No one can step into the same river twice.No one can truly understand another person—sometimes not even their future self.
Hoshimi Miyabi had never felt those old maxims so sharply, because they described exactly what she was experiencing now.
From the fragment of her future self that she had absorbed, Miyabi knew that in a not-so-distant future, the version of her who had glimpsed a sliver of the world's "realness" would wield a slash capable of harming the real itself—a power born from a profound understanding of the world's essence.
And yet the technique she had grasped this time, after seeing that "realness," was something entirely different:
To slash from the future into the past.
Eisen hadn't been exaggerating.
He had said that the reason he brought the "soul" of their techniques back into the past was precisely because, without doing so, Miyabi and Yixuan would never be able to perform the same technique again—even if Miyabi sparred with him a second time, even if Yixuan watched him paint with the Dark Soul all over again.
If Miyabi had merely witnessed Eisen's strength and listened to his explanation of the world's nature, she might still have been able to cut a blade that touched the world's essence—but the route and the shape of that blade would inevitably differ from the one her future self had forged.
Because experience and perspective shape the direction of power.
And compared to her future self, Miyabi had witnessed something else—something even more peculiar: an authentic reversal of time, and a person her future self had already challenged, but her present self had never challenged at all.
That strange experience planted a seed in her heart.
Then Rin issued the commission: complete the special physical test as fast as possible.
The word fast circled her mind like a blade's edge.
No matter how far she pushed her speed, there would always be a delay between an enemy appearing and her cutting it down—even if that delay was only a few hundredths of a second.
That was the iron law of physics.
So then—could the delay be erased?
Could she kill the enemy the instant it appeared—no, as it appeared?
That seemed like the extreme of speed.
No.
That still wasn't fast enough.
The true fastest was to erase the enemy before it ever appeared.
The moment that thought flashed through her consciousness like lightning, time—once abstract, unfathomable—suddenly became visible to her as countless interwoven threads.
She saw it.
On a line extending into the future, her future self swung an incomparably swift blade.
The slash killed a thug projection in the past—a projection that hadn't even appeared yet—and completed the test in -1 second.
A paradox.
And yet, in the instant her future self swung that blade, the time-thread that carried the action—future her swinging—was wiped away as if erased.
Because present Miyabi had already completed the task before the target appeared.
She would never swing that future blade to "correct" it.
You can't enter the same river twice.
Just as the Miyabi who mastered the "real-cutting" slash was effectively gone, that version of her had already died.
The one standing here now was Miyabi who had grasped a paradox—who had cut a blade beyond time itself.
After answering Fairy's question, Miyabi's hand rested lightly on Wuwei's hilt.
No buildup. No warning.
The moment her fingers touched the grip—
Clang.
A blade-note so clear it felt like it could split space detonated into being.
A shapeless air-slash—like a dragon ripping free of its chains—burst forward from her position.
It tore through the air with a needle-sharp scream, driving straight ahead with savage precision.
Hundreds of meters vanished in an instant. The simulated wall received a gash so deep it looked bottomless.
And Miyabi's draw was so fast it left not even the faintest afterimage.
To an observer, her hand never even seemed to leave the hilt—the slash looked as though it had been born from empty space.
She had become stronger.
No need to exit the test space. No need to return to the real world and measure it with instruments.
The instant she performed the "future-to-past" cut, a crisp instinct told her the truth:
She had completed Rin's commission.She had been rewarded.She had become stronger.
But the sensation of that strength was… strange.
It wasn't a roaring flood of raw power. It was like countless tiny streams seeping quietly through her entire body.
Her muscle fibers felt denser, more resilient. The flow of coordination during exertion became smoother by a hair. Her eyes caught motion more sharply. Her flexibility—especially the linkage between waist, core, shoulders, and back—improved a little.
Each individual enhancement was negligible.
It existed, yes—but in ordinary movement, walking, jumping, daily action, you could barely feel it.
And yet the moment she held a blade, everything changed.
Her lightning draw just now proved it:
Her speed was roughly one-third faster than before.
That wasn't "a little faster." That was a qualitative leap—from extremely fast into the territory of the absurd.
And what made her heart tighten was the power of that air-slash.
Its destructive force was more than half again as strong as it used to be.
Those tiny, scattered improvements—strength, coordination, dynamic vision, flexibility—were no longer separate.
