Chen Yu did not interrupt Yano’s practice.
He crouched on the corridor steps, his tiny eyes fixed unblinkingly on the figure swinging a sword in the middle of the snowfield, trying to discern exactly what kind of Dao resonance Yano was comprehending.
But Yano was simply practicing his swordsmanship on the spot—splitting, thrusting, lifting, sweeping, diagonal slashing. Every move was clear and distinct, each strike carrying just the right amount of force, precise and flawless.
The knight’s sword let out a faint hum as it cut through the cold wind, leaving shallow grooves in the snow swept by the blade’s momentum.
His movements had no flashiness; they were even more plain than during regular training. Yet within that simplicity lay an indescribable smoothness. The sword seemed to grow out of his arm like a natural extension.
Nilly crouched beside Chen Yu, her hands propping up her chin. Bored, she muttered quietly, “Isn’t this just normal sword practice?”
“Aside from being steadier than any knight I’ve seen, there’s nothing special about it.”
After a long while, Yano finally stopped, his chest heaving slightly.
He sheathed his sword at his side, walked over to Chen Yu, and asked expectantly, “Boss, did you see what the problem is?”
Yano’s expression froze for a moment, a bit nervous.
“When you were practicing, did you feel anything special?” Chen Yu asked.
Yano scratched his head, trying to recall. “It’s just… I couldn’t perceive anything outside—the wind, footsteps, even you guys talking beside me. I couldn’t hear any of it.”
“All that was left in my heart was the sword. There were no other thoughts in my mind. Even swinging the sword was pure instinct. By the time I came back to myself, a long time had passed.”
Only the sword in his heart?
Chen Yu latched onto the key point. Could it be some kind of swordsmanship Dao?
But he couldn’t sense any sword intent. The Dao resonance born from this mortal martial art shouldn’t be that simple.
Maybe it had something to do with instinct?
But the problem was that he had no dantian, no spiritual root. There was no true inner landscape inside his body at all.
In other words, when he sank into an inner landscape, he was sinking into nothingness.
So when he practiced the sword, his body was mostly controlled by instinct, following the sword’s lead?
How strange. Could a sword come to life on its own?
Chen Yu hopped down from the steps and slowly circled around Yano, his tiny eyes scanning him up and down.
“Have you ever tried to actively control this focused state?”
Yano shook his head, a helpless expression on his face. “I’ve tried many times. Every time I try to control it, I can’t enter it anymore.”
“And every time I enter that focus, my swordsmanship improves rapidly—several times faster than normal training. But I can feel a barrier always blocking me. I’ve tried swinging my sword to cut through it, but the moment I get distracted, I fall out of the focus.”
Nilly crouched on the side, enjoying the show. Suddenly she raised her hand, her face full of eagerness. “So, if I hit you while you’re practicing, can you react in time?”
Yano didn’t know how to answer, because he didn’t know either.
But Chen Yu heard that remark, and his big eyes gleamed with thought.
The secret of that Dao resonance was probably hidden in “instinct” and “sword.”
Since it was instinct, then it should be like Nilly said—when danger came, the body would react on its own.
If that was really the case, then this focused state might be capable of far more than just practice.
He had Yano re-enter the focused state.
Although Yano didn’t quite understand what his boss wanted to do, he knew there must be a reason. So he stepped back to the middle of the snowfield, stood firm, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and swung his sword.
Soon, his aura became quiet and focused again.
Chen Yu used his divine sense to pick up a pebble from the snow, silently manipulating it to float behind Yano, then shot it toward his back shoulder.
The sound of the stone breaking through the air was very faint, but just as it was about to touch Yano’s back, his body spun around without warning, completing a backward parry in an instant.
The tip of his sword precisely struck the stone, sending it flying away.
So it really could be used for combat. Chen Yu was a bit surprised.
Nilly’s eyes lit up, and she raised her hand. “Your Majesty, Auntie requests to fight! Let me test him!”
Chen Yu thought for a moment, shaking his gel body. “Be careful. Right now, he can’t control his body at all, and he can’t hear you.”
“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. Did you think I got my title of Assassin Master for nothing?” Nilly pulled a dagger from her waist, and with a flicker, she silently sank into the shadows at her feet.
She silently extended half an arm from the shadow behind Yano’s left side, stabbing her dagger straight at his waist.
