The change had come so suddenly that not only were Gu Chengming and the Hundred Bones Resonance left reeling — even the Qingxin Formula, which had been lurking quietly on the sidelines this whole time, was blasted out of its spectator's crouch.
[The Qingxin Formula is curious to see how you'll handle this entertaining little surprise.]
[Qingxin Formula Affection +1]
Could you not gain affection points at a time like this? It looked, no matter how you sliced it, like schadenfreude.
He'd barely finished that internal grumble when the text in front of him shifted again.
[The Huiyuan Sword Art sees your utterly gobsmacked expression and can't help but feel a little confused.]
[What's wrong — don't you like its new look? ♪]
And compared to Gu Chengming's shock, the other party's reaction was far more extreme — bordering, one might say, on horrified.
[The Hundred Bones Resonance thinks to itself: holy hell, has it been body-snatched by some mighty cultivation art?]
[Though it had long understood that the path of cultivation was fraught with peril, the sight before it couldn't help but stir a mournful sympathy in its heart — the grief of the fox at the death of the hare.]
[It thinks: rest easy on your journey, fellow Sword Art. I'll take good care of Gu Chengming in your place.]
Gu Chengming's expression went flat, but he didn't spare much attention for the Hundred Bones Resonance.
The concept of "body-snatching" did exist within the lore of this immortal cultivation game.
In the underlying logic of the system, if a romance target — whether a person, a demon, or a vessel-spirit — was fully body-snatched and its fundamental nature replaced, the name displayed in-game would automatically change to the true name of whoever had taken over.
Gu Chengming had accounted for this when building the mod.
The moment a romance target was "body-snatched," the name floating above their head would be swapped out for the name of the entity that had claimed them.
But right now…
Gu Chengming checked the panel one more time.
[Huiyuan Sword Art: Flowing Light, Sword Shadows (CG: Locked)]
The subject was still "Huiyuan Sword Art."
There was just a new suffix.
Flowing Light, Sword Shadows.
Right. In principle, that should mean things were fine.
So the reason the Huiyuan Sword Art had ended up like this was probably because the Flowing Light, Sword Shadows technique had originally been derived from a different cultivation art.
He vaguely remembered the system had mentioned a name for it once. Something like… the Flowing Cloud, Moon-Following Sword Art?
A hypothesis took shape in Gu Chengming's mind.
So the personality shift the Huiyuan Sword Art was displaying right now — was that actually the Flowing Cloud, Moon-Following Sword Art's personality bleeding through?
Which would mean the locked CG tied to this new suffix was probably connected to the Flowing Cloud, Moon-Following Sword Art as well.
But that immediately raised a new problem.
As the saying goes: know yourself, know your enemy, and you'll never lose a hundred battles.
To court a target, you first had to get a read on their temperament.
The old Huiyuan Sword Art had been easy enough to understand — just keep the little aggrieved wife company, and her resentment would naturally dissolve on its own.
But this new version…
Characters who spoke in wave tildes and musical notes were usually either the kind who'd flip from sweet to vicious in an instant, or the utterly unreadable chaos gremlin type.
He'd have to feel things out.
His mind made up, Gu Chengming decided to take the initiative. He reached out with a careful, tentative thought:
"How are you feeling?"
The response came quickly, carrying that same inscrutable cheerfulness as before.
[The Huiyuan Sword Art lets out a little giggle — is it being called? ♪]
Gu Chengming: "…"
Could you not put musical notes in your speech? I can't actually hear them, you know.
Still, the musical notes might be a useful angle to probe.
He steadied himself and pressed on: "Your personality seems to have changed quite a bit. Is it because you've absorbed the essence of Flowing Light, Sword Shadows?"
This time, the response came half a beat slower.
[The Huiyuan Sword Art blinks, and decides to keep that a secret.]
[It says: why bother picking apart such dry theoretical questions?]
[What matters is that it's gotten so much stronger now. Not only can it help you swing your sword faster, it can also…]
[It deliberately dangles the thought, unfinished.]
[…let you see more interesting scenery along the way. Isn't that a good thing? ♪]
Gu Chengming's brow furrowed slightly.
Deflection. Subject change.
And the kind of deflection, at that, where you couldn't even call it out — where it somehow came across as a little bit charming.
This was a world away from the old Huiyuan Sword Art, the one that had worn its every thought on its sleeve — that had laid bare even its smallest insecurities without any filter at all.
After this brief exchange, a rough first impression had already taken shape in Gu Chengming's mind.
More animated. More mischievous.
And considerably better at… putting on a performance.
That was exactly the right word for it: a performance.
This was what concerned Gu Chengming the most.
According to the system's design, the interactions between a cultivation art and its practitioner were essentially a direct manifestation of the art's "inner voice" — what he saw was its unfiltered true self.
But now, faced with this brand-new version of the Huiyuan Sword Art, Gu Chengming was struck by a powerful sense of wrongness.
Every line it said looked like an expression of emotion — but it felt far more like… acting.
It was playing a role: "lively, adorable, just a touch mysterious."
The "♪" symbols. The descriptions of it blinking. All of it formed a curtain, drawn tight, concealing its true intentions and thoughts behind the facade.
It was having a conversation with you — but it wasn't letting you see its heart.
This gave Gu Chengming a bit of a headache.
Courting a target who actively misled you — or at the very least, held things back from you — raised the difficulty level by a geometric factor.
"This is going to be tricky…"
Gu Chengming rubbed his temple.
It used to be: "I can hear your inner voice, so I know exactly how to coax you."
Now it was: "I can hear what you're saying, but I have no idea which parts are real and which parts are you messing with me."
It was like playing a dating sim where every option read "???" — one wrong choice and you'd be railroaded straight into a Bad End.
Just as Gu Chengming sank into brooding silence, another line of text flickered to life in his mind.
[The Huiyuan Sword Art watches you frown and fall deep into thought. It seems to find this rather entertaining.]
[It wants to poke your cheek.]
[Why so quiet? Did its new look frighten you? Or perhaps…]
The text paused for a moment, then resumed in a lighter, breezier tone.
[…are you thinking about how to get to know it all over again?]
[It's alright, you know. We have all the time in the world. Take it slow~ ♪]
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