Zhong Yi's First Battle

As Zhong Yi climbed through the window and entered the attic, the illusion entered its cinematic story phase.

The master Wolf served was a handsome young man with delicate features, so beautiful that it was difficult to tell whether he was male or female. His name was Kuro.

“Long time no see, Wolf.”

Seeing Wolf appear, Kuro happily set down the book in his hands and rose to greet him.

“I have come to receive you, my lord.”

Wolf dropped to one knee, his head bowed very low.

Kuro’s delicate features instantly sparked a heated discussion in the livestream chat.

[Whoa! What a pretty young lord!]

[Lord? Not lady??]

[Wolf looks so loyal. I love this kind of character!]

……

Kuro turned and walked into the room. When he came back, he was holding a long sword that was completely black from hilt to tip.

“Raise your head… This is your sword, Kusabimaru.”

Kuro held the sword out before Wolf. His voice was incredibly delicate, yet carried an unmistakable firmness.

“My shinobi…”

“Abide by the bond between master and servant, and swear your life to me!”

Wolf took a deep breath and accepted Kusabimaru from Kuro with the utmost reverence.

“Yes, my lord!”

The next moment, the cinematic scene slowly faded away, and Zhong Yi’s consciousness returned to Wolf’s body.

“Kusabimaru? The Divine Heir?”

Zhong Yi examined the weapon in his hands curiously.

[Kusabimaru: A sword bestowed upon Wolf by his master, the Divine Heir Kuro. It is an heirloom passed down through the Hirata family, a branch of the Ashina clan.]

In the original Sekiro, this should have been a katana.

However, since the theme of this illusion was swordsmanship, Lu Ze had replaced the primary weapon with a sword.

He had also reworked the moves around the principles of swordsmanship.

With the various sword skills that had burst out of Li Moran, combined with the demonstrations of numerous sword cultivators within the cybernetic soul, the protagonist’s combat design was not simply copied from the original. It had undergone a complete metamorphosis.

Kusabimaru looked plain and unremarkable, without even a trace of the dazzling presence one would expect from a divine weapon.

Much like Wolf himself.

“Now that we have a weapon, we should be able to fight!”

Zhong Yi brandished Kusabimaru a few times, looking eager to give it a try.

Of course, Zhong Yi did not rush outside in search of a fight. Instead, he made a quick search of Moonview Tower.

“Heh heh, Junior Sister Qiao Ling was right after all. Wherever there’s a house, there are bound to be treasures~”

Zhong Yi found a packet of pills on the second floor, then happily made his way downstairs.

Just as he was about to leave, Kuro, who was on the first floor, suddenly called out to him.

“Wolf, you seem to be injured… Oh, right. Take this.”

Kuro’s smile seemed to possess the power to heal the heart, and Zhong Yi felt a warm sensation spread through him.

He accepted a gourd from Kuro.

[Healing Gourd: A gourd containing elixir that can restore health. After resting, the elixir inside will be replenished.]

[Created by one of the disciples of the rare master pharmacist, Dōjun.]

“Dōjun, the rare master pharmacist? That sounds like another interesting character…”

Unlike the other cultivators who had come here hoping to perfect their swordsmanship, what intrigued Zhong Yi even more were the stories hidden within the illusion.

For example, the “Divine Heir” and the “Hirata family” mentioned in Kusabimaru’s description, or the “pharmacist Dōjun” mentioned in the Healing Gourd’s description.

Zhong Yi muttered to himself as he placed the Healing Gourd into his inventory.

“By the way… What about your condition after that? Has your body recovered?”

Kuro suddenly asked.

“After that… You mean?”

Zhong Yi could not help asking curiously.

“You don’t remember what happened that night?”

Kuro paused slightly, then quickly returned to his usual calm expression.

“Forget it… We can discuss the details later. For now, our top priority is to leave Ashina Castle.”

……

After a brief conversation, the task before them became clear.

Wolf’s master, Kuro, was being held under house arrest in Moonview Tower.

Their current mission was to help Kuro escape from this place called Ashina Castle.

According to the painfully sparse information Kuro possessed, there was a hidden passage beneath the bridge by the moat of Ashina Castle that led outside the city.

The two of them agreed that Wolf would first investigate whether the hidden passage truly existed, then return to escort Kuro out.

Of course, that was only the mission on the surface.

Zhong Yi had more thoughts in mind.

“Ashina Castle should be the main city of Ashina… And Kuro’s Hirata family is a branch of the Ashina clan…”

“Why is Kuro being imprisoned here?”

“According to the story, I don’t remember what happened before ‘that night’… So what exactly happened that night?”

……

Zhong Yi rubbed his chin and muttered to himself.

The livestream chat immediately lost patience.

