Ye Xuan didn't spend much time on dinner. He had never held particularly strong opinions about food.
As long as it wasn't so bad that it was genuinely hard to swallow, he wouldn't think twice about it. After eating, he washed the dishes, tidied the table, and prepared to cultivate.
Although he already had a system with a monthly fishing quota, one that required nothing more than patience and a little luck to make him stronger without any dedicated training, he wasn't especially confident in his own fortune.
The first pull had given him the youthful Wangquan Baye template, but that didn't guarantee the second would yield something of the same quality or better.
Not necessarily.
Across the vastness of the Multiverse, worthless things always outnumbered worthwhile ones.
And beyond that, after merging the Wangquan Baye template, he now possessed cultivation talent that surpassed most people. Even if that power system didn't offer immortality, that was simply a rule of the Fox Spirit Matchmaker world.
In his current world, there was no saying whether the same constraint applied.
*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*
Just as Ye Xuan was settling in to cultivate, a clear, measured knock sounded from outside. It wasn't hurried, and it had a rhythm to it, firm without being rough, deliberate without being theatrical.
Ye Xuan wasn't surprised.
Since the incident at school, he had been expecting someone to come. If no one had reacted to his display at all, that would have been the strange thing.
He stood, walked to the door, and opened it.
Outside stood a woman. A remarkably beautiful one.
Her beauty had something aggressive about it, the kind that left an impression with a single glance. Her features were close to flawless. Her brows and eyes were elegantly drawn, her nose was straight, her lips a vivid red, and her skin so pale and clear it seemed almost translucent, as though it held its own faint light.
Her long hair fell like a waterfall with a slight curl at the ends, lending her an air of quiet intelligence.
"Hello, Ye Xuan."
"I imagine you can already guess why I'm here. May I come in to talk?"
Her voice was clear and pleasant, and she accompanied it with a small smile.
"Come in." Ye Xuan said evenly. He turned and walked back inside without any particular change in demeanor on account of her appearance.
Su Mengyao stepped in, let her eyes move briefly across the room, then settled into a chair with easy composure. Her gaze returned to Ye Xuan, and the corner of her mouth lifted slightly as she spoke in a formal tone.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Su Mengyao, from the Celestial Pivot."
"I've come without notice to confirm one thing."
"Student Ye Xuan, you are a holder of a cross-dimensional treasure. Is that correct?"
Ye Xuan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he frowned slightly.
"Among current ability users, is there anyone capable of producing destructive force on the level of the sword strike I used at school today?"
The uncertainty in her phrasing had caught his attention.
Was she actually suggesting there were ability users who could match the output of the strike he had thrown out casually at school? That had been a fraction of his full strength, far from anything serious. If ability users had already reached that level this early, how powerful were they exactly?
"Oh?"
Su Mengyao blinked, not having expected that question, but nodded.
"Yes, though very few of them, and most obtained something exceptional to get there."
"After that point, their rate of growth slows considerably."
Simply put, ability users weren't so different from ordinary people in terms of the range of talent among them. But the Spiritual Energy Awakening had only been underway for three months. No matter how gifted someone was, their power couldn't have climbed that fast under ordinary circumstances.
Unless they had been fortunate enough to encounter naturally occurring "spirit treasures," rare materials that had mutated under the nourishment of Spiritual Energy. Without something like that, that level of power wasn't achievable yet.
Even so, such people still couldn't compare to holders of cross-dimensional treasures.
Even something as accessible as a Devil Fruit, with a single bite, could push someone's strength beyond the reach of most people.
"I see." Ye Xuan nodded, then confirmed, "Yes. This is a cross-dimensional treasure."
Even though he had obtained it through the system's fishing mechanic, in the context of the real world, calling it a cross-dimensional treasure amounted to the same thing.
Besides, to a certain degree, wasn't a "System" itself something born from human imagination?
"I knew it!"
Su Mengyao's eyes brightened at Ye Xuan's answer. She leaned forward slightly, her voice carrying unmistakable enthusiasm.
"So what exactly did you obtain? The Wangquan Sword itself, or a template from Wangquan Baye?"
Based on what she had gathered, the Wangquan Sword was the ancestral treasure of the Wangquan clan in the world of Fox Spirit Matchmaker, and the single greatest divine weapon of humanity, without equal.
Every time it clashed against a demon, the Wangquan Sword would comprehend that demon's power and techniques. That was why, as long as someone of the Wangquan clan held the sword, they stood as the inheritors of all techniques.
The sword itself was a killing blade. The more it killed, the stronger it became.
As for Wangquan Baye, he was not only the patriarch of the Wangquan family and the head of the Yi Qi Dao Alliance, but one of the greatest fighters of his era. Tushan Honghong had once said of him, "Your strength is extraordinary. You are among the most powerful humans I have ever encountered in my life."
Even after losing his Sword Heart in the incident at the Outer Circle, he had still forced his way to comprehending the Wangquan Sword Intent. Though he might not reach the heights of Wangquan Fugui in time, across the entire world of Fox Spirit Matchmaker, only a handful of humans or demons could truly defeat him.
"And what difference does it make whether it's the Wangquan Sword or the Wangquan Baye template?"
Ye Xuan didn't ask how she had deduced it was specifically the Wangquan Baye template and not Wangquan Fugui's, Wangquan Shouzhuo's, or Wangquan Wumu's. He had still been wearing Wangquan Baye's outfit that morning.
If it weren't that character's template, why would the clothing of the young Wangquan Baye have appeared with it?
What he didn't do was answer her question.
Confirming that he was a cross-dimensional treasure holder was enough. Beyond that, he saw no obligation to cooperate any further.
As for the Celestial Pivot Bureau, so what? He wasn't a member.
"I apologise. That was overstepping."
Su Mengyao paused, then quickly offered the correction. She had gotten caught up in the moment and asked too far, forgetting that this was a personal matter Ye Xuan had no reason to share.
Had she unconsciously been thinking of the young man in front of her as just a student? A lapse like this shouldn't have happened.
"In return, you can ask me anything you'd like."
She steadied her tone and let the smile return.
"Xia Nation holds nothing but goodwill toward every holder of a cross-dimensional treasure, so you have nothing to worry about."
"Beyond that, every one of us has signed a contract with Elder Zhong. You don't have to trust us, but you can trust Elder Zhong."
"When it comes to Elder Zhong, I have no doubts." Ye Xuan replied calmly, without any particular fuss.