You Are Not Yaxiu Heath at All

Looking at his visitor, Xilin stood up with a start. The blood moon shone through the tips of his hair, illuminating the shock on half his face. "You... How could you..." "Probably just to see that expression on your face right now." Yaxiu smiled. "'Yaxiu Heath, who had never practiced swordsmanship, faced off against an impudent elven swordsman in battle and miraculously triumphed over him. After breaking out of prison, he tracked down the one who framed him to enact his revenge, embarking on a magnificent, tumultuous life'—what do you think of this script? "By the way, don't move around, or my fingers might slip." Xilin suddenly felt a chill at his neck as warm liquid trickled into his collar. "Don't look down; your head might fall off," Yaxiu said seriously, pointing two fingers shaped into a sword at the elven professor. He drew a longsword from beneath his tongue and planted it into the floor, the miracle Sword Body Barrier already primed. Xilin's eyes flicked downward. "Heart Sword... Valkas's Heart Sword sorcery spirit? I see. I was wondering—Valkas was never a careless elf. If he truly wanted someone dead, there would be no reason for a mistake like 'coming within an inch of dying.' It was far more likely done on purpose. He always liked showing off his skills, even as a child." Yaxiu paused slightly. "...He liked showing off his skills as a child?" "Indeed. For instance, scoring exactly one point higher on each exam than the last; doing a handstand on a single finger on a balance beam; or trailing by ten points in a swordsmanship match before mounting a desperate comeback... He was always so infatuated with his own talent, so desperate to become a dazzling hero, forever creating difficulties for himself to draw everyone's attention." Xilin's eyelids lowered halfway. "He was a mischievous, proud child from a young age." Yaxiu's pupils widened slightly. "What... was your relationship with Valkas?" Xilin tilted his head slightly, letting the Heart Sword cut a streak of blood into his throat. "I know what you're thinking... I was once a teacher at the Emerald Dragon Rearing Institute, teaching there for thirty-one years. Hmm, it has been renamed 'Emerald Garden' now. In my second year of teaching, the Supreme Love Church sent over six elven toddlers—one of whom was Valkas Ur. "I was the one who named him. It means 'Free Water Lily.' Normally, after elves leave the rearing institute, they choose a new name for themselves, just as I chose my own name, which means 'Magnificent Crown of Thorns.' "That he did not change his name meant he was very fond of it, but it also signified..." Xilin pressed his right hand lightly over his heart. "...that he respected and loved me, the guardian teacher who watched him grow up." Although Yaxiu had long anticipated that the relationship between Xilin and Valkas was unusual—after all, the malice Valkas had displayed before Yaxiu was completely genuine, indicating a feud as deep as the sea between the two elves, far beyond any ordinary transactional relationship— Yaxiu had never imagined their relationship had once been this intimate! "Then why did you... send Valkas to the Blood Moon Trial?" "What a strange question, Heath. Truly strange," Xilin said. "He broke the law, was imprisoned, and was put on trial. Everything was deserved; everything was entirely natural. He was clearly the one who walked down the wrong path, took the wrong step, and brought about his own destruction. Why do you make it sound as if I were the one who killed him?" "Stop pretending. After hearing Financier's speech the other day, do you think I'd buy this kind of nonsense?" Yaxiu sneered. "Holding high office, expertly wielding authority, wrapping personal motives in the public interest, and burying private matters beneath official business—naturally, you can achieve your goals within the legal bounds. All of it was merely 'a minor indulgence of power.' "What I want to know is: given how deep your history with Valkas ran, how could you bring yourself to purge him? Merely because he was incompetent and failed to kill me in the death match? Merely to ensure that I would die in the Blood Moon Trial, you crammed him into the trial sequence to drag me down with him?" "'Merely'?" A rare look of fury appeared on Xilin's face. "I was murdering you with utter seriousness! I threw everything I had into it! I exhausted every means at my disposal! And you sum up all my efforts and determination over these past days with a single 'merely'?!" The elf's sudden outburst forced Yaxiu to take half a step back—if he hadn't, the Heart Sword would have severed the elf's windpipe! Xilin was actually disregarding his own life, craning his head