In a small and private courtyard, a man's "battle" against a woman was nearing its end. The woman was already moaning weakly on the ground.
"Have you had enough? You've been doing this for an entire night. Even I can't take it anymore. You go take your medicine when you're tired, but I don't even have a moment to rest. I've never seen someone as shameless as you."
Her petite body was only covered by a silk scarf, but it was now completely soaked. Her child-like face was flushed red from overexertion. Perhaps I should be proud that I was able to make the famous Snake Archduchess reveal such a helpless expression.
The human body was filled with countless secrets. High-level undead were able to mimic normal human physiological reactions not just for pleasure. It would seem that the Snake Archduchess had already recovered many of her sensory organs and bodily fluids in order to develop her body's potential.
"Heehee, since you can't take it anymore, just lie down and enjoy it. Yep, if you can't take it anymore, just spread your legs and lie down … Damn it, who threw a brick at me?"
I laughed in delight as I listened to the Snake Archduchess' exhausted moans. However, someone suddenly turned around and threw a brick at me.
"Stop talking nonsense! There's an underage here! Is there any meaning in purposefully making it sound so ambiguous? What bodily fluids? Why don't you just call it sweat!? "
I glanced around and saw that Glina, Timlad, and the other underage undead were all looking at me with great interest. Damn it, what were those high-powered binoculars and memory crystals for? Were they intending to make copies and sell them for money …? If they sold well, remember to split the profits with me!
"… She was so amused that I couldn't help but follow her. Alexandra, get up. It's time for the 121st round of training. Let's continue. This time, we need to last for at least 30 seconds! "
Yep, this was only pure martial arts training. I didn't have the habit of torturing prisoners. As for all the other useless things, I naturally didn't have any when I was being stared at by a group of people … Cough, I just wanted an eye-pleasing maid that was suitable for maids. As a man, was there anything wrong with that?
Ahem, ahem, getting back on topic, there wasn't anything particularly disharmonious happening in my private courtyard. I really wanted to put on an interrogation play or something, but right after I excitedly created one of the Ten Great Tortures of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty using ice, the Snake Archduchess unhesitatingly confessed everything.
"How could you surrender so easily? Where's your honor and loyalty? You've tempered your body hundreds and thousands of times? Where is your unyielding heart as a warrior monk? How could he do it just like that? Wouldn't I have no sense of accomplishment then? "
"Honor? There was no honor for the dead. Loyalty? The king I served is dead. "
Alright, she surrendered so confidently. What she said made too much sense. I was suddenly rendered speechless.
Actually, using the Senators under my command as an example, I didn't expect too much from the Undead Lords' loyalty and honor. They had already died once, so they didn't care too much about anything other than their stubbornness. Yep, to be more direct, they were a bunch of bastards with no morals and no faith.
And in the Undead Planes, when Undead Lords fought against each other, the winner would obtain everything. The strong preyed on the weak and submitting to the strong was already engraved in the Undead Planes' bloodlines. Surrendering wasn't something the Undead Lords needed to think too much about, especially when the Undead Lords were fighting against another Undead Emperor.
"I've already done my best. This counts as me repaying Lord Aso for canceling our soul contract before his death."
Of course, I didn't dare to believe such information that came too easily. Undead also had their own ways of communicating with each other. While it was true that I could obtain information by extracting the Undead Lord's soul, it would be far too wasteful. Using a soul contract to establish a subservient relationship was the most common and effective method.
A soul contract was a contract where the master would die with the servant. Any Undead Lord with even the slightest bit of backbone would never sign such a contract unless it was absolutely necessary. And Aso indeed obtained the loyalty of these proud Undead Lords. At the very least, no matter how much I threatened him, he wouldn't be willing to sign a soul contract.
Taking a step back, it took me quite a bit of brainstorming just to get a Myth-ranked undead to sign a slave contract with a mandatory order. At the very least, the Ten Great Tortures I showed her had basically no effect at all. In the end, I took out my ice flames and threatened her to become an eternal ice sculpture, so she obediently agreed.
But even though she surrendered and easily sold out all of her teammates, we still didn't gain anything from this.
The Snake Archduchess herself had only been in the mortal plane for less than a year. She was an elite Undead Lord who belonged to Aso. She was a lone Undead Lord. To put it nicely, she had a high status and authority, but to put it bluntly, she was like a lone commander who had suddenly been transferred to an unfamiliar department.
