Just as Yanqing was about to lead everyone onward, Clara suddenly spoke up.
'I happen to know a little swordplay too. How about we spar?'
'Huh?'
'You want to duel me with swords?' Yanqing thought he had misheard. He turned around and looked at Clara with a strange expression.
'Mm-hmm~' Clara did not answer directly, but the smile on her face said enough.
'Little girl, are you sure you want to cross blades with me?' Yanqing drew his sword. Cold light flickered along the edge, as if he meant to scare her off with sheer sword intent alone.
'Of… course!' Hearing him call her 'little girl,' Clara flashed a sweet smile and ground out the words through clenched teeth.
Little girl this, little girl that. Every other sentence. Just you wait, I am absolutely going to ruin you later.
Clara shot Yanqing a vicious glare, already plotting how to toy with him.
'Alright. Since you are determined, as a swordsman, I naturally cannot refuse.' Seeing her expression, Yanqing found no reason to decline.
I should hold back later…
He told himself that quietly.
Clara did not sound like she was joking, but Yanqing really could not believe that someone of her height, with such a soft and delicate bearing, could even properly grip a sword, let alone wield one.
At least in his eyes, Clara looked nothing like a swordswoman.
But she was the general's guest, so he could not go too far…
Thinking this, Yanqing felt a bit conflicted. He did not know what the right approach was.
If he hurt her pride by accident, the general would definitely scold him afterward…
Well… at the very least… at least make her feel that with a bit of effort, she could catch up to him…
Clara: …
Folks, who understands this? Running into a sword-waving, overconfident average guy on the Xianzhou Luofu…
Reading Yanqing's thoughts, Clara could not help but complain inwardly.
'Um… Clara, you… do you actually know how to use a sword?' Firefly crouched down, leaned close to Clara's ear, and whispered.
Forget Yanqing. Even Firefly had her doubts.
Since meeting Clara, Firefly had never once seen her use a sword. Not even once.
She had not even seen Clara with anything related to swords.
'What, you do not even trust your own wife anymore?' Feeling Firefly's breath by her ear, Clara's face warmed slightly as she shot back.
'Uh, no, no!' Firefly waved her hands frantically.
'I trust my wife more than anything. If you say you can, then you definitely can!'
Firefly immediately realized her mistake. How could she doubt her own wife?
I will punish myself with three drinks when we get back.
Firefly repented sincerely in her heart.
'Well~ it is true that I cannot, though~' Clara's expression twitched when she saw Firefly like this. She had no idea what Firefly was thinking, but judging by her face, she was probably confessing to some god.
'Huh?' Firefly snapped back to reality and let out a confused sound.
'Then Clara, why are you still…'
Firefly did not finish the sentence, but Clara knew exactly what she meant.
Clara chuckled softly. With a wave of her hand, a sword appeared.
'I may not know how to use a sword, but I can copy and paste, right?'
Firefly: ?
'What do you mean?'
Copy. Paste. Firefly did not quite understand what Clara was talking about.
'Look, I copy someone else's sword techniques, paste them into my head, and then I have learned them.' Clara laughed and gave a simple explanation.
'I do not get it.' Firefly shook her head. She still did not understand what copy and paste meant.
'Hmm…' Clara thought for a moment and realized that those two wonderfully convenient words might be a bit too advanced for Firefly.
'Basically, I steal… no, borrow someone else's sword techniques, letting me temporarily possess all of that person's sword skills.'
She rephrased it in a way Firefly could understand.
'Oh, oh.' Firefly nodded. Now she got it.
It was kind of like a light cone, except you also gained all the memories inside it.
'But…'
'Can something like that really be done?' Even the airheaded Firefly knew how terrifying that ability sounded.
You spend hundreds or thousands of years learning something, and I learn it in an instant. That was just absurd.
Seeing Firefly's shocked look, Clara knew exactly what she was thinking and rolled her eyes helplessly.
'I know what you are thinking, but it is not as outrageous as you imagine.'
'The memories I copy can only stay in my mind for a limited time. They do not last very long.'
'Later, I can still recall them using the power of memories, but there is not much point.'
Clara shook her head lightly. If copied memories could be kept forever, she would have already gone across the universe copying the memories of every top-tier genius she could find.
Why would she still be fooling around here?
'And the copied memories are just memories.'
'I only know how to do things in theory.'
'In real combat, I would probably struggle to even bring out ten percent of it.'
Clara spread her hands. Even with all these drawbacks, the ability was still absurdly strong.
'I see.' Firefly nodded, then thought of something and asked with a puzzled look.
'If you copy Yanqing's sword techniques, but can barely use even ten percent, would you not lose to him?'
'Who said I was going to copy Yanqing?' Clara asked, confused.
'If I want to beat Yanqing, I have to copy a memory that is even stronger than his swordsmanship. Otherwise, how could I win?'
'Oh, oh.' Firefly nodded in agreement, then asked another question.
'If you need a memory stronger than Yanqing's, where are you going to copy it from?'
'Far away in the sky, yet right before your eyes~' Clara smiled mysteriously, clearly hinting at something.
'Huh?' Firefly froze, then seemed to realize something. She nodded and closed her eyes.
She remembered that she also used a sword. She did not know how good Yanqing's swordsmanship was, but she was confident that hers was definitely not weaker than his.
So the person Clara had in mind had to be herself.
Thinking this, Firefly let out a quiet, smug laugh.
Letting Clara possess her memories was not a kind of happiness too?
Firefly thought sweetly.
Clara: ?
Seeing Firefly like this, Clara scratched her head in confusion.
Sometimes, she really had no idea what was going on in Firefly's mind.
Clara shook her head and spoke again.
'The memory I want to copy belongs to Miss Jingliu.'
'Do not let her current black veil fool you. She was once one of the High-Cloud Quintet, known as Flawless Radiant Flight, the Sword Champion of the Luofu.'
Firefly: …
Hearing that, Firefly's body stiffened. She slowly opened one eye, and an unmistakable wave of displeasure radiated from her.
'Oh!'
Clara: ???
…
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