During the act of swinging a blade, they underwent a kind of chemical reaction.
They were unified by an invisible hand, twisted into a single strand, and every microscopic gain was redirected with perfect accuracy into the blade's arc, the instant of force delivery, the angle the edge cleaved through air.
The result was explosive amplification.
A one-third to one-half boost—so large that even Miyabi, with her usual calm and brutally precise self-awareness, felt genuine astonishment.
This wasn't the improvement of muscle memory earned through bitter practice.
It was her body itself being reshaped into something more perfectly suited to swordsmanship.
Back in the reception room of the video store, under the soft light, Miyabi opened her eyes as her consciousness returned from the virtual test space.
"Well?"
The moment she came to, two scorching gazes locked onto her.
Rin's bright eyes were practically glowing; she leaned forward, excitement and curiosity written openly across her face.
Zhe tried to maintain a steady older-brother demeanor, but the tightness of his fist gave away his tension and concern.
Only Eisen stood to the side, a faint smile appearing when Miyabi woke—silent, as if he already knew.
Miyabi met Rin and Zhe's gaze. No buildup, no flourish. She delivered the conclusion immediately:
"The commission was successfully completed. I did become significantly stronger."
"YES!"
Rin sprang off the sofa and dashed to Miyabi, grabbing her arm and shaking it with unfiltered glee.
"That's awesome! I knew you'd pull it off! Tell me—tell me! What does it feel like? What got stronger?!"
Miyabi's arm rocked slightly under Rin's shaking, but her expression stayed neutral. In her steady tone, she described exactly what she had observed in the training arena—the scattered, subtle physical upgrades that turned into an enormous multiplier the moment she swung a blade.
After listening, Rin released Miyabi's arm, rubbed her chin, and fell into thought. Her excitement dimmed into a focused seriousness.
"Hm… when I issued the commission, my core goal was to boost your cutting power through slaying targets. So the reward being 'stronger slashes' isn't strange…"
She paused, brows knitting with confusion.
"But the method of the reward… that's really not what I expected."
She looked up at Zhe.
"Normally, a slash's power should link directly to physical stats, right? Strength, speed, explosive power—raise those, and the slash gets stronger. But Miyabi's situation…"
She gestured at Miyabi.
"Her base stats barely moved—almost ignorable—yet once she picks up a sword, the power spikes. It feels like the Creator authority skipped 'strengthen the body' entirely and acted directly on the outcome of 'swinging a blade.' Like it slapped a 'slash damage +50%' buff on her."
Zhe frowned, thinking hard.
"What Rin says makes sense. But from another angle… could it be that what changed wasn't her raw power, but her talent?"
He looked to Miyabi, unsure.
"Not increasing her ceiling directly—rather changing her body structure and neural reaction patterns to be more suited to swordsmanship?"
"Huh?!"
Rin stared at him like he'd said something outrageous.
"Bro, are you kidding me? Miyabi's talent is already a monster sitting at the absolute peak of swordsmanship in this world. Don't you remember what we said earlier—she just heard the group leader's understanding of the world and immediately realized a slash that could hurt him! Even the group leader admitted she'd be top-tier in any world."
Rin threw up her hands.
"If Creator authority could casually raise her talent ceiling again, then how trash would everyone else's talent have to be?!"
Zhe looked awkward but didn't back down.
"I'm just pushing your ability in the strongest direction I can imagine! It's Creator authority—'Creator' should already mean it breaks our common sense, shouldn't it?"
Their debate hit a wall. Rin and Zhe—along with Miyabi—turned their eyes to the fourth person in the room.
Rin asked, straight to the point:
"Group leader, what do you think? What's really happening here?"
Eisen turned slowly, gaze resting on Miyabi for a moment as if confirming something, then he spoke calmly:
"Both of your guesses touch the edge of it… but neither is fully correct."
Rin and Zhe instinctively held their breath. Even Miyabi lifted her eyes slightly.
"Creator authority did adjust Miyabi's body," Eisen said evenly.
"And in terms of outcome, her talent in the domain of swordsmanship did become stronger. But strictly speaking, her base talent ceiling was not crudely forced upward."
"Huh?"
Rin looked even more lost, scratching her head.
"Group leader, that sounds contradictory. You adjusted her body, her talent got stronger, but the ceiling didn't change? How does that even work?"
