Maybe Ye Tianxie’s absurdly high Luck stat — a full 17 points of it — had rubbed off on Shattered Star-Heart too, because it didn’t take her long at all to identify all three Gold-grade pieces. She let out a quiet, secret breath of relief, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. “There.” She handed the three pieces back to him, along with the 90 gold she’d earned.
90 gold. 90 Huaxia yuan. That was about a month’s rent for her. She could use it to buy her little sister something nourishing to eat, and still have enough left over for a stack of colored paper — enough to fold her sister all the paper flowers she loved so much.
Golden Bow: Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 15 Archer-class, Strength 20+. A bow forged of gold, dazzling in appearance and extraordinary in its properties. Stats: Attack +55, Agility +10, Accuracy +5, Range +3, 3% chance on attack to knock the target back.
Golden Staff: Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 15 Mage or Priest-class, Spirit 60+. A staff forged of gold, infused with mysterious magical power. Stats: Magic Attack +70, Spirit +15, Magic Regen +2, all magic effects +2%, magic-skill MP cost reduced by 15%.
Gold-Patterned Robe: Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 15 male Mage, Priest, or Summoner-class. An outer robe traced with dazzling golden patterns, holding mysterious power. Stats: Defense +55, Lightning resistance +8%, Spirit +8, Vitality +7, 3% chance on being attacked to trigger “Gold-Pattern Ward,” raising the wearer’s own Defense by 20% for 10 seconds.
The Golden Bow and Golden Staff already had clear owners. As for the Gold-Patterned Robe… his Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon class let him equip gear from any class, but even though he could wear it, he had no intention of actually doing so. Set against his own stats, the Gold-Patterned Robe was more or less useless to him — and there was somewhere else it would be put to far better use.
After those three Gold-grade pieces, three more appeared in Ye Tianxie’s hands, drawing another startled look from Shattered Star-Heart, and he traded them into her palm with a smile. “Three more, if you don’t mind.”
This time, they were a step higher — Level 25 Gold-grade pieces, from the Golden Sword Lion Beast.
“Three Level-25 Gold-grade pieces… that comes to 170 gold total.” Shattered Star-Heart took a moment to steady herself; she was starting to grasp, more and more, just how powerful the man in front of her really was — and just what a staggering fortune a handful of pieces like these represented these days.
All three Gold-grade pieces came back identified successfully once more, and a satisfied smile spread across Shattered Star-Heart’s face again — a smile carrying a soft, moving kind of warmth that touched something in Ye Tianxie’s chest too… it reminded him, somehow, of the smile that used to break across his own face, back in those years, whenever he’d found food in the middle of near-total despair.
Lion-Patterned Bracers: Level 25 Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 25 melee class, Strength over 100. Bracers made from the Lion King’s own hide, covered in orderly markings; the lingering power of the Lion King makes critical hits come easier to whoever wears them. Stats: Defense +30, Strength +15, Accuracy +10, Critical Rate +3%, 3% chance on attack to trigger “Lion Soul,” raising both Attack Power and Critical Rate by 8% for 10 seconds.
Sword of Excellence (One-Handed Sword): Level 25 Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 25 Warrior or Guardian-class. A one-handed longsword forged of refined iron, incomparably sharp, with extraordinary capabilities. Stats: Attack +110, Strength +10, Attack Speed +12, 3% chance on being attacked to fully block the strike.
Bow of Excellence: Level 25 Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 25 Archer-class. A longbow forged of refined iron, seemingly infused with some strange power that makes the bow itself extraordinarily light and nimble. Stats: Attack +140, Agility +20, Accuracy +20, Range +5, Movement Speed +15, 10% chance on attack to trigger “Piercing Shot,” striking the first enemy hit and any enemy standing directly behind it along the same line as well.
Gold-grade stats, through and through — every single piece was a cut above ordinary. If Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui hadn’t found anything better by the time they hit Level 25, the Sword of Excellence and the Bow of Excellence would go to them without question. With all six Gold-grade pieces identified, Ye Tianxie didn’t leave — instead, he asked Shattered Star-Heart a question that startled her.
“Can you identify Immortal Spirit-grade artifacts?”
The question left Shattered Star-Heart stunned for a long moment. For him to even ask something like that… did that mean he actually had an Immortal Spirit-grade artifact on him?
“I… my identification skill is still at the lowest tier — there’s almost no chance I could identify an Immortal artifact. My class-change mentor told me the odds of the lowest tier successfully identifying an Immortal Spirit-grade piece are only 0.01%. I’m sorry…” Shattered Star-Heart answered honestly, and finished with an anxious little apology.
0.01%… one in ten thousand.
One in ten thousand. A tiny chance. But it still meant it wasn’t completely impossible… wasn’t a one-in-ten-thousand chance still a chance?
