Chapter 496: Mayaozhang

Bai Cangshu's thoughts stirred, and electric currents crackled within his body; faint sparks of electricity dispersed from his skin, but they dissipated before reaching even a hundred meters around him.

He looked up to survey his surroundings; the night sky of Fuyuki City showed nothing unusual, yet his 【Heart Net】 ability had been severely restricted.

Bai Cangshu was unsure if this was a constraint imposed by the Inhibitory Force placing him into a 【Class】, or if someone had already set up an anti-perception ritual in this city.

Both possibilities made sense in this world.

"Tao Baibai... is that your true name?"

"Strange, how have I never heard of your exploits?"

Mayaozhang frowned and pondered for a moment, but soon gave up; he was not well-versed in history, and this notebook only stated that the summoned Heroic Spirits were heroes who had left behind great achievements in history and mythology, but this 【history】 was by no means limited to the history of Japan.

He didn't even know much about Japanese history, let alone foreign history.

The two walked toward the residence of that annoying female teacher in his memory; Bai Cangshu looked at this "lump of meat" that still possessed the ability to move—yes, after the other party summoned him, Bai Cangshu had already decided he must kill him.

The relationship between Master and Servant is a rather dangerous contract due to the existence of the Command Spell.

Bai Cangshu himself, whether considering his identity as a Reincarnator or the additional enhancement panel of his current Class, had extremely low Magic Power stats, and this Master did not seem like an orthodox Sorcerer; he was completely useless to him.

"You are participating in the Holy Grail War; what wish do you want to realize?"

Bai Cangshu acted like a good Servant confiding in his Master, and Mayaozhang could not detect any malice at all—or rather, he was dull enough that he didn't even notice the clear killing intent the other party had revealed upon their first meeting.

"Wish? What is that..."

Mayaozhang turned his head and looked strangely at his strange Servant; he kept his head down, searching for more records in that black-covered notebook.

Beneath his bangs, his eyes were fanatical.

Bai Cangshu paused; at this moment, he clearly felt a sense of indifference from the heart of this Master who called himself Mayaozhang.

No wish he wanted to realize, no particularly strong impulse, only a lack of understanding of the various common senses of the world.

For example, not understanding why his parents were always arguing and fighting from the time he was small;

Not understanding why those people all looked at him with strange eyes;

Not understanding why, when such parents died, those people from the welfare office asked him why he wasn't crying;

Even less understanding why that family wanted to bring him, a stranger, into their home at night;

Not understanding why that annoying teacher had to show a look of concern.

"Tch..."

Bai Cangshu clicked his tongue softly, then laughed involuntarily; he had perceived the cleverness of the arrangement made by the Inhibitory Force, or rather, the Infinite Dimensional Space.

They do not arrange for an event to happen in a crude, direct manner; instead, they arrange a more suitable 【Cause】, and then, following the development of the rules, let one fall into that 【Effect】.

They did not forcibly set it so that he would be summoned by this Mayaozhang; rather, they found someone who happened to share certain traits with him to perform the Heroic Spirit summoning.

Therefore, he became the Servant summoned by the other party as a matter of course.

【Servant】, in the Holy Grail War, is definitely not a good role; even with the extra panel from the 【Class】, one cannot avoid the fact that this is a role with the highest mortality rate.

The purpose of the Holy Grail War was never some classical romantic hero drama where a few Sorcerers summon legendary heroes and fight to decide a winner.

The Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City was, from the very beginning, just a large-scale ritual set up by those three families to pursue the mysteries of the 【Root】.

The entire process of this Holy Grail War is unimportant; the only thing that matters is that enough Servants die, so that when the Heroic Spirits return from the Lesser Grail to the Throne of Heroes, the Greater Grail can use the magic power accumulated over decades from this excellent "Spirit Line" in Fuyuki City to pierce through space-time and fix a channel, allowing the Sorcerers of the "Three Founding Families" to reach the 【Root】.

It is not a hero drama, but a dark, absurd sacrifice.

