Chapter 6: The Long-Overdue Main Quest

Compared to Su Er, I’m nothing but trash.

When Li En awoke again from the Heroic Soul’s dream, he realized the pillow beside him was damp once more.

He shook his head, washed his face, and prepared to begin his “work hours.”

【Synchronization Rate: 14.5%, Satisfaction: 9.5%.】

Yesterday I spent the whole day doing good deeds, yet the synchronization rate barely rose, and satisfaction even dropped slightly.

He pulled out his notebook and reviewed yesterday’s tasks.

At least he confirmed: repeating past “good deeds” yielded minimal results, and some “good deeds” weren’t even worth doing—not even for a dog.

“Mediate a dispute between a quarreling couple. The man cheats, gambles, and routinely beats his wife; the woman has an affair and buys slow-acting poison to murder her husband. Perfect. Both belong in jail—let them love and kill each other there.”

Was this a “good deed”? Yet the Heroic Soul’s satisfaction points indicated otherwise. But Li En thought sending that poor child to an orphanage should count as a good deed.

She lost her family, but at least her parents are still alive—when she grows up, she can visit them in prison.

“Romantic disputes, marital conflicts—nobody cares!” What kind of nonsense is this? Li En sighed, deciding to monitor this case—at least give that poor child a decent future.

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

A streetwalker was reported for stealing from customers; Li En rushed over and found she was raising several orphans, herself emaciated to skin and bone, yet the children at least survived—while the accuser was a gang boss trying to control her and her children.

What a living bodhisattva. Li En paid off her debts and beat the gang boss senseless.

Then he dragged him through the streets, warning anyone who dared do the same: “I’ll chop off your dog’s head—top and bottom, both.”

This behavior protected thieves and unconventional criminals, effectively becoming a shield—clearly illegal.

Li En braced himself for a satisfaction drop. Yet this was the single act that raised both satisfaction and synchronization the most yesterday.

“It seems that although the Heroic Soul Su Er is a law enforcer and believer in the God of Law, he doesn’t truly care about the law. He cares about his own justice.”

There were many similar cases. After a full day’s work, balancing the ledger felt like doing nothing at all—perhaps this pleased the “Heroic Soul.” If the city were truly overrun with villains, it wouldn’t be worth saving—but it left Li En feeling helpless.

“This city is tolerable—at least far better than those in the dreams.”

During these two days of sleep, Li En relived Su Er’s life once more—the dazzling fragments of several lifetimes.

“Protector of the Lady of the Scales, Grand Judge Su Er.”

After a hellish beginning, the orphaned Su Er was taken in by Fuli Academy, started as a knight apprentice, and gradually rose to become a Holy Knight, Oath Knight, and ultimately a Trial Knight directly under the highest court of the Church State.

He was the Grand Judge of the Special Tribunal, whose main duties were judging and executing.

Execute villains, execute heretics, execute witches, execute dark magic, execute ancient beasts, execute demons, execute false gods—facing all manner of “evil” in his dreams, his usual method was Holy Flame and Holy Execution, Judgment Domain and Law-Annulment Sword.

“It seems ordinary villains can’t satisfy Master Su Er.”

Looking back on these days, Li En believed the most rewarding and satisfying act for Master Su Er was still the slaying of the Tail-Hunting Villain—likely the foundation of his current synchronization and satisfaction rates.

“Small-time antics won’t cut it—otherwise, you might end up with negative growth.”

Regarding the case with the highest satisfaction loss—the married couple—Li En could feel that Su Er’s Heroic Soul wasn’t dissatisfied with his handling, but with the case itself.

Handling more of these impossible cases would surely yield negative returns; he needed true “cunning villains” as sacrifices.

“No rush. Take it slow. First, recall the dream-life experiences, and try to solidify as many of Su Er’s combat techniques as possible.”

Early in the morning, Li En took the Hero’s Sword and stepped into the courtyard, mentally replaying Su Er’s movements from the dream, meticulously reconstructing each detail.

First, stance: bow step, coiled power, front foot pointing at the imaginary target, rear foot angled forty-five degrees apart, ready to unleash force from the body.

Then, the two-handed sword grip: one hand palm-up, one hand pushing—convenient for thrusting, blocking, and spiral-cutting.

