"System notification: The Sword of Goujian is beginning to coordinate its awakening. A protective shield for a named sword has been generated. Players can enter the protective shield to wait for the birth of the Sword of Goujian."
"It's a waste of effort. The protective shield for a named sword is immune to attacks from Yuankou below the Jiao level... Oh right, you don't even know what Jiao level means. You're just a Gui level."
Inside an invisible protective shield, Gu Han spoke indifferently.
The initial stage of the sword maiden's synchronized coordination requires protection, but when the synchronization enters the final stage and the awakened sword maiden is about to be born, the powerful sword aura of the newborn sword maiden will form a significant protective shield. Only sword bearers or sword maidens with sword elements in their bodies can enter this shield. If a Yuankou wants to approach, it can only break the shield by force. However, this shield can resist attacks from any Yuankou below its own level. As a named sword, the Sword of Goujian can directly ignore attacks from Yuankou at the Shu, Hu, Gui, and Hun levels.
Although the steel-toothed creature outside the shield didn't understand what the brat was saying, it was so angry at being tricked that it almost bit its own steel teeth off.
It was only at this moment that the steel-toothed creature realized why the other party had been counting down the time... The real purpose was to hold it back and not attack the motionless little brat.
After the human delayed for two minutes by using his abdomen; when the steel-toothed creature decided to remove its hand from the abdomen and crush the other party's head, the human suddenly leaped up at an incredible speed, his toes even touching the steel-toothed creature's iron claws, and landed next to Liu Nianli... This speed was even faster than the steel-toothed creature's attack. If the human had such speed, he should have easily avoided the wild wolf's heart attack earlier.
The steel-toothed creature naturally wouldn't let the human go. When it chased after the human and tried to attack, it was blocked by an invisible aura shield... Even using all its demonic power and the ultimate skill, the Blood-Breaking Iron Claw, it couldn't break through the shield's protection.
"Is the Sword of Goujian about to be born? The skin of the sword ancestor has already started to soften." Inside the shield, Gu Han no longer cared about the steel-toothed creature outside, his eyes fixed on Liu Nianli, and one hand was rather lewdly touching Liu Nianli's protruding belly... Yes, you didn't misread, Liu Nianli's belly was bulging.
When the sword maiden's physical body touches the synchronized sword bearer, it will enter the sword bearer's Zifu through the sword element circuit in the sword bearer's body, using the sword bearer's sword elements to nurture the physical body... The entire process is similar to pregnancy, starting from a small embryo and growing. The only difference is that the pregnant person can be of any gender, and the growth rate is very fast, not requiring ten months, usually just one hour at most.
The time generally depends on the strength of the sword maiden. If Gu Han had synchronized with the three initial sword maidens at the ancient sword level, it would have only taken two minutes of pregnancy...
Focusing back on Liu Nianli, after ten minutes of nurturing, Liu Nianli's belly had grown significantly, about the size of a basketball... This was a very grotesque scene, as the poor person with the big belly was just a child under fourteen years old... and a boy.
Although the nurturing position for synchronized coordination was somewhat grotesque, the birth method was relatively normal. A fully nurtured sword maiden would float out from the sword bearer's Zifu and flesh, like a phantom yuan ying, and upon contact with the air, complete the final physical materialization, becoming a true sword maiden. It wouldn't be pulled out from some strange place as some grotesque people might imagine...
Generally, when the sword bearer gradually wakes up from the petrified state and regains control of their body, it means that the sword maiden will be born from their body within five seconds at most.
Just like now, Liu Nianli's little finger, which had been motionless, suddenly bent.
"Finally, it's about to be born!" Gu Han, who noticed the change first, tightened his expression and firmly gripped the handle of the Qingpin Sword. "For the sake of humanity, I am justice!!!"
---
"10 seconds to reach the honest man's grocery store!!"
"1 minute to find the sword ancestor"
"8 minutes to persuade and pack the items"
"20 minutes to reach the provincial museum"
"5 minutes to find the Sword of Goujian and persuade the sword ancestor to synchronize"
"10 minutes to choose the initial sword maiden and awaken, and resist six waves of wild wolves"
"2 minutes for the final coordination and awakening of the Sword of Goujian"
"If you add up all this time, it's 47 minutes!!" Nian Mingyue pointed and drew on the virtual screen floating in front of him, and soon a complete table showing Gu Han's task time appeared. "These are the most optimized times. If your childhood friend, Toad, didn't hide any secrets from you except for the last battle, this time is the time consumed before the last battle, with an error of no more than 1 minute." In fact, Gu Han only spent 45 minutes, reducing the theoretical limit in the forum by 2 minutes, but Nian Mingyue couldn't know this.
