Why is my anime art style so weird?

It blends the architectural styles of ancient China with Japanese elements. More importantly, this type of Japanese castle does not inherit the grandeur and majesty unique to ancient Chinese architecture. Instead, it appears small and cramped, exuding a petty and stingy atmosphere from the inside out.

Its overall shape resembles a pagoda stacked up layer by layer.

According to Kato Kei's information, this castle was not built by Totsuki, but belonged to an obscure daimyo during the Sengoku period.

After Totsuki Tea House bought the entire mountain forest, they also bought the castle.

Out of respect for the preservation of architectural heritage, and at the insistence of the Japanese government, Totsuki Academy did not demolish the castle known as 'Ashina Castle'.

After Totsuki Academy renovated Ashina Castle, it was used as the office building for the Elite Ten leaders and the Academy's Commander-in-Chief.

This place can be considered the power center of the entire Totsuki Culinary Academy, apart from the Nakiri residence in the heart of the academy.

Xu Ming turned onto a mountain path and arrived at the main gate of the castle.

"what?"

Looking at the scene before him, Xu Ming couldn't help but frown.

The castle gate was surrounded by barricades and haystacks, some of which were charred black by flames. Arrows, broken samurai swords, and spears were scattered on the ground. Xu Ming even saw a few muskets, commonly known as firearms.

The castle gates were tightly shut, riddled with arrows and covered in charred marks.

The scene here looks like it has just been through a war.

Xu Ming was stunned. For a moment, he felt as if he had traveled back to the Warring States period, experiencing a kind of time-space distortion.

The system assigned him only one task.

— Head to the top floor of the castle tower.

Looking at the devastated battlefield, Xu Ming knew that the journey ahead would definitely not be peaceful.

Chapter 111 The Oni Warrior at the Main Gate

Xu Ming carefully crossed the battlefield and slowly approached the gate leading to the castle tower.

His nasal cavity was filled with various burnt smells, which made him feel nauseous.

Squeak!

Just then, the tightly closed gate suddenly burst open, and a warrior riding a warhorse, wielding a huge cross spear, and clad in blood-red armor rushed out of the city gate.

He was dressed in traditional Japanese samurai armor, with black 'smoke' swirling around his body, and three green will-o'-the-wisps swirling around him.

His warhorse was even more terrifying, clad in heavy armor with its skeleton exposed, devoid of skin, flesh, and internal organs, its eyes appearing as two eerie green flames.

This warrior looks exactly like the legendary Death Knight.

When he rushed out of the city gate, dust billowed and the ground trembled. The man and his horse charged out with the momentum of a thousand troops.

Upon seeing Xu Ming, he immediately pulled on the reins and charged towards him, shouting:

"I am Gui Xing..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Ming raised his phone and slapped him.

A flash of purple-gold light instantly pierced the darkness.

boom!

The warhorse charged halfway when suddenly its leg twisted, causing its front legs to buckle and fall to the ground. The immense momentum threw the warrior off the horse.

The samurai rolled on the ground, kicking up dust, before finally stopping after a long while.

The poor warhorse fell to the ground, whimpering mournfully, and slowly turned to ashes.

Xu Ming didn't hold back, immediately drew his dagger and rushed forward, stabbing wildly at the warrior lying on the ground.

Jingle bells!

However, when the dagger struck the surface of the armor, it only produced bursts of sparks, and the Oni Samurai was completely unharmed.

"Damn hard!"

Xu Ming couldn't help but swear.

At this moment, the Oni Samurai recovered from the attack and reached out to grab Xu Ming. Xu Ming quickly retreated and moved away from the Oni Samurai.

Judging from his gaze, this guy was at least 1.9 meters tall, and his arms were thicker than his calves. If he were caught, he would probably be torn in two.

"You brat! Do you really want to die?!"

The demon warrior got up from the ground, slowly straightened his body, and roared.

With his beloved mount destroyed and himself humiliated from falling off, the Oni Samurai's rage reached its peak. He had lost all face as a samurai.

Through the hole in the mask, a pair of eyes blazing with fire stared intently at Xu Ming.

The demon warrior picked up the cross-shaped spear from the ground, its tip pointing directly at Xu Ming's heart.

"Go to hell, you brat!"

He roared and charged toward Xu Ming.

Boom!Boom!

With each step he took, the ground trembled slightly, and a terrifying, overwhelming aura surged forth with the Oni Warrior's charge.

