reincarnation npc, but tomorrow's ark

However, skills always have their limits, while the "Tao" that emerges after the transformation of "skill" completely breaks through the barriers and limitations, and the path ahead has no end. There are no references, and one can only rely on oneself to slowly explore step by step.

Bai Ye could rival the Dao simply through his skills. However, although he had experienced the ultimate realm of skills and his swordsmanship became stronger and stronger, he never achieved his own sublimation and transformation.

At this moment, Bai Ye finally broke free from the shackles he had put on himself, entered a new realm, and saw new scenery.

His skill names have finally been transformed.

Sword Master

Description: Becoming a master doesn't mean you've reached the limit of your skills. On the contrary, becoming a master signifies embarking on a new journey. Enjoy the scenery along the way.

Note: A true master always retains the mindset of an apprentice.

……

"Huh? You're out? So quickly this time. Could it be that there's a problem with the ink material used for the scroll, and it can't handle even a small amount of data...? Wait, is the painting alright?"

Xi looked at Bai Ye with suspicion and confusion, completely bewildered as to what had happened.

Well, in his first attempt, Bai Ye divided half of his computing power. However, he began to fight against himself. The massive calculation process and the accumulation of huge amounts of redundant data made the scroll world unable to handle it and it collapsed and disintegrated on its own.

The second one started almost exactly like the first, and Xi understood it; there was hardly any change. She immediately sensed that this scroll was probably going to be sent again. Although she felt heartbroken, Xi had no choice but to accept it. She even prepared a third scroll for Bai Ye to mess with.

Unexpectedly, Bai Ye emerged from the painting on his own the next second, and the painting was finally unharmed.

However, Bai Ye's expression was neither sad nor happy, and his reaction was very calm, which made Xi somewhat puzzled about the outcome.

Bai Ye snapped out of his reverie. The breakthrough he had just experienced wasn't just reflected in the simple changes to the skill names and descriptions on his personal attribute panel. Bai Ye had genuinely gained a great deal and learned a great deal.

"It worked, thank you very much." Bai Ye smiled, and the "no-self" state of mind he had entered earlier immediately dissipated. He wasn't a sword fanatic or a martial arts maniac, how could he possibly maintain that state of mind forever?

No matter how fancy the skill descriptions are, or how tempting they may sound, for Bai Ye, swordsmanship is nothing more than a skill, a tool to achieve his goals as a player, nothing more. Bai Ye would never dedicate his entire life to a so-called "way of the sword."

He does not regard kendo as his faith, nor does he engage in religious martyrdom.

As for why this skill is so valued, one reason is to strengthen oneself, since this skill is always in a transitional state between transformation and non-transformation, which seems to be the easiest stage to improve. Besides that, it's probably just my obsessive-compulsive tendencies at play…

……

“This is incredible…” Xi blinked. Clearly, she had no idea what had happened. Bai Ye’s slash, initiated through consciousness, was launched in a state of near-time stop, effectively accelerating the instantaneous strike by thousands of times. Even “Bai Ye,” who had taken half of Bai Ye’s computing power and activated accelerated thinking, hadn’t noticed it, let alone Xi.

"Okay, you can go."

Now that Baiye had achieved her goal, Xiye began to send everyone away.

It wasn't that she disliked Bai Ye; compared to her self-absorbed and annoying older sister, she clearly found Bai Ye more agreeable.

Xi simply dislikes interacting with people. She prefers staying home alone and drawing to socializing. Anyway, with so many imaginary friends around, she's not lonely.

Yes, in the world of the painting, she can create life and let them evolve on their own. She even painted a human who had always followed her but eventually reached the end of his life into the painting, giving "her" a second life.

However, that "she" was ultimately not "her," and Xi did not have the ability to bring people back to life, so in essence, she was just comforting herself and giving herself some solace.

Actually, this guy is quite pitiful.

……

"It doesn't seem right for me to just leave like this... I came here to ask for your help, and now that I've achieved my goal, I'm leaving..." Bai Ye scratched his head, feeling awkward about just walking away like this.

Xi rolled her eyes:

"I'd be so grateful if you just left already... You've achieved your goal and you're still here? Are you expecting me to treat you to dinner?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Ye couldn't help but shake his head.

This guy is a problem child too...

“Now it’s not just Nian, I also owe you a favor… Well, you can come to me if you need anything in the future, and I’ll do my best to help you,” Bai Ye said slowly.

"Don't make such troublesome promises lightly. If it were someone else, they might drive you crazy..." Xi couldn't help but advise after hearing this.

Bai Ye laughed and said jokingly:

"After all, it's Xi, she would never do that, right?"

"Tsk, you bastard..." Xi rolled her eyes again.

