"Then let me, as your instructor, test how much you've improved, Captain. Be careful, or you might lose face after I beat you."
"Hmph, don't underestimate me. I'm still a Level 4 adventurer, you know."
Alise still did not quite believe it. There was laughter in her eyes. Xien recognized that look—it was not the expression she wore when she was truly serious.
In that case, he would just have to make her suffer a little.
"Then let's try it. Careful now, Captain."
The moment he finished speaking, Xien vanished from Alise's sight.
The red-haired girl's hair stood on end. She immediately adjusted her breathing rhythm, sharpening her senses as her eyes swept the surroundings in warning.
In the next instant, Xien appeared right in front of her and brought down a heavy overhead strike.
Relying on her long-honed battle instincts, Alise raised her wooden sword and blocked it—but the force behind the blow was so immense that it drove her to one knee. Cracks more than a meter long spread from beneath her feet.
"…!!!??"
A moment later, Xien hopped back several paces and opened the distance again.
Alise rose slowly, disbelief written all over her face. She had never imagined that Xien, only Level 3, could hit harder than she could.
(So this is what comes from ability values that surpass the limit? No… not just that…)
"There was more than raw strength in that strike, wasn't there?"
Her voice turned serious. She was no expert, but after taking the hit herself, she had enough judgment to tell.
Xien nodded.
"That's right. If I'd wanted to, that strike could've cut your wooden sword in half. So, Captain, it's time to stop underestimating me. Right now, I might actually be stronger than you."
He casually flicked his sword in a neat flourish.
Kongtong Calamity was the ultimate first-strike killer. If he had used it just now, Alise would already have been split clean in two.
"So it really was both unexpected and, at the same time, inevitable. Looks like you defeating that Level 6 aberration really wasn't an exaggeration."
Alise tightened her grip on the wooden sword again. Her hands still stung from the previous impact, and she silently apologized inwardly for taking him lightly.
Up until now, she had believed most of the credit in that battle belonged to the Loki Familia's Nine Hells—that she had opened the opportunity and Xien had simply taken advantage of it.
But now she realized she had gravely underestimated her little junior brother.
An apology could wait until later. Right now, she needed to go all out, because she understood it now—
She was the challenger.
Seeing the seriousness in Alise's eyes at last, Xien smiled faintly.
Then the two clashed once more.
Flames wrapped around Alise's wooden blade.
Flame Breathing had truly taken root in this world.
Its style was broad and forceful, every swing accompanied by wide-reaching flames. Combined with her superhuman physical abilities, it meant that even though Alise's swordsmanship had not yet reached the Hashira level of that other world, the destructive force she unleashed far exceeded that level.
And because this flame coating consumed relatively little, it also granted her an enormous advantage in drawn-out battles.
But to Xien, none of that made much difference.
Because he was no longer the same person he had once been.
He did not need Heart Flow to trigger.
He did not need to open the Transparent World.
Relying only on his natural reactions and those eyes that pierced through everything, he moved freely through the range of her attacks.
Every strike missed him by the smallest margin.
To an ordinary observer, it would look like Xien was just incredibly lucky. But only the two people fighting knew the truth—
That was the gap between them. An absolute gap. A gulf that could not be bridged.
That was right. Now that their physical stats were not too far apart, Xien—already brushing against that higher realm—was unquestionably the master of this fight.
Even though Alise was a full level above him as a Level 4, under the cheat-like power of his Mangekyo eyes, every single one of her movements was crystal clear.
To normal people, her attacks would be little more than afterimages.
To Xien, they looked like an animation playing at half speed—painfully slow.
If he wished, he could end the battle in an instant.
At that moment, Xien understood.
He was now the strongest person in the familia.
And at the same time, he had a clear read on Alise's current level. The purpose of this spar was already fulfilled.
Still, he had no intention of finishing her off right away. She was the captain. He had to leave her some dignity.
So instead, he began pointing out her flaws as he fought.
"The breathing rhythm in your later forms slowed down. Captain, you're not taking it seriously enough. And the transitions between forms are too stiff. If you want to create forms of your own, shouldn't you first make sure the ones you already know are truly second nature?"
"Uh… sorry."
Without thinking, Alise apologized the moment she heard the correction.
"There's no need to apologize. Being able to train Breathing to this extent in such a short time means you've really put in the work, Captain. Next, you can try carrying the breathing rhythm into your normal daily respiration. That's the next stage of training—Constant. If it feels hard to manage, try improving your lung capacity first. For example, practice by blowing up ceramic jars."
"…What?"
Alise just stared at him.
It sounded absurd.
But Xien was not exaggerating. This training method had been specially adjusted for the far superior physiques of this world. For Alise, blowing up some flimsy wooden gourds would be far too easy—there would be no training effect at all.
"Even though I'm happy my teacher recognizes my progress, this training method sounds way too extreme and ridiculous, doesn't it?"
Alise lowered her weapon. Unlike Xien, who once scorched his own training sword, she had fine control over magic now, so there was no risk of something like that happening.
Her face still carried helpless exasperation.
Xien only smiled.
"It can't be helped. These were battle techniques originally designed for ordinary humans to oppose enemies with far superior physical abilities. It was always meant to grant a short-term explosive increase in power. There was never any chance it would come without a price."
He paused, then continued,
"You should actually feel lucky. For people like us with divine blessings, the negative effects of training are already reduced to the bare minimum. We only get a little tired. Back in that other world, the true geniuses among ordinary humans who pushed themselves all the way to the highest realm with these techniques couldn't even live past twenty-five."
"What…? That dangerous?"
Alise looked stunned. She had never imagined that the technique which had given her such a huge boost came with such a cruel history.