“Start with five hundred repetitions of each basic motion: eight directional cuts—forward slash, reverse slash, monk’s robe slash.”

The knight’s morning training from the dream replayed—but even half this reduced workload was too much. Li En couldn’t move after completing barely one-tenth.

His physical base was far too weak—even compared to a novice knight apprentice, he was woefully inadequate.

Yet a minor anecdote from an ancient book reassured Li En he hadn’t wasted his time.

【Skill Acquired: Entry-Level Two-Handed Sword (Classical Holy Knight Foundation Style).】

“A normal sword entry should take at least three months. How did I reach entry level after just a few days?”

But upon reflection, this was an inevitable result of his strange Heroic Soul possession state.

The heart is the soul—the origin of everything.

The body is the flesh—the vessel carrying power, wisdom, and technique—the cup that holds water.

The skill is the water in the cup—the software running on the hardware—the professional experience of a transcendent.

Li En now possesses a “heart” and “skill” that aren’t his own. The book’s label—【Second-Class Classical Oath Knight, First-Class Holy Knight, First-Class Warrior (disappears in 14 days 2 hours)】—is what’s called a professional rank, or a transcendent’s skill set.

All these professions are pure melee units, and melee swordsmanship is their shared foundation—the skill requiring the most time to refine.

“Did I really master it completely?” Li En clearly felt his sword handling was smoother and easier. This entry-level sword skill had no temporary marker—it was permanent.

This world is not peaceful. Li En needs power.

Even if he can’t gain Su Er’s soul abilities, acquiring even a bit of combat technique or professional skill is beneficial.

He already knew becoming a professional usually required two to three years of basic training; here, learning even a little drastically reduces that time.

According to Su Er’s fragmented memories, Holy Knight apprentices spent two and a half years mastering swordsmanship, horsemanship, Holy Power invocation, law, and religious knowledge—just reaching entry-level swordsmanship alone took at least three months.

But given his current situation, his absurd progress speed seemed perfectly logical.

“In Heroic Soul possession, every movement and action is corrected by the Heroic Soul—far better than a one-on-one master teaching you.”

Like water leaving traces, he tried to imprint more marks onto his flesh while the water still flowed.

“I need more muscle memory.”

After resting, he resumed his grueling practice.

After completing the foundation of swordsmanship, he naturally turned his attention to the next professional combat technique.

“Follow-through Slash or Holy Execution? Holy Execution. Follow-through Slash demands too much strength.”

These two professional skills were core abilities for low- to mid-tier warriors and Holy Knights, yet followed entirely different paths.

The two-handed sword’s Follow-through Slash was a standard mass-combat killer—sword arcs like a crescent; experts could make blades resemble full moons, impossible to dodge.

It followed the path of overwhelming force—each strike slaughtered entire groups.

The ordinary Holy Execution was a standard single-target technique: Holy Knights’ radiant white-light, holy-light vertical slashes.

Its principle was simple: infuse “Holy Power,” then strike—but this was an absurd skill capable of mythic applications, considered the Holy Knight’s defining technique, with countless variants.

Infuse “Judgment of Sin and Punishment,” it becomes Sin-Execution; infuse the corrupted power of fallen Holy Knights, it becomes Holy-Execution; infuse a racial-specific attack, it becomes Dragon-Execution/Beast-Execution/Elf-Execution. Some, driven by grudges, even developed “Unchaste-Execution” (Shoe-Execution) targeting specific individuals—truly, the world is vast and full of wonders.

Its usage techniques also had many variants; the most common was the Great Holy Execution, fused with Follow-through Slash—still one slash, one massacre, a superb judgment weapon, a favorite of Grand Knights.

What Li En coveted most right now was “Great Holy Execution.” Normally, this required advanced Warrior rank and high Holy Knight Holy Power—decades of cultivation were needed just to dream of it.

But Li En’s situation was unique: he possessed not only First-Class Holy Knight and First-Class Warrior, but also the rank of Classical Oath Knight—which theoretically required at least four or five ranks of Holy Knight—and he had two full ranks to spare. He had the foundation to learn high-tier combat techniques.

