Chop, spin, sweep, lead, lock... A few simple movements flowed like water in Li Yan's hands, full of violent aesthetics.
"Generate force as a whole, use your waist, not your arms. Keep your wrists flexible. The blade follows the person; the person doesn't chase the blade. Hooking and locking isn't about pulling hard, it's about following the opponent's momentum, using softness to overcome hardness."
Li Yan explained coldly while demonstrating.
Chen Guan watched with rapt attention, branding every detail into his mind. Li Yan's demonstration was more intuitive than any written description.
Finishing the demonstration, Li Yan threw the battle axe back onto the weapon rack and looked at Chen Guan: "Keep practicing. Practice those few moves until you can do them without thinking. Also, think about how your coffin coordinates with this thing—one for offense, one for defense. Don't trip yourself up."
"Yes, thank you, Instructor!" Chen Guan thanked him sincerely. Li Yan's guidance always hit the nail on the head and was worth its weight in gold.
Li Yan nodded, said no more, turned, and left the training room.
With Li Yan's guidance, Chen Guan's practice became more targeted.
He no longer blindly pursued power and speed, but focused on the fluidity of force generation, physical coordination, and the coordination between the scythe and his footwork.
Sweat soaked his clothes time and time again, only to be evaporated by his body heat. His arms went from aching to numb, and then to a feeling full of power. Chen Guan could clearly feel himself improving; his control over the scythe and his understanding of combat were rapidly elevating.
Looking at the slowly climbing stats on his panel, he revealed a smile. He liked this feeling of getting stronger bit by bit.
...
Early Wednesday morning, as the sky just began to brighten, Chen Guan carried his coffin on his back and arrived at the academy's east gate on time. He had stored the scythe in his ring; after all, the coffin was too big, and holding a scythe as well would leave him with nowhere to put it.
An Changqing and Su Yuehe were already waiting there. Both of them had the habit of getting up early for morning exercises, so they always arrived a bit earlier.
An Changqing maintained his usual steady demeanor, a longsword at his waist, standing there like a warm morning sun.
"Morning, Classmate Chen." Su Yuehe greeted him, resting her chin in one hand.
"Morning, Classmate Su."
Although their forms of address were still somewhat distant, Chen Guan and Su Yuehe actually had a decent relationship. She was a cheerful girl who loved to read, so Chen Guan would occasionally bump into her at the library.
As expected of a Knowledge-type Esper, always having a book in hand was just her basic routine.
An Changqing simply nodded: "Everyone's here. Let's go."
It was the teleportation array once again. After a flash of light, the three appeared in a desolate, barren hilly area covered with jagged, grayish-black rocks.
In the distance, a massive fissure appeared. A canyon, as if cleaved by a giant axe, stretched across the earth. On both sides of the canyon were steep rock walls, and the air was filled with a faint smell of smoke and dust.
This was the Ashen Canyon, a dormant volcanic region.
"The map shows that the Shadow Wolves' area of activity is mainly in the Shadow Stone Forest on the outskirts of the canyon."
An Changqing brought up his terminal map and pointed to a dense stone forest made of black, oddly-shaped rocks flanking the canyon entrance: "The terrain there is complex and the lighting is dim. It's an ideal hunting ground for Shadow Wolves. We'll head straight there."
"You've all read the data on the Shadow Wolves' characteristics."
While taking the lead towards the stone forest, An Changqing quietly reiterated the key points: "They are Tier 2 pack animals, though their individual strength is only Tier 1. Their fur has a weak shadow affinity, making their stealth capabilities extremely strong in dim environments."
"Their claws and fangs have a corrosive effect; getting injured by them will cause a continuous loss of stamina. They excel at coordinated combat and possess simple tactics. The Alpha Wolf is suspected to have stronger shadow manipulation abilities and might reach Tier 3. Leave it to me."
Chen Guan listened silently, his hands unconsciously tightening their grip. A Tier 3 Alpha Wolf, plus a pack of Tier 1 Shadow Wolves, and on their home turf... The difficulty of this mission was indeed a level higher than clearing out Rock Beetles.
Before coming, he had already allocated points to bring his Strength attribute up to 9. Even so, he was probably still the one holding the team back.
He could only hope that his performance wouldn't be too terrible.
An Changqing continued, "Classmate Chen Guan and I will draw the wolf pack's attention from the front. Yuehe will use the terrain and sonic interference. Once we find the Alpha Wolf, we will concentrate our power to kill it quickly. Remember, do not drag out the fight, and do not let the wolf pack separate and surround you. If things go south, immediately retreat out of the canyon. I will cover you."
"Understood," Chen Guan and Su Yuehe replied in unison.
The three said no more, quickening their pace as they approached the stone forest that resembled the fangs of a giant beast.
The closer they got, the more obvious the cold, gloomy feeling in the air became.
The sunlight seemed to be mostly absorbed by those bizarrely shaped black rocks. The lighting inside the stone forest was dim, which was always somewhat uncomfortable for humans.
[It's pitch black... so scary.]
[Hugging the commenter above, I'm scared too.]
[+10086, barrage protect me, Little An protect me.]
It seemed it wasn't just him; even the live comments felt creeped out through the screen. However, to prevent the screen full of comments from affecting his combat, Chen Guan chose to temporarily turn off the barrage. Suddenly, his field of vision became clear.
The moment they stepped into the stone forest, Su Yuehe raised her piccolo and played a low, prolonged investigative sonic wave.
Chen Guan and An Changqing also immediately heightened their vigilance to the maximum. An Changqing's longsword was slightly unsheathed, while Chen Guan gripped his scythe in his hand. An Changqing glanced at the suddenly appearing black scythe, his heart stirring slightly.
Could it be that Chen Guan was finally going to use his hidden power?
The stone forest was terrifyingly quiet. There was only the whimpering sound of the wind passing through the rock crevices, along with their own faint footsteps and breathing.
After walking for about a hundred meters, Su Yuehe suddenly stopped, her expression changing slightly: "Careful! In all directions, there are many of them. They are moving in the shadows, very fast."
Almost the moment her voice faded, the surrounding shadows seemed to come alive.
Several pitch-black, liquid-like figures dashed out silently from the shadows of the strange rocks, moving so fast that only afterimages remained.
Their bodies were slightly larger than ordinary wolves, entirely covered in matte black fur. Their limbs were long and vigorous, their sharp claws gleaming with a faint blue luster in the dim light, and their scarlet eyes were exceptionally piercing.
The newcomers were precisely the Shadow Wolves. There were no less than ten of them, pouncing from different directions in an encircling formation.
"Back to back," An Changqing shouted in a low voice. Instead of retreating, he advanced, taking the initiative to meet the three Shadow Wolves pouncing from the front.
His longsword left its sheath, and a golden light burst forth. The fierce sword aura instantly forced back two of the Shadow Wolves, while the third had its neck slashed by his sword, leaving a deep wound as it fell with a howl.
Chen Guan's reaction was not slow in the slightest. He spun around abruptly, using the black iron coffin on his back as a barrier to protect his and Su Yuehe's rear.
At the same time, the scythe in his hand traced an arc of light, slashing towards the waist of a Shadow Wolf pouncing from the side.
That Shadow Wolf was exceptionally agile. In mid-air, it strangely twisted its body and narrowly avoided the scythe's blade. It was only struck on its hind leg by the end of the handle, letting out a grunt of pain before landing and quickly vanishing into the nearby shadows.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
