Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2759: Dragon Dicing Heart

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Zhongguo (China), Liaodong Province, Shuntian Prefecture, Shenyang City

Seeing Captain Mo Ming seize the Dragon Dicing Saber from the stone altar and use it to strike down Corey the Second, the entire hall fell into stunned silence.

Only moments ago, he had appeared to betray the Emperor and kneel before the exiled princess. Yet now he used the stolen Dragon Dicing Saber on his new master without hesitation, driving the grotesque blade straight through her heart.

Shock spread across every face in the hall. The imperial descendants leaned forward in disbelief. The guards froze where they stood. Even the Emperor’s expression hardened slightly as he watched the scene unfold before the throne. The twins were stunned, their eyes fixed on the saber protruding from their chest.

However, unlike the twins, the others in the hall had two reasons to be shocked. The first was the betrayal itself. Only moments ago, Mo Ming had knelt before the princess, openly declaring his loyalty to her in front of the Emperor and the entire court. It had looked as though he was willing to throw away everything, his rank, his honor, and the legacy his family had built through generations of service to the throne. Yet now he had turned the Dragon Dicing Saber on the very person he had just sworn to serve.

The second reason was even more unsettling. He had wielded the Dragon Dicing Saber. For eighteen years the saber had rested upon that stone altar, and every imperial descendant present had tried to claim it. Even the Emperor himself had attempted to draw upon its power countless times and failed horribly each time.

Many had held the weapon in their hands over the years, nobles, princes, and even palace servants tasked with maintaining the altar. But holding it was not the same as wielding it. Until this very moment, only Mo Ming had ever truly wielded the saber and managed to use it to attack someone, even to kill.

Even though Mo Ming had not activated the saber’s ability and had relied only on its sharp edge and his own skill to strike the princess, the act still stunned everyone in the hall.

The reason was simple. The Dragon Dicing Saber had never allowed anyone to wield it. Whenever someone tried to lift it with the intent to use it, the weapon would suddenly become impossibly heavy, as if the weight of a mountain had been poured into it. The blade would slip from their grasp and crash to the ground before they could even raise it.

Many had tried over the years. Some had been so stubborn that they refused to let go when the weight came crashing down. Several imperial descendants had lost their hands that way. Even the Emperor himself had once suffered the same fate during an earlier attempt. Fortunately, the Imperial Physicians had managed to regrow the severed limb.

Because of that, everyone in the hall knew one thing for certain. The Dragon Dicing Saber did not allow itself to be wielded. And yet Mo Ming had just taken it from the altar and driven it through Corey the Second’s heart as if it were nothing more than an ordinary blade.

With both of their hearts destroyed one after the other by the Dragon Dicing Saber, the twins’ combined body finally gave out. Their legs buckled as their strength drained away, and their vision began to dim at the edges. The roaring hall around them seemed to grow distant as their consciousness slowly slipped toward darkness.

Their body started to fall. But before it could hit the floor, Mo Ming appeared behind them and caught them, supporting their weight with one arm. The twins weakly tried to push him away, barely able to gather the strength to move their hands.

Mo Ming held them steady. Gently, he let their head rest against his shoulder. Then he slowly ran his hand across their blood-streaked hair, the motion calm and steady, like brushing a restless horse’s mane to soothe it. Leaning close to their ear, he whispered softly, "Relax, masters... relax. Don’t fight it."

The twins struggled to lift their head and look at Mo Ming. Blood filled their throat, making every breath a wet rasp. They coughed violently, dark blood spilling from their lips and splattering across the floor. Even so, they forced their gaze upward, just then something strange happened.

They felt the blade lodged in their back begin to change. The Dragon Dicing Saber did not simply remain buried in their chest. Instead, it began to merge with them, its grotesque flesh-and-bone structure slowly knitting into their body as if it had always belonged there. Where their destroyed heart had been, the saber began to take its place.

Mo Ming watched the transformation quietly, his expression calm. Leaning closer, he whispered in their ear, his voice low enough that only they could hear it.

"Thank you... for telling me you have two sets of every organ." His hand rested lightly on their shoulder as he continued. "One had to destroy both quickly before you could heal the other. Otherwise... I would have failed my master."

The twins struggled to keep their consciousness from slipping away. At the same time, they weakly tried to pull themselves out of Mo Ming’s embrace. Their arms trembled as they pushed against him, but there was no strength left in their body. Even the smallest movement felt impossibly heavy. The fact that they were still alive at all was already a miracle.

Then, just as the Dragon Dicing Saber fully settled into their chest and replaced their destroyed hearts, something stirred within them. A surge of memories flooded their mind. They felt familiar... yet alien at the same time. Images, sensations, and fragments of experiences rushed through their consciousness like a sudden torrent, carrying with them emotions that did not entirely belong to them.

It took them a moment to make sense of the origin of the memories before the realization struck. These weren’t random fragments or echoes from the saber. They were memories. Vivid, living memories of their mother.