The Selfless Sword Heart and the Sword Soul Legacy

The sudden change had lifted the seal.

Once Moryo felt the seal binding his body disappear, he instantly grew larger. His poisoned body gradually began to crack and fall apart.

After expelling all the poison from his body, he shrank a little and returned to normal.

"Hahaha! You actually removed the seal. Now no one can save you!"

Moryo flashed forward and charged out of the palace.

"???"

He'd made a big show of it, only to run away? Baiyu was disgusted. He steadied his mind and unleashed a streak of Draw-Sword Technique sword energy.

The attack was incredibly fast, but Moryo wasn't the least bit afraid. He let the sword energy pass right through him, leaving him completely unharmed.

Sensing Baiyu's attack, Moryo turned to look at him, a strange smile appearing on his face. His expression was dripping with mockery, as if laughing at Baiyu for overestimating himself.

His tentacles continued to propel him forward as he fled at top speed.

Moryo had no intention of fighting at all. The moment he faced Baiyu, his first thought was to run.

His goal was clear: get outside, possess someone's body, then flee to the shrine where his physical form was sealed. Once he had taken over a body, he would fight Baiyu.

Everyone had to bear the consequences of their own arrogance.

Without Miroku's seal holding him back, Moryo had no reservations. His spirit flew straight out of the palace and possessed one of the guards.

"He got out."

Miroku stared intently at Moryo. The moment she decided to break the seal, she had prepared for the possibility that he might escape.

She understood Moryo far better than Baiyu and the others did.

As a demon made up of all kinds of negative emotions, Moryo was naturally cunning and treacherous.

Baiyu's plan to fight him one-on-one was pure wishful thinking.

"Don't interfere."

Baiyu and Moryo came out at the same time. A streak of sword energy shot toward Moryo.

Worried Miroku might be unable to resist intervening, Baiyu reminded her once again.

"We... should go."

Miroku entrusted everything to Baiyu and gave him her complete faith.

What was the worst that could happen? They could always follow the original plan.

Holding the Kusanagi Sword, Baiyu approached Moryo step by step.

"There is no enemy the sword cannot slay."

A quiet murmur. A moment of silence.

Baiyu entered a state of enlightenment in the way of the sword once again.

Moryo glanced toward Miroku. That woman was as sharp as ever. She was heading straight for his physical body...

Then... he wouldn't go to his body. He'd find another, slightly inferior one instead.

Thinking this, Moryo fled in the opposite direction.

His spirit was immune to slashes and sword energy, but it couldn't remain in the world for long.

So Moryo had to find a body. But once he had one, he would have a weakness.

At that moment, Baiyu was focused only on swinging his sword again and again, moving unconsciously.

The only thing he remembered was the enemy before him—Moryo.

Every slash confirmed the system's reward: Selfless Sword Qi.

He needed neither chakra nor Thunder Breathing. As long as he held a sword, he could unleash sword energy.

This reward had revealed a glimpse of another realm to Baiyu.

My path is free of self; I have never despised the world.

Now that I've entered the mortal realm, I feel my true heart all the more.

Selfless Sword Qi was supposed to be the purest power of the sword—the sword's gift, its gratitude to its master.

A person was originally a sword. That was selflessness.

With a sword in hand, the whole world could be an enemy.

Selflessness was a calm, open-hearted state of mind.

If one could achieve selflessness, one could commune with the sword and understand its ancient, unadorned essence.

Gradually tempering the sword's intent into the body, one could cultivate the sword's serenity: unmoved by honor or disgrace, watching the flowers bloom and wither in the courtyard, neither longing to stay nor to leave, and gazing up at the clouds rolling across the sky.

Selflessness was the sword.

The fundamental realm of the way of the sword: Selfless Completion!

"Ding! Congratulations, host, on comprehending the Selfless Sword Heart. Note: Selflessness is the sword. The sword sees all things as one, and all can be cut down! (While in the selfless state, attacks have a 10% chance to trigger Direct Death.)"

"Ding! Advancement quest: Path of the Great Swordsman. Master at least three sword hearts (2/3)."

"Ding! Inheritance requirements met. Inheritance quest unlocked: One Who Understands the Sword! What does it mean to understand the sword? All things can be a sword. This is the Sword Soul. Quest reward: Change class to Sword Soul and gain proficiency in the Sword Soul system's skills. Note: To earn the Sword Soul's recognition, you must master at least ten kinds of swords."

Baiyu's eyes cleared again. When he came back to himself after his moment of enlightenment, he found that he had arrived in an unfamiliar place.

Moryo was still ahead of him, running nonstop. Baiyu had no idea how long they had been running.

When Moryo looked back and saw Baiyu had stopped, he was overjoyed.

"Hahaha! Can't run anymore?"

Moryo laughed triumphantly. Baiyu had attacked continuously for so long, and the two of them had run over a hundred miles. Several hours had passed.

Baiyu hadn't stopped attacking the entire way.

Under those circumstances, an ordinary person would have run out of chakra long ago, yet Baiyu was still full of energy.

"Moryo, you helped me comprehend a new sword heart. You've made your final contribution. Now die!"

Baiyu stood in place and waved the Kusanagi Sword away.

His right hand gripped the wooden sword. He entered the Selfless Sword Heart state, empowered himself with Thunder Breathing, and condensed all his chakra into a single point.

Concentrate everything into one point. Reach the pinnacle.

"Slash!"

Without another word, he made one simple, unadorned swing.

The wooden blade cut through the light, forming a streak of black that vanished in an instant.

"Direct Death triggered."

Baiyu murmured. The moment he swung his sword, he knew how it would end.

He needed no support, no poison, just an ordinary attack.

Draw the sword, slash, return it to the scabbard.

"Ah!"

Moryo let out a scream. Countless tentacles burst out of the human body, which abruptly disintegrated into clusters of purplish-red light.

It was such a slow strike, slower than a tortoise, slower than anything imaginable.

The eye could clearly follow every movement of the sword—even watch it return to its scabbard.

But faced with it, Moryo couldn't react at all. His mind struggled desperately, but his body wouldn't move.

The whole world seemed frozen by that sword. All things gazed upon the direction of its blade.

Moryo was dead.

Not a trace of him remained.

When the Selfless Sword Heart's passive effect triggered, it could slay any being, living or dead, with a single stroke.

The Direct Death effect was overwhelmingly powerful.

That was the sword. When Direct Death triggered, the boundless way of the sword descended to execute the enemy. Before the endless way of the sword, everything was trash!

If the Wanderer represented a free-spirited nature,

then selflessness represented the sword—a sword pure to the extreme.

"But this state... is too terrifying."

Baiyu murmured. He didn't dare use such an overbearing sword heart for too long.

After too much time in that state, he wouldn't know whether he was Baiyu or a sword.

Once he entered the Selfless Sword Heart state, the sword's essence was constantly assimilating his mind.

Even after just that brief moment, Baiyu could feel the sword erasing part of his nature.

"Perhaps the legendary Sword Fanatic entered this state, had his entire nature ground away, and was left with only a sword intent inside him, controlling his body as it walked through the world?"

Baiyu guessed that the Selfless Sword Heart eroded the mind. It was powerful, but he couldn't use it often.

The system hadn't warned him about this.

Was that a trap it had deliberately set?

It hadn't mentioned the Selfless Sword Heart's greatest drawback.

Entering this state meant being assimilated by the sword...

After dealing with Moryo, Baiyu switched back to the Wanderer and returned to his carefree, easygoing nature.

Only then did Baiyu notice the flood of notifications that had appeared in the system.

Million Draws—completed!