Chapter 261: Leech Sword Master Memories, Abyss Of Skin, Mountain Of Bone! All Completed! Four Extremes Breathing Technique, Obtained!
Two prompts appeared above the light orb, and Shangshan Che was instantly stunned.
Use memories to place bets?!
Wait.
Shangshan Che, whose mind was turning extremely fast, quickly understood—as long as he won against the opponent in this Karuta Competition, he could obtain the memory orb containing insights, techniques, experience, secrets, and so on.
He looked toward the【 Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memory orb】 and licked his lips.
And this kind of good thing!?
He had thought the Super Epic Item in the Karuta Factory was the greatest treasure, but now Shangshan Che felt that wasn’t the case.
Using memories as bets, and being able to read others’ memory orbs…
Shangshan Che, who had read the Great Blacksmith’s memory orb, understood that everything in the memory orb was its master’s past experiences and memories.
It could be called incomparably real.
It’s just that he knew nothing about blacksmithing and had never been exposed to it before, otherwise he would at least have a【lv.max screwdriver-twisting】 skill.
Suppressing the surprise and excitement in his heart, Shangshan Che inconspicuously glanced at the two who were competing in the Karuta match.
One was a middle-aged man dressed in plain cloth clothes, with fairly strong spiritual power fluctuations surging around his body. Though his background wasn’t apparent, he was undoubtedly an Onmyoji with strength above Three-Star.
The other was a youth with an unsheathed tachi placed beside him, and the family crest on his clothes was prominently the Tokugawa family’s【 Three-Leaf Aoi】.
Strangely, the Sword Master’s memory orb was beside the Onmyoji’s hand, while the Astronomy Path Onmyoji’s memory orb was beside this Tokugawa family youth’s hand.
Shangshan Che carefully looked around again and confirmed one thing.
—These memory orbs placed on the scale as bets with others were mostly ones they had won rather than their own memories.
This was human nature, after all, extracting one’s own memory as a bet was a terribly frightening thing.
The gamble before his eyes was still continuing, and Shangshan Che kept watching.
After three rounds of back-and-forth, just as the fox-faced woman had said, Shangshan Che had a general understanding.
This was no different from modern competitive Karuta.
The referee reads the first line of a waka, then the two bettors sitting face-to-face compete in hand speed to see who grabs the card faster from the dozens or hundreds of karuta cards in front of them.
This rule was actually relatively fair.
However, the sharp-eyed Shangshan Che, observing the two who were already drenched in sweat, noticed a detail.
Every time the two reached out but before truly touching the karuta card, the finger of the youth samurai from the Tokugawa family and the plainly dressed Onmyoji would imperceptibly collide a few times in mid-air.
And the “collisions” contained depths too profound.
Although the naked eye couldn’t see obvious clashes, this was probably a restriction of the rules.
But in Shangshan Che’s Eye of Interpretation field of view and his perception, their clashes each time they grabbed a karuta card were both perilous and exquisite.
Instantly cast and quickly vanishing Onmyōdō spells, spiritual power and Qi Barrier colliding and canceling each other, sword techniques executed at the fingertips…
These dazzling moves all had one common purpose—to stop the opponent from grabbing the karuta card faster than oneself!
Shangshan Che understood.
Even though the Hanafuda Market rules prohibited overt fighting, as long as it was “not discovered” with no evidence, it didn’t count as breaking the rules.
This was the same principle as undetected cheating not counting as cheating.
This actually raised the difficulty of him relying on constant restarts to speedrun the Karuta Factory by another level.
However, if he could learn in advance which karuta card would be read next, he would still have an absolute advantage in the competition.
“Guest, I see this is your first time at the Hanafuda Market. You probably haven’t prepared a memory orb, right?”
As the match before him entered its final stage, the fox-faced woman who had been standing behind Shangshan Che tugged at his sleeve and spoke with a smile.
“In that case, guest, would you like a measurement?”
Shangshan Che asked in return: “Measurement?”
“That’s right, a measurement of the weight of your memories.” The fox-faced woman produced a scale from somewhere and gently persuaded, “As long as you touch one end of the scale, it will quickly give the value and weight of your memories.”
The fox-faced woman’s tone carried a hint of temptation.
“Guest, you’ve watched for so long. Don’t you want to take out some insignificant little memory, try it yourself, and experience the world’s greatest amusement project·Karuta?”