Xu Ming suddenly felt his whole body stiffen.

Fortunately, he had frequently come into contact with various 'strange' things and experienced many life-or-death crises during this period, which tempered his willpower to be quite resilient.

He immediately broke free from the oni warrior's aura, calmly retreating while summoning the piglets.

"Arita-kun! Please!"

"Leave it to me!"

The little piglet immediately transformed into the 'Silver Crow' and faced the Oni Warrior head-on, and then...

Bah!

He was sent flying by the Oni Samurai's spear, crashing heavily to the ground and rolling around like a gourd.

When Haruyuki Arita, covered in dust and looking disheveled, got up from the ground, he awkwardly scratched the back of his head in the face of Xu Ming's strange gaze.

"A mistake! It was just a mistake!"

"Uh... be careful..."

Xu Ming gave his instructions with a complicated expression, then hid in a corner of the battlefield.

Haruyuki Arita charged forward again, this time seemingly taking advantage of the Oni Samurai's lack of agility, frequently flanking him and launching attacks from behind.

The two immediately engaged in fierce combat, the clanging of metal echoing across the battlefield.

Xu Ming observed carefully and couldn't help but frown.

Perhaps it's because he plays too many games, but Haruyuki Arita seems to be very good at dealing with enemies who are physically strong, powerful, but not very agile.

Xu Ming saw him occasionally circle around behind the Oni Warrior and stab him a couple of times with his sharp claws, or when the Oni Warrior raised his cross spear and swung it, he would roll close to him and then rip out the heart with his black tiger!

Unfortunately, the 'Silver Crow' seemed to lack sufficient attack power, failing to penetrate the Oni Samurai's armor. It could only leave scratch marks on the sturdy armor, but could not cause any damage.

Haruyuki Arita tried to create some distance, hoping to take the opportunity to use his ultimate move, "Iron Head Technique," but although this Oni Samurai was not very agile, his straight-line charging speed was not slow at all.

As soon as Haruyuki Arita stopped, the Oni Samurai charged forward, swinging his cross spear at Haruyuki's head, forcing Haruyuki to roll and scramble to avoid the Oni Samurai's attack.

His special move was naturally unusable.

The situation on the field is not optimistic.

Haruyuki Arita's transformation into 'Silver Crow' only resulted in a stalemate.

We have to think of something!

Xu Ming thought for a moment and then opened the system.

He still has 150 points saved up, just for crucial moments.

Based on Xu Ming's observation, this Oni Warrior's soul level has most likely reached level 3.

It's normal that Haruyuki Arita, who's only level 2, couldn't break through his defenses.

According to Xu Ming's estimate, if the Ghost-Slaying Phone were used to take photos, it would take at least three or even more attempts to eliminate the Oni Warrior.

He could wait, but he was afraid that Haruyuki Arita wouldn't be able to hold on for that long.

As for the 'Poison Dragon Dagger', it couldn't penetrate the Oni Samurai's armor at all; it was completely useless.

Xu Ming could only try to find a solution within the system.

He first went to the store page.

But after looking through it for a while, a hint of hesitation appeared in Xu Ming's eyes.

Does the shop have anything that can deal with the Oni Samurai? Yes, there are many.

But there is a problem.

He didn't have enough points to exchange for a weapon that would work at level 3, but he was reluctant to exchange for a one-time use item.

Xu Ming thought for a moment, then flipped the page to the properties panel and quickly opened it.

Xu Ming looked at the upgrades and found that there were two upgrades that could break the deadlock: one was to improve the lens's 'evil-breaking' level, and the other was to improve the phone's energy storage level.

The former enhances the lens's power, while the latter stores energy for an additional shot, enabling continuous shooting.

However, Xu Ming soon frowned again. It would take a full 1000 points to upgrade 'Evil Breaker' to the next level, and another 200 points to upgrade the energy storage level.

Xu Ming's strangeness isn't enough.

I thought I had a little extra money, but I found that I was still poor in the eyes of the system.

and many more……

Xu Ming suddenly turned his attention to another upgradeable project.

Perhaps he wouldn't need to spend so much to find a solution.

Chapter 112 The Little Piglet Has Leveled Up

What Xu Ming saw was an upgrade option called 'Purify' in the camera upgrade settings.

According to the system's explanation, this is a very special branching ability.

After upgrading 'Purification', not only can it remove the negative energy that has accumulated on the body, but it can also greatly weaken the abilities of 'Strange' when used on 'Strange'.