True Solution of the Sword Dao

"*sigh*..." Lin Fei took deep breaths, his forehead covered with dense beads of sweat.

He had not expected such great spiritual damage to himself; no wonder the Sword Canon had given warnings before the battle. Now, it seemed, the severity was indeed serious, far beyond any of the previous trial battles.

The impact and shockwave of the suicide explosion by the woman in the black dress, filled with an intent of despair, were something Lin Fei had never seen before and had no idea how to defend against; he could only passively endure it. In terms of horror, it was far worse than his encounter with Sula Bei’er. Especially the last self-destructive move, which was too sudden. That kind of power almost instantly covered the entire Sword Canon Space with the explosion of flesh and blood, utterly indefensible.

Caught off guard, Lin Fei was instantly killed, and the last thing he saw was half of the black-dressed woman’s face, with remnants of serene release, flying towards him. That deep sense of despair lingered even now, affecting his spirit still.

"It seems I need to rest for a while," Lin Fei said as he walked to the washbasin. In the mirror, his face was as pale as if he had been seriously ill. He knew this was the influence of a spiritual level. His time spent on the cultivation of Sword Dao was too short and his willpower was far from strong, which was why this had happened.

"Logically, I’ve killed no small number of people, so why did that last strike cause such a huge impact on me?" Lin Fei wondered, slightly puzzled. "It was just a suicide attack. Or is it that without absolute determination, one could waver with just a little distraction?"

Shaking his head slightly, Lin Fei turned on the faucet, scooped up water, and washed his face. The cold sensation made his mind slightly clearer.

The battle today might have lasted only a short fifteen minutes, but the consumption of Heart Force went far beyond that.

Setting up a Divine Artifact clone on a whim, Lin Fei directly returned to the Sword Canon Space to rest, and it had been quite some time since he had been sleeping and resting in this way. Leaving the Divine Artifact clone outside meant no loss even if he was suddenly attacked.

Ever since he stepped into the conflicts of the Inner World, he had been severely lacking a sense of security.

When he woke up again and left the Sword Canon Space, it was already midnight.

Through the window, the street lamps’ lights could be faintly seen, and across the way, the dormitory buildings were engulfed in darkness with no light to be seen. The air had also become cooler.

Lin Fei propped himself up from the bed and only then felt much better in spirit, at least not as drowsy as before. Since he began Qi Cultivation and acquired pseudo True Force enhancement, this was the first time he felt so tired, and the first time he had slept for so long.

Quietly, he got down from the bed. The entire dormitory was silent. With exams over, most of the students had gone home, leaving only a small part still in the dorms, and even they were asleep at this hour.

Lin Fei checked his phone for the time: 3:15 AM.

This time was precisely the middle of the night.

Surrounding him was silence, with only the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat being clearly audible.

Suddenly, Lin Fei felt a deep loneliness, as if he were the only person left in the whole world.

He opened the window, and a rush of cool air flowed directly into the dormitory.

Lin Fei’s figure blurred suddenly and disappeared from within the dormitory, reappearing in the shadows on the lawn below the dormitory building.

For some reason, he suddenly felt like going out alone for a quiet walk.

Next to the dormitory building was a straight cement path, with rows of yellow streetlights extending neatly to the distant intersection. Lin Fei walked out from the lawn between the dorms and looked down the path. On the brightly lit road, he was the only one there.

Walking slowly on the cement road, the cool air even made Lin Fei feel a hint of chill. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he last enjoyed the quiet alone.

Once, he had loved to walk alone in secluded places, enjoying the peace and sorting through his tangled thoughts. But now, those times seemed to be getting fewer and fewer.

On the side of the dorm area were old buildings housing small shops, postal savings, and the student work department. Similarly, this place, aside from the lights, showed hardly any signs of people.

A gust of cold wind blew by, rustling the leaves of the trees in the green belt by the road. A few leaves fluttered with the wind, and the scraping of leaves on the ground made a hissing sound.

Lin Fei’s mind wandered back to his previous life. Back then, as a university student, he often did the same thing, taking midnight walks alone to cool down. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary university student who liked martial arts and playing games on the computer.

And now he...

In his past life, he lived in a world of ordinary people, whereas now, he was slowly entering the dark, shadowy side of the world.

From his past life memories, apart from his family, what left the deepest impression on him was the only girl he had ever held hands with. And now, she might still be resting quietly in a dormitory at another university. His friends from his previous life, aside from those from high school and middle school, and a few particularly close brothers from his university days, were also leading their own peaceful lives at other universities, unrelated to him.

Now, he had hardly made any friends here. Lin Fei felt a sense of loss; he was becoming ever more distant from ordinary people. Perhaps because of the setback in the Sword Canon Space and the damage to his spirit, he suddenly had many feelings that he’d never experienced before.