In fact, his current profession list already included Great Follow-through Slash and Great Holy Execution—he just couldn’t use them. But in reality, under the Heroic Soul’s enhancement, his Holy Execution was already one slash, one massacre—clearly disguised Great Holy Execution.

If he trained more, once his base strength and physique improved, he could easily master Follow-through Slash and Great Follow-through Slash.

“No rush. First, master Holy Execution completely.” This no longer felt like training—it felt like reclaiming, and the results were natural and excellent.

This time, he practiced intermittently until he had no strength left.

But to his surprise, after diligently training all morning, both synchronization and satisfaction rose by 1%—more than he gained from yesterday’s full day of overtime work!

“Did my physical limits and compatibility improve, raising synchronization? Or did knightly training itself please the Heroic Soul?”

This theory made sense: the closer his body matched the Heroic Soul’s, the more “water” it could hold, and the higher the synchronization.

And fulfilling the Heroic Soul’s past actions naturally pleased him.

Satisfaction meant the Heroic Soul was content and willing to grant power; synchronization meant how much “water” your “cup” could accept.

This seemed plausible. After some thought, Li En devised a test.

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

By the way, books here were absurdly expensive—one secondhand volume cost a week’s lodging.

He selected a few, stacking local and national legal codes on the table, and began reading carefully.

These weren’t familiar statutes—they were a mix of rules and precedents, written in unfamiliar script, filled with strange metaphors.

Yet Li En found learning them effortless.

Many misunderstood the Ancient Oath Trial Holy Knights, assuming they were radical heresy-hunters who burned witches and heretics without hesitation.

That was true—but independent Trial Judges were also masters of legal codes.

In many cases, they were lone judges sent to the countryside, required to adjudicate civilian cases at lightning speed. Legal study was part of Trial Knight training.

As an advanced path for Holy Knights’ “Legal Specialization,” its ability activated only with the user’s official law-enforcer status.

The precondition for Li En’s most-used supernatural ability, “Sin and Punishment Judgment,” was his own deep understanding of the law. At the moment the red glow of judgment flared, the silver light of Holy Execution or Sin-Execution followed instantly.

And Su Er was the blind executor of the Lady of the Scales, the emissary of the Law Goddess, the Grand Judge of the Church State, a legal master of his time.

【Synchronization Rate: 15.6%, Satisfaction: 10.6%.】

Though the increase after reading was small, it proved everything. While reading the legal codes, Li En even felt an inexplicable joy—likely shared by the Heroic Soul.

During his reading, comparing with Su Er’s fragmented memories, Li En learned more about this city, this nation, this world.

The Kingdom of Aithelin, a crumbling small nation that nearly became an empire, yet famous throughout the world and history.

“The nation that nearly perished to a dragon.”

Its most famous location was the “Great Wound Canyon,” where the former capital once stood. Sixteen years ago, a searing dragon’s breath split it in two; the core area still burned with eternal flames.

It was said this directly caused the death of the renowned former Hero and King, and the kingdom’s decline.

Huicheng, once an obscure border town with no standing in the kingdom, was now one of the nation’s most prosperous cities.

Why? Besides its natural harbor advantages, it housed an exceptionally dangerous resource site.

“Beneath the city lies a vast network of underground ruins—reaching the scale of a multi-layered labyrinth?”

Beneath this city lay another “urban cluster” teeming with monsters and danger, complete with related industries.

Whether for beastfolk evolution or professional training, vast quantities of transcendent life materials were required.

In a sense, this is indeed a resource city.

But as he looked at the data mentioning the underground, Li En suddenly remembered a threat.

“Underground?!”

He opened the ancient book, and the glowing main quest made his scalp tingle.

【Main Quest: Seal or slay the demon god Elsena.】

If nothing goes wrong, this natural “resource” of the city will become a bomb within two years.

【Mission Briefing: The demon god’s seal beneath Huicheng is on the verge of collapse; it is about to break free. Eliminate it—or be eliminated by it. (Failure countdown: 759 days, 4 hours).】

【Failure Penalty: If the mission fails, the city becomes history. No further penalty is needed.】

Well, this kingdom really is plagued by misfortune—its new core sits atop a volcano, and not just any volcano, but one about to explode.

(End of Chapter)