Yinyue's gaze fell upon the embossing on the leather of the scabbard. She always thought nothing of the embossing, dismissing it as a decorative quirk of the previous owner to show off wealth and status.
"Where did you get the sword?" Chiyin asked while keeping his distance from the table, as though cautious of an unspeakable danger.
Yinyue's eyes traced the outline of the dark leather scabbard in silence, refusing to answer his question. She only took this sword out when a battle loomed. She kept it locked in her personal treasury, which was in a secret passageway. Who took it out? Only she could enter the armory. No one else. Not even Hushiyi.
"That hilt…" Chiyin pointed at the silvery dragon hilt of the sword peeping out of the scabbard. "I have seen it in a book."
At the dragon's head, which formed the pommel, the maker had set precious red rubies into the eyes. Those rubies resembled drops of blood.
"What book?" Hushiyi asked, curious about the sword.
"An ancient book that my father, your maternal grandfather, keeps. Has a lot of drawings," Chiyin replied, rubbing his chin.
He recalled the title of the book, 'Legendary Weapons of the Central Plains'. It was an old tattered book filled with drawings and descriptions of each weapon. His father kept the book in his personal library, locked in a secured box. Chiyin only saw it once when his father, Hua Dushen, let him flip through the pages for a quick read. He wished he paid for attention then.
All Chiyin could recall was the design of the sword and scabbard. Something about an enchantment on the scabbard in a long-lost language. Not the name of the sword or its use. Hua Dushen mentioned that the ancients who lived centuries before them cursed some weapons. Those same weapons required needed blood or life sacrifice once drawn.
Hushiyi took a step towards the table where the sword laid, only to be stopped by Chiyin's arm which popped out in front of him.
"Don't go near to the sword," Chiyin warned, his tone stern.
"Why?" Hushiyi demanded an answer.
Chiyin stared at him in disbelief and spoke in a hushed voice, "Learn from your past mistake. If you haven't learnt yet, once drawn, this sword demands blood."
Hushiyi retreated a step back to avoid an argument with Chiyin. He didn't believe in superstition, but he couldn't explain his own actions. The temptation to snap back at Chiyin's words vanished as the whole ghastly scene appeared in his head, replaying the bloody nightmare of the cold reality.
Hushiyi could still smell the faint scent of blood in his room, no matter how strong the room incense was. The servants tried airing the room, and even Chiyin tried throwing white pounded limestone powder to kill the odor. In most cases, the white limestone powder eradicated even the faintest scent within a day.
In Hushiyi's case, nothing worked on the lingering scent in his guest room.
He glanced at Yinyue, who didn't move. Her eyes transfixed on the sword as though mesmerized by its existence. Hushiyi nudged Chiyin and tilted his chin at her.
Both of them stared at her, holding their breath in anticipation of her next move. Chiyin already decided to flee the scene if necessary. The presence of the sword and scabbard cast a shadow over his soul. He remembered the depressive aura of the sword when he took it from Hushiyi's blood splattered hands.
Even cleaning it made Chiyin uncomfortable, like a predator was watching him, waiting to pounce. He didn't pay any attention to the scabbard with his concentration directed at covering up Hushiyi's mistake.
"The sword has a spirit." Yinyue broke her silence.
"You…," Chiyin trailed off. His mind went blank at her revelation.
"My Emperor father gifted it to me," she continued. "I only take it out of my personal treasury once deployed for battle."
"Did you say treasury? Not armory?" Chiyin asked, confused by her answer. Wasn't the armory more secure than the treasury in the Grand Prince's residence? Trained soldiers and hidden bodyguards guarded the armory, while only hidden bodyguards guarded the residential treasury — that much he knew.
"Personal," she replied, clarifying her point. "No one knows where it is or how to access it except me."
Her fingers traced the embossing on the scabbard of the sword. She could feel the malevolence exuding from the sheathed sword, like a harbinger of death and destruction with a dark, gloomy aura.
"Why only use it when deployed for battle?"
Chiyin's question made her smirk. Yinyue recalled each moment she unsheathed the sword.
Whether charging through enemy lines or fighting in close quarter combat, the sword in her hands sang a haunting tune in her head, calling her and ensnaring her into its dark embrace of a merciless unfeeling state.
She felt no pain from the injuries inflicted on her body with the sword in her hand. The sense of power and might surged through her veins, making her feel invincible in the face of armed enemies.
Yinyue had plunged the sword into thousands of people, satiating its bloodlust. She lost no sleep over killing the countless on the battlefields. Each face of her victims blurred in her memory.
"Seen what happened in Hushiyi's room?" She glanced at Chiyin, who realised he asked a useless question.
"So, the sword is cursed?"
Yinyue rolled her eyes at him. That wasn't the point of her words.
That's what her Emperor-father warned her about. Once drawn, the sword must take a life. Curse or blessing — she didn't care. At first, she didn't believe it, but did as instructed.
"Why would our father gift you such a dangerous sword?" Hushiyi cried out in frustration.
The same question occurred to Yinyue since she received the sword. From Chief Eunuch Li's mouth, she learned that her Emperor-father never even used it before.
"Maybe ask grandfather to lend me his book or give me a copy of what they wrote about the sword," Yinyue told Chiyin, who nodded with some hesitation to agree to her request.
"And the sword?" Hushiyi pointed at it.
"I'll keep it in my personal treasury again," Yinyue replied. "If there's nothing else, both of you get some rest."
Her response put a stop to Hushiyi's desire for more answers about the sword. As far as he knew, someone may have betrayed her on the inside, enough to know how to take her sword out of her personal treasury. Yet she looked so weary and worn out with the dark circles under her eyes.
He had a feeling she wanted both of them out. Chiyin looked more grateful to be released and started walking towards the door.
"And those three women and any other future women…"
Her words made both of them stop in their tracks.
"No woman from Huangcheng will step foot alive in Yandi if her target is you," Yinyue said. "Prepare to be quite the inauspicious groom."
"Inauspicious?" Hushiyi muttered, a little puzzled at what she meant. Chiyin turned to him and mouth the words, 'she will kill them.'