[The guy next door, Lao Zhou, is almost at the hidden passage already, and you’re still standing there analyzing things…]

[Can you hurry up and fight someone already? I finished cooking ages ago and have been waiting this whole time!]

[Other people enter the world to cultivate as sword cultivators. Our Brother Zhong is here to become a storyteller.]

[Don’t tell me you’re scared?]

……

“Fellow Daoists, please be patient. I’ll go out and fight now.”

Zhong Yi shook his head leisurely and sighed.

“Please don’t focus only on the battles within the illusion. Junior Brother Lu’s illusions often conceal all sorts of ingenious ideas… He truly is a genius!”

With that, he pushed open the door of Moonview Tower.

A heavy, icy wind blew straight into his face, cutting his cheeks like knives.

At the bottom of the steps outside the door, a samurai with a half-bald head was patrolling.

After watching the story for so long, even Zhong Yi was beginning to feel itchy for a fight.

He drew Kusabimaru from his waist.

“Come on! Fight—huh?”

Zhong Yi abruptly stopped speaking.

That was because his opponent seemed completely unaware that anyone had emerged from Moonview Tower.

Zhong Yi immediately understood. Holding his breath, he crept up behind the bald samurai.

In an instant, a red dot appeared over the samurai’s chest.

A system prompt appeared directly beneath it:

[Deathblow Point: The enemy has exposed a fatal opening. Strike the deathblow point to perform a “Shinobi Deathblow”!]

“Oh?”

Zhong Yi hurriedly thrust his sword into the red dot, silently cutting the man’s throat in an instant.

Moving down the stone steps, Zhong Yi used shinobi deathblows to assassinate three more samurai guarding the area in succession.

“I get it now! As long as the enemy hasn’t noticed us, we can trigger a ‘Shinobi Deathblow’ and kill them outright… So the shinobi is actually a rather underhanded class!”

After cutting down three men in a row, Zhong Yi began to feel a little pleased with himself.

Before entering, he had assumed this would be an extremely difficult illusion. After all, Lu Ze himself had said that even a cultivator’s comprehension of swordsmanship could be isolated.

“Could it be that Junior Brother Lu’s technique failed? I don’t feel any difference from before.”

Zhong Yi stared at Kusabimaru in his hand, puzzled.

The livestream chat immediately erupted in laughter.

[Could it be that you simply don’t understand swordsmanship, Brother Zhong?]

[We’re at the Sword-Seeking Ruins next door, and even True Disciple Li openly admitted that she’s having a hard time adapting… This is the first time I’ve ever seen her look so miserable!]

[The higher one’s swordsmanship, the greater the effect seems to be?]

[One day, if Old Demon Lu designs an illusion that forcibly prevents people from speaking, Brother Zhong will finally understand what True Disciple Li is feeling.]

……

Zhong Yi opened his mouth, but said nothing.

After thinking it over, he had to admit that they might actually be right.

Although he often used a sword in real combat, he always did so with the assistance of the Great Dao True Words Art.

Before a fight, he would shout, “Heaven’s Gate, Open!” and ordinary sword cultivators were no match for him.

Not long ago, Lu Ze had even suggested that next time he should shout something like, “This sword strike is going to look really cool,” before making his move…

“Anyway, this illusion realm doesn’t seem as difficult as I thought.”

Zhong Yi still stubbornly held to his opinion.

The short stretch of road after leaving the Moonview Tower served as the illusion realm’s beginner tutorial.

From attacking to defending, every basic action had its own swordsman for the player to practice against.

“Heh, I’d say this illusion realm isn’t hard at all. To those of you hoping to see me make a fool of myself, I’m sorry to disappoint you!”

Zhong Yi cheerfully cut down another grunt. By now, he had also figured out how the defense mechanic worked.

He strode forward and entered the fortress tower ahead.

The enemies he faced now were no longer the lone grunts meant to teach him the basics.

Instead, they came in groups of three or five.

But Zhong Yi was feeling extremely full of himself. He watched the charging swordsmen with a beaming smile.

“Holding your sword horizontally in front of you is for guarding… This kind of guard reduces the damage you take.”

As he spoke, Zhong Yi raised the Uchigatana above his head to demonstrate, then quickly lowered it.

“If you guard at the exact moment the enemy attacks, you’ll perform a perfect deflect!”

With that, he fixed his eyes firmly on the movement of the blade in the charging swordsman’s hands.

“Just like this!”

He let out a loud shout and was about to raise the Uchigatana when the swordsman’s blade came straight down onto his forehead.

“Ow, what the heck? I blocked too late…”

“Wait! Let me try ag—”

“Damn it! I missed it again!!!”

“What the hell??? Why does this grunt hit so hard???”

“Wait!! Don’t all three of you gang up on me… Ever heard of a one-on-one fight? Where’s your warrior’s honor???”

[Dead!]