forward to glare at Yaxiu as if Yaxiu's words had stepped squarely onto a landmine! "Calm down, calm down, Professor Xilin." Yaxiu didn't even know what the hell he was saying anymore. "Take your time. Don't make sudden moves. It's not like I wanted things to turn out this way either." In an instant, their roles were reversed. Yaxiu, the assassin, became meek and appeasing, while Xilin, the victim, grew haughty and domineering. The reason was simply that Yaxiu had realized his 'threat' wasn't nearly as effective as he had imagined. He had thought that once he placed the Heart Sword against the elf's throat, only two outcomes could follow: The elf would rather die than submit, leaving Yaxiu no choice but to grant him relief; Or the elf would wet his pants in terror, allowing Yaxiu to carry out a satisfying revenge. But Xilin's reaction had completely defied Yaxiu's expectations. Though surprised, he was not afraid. And though he had no fear of death, he didn't mind divulging intelligence to Yaxiu either. Yaxiu had initially assumed Xilin was preparing some counter-killing miracle and had readied himself to lop off his head in a single stroke, determined to nip any move in the bud the moment Xilin showed a sign of acting. Yet far from attempting a counterattack, Xilin had actively pressed his neck against the blade of the Heart Sword. This put Yaxiu in a terrible dilemma—because he didn't just need intelligence about Heath; he needed intelligence on how to escape the Blood Moon Country even more. Yet the latter was hardly ordinary information that an undocumented drifter like him could simply ask around for. The elf before him, however, was a top-tier player whose political reputation (councilman), racial reputation (Elven Rights Protection Association), academic reputation (university professor), and underworld reputation (Woodpecker) were all maxed out at Revered. Two centuries of accumulated connections made Xilin a massive fountainhead of intelligence. With Yaxiu's current capabilities, Xilin was the best consultant for leaving the Blood Moon—of course, besides Xilin, there were definitely many others who knew the channels to get out, such as Bloodmad Hunter Gerard, the research institute director, the war zone commander, the bishop of the Supreme Love Church... And that was precisely why Yaxiu was so conflicted: because aside from Xilin, all the others were ruthless badasses capable of beating the evening's Lalafell right out of him with a wave of their hands. Yaxiu quickly weighed the pros and cons and decided to stroke the elf's fur the right way first. Once he mollified him and pried out the necessary intelligence, he would run a sword through this mastermind's throat, complete a magnificent vengeance, and become a bona fide wanted fugitive. Back then, Valkas pierced my throat with a sword during the Blood Moon Trial; now I pierce yours. Perfectly fair, right? I'm just pocketing a small margin—I took the Heart Sword, which makes this fundamentally Valkas's rebellion against you. As the saying goes, every debt has its debtor. Professor Xilin, once you reach the Void Realm, just seek out Valkas for revenge. Of course, you're welcome to seek revenge on me too; I'll have the Sword Princess bash your dog head in. Having mentally prepared himself to be the villain, Yaxiu managed to force a warm smile. "Professor Xilin..." "I gave him a chance." "Huh?" "I have never been stingy with mercy toward my compatriots. Whenever an elf strays from the path, I give them chance after chance to redeem themselves," Xilin said placidly. "If given the opportunity, how I wished I could drink and converse joyfully with Valkas, how I wished I could hand this study over to him... just as the previous president handed this study over to me seventy years ago. "He was once the successor I admired most. He despised politics, yet he was naturally adept at it from childhood. He relished killing, but his work was clean, crisp, and never left behind evidence. He loved taking risks, so he served as the leader of Woodpecker for ten years—those were truly the most carefree ten years. Compared to him, Gessas is nothing more than a wild boar rooting around in the mud for scraps. "Moreover, your initial guess may not have been wrong." "Hmm?" For a moment, Yaxiu failed to follow—his initial guess? "Aside from being Valkas's guardian teacher, I may also be Valkas's 'provider' in the biological sense." Yaxiu's jaw dropped. Stunned for a moment, he squeezed out a single word: "May?" "I don't share Financier's peculiar interest in going out of my way to trace the flow of my bloodline," Xilin said calmly. "However, we elves are a very unique race. In addition to our low desire to mate, the combination