sting where they touch the heliobus, but she grits her teeth and perseveres despite the pain. “Get… off me… you…”
“We’ve almost got it! Keep going!” Huohuo shouts. She keeps holding the gourd with one hand, and reaches out the other to help tug the heliobus off Yunli.
Finally, the pulling power of the gourd becomes too much for Apyra to withstand, and it’s detached from Yunli and sucked inside. Huohuo wastes no time in slapping the lid back on the container, sealing the heliobus within.
Then, after a moment of tense silence, everyone present lets out a sigh of relief.
“Nice job, kid,” Mr. Tail is the first to speak. “You didn’t completely mess it up!”
“R-really?” Huohuo beams.
“Really!” Yunli chimes in. “That was super awesome! Thanks for the save, by the way. I owe you one big time!”
“Thank you! I-I could never have done this without you. I was pretty useless for most of the fight…” Huohuo trails off, shrinking into herself.
Mr. Tail groans. “Come on, what was that? Don’t put yourself down like that! Didn’t you want her to think you’re cool?”
“Shut up, Tail!” Huohuo hisses.
Yunli raises an eyebrow. “You wanted to impress me?”
“W-well… yeah,” Huohuo murmurs, staring at the floor. “It’s just… you’re so strong, and brave, and kind, and p-pretty, and…” she trails off, and her face flushes bright red.
It’s the cutest thing Yunli’s ever seen, and it’s making the weird fluttery feeling pop up again. “Well, I mean… you’re brave and pretty too…”
Huohuo perks up, and she manages to look Yunli in the eyes. “You really think so…?”
“Yeah.” And before the logical side of Yunli brain can pop up to suggest otherwise, she leans in and presses a quick kiss to the tip of Huohuo’s nose.
Huohuo’s eyes go wide, and Yunli can practically see the smoke coming out of her fox ears as her thought processes crash straight into a brick wall. “Er… um…”
But just as Yunli is getting some mental popcorn to watch Huohuo’s cute reactions all day, the Foxian suddenly grabs her by the collar of her outfit and smushes their lips together. And once the initial moment of surprise is over, it’s a very nice feeling. Huohuo’s warm and soft. Very nice.
But all too soon, Huohuo pulls away, out of breath. “U-um… was that okay?” she asks nervously.
“Uh, yeah,” Yunli giggles, her own brain still having a little trouble catching up. “Yeah, that was definitely okay. Wanna do it again?”
Huohuo touches the tips of her pointer fingers together. “We… should probably get Apyra back to the suppression tower.”
Oh. “Right. Yeah, we should…”
Huohuo clears her throat. “But after we’re done… maybe then we can do it more?” she offers.
Yunli blinks, then breaks out into a cheerful grin. “Yeah. That sounds great.”
. . .
Later in the day, General Huaiyan finally catches sight of Yunli again as she sprints across Starskiff Haven in the distance. And as he squints to get a better look, he notices that she seems to be carrying something in her arms – something green.
He taps Jing Yuan on the arm. “General, these old eyes of mine aren’t what they used to be. Could you tell me what my granddaughter seems to have found?”
Jing Yuan, too, takes a look at the approaching sword master. “She appears to be… bridal carrying a Foxian?”
Huaiyan chortles. “Well, that’s a new one.”
Before anything else can be said, Yunli comes bursting onto the scene with her trademark lack of subtlety. “Grandpa! Look what I found!” she exclaims.
“Ah, yes. And what is it you have there?” Huaiyan asks.
“A girlfriend!” Yunli answers, proudly presenting Huohuo, who’s curled up in her arms.
Huohuo awkwardly waves. “Um… hello, General… and, uh… other General…”
“So does this mean you’re finally ready to meet the other delegates and participate in the Wardance?” Huaiyan asks.
Yunli blinks. “Uh…”
“Hm. I take it this means you completely forgot?”
“One hundred percent, yeah.”
“Is it possible for me to convince you to come back now?” Huaiyan wonders.
“Nope!” Yunli chirps. “I got more kissing to do. Very urgent. See you later, Grandpa!” And with that, Yunli dashes off into the distance.
Huaiyan chuckles as he watches her go. “Ah, that child.”
Jing Yuan nods. “We still have plenty of time before the Wardance, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue. As long as, of course, Miss Yunli is willing to relinquish the young Judge back to the Ten-Lords Commission afterwards.”
Huaiyan just laughs. “I wouldn’t count on it.”