The two of them drank together deep into the night.
When Li Zhexian finally rose to take his leave, Dugu Bo suddenly said,
"Zhexian, aren't you going to see Yanyan?"
"That girl's been thinking of you every day for the past five years."
Li Zhexian smiled.
"There's plenty of time ahead. Now that I'm back in Heaven Dou, we'll see each other soon enough."
Dugu Bo nodded with a smile, watching the youth's figure leap a few times before vanishing into the night.
He lifted his head toward the bright moon and stroked his beard softly.
"Zhexian, that kid's finally back."
"This Heaven Dou City won't be so boring anymore."
...
Outside the northern outskirts of the city stood a quiet courtyard —
Li Zhexian's home in Heaven Dou.
He stopped before the closed gate.
Lifting a finger slightly—
A strand of sword qi slipped silently through the crack of the door.
A soft click followed, and the latch within snapped apart.
Pushing open the gate, he entered.
Moonlight spilled across the pebble path.
Along the walls, the four-season plum trees were in full bloom;
the plum branches were heavy with fruit;
and there, in the courtyard, the pair of sandalwood chairs he used to sit on — polished smooth by time — quietly waited as if they had never been moved.
He brushed his fingers across the tabletop. Not a trace of dust.
Clearly, someone had been tending to the place.
The house before him even seemed newer than it had five years ago.
"I'm home." A low whisper scattered into the night wind.
That night, he slept peacefully for the first time in years,
washing away the fatigue of five long years of wandering.
At dawn, after washing up, Li Zhexian shed his black robes and changed into a plain white long shirt.
The bronze mirror reflected a handsome young face, though a faint sharpness still lingered between his brows.
He rubbed his cheeks, forcing a smile that softened his expression—
and for a moment, he looked almost exactly like he had five years before.
He was different from those other survivors who crawled out of the Slaughter City.
Others had to struggle to cleanse themselves of their killing intent,
lest it consume their minds.
But his killing intent—
he had long since sealed it into his sword.
Without that,
he could never have forged the sixth form of Qinglian Sword Song.
Unless one were a Titled Douluo,
no one could even sense the killing intent hidden deep within him.
"Time to head out."
He strolled into the bustling streets.
The quiet of the northern suburbs quickly faded, replaced by the hum of the marketplace — warm, vibrant, alive.
Li Zhexian blended into the crowd, stopping here and there, pausing before trinket stalls, even haggling with street vendors.
"Auntie, how much for the sugar figurines?"
The plump woman behind the stall, with a mole by her lip, lifted her gaze, sizing up the young man in white before her.
"Small ones, two copper coins. Big ones, three."
Li Zhexian raised a brow.
"Oh, Auntie, do you take me for an outsider?"
"The old man at the Jinxi Bridge makes the best sugar figures in Heaven Dou — big ones for just one coin!"
Instead of flustered, the woman smiled brightly.
"That's my father! I'll give you the same price then — one coin!"
Without giving him a chance to protest,
she deftly pulled up a string of amber-colored syrup,
her hands working quickly as she shaped it into a sugar figurine, muttering softly all the while:
"Father hasn't set up his stall in a year now… this kid looks kinda familiar…"
Li Zhexian took the sugar figure—
the sweet aroma hit him instantly.
The taste… exactly the same as it used to be.
He bought two steaming hot buns from the next stall,
and as he walked, he ate slowly, savoring each bite.
Behind him,
the bun shop's owner—wearing a greasy apron—craned his neck and squinted at the departing white-robed figure.
"That build… that face…
Why does he look exactly like that guy… what was his name again…"
"Oh, right! Lord Sword Wine!"
...
Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.
High walls, deep courtyards.
Li Zhexian's thoughts stirred slightly.
Invisible strands of sword qi manifested out of thin air, darting into the academy grounds like swift fish.
"Yazi Sword Rift..."
