Chapter Sixty: A Glance Back, Youthful Wanderings

"I'm wet, family..."
"What a loser! I only felt lukewarm satisfaction. Let me go change my pants first."
"Totally satisfying. Lin-ge never disappoints."
"Entering the lion's den alone, slaying six among a crowd of evil cultivators and retreating unscathed... I get it now, Junior Brother is divine Zhao Yun."
"Fallen Sword Immortal Lin Yi-er, report for duty!"
"Fallen Sword Immortal: Present!!!"
"Our little machine is so fierce; she's practically a female sword immortal."
"Well, she is my wife, after all."
"Can someone tell me how many more ways there are to use righteous energy?"
"All joking aside, I think this is more imaginative than Ultraman Arc."
[Popularity value +100...]
[Popularity value +10...]

Xiao Lin glanced at the barrage of comments and immediately looked away, breathing silently in the air.
From start to finish, it seemed as though he had only thrown two swords, but the mental strain and spiritual power consumed were no less than what Qu Ziyao's other sword cultivators would expend throwing thousands or hundreds of swords.
The Fallen Sword Immortal was no longer his former self.
At the peak of Foundation Establishment and as the source of all evil energy, he was nearly Dao-incarnate, standing in absolute opposition to Xiao Lin's righteous path. Fighting him now truly meant Xiao Lin was not his match.
That was why, despite the massive exertion, he had only managed to kill six evil cultivators.
Even so, that sword had to be drawn, and that table had to be flipped.
In this wager, the Fallen Sword Immortal was using the city's residents as hostages. No matter how formidable Xiao Lin looked on the surface or how much he dismissed them as mere rabble, he was actually at an absolute disadvantage.
There was no help for it. While a righteous persona was undeniably appealing, the cost was being kept in check by the villains at every turn.
Every advantage came with a disadvantage.
Yet, being constrained was one thing; he could not let the audience feel stifled.
Just like his sudden strike—even if he hadn't received backup from Gu Jinyao later and hadn't killed a single evil cultivator, the audience would still have felt that a breath of pent-up anger had been vented.
For no other reason than the attitude.
Just like the "attitude" many girls constantly talked about.
All the audience needed was an attitude.
You might lose the fight, but you could never be too cowardly to fight.
If you lost that feral spirit, what right did you have to talk about passion?
Looking across all shonen blood-pumping plots, a single word ran through them all: exhilaration.

Yet, as Xiao Lin panted, he couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Was that sword truly drawn for the sake of his persona and popularity value?
Partly, but not entirely.
To slay evil with a single sword—was it not supremely gratifying?
After all, he was still a youth; his fiery passion had not been extinguished, and his inner chuunibyou had yet to fade.
Looking back at his past life and this one, what youth had never dreamed of traveling the world with a sword, drinking wine and questioning the martial world, acting chivalrously and upholding justice?
Countless people spun these fantasies, eventually giving birth to countless works that wove together a shared dream.
And for him, a traveler who had crossed over into this world, there was no doubt: the dream had come true.
If he were to hypocritically say, "Oh, I'm not excited or thrilled at all, I just want to go home or, in order to survive, I'd rather cower and live out a humble life"...
He would have given himself a few hard slaps right then and there.
Stop putting on a saintly act, you got all the benefits and yet you're still whining!
All the reasons above played a part, yet none of them fully captured it.
Thinking back now, it was nothing more than...
Having a chivalrous heart, pure and simple.
With this thought, Xiao Lin suddenly felt a wave of profound clarity wash over his heart.
Then he realized that he seemed to be "seeing" himself.
This wasn't his spiritual sense leaving his body; it felt more like his spiritual platform growing limpid, his six senses detaching from his physical shell...
Before this, his clear consciousness was entirely thanks to his innate talent, "Holding the Primordial and Guarding the One."
Yet now, Xiao Lin vaguely felt that even without that talent, he could still resist a portion of illusions...
A system pop-up window appeared.
[Talent: Youthful Wander]
[Youthful Wander: Having sailed through a thousand scriptures, you can still retrace the path you came, recovering that initial aspiration of your youth—willing to hold a three-foot sword in hand, seeking grievances with joy and saving the mortal world.]
[Status: Unlocked.]

