The Rigid Break Easily; Keep the Sword Sheathed

He hadn't lasted long enough for the blood god to emerge.

Game over.

Lin Feng had died.

He had died, but he had achieved his goal.

After slaughtering who knew how many Worm Thralls, Lin Feng felt as though the sword in his hand had grown warm.

He could feel the sword's heartbeat, and the sword could sense his will. Amid the frenzied fighting, the sword had become an extension of his body. He was its master, and it was a limb he had been born with, no longer a cold weapon.

His sword techniques were no longer cold words and pictures, either.

The sword had become part of his life.

Tempered by death, the sword techniques in his mind and the sword in his hand had begun to become one and the same.

Hand, eye, body, and intent had all fused into one.

They had become as instinctive to Lin Feng as eating and drinking.

They had become part of his body.

This was true swordsmanship.

This was [Swordsmanship Mastery].

Under the threat of death, his conscious mind had finally caught up with his instincts.

His will, too, had become as cool and composed as a sword!

The reaping had begun.

But this was only a beginning, nowhere near [Swordsmanship Mastery]. He was still a long way from that high-ranking ritual master.

Three lives, in what seemed like only a brief stretch of gameplay. Immersed in it, Lin Feng had passed through life and death three times, and he felt something within his body straining to emerge.

Gestation!

This mountain stronghold was gestating a blood god.

Within his body, a sword soul was gestating as well.

Even Lin Feng could tell that this was an opportunity he might not find in a hundred lifetimes.

Nowhere else could Lin Feng find such a precious place to farm experience without restraint.

Inside the Qingshan Game Console, he could.

The more he killed, the calmer he became. The more he killed, the clearer his mind grew.

At the very end.

Lin Feng had fought until his strength gave out. A Worm Thrall opened its mouth wide and spat Red-Line Worms all over his head, and the worms burrowed into his brain.

He had actually been able to face death calmly.

He had died.

Only after being ejected from the world did Lin Feng feel a sense of loss.

Before he could catch his breath, the blood-red text turned gray. When he tried to enter again, the cold gray text informed him that the game was on cooldown and could not be entered.

After he had used up all three lives, every game turned gray, and a countdown appeared beneath the blood-red text.

The countdown was one hour.

He could enter again only after an hour.

This was the death penalty for a low-level mission.

Staring at the blood-red gate, Lin Feng finally came back to himself. He closed his eyes and let out a soft breath. With his eyes shut, he drew his vitality and spirit inward, but the gleam in his gaze still had not faded.

He still hadn't learned how to keep his sword sheathed.

Lin Feng had never studied any martial arts, but between life and death, with the passive skill [Swordsmanship Mastery], he felt as though he had touched upon something.

The threshold of the sword.

The suona music, women's wails, and low murmurs continued around him, but this time, hearing them no longer made Lin Feng feel agitated.

He wanted to watch the third act's cinematic, but who would have thought the games shared a cooldown?

There was no way to watch it.

He could only exit the game, remove his helmet, and check the time.

It was one in the morning.

He hadn't spent much time in the game.

Nor did he intend to sleep.

Lin Feng wasn't a healthy-lifestyle guy. Most freelancers didn't keep regular hours, and besides, he was in Fog City. During summer in Fog City, the locals slept by day and went out at night.

For no other reason than that it was too hot during the day.

Only at night, when the temperature dropped, was it a good time to go out.

"Time for bed."

Despite saying that, he stood up and clicked his teeth together.

Nothing on the panel had changed.

But Lin Feng simply felt that he had grown stronger.

Every time someone grew stronger, they experienced an illusion: the feeling that they could pierce the sky or beat an ox to death. Looking down from upstairs, Lin Feng quietly took off his shoes and planted his bare feet on the floor. Though he had no sword in his hand, he closed his eyes, then opened them again and darted through his home like a gust of wind.

It was something like parkour.

He moved fast, but his reactions were even faster. As he raced around, he didn't touch a single thing: the computer desk, coffee table, sofa, or delivery boxes.

He roamed like a ghostly shadow, and because he wasn't wearing shoes, his footsteps were very light. The slapping sounds they should have made had almost vanished entirely.

That was because he knew how to rein in his force.

He had tremendous control over his muscles!

Swordsmanship Mastery included sword techniques specifically devoted to assassination. These techniques emphasized "one strike, one kill."

If the strike missed, flee a thousand miles.

The sword techniques themselves consisted of just a few direct movements.

Most involved delivering a single thrust regardless of the cost, then running!

Whether it succeeded or not, turn and run.

Their essence lay entirely in the footwork.

Move like a nimble cat. At full mastery, one could cross boiling water without being scalded and tread snow without leaving a trace.

Lin Feng had used this footwork to slaughter his way through the stilt houses, create distance, and evade the worms.

He stopped and caught his breath.

"It wasn't just my mind..."

He stood before the mirror, took off his clothes, and examined his muscles.

"There seem to be signs of training, too. I brought the training from the game into reality. If that's the case..."

Lin Feng jabbed with both hands.

Whoosh.

Two dragons playing with a pearl, but a lightning-fast version.

The muscles beneath his skin were like a great bow. The thrust he unleashed was terrifying!

Muscles, tendons and bones, diaphragm, internal organs.

Lin Feng put his clothes back on.

He forced himself to go to bed, setting an alarm to wake him in four hours so he could keep grinding the game.

He needed sleep.

But just as he lay down, he suddenly remembered: hadn't he killed a cockroach while eating his takeout?

A cockroach!

There were cockroaches in his home!

At that thought, Lin Feng instantly lost all trace of sleepiness. He opened his phone and searched for [Do cockroaches carry parasites?].

Wandu: [Cockroaches can carry the eggs of various worms, including roundworms, duodenal hookworms, beef tapeworms, pinworms, and whipworms.

They can also serve as intermediate hosts for various worms, including Moniliformis, dwarf tapeworms, and Gongylonema.

Cockroaches can also carry various protozoa, four of which are pathogenic to humans or animals, such as Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia intestinalis.]

Reading this, Lin Feng jumped out of bed.

"Fuck."

One word said more than a thousand others!

After reading that, and especially after searching for pictures of several parasites, Lin Feng gave up on sleep. Without another word, he went downstairs to buy cockroach poison. There was no way he could sleep now. Just thinking of all the parasites cockroaches carried, especially the ones that looked much like Red-Line Worms...

Lin Feng felt uncomfortable all over.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he felt as though the whole world was crawling with cockroaches.

He went downstairs to buy insecticide and realized he was hungry, too. The pest-control shop's owner was an old acquaintance. Looking at Lin Feng, he said in a thick Sichuan-Chongqing accent, "Hey, Lin, what's gotten into you lately? How come you're looking so lively? Got some good news?"

Lively?

Only then did Lin Feng realize that others might not be able to see his swordsmanship, but they could see his vitality and spirit.

He placed the poison bait in the corners of his home. Since he had already gone out, and his stomach was rumbling...

He went out to eat. His usual hot pot restaurant was packed.

Lin Feng sat outside, and now and then a hot girl gave him a second look.

Lin Feng was tall, but more importantly, there was his bearing.

Like a sword.

So sharp it pricked!