If an ordinary person came here, they would already be foolishly tempted, exchanging all their memories for chips and going all-in at the gambling table.
But Shangshan Che, with a mind tempered a hundred times and equally proficient in the art of seduction, wouldn’t be affected by such petty tricks.
He raised an eyebrow and asked indifferently: “If it’s just using it to measure memory value, is that allowed?”
“Naturally.”
The fox-faced woman bowed slightly toward him: “All guests entering the Hanafuda Market can use the scale for free to measure the value of any memory.
Likewise, we won’t force guests to use any memory as a chip by any means.”
“The Hanafuda Market’s original intent is to bring guests the fun of Karuta.”
The fox-faced woman’s voice was earnest.
“So all matches and gambles can only proceed under the guests’ complete willingness.”
What the NPC said should not contain too many lies.
At least, just using the scale to measure memory value shouldn’t cause any big problems.
Shangshan Che’s thoughts turned, and he placed his finger on one side of the scale, then agreed to the “access request” that came from it.
—He was quite curious how his memories compared in value to the Onmyoji’s and Sword Master’s memory orbs from earlier.
Bang!
The instant Shangshan Che’s finger touched it, the scale slammed heavily toward that side, and on the other end fell a large blue chip marked “100”.
But this was far from enough; the scale didn’t even twitch toward the chip’s side.
Bang bang bang!
In an instant, five purple chips marked “1000”, each the size of an ordinary person’s palm, fell onto the scale, making the not-too-big or small scale emit a stiff creaking sound.
After this change, Shangshan Che could clearly hear the fox-faced woman in front of him instinctively let out a sound of astonishment.
At the same time, he could feel the gazes of all the attendants around turning toward him, landing on his body.
These gazes from different directions and angles all contained the exact same emotions.
These attendants were all the same person?
Shangshan Che had no time to think more.
Because in the split second he was pondering, the chips on the scale before him had already piled up densely.
White, green, blue, deep purple, brilliant gold, and even large crimson chips as clear as fresh red agate all suddenly appeared from the void…
Every instant, the chips on the other end of the scale multiplied geometrically, as if endless.
The fox-faced woman could no longer steady the scale; she hurriedly retreated several steps, her voice filled with fear and trembling.
“Whether human or demon, it’s impossible… What are you… What exactly are you!”
She screamed: “Stop touching the scale! Don’t touch it anymore!”
Shangshan Che was also shocked; he pondered that his experiences weren’t that legendary, only about one or two hundred days since contacting the supernatural at most.
At this moment, a fragment flashed in his mind.
Could it be that time with the Myriad Phenomena Divi…
Before Shangshan Che’s thought could fully form, the scale under his hand shattered with a creaking roar and exploded!
Likewise exploding was the entire world.
Amid the deafening roar, everything around was swept away and devoured by a massive black wave, whether the lively streets outside or the Hanafuda Market filled with countless gambles.
Everything was swallowed into the viscous darkness.
Shangshan Che was no exception.
Seeing the fox-faced woman turn to nothingness amid terrified screams, Shangshan Che could only sigh and accept his bad luck.
Who would have thought that just measuring some data could make the instance explode?
The darkness surged, erasing Shangshan Che’s body from the neck down in the blink of an eye.
But such a fatal wound posed no great threat to Shangshan Che’s consciousness, long accustomed to decapitation.
Within three seconds, his thoughts remained clear.
In this final instant, before the last darkness surged in, Shangshan Che caught a faint purple glow in the corner of his eye.
That was…
【Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memory orb】!
The prompt popped up as usual.
【Read it?】
With no extraneous thoughts or hesitation, Shangshan Che made the most correct choice in the shortest time.
—Yes!
The next moment, everything returned to nothingness.
……
When he opened his eyes again, what entered his view was not the familiar ceiling.
But the sights and sounds of Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro of the Tokugawa family in the prime of the Edo Period.
That was a fragment of the Sword Master’s youth.
From age nine to fourteen, Tokugawa Yugoro’s life consisted solely of【 cultivation】 and【 fierce battle】.
In those five years, he experienced seventy-two True Sword Matches.
He killed twenty-three people but never tasted defeat!
The rest, he deliberately held back and let go, telling them to return for revenge after achieving cultivation success.
For a samurai, this was the greatest insult, making him countless enemies in the future, but Tokugawa Yugoro never considered the possibility of his own defeat.