-------------------------------------

Although she wanted to do something, Xi directly drove Bai Ye out of the painting.

After turning off the "Under Maintenance" sign, Bai Ye stepped out of the phone booth.

After stretching, Bai Ye felt a sense of relief.

The pent-up frustration that had been weighing on his mind was finally dispelled, and this was the first time he had acquired a master-level skill.

If he were still in the game right now, he would definitely take a screenshot and post it in the guild's group chat.

Yes, the "Debauchery Tea Party," which has always stood at the top of the world, is just a club. It's not even a proper gaming guild.

"Gaining something also means losing something else..."

Bai Ye sighed.

Time travel brings a new life, but it also means losing the past and the future he once had. After all, his hometown has forgotten him.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Harvest

"Congratulations."

Luna's voice rang in Bai Ye's ears, not through real-world transmission, but through the game system panel that Bai Ye had opened.

"This is a bottomless pit. I wonder how many experience points I'll need to upgrade this skill to master level..."

Bai Ye was indeed quite proud, after all, it was a master-level skill. In the past games, no player had ever been able to improve their skills to this level. No, even expert-level skills were rare, and even in the sixth version, they were still quite rare.

"Using experience to level up won't be as effective as it is now; it will probably be a stripped-down version. Experience points aren't omnipotent either; they're just an aid. Experience points can indeed help you accomplish many things, but there are also some things you have to do yourself."

Luna explained patiently.

Bai Ye suddenly understood after hearing this.

He even suspected that Luna had deliberately set this extremely high amount of experience points to prevent Bai Ye from being lazy and directly using experience points to level up his skills. That would be detrimental to Bai Ye's growth, and it was something Luna didn't want to see. If the amount was too high, Bai Ye would choose to break through on his own because of players' instinct to save experience points.

Goodness, it was all part of Luna's scheme.

She went to great lengths for Bai Ye.

"The transition from expert to master is a hurdle, and after that, there are almost no clear distinctions. It's more about how far you've progressed as a master. It's no longer something that the system can quantify with numerical values. Many things can only be distinguished in real combat..."

Luna also has its limits.

Playing with numbers is one of her strengths.

However, when it comes to abilities that cannot be quantified with data, particularly those at the level of idealism, even Luna is helpless.

"What effects do the master-level sword techniques you've mastered have?"

Even Luna was curious about what Bai Ye had gained from this. It was a valuable sample, offering inspiration and reference for Luna.

"Three abilities, two passive and one active..."

Bai Ye closed his eyes, carefully considered his feelings, and then summarized what he had learned this time.

As mentioned before, master-level swordsmanship changes more than just the skill names and descriptions on one's personal attribute panel. It also brings a wealth of gains and insights.

"Well, firstly, if I wanted, I could imbue the sword with my spiritual power and consciousness, creating attacks that target the spirit, consciousness, or even the soul. Depending on the amount of spiritual power added, the effects could range from shock and stun to soul-shattering. In game terms, it's like a basic attack dealing true damage. Activating the skill grants the ability to sever the physical body and the soul. I'd call that a passive ability..."

After a pause, Bai Ye continued:

"This ability is only effective against individuals with a conscious self. If the other party is a simple being that acts on instinct alone, or an ordinary sea creature controlled by a large group of consciousnesses, then it will be ineffective. Hmm, it seems to be particularly effective against demons, after all, it is a demon-breaking ability."

It can be considered a special attack against evil spirits.

"The second type should be an advanced state of the Divine Eye Extreme Hand ability, which uses super-fast calculations to predict the opponent's movement trajectory after accelerating thinking. Hmm... it might not be an advanced state, but the opposite ability, which I realized when I stopped thinking."

Bai Ye himself was somewhat troubled, wondering what this ability actually meant. After a moment's thought, he explained:

"It's roughly about abandoning all thought and relying solely on anticipating the movements of all things in nature, wielding the sword in harmony with the flow of all things. Hmm, abandoning superfluous thinking and returning body and mind to the origin of all things in the world, naturally accepting the existence of all things. I feel that this is the ability I gained by advancing to the Master level through the normal process, a breakthrough and subversion of my own abilities?"

Thinking has its limits; it is affected by the speed of thought. At the same time, the human brain also has its limits. The vast amount of data from supernova explosions can be collected and observed, but it still exceeds the capacity of the human brain.

Therefore, if you want to transcend the limits of thought, then abandon thought, regard yourself as part of the world, and wield your sword in accordance with the flow of all things. This is the ability that Byakuya learned from the state of non-self of all phenomena.

"Yes, if you only upgrade your skills through experience points, you'll only get this one ability in the end."

Luna confirmed Baiye's guess.

