"So it was all a misunderstanding!"
The three regrouped downstairs. Zhou Yuxuan clasped his hands and bowed to Shirou Emiya. "Well, not entirely a misunderstanding. The Wa Zhu was very interested in your earlier comments about 'circuits.' I was sent on her orders specifically to test you and verify the truth."
"Oh? Then what did you mean about hunters not being allowed in here?"
"The Wa Zhu values you highly. There's no harm in explaining."
Zhou Yuxuan spoke frankly—a completely different attitude from his earlier hostility toward Old Tang.
"Although this Chu Kingdom ruins mission is nominally led by the Wa Zhu, the hunters are only doing preliminary exploration. They have no right to the core interests. Afterward, we clan families will need to control and protect the ruins."
"Besides my Xiangyang Zhou family, several other hybrid clans from the surrounding regions—the Wu, Wang, Jiang, Chen, Sun, and Bai families—have jointly dispatched personnel. We're leveraging connections in political and business circles, using cultural industry development as a pretext to establish control...
"The scheduled time is still early. The Wa Zhu sent me ahead specifically to meet you. If your so-called Western magic is real, my Zhou family promises to grant you one request within our capabilities."
"Huh? You value me that much?" Shirou was a bit puzzled.
Or could it be that the hybrid clans are looking to branch into the magecraft field?
"That's how much we value you... but only if you can demonstrate your real abilities!"
Zhou Yuxuan's form shifted, and only then did Shirou notice the ring-pommel broadsword strapped to his back, practically flush against it. One glance was enough to tell it was extremely heavy. A rusted bronze chain connected to the ring pommel.
Old Tang saw Zhou Yuxuan suddenly produce what was clearly a serious weapon and protested loudly that this was overkill.
But Shirou Emiya was actually getting excited.
China's ring-pommel swords took form during the Han Dynasty and continued through the Tang Dynasty. Historically, Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms period wielded a heavy ring-pommel blade called "Scourge of Ten Thousand." (Romance of the Three Kingdoms changed it to the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.) With Shirou's discerning eye, it was easy to judge this as a weapon of ancient lineage.
This could qualify as a Noble Phantasm!
Unexpectedly, Zhou Yuxuan didn't draw the heavy sword from its wide black scabbard. Instead, he attacked with the bronze chain!
Clang—!
Shirou drew two katanas of different lengths from his weapon case and blocked the incoming chain with a diagonal slash.
Before he could counterattack, his opponent pressed forward, swinging the chain. Shirou held his twin blades and exchanged rapid blows, metal ringing against metal.
It seemed evenly matched, but Zhou Yuxuan's offensive never let up. He whipped the bronze chain like a ferocious lash, dense and impenetrable, steadily advancing. The chain's attack angles were extremely wide. Shirou's katanas could only protect his body, pinning him within a fixed range. Sparks flickered in the air.
"Is this all you've got?"
Shirou didn't respond to such basic provocation. Suddenly, an unusual elemental flow stirred within his body. Circuit-board-like luminous patterns appeared on his hands and feet. Elements concentrated in his eyes as well.
Reinforcement magecraft.
In an instant, his strength and vision surged dramatically. His enhanced dynamic vision tracked the bronze "whip's" trajectories through the rapid exchange.
Crack! Shirou actually inserted his blade precisely into a gap between the chain links with one hand!
"!?"
Zhou Yuxuan's heart lurched. He watched as Shirou pulled and swung with the blade, and found himself helplessly dragged forward by the overwhelming force transmitted through the chain. Meanwhile, Shirou's other hand was steadily raising its katana—he was about to crash right into the blade!
Without question, if this strike landed cleanly, the fight would be decided!
Realizing the crisis, Zhou Yuxuan's golden pupils blazed brilliantly. The domain of Word Spirit: Iron Flow rapidly deployed.
Boom!
A muffled impact. Shirou's katana struck a small metal shield hastily constructed by Iron Flow.
Zhou Yuxuan took the opportunity to retract his chain. He looked at the prominent gash cleaved into his shield and fell silent.
Shirou clearly hadn't used his full strength. With the alchemical katana in his hands and that sudden surge of power, splitting this hastily-made shield would have been no problem.
As for why Zhou Yuxuan judged it to be an alchemical katana? Because his Word Spirit: Iron Flow—capable of controlling metal—couldn't affect Shirou's weapons at all.
Shirou's weapon case must contain spare blades as well, but Zhou Yuxuan couldn't influence any of them. The answer was obvious: all of Shirou's weapons were alchemical weapons made from regenerative metal!
Only through masterful alchemy—"killing" metal, purging impurities, granting rebirth to create regenerative metal—could weapons escape his Word Spirit's control and possess performance that broke normal limits!
It seemed what the Wa Zhu said that day was absolutely true: Shirou's alchemy was transcendent.
Then, was that technique where Shirou's strength suddenly increased a Word Spirit? Or the "magic" he spoke of?
He needed to probe further.
This time, Zhou Yuxuan didn't swing the chain. Instead, he raised the heavy ring-pommel broadsword—wide as a door panel—and attacked with crushing force.
BOOM—!
The heavy mass descended in a cleave. Air pressure blasted outward. Violent sparks erupted between their weapons. The escalating clash made the concrete beneath them groan under the strain.
Yet Zhou Yuxuan didn't feel at ease. He was the one wielding the imposing door-panel greatsword while Shirou used elegant, sharp katanas—but their situations had completely reversed.
Piercing, shrill blade-song echoed all around. Shirou's alchemical twin blades formed astonishing silver arcs. Not the structured forms of classical martial schools, but pure "my-style" battlefield techniques—rapid and lethal, catching opponents off-guard and leaving them scrambling.
"Ugh...!"
Even with this exceptional alchemical greatsword, Zhou Yuxuan was being forced back by the sheer force behind Shirou's strikes. After a dozen exchanges, his arms had gone numb from the tremendous power transmitted along the blades.
He gritted his teeth and persisted. His golden pupils burned even brighter. Actually, his Word Spirit: Iron Flow had another application—at close range, he could extract the metallic elements from an opponent's body.
The body's trace metal elements were crucial components for maintaining life functions. Extract them, and the opponent would lose the ability to move.
Zhou Yuxuan figured this technique was basically impossible to fail except for the drawback of needing sustained close combat—
Unless the enemy didn't rely on metal elements to function. Or unless the enemy was a walking alchemical creation, rendering them entirely immune to interference.
Arcane dragon language resonated. No feedback came.
It failed!?
The metal element content in Shirou's body was normal—yet couldn't be interfered with!
Zhou Yuxuan used his Word Spirit's perception to make a rough observation. To his shock, he discovered that within Shirou's body existed incredibly precise patterns composed of metallic elements—alchemical matrices!
These patterns spread throughout his limbs and body like a nervous system, forming an internal domain that resisted outside interference.
Streams of stable, regulated elemental flow coursed along the alchemical matrices, concentrated in his hands and feet. So that's how it was solved—these were magic circuits, the reason for Shirou's explosive increase in power! The "magic" Shirou spoke of was activated through these!
To implant such precisely crafted alchemical formations into his own body—Shirou's level of alchemy... had probably already reached the master tier!
[End of Chapter 7]