Chapter 76: Is There Really Sword Control?!

A dream?!

Of course it was a dream!

At this moment in time, Li Xiaoyao was still just a busboy at the Yunlai Inn, and the story had only just begun. If he were already strong enough to scale the heavens and burrow through the earth, why on earth would he fear the Moon-Worshipping Cult Leader!

And so, everyone could only watch as that ferocious, hideously distorted Rakshasa Hag transformed into Li Xiaoyao’s aunt, swinging a heavy iron spatula straight toward Fang Qi’s head...

Everyone froze, momentarily stunned.

This sheer, jarring contrast...

In the next instant, almost everyone burst into side-splitting laughter!

"Hahaha! Hey boss, is this a comedy game?"

"Is this protagonist here just for comic relief?"

"So this is a sword cultivator?" An Cheng and his companions laughed until their stomachs ached. "A divine sword pierces the azure sky, ascending to the high heavens and plunging to the yellow springs, yet inside the inn he takes a spatula to the face, sleeping soundly until the sun is high in the sky!"

"See, even his aunt said it—stop daydreaming!" Shen Qingqing and the other girls laughed so hard they swayed like blossoming branches in the wind.

"If this is a comedy," Lin Shao said with a smile, "I must admit it has successfully amused me!"

Hearing the doggerel verse the others had playfully improvised on the spot, Fang Qi’s face twitched as he scrambled out of bed.

Of course, when they spoke like this, they were still completely oblivious to the vast abyss they had just tumbled into.

People from another world who had never even laid eyes on a sword immortal, stepping blindly into the grand saga of Legend of Sword and Fairy...

Yet to begin the journey into this epic through the lens of a comedy... Fang Qi could only say that this was entirely an accident!

"Isn't that the truth!" Ouyang Cheng chimed in. "Look at the protagonist of *The Martial Immortal*—at least he has transcendent talent and a noble birth. The protagonist of your game is just a lowly inn busboy?"

"What kind of talent could an inn busboy possibly possess? Cultivating immortality is out of the question, and practicing martial arts seems like a stretch." Bu Che also offered his critique. "No matter how long he trains, won't he just remain at the level of a common street brawler?"

Fang Qi patted his forehead, already beginning to mourn silently for this flock of outworlders. "...These people from another world have probably never even encountered the 'trash-to-hero' or 'mortal-cultivation' tropes before..."

Fang Qi got out of bed and went to attend to the guests as Aunt Li had ordered. It had to be said that this virtual reality version of the game was almost indistinguishable from reality, bursting with realism! The game experience naturally went without saying; even if no one were watching, Fang Qi himself was having the absolute time of his life!

The freedom offered by the system’s VR remastered edition was boundless, but to avoid any unexpected detours, Fang Qi first made a trip to the storefront. Sure enough, he found the dead-drunk, ragged Taoist collapsed right before the door.

For this stretch, Fang Qi obediently followed the storyline. In order to see the Sword Control Technique as early as possible, he didn't stir up any trouble despite the high degree of freedom, and soon, the time came to set sail across the sea.

Li Xiaoyao had never known his parents since infancy; he had been raised from childhood by his aunt. Now, his aunt had suddenly fallen grievously ill, and no medicine or physician could heal her, forcing Li Xiaoyao to brave the perils of the sea to seek divine medicine on an immortal island far off the coast. Reaching this point could truly be called the dawn of the entire tale.

The ocean was vast and boundless, churning with furious torrents and monstrous waves, not to mention the hour was already late. If night fell, encountering such winds and waves would be exponentially more perilous, and at this moment, Li Xiaoyao was still merely an ordinary mortal serving as an inn busboy.

To say nothing of spiritual cultivation, even his martial arts were nothing more than self-taught, superficial tricks.