But Yano’s body reacted faster than her dagger.
Nilly only heard a harsh clash of metal. The dagger was blocked squarely by the sword’s blade, sparks scattering across the snow.
Her entire arm went numb from the terrifying rebound force. She almost lost her grip on the dagger.
She quickly retracted into the shadows, gasping sharply.
“How did he react to that?”
Nilly shook her aching wrist, gritted her teeth, and adjusted her strategy. Relying on the flexibility of shadow traversal, she struck continuously from different angles.
Her dagger’s trajectory was like black arcs stabbing from all directions at once.
Yet every single strike was blocked by Yano.
He could even predict Nilly’s movements in advance, activating the gargoyle’s shadow to tear through the shadows, forcing her to retreat from her traversal.
Nilly emerged from the snow a dozen steps away. Before she could catch her breath, she saw Yano charging at her at an incredible speed.
“Not fun!”
She shouted while rolling sideways to dodge a horizontal slash.
“Coal Ball! Get to work!”
Her shadow swelled, turning into a round, chubby shadow slime.
Coal Ball rumbled as it rolled toward Yano. Yano paused, raising his sword to block Coal Ball’s charge. The gel and knight’s sword collided with a dull plop.
At the same moment, Nilly emerged from behind him again, her eyes full of cunning.
Who said this had to be a one-on-one fight? An excellent Assassin Master never lets herself get cornered into a duel.
But just as she thrust her dagger out, she was shocked to find Yano’s figure flicker and disappear, then reappear at her side, both hands raising his sword for a downward strike.
The next second, Nilly was enveloped in a faint green sword light and thrown back to the corridor steps behind Chen Yu.
She landed ungracefully, plopping down on the steps with her butt.
“Are you convinced now?” Chen Yu retracted his flying sword.
Nilly crossed her arms, puffing out her cheeks, but her eyes held more confusion than defiance. “How did that guy Yano do it?”
“We’re both level 10 Extraordinary professionals. He’s usually so dumb. How does he suddenly chase me around and beat me up in this state?”
Before she finished, she saw that figure on the snowfield turn toward them.
Those hollow eyes were quietly staring in her direction.
Nilly quickly hid behind Chen Yu, clutching his round, bouncy gel body. “Your Majesty, what do we do? Should we snap him out of it?”
“The way he looks at people now, it’s like he doesn’t recognize anyone.”
Chen Yu didn’t speak. He watched Yano walking toward them with his sword, curious about what he would do.
Yano walked slowly. Then he saw the slime crouching in front of Nilly. He stopped abruptly, a look of confusion on his face.
He tilted his head, thought for a moment, then thrust his sword into the snow and knelt on one knee.
As soon as he lowered his head and then raised it again, the focus returned to his eyes. He looked at Nilly hiding behind the boss, utterly bewildered.
“What happened?”
Nilly immediately jumped out from behind Chen Yu, hands on her hips. “Do you know you almost chopped your Auntie up just now? Are you sure you don’t have some grudge against me, waiting for a chance to get back at me on purpose?”
Chen Yu told Yano everything that had just happened.
After hearing it, Yano’s face was filled with awkwardness. He scratched his head, unsure how to respond.
Nilly eyed him suspiciously. “Hey, are you sure you really didn’t know anything just now? You weren’t faking it?”
“It felt just like my usual practice. Nothing different. I didn’t expect my body to chase people around on its own,” Yano said, his tone full of genuine apology.
Chen Yu could now confirm it.
This strange focused state was exactly the Dao resonance Yano had comprehended from the Sword Scripture.
It allowed Yano to completely lose self-awareness, leaving everything to instinct, letting the sword itself control his body.
But the problem was, it didn’t distinguish friend from foe. It could easily hurt teammates.
More importantly, his divine sense could perceive that every move of focused Yano was flawless—no more force than necessary, no less. He perfectly controlled his body and the battlefield rhythm, gradually forcing Nilly into a corner with no escape.
Truly terrifying warrior instinct.
Chen Yu secreted two gel clones. They bounced twice and landed on the snow.
“Yano, again.”
Yano froze for a moment when he saw the two gel clones split from the boss’s body.
“Oh, okay.”
He resumed his stance, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the light in his pupils was empty.
