Chapter 48: Not a Bug!

Outside the Heavenly Dragon Temple, white horses gallop past; today, I finally realize I am who I am!
……
After the interface rotated, the view returned to normal, and the protagonist became playable once more.
The interface prompted that the protagonist had a flash of insight regarding the supreme principles of swordsmanship, achieving a great awakening. The entire screen temporarily radiated a colorful shade of black.
[Lin Pingzhi has independently created a world-shaking, ghost-crying supreme divine skill; martial power has greatly increased.]
[At the moment of completion, blood rained from the skies, ghosts wept in the night, shocking a hundred miles around.]
[A martial arts fanatic, deeply moved, prostrated himself in utmost reverence.]
Not far away, little Satoshi's father knelt down decisively and kowtowed once to Cabbage.
This scene was bizarre yet remarkably natural.
It was not out of respect for Lin Pingzhi, but sheer reverence for the Martial Dao.
Such a divine skill was so profound that even Lin Pingzhi himself could not temporarily wield its true might. Without encountering a predestined person, he could not pass on this supreme martial art, leaving behind only a few fragments of insight.
To anyone else who lacked a fated connection, this supreme skill was merely regarded as a golden-tier divine skill with an extremely high barrier to entry, much like the Innate Skill.
'So what on earth is this?'
'Weren't custom-created martial arts supposed to be known only to the player? How did it shock a hundred miles around? Every martial artist in the vicinity knows a divine skill has been born—this is getting close to xianxia fantasy!'
'To be fair, while the special effects of those peerless masters have limited destructive power on the terrain, just looking at the effects feels pretty mystical.'
'Didn't the promotional video feature a forty-meter saber? Although the part with actual lethality was only a few meters long, it looked extremely badass. It seems normal for an even more powerful divine skill to come with even more badass effects.'
'Ohhhhhh—a martial art that shakes the heavens and makes ghosts cry, this is so cool!'
'The main point should be: when synthesizing a golden peerless martial art, shouldn't it be a golden light? Why is Cabbage's circle rainbow-colored?'
'Because her head is huge.'
'And what on earth is that introductory poem? Is it an easter egg in the game?'
'Cabbage scored a rare drop?'
'I know the answer to this one; next up is the manifestation of heroic spirits, right?'
At the same time, the background music grew heavy, activating a super-gravity field.
The protagonist was now directly shrouded in black Qi, with an aura of solemn desolation all around.
Just looking at it felt like facing the final boss, although in reality, little Satoshi was supposed to be the big boss.
[Lin Pingzhi has newly created a divine skill, capable of temporarily unleashing a fraction of its might, granting the status of a supreme grandmaster of the current era.]
The Heavenly Book prompted thusly, and this evaluation of a supreme grandmaster generally referred to characters of Zhang Sanfeng's caliber.
No wonder there were such special effects; this must be a temporary grandmaster halo, much like how little Satoshi had the Bright King special effects when his second phase was fully unleashed.
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Although her strength might not necessarily be much greater than other max-level characters, among top-tier experts, a hair's breadth of difference meant an insurmountable gap.
Aside from anomalous beings like Aqing the Maiden of Yue in the dungeon—who had no level cap and, according to game lore, possessed a heaven-bestowed divine sword to help pioneer the Martial Dao—the supreme grandmaster was the strongest among mortals.
Traditional heroes incorporated most of the worldviews from contemporary and classic wuxia, achieving a certain degree of combat power balance. While strengths and weaknesses still existed, Zhang Sanfeng was basically always in the highest tier regardless of the wuxia worldview. To think Lin Pingzhi now received such an evaluation!
"Sugoi, what should I do now?"
The Heavenly Book prompted that Cabbage needed to name the divine skill.
Cabbage's Mandarin was average, though decent for a Japanese virtual YouTuber (though not comparable to a certain chosen national virtual YouTuber).
Unable to think of a good name, she typed a term in Japanese similar to the original martial art's name.
Chinese translated to Japanese, Japanese translated to Chinese.
What the viewers saw was the supreme divine skill: "Evil-Warding Divine Sword."
It synthesized the golden divine skills True Evil-Warding and Innate Skill, along with the Six Meridians Divine Sword which she hadn't yet had time to practice.
