novelraw Chapter 275-1: The Way to Defeat the Great General, Ishimaru Sword Forge (1)
Chapter 275-1: The Way to Defeat the Great General, Ishimaru Sword Forge (1)
“…This is just unplayable!”
The prefix Extreme Evil before the Great General’s name was like a heavy blow to Lin Xun, leaving him questioning everything.
“That shouldn’t be… Wasn’t it said that the Great General was the incarnation of the Ancient Heavenly Enma, the divine emissary walking among mortals?”
“How did he end up as a figure aligned with the Extreme Delusion Fruit’s Oath faction?”
Lin Xun seriously suspected that the cursed game felt his progress had been too smooth, so it had simply ramped up the difficulty to let him experience what it was like to hit a wall.
But thinking carefully, even if the cursed game wanted to increase difficulty, it would normally give the Apostle the choice, like the Demon Invasion Easter Egg Chapter, rather than silently raising the bar.
Besides, Hell Difficulty was already the highest. What would be above that, Eighteenth Layer Hell Difficulty?
Lin Xun carefully recalled the previous storyline text, thinking it over for a long time until he really did discover some clues.
When he’d first entered this chapter, he had discovered a statue of the Ancient Heavenly Enma beneath the Idyllic Pleasure Quarter.
According to the memories of the quarter’s attendant and proprietor…[The Pleasure Quarter was not only a place to gather intelligence for the Great General, but also a site where malice accumulated. The statue of the Ancient Heavenly Enma buried beneath it was a vessel to collect that malice.]
[Every day, countless people came here to vent their darkest impulses, no wonder so much malice pooled here.]
[As managers of the pleasure house, the attendants only knew that this statue had existed since the Pleasure Quarter’s founding.]
[Every few years, the malice absorbed by the statue would materialize. When the time came, they were ordered to harvest the ripened fruits and present them to the Great General…]
The text back then had already hinted that the Great General’s corruption into Extreme Evil had likely been going on for a very long time…
And not only that, he had discovered the existence of Malice Tattoos quite early on. According to how the branches grew, the stronger the shell, the more lush and sprawling the malice would become.
If there was anyone in this world who was the strongest, it was beyond question the Great General.
Once the malice blossomed and bore fruit, the Great General’s fall into Extreme Evil became inevitable.
The Snow Woman had even told him that Kyoto had a popular custom: the strong often bared their chests to display their black tattoos as a sign of their power.
Thinking about it now, that custom was probably started by the Great General himself.
The Great General had subtly shaped people’s perceptions so they would think the fruit-bearing Malice Branches were proof of strength, without realizing that once the fruit ripened, they would likely become the slaves of the Extreme Delusion Fruit.
But even knowing all this, how could he break this deadlock?
Originally, Lin Xun had believed the chapter’s main quest was to ally with the Great General to resist the Extreme Delusion Fruit. But fighting against a deity, especially a main deity, was simply impossible at the current difficulty.
In the end, the final boss of this chapter was probably none other than the Great General himself!
[The powerful wandering soul has respawned in the High Throne Chamber of the Tenshukaku…]
Lin Xun spent a bit of soul strength to reshape the Little Dragonkin.
If he wanted to defeat the Great General, purely in terms of strength, the game’s prompt, you feel overwhelming pressure, already made it clear that fighting head-on was futile.
The Little Dragonkin had been decapitated without the slightest resistance. If he switched to the Greedy Wolf Star Lord’s shell and tried to fight, even surviving a single strike would be a miracle.
He remembered that from what he’d learned from the Vice Palace Master of Iya, even the most powerful great yokai, the Nine-Tailed Fox, could only attempt to seduce the Great General and dared not confront him directly.
In the end, the Great General had simply beheaded the Nine-Tailed Fox, and her corpse transformed into an artifact like the Killing Stone.
So if you could withstand even a single blow from the Great General, your strength was already beyond measure.
As for items, while the Red Armor Army was an incredibly strong force, the Great General commanded armies far exceeding the Daimyo’s troops.
Even if he recruited beyond the limit and fielded several times the maximum number of troops, he would never beat the Great General. Most likely, he’d be surrounded and crushed the moment he exceeded the cap, his rebel head stuck on a pike above the city gate.
The Dragon Marsh Temple Yokai Spirit Tablet could summon generations of temple yokai to aid him in battle and was also an immensely powerful tool.
But if the opponent was the Great General…
The Great General had slain countless so-called ‘demonic abomination remnants,’ including legendary yokai like the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Keep in mind that the Nine-Tailed Fox, Shuten Doji, and the Great Tengu were among the absolute pinnacle of yokai, their power far surpassing the Nurarihyon boss from before.
With that in mind, let alone one temple priest, probably even an entire host of them wouldn’t be a match for the Great General.
And if Lin Xun could summon allies, did anyone think the Great General couldn’t? Just outside the Treasure Hall of the Eastern Courtyard stood the Hatamoto Samurai, already top-tier combat power. When it came to companions and subordinates, the Great General could outdo him tenfold.
“Maybe the key clue to defeating the Great General is still hidden somewhere in Kyoto. I probably haven’t fully explored it yet, so with my current strength, defeating the General is impossible…”
Thinking this through, Lin Xun finally sorted out his thoughts.
He resolved to continue on to Kyoto, exploring every corner of the city until he found a way to defeat the Great General!
Once more, he left Thousand Orchid City and switched to the Greedy Wolf Star Lord shell to fly by sword.
Thankfully, he had the sword immortal shell now, otherwise, just traveling would take half a day.
The Valkyrie’s flight was too slow and too low, making it easy for others to spot.
The Little Dragonkin’s transformation into a giant dragon had time restrictions, so it couldn’t be used for everyday travel.
But swordflight had no such constraints, fast and high, it was practically the perfect means of both travel and escape, aside from consuming a fair amount of true essence.
[…]
[You once again slipped past the city gates unseen, without attracting the notice of anyone…]
[However, this time there were more samurai guarding the gates than before, and their inspections were noticeably stricter.]
[It seemed that when your corpse vanished into thin air, the Great General realized you were not truly dead.]
[Gazing at the familiar streets of Kyoto, you pondered where to head next…]
The cursed game popped up a whole list of options, and Lin Xun automatically ignored the first one, Imperial Palace, and selected Ishimaru Sword Forge.
[After a moment’s thought, you decided to first investigate the Ishimaru Sword Forge.]
[According to your memories, the Great General had summoned swordsmiths and master weaponsmiths from across all Sakurafall, gathering these artisans here at the Ishimaru Sword Forge to forge blades for his soldiers and generals.]
[Therefore, the Ishimaru Sword Forge was home to the finest swordsmiths in all Sakurafall, even your own sword, Dragon Sword Masamune, was forged here!]
[You followed the streets for a long time before finally reaching the far edge of Kyoto.]
[In the distance, the Ishimaru Sword Forge appeared as a sprawling smithy complex. White walls and black-tiled roofs enclosed a vast workshop, from which rose a towering smokestack.]
[Samurai stood guard at the great gate, and those coming and going, judging by their attire, were all from wealthy households.]
[The Ishimaru Sword Forge not only handled the forging of weapons for the military but also catered to the custom weapon needs of Kyoto’s noble clans.]
[However, the forge crafted only high-grade arms, their prices so steep that no commoner could possibly afford them, so every client here was either rich or powerful…]
Lin Xun paused to consider, then switched his shell.
[You possessed the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Master Instructor of the Heartless Flow!]
The Ninja Master disguise was already blown, and the Daimyo shell couldn’t appear in Kyoto. Among his remaining shells, the Master Instructor was the only figure of any standing.