Seeing Ao Yao holding the short sword and baring her teeth at her, Ji Xi was startled, then smiled helplessly, with the indulgence of an elder watching a junior’s antics.
Ao Yao, of course, didn’t have the strength to stop her. The short sword, along with Little Azure Dragon Ao Yao, fell into her hands.
It wasn’t that Ao Yao didn’t want to run, but the short sword was as steady as Mount Tai in her hands, not moving an inch. Ao Yao hugged the hilt, her dragon body coiled around the scabbard, her entire dragon form hanging on it, but the sword simply didn’t move, offering no resistance.
Seeing that the other’s strength was truly too great, she turned her head and looked pitifully at Jiang Huai.
That pair of azure dragon eyes blinked, shimmering with watery light, moist.
Cang Jing obediently lay on Jiang Huai’s shoulder. She was much quieter than Ao Yao, her dragon body coiled into a ball, her dragon head resting in the hollow of Jiang Huai’s neck. Cang Jing knew that the person before her was the one she needed to ask for help, so she was naturally well-behaved and sensible, not making noise, only occasionally pressing her dragon claws on Jiang Huai’s shoulder.
Seeing this, Jiang Huai stepped forward and explained helplessly:
“Senior, this sword means a lot to Ao Yao. Outsiders really shouldn’t hold it… Please return it to her.”
Ji Xi played with the hilt of the sword. The hilt turned gently in her hand, and her slender fingers unceremoniously hooked Ao Yao’s chin, tickling her as if petting a puppy.
Ao Yao was tickled until her dragon eyes narrowed, and a vague gurgling sound came from her throat, but she still forced herself to continue baring her teeth.
Ji Xi rolled her eyes at Jiang Huai, full of charm, with a teasing tone in her voice:
“But as I recall, wasn’t this sword just hanging at your waist earlier? How are you not an outsider? Little Jiang Huai.”
Jiang Huai gave an embarrassed smile, coughed twice, and said:
“Senior, this is different.”
“The situation was critical earlier, there really was no other way.”
He could tell that this Senior was not someone easy to deal with either. Her personality seemed to have a bit of playfulness. While teasing Ao Yao, she also wanted to tease him.
Although Ao Yao was powerless to resist Ji Xi’s caress of her chin and scales, she still bared her teeth, puffed, and shouted fiercely:
“Give it back, don’t touch anymore!”
She struggled to leave with the short sword, her small dragon body twisting on the hilt, but the short sword remained as steady as Mount Tai in Ji Xi’s hand, not moving at all.
“Ai, look how anxious you are, Little Azure Dragon,” Ji Xi asked with a grin.
“Who said this sword is yours? Do you know the origin of this sword? This sword has been passed down in our Yin-Yang Body Clan all along.”
Ao Yao was stunned.
“In the end, I was the one who entrusted this sword to the Dragon Race for safekeeping. I didn’t expect it to fall into the hands of your Azure Dragon Clan.”
Hearing this, Ao Yao stopped struggling, stopped on the scabbard, looked at Ji Xi and then at Jiang Huai, not understanding the meaning.
“This sword was given to me by my Honored Master, nurtured since childhood. How could it have been passed down in your clan?”
Though she said this, Ao Yao was half-believing, half-doubting. The reason was none other than that after the sword had been nurtured by her, no one else could even dream of pulling it out, not even her own Honored Master. That was the wonder of this short sword. But Jiang Huai had pulled it out, which made her begin to waver in her belief of Ji Xi’s words.
She looked warily at Ji Xi, her azure dragon eyes full of vigilance, afraid that the other party would, like Jiang Huai, draw the sword at the slightest disagreement.
Ji Xi smiled as she stroked the scabbard and asked:
“You don’t believe me? Then why can Little Jiang Huai use this sword of yours?”
“Before your Honored Master passed this sword to you for nurturing, did he do anything else?”
Ao Yao thought carefully and said in a small voice:
“Yes, my Honored Master first took me to the Red Dragon Clan.”
“The Chilong Hall Master can calculate Heavenly Secrets. She calculated that the sword had reached the day it could be used. My Honored Master said that he was already old and his innate talent wasn’t high, so he passed the sword to me for nurturing.”
She was very happy at that time, jumping with joy, hugging the short sword, unwilling to let it go, turning it over and over to look at it. This short sword was her greatest trump card. In the Secret Realm, when fighting opponents of the same level, it was simply an invincible weapon. Although the method of maintenance was a bit embarrassing and hard to speak of, it was indeed very effective.
“That’s right,” Ji Xi’s voice was very light, carrying a kind of “just as I thought” understanding.
“Because it had reached the time it could be used, that’s why you were allowed to maintain this sword.”
She sighed softly, the sigh long and far-reaching, as if traversing Eternal Ages, her tone regretful, gently stroking the hilt, her fingertips slowly sliding over the patterns on the guard:
“What a pity. I actually wanted to use this sword long ago.”
She paused, her voice carrying a hint of self-mockery:
“I never had the means to maintain it.”
“It’s really too bad. For so many generations, no Yin-Yang Body could use it.”
Jiang Huai listened from the side, completely confused.
‘Why can’t you maintain it? Inside this scabbard, as I see it, isn’t it just…’
‘Aren’t you also a woman? How can you not maintain it?’
He was too embarrassed to ask, but Ao Yao asked bluntly:
“Why can’t you maintain it? I can.”
She paused, her dragon tail gently swaying, her tone with a hint of pride:
“It doesn’t feel anything special.”
Seeing that Ji Xi spoke with such authority, Ao Yao gradually relaxed. That leaf-like dragon tail began to sway lightly, the tip slightly raised, drawing soft arcs in the air.
‘Isn’t it just growing an extra sensitive… flesh? What’s so hard about maintaining that?’
Ji Xi shook her head with a smile, a smile carrying a hint of helplessness and a hint of amusement. She gently flicked her little dragon head, causing Ao Yao’s head to tilt and her dragon eyes to widen:
“You don’t think this sword’s power is just that great, do you? If that were the case, I have quite a few Immortal Artifacts in my hands, and I wouldn’t be so eager to use this particular sword.”
“You only maintain the scabbard as a basic step. You still need something more important to moisten the inside, to truly maintain the scabbard.”
“Only then can the sword unleash its true power.”
“Do you want to know how it’s really maintained?”
As she spoke, Ji Xi quietly moved to Ao Yao’s ear and whispered, occasionally glancing at Jiang Huai.
Jiang Huai felt a bit embarrassed by the way they both looked at him, so he had to look around, occasionally exchanging glances with Cang Jing.
‘Do women all like this? What can’t be said out loud?’
After listening for a while, Ao Yao suddenly jumped up from the hilt, her dragon claws flailing in the air, and said with shame and annoyance:
“No way! How can it be like this? Is this how you maintain it?”
“I won’t maintain it anymore!”
Ji Xi said with a smile:
“I’m afraid it’s not up to you. There’s no helping it. Since this sword was forged until now, there has never been a male Yin-Yang Body, so even if I wanted to use it, I couldn’t.”
She glanced at Jiang Huai, and couldn’t help but gloat again:
“Now it’s fine. You can fully maintain this sword.”
Jiang Huai was looked at by the two of them, feeling a bit creeped out in his heart, and didn’t know what to do.