170: Chapter 167: Iron Madman 170: Chapter 167: Iron Madman Please support the genuine version by refreshing the content later.
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“It seems I really have transgressed—”
Inside the luxuriously decorated carriage, Zong Shou looked at the round mirror in front of him with an expressionless face.
In the mirror, was clearly the image of a not yet of age youth.
About thirteen, with a pale complexion; however, those facial features were uncommonly handsome and exceedingly delicate.
A pair of slender phoenix eyes, shimmering with light.
Yet at this moment, they were full of a bitter and helpless sentiment.
He remembered that not long ago, he still had an extremely ordinary face—one that would never stand out in a crowd.
Unexpectedly, when he woke from this dream, his body had changed into that of such a handsome young man.
Although somewhat sickly and frail, there was no doubt that he was of exceptional beauty.
Even those top male stars known for their handsomeness in television from his previous life couldn’t compare.
If there was anything less, it was merely his temperament.
However, at the moment, Zong Shou felt not the slightest joy, but rather a feeling of confusion and aimlessness.
It was as if he was a little fish that had been free to swim in the ocean, suddenly finding itself on land.
In this world, aside from the asphyxiating strangeness, there was also a sense of fear and loneliness.
Unwilling to give up, Zong Shou squeezed his face again with force, and he immediately felt a wave of pain.
Naturally, he did not find any traces of plastic surgery on his face.
“—There’s pain; could it be that I am not dreaming?
But what is my identity now?
And this damned place, where exactly is it?”
‘Zong Shou’ was the name from the memories of his current body.
He had another name in his previous life, but placed in these circumstances, it was meaningless to him.
Muttering to himself for a few moments, Zong Shou sighed and averted his gaze, his chest filled with despair.
The idea of returning or ‘waking from the dream’ had already thoroughly left him disheartened.
Actually, he had arrived in this world several days ago.
Almost every time he awoke from sleep, he would repeat the actions he just described.
And today was the seventh day.
Looking at the interior decoration of the carriage, it seemed to be set in ancient China, but not quite exactly so.
Then, parting the curtains to look outside, he saw vast expanses of wilderness, stretching as far as the eye could see, verdant and refreshing, making one’s chest feel open and free.
The air was also fresh and crisp, without even a hint of the pollution from the modern world.
However, looking down further, one would notice that the carriage, though it had wheels, was hovering in midair, three feet off the ground.
The sixteen single-horned horses in front were also walking on air, capable of moving up and down.
Thus, though the body of the carriage was bulky, with just the carriage measuring forty square feet, it could maneuver any complex terrain with ease.
And at this moment, no one was in control of driving it; it sped straight ahead, racing towards the distance.
The cut marks and sword damages on the sides of the carriage were also extremely thought-provoking.
Zong Shou felt a wave of dizziness and slumped into the soft couch covered with a swan velvet pad.
Then, with just a slight thought, a series of fragmented memories surfaced in his mind.
They were all scattered and incomplete.
Among them were many texts, quite a few faces, and also a towering mountain that pierced the cloud heaven, a library that was unbelievably huge, occupying most of an island in a lake.
He found it both unfamiliar and familiar, and vaguely, there was also a feeling of fear.
This mood was indeed complex and peculiar to the extreme.
Last was the only piece of memory that still remained at the deepest part of his mind.
Countless mysterious characters formed together into a complete book.
These characters were entirely different from any written language in his previous world.
Yet, they were also extremely familiar to him, as if he had mastered them in his former life.
“Indeterminate Spirit Emperor Technique?
And this Demon Language.
Could this place truly be the Divine Emperor World?”
Zong Shou’s lips twitched slightly, his face filled with bewilderment and confusion.
——”Divine Emperor” was an online game that swept the world starting in 2012.
No one knew which gaming company developed it, and all the accompanying gaming devices also appeared on the market out of nowhere.
It seemed as if overnight, Earth transitioned from 2D and 3D online games to the era of virtual holographic Illusion Realm.
And whether it was that academy, that mountain peak, or these demon clan characters in his mind, he had seen them all within the Divine Emperor in his previous life.
That’s right, he remembered that his last moments of consciousness in his previous life were within the “Divine Emperor” game.
During the Cloud Realm Seven Emperors’ struggle.
He fought the heroes alone with a single sword, but in the final moments, a current of electricity coursed through his body, and he lost all consciousness.
When he awoke, he found himself in a new body.
Everything before his eyes was no longer the familiar Earth.
So at this moment, was he inside a game, or was it a real world?
Or perhaps, was there some connection between this world and the “Divine Emperor”?
His mind spun again, and Zong Shou stopped trying to think about anything at all.
With nothing better to do in this carriage, Zong Shou took out a Green Steel Sword about three feet long and began practicing swordsmanship in the reasonably spacious cabin.
His footing moved forwards and backwards, shifting and turning to match his body’s movements, making the sword light flash within the moderately sized carriage.
Just like in his previous life, each sword form and step was precise to the extreme, nearly perfect.
However, after only practicing Basic Swordsmanship for half a moment, Zong Shou was already gasping for breath, drenched in cold sweat from head to toe.
The sword light and shadow inevitably became a bit distorted.
It was only by clinging to his innate relentless spirit that he managed to keep from collapsing to the ground.
When he completely exhausted the last bit of his strength, Zong Shou finally stopped the sword light and sat panting on the couch.
Once his extreme focus dispersed, he immediately felt pain in every part of his body, his limbs and organs as if seared by flames.
This effort was not simply born out of idleness but out of pure unease.
Both the world itself and his own situation gave him a sense of imminent crisis and urgency.
He was eager to gain some strength, at the very least, some ability to protect himself.
In “Divine Emperor,” everything was close to reality.
Whether it was Martial Arts, language, Five Senses, Combat, or even daily living, there was a complete System for it all.
Most players relied on the system’s default settings to play and fight without delving deeper.
However, some would learn all kinds of knowledge and language within Divine Emperor, delving into the principles of Martial Arts, and comprehending everything in this world.
They could even break free from the confines of the game, creating new tactics on top of the existing foundations.
Zong Shou was not just one of them but also stood out among such people.
He had thoroughly studied Basic Swordsmanship, Basic Boxing, Basic Lightness, Basic Evasion, Basic Step Technique, Basic Guarding, and Basic Internal Skill, reaching the pinnacle of mastery, Return to simplicity, at a grandmaster level.
Among the hundreds of millions of players, those who achieved this were barely a thousand in number.
Actually, for Basic Swordsmanship, Zong Shou had grasped all the principles, variations, and derivations.
What he needed to do now was to engrave these into this body, making them his instinct.
The only issue was that his body was far too weak.
Simple practice only lasted for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, and his physical strength was even less than half of an average person’s.
What was even more frustrating was that he was utterly unable to cultivate Basic Internal Skill.