The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

Just then, a voice that was neither male nor female suddenly rang in his mind, "Detection indicates that the trial participant has completed all the main causal chains in this world. Do you wish to freeze time immediately, return to the system space, and start the settlement process? If you answer no, the trial participant will have three days to complete the final finishing work."

The causal chain... time frozen... three days...

Su Qi pondered for a moment, then asked in his mind, "Question: Is it possible to bring other humans back with me?"

However, the voice in his mind didn't respond at all and seemed not to answer any of his questions.

Su Qi sighed helplessly and said "no" in his heart.

This time, the cold, emotionless voice immediately rang out, "Response accepted. The trial participant has three days left to remain in this world. Within these three days, the participant may call for return at any time and await further instructions."

Then silence fell again.

"Tsk, why is it that other people's systems can act cute and cheeky, and some can even become wives, but mine is just a cold and aloof thing?"

Su Qi complained about his system for a while, then left the village, called out to Eight-Six, and flew straight into the sky towards Turtle City.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, he might not return to this world for a long time, or even ever. Before leaving, he still wanted to see Liuli.

In the same Musashi Kingdom, and able to fly straight through the air on a demon horse, he returned to Turtle City that morning, back to the ancient dojo where he had once learned swordsmanship.

"Should we meet with Liuli to say goodbye?"

Su Qi hesitated for a moment outside the dojo, but finally decided to climb over the wall and sneak in. Relying on his powerful senses and pseudo-heavenly eye, he perfectly infiltrated the dojo and saw Liuli without alerting anyone.

Chapter 117 Evaluation and Rewards

In the spacious and brightly lit training ground, Liuli, as always, played the role of the cold-faced junior instructor. With a stern expression, she patrolled among the disciples, carrying a wooden sword. If she saw anyone slacking off or making a mistake, she would strike them down with her sword, making them learn their lesson through their own bodies.

However, she seems to be stricter now than before, and you can often see some unlucky ones being punished and howling in pain, which makes the disciples both respect and fear her.

Suddenly, Liuli in the dojo seemed to sense something and glanced at Su Qi's position.

Fortunately, he reacted extremely quickly and dodged to the side, avoiding the attack.

Liuli's spiritual power has become stronger, and her senses have become more acute. Is this a blessing in disguise...?

When Liuli, inside the dojo, thought she was hallucinating, shook her head and looked away, Su Qi returned to his original spot and sat down again on a pine tree in the courtyard, continuing to observe through the small window in the wall.

Should I meet with Liuli before I leave?

After observing her secretly for a while, Su Qi thought about the question again, hesitated for a moment, and finally shook his head, "Forget it, I shouldn't bother her anymore."

As a friend, he did want to say goodbye to Liuli in person before leaving this world, but considering the impact his actions might have on her, he gave up on that plan.

The previous rejection and parting had already hurt Liuli deeply. If they were to meet again this time, the brief joy would surely be followed by an even more sorrowful farewell. He already owed Liuli enough, and he truly didn't want her to be hurt again because of him.

As for the possibility of taking Ruri away, although he had asked the system about this before, even if it were possible to take someone away, he probably wouldn't do it. Even now, he couldn't forget the look of hatred and sorrow in Ruri's eyes when Naraku massacred the dojo.

If she leaves with him, a time traveler, even if he can go back in time to save her time again and again, she will still experience similar pain many times, right? So how could he be so selfish as to let Liuli suffer along with him just so that someone could accompany her, and even get her into a crisis that could lead to her death?

So until the very end, Su Qi did not meet anyone from the Changgu Dojo.

He simply watched silently for two days, making sure that this strong girl had moved on from their last separation, that her life was back on track, and that she hadn't encountered any more trouble, before finally leaving and choosing to return home.

……

The space was pure white, but as soon as Su Qigang returned, he noticed that things were a little different.

"There's an extra trophy."

He walked to the black stone base and found a silver trophy at the top of the pyramid-shaped base. The trophy was beautifully and elegantly shaped, with pale gold mysterious patterns painted on the pure silver base. Silver flames rose from the cup, exploding like fireworks at the rim, presenting a series of blurry images, but in the blink of an eye, they collapsed and scattered, turning into countless points of light that fell back into the cup.

Su Qi looked at it carefully for a while and realized that the scenes from when he first transmigrated to the purification of Naraku and sent Kikyo away were all his actions in the Inuyasha world. After observing it carefully for a while, he didn't find anything useful, so he reached out and touched it.

