Chapter 177 The Appearance of "Sekiro"

Next to the castle tower, Isshin's room.

Isshin sat cross-legged on a cushion, his Tengu costume hanging on the side.

He held up a wine glass and laughed:

"Come on, foreign guest, taste the wine of our Ashina!"

Li You sat opposite Isshin, also holding a wine glass, with a wry smile on his face, and slowly drank the wine in the glass.

Isshin drank the wine in one gulp.

"Puha... good wine! I haven't drunk so happily for a long time!"

He looked at Li You again,

"This wine is one of our Ashina's signature wine, Ashina wine! How about it, foreigner, how does it taste compared to the wine you have drunk before? Compared to the turbid wine just now, which one do you like better?"

Li You wanted to say that both wines tasted good, but he really couldn't drink it anymore...

Isshin didn't wait for Li You to answer, he reached out and grabbed the wine pot next to him, to refill himself and Li You.

However, a pair of bare hands took away the wine pot before Isshin could.

Isshin: “Hmm?”

Beside the two of them, there was a young woman with a graceful face and a calm expression, with long hair standing up and wearing a dark robe.

It was she who took Isshin’s wine.

She looked at Isshin and said, “Lord Isshin, you have drunk a lot today, so let’s stop here.”

Isshin was slightly dissatisfied: “Eima, it’s rare to have guests coming from afar today, don’t spoil the fun.”

Of course, the elegant woman sitting next to her is the “fire keeper” in the game Sekiro, Isshin and Kuro’s doctor, Eima.

In the simplified Chinese version, her name is translated as “Yongzhen”.

Yingma did not budge from Isshin's small complaint, and said, "For your health, you can't drink anymore today. And Lord Li You is tired, I'm just taking care of you."

Isshin sighed, "Oh... OK, OK, that's all for today."

He looked at Li You again, "Stranger, if you don't mind, stay here, Yingma will arrange a place for you."

Eima nodded to Li You.

Li You thought about it and replied, "Of course no problem, sorry to bother you."

Half a day ago, he successfully attracted Isshin's attention by using Springfield to snipe the Ranba crowd.

Sword Saint Ashina Isshin, as the final BOSS of Sekiro, created two popular memes, and even netizens who don't play games have heard of his popularity.

One is the "real Ashina swordsmanship", which is the third "swordsmanship" that Isshin loves to use besides the samurai sword and spear - American Iai.

As for the second one, it is the famous saying "If you hesitate, you will lose." The degree of its widespread citation has far exceeded the scope of the game itself.

And the origin of the Ashina swordsmanship is indeed based on facts.

The reason why Ashina Isshin is the swordsman is that he does not stick to fixed moves and constantly pursues the limit of human strength in fighting.

Whether it is swordsmanship, gunmanship, or something else, as long as it can actually kill the enemy, it is an excellent skill.

The "Ashina Style" created by Ashina Isshin is the embodiment of this idea.

So he is indeed the kind of person who would say "This thing is much more useful than a samurai sword"...

However, in the context of the world of Sekiro, the power of the musket is still not as good as the well-trained swordsmanship of the strong, so Isshin is still the "swordsman".

And of course, the modern firearms that Li You took out are simply a dimensionality reduction attack for the backward musket technology of this era.

A Springfield can completely crush the local muskets in terms of power, range and accuracy.

Then Yixin, who advocates the idea of ​​"endless learning", will naturally be attracted.

So, Yixin stopped pretending to be a tengu, dragged Li You back to his residence, and called Yingma to help translate.

Yes, the person who Yixin said could understand Li You's language was Yingma.

After communicating with her, Li You found that she actually mastered both English and Chinese. According to her, she learned all of this from her teacher, Daoxuan.

Considering that Daoxuan was the black technology boss who invented the ninja prosthetic hand, Li You thought about it and felt that it was very cool for him to know the languages ​​of the Three Kingdoms, so he quickly accepted this setting.

Maybe if Daoxuan himself was still there, he could even speak a few words of Spanish, Portuguese, etc. to him...

So, with Yingma's help in translation, Yixin and Li You communicated very smoothly.

