The Beginning 1

With a sense of awe, Lin Sheng finished sorting through his memories, put away his pen, and quickly washed up before going to bed.

"This time, I'll practice outside a little longer. Who would've thought there'd be a level-twelve being in Black Feather City? Based on what I deduced earlier, what if this level-twelve city guard commander also turns into a monster? Then..."

In any case, Lin Sheng had made up his mind: he absolutely would not enter the city this time.

But now that he had obtained a map of Black Feather City, he was eager to go in and take a look, to see if he could find any trace of extraordinary power.

Lying in bed, he closed his eyes. His consciousness slowly grew hazy as he wrestled with the decision, then sank lower and lower.

"Mm..."

A gust of cold wind blew past, jolting him awake with a shiver.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by a mess of weeds. The corpse of a slain Rotten Swordsman lay across the ground not far ahead.

Leaning on his sword, Lin Sheng got to his feet and looked around. He was still at the corner of the city wall where he had taken shelter after being injured.

The dilapidated walls, gray-white and riddled with holes, stretched away on both sides into the distant mist, with no end in sight.

First, he quickly checked the places where he'd been injured.

"My wounds healed?"

The areas he'd injured earlier had completely returned to normal. Even his damaged clothes had been repaired.

Lin Sheng slapped the injured spots hard. They didn't hurt at all.

"I can use this trick to recover in the future."

He made a mental note of that, then looked around.

The area he had swept through earlier lay to the left. The Rotten Swordsman's corpse on the ground was from there.

To the right was the way back to the city gate passage.

After a moment's thought, he decided to head back to the right first.

"I'm not going in. I'll just walk around outside and take a look. That should be fine, right? Maybe Black Feather City changes in different ways at different times."

Lin Sheng had the memories of the gate guards, so he knew what he was doing. He had an accurate understanding of Black Feather City as a whole and of his own location within it.

He wasn't wandering around aimlessly like before.

He flexed his hands and checked himself over.

He was still wearing the white undergarments he'd had on when he came in, with long sleeves and long pants. No wonder he was freezing.

"I need to find some clothes to wear. This dream perception is getting more and more realistic. It'd be hilarious if I ended up freezing to death later."

Having decided to keep an eye out for clothes, Lin Sheng's gaze involuntarily drifted to the corpse nearby.

The Rotten Swordsman wore a filthy black outfit, its original light-gray fabric still faintly visible.

Through the gaps in the clothing, Lin Sheng could also see plenty of dried black blood and fluid from burst pustules.

"Never mind."

Lin Sheng decisively gave up on the idea of stealing the Rotten Swordsman's clothes.

With his sword in hand, he walked at an unhurried pace toward the city gate passage.

After a while, a faint sound of footsteps suddenly came from beside the wall ahead.

Tap, tap, tap.

The footsteps sounded like metal boots crushing stones in the dirt, each muffled step accompanied by a cracking noise.

Lin Sheng's heart tightened, and he immediately stopped.

To his surprise, the other party seemed to have noticed him too and stopped at once.

Both sides came to a halt.

The wind swept past his feet, making the weeds nearby rustle.

Lin Sheng felt colder and colder, and his grip on his sword tightened.

He pursed his lips and ran his tongue over his cracked lower lip.

Click.

Suddenly, a small stone fell from the wall above him.

Whoosh.

A faint sound rapidly drew closer.

Distracted by the stone, Lin Sheng reacted a fraction too slowly. He hurriedly raised his sword.

Clang!

Two swords slammed together.

A Black Sword came soaring down through the dark mist, crashing into the center of Lin Sheng's blade.

Only then did Lin Sheng get a good look at his opponent.

The other man was dressed like a Rotten Swordsman. His head was wrapped in white bandages, with no eyes, nostrils, or mouth showing.

But unlike the other Rotten Swordsmen, there were no bloodstains seeping through the bandages on his head, and all four of his limbs were completely intact. His black clothes were also undamaged.

Nor were there any pustules on the black skin that showed through.

Aside from his old clothes, he looked like a normal person with an injured head.

There was no time to observe him more closely. The other man's tremendous strength kept driving Lin Sheng backward.

They both retreated rapidly.

The Rotten Swordsman planted his feet and stopped. Lin Sheng alone continued to stumble backward with his momentum.

Clang!

Their swords clashed again.

Lin Sheng's hands went numb, and even his shoulders tingled from the impact.

But before he could regain his strength, his opponent's Black Sword came at him again.

The relentless sword strikes rang deafeningly in his ears. Lin Sheng could only rely on the mercenary's battle instincts to block them.

Now he understood: in actual combat, the most useful thing was the fighting instinct that wandering mercenary had honed on the battlefield of life and death.

"So strong." Lin Sheng struggled to hold on, his heart filled with shock.

This was the first time he'd encountered such a powerful Rotten Swordsman.

Most of the ones he'd met before had been crippled, either lame or missing an arm.

But this one was different.

His opponent was whole, his swordsmanship exquisite, and he was no weaker than Lin Sheng, despite all the soldier memories he'd absorbed.

"No, he's not weaker than me! If not for the mercenary's instinctive reaction to danger, I'd already be dead." Lin Sheng suddenly realized.

He couldn't remember any sword techniques at all. Before him, the shrill clang of blades rang out again and again. His body could only keep retreating.

There was nothing else he could do.

His Black Sword instinctively blocked in the direction the chill came from.

Only now did he understand how formidable that mercenary had been.

If the man hadn't been physically crippled and unable to use any system sword skills, Lin Sheng never would have been able to kill him.

The impacts rang out one after another. Lin Sheng ached all over, as if a heavy hammer were pounding him again and again. His hands had gone completely numb.

But both reason and instinct told him the same thing: he had to hold on to his sword, or he would die!

Thud.

A muffled impact sent Lin Sheng stumbling back two steps. Then he realized the noise had stopped. The relentless attacks of the Black Sword were gone.

He staggered and dropped to one knee with a thump, his whole body weak. He managed to lift his eyes and look ahead.

Under the moonlight, the Rotten Swordsman stood two meters away, holding his sword in one hand. He made no move to pursue.

Swish, swish.

Two sword marks flashed across the ground in front of the other man, forming a cross.

The Rotten Swordsman turned and walked away, slowly vanishing into the hazy mist.

Lin Sheng gritted his teeth and stood, leaning on his sword to keep from falling.

Sweat poured down his body and forehead, but he didn't notice it at all.

"That guy was in a completely different league from the other Rotten Swordsmen! But why did he stop pursuing me?"

Lin Sheng quickly glanced around and immediately understood.

Beside the road on his left stood a thick wooden post, more than four meters tall. A tattered black triangular flag hung from it.

Faintly visible in the center of the flag was the image of a Black Eagle with its wings spread as if about to take flight.

"This is the boundary of Black Feather City's jurisdiction. I've really come this far?" Lin Sheng could hardly believe it.

From the city wall to here was at least two hundred meters.

Had he really been driven back that far by the Rotten Swordsman just now?