His figure blurred—
and in the blink of an eye,
he vanished from the street and reappeared a hundred paces away.
The two Spirit Emperors guarding the gate remained completely unaware.
In the training grounds,
Yu Tianheng stood with his arms folded, brows furrowed in frustration,
glaring at the group of young students collapsed all over the floor, groaning and out of breath.
"Such weak foundations!"
"You can't even last through a single session in the simulated training room!"
"You lot want to join the Heaven Dou Battle Team too?"
"What a joke!"
Beside him stood Yu Feng, Dugu Yan, Ye Lingling, and the others — six in total — all wearing expressions of frustration as they looked at the new students, clearly exasperated.
With graduation drawing near, they'd been assigned by the academy to lead the freshmen's training.
But they hadn't expected it to be such a headache.
A young man gasped for breath, then flopped to the ground, drenched in sweat.
"I can't… I really can't anymore!"
"Senior brothers, senior sisters… no matter what you say, I can't move another inch!"
"This isn't training, it's torture!"
Once one spoke up, the others followed suit.
Soon, all the freshmen were sitting on the ground in a heap, wailing in unison.
"No more training!"
"We just started school—why train us this hard?!"
"All we need to do to get stronger is cultivate Spirit Power and absorb Spirit Rings!"
Yu Tianheng and the other six gathered together, staring at the lazy bunch before them, all feeling massive headaches coming on.
They were nearing graduation,
and the academy had assigned them, as outstanding seniors, to mentor the freshmen.
But who would've guessed the job would be this miserable?
"Heh, senior brothers, senior sisters…"
The boy who had first sat down grinned cheekily.
"Even if we don't train in that simulated training room, we'll still get stronger, right?"
Yu Tianheng snapped coldly:
"Who taught you that nonsense?"
"Senior Sword Wine, of course!"
The boy straightened proudly.
"I know this for a fact!
Senior Sword Wine never even went into the simulation training rooms—
heck, he barely even stepped foot into the academy!"
"I even heard—
that Senior Sword Wine hated school!"
"But didn't he still lead Heaven Dou to the championship?!"
At those words, the seven seniors froze.
They exchanged looks—speechless.
"...Sword Wine…"
Yu Tianheng drew in a deep breath, then barked:
"You think you're worthy to compare to him?!"
"Not just you — even us, and the geniuses from every other academy, even those from the Spirit Hall — none of us could compare to him!"
The younger students' eyes lit up at once.
"Senior brothers, senior sisters!"
"Tell us stories about Senior Sword Wine!"
"The old storyteller disappeared — we haven't heard his tales in ages!"
Yu Feng rubbed his forehead and sighed.
"Training first!"
"What stories?!"
The young ones all groaned miserably, shaking their heads like stubborn mules.
"We wanna hear the stories!"
"Wasn't Senior Sword Wine wanted by the Spirit Hall? I heard the Pope beat him so hard he coughed blood!"
"Pah! That version's fake! Lord Sword Wine nailed the Pope to the wall!"
"Hah! Forget the Pope—even Senior Yu Tianheng got nailed once!"
Yufeng, Oslo, and the Shi brothers all turned to stare at Yu Tianheng—whose face had gone pitch-black—barely suppressing their laughter.
That incident, it seemed, would never be forgotten.
Training for the day was clearly over;
the new students were too busy bickering over half-baked rumors,
and the entire training ground had descended into chaos.
Smack—!
A sharp crack split the noise.
Dugu Yan's whip lashed down like a green serpent,
her beautiful face now iced over in fury.
"You brats really don't know your place!"
"You think you can compare to my brother Zhexian?!"
"All of you—ON YOUR FEET!"
"TRAIN!"
The students jolted as if struck by lightning,
faces twisted in misery as they scrambled to their feet.
Yu Tianheng and the others had just started to relax when—
"Hey now—"
A calm, cheerful voice suddenly rang out from the entrance of the training ground:
"No need to be so fierce…"