She definitely wouldn't be able to communicate with Aso in the mortal plane anymore after she was captured. Most of Aso's core subordinates had been dug out, and Alexandra didn't know much to begin with. Now, the only useful information she had on the Undead Emperors and Undead Lords was probably the Snake Archduchess's personality and abilities. None of them would be useful in the short term.
"I don't keep useless people here. If it's food expenses, pay with your body … Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong? She's such a rare opponent. She'll be perfect for training in martial arts. Come, let's spar. "
It seemed that there had been a problem recently. My words always seemed to go off in strange directions.
But for me, the Snake Archduchess' greatest value right now was to train in martial arts.
"If it wasn't for this armor, I would have already died several hundred times over."
I liked to summarize things after a battle because any problems revealed in a real battle would always be incredibly fatal. For example, it would be quite easy to solve a problem after a SAVE & LOAD. Of course, if you didn't make it through, it would be even more effective to summarize your experience after reviving. Normally, a bad ending would give you a lot of experience in the game, and you would even be able to inherit your equipment and experience. Unfortunately, there weren't many opportunities like this in the real world, and time wouldn't allow me to reincarnate endlessly. Otherwise, I would sooner or later become a perfect model … It seemed that the topic was getting more and more off topic.
Cough, getting back to the main topic, before this battle, I had never expected that I would ever be suppressed so badly by a melee combatant. My every move was easily predicted, and my last move was instantly countered. I was completely unable to defend against my opponent's attacks. If it wasn't for the fact that my armor had astonishing defense, I would have long since lost.
If this was a simple duel of martial arts, I would have lost countless times already. Although Warrior Monks were indeed known as the most talented melee combatant job class, it was far too ridiculous for me to be countered so badly. Since I couldn't understand why, I decided to ask my opponent.
Of course, she refused at the very beginning! She probably felt that … Ah … I just surrendered, so I couldn't immediately do whatever you said. Wouldn't that be the same as making herself look bad? And so, I showed her how I modified Harloys and told her that Slimes were no longer able to satisfy me, and that she could choose to be a snail or an earthworm. And so, she obediently agreed.
"Your swordsmanship? Not bad at all. I'm not trying to be sarcastic here. You probably learned your basics from the Ancient Court Faction. Every single one of your sword attacks is excellent. Plus, you have excellent combat instincts and talent. It wouldn't be wrong to say that you're a swordsmanship genius that only appears once every century. Yep, you're quite excellent among humans. "
Alright then, her last few words negated everything. Yes, you were quite excellent, but "only among humans." She was a "swordsmanship genius that only appears once every century," but sorry, that was still only within the human category.
I didn't get angry out of embarrassment. I simply listened in silence, because this was reality. Since the Snake Archduchess was capable of beating me to the point where I didn't know which way was north, I just listened to what she had to say. Besides, based on my experience, it was always best to listen to the experts when it came to swordsmanship. Experts' harsh words were usually good advice.
"… Yes, you're quite excellent among humans. But you should be able to tell from your fight against me that your swordsmanship is still focused on the situation where your opponent is' human. 'At most, you'll be three to four meters tall. Your swordsmanship lacks imagination and flexibility, so I can easily predict your next attack. In fact, I can tell just by looking at your eyes and muscle movements that you'll be able to predict your next attack. "
This was indeed a problem, but how was I supposed to solve it? It wasn't like I could remove all the bones in my body, nor could I change the direction of my joints. Even if I had imagination, I wouldn't be able to use it.
"Don't look at me with such a doubtful expression. My words are based on facts. Have you ever seen an opponent who suddenly breaks apart and throws their limbs at you like bombs? Have you ever seen an opponent whose entire body is covered in grease and whose fist gets stuck to it? Have you ever seen an opponent whose entire body is indestructible and whose only weakness is the soles of their feet? Do you know why I chose this body type to be so nimble? Back in the day, before I formed my own combat style, not only did I experience countless battlefields, I even challenged thousands of monasteries and fought against thousands of Legend-ranked Warrior Monks. "
The Snake Archduchess paused for a moment as she suddenly revealed an expression of lingering fear, as if she recalled some painful memory.
