First, take down the Sword Demon, then save Runeterra.

Ionia, eastern Navoli province, Presidium.

Irelia hurriedly said goodbye to her dance teachers and ran westward.

She arrived at the riverbank and boarded a large boat heading west, but the boat was moving too slowly.

Anxious and desperate, Irelia suddenly had an idea. She danced gracefully on the ship, following the way her teachers had taught her to communicate with the spirits of nature.

In the unique rhythm, she quickly felt a response and received help from the wind spirits, and in just five days she traveled from Presidium to the vicinity of Zan's house.

She saw many soldiers on the way, which made her nervous, but she managed to avoid them by relying on her familiarity with the terrain.

Finally back home, she saw a group of arrogant soldiers who had emptied the Zan family's possessions and were preparing to leave.

Her mind went blank.

The grandmother who first taught him to feel rhythm, the father who had high expectations of himself, the gentle mother, the strong-willed brother, and all the servants who worked in the Zan family were all dead.

When a soldier was about to place the Zan family crest on the carriage, Irelia rushed forward without hesitation.

She snatched back the Zan family crest and tried to escape, but her relatively frail body made it impossible for her to escape from the hands of a group of strong soldiers.

A burly man who looked like an officer grabbed Irelia's long hair, spewing sarcastic remarks.

When Irelia saw the soldiers shatter her family crest, a strange rhythm began to pulsate deep within her soul.

The metal fragments began to tremble and tumble, seemingly moving with their own consciousness, and Irelia once again felt the peaceful joy of the ancient dance.

Irelia stood up, wiped the blood from her face, and glared at Noxus's Commander-in-Chief, Duguel, with resentment.

"This is, this is, this is..."

Dukur was also a soldier who had been on the battlefield, but since becoming a nobleman, he had never personally gone to the battlefield again.

He looked down on the Ionians from the bottom of his heart, thinking they could not possibly pose a threat to him, which is why he came to the front lines to enjoy the thrill of slaughter.

Only now did he realize that the Pale Lady's warning was correct.

The Ionians are simply not resisting; if they were to resist, the consequences would be unimaginable!

He only brought a small squad to protect himself, while the main army was advancing elsewhere, and he had no will to fight back against this frail girl.

"Retreat! Quickly! Forget about the wagons!" Dukur roared.

The surviving soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, discarding their weapons and armor to lighten their load as much as possible. All they wanted now was to get away from that murderous girl.

"Give me back my father! Give me back my mother! Give me back my grandmother! Give me back my family!"

Intense pain gripped Irelia's heart, and seeing the soldiers trying to escape, she manipulated the silver flash to give chase.

However, once she exceeded a certain distance, she lost control of them.

Irelia lifted her feet, trying to catch up with the fleeing soldiers, but she could not get close to them and instead drifted further and further away.

Snapped!

Irelia tripped over a stone, and when she looked up again, the soldiers had vanished.

The silver light surrounding her also fell to the ground.

"Ahhhh!"

Irelia pounded the ground helplessly, tears streaming down her face.

On the eighth day of the war, Irelia lost everything.

She looked at the silvery light and discovered that it was fragments of the Zan family crest.

Each fragment was exactly the same shape, and there were exactly thirty-one fragments in total.

Irelia gathered them together, arranging them into the shape of the original family crest, and held them for a long time without moving.

until……

"Who?!"

Irelia picked up a shard and swiftly tossed it aside.

After repelling the Noxian soldiers, Irelia found that her senses had been greatly amplified.

Sensing someone approaching, she picked up a shard and threw it.

Unexpectedly, the person caught the fragment with just two fingers. With a slight thought, Irelia caused the thirty fragments on the ground to float into the air and form a ring around her.

Including the one in Atto's hand.

Ator felt the power coming from between his fingers, but didn't stop it. He let go and let it return to Irelia's side.

"Hey, look at me, I'm not a Noxian!"

Upon hearing this, Irelia, who was about to attack, paused, and then began to examine the black-robed man before her.

Seeing that he had Ionian features, Irelia's vigilance eased slightly, but she still did not lower the blades hovering around her.

She had never seen magic that could change one's appearance before, so in her mind, the appearance she saw was real.

"May I ask your name, Master? Which school of thought do you follow?"

Why is this the first thing every Ionian says...?

Ato composed himself and replied skillfully, "I am a disciple of the Wuji Sect, and my master bestowed upon me the name Ji."

“It’s a disciple of Wuji!” Irelia sheathed her blades, transformed them back into their original family crest shape, and tossed them behind her. The large lump of iron floated behind her head.

"Master Ji!" Irelia stepped forward, her expression pained. "The Wuji Sect... Has the Wuji Sect agreed to resist the invaders?"

At the opportune moment, Ato revealed a hint of bitterness: "I ran away from here; my master originally forbade me to go down the mountain."

"But I could not bear to see the invaders kill my Ionian people, so I disobeyed my master's orders and went down the mountain to kill the enemy on my own!"

Irelia couldn't hide her disappointment: "Are the masters of Wuji still unwilling to come down the mountain...?"

Then her eyes lit up: "Master Ji, how about we form a resistance army together? Let's drive the invaders out of our ancestral land together!"

Ator looked at Irelia's childlike face and felt a slight wavering, but he had already made up his mind not to directly participate in this war.

He turned around and said, feigning helplessness, "I'm sorry, but those who practice the Wuji Sword Path are not suited to acting with others. The Wuji Sword Path can not only kill enemies, but also injure you if you are not careful..."

"I see..." Irelia wasn't particularly upset.

"It's alright, Master Ji. There will be people who fight the invaders with me. Let's fight them on different battlefields!"

"Also, my name is Irelia!"

Atto watched as the girl wiped away her tears and forcefully suppressed the urge to help her.

"She's not as strong as Riven; she needs to be trained..."

Ator nodded slightly to her: "The spirit of Ionia will protect us."

After saying that, he leaped on one foot, imagining himself in a martial arts drama he had watched in his previous life, and swung his legs in the air a few times to show the feeling of a martial arts master, and quickly left the area.

"Isn't the Wuji Sect supposed to focus solely on sword cultivation? When did they learn this kind of technique?"

Irelia didn't delve into the matter; the most important thing at hand was to assemble a force to fight the invaders, as she couldn't fight alone.