Continuing down the main road, he arrived in front of a glass bulletin board display by the roadside. Lin Fei suddenly caught a flash of silver in the glass reflection.

He paused slightly, then realized the silver came from a mark on his own body.

Raising his arm, a silver mark on his arm slowly bloomed with a faint silver glow.

This was the mark of the Mage’s Eye.

Time to go to an internet café.

He suddenly had this thought.

Perhaps he wanted to see the latest issue of the Mage’s Eye, or perhaps there was an inexplicable calm in his heart. He wanted to find traces of his past life.

Lin Fei hastened his pace along the school’s main road, crossed the plaza, and quickly reached the school’s gate.

The gate next to the plaza was already closed, and a long sliding fence directly separated the school entrance from the street outside. On the other side, the lights were bright, and one or two internet cafes were still open, their doors not yet closed. Standing at the school gate, one could clearly see the young people inside, engrossed in front of their computers. It was unusually quiet inside, and slightly dim.

Lin Fei entered an internet cafe named "Trend" without much thought.

The internet cafe manager was a young girl, who was sound asleep with her head on the table.

However, her attention seemed very alert; as soon as she heard the creaking of the sliding door, the internet cafe manager immediately woke up from her sleep and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Want to use the internet?"

Lin Fei nodded, handed over ten yuan as a deposit, and got a temporary card.

The internet cafes nowadays hadn’t yet implemented real-name registration; as long as you paid, anyone could surf the web. No need for an ID card or swiping a bank card.

There weren’t many people sitting in the internet cafe, it was somewhat sparse, mostly males with only four or five females.

In the entire internet cafe, about twenty or thirty people sat scattered among the two hundred plus computers. Some of them had even started to doze off in front of their PCs.

Unexpectedly, Lin Fei actually saw two girls in a corner, one of whom was Wu Xiuye, who had just had noodles with him that afternoon.

Wu Xiuye was deeply focused on her computer, her eyes glued to the screen, her hands moving rapidly as she typed on the keyboard and clicked the mouse.

Aside from the humming of the machines, the internet cafe was filled only with the occasional loud shouts from a few males using specialized gaming terms. The air was somewhat stuffy and hot due to the many operating machines, mixed with a bit of smoke. It didn’t smell good, giving Lin Fei an impulse to buy a computer and surf the web at home.

Lin Fei originally wanted to find another corner to quietly check the latest information in the Mage’s Eye. However, Wu Xiuye suddenly looked up and caught sight of Lin Fei—she was momentarily stunned and then waved him over.

Lin Fei could only walk over reluctantly.

"You’re surfing the net here too?"

Wu Xiuye nodded, but then she sized up Lin Fei. "How come your face didn’t look this bad in the afternoon? Have you been hit by a setback and now you’re despairing? You’re one of our class’s good students," she said as she made space on the computer next to her. "Come on, sit here. Do you play any games? Dota? Warcraft? CS? StarCraft? Play Fantasy Westward Journey?"

"What good student, bad student..." Lin Fei sat down and switched on the computer, "I know a bit."

"Honestly, I wouldn’t have guessed you are the type to stay up late on the internet. You look just like the good student type," Wu Xiuye said, her attention returning to her own computer screen as she continued to type and talk.

"Is that so?" Lin Fei watched the familiar XP system boot-up screen, feeling a hint of nostalgia inside. Before joining the martial arts club at school, he had always kept company with computer games in his past life. He had seen this boot-up screen countless times.

After sitting down, Wu Xiuye stopped talking and concentrated on playing Dota beside him.

Lin Fei also remained silent. Once the computer was fully started, he directly opened a web browser and logged into his email.

Indeed, an unread email lay quietly there with a faint silver tint.

Lin Fei wasn’t worried about Wu Xiuye seeing it because the images of the Mage’s Eye were invisible to ordinary people. What appeared as the magazine pages of the Mage’s Eye to Lin Fei, would only seem like a random advertisement email to Wu Xiuye.

After opening the Mage’s Eye, Lin Fei glanced over the table of contents.

The majority were reports on the ongoing conflicts between heretics and the Holy See, repeated skirmishes, comparative analysis of the strengths between the two sides, and various well-known mages’ speculations and comments about the situation.

A smaller portion of the content was about other news.

A new Elisa’s Gate has appeared in North America.

The battle for the Infinity Stone has officially begun.

The Tower of Radiance Auston has re-emerged and organized the Sword of Light Mercenary Group.

There was information on market commodity trading price fluctuations.

The Ice Scythe City of the Inner World announced the establishment of the Kaska Defense System, officially expelling heretic members.

The Holy See decided to send the Knights of the Light of Punishment to join the battle. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)