"… Actually, I'm not that special. Don't think that my melee combat techniques are already at the peak. In fact, I've lost several dozen times in thousands of fights, and I only managed to escape by sheer luck. One of them even managed to break all of my joints with a single punch. If it wasn't for the fact that I was already a Blood Tribe member at the time, perhaps the best outcome would have been to become a cripple for the rest of my life. "
As expected, the older the Warrior Monks, the more powerful they became. The only way to deal with them was to never let them get close to you. Fortunately, it seemed that the Warrior Monks hadn't lived for very long. I suddenly thought of Ömdiroken, whose form as a Warrior Monk seemed to be an imitation of an opponent that he was unable to defeat.
"And in the Undead Plane, battles between the undead are never-ending in order to advance in power level and survive. In the past, at least three of my opponents at the same power level were able to easily defeat me, and two of the Undead Emperors were far superior to me in terms of martial arts. Most of them were purely humanoid, but their combat techniques had already reached a level that I was unable to reach. There were even more who could defeat me with their natural talents. "
I had originally been quite proud of my own sword techniques. After all, being able to become a Sword Saint without much effort was proof of my talent. But now, it seemed that I was still "at the level of a human". If this had been three hundred years ago, I would have been proud of myself and could have dominated the world, but …
"Considering my future opponents, this is no good at all."
My future opponents would only become stronger and stronger. I might even encounter monsters that were thousands or even tens of thousands of years old. No matter how powerful my magic sword was, it would be meaningless if I couldn't hit my opponent. In that case, as an important foundational part of my combat strength system, improving my sword techniques was absolutely necessary.
"Can't you see it in real combat at your current level? The accumulation of combat experience will eventually bring about changes. Your foundation is quite solid, but it's obvious that you lack actual combat experience. Right, there are also all sorts of ancient sword techniques. They've long since achieved effects that magic can't even achieve with pure sword techniques. "
I recalled the ancient and immemorial sword techniques that my System and Justice Points could exchange for. Then, I looked at my nearly empty Justice Points. I recalled that the silly cat and my System had been "helping me" spend money recently, causing my Justice Points to dwindle. I originally had enough Justice Points to buy half a book, but now I only had enough to buy a single page. I almost started crying.
"I wonder if Beyana will sell a single page to me. Cough — cough — that's too embarrassing. I'll stop thinking about it for now … Since I can't talk about ancient sword techniques for now, I should first use real combat to train myself. Isn't this a rare target right in front of me?"
Alright then, it was no longer possible for me to become cannon fodder on the battlefield. Mortal battles in the mortal plane were also unable to give me the experience I needed. It was rare for me to meet an opponent like Alexandra, so I limited her physical strength to the Gold rank and forbade her from using any killing moves. Then, I reduced her speed and overall difficulty so that I could continue training.
Even so, I was still beaten up quite badly at first. But later, I discovered that the "Dream Log" was able to recover my stamina and injuries just like on the battlefield. It was the Snake Archduchess's so-called "medicine." And so, after more than a hundred battles, the situation changed … Fine then, it didn't change at all. How could it be so easy to improve?
Although I was still the one getting beaten up, at least I was able to last slightly longer. Unfortunately, the Snake Archduchess was currently lying on the ground, pretending to be dead and refusing to get up no matter what.
"Alright, I'll let you go today. It'd be such a waste if you die in one go … Don't even think about running away. Countless eyes are watching you. How about I turn you into a mouse? You'll be a perfect match for Harloys!"
"… Let me give you a warning. If you intend to turn her into a mouse, you'd better tell Beifeng. He recently brought back a nest of Whitehair Stinger Rats."
"Alright, I will."
"Who's Beifeng?"
The ignorant Undead Lord even asked out of curiosity. Glina had an evil smile on her face as she directly gave her a book. The Snake Archduchess then flipped through a few pages and immediately stood up.
"Lord Roland, I've suddenly realized something. Let's continue training."
While I sighed at how a certain Undead Lord was trembling slightly, I couldn't help but come up with an idea.
"How about I turn any captives that refuse to surrender into animals and feed them to Beifeng in the future?"
"That's so inhumane!"
"That's so cruel and inhumane!"
"Lord Roland, please reconsider. Just doing such an evil deed will cause you to be treated as an evil villain!"
"Boss, I object! I, Beifeng, am not a casual person!"
"Yep, you're not a human at all."
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