Purple peerless techniques included a fragment of the Mt. Heng Five Divine Swords, the Zixia Divine Skill, How is Daizong?, and the Freezing True Qi, among others.
Countless blue superior martial arts from the Five Great Mountains sword styles, countless blue body-refining techniques, palms, and fist styles, plus the seventy-two supreme techniques of Shaolin that little Satoshi had brought to Heavenly Dragon Temple to trade and which Cabbage had stolen along the way—many of which were also purple-tier weapons.
Normally, such chaotic stitching would only result in trash martial arts, but since it had evolved into a supreme divine skill, all of them served as reinforcement and nourishment for her Martial Dao.
The skill panel for the "Evil-Warding Divine Sword" had its divine skill traits filled across several rows: Innate, Corporeal, Formless, Armor-Piercing...
Severing, Fierce and Mighty, Sword Qi, Armor-Shattering, Total Annihilation, Hardness-Destroying, Edge-Blunting...
Each special effect came with a description note, too much to take in all at once.
Cabbage had never experienced anything so wonderful.
"I'm invincible! Cabbage is already invincible!"
The barrage of chat comments was equally terrified upon seeing the skill panel:
'What on earth is this?'
'Defying the heavens!'
'Little Satoshi uses minor cheats, you use mega cheats!'
'If the heavens did not produce the big cabbage, the path of the sword would endure an eternal long night!'
'Change the stream title to Cabbage, Sword God!'
Very well, the obedient Cabbage promptly changed the stream title to The Path of Cabbage the Sword God.
'Though it looks super cool, as for how strong it actually is, not necessarily.'
'How so?'
'Look at the skill panel, Cabbage fused all her blue martial arts into it, so she doesn't have any usable moves left.'
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'I'd reckon a set of unknown martial arts might be slightly stronger than a golden legend, but now she only has this single usable move. I guess it probably isn't that strong. This game is very realistic; if your martial arts aren't enough, having a high realm will still easily get you beaten to death. Even if Xuzhu receives Wuyazi's transferred power, it's useless if he doesn't know how to use it.'
'True, the main issue is that even this single set hasn't been practiced well. Plus, the Heavenly Book prompts that Cabbage's own realm is too low; this set of martial arts can barely be used for now, and for a while, she'll only be able to unleash the power equivalent to just having mastered it.'
'A martial art that's only at the initial entry level wouldn't be enough no matter how peerless its grade is. The Nine Yang Divine Skill with one year of internal energy still couldn't defeat the blue-tier ordinary Virgins' Skill with sixty years of internal energy.'
'Chances are this is a massive net loss. Cabbage's original Evil-Warding Sword Technique was already nearing completion, and the progress bar to complete it into a golden martial art only had half left. Now her character sheet has basically been wiped and reset.'
'Not necessarily. Exclusive martial arts like this, which even supreme grandmasters might not possess, probably don't follow normal game mechanics.'
'Let's test it out first before judging. Go get 'em, Cabbage!'
"Charge!"
Cabbage charged in.
Upon seeing this, little Satoshi wore a peculiar expression.
Then, his expression hardened once again.
Suddenly, a ring of fire ignited around him, a saber was drawn from the flames, and the Bright King glared with wrath.
With fierce special effects, he had directly entered his second phase.
The system setting dictated that the AI would trigger this directly only when encountering an unbeatable grandmaster; otherwise, the AI for peers of peak mastery would always hold back their strength for a couple of moves before going all out.
After selecting combat, without waiting for Cabbage to strike, he made the first move. The Flaming Saber was driven to its absolute limit, turning the battlefield into a sea of fire.
Cabbage was startled, unsure of how to operate, and cautiously tried to dodge first.
Like smoke and dust, she drifted away along with the saber Qi, bearing no weight at all, leaving behind nothing more than an afterimage in her original spot.
'What is this again?'
'New special effects, haven't seen them before. This game always has unfamiliar martial arts mechanics.'
'Just how many things has You Xuan hidden?'
'But what about little Satoshi directly entering the second phase and reacting inexplicably?'
'Could it be a bug?'
'No, this isn't a bug. My uncle works at You Xuan, I know—this is a game mechanic!'
The final comment was posted by Gu Meng; he was the insider source lurking in the stream chat.
That's right, he was also one of Cabbage's viewers.
……
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