The two clones charged at him simultaneously. But when he saw the opponents were slimes, he just stood there dumbly, getting knocked flying far away. He landed in a snow pile with a blank expression, neither fighting back nor dodging.
One of the clones bounced up and bumped into him again. He still didn’t resist.
Well, it seemed Yano was usually quite protective of slimes. Even his subconscious mind didn’t want to hurt them.
Chen Yu moved his mind, making the two clones expand on the spot and transform into the outlines of humanoid knights.
This time, Yano finally reacted. When the disguised knights attacked him, he instinctively fought back.
Under Chen Yu’s divine sense command, the two clones alternated their attacks. Yano fought one against two, his blocks precise and accurate, forcing the clones back.
He actually put up quite a good fight.
The clones didn’t know swordsmanship, so Yano managed to cut them several times.
After careful observation, Chen Yu discovered that focused Yano not only had incredible reaction speed and could quickly identify enemy weaknesses to formulate tactics, but because of his precise control over his own strength, his body almost never exhausted itself.
Even more terrifying, he was like a swordsmanship master who had integrated countless sword techniques and skills into his instinct.
Against perfect technique, he could often achieve maximum results with minimal cost.
Almost like the stronger the enemy, the stronger he became.
In this state, even facing a true high-ranking Greater Demon, as long as the opponent had a weakness, what he could do was far more than just stall.
After reaching this conclusion, Chen Yu retracted the two clones.
Suddenly losing his enemies, Yano stood there blankly.
He looked down and saw Chen Yu bouncing toward him, then instinctively knelt on one knee again.
When he looked up again, his eyes were full of confusion.
“What happened just now?”
Nilly walked over, hands on her hips. “I’ve figured it out. You’re discriminating against humans. You won’t even touch a slime, but you’ll hack knights to death like crazy.”
After hearing her exaggerated description, Yano’s face was a complete mess.
He had just gone back and forth with the boss’s two clones?
When did he get so strong?
Chen Yu said, “This is the realm you comprehended from the Sword Scripture. But it’s incomplete right now, so you can’t control it.”
Yano felt a headache coming on. This was bad.
Not only had he not found a way to break through his bottleneck, but he’d also discovered he could randomly chop people up.
“Boss, is there a solution?”
“Very simple,” Chen Yu said. “Lower your head.”
Yano complied, kneeling on one knee and lowering his head to Chen Yu’s level.
Chen Yu extended a gel hand and gently tapped his forehead.
A soft green light rippled out from his forehead, quickly spreading across his shoulders, arms, and torso, enveloping his entire body in a faint green glow.
“Try moving,” Chen Yu said, withdrawing his little hand and stepping back a bit.
Yano was a bit puzzled. He tried taking a step, then bounced up, landing with a squishy sound.
He and Nilly both widened their eyes.
“What is this? What happened to me?”
Chen Yu replied calmly, “That’s right. You’ve turned into a slime.”
…
After spending a while finally understanding that he had only temporarily turned into a slime, Yano let out a long sigh of relief.
He had thought he really became a walking, talking blob of jelly.
Becoming a jelly wouldn’t be completely unacceptable, but he was mainly afraid Lola wouldn’t recognize him.
He also finally learned from his boss what he had comprehended—the Great Dao.
This was the first time he’d heard such a strangely pronounced term.
Although he didn’t quite understand what the Great Dao was, it seemed like one had to be very smart to truly comprehend it.
And he happened to be not very smart. This was a problem.
But the boss seemed to have a solution.
Yano reached out and caught the little blob bouncing into his palm.
He looked down at this little slime, which also looked up at him curiously.
Chen Yu said, “It is the solution.”
“Your problem is that your talent isn’t enough to walk the path of the Great Dao. But I have another way for you to comprehend it.”
“You don’t have a dantian, so you can’t cultivate an inner landscape like a cultivator. But if I turn you into a slime and merge you with my clone, you can temporarily reach the level of a Fake Core.”
“Even if it’s not a real Golden Core, a Fake Core is enough to bring you closer to the Great Dao.”
“You’re just lacking some opportunities and experience now. It looks like you have no choice but to go to the Southern Islands.”
Fake Core, Golden Core—Yano listened with a blank expression. But he seemed to understand one thing.
The boss’s little blob could merge with him and make him a more powerful slime.
And it seemed the boss could help control his other state?
So becoming a slime was actually a good thing?