On the Ark.

"Is that so? Have you ever thought about using a greatsword like her?" Yato asked. "According to you, a greatsword should be very suitable, right? It's a weapon that can truly unleash your power to the fullest."

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said, "It seems like it's not impossible, but there's a problem."

"Ok?"

"Let's not even talk about the greatsword Skadi uses; it would take so much effort for me to carry it around all day," Lin Ye said. "Have you ever seen a doctor carry such an exaggerated weapon to and from get off work?"

Lin Ye's words made Ye Dao pause for a moment, and then he murmured, "Oh right, you're just a doctor. I almost forgot."

Lin Ye: "..."

“But what you’re considering is not what a doctor should be considering,” Yato said. “I also don’t quite understand why you, a doctor, and not even a battlefield medic, but a psychiatrist, are constantly engaged in close combat with others, practically more of a warrior than a soldier.”

Lin Ye sighed: "What can I do? That's just how it is when you're down on your luck."

Yato smiled at first, then the smile slowly faded: "Is that so? But you reminded me that you are not a warrior, but a healer, so I shouldn't hold you to the standards of a warrior. As I said a long time ago, with your physique, even if you train for ten or twenty years, it will be difficult to excel. This is an innate factor that you cannot change. But now you have mastered such a powerful ability, even if it has only been for a short time, it has allowed you to break through your limits, so you should fight with it."

"what do you mean?"

"If you feel that dual-wielding suits you better, then go ahead and practice it." Yato drew his sword and planted it in the ground. "Only you know your own body best, and you have the right to choose the fighting style you want."

Lin Ye understood what Ye Dao meant and drew the sword from the ground.

“Although I haven’t systematically trained with dual swords, I should be able to serve as your sparring partner for the first stage,” Yato said slowly. “Then, let’s begin.”

An hour later, Lin Ye sat on the ground, panting heavily.

Dual-wielding is indeed much more difficult than I imagined.

Compared to my right hand, my left hand felt like a clumsy child, completely lacking the feeling I had that night under the influence of the Leaping Wave.

"Judging from the current situation, you still have a very long time to train," Yato said, standing next to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye smiled and said, "It's okay, anyway, the one thing I have plenty of is time."

"That's true, but you'll have to come here to practice by yourself tomorrow."

Lin Ye looked up at Ye Dao and asked, "Are you going on a mission?"

"Well, it will probably take more than a month. So you'll have to practice on your own, but just follow the method I'll teach you tonight, focusing mainly on your left hand," Yato said.

"I see."

"Let's rest for a while and go back." Yato patted Lin Ye on the shoulder. "I need to go back and prepare for the mission."

"Okay." Lin Ye nodded, and Night Blade left.

But Lin Ye didn't go back immediately. After resting for a while, he picked up his sword again and focused on training his left hand, just as Yato had taught him.

After practicing for about ten minutes, a teasing female voice sounded behind him.

"Hey, hey, hey, what exactly are you practicing? I can't stand watching it."

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously turned his head to see a woman with long silver hair standing behind him with a mocking smile on her face.

……

……

Author's Note: I'll probably have to pay off my debts starting tomorrow. I originally wanted to build up a stockpile of chapters for next week's event, but I found it impossible. The recent chapters have all felt incredibly difficult to write. Speaking of which, this book has already reached 500,000 words. If we follow the pace of my previous book, the plot should already be a third of the way through.

I don't know how long this book will be, because there's no outline yet. I'm developing the plot volume by volume, which often leads to writer's block. I've always wanted to write a story that moves me, but also wants to satisfy readers' preferences. Sometimes I feel lost. Like my previous book, Girls' Frontline, when I write slice-of-life scenes, people say it's padded and lacks a main plot. But when I start developing the main plot, the ratings drop, which leaves me feeling helpless. So far, my favorite part of the story is when Lin Ye saves Nightingale in a nightmare, and I've been trying to make every volume have that kind of impact, but it seems difficult right now.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the Lungmen storyline in the previous volume, and the Kjerag journey in this volume, with the SilverAsh siblings not having been explored much yet, already felt a bit underwhelming. Perhaps it's because I prefer Nightingale to Ifrit and the SilverAsh siblings, haha. I also absolutely adore Skadi, and I know everyone else does too, because Skadi is always the most active character. Therefore, I've always wanted to give Lin Ye and Skadi a storyline that's just as compelling as theirs. I hope the "weak" Lin Ye can save the "powerful" Skadi, and I hope that even mortals can possess unstoppable courage in the face of natural disasters.