Instead of answering directly, Eisen asked a question.
"In your view, for an authority like this—what is harder to modify, and what is easier?"
The three exchanged glances.
Rin and Zhe looked blank. Miyabi stayed quiet.
Authority? Modifying the world?
They weren't holders of such power. How could they possibly know?
Rin technically carried one—but couldn't even use it properly.
Seeing the silence, Eisen stopped circling and gave the answer:
"It varies by world. But in your world, Rin, the trace of Creator authority inside you can more easily modify things that the world itself—and its people—do not care about deeply, do not anchor strongly."
He continued, voice precise:
"Conversely, anything nailed down by countless gazes, countless recognitions, and layers of rule-anchoring is extremely difficult to alter."
His eyes returned to Miyabi.
"Take Miyabi's physical strength. Creator authority certainly could double her muscle output and make her bones denser overnight. But her body, her form, even her measurable data—these are remembered by countless fans, archived in detail by HAND's upper levels, backed by massive amounts of footage and records."
He spoke the key point clearly:
"The entire city's cognition—countless eyes, countless minds—anchors 'Hoshimi Miyabi' as a fixed existence. She 'should be' this height, this weight, this baseline of power. Her name and image are nailed into the world's rules."
"In that state, trying to brute-force her fundamental physical stats is like prying up a steel plate pinned down by billions of nails. The resistance is enormous, the cost is terrifying, and it risks triggering the world's rejection and correction."
"So the authority chose a far cleverer shortcut."
Eisen's tone remained calm, but the logic carried weight.
"As Rin accidentally said earlier—Hoshimi Miyabi already stands at the peak of sword talent in this world. Then tell me: how many people can actually define, with precision, what the 'ceiling' of sword talent truly is?"
He looked around the room.
The answer was obvious.
"Very few," Eisen said.
"Only Miyabi herself, and a handful of peers at a comparable level, can meaningfully anchor where that ceiling truly lies."
"So for Creator authority, the most economical, covert, and rule-conforming approach is not to force Miyabi upward directly…"
He paused.
"…but to tilt the world—just slightly."
"Tilt… the world?" Rin repeated, disbelief leaking into her voice.
"Yes." Eisen nodded.
"What the authority did was raise the world's ceiling in the axis of 'sword talent' by an extremely tiny margin—so tiny it's almost unnoticeable."
"And while raising it, it subtly shaped that higher ceiling to lean—ever so slightly—toward the direction represented by Miyabi."
He looked at Miyabi.
"Picture the roof of sword talent being nudged upward by a small amount. Then, as the one standing at the top, Miyabi naturally gains more leverage—more rule-level 'space' to draw upon—when she swings."
"That's why her slash power rises dramatically, while her general physical stats—the parts anchored by countless observers—change only minimally. Those small scattered enhancements are not 'raw stat boosts,' but micro-optimizations that harmonize her body with sword action under the new rule-shape."
Miyabi remained composed, but something flickered in her eyes—so slight it was almost nothing.
Rin and Zhe, however, reacted as though struck.
They both inhaled sharply.
Zhe's eyes widened, mouth parting—finally grasping what the words Creator authority truly implied.
"My god…"
Rin stared at Miyabi, then at her own hands. Shock flooded her—followed by a cold, delayed fear.
"I always knew it was ridiculous, but I didn't realize it was this ridiculous. Modifying the world's talent ceiling…?"
She couldn't find words for the storm in her chest.
Zhe managed, voice dry with awe:
"I already imagined it as something outrageously powerful… and yet the truth is even more insane than I thought."
He looked at Rin, expression complicated—as if he was seeing, for the first time, what truly slept inside his little sister.
After the initial impact, Rin drew a few deep breaths, forcibly steadying herself. She rubbed her stiff cheeks and gave a crooked smile.
"…Honestly, if I think about it, maybe it's not that surprising?"
She muttered, almost to herself.
"Leaf Shunguang could use the Progenitor authority inside Qingming Sword to rewrite my past until it was unrecognizable…"
She exhaled.
"Compared to that, the Creator authority inside me just quietly nudging the world's sword ceiling up a little… and letting it lean slightly toward Miyabi…"
Her voice dwindled.
"…yeah. In this messed-up world, that does sound… almost reasonable."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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