Enhancement, Swordsmanship Mastery

Swordsmanship Mastery (passive)?

Lin Feng remembered this skill. Although it was passive, it was astonishingly powerful.

Swordsmanship Mastery had proved tremendously useful on the road.

Put it this way: Lin Feng hadn't used Daoist Arts to deal with many of the troubles along the way.

Many Daoist Arts required time and prerequisites to perform. For example, Lingguan Descends, one of the Inviting the Gods to Descend techniques, required setting up an altar and conducting a ritual.

Bean Soldiers required nurturing magical implements in advance and applying incantations to them.

There were conditions for casting it, too.

You could also call it a game's casting windup.

The journey just now had been fraught with trouble.

Lin Feng had solved many of those problems with his sword. Whenever trouble arose, a single stroke sent a rainbow of sword light thirty feet long flashing out. Even the swordsmen in martial arts novels could do no better.

Lin Feng had even developed a certain illusion.

As long as he wanted to, he could pierce the steel plating of a modern armored vehicle with a single thrust.

But that might have been a false impression.

He was getting full of himself.

After all, he hadn't seen modern technology firsthand and wasn't particularly familiar with the advanced technology used in modern armored vehicles. He didn't know just how far modern technology had progressed.

When Lin Feng claimed the permanent skill, he felt as though clear water had washed through his brain. Even his body began making a series of cracking noises.

A turbulent current emerged from his dantian, spreading through his meridians and bones, then into his muscles. His entire body was changing.

Lin Feng clicked his teeth together.

[Name: Lin Feng]

[Class: None]

[Status: None]

[Skill: Swordsmanship Mastery (permanent passive)]

[Equipment: None]

[Fortune: Five qian (Fortune can empower spells, strengthen the body, and purchase skills)]

[Notes: Nothing to say]

Looking at his character panel, Lin Feng immediately felt the gulf between himself and the high-ranking Daoist priest.

It was like falling from a mountaintop to the bottom of a valley.

From a max-level character to a blank slate.

The disappointment was overwhelming!

"Trash developers! Trash game! It's all a scam!"

As a game streamer, Lin Feng knew these developers' tricks well. Companies would exploit people's aversion to losing things, letting you try a powerful account before handing you a fresh one. They made you feel the difference so you would grind and spend money later.

He hadn't expected a game spanning worlds to use the same trick.

People just weren't honest anymore!

Just as he was complaining about the game,

Lin Feng once again heard that spine-chilling suona music. This time, however, low whispers mingled with it, as though someone were speaking into his ear.

But the whispers were far too quiet. Amid the shrill notes of the suona, they were almost impossible to hear. Listening closely only left him agitated.

Blood twisted.

Bloody words appeared before his eyes again.

This time, they read:

[Western Hunan Blood God]

[Act one: Assembly]

[Reach Clear Spring Stockade alive before tomorrow to assemble]

[Lives remaining: 0]

[Mission completion reward: Permanently retain one skill, five qian of Fortune]

[Beginner mission. No cooldown upon failure]

The words gradually blurred as though washed by heavy rain. Then Lin Feng saw the blood twist again, forming new words.

[Western Hunan Blood God]

[Act two: Gestation]

[Find the map of the thirty-six stockades while keeping yourself and at least one teammate alive]

[Lives remaining: 3]

[Mission completion reward: Two qian of Fortune, unlock the exchange]

[Low-level mission. One-hour cooldown upon failure]

[Start game]

[Exit game]

As he read the bloody words, he saw the cutscene begin as well.

He descended, and his character—the Daoist priest—walked toward the [Clear Spring Village Shrine] with his guide. People were already waiting at the shrine.

A sallow-faced man, a local girl, an obese man, and a monk with his head wrapped up.

Seeing Lin Feng enter, the obese man said impatiently, "What took you so long? We've all been waiting for you!"

The scene ended there.

Lin Feng saw [Embroidered Uniform Guard, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu] above the sallow-faced man's head, [Five Poisons Sect, Third Lady] above the girl's, [Five Stockade Pacification Office, Peng Tianli] above the obese man's, and [Wild Fox Zen, Liao Chi] above the monk with his head wrapped up.

The scene froze.

