Chapter 211 | The Galgame Martial Saint

Gu Chengming was truly a bit confused about the current situation.

This didn't seem like a normal technique recording. Other techniques usually provided many more details, but this Ano Invincible Art had no information other than its name and affection level. This situation was somewhat similar to when he first obtained the Great Record.

According to what the Master had said earlier, this technique was formed from a remnant soul of an ancient expert. In other words, it was roughly equivalent to having an expert's remnant soul residing within his body.

—Is this the 'portable old grandpa' trope?

Just as Gu Chengming was thinking this, the ancient book that had merged into his forehead suddenly emerged from his Sea of Consciousness, reforming into a phantom volume before him and the Master.

The Master wasn't surprised by this at all; instead, he smiled as if he had long expected it. "Alright, it seems the senior has accepted you."

Gu Chengming looked at the Master, who stood with his hands tucked in his sleeves and smiled. "In that case, you should ask what you wish to ask. If I stay here, the senior might find me an eyesore." As he finished speaking, he flicked his sleeve, and his figure slowly faded from the spot.

On the other side, the wisp of technique remnants in the center of the secret room gradually solidified, eventually transforming into the figure of a somewhat youthful girl.

The girl looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, in the prime of her youth. Her round face still carried a hint of lingering baby fat, and her eyes curved into crescents, giving her a rather pleasing and cute appearance.

—Is this the person the Master called the 'number one body cultivator of the cultivation world' back then?

When she looked up and saw Gu Chengming, her eyes suddenly lit up.

"Are you of my body cultivation lineage?"

According to the Master's introduction, this senior was the world's number one body cultivator of the same era as True Monarch Jiahao, a Seventh Realm True Monarch.

The image Gu Chengming had silently constructed in his mind was that of a fierce giant with bronze skin and bulging muscles who could level a mountain with a single punch. Yet, standing before him was a young girl whose chin was still rounded with youth.

The gap between this and the 'number one body cultivator' image he had envisioned was quite large.

But regardless, the person before him was still a senior, so Gu Chengming bowed in greeting.

The girl waved her hand dismissively. "No need for these formalities. Since we are of the same body cultivation lineage, we should naturally help each other. You can just call me Ano."

Hearing this name, Gu Chengming's expression became slightly subtle.

Senior, why is your head so pointy?

Ano seemed to have been forcibly awakened from his forehead just now, and her expression showed a hint of fatigue. She first asked some trivial questions about the current era. After Gu Chengming answered a few, he learned that this senior had been sleeping beneath that stone platform for over thirty years.

Upon learning that he had disturbed her dreams, he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.

However, the things that needed to be asked still had to be asked.

Gu Chengming carefully chose his words and threw out the several matters he was most concerned about during this visit—the events before the Great Calamity, the foundation of the Unfettered Heaven Dao Throne, information about True Monarch Jiahao, and so on.

When Ano heard about the Great Calamity, her brow furrowed slightly. She raised a hand and tapped her head, looking dazed as if she couldn't remember many things.

Gu Chengming's heart sank, thinking that tonight's inquiry would end in failure.

But the moment he threw out the name 'True Monarch Jiahao,' Ano's eyes suddenly lit up, and her voice rose an octave.

"Jia—Jiahao! I know about that!"

She sat up straighter, her expression somewhat proud as she began to explain what she knew.

The Unfettered Heaven Dao Throne was one of the earliest Dao Thrones Jiahao had attained. it originated from the main branch of the All Beings Branch and had long since been returned to heaven.

"Back when Jiahao challenged me to a fight, he relied on this Unfettered Heaven to escape."

"?"

A question mark couldn't help but pop up over Gu Chengming's head.

It was well known that True Monarch Jiahao's strength was incredibly high. From Senior Ano's words... even if there was a bit of boasting involved, it still meant that Senior Ano was at least a figure on the same level as True Monarch Jiahao.

Then he recalled the information the Master had told him before bringing him here.

