Late at night, Zhu Qiu lay in her blanket, sleeping soundly.
In her dream, Zhu Xiaxia bought her lots and lots of candy, in all kinds of flavors.
“Mother is my favorite~”
The little princess was so happy she even talked in her sleep.
If Zhu Xiaxia next door heard it, she would definitely be so happy that she would carry Zhu Qiu over to sleep together.
Zhu Qiu would be happy, and Zhu Xiaxia would also be happy.
But there was one person who was not happy.
The Holy Sword beside the bed once again emitted golden light.
In the next second, it disappeared, replaced by a little girl who looked exactly like Zhu Qiu, her whole body covered in a faint golden glow.
She puffed up her cheeks and glared angrily at the self-indulgent Zhu Qiu.
“Waaah! This is really making me mad!”
The little girl pressed down on Zhu Qiu through the blanket, trying to wake her up.
“Wake up already!”
But the little princess, still a dragon hatchling, slept very soundly.
She wasn’t someone who could be woken easily, unless it was like Zhu Xiaxia’s tail-grabbing method.
After trying for several minutes without success, the little girl came up with another idea.
She lifted the blanket a little, crawled inside, slowly climbed onto Zhu Qiu, found her head, pressed her small face with both hands, and rubbed it vigorously.
“I refuse to believe you still won’t wake up like this!”
“Uu~ my lollipop.”
This move was indeed effective.
Zhu Qiu reacted a little.
“Wake up already!”
The little girl’s rubbing became even rougher.
“Uu~ give my lollipop back.”
“Forget your lollipop! Just wake up already!”
The little girl couldn’t stand it anymore.
She raised her hand and slapped toward Zhu Qiu’s face.
“Waa!”
Although she missed and hit the hand beside it, the force was enough to wake Zhu Qiu.
“Who is it! Interrupting this princess eating candy—”
Zhu Qiu suddenly sat up.
“Huh? It was a dream? Wait, who’s disturbing my sleep?”
“Still calling yourself a princess? You’re really going to make me furious!”
The little girl jumped out of the blanket angrily, threw the blanket off, and tossed it onto the floor.
“My blanket!”
Zhu Qiu felt uncomfortable seeing her warm, carefully arranged blanket thrown away.
“Who are you! Why are you in my room disturbing my sleep? Don’t you know I hate being disturbed while I’m sleeping the most!”
Zhu Qiu turned her head toward the golden little girl.
Her eyes looked like they were on fire, even angrier than the girl in front of her.
“And you still dare say that? Do you know how angry your behavior these past few days has made me?”
The golden little girl put her hands on her hips and stepped on Zhu Qiu’s pillow.
“What have I done these past few days? How would I know? And what does it have to do with you?”
Zhu Qiu grabbed the pillow and pulled it away.
“Don’t touch my pillow.”
“I really misjudged you! I didn’t expect you to be someone so self-indulgent. I—I’m going to kill you!”
The golden little girl raised her right hand high.
“Holy Sword, come forth!”
A flash of light appeared in her hand.
The next second, half of the Holy Sword appeared.
“Self-indulgent soul, let me, the resolute and righteous sword spirit, punish you!”
Without another word, the little girl slashed forward.
“Wait?”
“Who is this person?”
“How does she also have the Holy Sword?”
“Holy Sword, come forth!”
Zhu Qiu quickly reacted, summoning the Holy Sword to block the attack.
“Huh? The Holy Sword can be summoned again?”
She could have dodged, but then her bed would have been destroyed.
“Hmph! Don’t think that just because you also have the Holy Sword, you can defeat me. My spirit is far above a self-indulgent person like you. You can’t win.”
The little girl slowly stepped back, holding half the Holy Sword in one hand.
Zhu Qiu’s eyes sharpened.
She immediately saw the girl’s next move.
This was a sword technique she, as a Sword Saint, liked to use—charged aerial slash.
Usually, she would step back to create distance, making the enemy think she was retreating.
Then she would leap into the air and strike down, catching them off guard.
With gravity’s help, the attack could deal several times the force of a normal strike.
When she cleared monsters among humans, she often used this move to defeat them in one blow.
Since I’ve seen through it, don’t blame me for turning your plan against you.
Zhu Qiu jumped off the bed, grabbed one side of it, and pulled hard.
The retreating little girl stepped on empty air, fell off the bed, and hit her head heavily on the floor.
“Waaah! Waaaah!”
The little girl lay on the cold floor, crying loudly.
The half Holy Sword in her hand also dropped.
“Yay! The little princess wins!”
“Hmph! Anyone trying to fight this princess should go eat a few more years of meals first!”
Zhu Qiu played with the half Holy Sword in her hand, looking relaxed and confident.
Only then did she realize the sword in her hand was only half.
“Huh? Why is my Holy Sword only half left?”
The sword in the little girl’s hand earlier also seemed to be half.
What was going on?
Zhu Qiu carefully approached the little girl.
“Wuu~”
The little girl was still crying.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry.”
I’m a steadfast sword spirit.
I can’t cry just because I bumped my head.
“What would that look like? “
“Wuu…”
It seemed her steadfast spirit was being affected by her body.
“Alright, alright. I’ll rub it for you. Don’t cry.”
Zhu Qiu crouched down and showed concern.
Feeling the gentle touch, the little girl gradually calmed down.
She wiped her tears and let Zhu Qiu help her up.
“Huh?”
“Why does this person look exactly like me?”
Zhu Qiu seemed to have discovered something incredible.
“Alright, stop crying. I won, you lost. Now you can properly answer my questions, right?”
“You only won by trickery, hmph!”
The little girl still tried to argue.
“How is that trickery? It’s called strategy. Predicting the opponent’s next move and acting in advance—isn’t that normal?”
“…”
Zhu Qiu’s words left the little girl speechless.
“Tell me. What’s your name, where do you come from, where are you going, what’s your purpose, why do you look like me, why did you come into my room, and why did you try to kill me? Also, why do you have the Holy Sword too?”
The little girl admitted defeat and answered honestly.
“I am the sword spirit of this Holy Sword. I will always follow the Sword Saint I choose. Whatever the Sword Saint looks like, that’s what I look like.”
“I didn’t come into your room. You brought me in. And as a sword spirit, I naturally control the power of the Holy Sword.”
“As for why I wanted to kill you… it’s all because of you!”
The little girl became angry again at the topic.
“Because of me? What did I do?”
Zhu Qiu asked.
“You still dare ask? You get bullied by that evil dragon every day and don’t even resist. Then she feeds you some milk and buys you clothes, and you forget everything.
And just now, you even said ‘little princess.’ Is this really the human Sword Saint I once knew?”