"No wonder you didn't want me to use experience points to slack off..." Bai Ye suddenly realized.

If we only acquire this one ability, wouldn't that be a huge waste? After all, in this world, relying solely on the Divine Eye and Extreme Hand is actually sufficient, which is quite awkward...

"The third one, you probably created it yourself, right?"

Bai Ye nodded. Although this move might not be the most destructive, it was indeed the most technically advanced ability he currently possessed, and it was an ability he had created entirely on his own.

"The third method is to accelerate the thinking speed to more than 1000 times, and then launch a slash at the level of consciousness and spirit in a state of near-time stop in the world of consciousness. In the dimension of reality, this is a slash in which the attack is launched and ended almost simultaneously."

In fact, Bai Ye himself didn't know how he managed to tinker with this thing; even he himself thought it was outrageous.

I always felt it was a product of a sudden burst of inspiration.

"And then there's about half an ability... which is also newly developed." Bai Ye scratched his head at the end, "I can split my computing power in half and then process different projects simultaneously..."

Dual-threaded.

However, correspondingly, the computing power will decrease by half.

This is half of the ability that Baiye gained in Xi's painting world.

Although it can't compare to Luna's multi-threaded computing, it is still human, and it is quite remarkable that it can achieve such dual-threaded ultra-high-speed computing.

As for why it's considered somewhat newly acquired—

Since it is ultimately a redistribution of existing capabilities, it is not a breakthrough, but only a partial improvement, so it can only be considered half.

"Well, when I observed the collapse of the painted world, I think I collected some incredible data, but I can't analyze it right now, so I can only store it for now and deal with it later..."

"That painting can be considered a small world. Observing the destruction of a small world is indeed a remarkable achievement. It will probably be useful in the future..." Luna seemed very satisfied.

Although his tone remained calm and unremarkable, Bai Ye could indeed sense the hidden satisfaction beneath it.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Captain Two

"I feel like something about you has changed again?"

When Greta saw Bai Ye, she was slightly taken aback, stared at him for a long time, and then slowly spoke.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Bai Ye was somewhat surprised. He had already concealed the sharpness of his skills after the breakthrough, and now he should be no different from usual.

Who releases sword intent continuously for 24 hours? That would seriously disrupt normal life.

"Is it because it's easier now?" Grandia thought for a moment, then added, "It's like I've accomplished something amazing, and things must be going smoothly in some way, so I've become more cheerful."

Although Goredia is expressionless, she is indeed quite sensitive to the emotions of others.

Bai Ye suddenly realized that he had found the clue from above, which was a unique approach.

"Yes, my swordsmanship has finally broken through." Bai Ye nodded, confirming Goredia's guess.

"She can actually break through?" Goddess's understanding of swordsmanship was not profound, or rather, the swordsmanship theories she accepted were different from Bai Ye's.

For deep-sea hunters, the pursuit is for greater speed and strength, to evade their opponents' attacks, and then to kill them. Training is also for the pursuit of even stronger killing techniques; everything exists solely for the purpose of eliminating the enemy.

But what Bai Ye has now comprehended is a kind of cultivation. Battles and killings are merely scenery along this path, tools to achieve the goal, not the goal itself.

Perhaps Goredia understood this principle as well, but these deep-sea hunters had no time to think or reflect, because survival was the most pressing issue. The survival of their race and the continuation of their civilization hung like the Sword of Damocles over their heads, ready to fall at any moment.

Compared to this, the pursuit of martial arts and spiritual realms is not a very important thing.

"Of course you can break through. The strong hone their sharp teeth, the weak hone their wisdom. It is the instinct of living beings to pursue higher levels and climb upwards."

Goredia couldn't help but ask:

"What is the stronger power?"

"It's the mind. Human consciousness is remarkable; if you change your perspective, the whole world will change." Only now did Bai Ye understand the meaning of those words.

Bai Ye suspected that after revealing his origins, his state of mind had changed. Perhaps he himself was unaware of it, but his consciousness had already shifted—he had completely let down his guard and opened his heart to this unfamiliar world.

A change in mindset facilitates the liberation of consciousness from the constraints of the body. If one's state of mind is flawed or not yet perfect, one cannot so easily advance to the level of a swordsmanship master.

Although this kind of thing is very mysterious and has no scientific basis, matters of consciousness are inherently mysterious, and it's normal that they can't be explained clearly. Moreover, the martial arts of the Great Yan have always been closely related to the "mind." Bai Ye had previously read the martial arts classics of the Yan Kingdom provided by Nian, which provided a detailed explanation of the way of martial arts—body, technique, and mind, all three are indispensable, but the further one progresses, the more difficult it becomes to master.