https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-861-Sword-Master-Showdown-Yecheng-vs-Sasuke-Kozuma-/12948727/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-863-Heroic-Spirits-Gather-at-Ryudou-Temple/12948729/
Chapter 862: The Ultimate Twin Blade Style vs. Secret Sword Yanfan!
Chapter 862: The Ultimate Twin Blade Style vs. Secret Sword Yanfan!
Night City's demeanor and exceptional swordsmanship earned Sasaki Kojiro's respect, prompting him to believe that continuing to pester him would be overstepping.
If Night City were to defeat him solely through swordsmanship, it wouldn't be a challenge, and his decision to do so was likely driven by a swordsman's pride.
Given the situation, facing such an admirable swordsman, Sasaki Kojiro naturally wanted to showcase his full strength to reciprocate the respect shown by his opponent.
"Is it the Secret Sword Yanfan?"
Sasaki Kojiro wasn't surprised that Night City openly revealed his ultimate technique, as even a nameless swordsman like him knew of Yanfan.
After all, to some extent, his technique, Yanfan, was far more renowned than he himself was.
The birth of Yanfan, according to legend, was inspired by the act of slicing a flying swallow in mid-air, hence its name. As everyone knows, swallows fly at incredible speeds, so Yanfan's defining characteristic is also its swiftness.
Even within the entire realm of swordsmanship, Yanfan is exceptionally famous, so much so that Sasaki Kojiro, its creator, gained recognition as a Heroic Spirit due to this technique.
"You're right, it's Yanfan. This is the most powerful technique I've acquired in my life of swordsmanship.
If you can successfully withstand my lethal strike, I, Sasaki Kojiro, will concede defeat and allow you to proceed."
Night City learned his true name and his knowledge of Yanfan, but Sasaki Kojiro wasn't concerned about that.
He possessed a unique skill, Zonghe's Insight, which allowed him to repeatedly use the same technique against the same opponent without any decrease in accuracy.
In other words, he had the ability to "become unreadable to his enemies."
Even if Night City knew the characteristics of Yanfan and had witnessed it firsthand, he might not be able to see through Sasaki Kojiro's ultimate technique!
"Secret Sword Yanfan——!"
Sasaki Kojiro, wielding his bamboo staff, unleashed three simultaneous slashes from three different directions in an instant!
It was indeed simultaneous! While Night City was adept at high-speed consecutive slashes, Sasaki Kojiro's strikes seemed to be executed at the same moment!
This wasn't an ordinary high-speed multi-slash technique; it was a series of slashes that, in a flash, disregarded the concepts of time and space, creating a simultaneous double strike from three directions.
This "multidimensional flash phenomenon" transcended elements like speed, precision, and feints, and it was a skill unknown to both magic and sorcery, reaching the high realm of the "Second Magic" despite its limitations.
As Sasaki Kojiro's swordplay enveloped him, Night City felt a sense of danger for the first time since the start of the battle.
Unlike the original plot, where Sasaki Kojiro's Noble Phantasm was Yanfan, the current Sasaki Kojiro, summoned through the normal process and with Shirou Emiya as his Master, had even more impressive abilities due to Shirou's excellent potential.
His bamboo staff, now a Noble Phantasm, possessed the same effect as Diarmuid's Noble Phantasm, "The Unfading Rose of Mortality."
With the added effect of being incurable and the unevadable Yanfan, it was evident how formidable this Sasaki Kojiro was.
Unlike Cu Chulainn's "Piercing Dead Thorn Spear," which could reverse causality, this was another type of unavoidable fatal strike.
In the original plot, Saber was able to evade Sasaki Kojiro's Yanfan because of her Super Intuition, which allowed her to foresee her own death and thus anticipate his attack trajectory, ensuring her successful evasion.
Night City did not possess an inherent ability like Super Intuition, but he had honed his swordsmanship to the extreme, achieving the "Mind's Eye."
While a sword may cut the flesh, the mind can strike the soul. When one's state of mind reaches the calmness of a still mirror and their skills are honed to perfection, the Mind's Eye can perceive things beyond the reach of the physical eye.
"Ding——————!"
In the midst of a dark, static space, three purple crescent-shaped slashes from different directions enveloped Night City.
Sasaki Kojiro, somewhat astonished, witnessed Night City's reaction to his strike, managing to block the first slash.
However, Sasaki Kojiro was only slightly surprised by Night City's responsiveness, as it was normal for a swordsman of Night City's caliber to perceive Yanfan.
But Yanfan was not just a simple technique. Blocking the first slash was one thing, but the true lethal attack lay in the other two slashes that almost ignored the constraints of time and space! Even if Night City could see them, could his body keep up with his consciousness? Unless Night City could, like Sasaki Kojiro, comprehend the "Yanfan," a multidimensional flash phenomenon, he would have no chance of blocking the attack.
However, what Sasaki Kojiro did not anticipate was that after blocking the first flash, Night City's other hand suddenly pulled another sword from the void and parried the second flash of Yanfan!
As for the final flash of Yanfan, it was blocked by Night City's final dual-wielding stance.
In the real world, from the moment Sasaki Kojiro initiated Yanfan until now, only a fleeting moment had passed. Night City and Sasaki Kojiro seemed to have not taken a single step, yet their movements created lingering afterimages, and sparks and soundwaves erupted simultaneously.
Evidently, their previous clash had far surpassed the speed of sound and, to some extent, transcended the constraints of time and space.
Their confrontation had ended, and the sparks and sounds that resulted from their collision emerged afterward, indicating the astonishing speed they had just exhibited.
Gazing at the object-drying staff held by Night City's dual-wielding stance, Sasaki Kojiro was momentarily stunned before breaking into a relieved smile. "A dual-blade style with the Mind's Eye? Your swordsmanship reminds me of a dear departed friend."
Sasaki Kojiro, renowned in folklore as the "Legendary Sword Master," possessed exceptional sword skills but was not without rivals.
There were numerous legends about him, and it was said that his greatest adversary was Miyamoto Musashi, the founder of the Nitten Ichi-ryu style.
Sasaki Kojiro never imagined that someone could receive his Yanfan head-on, especially using a dual-blade style.
"Your Secret Sword Yanfan is formidable. In an instant, you unleash three slashes that disregard the constraints of space and time. Even I cannot match that.
To counter it, I had to resort to a clever approach. If the frequency of single-handed sword attacks is one, then dual-wielding doubles or even surpasses that!
By perceiving the attack trajectory with the Mind's Eye and then employing the speed and frequency of the dual-blade style to counter the technique, this was the only way I could think of to survive... no, to stay alive."
Unlike Saber, who used Super Intuition to dodge, Night City's method of directly blocking Yanfan was evidently more challenging and valuable.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