"If you want to get an SSS rating, there are only thirteen minutes left!!" Nian Mingyue fell silent, deeply lost in thought. The noisy Toad and Anning also obediently shut their mouths, not daring to disturb the boss... They didn't want to be brutally beaten by the boss, even though they were already used to it.
"Toad, how much time did you spend assisting the sword ancestor in resisting the steel-toothed creature?" Nian Mingyue shook his head to clear his mind a bit.
"About fifty minutes, I remember the time was just one hour when I first saw Lord Goujian." Toad answered honestly.
"Anning, how about you?" Nian Mingyue asked again.
"Hehe! Boss, can you not ask me this question? You don't know my situation... I'm still above average among new players, but compared to this scoundrel, it's a long way off. I don't want to lose face in front of this scoundrel."
"I told you to say it, so say it..." Nian Mingyue glared at Anning fiercely.
"......Yes......Boss......Anning spent two hours and fifty minutes to kill the steel-toothed creature......But it's not Anning's fault. Lord Goujian is too clumsy, only knowing a few direct moves... If Anning did it herself, it wouldn't take an hour and a half... At most fifty minutes..." Anning spoke hesitantly, feeling embarrassed that she took two hours longer than the scoundrel.
"Two hours and fifty minutes, not bad, most people can't even do it in four hours..." Toad rarely praised Anning.
"Scoundrel, Toad, you're laughing at me!!" Anning didn't understand the encouragement in Toad's words and instead felt mocked, immediately stomping on Toad's foot hard.
"You... You... You stepped on me..."
"What if I did... Scoundrel... Toad... I'll stomp you to death... I'll stomp you to death... How dare you mock me... I'll stomp you to death..." Anning continued to stomp relentlessly.
"Enough, do you want to spar with me... Both of you, be quiet!" Nian Mingyue's head was about to explode from their arguing, and he immediately shouted.
"Yes, Boss!"
"Yes, Boss!" The two became obedient again.
"I spent one hour!!" Nian Mingyue muttered to himself. "Toad, tell me, what's the difficulty of the last battle?"
"Difficulty?" Toad thought for a moment. "As Anning said, it's because Lady Goujian is too clumsy. After awakening, Lady Goujian seems to have completely lost her inherited sword techniques. Although she has the attack and sword aura of a named sword, her moves are worse than an ordinary person's. Fighting is like drawing, and it's difficult to even touch the steel-toothed creature's clothes when facing a creature known for its agility. Lady Goujian has the power of a named sword, but her attacks are as immature as a child's. She can only hit a stationary target. I followed the forum's strategy, risking my life to have Qingfeng attack the steel-toothed creature's feet to slow it down, then using my body to entangle the steel-toothed creature so Lady Goujian could attack it, and finally killed it. Toad, Anning, did you do the same?"
"Yes! That steel-toothed creature is too fast, and Bai Tie's speed isn't as fast as Qingfeng's. I died fifty times, and Bai Tie hardly hit the steel-toothed creature once. In the end, I had Bai Tie close his eyes and slash randomly, which hit a lot of times, taking four hours... Still, Boss, you're amazing, you did it in just one hour!!"
"Wait... Didn't you say you only spent two... Cough, cough... Don't look at me like that, I know nothing." Toad coughed. "Thanks to a month of sword practice with my childhood friend, I had Qingfeng change into sword form and attack recklessly, and I got lucky, finishing ten minutes faster than the boss."
"This has nothing to do with luck, it's your skill. Even Lord Yaoguang took an hour to defeat the steel-toothed creature. Toad, when you have the chance, have Qiuyue change into sword form and let me see your true strength."
"Yes, Boss..." Toad smiled bitterly. Since the initial dungeon, he hadn't practiced any sword techniques. It seemed he would have to return to the hard days.
"Toad, the more you talk, the more curious I become about your childhood friend. How skilled must his sword techniques be to defeat the steel-toothed creature in just thirteen minutes? Sword masters are rare in this world." Nian Mingyue paused, his face full of seriousness and excitement. "As far as I know, there are no more than two hands' worth of sword masters in this world who can reach that level with their sword techniques alone, and they are all old masters."