Li You explained to Isshin and Eima that he was a traveler and a merchant who came here to see the unique culture of Ashina because he had heard of it.

Considering that Isshin had long seen that Li You "did not know how to fight", he accepted this explanation.

And of course, Isshin was most concerned about the Springfield in Li You's hand.

Li You did not hide his secrets and said that this was his exclusive weapon, which was more powerful than all the muskets. Seeing that Isshin couldn't let it go, Li You asked him to try it himself.

So, for most of the afternoon, the sound of gunfire echoed outside the castle tower, which scared the Ranba who sneaked into the city, the Yoshinaka who were responsible for defense, and the Ashina in the samurai dojo.

However, after repeated attempts, Isshin himself expressed regret.

Although Springfield is good, it is not suitable for him.

Although Isshin agrees that flexible means can be used to achieve victory, he does not follow the path of a ninja, so he feels a little unimpressed by a firearm like the Springfield, which has long-range sniping as its main selling point.

However, Li You immediately said that he had other types of firearms that he could lend to Yixin for trial use.

He then demonstrated the use of the Skullcrusher shotgun.

Isshin's eyes immediately lit up.

If Eima hadn't stopped him, and if Genichiro was alerted and sent someone to inquire about the situation, I would have wanted to drag Li You to find an open space to test the gun.

Fortunately, Li You finally lent the Skull Crusher to Yixin so that he could play with it at any time, and he calmed down.

In order to express his gratitude to Li You, Yi Xin waved his hand and took out a few cans of good wine that he had secretly hidden to help Li You.

So, the scene just now happened.

Yi Xin, who was in a state of high spirits, took Li You to chat for a long time.

He was just being polite and found an excuse to drink openly. Unexpectedly, after chatting for a while with the stranger in front of me, who obviously didn't understand the language, the more we chatted, the more we felt connected, and the more we talked, the happier we became.

This is not surprising, after all, Li You has a good impression of Yishin in the game and has a good grasp of his character. It's easy for Li You to make him feel like he's getting along while chatting.

Or rather, Li You has the same temperament as Yixin.

In the end, he drank several drinks in a happy mood, but was finally stopped by Eima.

No more drinks today.

Isshin sighed, and after inviting Li You to chat again tomorrow, he asked Eima to take him to the guest room to rest.

It's getting late.

After saying goodbye, Li You followed Eima and walked in the aisle of the castle tower.

Li You thought for a while and then said: "Miss Yingma."

Eima: "Yes. What can I do for you?"

Li You asked: "I heard that Sword Master Isshin has a grandson named Genichiro Ashina, who is now the real manager of Ashina Kingdom. Is this possible?"

Eima replied: "That's right. Genichiro-sama is now in charge of the entire Ashina Kingdom in place of Isshin-sama, who is ill."

Li You narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "I wonder, what has he been busy with recently?"

Yingma was startled: "Do you need to see him for anything?"

Li You nodded and said, "I want to talk to him about Xing Shang."

Eima thought for a while and said: "Sir Genichiro... may be quite busy recently. You are coming from the outside world, so you should also know that the inner government is currently attacking our Ashina country."

"In order to resist the offensive of the inner government army, Sir Genichiro is extremely anxious and even plans..."

She paused suddenly, "No...it's nothing. In short, he may not have time to meet you recently."

Li You fell into thinking: "...That's it."

Since the main task of the system is to force him to live in Ashina country for a month, in other words, it is to force him to renew Ashina's life in disguise, then whether it is Isshin or Genichiro, he must have a good relationship.

Of these two people, one is the spiritual support of all Ashina people, and the other is the current top leader. Both of them can be said to be very important.

At the same time, Li You was also concerned about the movements of the protagonist of the game, the wolf.

After all, if Ashina's life is to be extended, the choice of the wolf is a key point that cannot be avoided.

Not to mention the seven spears, samurai generals and other masters who fell at the hands of the wolf, nor the Ashina land god White Snake who actually does not distinguish between the enemy and us. Just one point, if the wolf is allowed to go to any ending in the game, then Ashina's top brass all had to be ganged up on.

At that time, even if he wanted to insist that Ashina was not dead, the system would not admit it...

