CHAPTER 270: CHAPTER 270 HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A KNIFE THAT CAN SWIM?

Azure Dragon Crescent Blade.

It was a term steeped in historical gravitas.

However, an ordinary person would likely want to laugh if they saw someone, a beautiful young boy, claiming to be the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade.

The female store owner, of course, did not laugh.

And Red Armor did not laugh, nor did it even move.

As the ’enemy compass,’ Ren Suo now judged the strength of his opponents based on Red Armor’s reaction. Whenever Red Armor placed its hand on the hilt of its sword, it indicated a Demon or Ghost powerful enough to last at least two rounds of combat.

Now, with the female store owner’s Health Points and Attack Power, she could last two rounds, which meant her defensive power was probably higher than that of a tank.

But this time, Red Armor did not place its hand on the hilt of its sword.

In fact, just before the beautiful young boy arrived, Red Armor had been using a cloth to wipe the fresh blood off its long sword.

After the young boy appeared, it stopped. Not just stopping the act of wiping the blade, but its entire body froze in the posture of wiping the sword: sitting cross-legged on the ground, the blade resting on its thighs, one hand on the hilt and the other clutching the cloth, not daring to move at all.

The beautiful young boy sighed, lowered his head to look at the dining table, and murmured softly, "I didn’t expect that after two thousand years, even the accent would become unfamiliar. I can’t believe I can still encounter traces of you."

He looked at the female store owner and asked, "Where did you get the jade pendant on your wrist?"

Jade Pendant?

Ren Suo was slightly startled. He looked at the female store owner on the screen; she was wearing the "Goddess Jade Pendant" on her wrist.

Unlike when Ren Suo himself wore one, when the game character in the Ghost Stall wears the jade pendant, a physical embodiment of it immediately appears.

This was a question the female store owner could not answer, so Ren Suo had to respond personally:

"A friend gave it to me."

"A friend who died young?" the young boy laughed.

"No, a friend who lived a long life."

"What’s their surname?"

"Ren." Ren Suo ventured tentatively, "Do you know them?"

The beautiful young boy clapped his hands and burst into laughter. "So they finally have someone who has transcended? HAHAHA... Of course, I recognize this thing. Back in those days, I would chop down anyone from the Ren Family I saw, and that little girl who led the team several times wore this. I still remember her; she was the only one who could block me for a moment..."

After laughing for a while, the young boy touched his head and gazed into the void, reminiscing. "I was originally a blade forged by a village blacksmith, tempered a thousand times, cold and sharp, fortunate to become Changsheng’s weapon of choice. I followed him on campaigns north and south for over thirty years, breaking over a hundred times. I only endured the wars without destruction thanks to Changsheng nurturing the blade with Spiritual Energy. Later, when Changsheng was injured by an arrow, he didn’t bring me along, switching to lighter weapons."

"At that time, I was ignorant and unfeeling, devoid of blood or tears, not knowing what the Human World was, not knowing what parting was, until the Mark Changsheng left on me faded away. Only then did I realize: I had reverted to that cold, indifferent Cold Glamour Saw."

By this point, Ren Suo was completely certain that this Azure Dragon Crescent Blade was indeed the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade he knew.

Among the games Ren Suo had played so far, "Over My Dead Body" could be considered the most unique. Unlike "Jedi Priest," which involved communication with deities from the Outer Realm, and also unlike "Devouring the Spirit of the World," which affected the entire globe, "Over My Dead Body" had an impact on the past.

Moreover, "Over My Dead Body," with its Cultivation system, difficulty, and playtime, left an indelibly deep impression on Ren Suo—he had forgotten how much time he spent creating new saves just to get the best possible start.

Aside from the Earth Spirits, who had nearly vanished without a trace, the only person who might know the authenticity of "Over My Dead Body" was most likely the beautiful young man before him, formerly the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade that fought by Guan Yu’s side for over thirty years.

If one looked at the official history, Guan Yu definitely didn’t use a weapon as flashy as the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade—such a blade was meant for training physical strength. For killing on horseback, a spear was the most practical; it was both cheap and easy to use.

However, "Over My Dead Body" is almost equivalent to unofficial history. Now, the historical community is almost at a loss concerning the events of the Three Kingdoms era, even doubting the official history to the extent that fan theories seem to have superseded the official narrative.