rate of our genetic material is extremely low. Only during a specific month does the success rate rise from 0.8% to 13%. This month is known as the 'Month of Elven Birth,' which occurs on average once every three years. "Unlike other races that can reproduce at will, elves only have 'complete mating rights' during the Month of Elven Birth. This is not only to increase birth rates, but also to sever bloodline bonds—elven births are simply too rare; if reproduction were scattered, bloodline providers could easily locate their own children based on dates of birth. "And one year before Valkas entered the rearing institute, I answered the church's call and engaged in complete mating. In theory, Valkas truly could have been my child. Our hair and eye colors were identical, and I could see the shadow of my past in him." There was not the slightest tremor in Xilin's voice, yet his pupils carried the weathered stillness of congealed years. Time could leave no mark upon an elf's flesh, but their souls were long consumed by the vastness of their past. Even gently turning a single page of memory would scatter the dust of countless mountains traversed. "He was both your student and your child, so why..." "Valkas failed me." Xilin covered his eyes with a hand. "He was a stain upon the elves, a traitor among the long-lived species. I gave him a chance, offering a reunion with his own flesh and blood as a reward, yet he still chose to defy my will... I would love nothing more than to see him suffer in the Blood Moon Heaven." Perhaps because he had lived in this bizarre country for too long, Yaxiu found that when confronted with these incomprehensibly warped interpersonal dynamics, he could now observe them with equanimity, devoid of any urge to comment. Now that the mystery surrounding Valkas had been unraveled, the next step was... "Professor Xilin, why on earth... did you..." Yaxiu suddenly realized he had become extraordinarily slow. Even his thoughts were sluggish, like someone straining through a foreign-language listening comprehension exam. Helplessly, he watched as Xilin stepped back, moving outside the Heart Sword's attack range, sorcery spirits manifesting around his body to cast a miracle. Only then did the thought slowly surface in Yaxiu's mind: I need to defend with Sword Body Barrier. Yet before he could do anything, tree branches suddenly sprouted from the wooden floorboards and pierced through the carpet. Tree trunks surged along his body, and within moments, a great tree took shape inside the study. Yaxiu was fused into the trunk, bound tight and immobile! Crack! Time fell like crashing rain, striking with distinct clarity. Yaxiu finally returned to normal, but it was already useless—the tree not only trapped his body firmly, but also sealed away his sorcery power. The hovering Heart Sword had already dispersed as the connection of sorcery power snapped! Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart, an indispensable medium for driving swordsmanship sorcery spirits, had furthermore been snatched away by the branches. Now, he couldn't use a single one of his swordsmanship sorcery spirits! This was the weakness of specialized sorcery spirits—as long as one recognized the common restrictions of a particular faction and confiscated the essential casting medium, most of the opponent's powerful sorcery spirits could be neutralized! "As expected, you cannot resist the control of 'Stunning Eye.'" Only now did Yaxiu notice that Xilin had taken off the glove on his right hand at some point. Though he had covered his eyes with his right hand, Yaxiu could clearly see the elf's emerald-green pupil. It was so deep, so brilliant, as if it could swallow a person's soul whole. Yet what surged within Yaxiu's heart at this moment was sheer shock. Because in the palm of Xilin's hand, there was a hole. A hole that allowed an eye to peer out through it! "You are not Yaxiu Heath at all. Who on earth are you?" Xilin lowered his hand, sat back down in his chair, and looked at Yaxiu with eyes brimming with bewilderment. Though he had no idea how he had been exposed, Yaxiu hastily went with the flow. "Right, right! I'm not Yaxiu Heath at all, just an ordinary guy out for a night walk because I couldn't sleep. I hope Your Excellency Elf lets me go right away, or I'll sue you for unlawful imprisonment and violating my human rights—" Xilin paid him no heed at all, keeping his head bowed as he muttered to himself. But soon he shot to his feet, his expression filled with undisguisable terror, alongside a hysterical cruelty! "Could it be... the ritual succeeded?" He glared fixedly at Yaxiu, looking as though he wanted to devour this handsome young man alive. "Are you the true 'Touch'?"