However, after all, the wolf's movements are closely related to another key figure in the plot, Ryū Yin Qingzi Hirata Kurō, and whenever "Ryu Yin" is involved, it is by no means a trivial matter.

The legend of "Dragon Yin" that can bring people back to life spreads in Ashina's country, and the battle for its ownership is the core of the entire game.

And now the one who owns Long Yin is the master that Wolf serves as a ninja, Hirata Kuro.

So it is conceivable that with his current status and position, if he rashly asks about people and things related to "Long Yin", it will inevitably arouse doubts and even misunderstandings between Isshin and Eima.

It would be fun if they felt that they were also here to plot Long Yin's power.

Fortunately, from the details of Yixin's conversation with Yingma, Li You also deduced that at least for now, the wolf is still squatting at the bottom of the well and has not come out to cause trouble.

The most direct evidence is that Eima said to herself while drinking that she had never left the castle tower recently.

That's enough.

So, just as he happened to meet Yi Xin, Li You planned to start with these two grandfathers and grandsons to extend Wei Mingguo's life from another angle.

There are still some memories of Genichiro that he got in the fragmented world in his mind. As long as he has a conversation with him, Li You will be confident to persuade him.

But...how can I meet him?

Seeing Yingma's slightly apologetic expression, Li You told her it was okay with a smile on his face, but he had already thought of a plan in his heart.

——Sneak into the castle tower tonight and have a "night chat" with Genichiro.

Having made up his mind, Li You said no more, followed Yingma to the guest room, and rested peacefully.

By the way, he can also check out the new items he just drew.

This was something he had chosen before, but he never had time to take it out and look at it.

…

[Contact with the residents of this world has been completed, the system is being updated, and new world rewards will be drawn soon. 】

[Extraction in progress...extraction completed. 】

[Please choose one of the items you have drawn as your reward. ]

Still three balls of light.

The first one.

[Ashes Ball × 5]

[Item Description: Ashes from the earth furnace, kneaded into balls and sprinkled on the enemy, can block their vision. ]

The second one.

[Medicine Pill × 3]

[Item Description: A secret medicine that has been circulated in the Ashina land since ancient times, which can slowly heal injuries. ]

…

To be honest, when Li You saw the first two items, he just felt that this dog system was going through the routine again.

However, the third item made him stare wide-eyed.

[Wound Medicine Gourd]

[Item Description: A gourd containing healing elixir made by pharmacist Yingma. Even if the potion is used up, it will flow out again after a short rest. ]

Li You: Hold it in, don't laugh.

This is the fourth time I have traveled through the world, and this is the first time I have drawn such a heavyweight item in the initial draw!     The "element bottle" in the hands of the protagonist Wolf!

So, does the system really follow the principle of "drawing from the props available at the initial stage of the game"?

Li You: Tears.

As for the choice... Is there any need to hesitate? Li You directly chose the wound medicine gourd.

Although he may not be injured, he can feel more at ease with such an inexhaustible element bottle.

Li You felt that he might wake up happily even when sleeping for a while.

After playing with the wound medicine gourd for a while and taking a sip of the potion inside, Li You found that the capacity of the gourd is indeed relatively small, basically only enough for him to drink a big sip.

It seems that it can be strengthened later... But how to tell Ying Ma is a problem.

However, the "potion" in this gourd is not only not bitter, but even has a sweet smell, which makes Li You very satisfied.

After putting away the gourd, Li You took out another thing.

A light red leather suitcase with a small shotgun-shaped pendant hanging on it.

[Large Capacity Gun Storage Box]

[Item Description: A classic suitcase with a secret inside, which can hold various guns and corresponding ammunition in units of 20. The upper limit of guns is 20 per unit, and there is no upper limit of ammunition. ]

["Strike" pocket pendant]

[Item Description: A small pendant in the shape of a striker shotgun, which can be hung on different items and can increase the user's running speed by 8%. ]

These two items are rewards for the four main tasks of biochemistry, and are automatically issued as a set.

In Li You's opinion, both items are very good.

The suitcase can help him solve the problem that the system guns cannot be put into the shoulder bag and then put into the system backpack, and it can also store ammunition indefinitely, saving him a lot of space.

