Night, in the wilderness outside the Hirata Estate.
A light rain pattered down as thunder and lightning raged overhead.
“This is… three years ago?”
Zhong Yi surveyed his surroundings with a mixture of doubt and disbelief.
Not far away stood a Sculptor’s Idol—the things commonly known as “save points.”
Zhong Yi walked up to the idol and activated it. The name displayed above it was: [By the Dragon’s Spring—Hirata Estate].
“So I’m not even in Ashina Castle…”
Zhong Yi muttered to himself.
He was currently on a hill outside the estate. Using his grappling hook to swing through the trees, he soon reached the foot of the mountain.
In the distance, a faint glow of fire could be seen, while the vague din of voices drifted through the night.
“Firelight… bandits!”
Zhong Yi’s heart jolted, and he immediately recalled the information the Bald Man had given him.
Three years ago, on one particular night, the Hirata Estate’s defenses had been weak. Bandits had invaded, burning, killing, and looting without restraint.
Zhong Yi hurried his pace. Just before reaching the wooden bridge, he saw an odd-looking man lying on the ground. He wore a demon mask and a feathered cloak.
Hearing footsteps, the man struggled to raise his head and looked at Zhong Yi with his last ounce of strength.
“…Are you… Owl’s son?”
“Owl? Owl?”
Zhong Yi quickly connected the name with a character who had appeared only in the story cutscenes.
That was the man who had found Wolf on the battlefield, brought him back to Ashina, taught him swordsmanship, and given him the name “Wolf”—Owl.
Owl… was another word for an owl.
When he saw Zhong Yi standing there with a frown, lost in thought, the man once again struggled to raise half his body.
“Bandits… broke into the Hirata Estate… the Divine Heir… hurry and save…”
Before he could finish, he collapsed and breathed his last.
“So this really is the night the Bald Man mentioned—the night, three years ago, when bandits invaded the Hirata Estate. This man must have been one of the few guards stationed here.”
Having understood the situation, Zhong Yi no longer hesitated. He sprinted toward the far side of the wooden bridge.
A scattering of bandits stood on the bridge.
After suffering too many beatings from groups of ordinary soldiers, Zhong Yi didn’t dare act recklessly. He slipped into the shadows and used deathblows to ambush them, only engaging in a sword fight once the last lone bandit remained.
“These bandits are so weak.”
Zhong Yi frowned, his tone laced with confusion.
The livestream chat immediately erupted in amusement.
[All right, all right. The moment Zhong opens his mouth like that, a tough enemy is bound to show up.]
[Bandit Leader: Haha, hello there~~]
[It’s rare to see Zhong act tough for once. Don’t ruin it for him, everyone!]
…
“No, no, you don’t understand what I mean.”
Zhong Yi shook his head and calmly explained his reasoning to the livestream chat.
“These bandits have terrible equipment, and their skills are nothing special… With strength like this, how could they possibly have breached the Hirata Estate?”
Zhong Yi pointed toward the large estate nearby.
Flames soared inside, and the air was filled with the screams of people fighting and dying.
“Even if most of the guards had gone off to war, there was still a hidden force like Wolf here… How could ordinary bandits possibly dare attack the estate?”
Zhong Yi analyzed the situation calmly and soon found something suspicious.
He knew better than anyone what a rabble bandit gang looked like.
According to the Bald Man, one group of bandits had broken through the Hirata family’s defenses, after which the rest had taken advantage of the chaos to loot the place.
But whether the people who breached the Hirata defenses were actually bandits was difficult to say.
Zhong Yi was more inclined to believe that the bandits were merely being used as a smokescreen.
Hearing Zhong Yi’s analysis, the livestream chat began expressing its agreement.
[That actually makes a lot of sense.]
[As expected of True Disciple Zhong. You’ve turned a swordsmanship illusion realm into a detective mystery.]
[Then what are you waiting for? Go find Kuro!]
…
After clearing out the bandits on the outskirts, Zhong Yi headed deeper into the estate.
There were even more bandits inside, and they were somewhat stronger than those outside.
Zhong Yi fought with extreme caution. He waited for enemies to wander off alone, isolated them one by one, and relied exclusively on stealth deathblows.
Crawling his way forward, he somehow made it into the inner grounds without much trouble.
“A bonfire… a bonfire… found it!”