"That's right. Ordinary people didn't have bodies with the capacity that ours do, so to reach that highest realm, they had to burn away their own lives. They bought power beyond their limits with their lifespan."
"That highest realm is really that amazing? Even you haven't reached it yet?"
Alise found it hard to believe. She simply could not picture the realm Xien was describing. Among all of them, maybe only Kaguya could even vaguely understand what he meant.
"It is. To put it in obvious terms, the reason I could fight so casually just now was because these eyes give me overwhelming reaction speed. In my vision, your attacks looked no different from slow motion."
He pointed to his red Sharingan.
At first, everyone had worried when they first saw those cold, eerie eyes. But after realizing Xien could freely summon and dismiss them, and that they had no negative side effects while granting him all sorts of incredible boosts, they had simply accepted them as yet another unique skill of his.
"But that realm isn't just faster reactions. It's a transformation. A qualitative leap. A step beyond humanity itself. It's both a bodily and spiritual ascension—like the incomprehensible strength of the ancient heroes. It's a state ordinary people simply cannot understand."
"Ahhh, I don't get any of that at all."
Alise felt her brain had hit overload.
So many profound terms—none of them made sense to her.
Xien casually put the completely undamaged wooden sword back where it belonged.
"That's not really your fault. Divine blessings focus overwhelmingly on tangible improvements—unlocking physical strength, enhancing bodily functions. But there's barely anything related to consciousness, understanding, or spiritual refinement."
When he said that, Xien paused again.
This, he thought, was one of the great flaws of divine blessings.
They emphasized the cultivation of the body, the material side of a person, but almost completely neglected the cultivation of the heart—or perhaps more accurately, nobody in this world had even realized that a person's spirit also needed training.
That was likely the most fundamental reason Zeus and Hera's great campaign had failed against the Black Dragon.
If you used the language of his old world, then in the cultivation of one's "nature" and one's "life," this world focused almost solely on the latter. It strengthened the body, but neglected the former—the mind, the temperament, the soul, the inner essence of a person.
The best examples were all those adventurers devoured by desire:
The Soma Familia.The Apollo Familia.The Ishtar Familia captain.
All of them were like that.
They did not understand that power was only a weapon.
The true key was the one who wielded it.
And a person's heart determined how they used that power, and how far they could push it.
If one's spirit was truly strong, then in a decisive moment, that "life"—that physical existence—could erupt with power beyond its proper limits.
The clearest example was Bell, the protagonist of the original story.
The skill Single-Minded Pursuit was the manifestation of the strength and potential of his heart. In other words, his soul and will had become so remarkable that the divine blessing itself had recognized them, causing them to take shape as a skill.
Later, as his "life"—his body—grew stronger through the help of the divine blessing, while his "nature"—his spirit—was tempered and strengthened through countless experiences, the difference between him and others became more and more obvious.
A soul had no inherent good or evil. It simply expressed itself according to the person's will.
Most people lived in a muddled haze only because they had never seriously examined their inner essence.
But when someone truly understood themselves, then whether they became a saint or a demon was often decided in a single thought.
Their soul would change accordingly.
And what Xien wanted was to gradually teach those methods he had mastered and believed in to all the "big sisters" of his familia, so they could become truly strong.
Traditional meditation and silent sitting probably would not suit them.
He should ask Orange Cat later.
With that in mind, he made a mental note of it and then gently comforted his captain.
"But it's fine. As long as you keep training steadily, Captain, one day you'll definitely reach that realm too. When that day comes, you'll understand."
He was not just saying that to make her feel better.
In the logic of the Demon Slayer world, once one swordsman reached that realm, it could trigger a kind of chain reaction in others.
If that principle held here too, then once he truly reached that domain, it should help others as well—if not directly lead them, then at least open the way.
He was looking forward to finding out.
"You really are gentle, Xien. Still… I've been completely defeated."
Alise gave a bitter smile.
It would have been a lie to say it did not sting. She was the captain, after all. In a world where captains were almost always the strongest fighters in the group, being surpassed by one of her own members was a considerable blow.
She had always known that, with those incredible skills, Xien would eventually overtake her.
She just had not expected it to happen so quickly.
Still, what she felt more than sadness was relief.
The boy before her had finally grown enough to stand on his own.
Though admittedly, he had done it much sooner than expected.
Xien promised her plainly,
"From here on out, I'll be the one protecting everyone."
"Wow, what an overwhelmingly reassuring line. Makes a girl's heart flutter. You've learned some bad habits, Xien. You're turning into quite the charmer."
Xien pressed a hand to his forehead.
He immediately wanted to leave.
He never should have expected dignity from this hopelessly unserious captain.
After parting ways with the still-training Alise, Xien set out.
He planned to stop by the Guild and turn in a few things, then take a look around the Dungeon. The artificial labyrinth was still a potential threat, and perhaps, under the gaze of those eyes, he might spot something unusual.
There was also the matter he had promised Eina.
Since nothing urgent was pressing just now, it would be better to sit down and make proper arrangements sooner rather than later. Even if her mother's illness was not life-threatening, pain was pain. The sooner it was cured, the better for everyone.
Using his own personal method of travel—"rooftop hopping"—he reached the Adventurers' Guild in no time.
There was no helping it. If he appeared openly in the streets now, he would draw far too much attention. To avoid causing a commotion, it was better not to interact with too many people. Besides, this method also let him avoid traffic.
With his current degree of bodily control, he could leap as lightly as a ninja from that other world. He could even do it without making a sound, so homeowners would not suffer any damage at all.
Pulling up his hood to obscure his face a little, Xien stepped into the Guild.
....
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