—The number one body cultivator of the cultivation world at that time.

"Senior," Gu Chengming finally couldn't resist asking the doubt in his heart, "Above the Seventh Realm, are body cultivation methods truly still useful?"

After thinking for a long time, Ano said somewhat distressfully, "Body cultivation methods naturally can't withstand the rules of a True Monarch's Dao Throne level, but you can use body cultivation methods to deal with True Monarchs."

What kind of 'Ano-logic' was this?

Hearing this internal contradiction, Gu Chengming thought to himself that this senior had indeed tempered her body to the extreme—perhaps at the expense of something else.

Ano didn't notice his internal commentary and continued talking to herself.

After a rather difficult conversation with very low information density, Gu Chengming gradually came to understand Senior Ano's 'method.'

—Her most core Dao Throne was called Breaking Myriad Laws.

Its authority was also quite ridiculous: to break all laws with pure strength. As long as the strength was great enough, the rules of all Dao Thrones could be shattered.

【Hundred Bones Resonating's eyes glowed: Emperor Gu, Emperor Gu! So if your strength is great enough, you really can ignore the rules! This Emperor knew it!】

Ano seemed to have heard some movement. She raised her hand and patted Gu Chengming's shoulder quite affectionately, her expression suddenly filled with relief.

"So body cultivation still has a great future! Young friend, the mantle of my lineage will depend on you to pass it down in the future!"

Gu Chengming's expression was subtle as he replied, "But I'm not a body cultivator, Senior. I'm a sword cultivator."

Ano stunned for a moment, then started her Ano-logic again: "Sword cultivation is good..."

"If you practice the sword, you don't have to spend so much time tempering your body. You can save that time, and the time you save can be used to temper your body."

Gu Chengming: "..."

His mind automatically conjured the single-threaded code that Senior Ano might be running.

【while True: if bodytempering: bodytempering() else: bodytempering(); if encounterenemy: if enemyweak: bodytempering() elif enemystrong: bodytempering() # because tempering is more needed; elif enemyisTrueMonarch: bodytempering() # tempering works on True Monarchs too; if injured: bodytempering() # tempering can recover; if notinjured: bodytempering() # not injured means not tempered enough; if free: bodytempering() else: maketime().bodytempering(); if wantbreakthrough: bodytempering(); if dontwantbreakthrough: bodytempering() # must temper even if you don't want to; if practicesword: bodytempering() # sword cultivators must temper; if practicearts: body_tempering() # art cultivators must temper even more;】

What a great discovery, on par with kitty code!

Leaving aside the bizarre content of this senior's Ano-logic, just as the Master had said, she was quite clear about many ancient secrets.

Gu Chengming took advantage of this time to gradually draw out many fragments of old news from her, such as the early foundations of the Unfettered Heaven lineage, the old battles between True Monarch Jiahao and several other True Monarchs, and even some lost Dao Thrones that had been erased by the Great Calamity until only their names remained.

However, whenever he asked about a truly critical point, this senior would naturally revert to her Ano-logic, leaving Gu Chengming feeling quite helpless.

Forget it. She is, after all, a senior who has been asleep for thirty years; remembering this much is already not easy.

Thinking of this, he was about to get up and take his leave, but just as he moved, Senior Ano also stood up and followed right behind him, heading out toward the passage they had come in through.

Gu Chengming paused and looked back at her. "Senior, what are you doing?"

Ano said quite frankly, "I want to go out and see!"

—Senior, didn't you just say you were quite tired from sleeping for thirty years?

But he didn't have the heart to ask that directly.

...

The sound of the stone wall opening at the end of the passage echoed. Just as Gu Chengming stepped out of the narrow crack, he ran into the Master, who was standing in the side courtyard with his hands behind his back, waiting for them.

The Master originally looked calm and composed, but when he saw another figure following behind Gu Chengming, the expression on his face could no longer be maintained.

One must know that this senior had been kept here for thousands of years. If there had been any sign of her moving, he should have noticed it long ago.

