Chapter 6: The Main Quest Finally Remembered

"Compared to Su Er, I'm nothing but trash."

Waking up once again from the Heroic Soul dream, Li En realized the pillow beside him was wet again.

He shook his head, splashed water on his face, and prepared to start his "work time."

【Synchronization Rate 14.5%, Satisfaction 9.5%.】

He had done good deeds all day yesterday, yet the synchronization rate increase was negligible, and the satisfaction score had actually dropped by a point.

He took out his notebook and compared it with yesterday's work.

At least he had confirmed that repeating the "good deeds" he had done before yielded very little effect, and some "good deeds" were so bad even a dog wouldn't do them!

"Helping a quarreling couple decide who is right and wrong: the man prostitutes, gambles, and commits domestic violence daily; the woman cheats and buys slow-acting poison to murder her husband. Excellent, let the husband and wife share a detention center and love and kill each other there."

Was this a "good deed"? But the satisfaction points spent by the 'Heroic Soul' said get lost. Yet Li En felt that sending that unlucky child to an orphanage should count as a good deed.

She had lost her family, but at least her parents were still alive; when she grew up, she could visit them in prison.

"Couples' disputes, marital conflicts—no one cares!" What kind of mess was this? Li En sighed, preparing to monitor this case, at least to give that unlucky child a decent future.

This wasn't even the strangest thing in this bizarre city.

A streetwalker was reported for stealing a customer's money. Li En rushed over and found she was raising several orphans; she was skin and bones herself, but the children could at least survive. The reporter was a thug boss trying to control her and her children.

What "flesh Buddha," Li En paid the money to settle her debt for her, then beat that thug to a pulp.

And he dragged him on patrol, warning that if anyone messed with them again, he would chop off their dog head, both top and bottom.

Such behavior protected thieves and other criminals, even vaguely becoming a protective umbrella; it was obviously illegal.

Li En had prepared for a drop in satisfaction. Yet it was the single act that increased satisfaction and synchronization rate the most yesterday.

"It seems that although he is a believer of the Law God and an enforcer, the Heroic Soul Su Er does not care so much about the law. He cares about his own justice."

There were many other similar cases. After a day's work, reconciling the accounts was equivalent to doing nothing. This might have satisfied the 'Heroic Soul'—if there were truly evil thugs everywhere, the city would be unlivable—but it left Li En somewhat helpless.

"This city is passable; at least it's much better than those in the dreams."

During these two days of sleep, Li En experienced Su Er's life once again, those few life segments that were too exciting.

"Protector of Lady Balance, Grand Inquisitor Su Er."

After the initial hellish start, Su Er, an orphan, was adopted by an orphanage. Starting as a knight apprentice, he worked his way up to become a Paladin, a Knight of the Oath, and finally a Trial Knight directly under the Supreme Court of the Theocracy.

He was the Grand Inquisitor of the Special Tribunal, and his main job was to judge and behead.

Beheading evil thugs, beheading cultists, beheading witches, beheading black magic, beheading ancient beasts, beheading demons, beheading evil gods. In the dream, facing various "evils," the majority of the handling methods were Holy Flame plus Evil-Cutting Slash, Judgment Domain plus Anti-Magic Sword.

"It seems ordinary evil thugs cannot satisfy Lord Su Er."

Looking back on these days, Li En feared the gain that satisfied Lord Su Er the most was still the beheading of that Tail-Hunting Thug; that was probably the cornerstone of his current synchronization rate and satisfaction.

"Tinkering won't work; it might end up with negative growth."

Regarding the couple's case that dropped the most satisfaction, Li En could even feel that the Heroic Soul Su Er was not dissatisfied with his handling of it, but with the incident itself.

Handling more of these dilemmas would definitely yield negative returns; he must use true "cunning evil thugs" as Offerings.

"... No rush, take it slow. First, recall the life in the dream and try to solidify more of Su Er's combat techniques."

Early in the morning, Li En held the Hero's Sword and walked into the courtyard, recalling Su Er's movements from the dream in his mind, reconstructing them bit by bit.

First was the stance: a lunge to store power, the front foot pointing toward the imaginary target, the back foot offset at 45 degrees, ready to exert force at any moment.

Then came the grip for the two-handed sword: one hand palm, one hand push, convenient for thrusting, convenient for blocking, convenient for spiral force to behead.

"Let's start with five hundred repetitions of each basic movement: eight directional slashes, forward slash, reverse slash, kesa-giri."

The knight's morning training from the dream played out again, but let alone completing half this training volume, he hadn't even completed one-tenth before Li En was unable to move.

His basic physical fitness was far too lacking; even compared to a novice knight apprentice, it was far from enough.