Possessing neither strength nor cultivation, a thoroughbred commoner setting sail at this moment was stepping into a situation with nine deaths and a single strand of life. Yet, when everyone witnessed Li Xiaoyao resolutely choosing to take to the sea, a sense of profound admiration involuntarily welled up in their hearts for this ordinarily shiftless and irreverent inn knave.

Had Li Xiaoyao been a cultivator endowed with spiritual power, or a highly skilled martial artist of formidable strength, they would not have felt such an emotion. But precisely because he was a mere mortal, so minuscule that he could not be more insignificant, the impact struck their hearts with even greater resonance!

This could not help but make everyone look on with rapt attention, wishing to see what kind of end this ordinary youth of humble origins would ultimately meet—whether he would be buried in the ocean depths, his life ending there, or if he would survive the narrowest of escapes to fortuitously reach that so-called immortal island, be it a blessing or a curse.

During this segment, they truly began to gaze into the screen, completely spellbound.

And when they saw that Li Xiaoyao had not only survived on the Isle of Fairies, but had even brought back a wife as ethereal as a celestial maiden...

(Of course, certain segments were traversed via direct cinematic cuts, skipping forward to the following morning.)

"The envy, jealousy, and hatred are real!" Quite a few people nearby gnashed their teeth. Compared to him, they possessed both talent and noble birth, yet the result... they had practically lived their lives as uselessly as dogs!

"How can Ling'er be so beautiful...!" Lin Shao stood to the side, his face wearing the dazed, infatuated look of a total simpleton.

"Speaking of which, this young master suddenly wants to take a wife too..." An Cheng’s face was awash with tears!

"Even if you marry a wife, she won't be half as beautiful as the celestial maiden Ling'er!" Bu Che immediately delivered a merciless twist of the knife.

"..." An Cheng’s face twitched, clearly suffering a critical blow!

"Boss! I want to play this game!" Ouyang Cheng made his decision on the spot!

At this moment, to say nothing of Nalan Hongwu and the older generation, at least the youths like An Cheng and Song Qingfeng were already watching with their blood boiling and hearts pounding!

"Shut your trap." Li Haoran said with deep disdain. "Your gaming time for today is already spent. Just watch the boss play properly!"

"...But still, this Li Xiaoyao still doesn't possess any real ability... He has neither martial qi nor cultivation, he's so weak..." Shen Qingqing let out a soft sigh.

Yet right at this juncture, everyone saw that Fang Qi, controlling Li Xiaoyao, slipped out into the dead of night.

"!!??" Everyone was thoroughly mystified. "No, boss, what are you running out of the house for at this hour?"

"It seems... that wretchedly poor Taoist from before said he wanted to teach him swordplay? Didn't he say it would be at night?" In the entire room, only a very few people remembered this fleeting detail, such as Shen Qingqing.

"What kind of great ability do you think that wretchedly poor Taoist could possibly teach?" Nalan Hongwu finally spoke, his tone laced with undisguised disdain.

"Could Li Xiaoyao’s master really be that wretchedly poor Taoist?" Everyone expressed their utter inability to accept this!

Ouyang Cheng, who had just shouted that he wanted to play, also froze. A wretchedly poor Taoist as a master?!

Wasn't that far too beneath one's dignity?!

Furthermore, this Taoist didn't even have the coin to pay for his wine, and had to beg it off the protagonist, a busboy in a dilapidated little inn?!

In this world of theirs, which renowned master or lofty figure did not possess an illustrious status?!

Take Nalan Hongwu himself; he had entered the military to temper himself ever since achieving the Martial Ancestor cultivation realm, fighting all the way until the founding of the Great Jin Kingdom. Through countless battles of life and death, he had forged his current profound cultivation!

For a hundred years, he had abandoned all regard for life and death to stand in this position. At this stage, who would be willing to become a wretchedly poor, beggar-like Taoist?

If not for the fact that the Sword Control Technique at the very beginning was truly breathtaking to the extreme, and he wished to see if there really were such astonishing martial arts and techniques within this game, he would have departed long ago!