The only problem is that if the gun is put into the suitcase, then when using it, you must first take out the suitcase and then take the gun from it, which is a bit troublesome.

But the problem is not big, as long as Li You puts his most commonly used gun in the system backpack and puts the others in the suitcase.

The gun backpack that had been with him since the first world can now retire with honor.

As for the striker pendant, it is the best among the best.

This is the first time he has obtained equipment that provides amplification in a proportional manner through the system.

As a matter of course, he took off the pendant directly, hung it on his waist, and felt it. Sure enough, it had no effect at ordinary times, but when he stepped and ran, there was an invisible thrust that increased his speed.

It is worthy of being a classic small pendant in Biochemical IV.

Of course, he did not forget that the main quest of Biochemical IV also unlocked a "weapon enhancement option" for him.

He has also confirmed this. In short, it is similar to the first function of the weapon enhancement voucher.

This option allows him to consume achievement points to enhance the weapons produced by the system, and comprehensively improve their power, durability and other attributes.

It can be said that Li You finally found the second use of achievement points.

But... it is really expensive.

Take the hand cannon X as an example.

[Hand cannon X (enhancement level 0)]

[Enhancement level 1: 800 achievement points. 】

Li You: “…It’s so dark, so dark!”

This means that he has to kill a boss that is close to the level of a tyrant and has achievements, in order to collect enough achievement points for one enhancement.

And the subsequent enhancements will naturally become more expensive.

Li You was originally cursing in his heart, but when he saw the cost of several other weapons, he suddenly became quiet.

[Original Gun (Enhancement Level 0)]

[Enhancement Level 1: 2500 achievement points. ]

[Anti-material Sniper Rifle (Enhancement Level 0)]

[Enhancement Level 1: 3000 achievement points. ]

Li You: ………

Unlimited weapons are expensive? Deep restoration of the game?

But thinking about it, Li You felt that it was understandable. After all, the unlimited weapons produced by the system, as long as he didn’t give them away for others to play with, then the unlimited ammunition and never-destroyed characteristics allowed them to accompany him all the time, unlike other weapons, which could be damaged.

…For example, the Moonlight Blade that he liked very much, but now it has been broken into three pieces.

Since it is a permanent weapon, the high fee is understandable.

Li You also nodded in agreement and closed the enhancement interface.

Next time for sure.

Finally, Li You took out a coin whose color could not be seen clearly from his pocket.

[Merchant Coin]

[Item description: An ancient coin. Crush this coin to summon the wandering merchant to the user's location and conduct transactions. Disappears after use. 】

This was something the businessman gave him before he left the biochemical world, saying it was an extra gift for special customers.

This thing is very interesting. It is very similar to the wooden mailbox in Skyrim. It allows him to summon wandering merchants in different worlds, but it is a one-time use.

Li You was still curious about whether the wandering businessman summoned by the coin was himself or an incarnation of the system, but he suddenly realized something else.

He turned his left hand and found another coin in his hand. Except for the different pattern, it was almost the same as the coin given by the merchant, but it was a whole circle smaller.

[Mottled ancient coins]

[Introduction to the item: The surface pattern of the ancient coin that has passed through the years can no longer be seen clearly, and it seems to have a strange effect. 】

This is one of the gains from the first world. For a long time, Li You never knew what the function of this thing was, so he kept it in his pocket and never took it out.

But this time...it seems like we can try to make it work?

Li You thought for a while and put the two coins together.

"bite--!"

After a soft sound, Li You was surprised to see that the smaller ancient coins produced by the system floated and shed a light, directly crushing and absorbing the large coins given by the merchant, and then fell back into Li You's hand. .

Li You: "?"

He looked carefully and saw that the item description of the coin in his hand had changed.

[Ancient Coin: An ancient coin with strange power. After absorbing other one-time coin-type props, an absorbed coin-type prop will be randomly generated every twenty-four hours, with the same effect as the original. 】

[Currently, the coin props have been absorbed: Xingshang coins. 】

Li You: "Ah this?"

Is this... turning the original one-time item into a cooling item?

sure! In this case, wouldn't he be able to summon merchants at will?

