Chapter 9: The Blade of Nothingness

Silver moonlight bathed every corner of the mountain slope.

Underneath the moon, a beautiful woman with long scarlet hair stood outside an old temple. She wore a simple yet striking outfit—white above, red below.

"Does it fit well?"

Kikyō emerged from the temple, studying Yae Sakura standing in the moonlight before her. The clothes seemed to suit her perfectly.

"Mm-hmm," Yae Sakura agreed, turning slightly. If not for the pair of ears atop her head, she'd look just like a real shrine maiden.

Those long ears were quite distracting though.

"As long as it fits! Here's a cloak for you too. You don't have much demonic energy, so if you cover your ears, nobody should realize you're half-demon."

As Kikyō spoke, she handed Yae Sakura a cloak that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Then... she turned to go back inside the temple.

"Thank you..." Yae Sakura murmured, taking the cloak and watching Kikyō's retreating figure.

Hearing this, Kikyō paused briefly before continuing on her way into the temple.

Yae Sakura picked up the Gyakushin Miko uniform she had just removed. She wouldn't throw it away; instead, she put it directly into her inventory space.

Although it was already late at night, Yae Sakura wasn't even slightly sleepy. Instead, she eagerly examined the items in her inventory.

Just like her account, it was filled with countless weapons, Stigmata, and various other items whose uses were still unknown.

However... it seemed that the weapons and Stigmata equipped by Valkyries no longer appeared in the inventory as they did in the game.

Only un-equipped items showed up.

At that moment, there was a five-star katana in the inventory called Void Blade!

The characters who used katanas were only Yae Sakura and Mei. Both Yae Sakura and Mei basically had their own "final" weapons.

This Void Blade, on the other hand, was a spare. Sometimes Void was more useful than other weapons, so it wasn't always equipped for the Valkyries.

Yae Sakura took out the Void Blade. It was a deep blue katana overall, its shape resembling two snakes biting each other's tails, forming the symbol of infinity.

Now outside the game, Yae Sakura wasn't sure if weapons would add attributes to herself or not, but the difference between using a weapon and not using one was still very significant.

And just like in the game, weapons also came with their own skills.

Firstly, there was the ability of the spiritual blade...

The spiritual blade reduces harm to humans by half but doubles damage to non-human creatures.

It can kill people, but with much less harm. After all, it was a sacred blade revered by humans.

However, against monsters, mythical beasts, or even gods, it can double its wielder's damage output.

Then there are the two built-in skills...

[Blazing Cherry Chaos]: Increases damage to god-like beings by an additional 250%. If the target is marked with Blazing Sword Force, they'll also be stunned.

If not marked, it adds the mark of Blazing Sword Force.

This so-called "Blazing Sword Mark" is essentially residual sword energy from Yae Sakura's attacks.

Every strike from Yae leaves behind traces of this sword energy on her enemies. With just a few swings, she can plant enough energy to turn herself into a nuclear-powered sword spirit, unleashing devastating Hirafuri attacks!

And the second skill...

[Whirling Dance]: The spiritual blade generates waves of sword energy. In Yae's hands, a single flick can send out a wave without using any spiritual power.

Using her own spiritual power increases the wave's destructive force even more.

Combined with the blade's inherent strength, this is how the spiritual blade operates outside the game.

In short, it's a weapon for slaying demons and gods.

As the graduation weapon for a Gyakushinn Miko, it's designed specifically to combat divine entities.

If the spiritual blade was a godlike weapon, then nothingness was like an all-purpose tool.

The Edge of Nothingness dealt equal damage to any enemy race. Its two skills both directly increased its wielder's attack power:

Snake That Devours Itself: Creates a zone around the user that slows down time for nearby enemies for a set duration. During this time, the user's attacks become more powerful.

Energy Absorption: Passively absorbs some of the enemy's attacks and uses it to boost the user's own attack power.

It was very simple and direct...

Looks... I... Yae Sakura... will have to get used to wielding two blades from now on.

Besides weapons and Stigmata, there were many other items with unknown purposes.

For example, over a thousand Honkai fragments...

In the game, they could be exchanged for various things, but now?

--

Honkai Fragment: This fragment is filled with Honkai energy.

--

That was all the description said. Who knows what it could be used for?

Apart from these items, there was also a huge pile of instant noodles and mooncakes sent by the Valkyries. These should be edible right out of the box!

And in the inventory, there were countless Hanna Stigmata. Surely these can be equipped by others? Otherwise... I wouldn't need them at all.

"Can I cash out these gold coins?"

Looking at the number of gold coins—100 million...

In the game, it wasn't considered much. But if each coin was worth a hundred million real gold pieces...

Yae Sakura quickly tried extracting five coins.

Moments later... Five shiny golden coins, about the size of one-yuan coins, appeared in Yae Sakura's hand.

The front side showed three large characters: "Mihoyo", while the back had Homu's face on it.

"Are they made of real gold?"

Yae Sakura hurriedly bit down on one... It left a mark, feeling like pure gold...

At that moment, only one thought echoed through Yae Sakura's mind:

I'm rich...

The next morning...

After a sleepless night, having only rested her eyes briefly, Yae Sakura was early at the shrine practicing her sword techniques.

Falling Cherry Blossoms Style!

Though she'd gained all of Yae Sakura's abilities, it was like hitting the jackpot overnight. She knew how to use them, but wasn't yet proficient.

So "Yae Sakura" needed more practice. While not aiming for the true Yae Sakura's godlike skill, she had to become adept with these moves.

Unlike the other two Yae Sakuras—Salt Yae and Ice Yae—True Flame Sakitama used fire, and Goushinnso Memento used ice. The Gyakushinn Miko didn't rely on elemental damage; her strength lay in her exceptional swordsmanship.

The core of the Gyakushinn Miko's power was the explosive damage from Shunmetsu.

Single-target, massive damage!

It mainly involved using cherry blossom marks and Shunmetsu.

However... in this world, for most monsters, there was no need for Shunmetsu—a single slash would do them in.