A mocking smile hung on the corner of Bai Cangshu's mouth; fixing himself into the 【Class: Assassin】 not only forced him into a deathmatch he could not refuse but also limited his strength.

And there were no flaws in the rules. He couldn't help but want to applaud this game of chess between the 【Inhibitory Force】 and the 【Infinite Dimensional Space】.

Thinking about it this way, it's no wonder the mortality rate for those Reincarnators who chased others into the Type-Moon World was so high; it's equivalent to joining a game while two GMs (Game Masters) are staring at you and customizing negative effects for you.

Afterward, Bai Cangshu asked Mayaozhang a few more questions, but the other party was indeed not from the world of Thaumaturgy and knew nothing about the various details of the Holy Grail War.

Therefore, it was impossible to determine the current timeline, but combined with the era, it could be roughly known that this should be around the timeline of the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Because it is currently 2004, which is the node where the Fifth Holy Grail War takes place; of course, one cannot rule out the possibility that the direction has changed at this moment due to the intrusion of Reincarnators or the different development of the Derivative World.

Bai Cangshu's figure floated up lightly; the next moment he had leaped onto the roof of a shop by the street, and then his figure flashed, his footwork landing lightly on a street lamp.

His movements were completely silent; Mayaozhang, walking in front, did not notice at all.

Bai Cangshu tilted his ear; although his Heart Net ability was restricted, the senses of this terrifying body of his were still preserved. As a humanoid dragon with a Constitution exceeding 50 points, Bai Cangshu's vision and hearing were both completely beyond the imagination of ordinary humans.

He heard explosions occurring continuously in a very distant place; there was likely an intense battle taking place.

Judging by the sound, it was over 10 kilometers away from the two, and the intensity of the battle was high, with every strike emitting considerable destructive power.

Judging by the combat style of the Servants in this world, Bai Cangshu thought that if one followed the plot of the Fifth Holy Grail War, it was highly likely to be Berserker, Heracles.

"We're here~"

Mayaozhang's voice rose involuntarily, carrying a certain emotion even he himself could not fathom.

He pointed to a standard Japanese detached house in the distance and said,

"That woman should be living here; Tao Baibai, go kill her!"

This was probably the first person to direct Bai Cangshu's actions so forcefully; even that fox-like Outer God mostly used inducements when dealing with Bai Cangshu.

Bai Cangshu withdrew his senses from that battle in the distance; he had always been quite curious about the combat power of the Servants in this world.

Because under the Type-Moon worldview, factors like compatibility, special attacks, and other idealistic elements accounted for a higher proportion in battle.

It was vastly different from worlds like Dragon Ball, which were based on pure power.

So much so that before engaging in combat, Bai Cangshu was not sure of his own strength ranking among these Servants.

He currently lacked a Noble Phantasm and was quite weak in the Magic Power attribute, so he figured it was impossible to withstand the power of those Servants releasing their Noble Phantasms for a full-force bombardment.

But at the same time, Bai Cangshu's destructive power toward the world, his own mobility, and his martial arts ability—which had entered the Realm of the Sect and was born entirely for fighting others—also exceeded the performance of many Heroic Spirits he remembered from the anime.

Bai Cangshu extended a finger; he didn't even have the interest to confirm who the person he was about to kill was, as a Dodon Ray had already condensed.

Zing!

But the next moment, Bai Cangshu suddenly withdrew his hand and turned his head to look behind him with a playful expression.

A long spear was already pressed against Mayaozhang's back.

"If you don't want to die, then order Tao Baibai to commit suicide."

Pfft!

The spearhead pierced less than an inch into flesh, and the pain finally made Mayaozhang realize an enemy had appeared.

He raised his hand, his Command Spell glowing brightly.

Bai Cangshu merely spread his hands, full of smiles.

"To see me and not choose to run, but instead try to kill me in this way—it seems you are a Master now?"

"Where is your Heroic Spirit? Hurry and summon them over..."

(End of chapter)