"System, use the fishing attempt."
Ye Xuan didn't hesitate for even a moment. He activated the fishing chance the system had granted him, and in an instant, the world around him plunged into complete darkness. Then an invisible force slowly wrapped itself around him, guiding him into an entirely new space.
*BOOM!*
A heartbeat later, his vision opened wide. He found himself suspended in the middle of an endless galaxy. Millions of stars adorned the deep black sky, glittering like scattered jewels.
Ye Xuan floated above that galaxy, feeling the warm light of distant suns and the magnificent aura of the flowing cosmic river beneath him. His heart swelled with a sense of wonder he had no words for.
"Why do most transmigrators who get bound to a system trust it without question?"
"This is why."
It wasn't that he lacked perspective. It was simply that the sight before him was the kind that left anyone breathless. And in the wake of that awe came something else entirely, a profound sense of security.
In an unfamiliar world, having a system this powerful bound to him made that feeling surge through him all at once.
While Ye Xuan stood there marveling, a gentle beam of golden light slowly rose from his palm, gradually solidifying into a fishing rod wrapped in violet radiance. Its shaft was carved with intricate rune symbols, every line of which gave off a faint, steady glow.
At the tip of the rod sat a deep green gemstone pulsing with a mysterious aura. A golden thread hung from the end, trailing straight down toward the brilliant galaxy below.
As the line descended, the space around it trembled faintly, as though something was slowly being drawn near.
Ye Xuan kept his eyes fixed on that golden thread, quietly hoping for something good.
He thought to himself that even if he didn't land one of the things he had imagined earlier, he could still be happy with something like Doraemon's Four-Dimensional Pocket, Grey Wolf's inventive genius, or the Emperor's Armor. He could make do.
Well, maybe he was getting a little greedy. But since he already knew he was greedy, why not go all the way?
Right as that thought crossed his mind, the fishing rod gave a strange tremor. With a single impulse, the line rose quickly, pulling up a golden sphere of light that radiated a soft, steady glow. The system's voice resonated in his ears.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the Template: Wangquan Baye (Youth)]
[Note 1: Wangquan Baye is a character from the world of Fox Spirit Matchmaker, leader of the organization known as "Mask," future head of the Yi Qi Dao Alliance, and patriarch of the Wangquan family. This template reflects his younger years. While he already possesses the "Sword Heart," he has not yet awakened the "Wangquan Sword Intent."]
[Note 2: Upon merging the template, the host will obtain all talents and abilities belonging to that template, but will not inherit the memories, personality, or emotions of the original character.]
"A character from the Fox Spirit world, the Wangquan Baye template."
Ye Xuan stared at what he had pulled up, momentarily stunned. Fragments of relevant scenes began surfacing in his mind.
"This place may be forbidden ground for cowards, but how could it ever frighten us? How could it ever frighten me, Wangquan Baye!"
"That day, I watched the greatest swordsman in the world hold the greatest sword in the world, and yet... he had long since lost his Sword Heart."
"If reincarnation can mend what fate has severed, then what does it matter whether the enemy is a monster or not?"
"Huai Zhu, I have finally come back to you, and I have brought my Sword Heart with me."
The arrogance of youth, always believing there was nothing in the world beyond reach. And then, as the years wore on, the slow, painful realization that human strength has its limits.
Wangquan Baye's life was a tragedy, and the turning point of that tragedy was the journey to Outside the Circle. Because of that place, his brothers were slaughtered, the Taoist sect fell into decline, Dongfang Huai Zhu was gravely harmed, and his Sword Heart was shattered. Everything began there.
But was going Outside the Circle truly a mistake?
Ye Xuan fell quiet, then shook his head. That was a question for Wangquan Baye and the other members of Mask to answer, not him. As far as he was concerned, the spirit of youth was never something to be ashamed of. They had simply underestimated what lay beyond the Circle, and overestimated themselves.
"But in his youth, he hadn't yet grasped the Wangquan Sword Intent?"
"Right, Wang Fugui once mentioned that the Wangquan Sword Intent was something Wangquan Baye himself created after returning from Outside the Circle. The first person to truly comprehend it was Wangquan Wumu, but Wumu died far too young, and so the technique was never passed on."
"Even after losing his Sword Heart, he was still able to create the Wangquan Sword Intent. If his Sword Heart had remained intact, could he have achieved a true union of man and sword with the Wangquan Blade?"
The image rose in his mind, of Wangquan Baye forcing the Sword Intent and the Wangquan Blade together in a desperate bid to revive the Yi Qi Dao Alliance, only to fail.
The Sword Heart was gone. How could the sword in his hand and the sword in his heart ever become one?
Even so, the blade at his hand had grown ever sharper. If his Sword Heart had never been lost, if he had still been holding the Wangquan Blade, why would he have had any reason to fear even the Four Great Demon Kings?
"System, merge the Wangquan Baye template."
Ye Xuan spoke quietly. In an instant, a tremendous energy poured out of the void and into his body. It moved like a surging river, carrying with it boundless vitality and life, rushing through every meridian inside him.
As the energy continued to flow, Ye Xuan's body began to tremble violently. Every inch of his skin and muscle underwent a drastic transformation.
In the world of Fox Spirit, humans could not live forever, but mastering any form of power brought enormous physical change. Without a strong enough body, how could a person possibly contain the strength they carried?
The youthful Wangquan Baye might not have matched Wangquan Fugui, who had inherited Dongfang Huai Zhu's spiritual energy, but as the greatest genius of his generation, his power was far from weak, especially by the standards of someone as ordinary as Ye Xuan.
As the merging continued, Ye Xuan's clothing began to change as well. His original outfit slowly faded away, replaced by a blue-white outer robe and white inner garments. In his hand, without him noticing quite when it had appeared, rested a long sword engraved with two characters: Wang Quan.
It was not the true Wangquan Blade, of course, only the sword Wangquan Baye had carried in his younger years, which happened to bear his family name. Ye Xuan hadn't expected that merging the template would come with clothing and a weapon included.
Feeling the full weight of the power now residing in his body, and the instinctive conviction that arose the moment his hand closed around the sword's hilt, the certainty that there is no place in this world I cannot go, and nothing I cannot reach, Ye Xuan finally understood, truly understood, what the Sword Heart that Wangquan Baye had lost truly was.
After some time, Ye Xuan gradually came back to himself, shaking free of the template's lingering influence. With a single thought, he returned the robe and the long sword to the system space.
As much as he wanted to find somewhere to test his new strength, it was already late at night, and he had school in the morning.
The Dimensional Invasion and the Spiritual Energy Awakening had given everyone a chance at power, but in the end, only a handful of people had actually obtained it. Besides, Xia Nation was currently under the watch of Elder Zhong, who carried the Rex Lapis template. Anyone who thought they could run wild just because they had gotten their hands on a little power was living in a dream.