After watching the opening of the game's second act, Lin Feng thought for a moment and chose to exit for now.

Such formidable self-control!

He decided to use the bathroom first and drink his chilled cola while he was at it.

Although he was engrossed in the game, he still felt he should calm down first and figure out what was going on with this damned thing.

The instant he selected Exit game, he once again heard the console reading a disc beside his ear. He removed his helmet and was astonished to find the entire room pitch-black.

He hadn't gone blind.

Night had fallen.

Lin Feng switched on the light and checked the time. It had gone from two in the afternoon to nine at night.

Seven whole hours had passed.

He hadn't noticed at all.

What an incredible game console.

Lin Feng opened his chilled cola and took a sip, trying hard to calm himself. His stomach was growling. He was hungry.

After ordering takeout, Lin Feng sat across from the helmet and examined it.

He found the same model on Taobao.

Ninety-eight yuan for a sun-protective motorcycle half helmet. It had absolutely nothing to do with sophisticated virtual technology like a VR helmet.

Things were getting stranger and stranger.

He took out his phone to investigate the Western Hunan Blood God. He discovered that Zhu Yuanzhang from the cutscene was real, as was Zhang Zhengchang. It was also historically true that the Hongwu Emperor had abolished the Celestial Master title and ordered the Celestial Master of Dragon-Tiger Mountain to adopt the title Great Perfected.

Even the obese man's Five Stockade Pacification Office corresponded to an actual place.

Peng Wanli had indeed been a local native chieftain, too.

The only thing that didn't match was the Western Hunan Blood God.

When he searched for the Western Hunan Blood God, all he found were novels and public-account posts.

All the information was fictional.

There was no historical counterpart.

After investigating for quite a while, Lin Feng had no choice but to put down his phone.

He was too hungry.

He found some instant food to tide himself over, but his attention remained on the game console and his phone.

Unlike other people, encountering these supernatural things filled Lin Feng with curiosity, questions, and excitement.

The only thing he didn't feel was panic.

Because he had always been into mystical stuff.

Tarot cards, crystal balls, witchcraft and divination, the I Ching and birth charts, UFOs, horror legends from around the world—

Lin Feng had dabbled in all of them.

Although he was a game streamer, when chatting with his viewers, he liked using this sort of mystical stuff to catch their attention.

It worked pretty well.

So now he was wondering.

Was this helmet some kind of supernatural object, too?

But who had sent it to him?

Surely he hadn't actually sent it to himself!

Even after eating the instant dumplings, Lin Feng was still hungry. Something felt wrong. He went out to collect his takeout, then pondered as he ate. Suddenly, he seemed to catch something out of the corner of his eye.

His hand moved faster than his brain.

Instinctively, Lin Feng sent the chopstick in his hand flying!

A large cockroach was skewered against the floor. More than that, the chopstick had penetrated deep into the baseboard.

Only the large cockroach was still struggling.

Lin Feng sucked in a sharp breath.

He stood up and approached the cockroach. Seeing that the chopstick from his hand had pierced it, he looked at his hands again, then took off his shirt and went to the mirror.

Lin Feng worked out regularly.

But his physique had never been this good.

His body was sleek and streamlined.

Lin Feng tested it a little and felt the muscles beneath his skin brimming with vitality and strength, like pythons. Moreover, with just a moment's reflection, countless memories of experience surfaced as though they had always been in his mind, all of them sword techniques.

He performed a sword routine in the living room.

There was no sword at home, so he picked up a baseball bat and swung it casually a few times. Every move seemed deeply engraved in his very bones. Lin Feng believed that, with his current body and a weapon in hand, taking on ten people at once would be no problem at all.

But the problem now was this.

Lin Feng looked at himself in the mirror.

He had definitely never been like this before.

He thought of the permanent passive skill he had obtained in the game.

[Swordsmanship Mastery]

Standing before the mirror,

as though moved by some inexplicable impulse,

he instinctively clicked his teeth together.

A character panel appeared before him.

[Name: Lin Feng]

[Class: None]

[Status: None]

[Skill: Swordsmanship Mastery (permanent passive)]

[Equipment: None]

[Fortune: Five qian (Fortune can empower spells, strengthen the body, and purchase skills)]

[Notes: Nothing to say]