Seeing Lu Ze’s barrage, Chen Yuan’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
What the hell?
You call a boss who has killed me eight times in a row and has two lives…
a slightly advanced minion?
And one limited to the tutorial, at that?
Though a million curses suddenly sprang to mind, Chen Yuan maintained an air of complete indifference on the surface.
“Hmph. No wonder I found this man’s swordsmanship so mediocre. All brute force and no skill… So he’s still in the tutorial.”
Chen Yuan let out a cold snort, putting on an arrogant front.
He made no mention whatsoever of how miserably he had just been slaughtered.
Seeing this, Lu Ze did not continue provoking him.
After all, he knew exactly what would happen next.
Once Yamauchi Shigenori was defeated, there would be very few enemies along the road. The occasional ones were merely ordinary warriors who could be dispatched with a single sword thrust.
Although Chen Yuan had been rather embarrassed against Yamauchi Shigenori, he was not particularly worried.
As a sword cultivator at the Void Refining Realm, he naturally understood the chain reaction caused by being cut off from the Way of the Sword.
The higher one’s cultivation, the greater the unfamiliarity and bewilderment one would feel toward the sword. So struggling at the beginning was perfectly normal.
As the tutorial gradually progressed, he had slowly begun to regain the feeling of holding a sword.
Chen Yuan was extremely confident. With his talent in swordsmanship, even if he had to start over, he could easily return to his peak!
Especially after defeating Yamauchi Shigenori, he felt that he had faintly grasped the true essence of swordsmanship in the world of Sekiro.
As more and more cultivators gathered to watch, the barrage filling the sky grew denser and denser.
Those who came to watch were all cultivators seated in the viewing stands above the Boundless Sword Domain, so the comments in the livestream were remarkably harmonious and friendly.
After all, no one dared say anything reckless. If they really provoked Chen Yuan and he decided to settle things with them in person, none of them could afford the consequences.
As he watched the barrage praising him from every direction, Chen Yuan followed the quest marker toward the secret passage while beginning to share his experience with the crowd.
“To be perfectly honest, the swordsmanship taught in this tutorial is crude beyond belief!”
Even while boasting about himself, Chen Yuan did not forget to belittle Lu Ze’s understanding of the sword.
As he recalled everything he had experienced after leaving the Moonview Tower, he began bragging to the watching cultivators.
“The sword techniques of this low-martial world are far too simplistic.”
“When an enemy is caught off guard, a surprise attack can deliver a lethal blow known as a Shinobi Deathblow.”
“When you strike while an enemy is guarding, you build up a yellow Posture gauge beneath their health bar… Once the Posture gauge is filled, the enemy is as good as dead.”
“So, either strike when the enemy is undefended, or fill their Posture gauge while they are guarding. That is the entirety of the swordsmanship I have seen so far… Honestly, it is so poor that even the outer disciples of my Boundless Sword Sect would look down on it.”
Chen Yuan shook his head, his face filled with disdain.
At that moment, a colorful message flew across the sky:
[Realm Master Lu Ze: This is offense.]
Lu Ze had not exposed him, which surprised Chen Yuan slightly, but he continued criticizing Sekiro’s mechanics.
“Apart from what I have just mentioned, the only other thing I can do in this illusion is raise my sword horizontally with both hands to block an enemy’s attacks… Guarding with the sword in this manner reduces the damage taken… Well, that much is consistent with reality.”
“Of course, if I raise my sword at the precise instant an enemy’s attack lands, I enter a state of Perfect Deflection.”
“This state lasts only for an instant, and during that instant, I take no damage whatsoever! I was able to defeat Yamauchi Shigenori just now thanks to Perfect Deflection!”
Chen Yuan proudly recounted his achievement. At that moment, another colorful message from Lu Ze drifted across the sky.
[Realm Master Lu Ze: This is defense.]
“???”
Chen Yuan stared at Lu Ze’s barrage in utter confusion.
What was this supposed to mean?
Everyone under heaven knew that Lu Ze’s sharp tongue was practically honey-coated. Once someone provoked him, regardless of their background, they were bound to receive a tongue-lashing.
So what was going on now? Not only had he refrained from exposing Chen Yuan, he had even added to his explanation?
Looks like, in the end, this boy still doesn’t dare go too far on the territory of my Boundless Sword Sect…
That was what Chen Yuan thought to himself.
By then, he had already reached the entrance to the secret passage beneath the moat bridge, just as Kuro had described.
He pushed open the heavy, long-neglected wooden door. The winding passage led straight to the other side of the castle wall, where a faint glimmer of light could be seen.
[Quest updated: The secret passage is accessible. Blow the reed whistle to guide Kuro here.]
“Piiii—!”
Chen Yuan blew the reed whistle, the quest item that served as the signal agreed upon by Kuro and Wolf.
A moment later, Kuro’s figure emerged from the shadows. He slid down the earthen slope and arrived in front of Chen Yuan.
“Am I truly capable of doing nothing but run from the fate of my bloodline…?”
Kuro sighed to himself before entering the secret passage.
The passage connected to the outside of Ashina Castle, so it was not very long.
Kuro walked ahead, delivering his plot-related monologue to himself. Chen Yuan had no interest in it and continued boasting about his abilities to the viewers.
“Do not assume that I am incapable merely because I died several times to Yamauchi Shigenori just now…”
“For one thing, I was testing the depths of this illusion. For another, the higher a sword cultivator’s realm, the greater the impact of being cut off from their comprehension of the Way of the Sword.”
“Now that I have completely grasped the sword techniques of this world, if I were to face an opponent like Yamauchi Shigenori again, I could certainly defeat him without shedding a drop of blood!”
“It is simply unfortunate that we are probably still in the tutorial. There is no one here who qualifies as a worthy opponent.”
“I’m afraid it will not be until we leave Ashina Castle that I can let all of you witness my true strength!”
Chen Yuan thumped his chest with absolute conviction, looking every bit like some transcendent master.
Just then, a shaft of light struck him in the face.
Only then did Chen Yuan raise his head and realize that he had already stepped out of the secret passage.
Beneath the pure moonlight, the evening breeze brushed through the reed leaves, setting off a pleasant rustling.
Amid the dense reeds stood the tall figure of a man clad in armor, his back facing them.
“Divine Heir, it has been a long time.”
At the same time, another colorful message from Lu Ze drifted across the sky:
[Realm Master Lu Ze: This is Genichiro Ashina.]
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
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.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
