Impersonation

A feeling of compassion welled up within him.

"Baal, can you solve his problem?"

"Boy, who do you think you're questioning? I am the omnipotent Lord Baal. However, there's no need for you to meddle in the affairs of An Changsong's son."

"But I don't want to see him waste his life for nothing."

As the protagonist of this world, An Changqing would definitely turn danger into safety in the end, but how long would that take?

Who made the rule that the protagonist must go through hardships?

He was meant to be brilliant and have a smooth sailing life.

Baal fell silent for a moment. He really could not understand humans as a species.

However, it was exactly because he could not understand them that made it interesting, right? After all, there were not many things left in this world that Lord Baal did not know.

"I can tell you, and the rest is up to you."

"Thanks."

He could intervene, but not as Chen Guan.

Fortunately, he was Lin Jiu right now. What did the actions of Lin Jiu have to do with him, Chen Guan?

He suppressed his breathing, adjusted his vocal cords, and imitated the tone of White Tiger from his memory.

Chen Guan paced out from the shadows.

His leather boots stepped on the greasy, fat-like ground without making a sound.

The only light source left in the entire space was the faint golden gleam lingering on An Changqing's sword.

An Changqing seemed to sense something. He looked up and met the eyes hidden behind gold-rimmed glasses.

He held his longsword horizontally in front of his chest, assuming a defensive posture, his eyes full of vigilance.

"Who is it?"

His voice was not loud, but it was full of wariness.

An unfamiliar voice echoed in the spacious basement, its tone revealing a cynical laziness.

"A sword is a gentleman's weapon, not a consumable."

"If you treat it like firewood to burn, it will naturally break."

These words poured into An Changqing's ears, no less than a clap of thunder.

Did this person... see through his predicament?

After forcefully breaking through to the fifth tier and overdrawing his potential to slash out that strike, he had noticed the cracks appearing in his kendo foundation.

He hadn't told anyone about this.

Even the academy's instructors failed to see through it. Although Su Yuehe had asked about his situation, he had managed to brush her off.

But this person in front of him, whom he was meeting for the first time, pointed it out with a single sentence.

Who was he? An academy instructor? Why had he never seen him before?

[??? Who's talking? 666 Lin Jiu is still chasing me.]

[Isn't Bro Tiger the big boss? Why is he acting like a street punk, showing up everywhere.]

[Stop, stop, stop, what are you guys talking about? Did I miss an episode? Who is Lin Jiu?]

[To the person above, go read the Long Ao spin-off.]

An Changqing's vigilance was washed away by shock.

He leaned on his sword and stood up straight. Although he felt the newcomer was suspicious, the other party didn't seem to have any malicious intent. Therefore, An Changqing didn't directly call for help, but instead asked, "May I ask who you are..."

"I am Lin Jiu, an artist."

"An artist?"

In this place, a person claiming to be an artist had silently appeared behind him.

This in itself was the biggest point of suspicion.

He originally thought it was a teacher he hadn't met, but now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

"That's right."

The gaze behind his gold-rimmed glasses fell upon the longsword in An Changqing's hand.

"After all, the principles behind a pinnacle sword and a peerless painting are connected."

"Who exactly are you?"

He asked in a hushed voice, lifting the tip of his sword slightly. He didn't believe that artist excuse for a second.

The golden light flowed across the blade once more, but the light was erratic and unstable.

"Your purpose?"

Chen Guan chuckled softly, but he did not answer. Instead, he took two steps forward and stopped five meters away from An Changqing.

"Your sword is crying."

He extended a finger and pointed it at the longsword from afar.

"Do you hear it? It's wailing. To pursue a moment of brilliance, you forcefully stimulated its power, draining all of its future colors. Now, it is sick, very sick, and so is your kendo."

An Changqing's fingers tightened around the sword.

Sick?

This word might seem a bit strange when applied to an object, but for him right now, it was perfectly apt.

Ever since that battle, every time he swung his sword, he felt an invisible obstruction.

The longsword that once shared a telepathic connection with him had now become unfamiliar.

He just assumed that he had advanced too quickly, his state of mind failing to keep up, and that he needed time to polish it.

He had never considered that the problem lay with the sword itself.

"You mortgaged your foundation to borrow the glory of a single strike from the future. Now, the future has come to collect its debt."

With every word Chen Guan said, An Changqing's complexion grew a shade worse.

He had forcefully broken through and slain the demon.

This had earned him the praise of the entire school, but it had also brought about a hidden danger that no one knew about.

He thought he had hidden it flawlessly.

[So, there's a price for An Changqing forcefully using hacks?]

[So this is what Brother Guan meant by "the sword will break". Isn't he in Jiangcheng? He could guess it without even seeing Little An.]

[I get it, so Brother Guan equals Lin Jiu (funny face), Brother Guan is playing 4D chess again.]

An Changqing remained silent for a long time, so long that the surrounding air grew heavy.

He slowly put away his sword, having already let down his guard.

To be able to see through his hidden danger at a glance.

This person's strength and vision were far beyond his imagination.

If such a figure wanted to harm him, there would be no need to go to such great lengths.

"Please teach me, senior, how to solve this." An Changqing's attitude was earnest. He didn't want to seek out his father for this kind of problem.

Others only saw his status, but they couldn't see the mess that lay behind it.

"Teach you? I'm no teacher."

Chen Guan shook his head.

"I can only tell you that when a piece of art is broken, the best way to restore it is to shatter it and reshape it using the most primal materials."

"Shatter it? Reshape it?" An Changqing repeated blankly.

"Your kendo foundation has already cracked. No matter how you mend it, the scars will remain. It's better to scrap it altogether."

Chen Guan's tone was casual, but the content of his words made An Changqing's blood run cold.

Let alone An Changqing, Chen Guan himself was feeling anxious; he was just a ruthless repeating machine.

Scrapping his cultivation and starting all over again?

For any esper, this was tantamount to a death sentence.

"Of course, I don't mean for you to cripple your own martial arts."

"It means you need to forget your current sword, forget the power of the fifth tier, forget the flashy sword glares. Go back to the very beginning when you first picked up a sword, and rediscover your first stroke of practice."

"Find an absolutely quiet place. Do not use any superhuman abilities. Relying solely on physical stamina, swing your sword ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times. When you feel that what you hold is no longer a sword, but an extension of your arm, that is when you can come back here to find me."

The last sentence had nothing to do with Baal; it was Chen Guan painting an empty promise for him.

A promise that he himself would never show up to fulfill.

Yet, An Changqing took these words as absolute gospel.

Returning to basics, reshaping the foundation.

He suddenly saw the light.

Rather than clinging to this power that didn't truly belong to him and living in constant anxiety, it was better to let it go completely and solve the problem from its source.

"Thank you, Senior!"

An Changqing's fighting spirit was rekindled.

"This student understands!"

"Acting is so exhausting," he said to Baal in his heart.

"Not bad acting," Baal the demon himself chuckled happily. "That kid got completely bamboozled by you."