I feel like I've rambled on a lot. My thoughts have been a bit scattered lately, and as long-time readers know, I'm easily swayed by comments. For example, in Girls' Frontline, the original ending was supposed to be tragic, but due to readers' wishes, the protagonist returned to the girl's side. And in this book, the girl who loves *** was originally supposed to leave Lin Ye completely when she left the cafeteria, but I brought her back. Sometimes I find tragedy beautiful, but more often I feel…

It's already a novel, so let's make sure everyone enjoys reading it!

Chapter 204 Lappland (3K)

Lin Ye was certain he had never seen the silver-haired woman who suddenly appeared behind him. However, her face seemed familiar, especially the slightly upturned corners of her mouth and the confident yet mocking expression on her face. He took two steps forward, getting closer to her and getting a clearer look before remembering who she was. Just a few days ago, Zilan had shown him her information. He quickly recalled her name.

"Lappland?" Lin Ye exclaimed.

Lappland was somewhat surprised to be called by name, and her striking wolf ears twitched: "You know me?"

"Hmm... I've heard of you." Lin Ye sheathed his sword. Although he knew the other party was a dangerous operator in Zilan's eyes, he still felt that sheathing the sword showed more sincerity. This was basic etiquette for a psychologist; first impressions were very important. "Aren't you going back to Rhodes Island tomorrow?"

“Ah, that was indeed the original plan. But I completed the mission ahead of schedule,” Lappland said with a smile. “Would you like to know what the mission was?”

"Can you tell me this?"

“It wasn’t exactly confidential information to begin with,” Lappland said. “A small town paid us to kill bandits, and the intelligence they provided said there were seventy-six bandits.”

Lin Ye laughed and said, "Eliminating a scourge for the people? That's really impressive."

As Lin Ye said this, he thought to himself, "This person seems to be quite talkative. He's only been meeting me for less than a minute and he's already talking so much. Why does his profile say he has almost no friends?"

Then, Lappland's next sentence revealed the answer to Lin Ye.

“Seventy-six bandits,” Lappland nodded slightly and said, “but after I finished the battle, I found that I had cut off a total of ninety-one heads.”

Lin Ye's smile suddenly froze.

"Hey, do you know why?" Lappland looked at Lin Ye with a smile.

Lin Ye raised his hand and rubbed his slightly stiff face. He was a little lost for Lappland's train of thought. Seventy-six bandits, how could there be ninety-one heads? This was too chilling to contemplate. Moreover, Lappland seemed quite pleased and cheerful when she brought up this topic, which made Lin Ye understand why Zilan and the medical department had listed her as a dangerous individual. Lin Ye had only been in contact with her for less than five minutes, and he already had a similar feeling.

"Seventy-six bandits, ninety-one heads, that's quite interesting."

Lin Ye said with a smile, but he didn't find it interesting at all and didn't want to continue the topic. He just silently kept it in mind and decided to ask Zilan about it tomorrow.

While they were talking, Lin Ye was also observing Lappland.

Lappland wore a pure black coat over her upper body, which made her skin appear exceptionally fair. No, "fair" wouldn't be the right word, because in Lin Ye's opinion, such a complexion even seemed somewhat sickly. Perhaps it was also due to her long, silver-white hair. Her lower body was clad in very short black hot pants, revealing her slender legs, but on her thighs, black Originium stones could be seen growing from her skin—a clear characteristic of an Infected. Most Infected people were deeply averse to Originium stones on their skin and would try to cover them up with as much thick clothing as possible. Lappland, however, clearly didn't have such concerns. She could have easily concealed these stones with slightly longer pants, but she chose the shortest possible pair.

In other words, she didn't care at all about her status as an infected person, and even consciously wanted to show it to others.

In just a few minutes, Lin Ye had formed a general impression of Lappland. To learn more, he would have to delve deeper, after all, this was a new task assigned to him by Zilan.

