The Scabbard

Ning Yu picked up the Blood Kite that had fallen into her hand.

At first glance, it didn’t seem to have changed much, but along with the Blood Kite, a strangely designed scabbard had also descended.

It looked like a buy-one-get-one deal.

**[Blood Kite: Legendary]**

**[Experience: 0/0]**

**[Enchanted (Blossom): Grants the wielder +12 stamina and +12 spirit when equipped.]**

**[Passive Skills: Blazing Embrace, Curse of Weakness.]**

**[Active Skills: Blood Mirror, Myriad Instant Slash.]**

*(Repeated skill descriptions have been omitted.)*

Ning Yu glanced at the changes to the Blood Kite itself. Aside from the enchantment effects upgrading from +6/+3 to +12/+12, the other skill effects didn’t seem to have changed much.

Was this all the improvement a weapon got when upgrading to the legendary tier?

She then turned her attention to the scabbard beside it. The scabbard was a deep ashen brown, adorned with intricate carvings of irises.

Beside the irises, butterflies were depicted in mid-flight, so lifelike they seemed ready to flutter away.

The irises, which were supposed to be purple, were instead a deep crimson on the scabbard, as were the butterflies. The flowers and butterflies intertwined, a hauntingly beautiful dance of blood-red hues.

**[Song of the Kite: Legendary]**

**[Experience: 0/0]**

**[Special Ability: Perch. The Song of the Kite can be embedded within the host’s body, allowing the host to automatically recover from any non-fatal injuries within 3 seconds.]**

**[Active Skill: Heartblade. Combines the Blood Kite and the Song of the Kite, granting the Blood Kite a new set of Heartblade skills.]**

**[Additional Skill: Heartblade * Perception. Allows the host to see the death lines of any object for 0.5 seconds, with a cooldown of 30 minutes.]**

**[Additional Skill: Heartblade * Iris Flash. A draw-cut technique that allows the user to instantly reposition while slashing all targets along the path. If used while in Heartblade * Perception mode, attacking along the death lines will result in instant death for the target. Cooldown: 72 hours.]**

Ning Yu took the scabbard in her other hand and couldn’t help but marvel. It seemed all the benefits of the upgrade had gone into this new scabbard.

First, the **Perch** ability was incredibly powerful. Shen Yiyue’s healing required her to expend her spirit and had to be done through physical contact.

But with this ability, as long as the scabbard was embedded in her body, any non-fatal injuries sustained within 3 seconds—save for attacks like the burning flames of Morning Star and Leviathan, or the T-virus—could be completely healed.

As for the Heartblade skills, **Heartblade * Perception** was a terrifying ability. Under Ning Yu’s **High-Level Detection**, she could already see the death lines of mid-tier and lower mutated zombies.

Against attacks based on the death lines, they had almost no resistance.

But this **Heartblade * Perception** allowed Ning Yu to see the death lines of *all* objects, meaning that in her vision, whether it was living zombies, humans, or even inanimate objects like stones and sand, everything would reveal its destined end through these lines.

Everything in the universe had a predetermined endpoint, and now Ning Yu could bestow that end upon them equally, no matter what they were.

She hung the scabbard at her side, bending slightly as she swung the Blood Kite with her right hand, performing a sheathing motion.

When the Blood Kite was still at the epic tier, it didn’t have a scabbard, so Ning Yu had never had the chance to use this move before.

As the Blood Kite and the scabbard merged into one, the **Heartblade * Perception** and **Heartblade * Iris Flash** skills in Ning Yu’s skill bar immediately lit up.

Ning Yu activated **Heartblade * Perception**, and her vision of the world transformed.

Everything around her—including herself and even the Blood Kite—was marked with red and purple lines, just like the weak points of the zombies.

These lines glowed faintly, filling her field of vision.

After 0.5 seconds, the world returned to normal.

Ning Yu hadn’t expected there to be so many concepts of “death” or “endings” existing in the world.

She pondered that “life” and “death” were opposites yet unified. If the world was filled with vibrant and colorful “life,” then the unseen “death” must be equally abundant.

As she reflected, Ning Yu felt her understanding of the death lines deepen further.

She drew the Blood Kite from the scabbard again, exiting **Heartblade** mode.

She stored the Blood Kite in her system space but kept the scabbard out.

Ning Yu walked over to Shen Yiyue, who was still asleep in a cloud of gray mist. After Ning Yu had taken the **Origin of Time** from her earlier, Shen Yiyue’s body had become incredibly weak.

As Ning Yu approached, the gray mist dissipated, and Shen Yiyue fell from it, her soft, fragrant body landing in Ning Yu’s arms.

Ning Yu raised the scabbard, **Song of the Kite**, and placed it next to Shen Yiyue’s body. The scabbard began to emit a faint red glow.

She activated **Perch**, but instead of embedding it in her own body, she placed it within Shen Yiyue’s.

After Ning Yu had used the **Gate of Xuanpin**, Shen Yiyue’s abilities had likely degraded significantly, leaving her with little means to protect herself.

The **Song of the Kite** trembled slightly, becoming semi-transparent before slowly merging into Shen Yiyue’s body.

Ning Yu could clearly feel Shen Yiyue’s body warming up, her breathing becoming steady and strong.

A faint crimson iris pattern appeared on Shen Yiyue’s forehead, its saturation low enough to not be too conspicuous.

It complemented Shen Yiyue’s jet-black hair perfectly.

Ning Yu reached out, brushing aside the bangs on Shen Yiyue’s forehead to reveal the iris pattern. She thought it made Shen Yiyue look even more beautiful.

She touched her own forehead, relieved that she hadn’t embedded the scabbard in herself. Otherwise, it might have overlapped with the golden vortex pattern already there, creating a tacky, mismatched look.

If the **Song of the Kite** had a consciousness, it would probably never have imagined being so unceremoniously dismissed.

Suddenly, Ning Yu noticed Shen Yiyue’s eyelashes fluttering. Her eyes opened, filled with confusion.

It was as if she had just woken from a long dream, though it didn’t seem to have been a nightmare.

A faint smile lingered on her face.

Shen Yiyue suddenly realized she was being carried princess-style by Ning Yu. She bit her lip shyly, her cheeks flushing slightly.

She squirmed a little before Ning Yu set her down.

“Xiao Yu? What’s going on?”

She seemed completely disoriented.

“The situation is, we’ve finally reached the Steins Gate worldline,” Ning Yu said with a smile, dropping a reference Shen Yiyue didn’t understand.