The Master hesitated for a moment and finally couldn't help but ask Gu Chengming, "Young friend, what did you do?"

Gu Chengming's expression was also quite subtle. "Senior Ano said she wanted to come out and see."

Standing in the side courtyard, Ano looked around with a novel gaze, then suddenly pointed at the nearby schoolroom and nodded.

"Little Li Gou, your Imperial Academy has indeed grown larger and larger. Not bad, not bad."

Hearing this, Gu Chengming's expression instantly became subtle. He subconsciously tilted his head toward the Master, only to see that the other's expression was extremely complicated, and his original composure was gone.

The Master coughed lightly, a rare hint of embarrassment appearing in his expression. "Senior, it is a great taboo in the cultivation world to casually speak another's true name."

"Then how about calling you Big Li Gou? If others hear it, you can still trick them."

"That is no different from the previous name."

Ano gave a serious "Oh," and then added, "Then I won't call you that in the future."

Gu Chengming thought to himself, Why is the first thing this senior does upon coming out is to dox someone? This was the first time he had learned that the Master's name was Li Gou.

At this thought, he quickly coughed, pretending he hadn't heard anything, and turned to bow to the Master. "This junior will take his leave now."

The Master looked at Senior Ano, who was still looking around as if no one else were there, then at Gu Chengming, and for a moment, he looked quite weary.

After a long time, he sighed and waved his sleeve.

"Just go."

Gu Chengming didn't dare to stay any longer. Taking the senior who was still interestly observing the Imperial Academy, he hurriedly left the side courtyard.

...

On the way back to his courtyard, Ano was quite excited, stopping to look at everything she saw.

When they reached the busiest street corner of the Market City, she suddenly pointed at a small stall selling sugar people and asked, "What is this?"

Gu Chengming replied, "A sugar person."

Ano gave a novel "Oh" and was about to reach out and touch it. Gu Chengming blocked her hand, handed a copper coin to the stall owner, bought a sugar person, and stuffed it into her hand.

Ano held the sugar person, her expression brightening significantly. She leaned toward him and whispered, "Young friend, this world is much more novel than it was in my time."

Gu Chengming gave a vague "Mhm." What he was currently calculating was another matter.

—Her Ano-logic had been manageable within the Imperial Academy, but once they were out, the extent to which this senior lacked discretion in her words and actions toward outsiders suddenly became apparent.

She had casually blurted out the Master's true name. If they ran into other True Monarchs in the future, who knew how many shocking secrets this senior would leak?

Gu Chengming thought for a moment and felt that his top priority was to settle this senior down properly to avoid causing any trouble in the capital.

With that in mind, he quickened his pace, leading Ano around several crowded street corners and heading straight back to his courtyard.

Once back in the courtyard, Gu Chengming settled Ano into a low chair in the hall.

He sat down opposite her, his gaze falling on the line at the bottom of his vision: 【Ano Invincible Art: 5/Stranger】. He felt that this was going to be troublesome.

Logically, Senior Ano existed within his body in the form of a technique, yet she could also manifest a physical form and walk around outside. This state was truly bizarre.

Could it be that I'm supposed to 'capture' this senior, and thus she became a technique? Or was she originally a technique that existed in this world, and her seniority as a 'Seventh Realm True Monarch' was a later fabrication?

Or was her current form of existence something between a remnant soul, a technique, and some kind of lingering Dao Throne projection?

If her affection level increased, how would she respond?

While he was thinking this, Senior Ano in the hall suddenly moved.

She had finished most of her sugar person and was now staring at a map hanging on the wall.

After observing for a moment, she naturally got up, walked to the map, and stood on her tiptoes to carefully look at the place names marked on it.

However, she wasn't tall, and even on her tiptoes, she could only barely see the bottom half of the map.

Seeing her like this, a thought suddenly occurred to Gu Chengming.

Although this senior was an ancient True Monarch, her current physical form was only that of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl. For her, many things had to be explored all over again.