Li Moran’s Illusion World.
What kind of experience would a game become for a beginner playing Sekiro for the first time who, without searching for tutorials, looking up guides, or watching videos, managed to beat the story boss Genichiro Ashina through sheer talent?
The answer: a complete drop in dimensions.
For quite some time afterward, every elite enemy and boss would seem no different from an ordinary mob in that player’s eyes.
That was exactly the state Li Moran was in.
After defeating Genichiro Ashina, she went straight from Gyoubu Oniwa to the next area without dying even once. The total time it took her amounted to less than fifteen minutes.
The only opponent who had given her any real trouble was the Headless—the one who had tormented Zhou Yue so badly that the word “noob” had appeared in his vision.
The Headless were difficult because of their mechanics.
And Zhong Yi had already publicly revealed a method of countering those mechanics without relying on Divine Confetti.
Even though Li Moran had blocked the live-stream chat, she had heard everyone discussing it at the scene in the Boundless Sword Domain.
As a result, the Headless had not caused her too much trouble either. She had merely died a dozen or so times before clearing the fight without taking any damage.
When she emerged from that gloomy cavern, Li Moran looked at the Kusabimaru in her hand with a complete lack of enthusiasm.
Her expression practically seemed to say: Life is truly as lonely as snow.
She stood there for a while before sending Lu Ze a private message.
“Are there no opponents here who are actually worth fighting?”
“I really didn’t expect you to be such a masochist…”
Lu Ze laughed and shook his head when he received the message.
Since even the Headless could not hold Li Moran back, it would be difficult for anyone to trouble her at this stage—at least until she encountered Genichiro in earnest.
That was not a good thing.
After all, Lu Ze was counting on Li Moran to farm rewards for him.
Everyone knew that the skills Li Moran awarded were far superior to those given by his two clownish senior brothers.
As Lu Ze watched Li Moran return to the Sculptor’s Idol at the Gyoubu Oniwa battlefield and continue pushing through the story, his eyes suddenly lit up.
He had made quite a few changes to Sekiro’s illusion realm, changes that differed completely from the original game.
With that thought, he hurriedly sent Li Moran another message.
“Just remember this: every character in the illusion realm can be challenged.”
Li Moran raised an eyebrow, and her expectations for the illusion realm rose several notches.
She did not linger. Instead, she continued toward the more central districts of Ashina Castle.
Her thoughts were simple: push through the main story as quickly as possible and challenge stronger opponents.
During her battle with Genichiro Ashina in the reed field, she had clearly sensed that he had underestimated her and had not fought with all his strength.
Li Moran very much wanted to defeat Genichiro at his peak.
She followed the steps upward. The moment she entered a castle compound, she saw the back of a gaunt old man examining a corpse wearing a conical hat.
The old man was tall and emaciated, with a head of white hair.
A red tengu mask covered his face.
“Another rat…”
The old man wearing the tengu mask suddenly exuded a chilling killing intent and drew his blade, pointing it at Li Moran.
His movement was so swift that even someone as strong as Li Moran failed to see it.
“State your name before I kill you!”
“…”
Li Moran opened her mouth, but said nothing. She merely rested her right hand on the hilt of the Kusabimaru.
To her surprise, the other man did not display a red name or health bar. Instead, after carefully examining Wolf’s face, his tone suddenly softened.
“So you’re a starving wolf… Hm? Your left arm… a prosthetic? Hahaha! Now that brings back memories!”
The moment he noticed the prosthetic on Wolf’s left arm, the old man suddenly burst into hearty laughter, as if he were about to become Wolf’s oldest friend.
“One-Armed Wolf, is it? I see. I like you…”
The old man nodded in approval.
“Wolf… From now on, I shall call you Wolf!”
The old man laughed heartily as he patted Wolf on the shoulder. He introduced himself as the Tengu of Ashina, who was hunting “rats” throughout Ashina Castle.
The so-called rats were actually enemy soldiers who had infiltrated Ashina Castle.
The old man calling himself the Tengu extended an offer to Wolf, inviting him to hunt the rats together and promising him a reward.
The viewers in the live-stream chat suddenly understood.
【So that’s where Wolf’s name comes from…】
【Who is this old man? He seems like someone important.】
【Classic side quest. Classic kill-monsters-for-rewards.】
【What’s Fairy Li hesitating about? There’s no reason to refuse!】
…
Li Moran had blocked all the live-stream comments, so naturally she could not see what they were saying.
Of course, even if she had seen them, they would not have influenced her judgment in the slightest.
Li Moran stared intently at the old man calling himself the Tengu.
The man seemed to be full of openings, yet Li Moran instinctively sensed the strength hidden within him…
He was powerful!
More powerful than Genichiro Ashina!
At that moment, Li Moran suddenly remembered the message Lu Ze had sent earlier, and her eyes lit up.
In an instant, she stopped hesitating. The Kusabimaru tore from its sheath and thrust toward the old man standing before her.
Clang!
The crisp sound of steel striking steel rang out.
Li Moran’s blade was knocked violently aside.
Above the old man wearing the tengu mask, a red name and a long health bar appeared:
【Isshin Ashina】
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.
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."
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