Ye Tianxie drew the Violet Reaper Sword — dropped by the little Immortal Beast — out of his inventory and traded it into Shattered Star-Heart’s hands. The moment she took in the properties of the two-handed sword, she visibly froze, and for a moment couldn’t say a word at all.
It wasn’t just her. At this stage of the game, any player who suddenly found an Immortal Spirit-grade artifact — something that had no business being in their hands at all — would probably react exactly the same way. A Gold-grade artifact was already a priceless treasure; an Immortal Spirit-grade one was a dream-piece of equipment that no amount of wealth, however vast, could ever buy.
“Would you mind identifying this Immortal Spirit-grade sword for me?” Ye Tianxie said with a smile, gently pulling her back out of her daze.
Shattered Star-Heart’s hands tightened around it. It took her a while to steady her racing heart, and she shook her head, thick with apology. “I’m sorry… at my current skill, there’s just no way I could identify an Immortal artifact… I really am sorry.”
The fear and caution in her apology, the way she seemed almost afraid Ye Tianxie might be displeased or angry with her — something about her expression, her voice, pulled hard at something in Ye Tianxie’s chest. Whatever she’d lived through had left her wary and frightened of everything around her. He himself, once, had carried the whole weight of his own life on shoulders far too small for it — but she… she was still just a girl.
“There’s a 0.01% chance. So why call it impossible?” Ye Tianxie shook his head gently, still smiling, and softened his voice as much as he could. “As long as there’s hope — even the faintest sliver of it — never just give up on it outright. If you’re too afraid to even try, and give up before you’ve started, that’s what real despair looks like…”
Shattered Star-Heart stood frozen, staring blankly into his eyes.
“Come on. Try it. However faint the hope, believe in miracles anyway. As long as you really mean it, a miracle isn’t as far away as you’d think. Picture a little tree in the dead of winter. If it just resigns itself to the cold and gives up, it’ll end up buried in the ice and snow, nothing more. But if it holds onto hope, and fights off that freezing despair with a stubborn kind of heart, then what’s waiting for it on the other side is the most beautiful spring you could imagine. Just try, alright? And don’t forget — even if it fails, your hope isn’t really shattered. There’s still an identification shop behind you that can put those broken pieces back together. And as long as a person keeps reaching for hope, then even if reality shatters their heart without mercy, there will always come a day when it heals whole again.”
If anyone else had said those words, they might have scoffed, written it off as some hollow, performed profundity… but the instant Ye Tianxie’s last word left his mouth, tears came pouring down Shattered Star-Heart’s face like rain.
She lowered her head, biting down gently, trying not to let him see her eyes gone blurry with tears… Shattered Star-Heart. Why had she ever chosen that name? Because her heart had already been shattered — mercilessly, by a reality she couldn’t escape…
She lifted her head, nodded firmly, and through her tears gave Ye Tianxie a small, trembling smile. If, before this moment, what she’d felt for Ye Tianxie had only lived in her eyes, it had now quietly worked its way into her heart.
A person never forgets whoever it was that reached them, however that reaching happened.
She said nothing more. She let her expression and her heart settle, closed her eyes gently, and, with the softest possible touch, cast the one skill she had — Identification.
First attempt. Failed.
Second attempt. Failed.
Third attempt. Failed.
A faint sheen of nervous sweat gathered along the bridge of Shattered Star-Heart’s nose. Ye Tianxie felt his own chest tighten too, though his expression didn’t change — he only offered her a reassuring smile. “It’s fine. Don’t be nervous. There’s still the shop behind you.”
Ding…
Just then, a soft burst of white light flickered once across the surface of the Violet Reaper Sword. Shattered Star-Heart’s eyes flew open, and within them, colors as beautiful as scattered stars burst to life — along with another wave of tears threatening to spill all over again.
She’d done it.
At the same moment, the glow of a level-up drifted over her head. Successfully identifying an Immortal Spirit-grade artifact at the lowest identifier tier was, in terms of the reward, like landing a kill on a monster dozens of levels above her — the experience bonus was enormous. She likely didn’t even realize it herself: she had just become the very first identifier in the entire Huaxia region of the World of Fate to reach the Intermediate tier.
The tears she couldn’t hold back weren’t for her own class advancement, though — they came from the trembling, overwhelming feeling of this miracle, of this impossible success. A success like this meant everything to her right now. It was like a single ray of light breaking through a winter dawn, warming her cold body and her colder heart all at once…
Never give up hope…
Never give up…
As long as you truly mean it, a miracle really isn’t so far away…
His words echoed in her ears, in her chest, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make the tears stop falling. Ye Tianxie let out a soft breath of his own, his smile settling into something even gentler… a one-in-ten-thousand chance, and it had actually come through. This was about as perfect an ending as he could have hoped for. Because now, this poor girl’s shattered heart could finally begin, slowly, to heal — wrapped in something to hope for again.
(End of Chapter 158)