A panel suddenly popped up in front of me, displaying lines of text:

"Ding, Trial Log Update... Dimensional Anchor Point Deployed... Worldline Interference Begins... Causal Chain Entanglement Completed... World Capture Successful... Dimensional Anchor Point Retrieved... First Trial Ended..."

"Trial World: Inuyasha"

Trial Difficulty: Low

"World Status: Frozen, awaiting the completion of the final trial by the trial participants to become the first foundation stone for building the throne."

"The first world settlement function has been unlocked, and trial participants can conduct their first trial settlement at any time."

Capturing worlds, freezing worlds, the final trial, constructing the throne... It seems like a lot of information, but unfortunately, I currently have too little intelligence, insufficient strength, and no autonomy, so it's meaningless to me at all...

Looking at the contents of the panel, Su Qi thought of many things in an instant. For example, he was probably the so-called dimensional anchor, but what exactly was a dimensional anchor? What would happen inside the Inuyasha world after freezing time? If he failed in the trials later, would the frozen world never be unsealed? What was the final trial? Would he become the king of the world after successfully constructing the throne?

But soon, he put these problems that he couldn't address for the time being out of his mind, tapped the X in the upper right corner of the panel, and returned to the original panel that had been there from the beginning at the Blackrock Base.

The panel still only has two options: "Load Save" and "Clear and Result". However, "Load Save" is now grayed out, while "Clear and Result" is now clickable.

Without hesitation, Su Qi clicked to complete the level and settle the score.

The next moment, a new panel popped up:

"Evaluation of the mental state of the trial participants at each stage..."

"Evaluating the trial participants' strategies..."

"Evaluation of the moral values ​​of the trial participants..."

"Evaluating the trial participant's strength growth..."

"Evaluating the trial participants' completion time..."

"Trial participant completion rate evaluation in progress..."

"Evaluating the perfection of the trial participant's ending..."

……

Evaluation criteria kept refreshing on the panel like code being written, at least forty or fifty at first glance, covering almost every aspect of his experience in the trial world. After a while, as the last evaluation item popped up, all the text disappeared instantly, and a large "B" appeared on the panel.

Below the letter B, there is a simple note: "This trial has an overall rating of B. The trial participant will receive three chances to draw prizes for passing the trial, with ratings of B, C, and D respectively. Upon successful completion, a basic reward will be given, which includes not only knowledge and all powers and skills directly connected to the soul, but also the option to choose one item from all possessions obtained in this world, such as skills, items, and attributes, and convert it into the trial participant's exclusive property."

"The exclusive item will be bound to the soul of the trial participant. Once transformed, it will never be erased or damaged. It can be freely taken to all trial worlds for use and will not be affected by the rules of other worlds."

Below the annotation are two new buttons, labeled "Proprietary Item Conversion" and "Level-Clearing Lottery".

Su Qi thought for a moment, then clicked "Exclusive Item Conversion." Instantly, the panel content changed into a simple horizontal list. Apart from spiritual power and knowledge, everything he had obtained in the Inuyasha world was listed in the table, including even the straw sandals he was wearing when he returned.

"That's terrible..."

Looking at the few items on the list, he sighed and thought he really wanted to find a white-stockinged high school girl and write seven "misery" characters on her thighs.

Chapter 118 The Provoke

"Ability: Robust Physique - Can convert the physical constitution of this world into a personal basic attribute bonus buff."

"Ability: Martial Instinct - can transform a martial artist's honed physical instincts into a unique personal attribute bonus buff."

"Ability: Pseudo-Heavenly Eye - A personal skill gained due to increased soul strength, based on the Mind's Eye, requiring no conversion."

"Knowledge: Sword Saint (Low-level weapon requirement) - The level of swordsmanship that one has personally cultivated and comprehended. Other swordsmanship skills are integrated into this item. It belongs to the category of knowledge engraved within the soul and does not require conversion."

"Item: Straw Sandals - Inferior straw sandals that are about to break can be transformed into straw sandals that will never wear out."

"Item: Underwear - Black modal cotton men's boxer briefs brought from the original world, which can be transformed into underwear that will never wear out."

"Item: Undergarment..."

"Item: Top..."

Item: Hitaka (lower hakama)...

……

"Item: Demon Blade Spring Rain - Can be transformed into a personal demon blade bound to your soul. It comes with the skill "Dew Condensation", which can automatically gather moisture from the air to clean the blade. It can also be activated actively with spiritual power to collect dew."

