At dusk, with nightfall approaching, Yae Sakura's figure, somewhere between illusion and reality, stood quietly under the sakura tree, her long pink hair swaying gently...
"Yae, Yae Sakura...?!" Theresa snapped out of her daze and cried out in surprise. She had clearly seen Yae Sakura disappear before her eyes, but now she had appeared again... Theresa felt the reluctance she had just suppressed suddenly transform into a somewhat complex joy...
"..." Li Xuan wasn't as surprised as Theresa, but he was still very happy. After all, Sakura's appearance meant it was almost time...
"You're here..." Li Xuan took a step forward, passing Theresa, and looked at Yae Sakura before him with a faint smile.
"Mhm... Just as I said, a person's life is a process of encounters, partings, and reunions... Now is the time for reunion," Yae Sakura said with a smile, even playfully winking at Theresa behind Li Xuan.
"...You are..." Li Xuan reached out, wanting to touch Yae Sakura's cheek, but when he placed his hand on her face, he felt no sensation at all. His hand was still in the air.
"Mhm... I'm just using Honkai energy to temporarily manifest myself..." Yae Sakura shook her head and said. Her current state, neither human nor ghost, couldn't last long. The reason she appeared was to...
"I'm counting on you, Li Xuan-kun..." Sakura silently approached Li Xuan, her face close as she looked at him earnestly and said. "I choose to become your Familiar..."
"..." Looking at the stunning face so close to him, Li Xuan's face eventually turned red. "I understand..." He nodded. There was no other way now. Having given her Stigmata to Theresa, Sakura had lost her body. Now, only her soul remained, and she could only be reborn through the 'Familiar Egg'...
Besides... Sakura was his girlfriend, after all. Even if she became a Familiar, it wouldn't change anything.
"Then what's the host item?" Li Xuan frowned, a little troubled. In her current state, Yae Sakura couldn't use the Familiar Egg directly. The prerequisite for using a Familiar Egg was a host item containing the soul, an item existing between reality and illusion that could be absorbed by the Familiar Egg for incubation...
Just like Yaoye-hime... even though she died, her soul was hosted in the glass hair ornament she wore, allowing it to be used as material by the Familiar Egg for rebirth and resurrection...
"Heehee~ Of course, Sakura is prepared..." Yae Sakura covered her mouth and chuckled softly. Her slightly mischievous smile made Li Xuan pause. Yae Sakura subconsciously reached out to take Li Xuan's hand, but it just passed right through...
"...Li Xuan-kun, it's right here." A hint of sadness flashed in Yae Sakura's eyes, but she still ran smiling to the base of the sakura tree and pointed at the ground for Li Xuan.
"This is?" Li Xuan glanced at the sakura petals covering the base of the tree and asked in confusion.
"Some things I used to cherish are buried here..." Yae Sakura said with a hint of nostalgia in her eyes, looking at the base of the tree buried under sakura petals, her gaze seemingly piercing through the soil to see what lay beneath.
"...Then I'll help you dig it out!" Li Xuan said decisively. Since he didn't have a small shovel or anything similar, Li Xuan simply took out one of the many 'Yamamoto Night Shadow Katanas' he had obtained from wishes before.
"...Break!" Li Xuan tightly gripped the katana in his right hand. The Honkai energy in his body circulated continuously, supplying energy to the Stigmata on the back of his hand. The White Tiger Seal, one of the four symbols, glowed faintly...
Honkai energy flowed through his body into the Stigmata, then circulated through the special patterns within it... Dense patterns appeared on the white blade of the metal-made katana. Billions of metal ions, controlled by Honkai energy, moved slowly. The white blade rapidly transformed in Li Xuan's hand, the clear, sharp blade continuously nearing the shape of a shovel...
".So amazing, Li Xuan-kun," Yae Sakura exclaimed softly, looking in amazement at the shovel slowly taking shape in Li Xuan's hand.
"By the way, Ka... Principal Theresa, could you also help Li Xuan-kun?" Yae Sakura turned and said to Theresa, who was standing there dazed as if she were an outsider.
"Oh, oh!!" Theresa snapped back to her senses and nodded, hurriedly running outside the shrine to get something to dig with... She had been stunned by the interaction between the two just now...
'The relationship between Li Xuan and Yae Sakura seems like...' Theresa thought gossipingly... However, she suddenly hugged her head and shook it hard, as if to throw all the thoughts out of her mind.
"Alright... it's none of my business!" Theresa dashed off to get her 'Judah's Oath'...
...............
"To be honest... Principal Theresa, I really didn't expect..." Li Xuan said, speechless, as he forcefully swung the small shovel transformed by the Power of Metal of the White Tiger, looking at the certain white-haired nun beside him.
"Huh? What's wrong?..." Theresa asked, confused, as she diligently dug at the base of the tree.
"I didn't expect... you'd actually use 'Judah's Oath' to dig..." Li Xuan's mouth twitched slightly. Although he couldn't make another shovel due to insufficient Honkai energy... he never imagined... that Theresa, without a shovel, would directly use the Spears of Light from 'Judah's Oath' to dig...
A magnificent Divine Weapon... was actually being used to dig dirt... Li Xuan didn't know what to say.
"Mah~ Don't mind it..." Theresa said, trying to be cute by blinking and sticking out her tongue.
"...." Li Xuan, having suffered 10,000 points of critical damage, was overwhelmed by the cuteness...
"Clang!" At that moment, a dull thud came from under Li Xuan's shovel. It was clear his shovel had hit something.
"This is?!..." Li Xuan stared intently at the base of the sakura tree, where a large pit had been dug. In the fading light of the sunset, a long, orange-yellow box lay quietly inside the hole.
"Ah, you dug it out..." Yae Sakura came closer, smiling as she stared at the box Li Xuan picked up. This was what she had buried at the shrine a long time ago...
"Open it, Li Xuan-kun..." Yae Sakura said softly, her eyes fixed on the orange-yellow box in Li Xuan's hands, a trace of nostalgia showing.
"Oh, oh!... I can't believe this is a Golden Silk Nanmu box?!" Li Xuan said with some surprise. Before he transmigrated, he was considered a rich second-generation, so he knew a bit about wood furniture. And the best material for making wooden furniture... he had naturally seen 'Golden Silk Nanmu' before. After all, this wood, considered the gold among woods, was too famous... "impervious to water and resistant to termites."
"...Is this a sword?!" Perhaps because of its age, the iron lock on the box had long since corroded. With a gentle pull, Li Xuan removed the lock, revealing the items inside the box... a tachi and a blood-red magatama.
"This is Danying and the Blood Jade..." Yae Sakura said softly, her gentle gaze fixed on the items in the box.
Under the setting sun, the hilt of 'Danying' in the wooden box was layered like sakura petals. The blade emitted a sakura-colored light and a faint Honkai energy reaction... After 500 years, 'Danying' lay quietly in the still-fragrant box, waiting for its master's arrival.
It had waited across centuries, and now, its wait was over.
(End of chapter)