"Just as that ancestor of yours mentioned, sis, anything can become a blade in the hands of a true swordsman... and just the other way around, an exceptional swordsman is one whose sword can become much more than a mere weapon!" Cheng Hao had just removed his two forefingers from Xiao Wu's forehead. Before she could say anything he raised his hand and gestured her not to speak. "You should ponder on this yourself. The answer to his question is even more particularly a self-examination Xiao Lan has sneaked in in order to induce enlightenment regarding the Three Little Qi. I wouldn't be able to help you much there..."

"What I can do however, is to plant these memories in your mind, for you to eventually explore as you like the day your Will has been sharpened enough... possibly, when you'll reach the Sung or Advanced stage. It really depends on how much you're willing to dabble in Aura Manipulation."

Cheng Hao smiled "With that aside, let's continue, shall we?" He cleared his voice and resumed the tale, which was now in its third ‘Act’.

"When the dragon king opened his eyes again, he found that the woman had been patiently awaiting for him to wake up. The two of them began to talk and spend time together, time which acted as a remedy to the hurt dragon king; the days passed, and just as the wounds on his body had, those afflicting his soul were also gradually being healed. Eventually, a bond came to form between the two of them and the woman began to take up a special place in the dragon's heart. However, after many pleasant days passed by her side, the dragon king noticed something terrible: with every passing day, the white-robed girl would begin to grow more and more ephemeral, like a phantom! However, the one time when he had decided point it out, the girl had dismissed it with a smile. Finally, one day, she had eventually reached the point where she was on the verge of disappearing completely. Her white-as-jade face had grown sickly and even paler, her eyes would alternate between periods of blankness and clarity. Finally, just as she felt the last of her strength leave her and each breath to potentially be her last, the woman ultimately chose to reveal her origins:"

"She was, or rather had originally been, an albino oak. Her seed had fallen from the heavens into the cave a very long time ago. She had been trapped into the gloomy, dark cave for a long, long time: one day, a mysterious being had passed by the cavern and, without any apparent reason, had cursed the mouth of the grotto to block any light from seeping in... That, to her dismay, had also included the moonlight that she needed to grow and feed itself! With nothing to feed on, she had been living in the darkness, slowly withering away and weakening more and more with each day that passed. It was only due to her own unwillingness to die that she had been able to survive until the day the dragon had fallen into the cave. That time, she had been on the verge of dying too and had been thinking of giving up her futile struggles... just then however, the stream of the dragon's tears, bursting with vitality, had allowed her consciousness to manifest and the Albino Oak to recover even if only slightly. Taking the form of the white robed woman, the albino oak's consciousness had therefore come out of the withered tree to see the source of the tears which had gifted her with a new life."

"Initially, she only had the intention of helping the dragon king out due to the gratitude she was feeling towards him... however, as time passed and they got to know each other better, that gratitude had slowly but surely bloomed into a deep-rooted feeling of affection. As such, one day, she had let herself go in his embrace and shyly leaned in to peck his lips. From that day onwards, the two of them had become lovers and at the same time, secretly, the Albino Oak had also made a choice: she was feeling herself growing weaker with each day she spent bottled up in the pitch-black cave; there was simply no way she could picture herself living like that for any more than a year before she eventually passed away... and she had come to accept that.

However, before the time was up, she would do her best to help her beloved! She knew first-hand of the gentleness and kindness in his heart: she had kept it for herself all these years she had passed beside him as his lover. Once she would be gone however, the albino oak feared the hatred and revenge that had been buried would resurface. As such, in that one year she had left, she had decided to do her best to impart in her dear dragon king things that far exceeded revenge; a force much stronger than hatred... a force called affection; a feeling called love."

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"As he listened to her story, the dragon was gently clutching the fading consciousness of the albino oak close to his chest; unfortunately, in the end, no matter how tightly he squeezed, he could only watch his beloved slowly turn into fluttering white leaves, slowly carried away by the breeze, back towards the albino tree that had taken root deep within the cave. The dragon followed the leaves. Once there, he found her; the Albino Oak, a vortex of white leaves accompanying its passing to the next world. The black dragon in human form watched as he laid his sight upon the withering body of the one he had come to love... and cried again. And as he cried, he felt her. He felt her lingering spirit, gently hugging his back, whispering,"

"You were once my moonlight in the darkness of this dark, gloomy cave. Now, let me become the sun that melts the ice in your heart."

"And sure enough, as heard those words, a feeling of warmth spread in his chest. The dragon smiled as one tear after the next streaked down his cheeks; those tears were extremely sweet, carrying with them all of his gratefulness and affection as they fell. The sound they made as they hit the cave floor turned into the only thing to be heard. During and afterwards, no other sound dared to echo out, as if scared to interrupt that one moment. After all..."

"In his thoughts all his rage had turned into boundless love."

"In his heart, the lands he had once burnt down to cinders had turned into the world he wished to walk upon together with her, hand in hand..."

"In his memories, the faces of his enemies had all changed into that one withered yet beautiful albino oak."

"And as soon as the last strand of hate, the last lingering thought of revenge was gone from his heart, the curse that had been binding the fallen dragon into his human form slowly unraveled... and shattered."

Cheng Hao lifted his head. He flicked his finger, and Xiao Wu's mind was inundated once again by a stream of memories.

This time around, the purple-haired young man, Xiao Lan, was standing on top of a tall cliff, while Xiao Wu found herself looking at him a few hundred meters of distance away from him. This Xiao Lan emanated an even more accentuated air of ancientness, which gave birth to a striking contrast with his youthful looks... More importantly, he was also wearing the regal robes of the Xiao Clan: he was now a cultivator of the Immortal Realm; the Clan Head of the esteemed Xiao Clan!

"A single tear... conveys more meaning than a thousand words."

"A thousand tears... form a silent poem; the soundless tale of a life."

Xiao Lan raised his right arm and, shockingly, thousands of black blades rushed over from countless directions off in the distance. They all were the exact same as Xiao Wu's Black Dragon's Blade, however were hundreds of time bigger. They began to rotate around Xiao Lan... First they were a handful, but soon, they turned into dozens, hundreds, and then a thousand! Suddenly, all of them shot up, stopping a few dozen feet in the air, their tip pointing perpendicularly towards the ground. They distributed in the sky above Xiao Lan until there was not a single palm of dirt within a range of more than a hundred meters around him that lacked a blade hovering above it.

Xiao Lan's eyes glittered a bright emerald green. He spoke absentmindedly, "The Black Dragon shed tears of longing, of understanding, and most importantly... of love, and gratefulness. He spoke no word, as those teardrops carried a thousand meanings by themselves."

"These thousand blades of mine are MY tears. Before, during and after; not a single word, not a sound shall be uttered!"

"All that is needed are a thousand: a single teardrop shed in the darkness, one thousand meanings conveyed in silence, and a thousand blades to turn the world silent!"

"These blades, seeking to silence the world, are my third Deification!"

"They are the Black Dragon's..."

"Aphonic Tears!"

Xiao Lan lowered his arm as he shed a single tear from his right eye! As it streaked down his face, the Black Dragon Blades began glowing, infused with a will of extermination! They shot down all at the same time! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Like hot metal soundlessly cutting through butter, each blade embedded itself into the ground! In a single moment, the valley Xiao Lan and Xiao Wu were in turned into an ocean of blades, of a thousand swords embedded into the ground up to their handle.

And even if only a moment, the world really, truly fell silent.