Zhong Yi remembered the information the Bald Man had sold him: a flame-emitting prosthetic tool was hidden inside one of the Hirata family’s bonfires.
Sure enough, he spotted a glimmer beside a roasting rack. Hidden there was a prosthetic tool called the [Flame Vent].
“The Flame Vent… oil… So this really is meant for dealing with the Chained Ogre!”
Zhong Yi’s eyes lit up. He felt he had finally found the correct answer.
The moment Zhong Yi mentioned the Chained Ogre, the livestream chat began throwing cold water on his excitement.
[Zhong, you don’t need the Flame Vent to beat the Chained Ogre… A lot of people have already beaten it.]
[While the streamer was still fighting Yamauchi Shigenori, Legacy Disciple Mu had already gotten the first kill on the Chained Ogre.]
[Has Zhong even beaten a single elite enemy so far…?]
…
“My goal isn’t to find the strongest or fastest strategy. It’s to find a strategy that allows everyone to get through.”
Faced with the chat’s teasing, Zhong Yi remained unhurried.
“I cultivate the Dao because I want everyone beneath Heaven to be able to enter the Dao. I study these illusion realms because I want everyone beneath Heaven to be able to clear them.”
The chat’s mood instantly changed direction.
[True Disciple Zhong is so righteous!]
[When you put it that way… every illusion realm really does give us some practical guidance when Zhong teaches us step by step.]
[If Zhong can clear this illusion realm, then anyone in the world should be able to clear it!]
…
Zhong Yi continued exploring the Hirata Estate with great enthusiasm.
“What? There’s an axe prosthetic hidden in the temple? Good, good… I’ll avenge you!!”
“Hahaha, these ordinary soldiers are no match for me at all… Wait, what the hell? Why are there so many fire archers here? I’m going to die!!”
“Let’s see what treasure is hidden here… What do you mean this is the Hirata family’s chicken coop? No wonder these chickens are from the Hirata family. They peck so fiercely—are they trying to cultivate immortality?!”
…
He revived at the Sculptor’s Idol with nothing to show for it.
Zhong Yi stared at his experience bar with a pained expression.
He had already spent an entire night in the Sekiro illusion realm, yet he hadn’t even gained a single level. He had died more times than he had killed enemies…
“At least I managed to get two prosthetic tools. It wasn’t a total loss!”
Zhong Yi consoled himself.
The axe prosthetic from the temple was called the “Loaded Axe of the Orangutan.” It was said to have been a prosthetic tool once favored by a shinobi named Orangutan.
The description also stated that Orangutan had lost his left arm—and lost this axe as well.
“Orangutan? Lost his left arm? Don’t tell me that’s the old Sculptor? Hahaha…”
Zhong Yi shook his head with a laugh and thought no more of it. Instead, he continued deeper into the estate.
So far, he still hadn’t seen Kuro, nor had he encountered the father known as Owl.
He did, however, run into the Bald Man beside the street next to the chicken coop, near the steps leading to the Tiger Gate.
The other bandits all looked fierce, carrying torches and weapons.
But the Bald Man had nothing in his hands. Wearing a red headscarf, he stood in front of a courtyard like a fool who had wandered into the wrong place.
“I found this place first! Go look for treasure somewhere else, will you?”
“I didn’t realize you were so protective of your territory…”
Zhong Yi stared at the Bald Man, finding him both amusing and irritating. Suddenly, a bold idea came to him.
“What do you think… if I kill him here, will he still exist in the world three years later?”
Of course, thinking about it was one thing. Zhong Yi ultimately didn’t act on the idea.
Before he left, the fellow even told Zhong Yi that there was a three-story pagoda on a certain cliff, with treasures hidden inside.
“Damn, you’re pretty loyal… I won’t chop you up, then.”
Zhong Yi suppressed the urge to use the Bald Man as a test subject and headed farther down the street.
The deeper he went, the more foot soldiers there were.
“Tsk, foot soldiers, foot soldiers… Nothing but foot soldiers. Isn’t there anyone stronger?”
Zhong Yi yawned.
After fighting foot soldiers for so long, he suddenly found himself missing the days when he traded blows with the Chained Ogre and the Samurai General.
But it wasn’t long before he stopped smiling.
“What do you mean, one block with a shield and the character you raised is wasted?!”
“No… These shield soldiers are way too cheap!”
“Junior Brother Lu, get out here!! Who designed these shield soldiers in the first place?!”
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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
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."