Eh?
Xiao Lin's eyes widened slightly.
Another new feature?
It could actually unlock automatically without being purchased, requiring only a moment of inner enlightenment...
Xiao Lin suddenly realized just how difficult that condition was.
His previous breakthroughs and enlightenment had all been artificially simulated with the help of the system. If he had any innate aptitude to speak of, it was practically negligible.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken him this long to experience true enlightenment for the first time.
As for this Youthful Wander...
What was its use?
Didn't this mean he had just recalled his initial aspiration?
Forget it, why waste time pondering future matters?
At the very least, right here and now, he had genuinely earned fifty thousand popularity points.
Clueless for the moment, Xiao Lin stopped thinking about it and raised his eyes to look at Gu Jinyao, who was drifting gracefully toward him.
Under the moonlight, she wore a white dress, her sleeves fluttering as she resembled a fairy descending from the moon, truly as gorgeous and illusory as a dream.
"What did you say to them?"
Xiao Lin pondered for a moment and briefly summarized most of his conversation with the Fallen Sword Immortal.
He left out only the wager, omitting it entirely.
Naturally, Gu Jinyao suspected nothing since she knew nothing of it.
But the barrage knew.
They were still savoring the previous battle when a sudden realization struck them.
"Wait!"
"Why didn't he mention the wager?"
"Is he trying to play the hero?"
"Obviously! Anyone can see he doesn't want Senior Sister to worry or get hurt. No matter what condition the Fallen Sword Immortal set for saving the townspeople, he'll sacrifice himself without a moment's hesitation."
"Haji-Lin, I grant you permission to be a deserter, but you are not allowed to die!"
"Death might actually be the best outcome; he could live forever in the hearts of his sect-mates and us. But if he becomes a cripple, then..."
"A proud son of heaven falling into the mortal dust, like Fang Zhongyong... I don't want to see that happen!"
"Holy crap, no!"
The barrage instantly went into a frenzy.
Although some sharp-eyed viewers had picked up on clues earlier, the vast majority had only cared about the plot progression.
Yet, after Xiao Lin's stunt, everyone suddenly understood what was at stake.
Seeing this, Xiao Lin smiled faintly in his heart.
That's right.
That was the exact reaction he wanted.
Gu Jinyao's delicate brows furrowed in slight distress. "Are we truly not going to report this to the elders?"
"With Golden Core cultivators making a move, Foundation Establishment evil cultivators can be wiped out with a wave of the hand."
Xiao Lin shook his head. "We can't afford to gamble. Perhaps we could afford the stakes, but these commoners cannot."
"Senior Sister, do you have the heart to watch the people who sold us clothes, toys, and snacks turn into corpses?"
Gu Jinyao instinctively shook her head. Her mind was filled with the warm, smiling faces of those people. Even though it had been a very brief encounter, to someone whose past consisted solely of the sword, it had unexpectedly become a deeply vibrant stroke in her memories.
"That settles it," Xiao Lin smiled faintly. "Besides, these evil cultivators were never much to begin with. Didn't the two of us working together manage to slay six of them outright? Once the others arrive, wiping them out will be no more difficult than turning our hands."
"Mm," Gu Jinyao nodded softly.
Xiao Lin raised a hand in a summon, and the righteous energy on Immortal Slayer and Leaving Song returned to his body.
Stretching lazily, he drifted back down toward the small boat he had started on. "We wasted so much time, and I still haven't caught a thing."
"Sigh, whatever, as long as there's fish to eat—even if that brat from the Heavenly Mystery Sect was the one who caught it... Senior Sister, let's eat fish!"
Gu Jinyao followed closely behind, a trace of a smile lingering at the corners of her lips—a smile she wasn't even aware of.
She thought to herself that if this was what it meant to temper one's heart in the mortal world, she truly should have entered it much sooner.
Just how much joy had she missed out on...