And at this precise moment, Fang Qi just happened to arrive at the Mountain God Temple on Shili Slope.

"Look! That Taoist really seems to be imparting a sword technique!" While the crowd was still complaining, Xu Zixin, who was sharp-eyed, suddenly caught sight of Fang Qi's screen and cried out in surprise!

"Watch closely, this old man shall only teach it once!"

A shadow flashed, and the drunken Taoist had already landed outside the Mountain God Temple. By the time anyone rushed out to follow, they saw the drunken Taoist forming a sword seal with his fingers, commanding his sword to fly from its scabbard!

"This sword technique?!" Everyone felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity! Or perhaps, it carried a hint of terrified realization within it!

Was this not precisely the sword technique Li Xiaoyao had envisioned in his dream?!

The Sword Control Technique!!?? Was it not fake?! Was it not a daylight dream?!

Before their eyes, the bright moon hung high in the sky, and beneath the moonlight, sword qi surged horizontally and vertically; the wind roared like crashing waves, and the momentum of the sword shook all eight directions!

Where the sword reached its points of exquisite mastery, it was something unheard of, something never before seen!

Most importantly, the sword qi and the art of controlling the sword were interwoven before them, melting into a single entity. Could it be that this wretchedly poor Taoist cultivated both magic and martial arts simultaneously?!

Cultivating both magic and martial arts, and actually raising them to such a sublime domain?!

By the time the entire sequence of the sword technique finished its demonstration, the drunken Taoist trod upon his sword and departed into the distance, leaving behind the lines of poetry the Taoist spoke on the screen:

Riding the sword upon the wind I come, exterminating demons between heaven and earth. With wine, I find joy and wander free; without wine, I too am mad.

With one draft I drain the rivers, with another I swallow the sun and moon. A thousand cups cannot make me fall, for I am the lone Wine Sword Immortal!

Everyone stood in long, unbroken silence.

A sword immortal?! It was actually real?!

The sword technique from the dream was actually real as well?!

"A thousand cups cannot make me fall, for I am the lone Wine Sword Immortal! The Wine Sword Immortal!?" Everyone recalled how they had looked down upon this wretchedly poor, drunken Taoist just moments ago, never imagining that in the blink of an eye, he would transform into the Wine Sword Immortal!?

And he had actually unleashed the Sword Controlling Technique?!

Nalan Hongwu bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Who has a sword?! Give me a sword!"

Though warriors could condense their qi into protective essence and cleave rivers and mountains with their blades, who among them had ever imagined that one day they might soar through the skies upon a flying sword?!

If it were truly possible...

Never mind Song Qingfeng and the others; even Nalan Mingwel, usually the picture of composure, could not conceal the flash of raw excitement in her eyes! The significance of this to them went entirely without saying!

Lowly warriors of modest cultivation like themselves—who among them did not long to be like Li Xiaoyao, riding a sword straight into the azure heavens and feeling the sheer, breathtaking majesty of the world?!

Meanwhile, Nalan Hongwu’s mind was entirely consumed by the Wine Sword Immortal's swordplay: how could it possibly be this exquisite?!

Without a moment's delay, Nalan Mingwei proffered a short sword.

Griping the blade tightly in his hand, Nalan Hongwu slowly recalled the intricate movements of the Wine Sword Immortal’s technique.

Suddenly, Nalan Hongwu's sword gave a violent twitch!

Along with it, everyone’s eyelids twitched fiercely in unison!

"Watch it again! Let this old master watch the Sword Controlling Technique just one more time!"

"Didn't you all say you had no interest in this game, and that this impoverished, wretched Taoist had no real skills to teach?" Fang Qi asked with an unblinking expression, casually controlling Li Xiaoyao to practice the technique even as he spoke!

"..." Everyone felt as though they had been violently slapped right onto the internet cafe wall, stuck so hard they couldn't even be pried off!

Could he seriously not pick the exact scab they were trying to hide?!

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