However, a small anecdote appearing in an ancient book made Li En feel it was not a waste.

【Skill Acquired: Novice Two-Handed Sword (Classical Paladin Basic Style) Swordsmanship.】

"Doesn't normal swordsmanship training require at least three months to enter the basics? It's only been a few days of practice; how did I enter the basics?"

But thinking it through carefully, this was an inevitable result of Li En's current strange state of Heroic Soul possession.

The Heart is the soul, the source of everything.

The Body is the flesh, the vessel carrying strength, wisdom, and technique; it is the cup holding water.

The Skill is the water in the cup, the software running on the hardware, a transcendent's professional experience.

Li En now possessed a "Heart" and "Skill" that did not belong to him. The 【Second-Rank Classical Knight of the Oath, First-Rank Paladin, First-Rank Warrior (disappears in 14 days 2 hours)】 marked in the book was the so-called professional rank, or rather, the skills of a transcendent's profession.

These professions were all purely melee units, and melee swordsmanship was the common foundation, the skill requiring the most time to hone.

"Did I really master it completely?" Li En clearly felt that using the sword was smoother and easier; the swordsmanship basics acquired this time had no temporary label and should be permanent.

This world was not very peaceful; Li En needed power.

Even if he couldn't grind up Su Er's Heart-Soul abilities, borrowing a bit more combat technique or professional ability was a good thing.

He already knew that becoming a professional usually required two to three years of basic training; on his side, learning a little could significantly reduce this time.

According to the memory fragments of Su Er mentioned, a Paladin apprentice spent two and a half years, needing to master basic abilities like swordsmanship, horsemanship, holy power summoning, law, and religious knowledge; among these, reaching the entry standard for swordsmanship alone took a minimum of three months.

But considering the current situation, his outrageous speed of progress seemed only natural.

"In the Heroic Soul possession state, every movement and every action is corrected by the Heroic Soul; the effect is far better than one-on-one Shoubashou Sect teaching."

Like water flowing over stone, he tried to leave more traces on his own flesh while the water was still flowing.

"... It seems I need more muscle memory."

So, after resting a bit, he began to practice hard once again.

After completing the construction of basic swordsmanship, he naturally turned his gaze to the next step: professional combat techniques.

"Follow-through Slash or Evil-Cutting Slash? Evil-Cutting Slash. The Follow-through Slash requires too much strength."

These two professional skills could be called the core abilities of mid-to-low-level warriors and Paladins, yet they followed completely different paths.

The Follow-through Slash of the two-handed sword was a standard area-of-effect killer; the sword emerged like an arc, and masters could even make the blade like a half-moon, impossible to evade.

His style is pure brute force—every swing cuts down a swath of enemies.

An ordinary Evil-Slaying Slash, on the other hand, is a standard single-target combat art—the Holy Knight's signature downward cleaves wreathed in white light and holy radiance.

The principle is dead simple: channel "holy power" and bring the blade down. But in truth, this is an absurdly overpowered skill that scales all the way to mythic tier. Think of it as the Holy Knight class's bread-and-butter technique, with a dizzying array of variants.

Channel "Sin-Punishment Judgment Power" and you get Sin-Slaying Slash. Channel a fallen Holy Knight's dark power and you get Holy-Slaying Slash. Channel power targeted at a specific race and you get Dragon-/Beast-/Elf-Slaying Slash. Rumor has it that certain people, driven by certain grudges, even developed an Adultery-Slaying Slash (Cuckold-Slaying Slash) aimed at specific individuals. Truly, the world is vast and full of wonders.

Its usage techniques also come in many variants. The most common is the Greater Evil-Slaying Slash, fused with Momentum Slash—still one cleave, one swath, a superbly handy instrument of judgment, the great knights' absolute favorite.

What Li En covets most right now is probably the "Greater Evil-Slaying Slash." Generally speaking, this requires cross-training as a Warrior to a very high tier, plus a high level of Holy Knight holy power. Without over a decade of cultivation, don't even think about it.

But Li En's situation is special. He not only has a Tier 1 Holy Knight and a Tier 1 Warrior, he also has—on paper—a tier that requires at least Tier 4 or 5 Holy Knight to advance into the Classical Oath Knight tier. And he has two whole tiers of it! He has the foundation to learn high-tier combat arts.

In fact, his current class list does include Greater Momentum Slash and Greater Evil-Slaying Slash—he just can't use them yet. But the Evil-Slaying Slash he can actually use, bolstered by the Heroic Spirit, already cuts down swathes of enemies! It's blatantly a Greater Evil-Slaying Slash disguised as an ordinary Evil-Slaying Slash.

