Chapter 216: Blades and Storms (Part 2)
Zhou Ning was stunned. He had gone to great lengths to piece together a set of perfect talents suited for martial arts experts—only for this damn thing to dump him into the year 2022?
This stupid simulator!
[April 7, 2022 — You arrive at what you thought was a village street, only to realize you were mistaken. This isn't a village at all, but a small county town called Gaochun. The place only looks old-fashioned because of limited productivity; everywhere are ancient-style buildings. This world is like ancient China, with villagers dressed in traditional clothes passing to and fro. Did you… travel back to ancient times?]
[As a transmigrator, your attire quickly draws the attention of the locals. A constable comes over at once to question you. Following the fine traditions of transmigrators, you make up a story that doesn't sound remotely believable—about being a wanderer returning from a foreign land. To your surprise, he actually believes you. Then a prompt sounds in your head, making you freeze: your reputation with the Great Qian faction has reached "Neutral." What the hell? subway old man looking at phone.jpg]
[After some investigation, you find your stats panel and receive a newbie quest: join a sect. Your attributes are absurdly good—Strength and Luck both maxed out at 100—and your identity is listed as an ordinary citizen of Great Qian.]
[Being steeped in transmigration culture, you naturally think of one word—system! Could it be that your luck has finally turned and you've gotten a system?!]
[April 8, 2022 — Perhaps thanks to your insane luck, you happen to save the young son of the county magistrate. With the magistrate's help, you settle temporarily in the small county town and even get a new job—constable. From him, you learn that this is a country called Great Qian, whose territory is about twice the size of the Ming dynasty in your past life. The place you're in is just a small city.]
[April 9, 2022 — You make a new discovery today: martial arts! Running into the same official again, you learn his name is Zhu Baokun from the Penglai Sect, skilled in wielding a single saber. You're thrilled—turns out martial arts really do exist in this world.]
[The martial world here has its own closed circle that common folk rarely enter. Even better, this discovery triggers a newbie quest: join a sect. From your research, there are three sects nearby—the Haisand Gang, the Giant Whale Gang, and the Penglai Sect. Haisand specializes in long weapons like tridents and spears; Giant Whale in lightness skills and water combat; Penglai in saber techniques and hidden weapons.]
[You're not very interested in any of them—they sound too much like cannon fodder. Luckily, your good fortune holds. You run into a random Daoist priest named Qiu Chuji, who's impressed by your potential and takes you in as his disciple. A new title appears on your panel: Fourth-Generation Disciple of the Quanzhen Sect. The quest is complete.]
[Completing this quest earns you 20,000 experience points and a manual called Two Sleeves of Green Serpents, which sounds very high-class indeed. You really are the chosen one. (You have obtained the manual: Two Sleeves of Green Serpents.)]
[Looks like the world you've entered is The Legend of the Condor Heroes… You're now convinced of it. The martial arts level here isn't too impressive, so with the system's help, you might just work your way up to number one in the martial world.]
[April 9 – May 19, 2022 — Over the next month or so, Qiu Chuji teaches you the Quanzhen Inner Skill and the Quanzhen Sword Technique before leaving, saying he needs to return to the sect and will come find you later.]
[The names of these two techniques are plain, but their effects aren't bad. After just a month of training, you can already beat Zhu Baokun—but that's thanks to your "golden finger." Your system is ridiculously overpowered, like Deep Blue, letting you spend experience points to level up martial arts. This makes your strength skyrocket in no time. You're practically the top dog in the city now, having caught several notorious bandits. The system also provides side quests, with these bandits as your targets. The only downside is that Two Sleeves of Green Serpents requires an enormous amount of experience, so you'll need to save for a long while.]
[July 20, 2022 — Your impressive performance earns the attention of your superiors, and two months later, you're transferred to Yangzhou, the prefectural capital, as Head Constable. With a bigger stage, your horizons broaden—and you're shocked. This world is far bigger than you imagined, a mashup of factions and characters from all sorts of familiar martial arts novels.]
[In the court are the Eastern and Western Factories, the Six Gates, and the Embroidered Guards overseeing the imperial order. In the martial world, there are those whose flying daggers never miss, swordsmen whose "single sword from the West" is unstoppable, masters like Dugu Qiubai who seek defeat but cannot find it, and tyrants who dominate the world, their power split three ways—seven parts relying on grit.]
[There are also countless well-known sects like World Society, Shaolin, Wudang, and the Sun and Moon Divine Cult.]
[In short, the sheer size of this world and the number of experts leaves you stunned. As a low-ranked constable, how the hell are you supposed to survive here? You feel an urgent need to get stronger—strong enough to reach the peak of this world and uncover its truth.]
[August 2, 2022 — Your luck strikes again… On a routine patrol, you catch two petty thieves prowling around Yangzhou. Searching them, you find a familiar-looking manual: Eternal Life Art. Asking their names, you get another shock—Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling. So this is the gap between fake protagonists and heaven's chosen sons. You have obtained the manual: Eternal Life Art.]
[August 2 – August 30, 2022 — Over the next month, you complete multiple side quests, grinding experience points. You finally scrape together enough to learn the first level of Eternal Life Art, and even manage to learn Two Sleeves of Green Serpents as well.]
[September 1, 2022 — Just as you set out on patrol again, full of ambition, you hear a voice in your mind: "Swordsman's Journey public beta begins. The first batch of players: 80,000. Connecting data… Data connection complete! Welcome to Swordsman's Journey."]
[You're dumbfounded. So this whole time, you were in something like Sword Art Online—inside a game world?]
[As the voice fades, you notice many oddly behaving players appear around you like a swarm of locusts. The way they look at you sends a chill down your spine.]
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