If one went by the game’s logic, then Guan Yu truly used only one blade his entire life.

Though the beautiful young man spoke ambiguously, Ren Suo clearly remembered that after Guan Yu’s death, the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade would slash at anyone it encountered. Only the Family Head of the Ren Family, who played the role of a staunch defender, could take a hit from it; anyone else would die upon contact. Thus, if Ren Family Cultivators encountered it, they had to either reload the game or have others flee first, leaving the Family Head to block a strike and buy time.

What did it mean to easily defeat Ren Family Cultivators?

If Guan Yu’s head hadn’t been with Cao Cao and his body with Sun Quan, Zhuge Liang would have wanted to bring him back with some forbidden resurrection technique. Otherwise, in the final grand battle, Guan Yu would only have had to command the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade, and all the Ren Family Cultivators would have faced total annihilation.

In this respect, Guan Yu could be said to have been killed by the plot and by history.

Only the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade—which had silently undergone Cultivation by Guan Yu’s side for over thirty years, then exploded with power and became demonic upon Guan Yu’s death, specializing in cutting down Cultivators—could achieve such strength. At that time, if Guan Yu hadn’t been hindered by the Cultivators of the Wu State, he would have been able to move freely even amidst an army of a million.

As for why the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade could be so strong, Ren Suo hadn’t understood it at the time, but now he speculated a thing or two: just as a Cultivator’s strength increases greatly upon Demonic Possession, so does the strength of transformed monsters. At that time, the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade was almost crazed, focusing solely on attack without defense, which equated to putting all its points into Attack.

Not to mention, among Demons and Ghosts, the category of Strange Creatures is almost an infinite extension of inanimate objects. The capabilities of such items could be infinitely strengthened. For instance, Red Armor had extremely astonishing defensive power; thus, it wasn’t difficult to understand the terrifying explosive Damage of the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade.

"After that, I grew tired, woke up, and stopped cutting people down. But the Han dynasty had perished, the treacherous villains were dead, and the blue-eyed youth was also gone. I heard Changsheng was buried in two places, so I went to find his head and body, but there was nothing in the tombs."

"Changsheng was too powerful. If he had turned into a zombie, he would have become another Ghost King, the kind the Ren Family loves to deal with. Those treacherous villains and that blue-eyed youth wouldn’t have dared to keep Changsheng’s body."

Only then did Ren Suo realize that Guan Yu also went by Changsheng, presumably a name used only by those close to him. The beautiful young man naturally considered himself close to Guan Yu; after all, Guan Yu definitely spent more time with him than with his own wife.

"I am merely a cold and ruthless Cold Glamour Saw," said the beautiful young man. "Worldly affairs are like fleeting clouds to me. My only concern was to dwell in the wilderness, listening to the sounds of all beings, bathing in sunlight and moonlight, living like an inanimate object through millennia."

"During that time, there were many periods when Spiritual Energy declined, and I could not maintain consciousness, turning into an inanimate object hidden within the earth. But just when I was about to rust away and crumble, Spiritual Energy would rise again, and I knew the world was about to be tainted once more."

"This time, when I awoke, I finally achieved some success in my Cultivation. Although I no longer possess the might of the Cold Glamour Saw, I have acquired a mortal body of flesh and bone, and finally..."

The beautiful young man clenched his fist. "I felt the warmth of Changsheng once again."

Ren Suo breathed a sigh of relief. If the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade were still as powerful as it was in the game, it would mean they couldn’t overcome it through battle.

Now that the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade had obtained a physical body, its combat power had drastically decreased. Although it could still intimidate Red Armor, there was at least a possibility of Victory.

However, before probing further, Ren Suo had the female store owner ask a question he had been wanting to ask for a while:

"Why didn’t you go and chop Sun Quan to death?"

The beautiful young man remained silent for a moment, glanced at the female store owner’s wrist, and then slowly said, "At that time, I was a blade."

"A cold and ruthless blade, without blood or tears, only desiring to kill."

He fell silent after speaking. Ren Suo waited a long time, but the second half of the sentence never came, so he had the female store owner ask again, "And then?"

"Have you ever seen a blade swim across a river?"