Li You imitated the merchant and rubbed his hands together, put away the ancient coins, and put them back into the small leather bag containing attack and recovery coins.

At this point, even if the props obtained in Biochemical IV have been counted, the only thing that has not been taken out is a general experience book for skills. After use, it can add 500 experience points to any skill, so Li You is not in a hurry to use it.

Hanging the medicine gourd on his waist, Li You stood up and looked at the sky outside.

After he studied the system props, the sky was completely dark, and an almost full moon hung high in the sky.

Li You was in a good mood, so he sighed: "The moonlight is really nice tonight, I can also move...wait a minute!"

He looked at the moon phase in the sky and had a guess in his mind: "Could it be...?"

After thinking for a moment, Li You stood up suddenly, opened the door and walked out.

Outside the door, an elderly maid was on duty. When she saw Li You coming out, she was startled and hurriedly came up and asked:

"Guest, may I ask who you are..."

Li Youyan said concisely: "Yingma."

The old maid understood: "Are you looking for Lord Eima? Unfortunately, she is not in the city tonight. Lord Isshin seems to have given her some important task, and she has left the city long ago."

Li You narrowed his eyes and confirmed his guess.

He didn't do any ink, just turned around and left.

The old maid panicked and shouted from behind: "Guest, guest! Where are you going? That's the window!"

Li You said that I walked through the window.

He opened the wooden window in his room, got out directly, then stretched out his hand to pop out the hook, and pulled himself up to the top of the castle tower.

After roughly identifying the direction here, Li You jumped down and headed towards the reed field in the distance.

Tonight's moon phase, Eima who is not in the city, and Genichiro who has lost sight of the dragon...

All of this proves one thing. Today is likely to be the opening of the game plot, the night when the wolf loses his left hand!

So of course, Li You must rush over.

Even just to watch the excitement is not bad.

Well, actually he was thinking about whether to stop Genichiro from helping the wolf cut off his hand.

Although many players ridicule that Wolf's strength has greatly increased after replacing his Ninja prosthetic hand, in fact, according to the setting, Wolf itself is a very versatile ninja.

Shurikens, fire torches, trap umbrellas, even if the wolf doesn't lose its hand, it can still be played...

The only impact is probably that there is no longer the hook that comes with Ninja's prosthetic hand.

It's hard to say how much the combat effectiveness has increased.

What's more, after his hand was cut off at the beginning and his master was kidnapped, the wolf and Genichiro became in a life-and-death relationship. Therefore, following the ninja precepts, he embarked on the road of forging all the way to save his master Kuro.

Although Ashina could not escape destruction regardless of whether he caused this trouble, it is an indisputable fact that the wolf has killed many of Ashina's masters.

From Li You's current perspective, he naturally wants to avoid these things from happening.

But it is a pity that the castle tower is a long way from the Reed Plains outside the city. Even if Li You's agility is definitely not inferior to that of a wolf, by the time he arrives, many things will be over.

…

On the plain of reeds.

A relatively short man wearing a tan ninja robe and a tall and straight man wearing a feather and armor were dueling.

Wolf, and Genichiro Ashina.

At this moment, the battle has come to an end.

"Wha—!"

A bright knife flashed, and the wolf's left forearm flew out, sprinkling blood.

The wolf, whose arm was cut off, covered his wound, knelt on the ground helplessly, and slowly fell down.

And Genichirō turned his back to the loser, shook off the blood on the blade, and put away the knife.

"Ninja... is this the only level?"

"I'll take Qingzi away."

Behind Genichirō, a ninja from the Jiying clan carried the unconscious Long Yin Qingzi, Hirata Jiulang, and walked over.

And Genichirō took a last look at the wolf on the ground, no longer paid attention, and turned away.

In the distance, Li You, who had just arrived to watch the battle, sighed.

Now there is no need to worry about whether to save his hand.

It's over.

Looking at the unconscious wolf in the distance, Li You thought about it, and went over and carried him up.

"I'll record the favor for you first, my dear protagonist."

Then, Li You carried "Sekiro" and hid his tracks all the way, rushing towards the abandoned temple.