"Item: Demon Blade Ghost Stealer - Can be transformed into a personal demon blade bound to the soul, with the skills "Ghost Stealer", "Sky Rift", "Soul Burial" and "Filth Slash".

"Demon Stealer: A passive skill transformed from its own characteristics. It can devour the power and souls of others to enhance its own strength and skill power, but it cannot steal the skills of others outside the Inuyasha world."

"Sky Rift: An active skill transformed from the Netherworld Moon Shatter. It can be activated with spiritual power. It tears through space with a swing of the blade. The size of the spatial rift that can be torn is determined by the amount of spiritual power consumed and the stability of the space in that world."

"Soul Burial: A combined active and passive skill transformed from the Devouring Heavenly Fang's properties. It can slay spirits or imprison the enemy's soul forever within the demon sword's exclusive underworld, which can only be released by the user."

"Zanei: An active skill transformed from the Tenseiga's ability to slay the messengers of the underworld and revive them. It can sever the pathogenic and impure energy within living beings, restoring them to health, but it cannot restore missing organs or severed limbs, nor can it revive the dead in worlds outside of Inuyasha."

After carefully studying all the convertible items on the list, Su Qi chose to convert the Ghost Stealer without hesitation, then covered his face and sighed, "What a huge loss."

If he had known earlier that he could bring his belongings out and transform them into personal items usable in other worlds, he would have desperately collected as many good things as possible before leaving, or used the Demon Stealer to acquire more abilities. He might even have found Inuyasha and severed his Tessaiga as well.

After all, a family should be together. Since the eldest dog has already been wronged, shouldn't we show favoritism and let the second dog off the hook? Anyway, Naraku is already dead, and the Tessaiga isn't necessary for him anymore. Wouldn't it be better to use it to support his trial journey?

Unfortunately, there's no going back in life. Even if he could reload his save file, once he made a decision, he couldn't go back.

"Never mind, one shouldn't be too greedy. Just consider it as accumulating good karma."

Since things had come to this point, there was no point in regretting it. Su Qi quickly put the matter aside and looked at the newly popped-up conversion interface.

"I'm about to transform the Demon Blade Ghost Stealer into an exclusive equipment; should I rename it?"

Should we change the name?

He stared at the panel, lost in thought.

Without a doubt, changing the name is a must; otherwise, using a name like "Ghost Snatcher," which sounds like something a second-rate villain would use, would only lower one's own standing. The question is, what name should be chosen?

Should it go for a chuunibyou (adolescent delusions of grandeur) style like "The Sword of the End," "The Annihilation of All Directions," or "A Pants Full of Curry Sticks"? Or should it go for a mysterious and awe-inspiring style like "Nie-dono Shana" or "Kurikara"? Or perhaps a literary and classical style like "Beauty Under the Moon" or "Senbonzakura"?

After hesitating for a while, and considering his own art style, Su Qi decided to give the knife a slightly more moderate name based on its origin – Reverse Scale.

"Do we need to change its basic structure, material properties, and appearance? If so, please visualize it on the projection and adjust the various properties accordingly."

After entering a name, the panel changes again, and a high-precision 3D image exactly the same as the Demon Path Ghost Snatcher is projected in mid-air, along with a scabbard.

Su Qi could directly drag and knead the projection with his hands, adjusting its shape like playing with clay; he could also touch the projection to bring to life the structure he imagined in his mind; he could even adjust the hardness and toughness of certain materials, or simply lift the projection, which was indistinguishable from the real thing, to try it out.

Every swordsman has different sword-wielding habits and different needs. In order to find a weapon that best suits him, Su Qi spent several days meticulously revising and refining it, finally bringing out the perfect final product.

As a low-key (or self-proclaimed) person, he crafted a long sword with an antique and elegant style. Its blade is three feet three inches and four-tenths inches long, with a bronze-colored guard carved with cloud patterns, and the hilt is wrapped with black and white cords. Because the material is indestructible, the blade is extremely thin and narrow, with a beautiful and smooth curve, and it gleams with a cold light like autumn water. It looks like a slender and desolate crescent moon hanging in the night sky.

The scabbard doesn't need much adjustment; it just needs to fit the blade perfectly and be painted with a low-key, elegant matte black finish.

"Structure, materials, and appearance are all set. Do you wish to begin the conversion?"

"Yes."

"Ding, conversion complete. The trial participant has obtained an exclusive item and opened a personal item space. The trial participant can open and close the space within a three-zhang radius around them at any time to store and retrieve the exclusive item."