Lappland had no idea what Lin Ye was thinking, or rather, she wouldn't care even if she did. After the topic of bandits was left aside, she looked at Lin Ye with interest: "I saw it all just now."

"Huh? What did you see?"

"You were practicing your sword just now, weren't you?" Lappland tilted her head. "I've been watching the whole time, and it's quite interesting."

Watching others practice swordsmanship... don't you find it boring?

Lin Ye thought to himself, but didn't say it aloud. Instead, he smiled and said, "Is there anything I can teach you?"

At this moment, Lin Ye noticed the two silver-white katanas hanging at Lappland's waist. The katanas had a strange shape, with a huge semicircle between the hilt and the blade, and he wondered if it was a totem from some place.

"Guide? Are you saying guide?" Lappland said in an exaggerated tone. "I'm sorry, I probably can't give you any guidance, because you're just too weak."

Lin Ye: "..."

“I have a feeling that most of the ninety-one heads I chopped off were stronger than yours,” Lappland shrugged. “So I have absolutely no idea how to teach you. I came here to tell you that you’re too weak, so you shouldn’t practice anymore. Such weak swordsmanship is really embarrassing in my eyes.”

Lin Ye took a deep breath.

If it weren't for the fact that it was their first meeting, Lin Ye would have assumed that he and Lappland had some kind of grudge, and that Lappland was deliberately targeting him. However, this was indeed their first meeting, and Lappland couldn't possibly have heard of him. Therefore, there was only one possibility: this was Lappland's true nature. She was a woman who enjoyed talking to people, but whose conversations were far from pleasant.

Lin Ye didn't know how to respond.

"Are you not convinced?" Lappland moved her hand to the hilt of her sword and said with a smile, "If you're not convinced, we can have a try. Perfect, I have dual swords, and so do you."

Lin Ye's eyelids twitched. Only then did he understand why Lappland had suddenly come over to talk to him, even though the two of them didn't know each other.

The medical department's records documented an important characteristic of Lapland.

warlike!

Having figured this out, Lin Ye no longer felt as awkward as before.

"So you just wanted to fight me, huh?" Lin Ye said with a smile. "But you've got the wrong person. I'm just a doctor, you know."

"Hmm?" Lappland tilted her head. "Doctor?"

"Yes, doctor."

Why would a doctor practice swordsmanship?

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said, "Because studying medicine is too lonely."

Lappland nodded: "I see."

She actually believed it...

“But whether you’re a doctor or not doesn’t matter, right?” Lappland added. “Let’s have a little sparring match.”

Lin Ye's lips twitched slightly: "You already know I'm a doctor, and you still want to fight me?"

“What does it matter whether you’re a doctor or not?” Lappland said. “You’re holding a sword now, so you’re a swordsman, right? There’s no contradiction between being a doctor and a swordsman, is there? Besides, being a doctor is fine too; you can heal yourself if you get hurt. As for me, I don’t need healing, because you can’t hurt me.”

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment. For some reason, he felt that what Lappland said made some sense.

"Come on, come on." Lappland cracked her knuckles, looking eager to try. "Hurry up, hurry up, don't hold back, because I won't hold back either."

"Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute." Lin Ye took two steps back. He didn't know why Lappland had gotten so excited while talking, and quickly said, "I can't beat you!"

“How can a swordsman easily admit defeat?” Lappland said. “Besides, how do you know you can’t win if you haven’t even fought?”

Nonsense, if I didn't have this much self-awareness, the grass on my grave would be two meters high by now.

Lin Ye said with a headache, "Why do you insist on hitting me?"

“Because I don’t know anyone else,” Lappland said matter-of-factly. “I’ve only been here a short time.”

"You should get to know them soon, right? Do you have roommates?"

"Roommate?" Lappland tilted her head again. Lin Ye noticed that she seemed to have a particular fondness for tilting her head. "What roommate?"

"Who do you live with?"

I live alone.

"Is it one person per room?"

Lappland shook her head: "One person per playground."

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment: "The playground?"

“Yeah, I’m planning to sleep here tonight,” Lappland shrugged. “It’s basically one playground per person.”

Lin Ye was puzzled: "Why are you sleeping here? Didn't they assign you a room?"