If he practices more, and once his base strength and physique catch up, he should be able to easily master Momentum Cleave and Greater Momentum Cleave as well.

"No rush—master Evil-Slaying Slash completely first." This no longer felt like cultivation; it felt like relearning, so naturally the results were excellent.

This time, he practiced in bursts until he was completely out of energy.

But to his surprise, after an honest morning of practice, both sync rate and satisfaction rose by 1%—more than an entire day of overtime yesterday!

"Is it because my physical limits and compatibility improved, causing the sync rate to rise? Or is it that the knightly cultivation itself pleased the Heroic Spirit?"

Theoretically, this makes sense: the closer one's physical condition is to the Heroic Spirit's, the more "water" the vessel can hold, and naturally the higher the sync rate.

And fulfilling the Heroic Spirit's past deeds naturally pleases it as well.

Satisfaction is the Heroic Spirit being content and willing to grant you power; sync rate is how much "water" your "cup" can receive.

This seemed like a plausible explanation. After thinking it over, Li En found a way to test it.

He pulled out a stack of books—history, geography, and law texts he'd bought at the bookstore yesterday.

Incidentally, books here are absurdly expensive. A single third-hand used book costs a week's worth of inn money.

He picked through them, prioritizing local and national legal codes, piling a whole desk's worth, and began reading them in earnest.

These weren't familiar statutes and regulations, but a hybrid of rules and case law, written in unfamiliar script and riddled with strange metaphors.

Yet surprisingly, Li En found it wasn't difficult at all!

Many people have a slight misconception about the Oath's Judgment Holy Knights, assuming they're radical inquisitors who burn witches and cultists on sight.

That's not entirely wrong, but any Inquisitor capable of operating independently is also a seasoned veteran of legal codes.

In a great many cases, they're a one-man court that rides alone into the countryside. Many civil cases require the swiftest possible judgment, and the Judgment Knight's training includes the study of law.

The advanced form of the Holy Knight's "Legal Expertise" requires the user to hold the status of law enforcer for its effects to activate.

The supernatural ability Li En uses most—"Sin-Punishment Judgment"—requires the user to have a sufficiently deep understanding of the law. The moment the crimson light of Sin-Punishment flashes, the silver gleam of Evil-Slaying Slash—even Sin-Slaying Slash—follows right behind.

And Su Er was a blind servant of the Daughter of the Balance, an envoy of the Law Goddess, the Theocracy's Grand Inquisitor, and a legal luminary of his era.

【Sync rate 15.6%, Satisfaction 10.6%.】

Although reading only nudged the numbers up a little, it was enough to prove everything. While reading the legal codes, Li En even felt an inexplicable joy—likely the Heroic Spirit's shared emotion.

And during the reading, cross-referencing Su Er's fragmented memories, Li En learned much more about this city, this nation, this world.

The Kingdom of Etherin—a once-near-empire now a broken little kingdom, yet famous throughout the world and across history.

"The nation that nearly got destroyed by a dragon."

The most famous landmark of this kingdom is the "Wound Grand Canyon," at the site of the former capital. Sixteen years ago, a blast of searing dragon breath split it in two; its core area is still a blazing inferno canyon to this day.

Legend has it this directly caused the deaths of the previous, rather renowned Hero and the King, as well as the decline of the nation.

And Radiant City—a backwater border town that once didn't even rank in the kingdom—has now become one of the nation's most prosperous cities.

The reason? Besides its natural commercial advantage as a port, it also has an excessively dangerous resource point.

"Beneath the city lies a vast network of underground ruins, even reaching the scale of a multi-level underground labyrinth?"

Beneath this city lies another "urban cluster" teeming with monsters and dangers, and even an industry built around it.

Whether it's beastkin species advancement or professional training, both require vast quantities of supernatural life materials.

In a sense, this really is a resource city.

But looking at the data mentioning the underground, Li En suddenly recalled a threat.

"Underground?! The earlier hint—"

He flipped open the ancient tome, and the glowing main quest on its pages made his scalp tingle.

【Main Quest: Seal/Slay the Evil God Elthena.】

If nothing unexpected happens, this natural "resource" of the city will turn into a bomb within two years.

【Quest Briefing: The Evil God Seal beneath Radiant City is on the verge of collapse. He is about to break free. Deal with Him. Or be dealt with by Him. (Failure Countdown: 759 days, 4 hours).】

【Quest Failure Penalty: Quest fails. The city becomes history. No penalty needed.】

Well, this kingdom really is calamity-prone—the new heart of the nation sits atop a volcano, and one that's about to blow at that.

(End of Chapter)