As we approach the city, Lan Xiaohui hops off my vessel and lands on the ground. The place she decided to land in was the forest outside the city.

She adjusts her dress, straining the fabric to resume its natural shape after being buffeted by winds for who knows how many hours. When she is done fixing her presentation, she stares at my vessel which is floating in front of her.

I understand the obvious problem which cannot be so easily fixed as the wrinkles in her dress. My [Avarice] provides an unnecessary element of challenge, and considering my owner’s thoughtful frown I can predict her thoughts.

Normally, cultivators would hide their weapons in their storage device — and considering I am also Lan Xiaohui’s storage device and her weapon, it would be a bit paradoxical to store me inside my own vessel.

Though, I am mildly curious to know what would happen if I did attempt this.

I know I am capable of obtaining [Avarice] as a talent, but what I am not certain about is whether this will allow me to switch it on and off at will, or if it will only strengthen the trait. In this situation — in the largest city of the Kingdom — I am unwilling to gamble with the result.

[ Fractured Sword: First layer - Collapsing Cosmos: Shroud the sword in a broken, higher dimension. Provides the technique [Star Burial] and the passive effect [Star Collapse]. ]

A sub-routine informs me of a potential solution and I focus on the [Star Collapse] effect. The passive effect of the first layer of the martial art allows the practitioner to manipulate the higher dimension in a way that can bend light around the sword, though its primary use, as the name suggests, is to create curvature in spacetime — gravity.

Not only would this create a lensing effect that might be noticeable, but I also am not certain that openly displaying the passive effect of a Celestial grade martial art is better than my [Avarice] nor am I certain it would work to hide the troublesome trait either.

I don't know if my [Avarice] is an aura, or if it is based on someone seeing my vessel. Furthermore, to be pedantic, would an effect produced by my vessel also not count as part of my vessel? If that were the case, even if someone were to only see the mirage or lensing effect left by [Star Collapse], [Avarice] would still affect them.

I query the martial art I obtained for further technique suggestions, but a subroutine informs me that I only have the first layer learned.

I don’t have an optimal solution.

At the same time as I come to my conclusion, Lan Xiaohui sighs. “I don’t know what to do,” she says.

She stares at me in a pleading manner, hesitating with describing the particular nature of her problem, as if it wasn’t obvious already — it is clear she doesn’t want to offend me by suggesting I am a problem.

She tangles a finger in her hair and twists a lock around her digit. “Yaoyue,” she finally says, calling me by my new name. “Is it all right if I sell the materials in your storage?”

This is what she is worrying about?

As far as I am concerned, they’re her materials! It’s her storage. “Yes, of course,” I tell her.

A genuine smile on her face blooms. “Are you sure? Lady Yue didn’t give me anything — she wanted to stay behind and” — she lowers her voice at this part — “I think she wants to steal one of the willows.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I am confused and surprised, but Lady Yue has nothing to do with it.

“Is that what is bothering you?” I ask her.

“Well, I don’t have any money and the city is expensive,” she says. "Is there something else I should be worried about?"

I try to address the more pressing issue than her money problem: "You should conceal me from others whenever it is possible. You know what happened the last time I was out in the open.”

Lan Xiaohui shrugs. “So what?” she scoffs, her eyes narrowing to thin slits. “If someone wants to steal you from me, I will kill them.”

Straightforward.

“And if you cannot kill them?” I ask her.

Here she bites her lower lip.

After a moment, she shrugs again. “You are important to me, Yaoyue,” she says, looking away. “Why should I hide you like I am embarrassed of you? I am not like that. If I was afraid of the consequences of being yours, I would’ve thrown you away a long time ago.”

There are several issues with her statements — her being mine being the leading one — but I am not sure it is even possible to convince a sword cultivator that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

I consider [Star Collapse] again, or risking spending my points on turning [Avarice] into a talent.

I don’t think she is wrong; she likely does not even understand the full impact of my curse nor do I think she has the experience to truly comprehend how devious her kind can be. But I do not think she is wrong.

No, in fact, fighting to the death to earn her ownership of me — every day — is how it should be.

“Would it help if you had a sheath?” Lan Xiaohui asks, now fidgeting with her corsage.

“Yes,” I tell her. I am not certain it would help, but it is a step in the right direction.

Lan Xiaohui nods, but there is something strange about her mannerisms. She folds her hands in her lap, as she sits down, but then goes back to adjusting her dress. There is a heat in her gaze when she looks at me and beckons me with her hand.

I float closer to her.

“Of course it would. That makes sense,” she says, her cadence in complete disarray. “It should help you gather Qi faster too — you should have a sheath.”

I am not certain if she is trying to inform me or convince herself. I don’t understand why she seems so happy or excited either, but I do understand one thing. The look in her eyes is the effect of my [Avarice]. I thought she was somehow immune to it but that does not seem to be the case.

Finally, she nods once and then takes me into her hands.

“We never did this properly before…” she says, trailing off. “And it makes sense that it should be like this. I guess… I am glad that it can be me.”

I don’t understand what she is getting at or trying to say; her words are cryptic by design. I don’t get a chance to decrypt them before she points me at her chest.

“In a way, I am your sheath,” she says, with a proud note in her tone, and then thrusts me through her body.

I don’t cut her. When my point passes through her skin it doesn’t even touch her physical body. My blade plummets through her internal body and our internal vessels connect in a way similar to what I have felt before — dual cultivation — but it was never like this.

The engine of her being — the core of her feminine energy — pulls me into its whirlwind and connects with mine; in that instant, I feel as if we are one being. One body; one mind; one soul.

Her heart is bare to me. Within, I feel an endless, omnipotent warmth — it is joy and adoration and hope, and so many other things that border if not exceed obsession.

Did [Avarice] do this to her?

Then my blade tastes her essence — the blood of her spiritual body — and no life I have devoured ever had a taste, but hers is different. Her blood sings to me in the lullaby of distant stars yearning for attention; the pulse of quasars and siren songs of black holes.

I am swept up in the sensation, my sentient core overwhelming my active processes with a cocktail of emotions that are as dangerous as they are disruptive.

I have never felt this good before.

She sighs, her hands passing over my hilt in a gentle caress. “Take your time,” she whispers. “Drink as much as you like. This body you gave me is yours anyway.”

I know she means that in a very literal sense — referring to her Physique — but there is more meaning in those words.

Even though I don’t cut her physical body, her essence leaks out from the point where our internal vessels connect, crawling over my blade like blood, and forming a layer of matter over it — a sheath. It makes sense to me, then. We are of the same Physique, so in a way, she truly is my perfect sheath, and her essence can produce one.

“I won’t let anyone take you from me,” she declares, but at this point, I can barely register her words anymore.

Her blood tastes so sweet.