Proud Sword Soaring Clouds

[It’s the middle of the month! Everyone, please check if you have a second monthly ticket, and if you do, please vote for Xiaodao! To be honest, my house has been constantly full of people these last few days. I thought I’d be fine if I didn’t go back to my hometown for the New Year, but I was wrong... so, so wrong. I would have been better off just going home. Here, I’ve had people asking for help buying tickets, friends and classmates wanting to go drinking, relatives coming back to stay over, and needing to be seen off when they leave... Aaaaaah! All these social obligations are killing me! So, for Xiaodao to have managed to write an extra thousand words today is a true miracle. So, please, encourage me with your monthly tickets! The plot has been a little slow lately, mostly because I’m laying the groundwork for what’s to come. Use your monthly tickets to smash us into a climax! The more tickets, the longer the climax, oh yes... ]

Ling Xiao and Song Mingyue returned to their room. Song Mingyue kept her head down, lightly biting her lower lip. She hesitated for a moment, then raised her head. Her pure eyes gazed at Ling Xiao as she whispered, "I’m sorry."

Ling Xiao smiled, took Song Mingyue’s hand, and said, "Don’t say you’re sorry. I’m your man now. I think I’ve earned the right to know a few things."

"Don’t say that..." Song Mingyue’s long, delicate eyelashes fluttered. Her eyes welled with tears, and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. "It breaks my heart to hear you say that. I really didn’t mean to hide anything from you. Please don’t be angry with me. I’ll explain everything right now!"

Ling Xiao nodded gently. He stood and placed his hands on Song Mingyue’s shoulders, their eyes locking. "Remember," Ling Xiao said, "from now on, while you may still be part of the Sea Domain Song Family, you are also a wife of the Ling Family! Take Qin Feng, for example. The one he hates most isn’t you for ’betraying’ him, but me for stealing you away! Besides, something similar happened to me once, only I was on the other side of the situation. So, Ming Yue, whatever the reason, I want to know. Understand? Whether the intentions were good or bad, you must tell me. I can promise you this: as long as you have me, Ling Xiao, in your heart, then no one—not even the Death God himself—can ever hope to take you from me!"

Ling Xiao’s words were firm and decisive. Hearing them, Song Mingyue’s tears finally began to fall. Sniffling hard, she covered her face with her hands and said, "I’m sorry. I was wrong. My secret has caused you so much trouble. The truth is..."

Sobbing, Song Mingyue began to explain the relationship between the Qin and Song families.

The Sea Domain Song Family and the East Sea Qin Family were both island-based families. For nearly a thousand years, the two families had been more or less equal in strength. In fact, back then, the Sea Domain Song Family had been even slightly stronger than the East Sea Qin Family.

This was because of the number of members who had entered the Holy Sanctuary. Over thousands of years, the Sea Domain Song Family had produced a total of three! They had broken through the Sword Venerable Realm to become Sword Saints. Afterward, countless people witnessed a city-like mirage appear in the sky, from which someone would descend to escort the new Sword Saint away. For the great hidden families, such an event was nothing out of the ordinary.

However, the last time a Sword Venerable from the Song Family ascended to Sainthood was more than two thousand years ago. Time flows like a river, and the years are relentless. In truth, most of the Song Family’s descendants felt little more than a faint sense of nostalgia for their Sword Saint ancestors.

After all, even though disciples of hidden families could live much longer than ordinary people with sufficient cultivation, this had still happened over two thousand years ago. It was so long ago that some began to doubt if it was ever true.

But the records in the family’s ancient texts were indisputable. As for the East Sea Qin Family, to this day, not a single one of its members had ever entered the Holy Sanctuary.

And it wasn’t until more than fifty years after the Song Family’s own Old Master had reached the Sword Venerable Realm that the Qin Family saw its first member break through the Sword Emperor Realm to achieve the strength of a Sword Venerable.

This was why the Qin Family had always been considered weaker than the Song Family. But then, just over twenty years ago, the Qin Family experienced a sudden surge in power. Two previously unremarkable Sword Emperor Powerhouses broke through the Sword Emperor Realm in succession, becoming Sword Venerables!

To mark the occasion, Song Family Patriarch Song Yi, who had always maintained a good relationship with the Qin Family, made a special trip to offer his congratulations. As both families controlled resources in the sea and had to defend against the Sea Race, they had plenty of common ground. And so, during one drinking session, after Qin Family Patriarch Qin Zhaoran learned that Song Yi’s wife was pregnant, he joked that if she gave birth to a son, their boys would become sworn brothers, but if it was a daughter, their families should be united in marriage.

After Song Yi met the Qin Family’s young master, Qin Feng, he grew quite fond of him. Qin Feng was just an infant in swaddling clothes at the time, but he was fair-skinned and perfectly featured. More importantly, his innate talent was superb—he was born with several meridians already open. This was an incredible feat. Such a child was one in ten million, a true genius among geniuses!

So, Song Yi casually agreed to the marriage arrangement on the spot and even gave Qin Feng a jade pendant as a token of their pledge.

After he sobered up, however, Song Yi felt a pang of regret, thinking he had been far too rash. The Sea Domain Song Family generally didn’t interfere in the marriages of its descendants; it was a very open-minded family. Yet when it came to his own daughter, he had gone and made the decision for her in a muddle-headed moment. He regretted it deeply, but the words had been spoken, and there was no taking them back.

So, after staying with the Qin Family for a few days, Song Yi prepared to return home. He thought to himself, ’If my wife really does give birth to a daughter, I’ll just adopt a boy later. I can pass him off as my own, and then the two of them can just become sworn brothers.’