What arrogance, what audacity!
As for demons, he had long stopped counting how many he slew.
There was no need to count.
—However, the memory orb glossed over these matters, focusing truly only on Tokugawa Yugoro’s time cultivating the breathing technique.
At just fourteen, Tokugawa Yugoro, cultivating one of the Four Extremes Breathing Techniques【 Life River Breathing Technique】, had already opened a full 108 Great Acupoints, carving out a vast and boundless Sea of Qi.
With his terrifying talent and unimaginable effort, he fully mastered the Four Great Ultimate Forms of the Palace of Flesh.
Thus, on this terrifyingly solid foundation, he reached the third stage of the Life River Breathing Technique after the Sea of Qi and Palace of Flesh.
—【 Divine Treasure Containment】!
Shangshan Che, who had fused with Tokugawa Yugoro’s perspective for a long time, was stunned.
He remembered that after the Palace of Flesh it should clearly be【 Five Viscera Immortal】, as Lili Zi had said while looking at the notebook Tokugawa Hoshi gave her.
But soon, an explanation emerged in Tokugawa Yugoro’s mind—
The third stage·Divine Treasure Containment was where the Life River Breathing Technique pulled ahead essentially from the other breathing techniques.
The true marvel of the Life River Breathing Technique began to manifest here.
Shangshan Che wanted to hear the difference between Divine Treasure Containment and Five Viscera Immortal, but his consciousness began to grow groggy again.
The memory orb ended here.
……
【Due to learning part of Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memories, your Corona Breathing Technique is being supplemented…】
【This supplementation is complete!】
Shangshan Che, feeling a splitting headache, pinched his temples hard and struggled to open his eyes.
Prompts kept popping up like flowing water.
【Due to learning part of Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memories, your Corona Breathing Technique has manifested one of the Four Great Ultimate Forms “Abyss of Skin”!】
【Due to learning part of Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memories, your Corona Breathing Technique has manifested one of the Four Great Ultimate Forms “Mountain of Bone”!】
【Due to learning part of Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memories, the proficiency required for the Four Great Ultimate Forms “Abyss of Skin” and “Mountain of Bone” has greatly decreased!】
Shangshan Che furrowed his brows tightly, circulating his energy to suppress the pain, while laboriously turning his thoughts.
He still remembered that after mastering the Four Great Ultimate Forms in the memory orb, Tokugawa Yugoro was invincible!
Though called a Sword Master in the future, at this time he had never faced an enemy with a sword.
Rather, he hadn’t even touched a sword, only tempering his body and willpower, cultivating the Tokugawa family’s Life River Breathing Technique, and crushing all enemies with a pair of fists.
His body was the world’s strongest divine weapons and sharp tools!
【Abyss of Skin（0/3000）】
【Abyss of Skin: The ultimate form of Skin Tempering. Ultimate defense! The skin membrane turns into abyssal chasms; any Qi Barrier or inner force landing on it dissipates tracelessly over vast time and distance, like falling into a deep abyss.】
【Mountain of Bone（0/3000）】
【Mountain of Bone: The ultimate form of Bone Forging. Indestructible, and destroys anything indestructible! Bones like mountains, harder than fine steel, bare hands surpassing myriad weapons.】
【Note: Based on your current cultivation progress, you can currently choose to cultivate one of the Four Great Ultimate Forms: “Abyss of Skin” or “Mountain of Bone”.
But after selecting one of the Four Great Ultimate Forms to cultivate, you must fully complete it before switching to the next form!
At the same time, normal cultivation of the Corona Breathing Technique will be paused!】
Good!
After hearing about the Four Great Ultimate Forms for who knows how long, he could finally start cultivating them formally!
Shangshan Che clutched his head, stuffed with massive knowledge to the point of near explosion, and sat up under Kaga Kiyomitsu’s worried gaze, wanting to consider which ultimate form to cultivate first.
But a new prompt interrupted his thinking.
【Due to learning part of Sword Master·Tokugawa Yugoro’s memories, you have learned partial knowledge of the Four Extremes Breathing Technique·Life River Breathing Technique…】
Shangshan Che was stunned.
He hadn’t expected the Tokugawa family’s Four Extremes Breathing Technique, which he had racked his brains and schemed endlessly to obtain without any leads, to fall into his hands today in this unexpected way.
The surprises from Tokugawa Yugoro’s memory orb… were far from over!
