After several attempts, Yan Qi basically adapted to this rhythm.

It wasn’t difficult. After all, when the breathing icon changed, the game’s background audio also included subtle breathing sound effects. This breathing rhythm didn’t become chaotic due to intense activity, so one only needed to familiarize themselves with it a few times, memorize the breathing frequency, and turn the timing of attacks into muscle memory.

But Yan Qi felt that, looking at just this one change, it didn’t seem particularly impressive.

Although the concept was innovative, the actual effect might not necessarily be good.

Adding an extra dimension of difficulty for players might cause the already somewhat lengthy battles to become even more drawn out, since players couldn’t immediately attack after a Boss finished its move—they also had to consider whether the martial deity was in an exhalation state. This would obviously waste some attack opportunities.

So whether this was a good design or not would depend on changes in other aspects.

Next came the explanation of stamina values and execution mechanics. Simply put, breath value affected stamina recovery. When a stamina gap appeared between opponents, combat power would become greatly unbalanced, and the side with lower stamina would be executed.

“Hmm, this further emphasizes the importance of breath value. ‘Slow use, slow recovery’ stamina has replaced ‘quick use, quick recovery’ stamina, making it closer to real-life concepts.”

“The difficulty increases further, but the same issue remains—enjoyment doesn’t necessarily increase.”

Yan Qi continued reading on.

Next came the standard responses to three types of attacks. Enemy attacks were divided into high, middle, and low sections. High attacks required sidesteps, middle attacks required parrying, and low attacks required jumping.

Players needed to judge these three attack types based on the opponent’s wind-up movements.

Moreover, these response methods didn’t require locking onto the target—simply pressing the corresponding button would trigger them immediately.

“Although the martial deity’s sidestep is shorter in distance compared to the ‘Looking Back is the Shore’ protagonist’s roll, it’s faster and more agile, like dancing on the edge of a blade, which fits the martial deity character design.”

“The enemy attack patterns have become three types… making responses more complex. The already limited opportunities to strike have been further compressed.”

In the original “Eternal Cycle” combat, you could simply roll away when seeing an enemy raise their weapon. The only thing to watch for was the enemy’s possible quick and slow blade combinations—meaning two consecutive attack movements with faster or slower wind-ups, which might make players’ rolling timing difficult to grasp, potentially rolling right into the blade.

But now players needed to respond according to the enemy’s wind-up movements. Making a wrong judgment would have extremely serious consequences, clearly increasing the difficulty.

Yan Qi even began to worry.

He feared that with this new combat system, he might not even be able to defeat the minor enemies revived on the Yellow Springs Road.

Next came the explanation of “counter the move with the appropriate response,” or precise parrying.

“After locking onto a target, use the right joystick to select a direction, then press the parry button at the appropriate time to perfectly parry and disrupt the opponent’s breath value?”

“Hmm? Isn’t this just like that parrying move from Demonic Sword!”

Yan Qi finally understood what that parrying move was for—the one that many players had discovered after dying countless times.

The training mode practice progressed gradually, first repeatedly practicing a single direction, then gradually adding attacks from more directions.

Even so, Yan Qi was still getting cut to pieces, because the perfect parry judgment mechanism was quite strict. Without mastering the attack rhythm, it was difficult to achieve a perfect damage-free effect, and it would seriously disrupt his own breath value.

Once his breath value became chaotic, he would be vulnerable to the opponent’s execution effect.

He watched as the red-glowing martial deity across from him executed a very stylish finishing move, turning to sheathe his sword, leaving only a cool silhouette.

“This is infuriating!”

“We’re both martial deities, but is this the difference between buyer’s show and seller’s show?”

“And this combat system—could a carbon-based lifeform have designed this?”

“It’s one thing that parrying requires mastering the correct timing, but different directional parries actually require distinguishing with the joystick, and even different directional parrying movements are different…”

“The left joystick is used, the right joystick is used, the parry button is used, the attack button is also used, and you still have to keep track of breath value mentally, only attacking during exhalation, and if your breath value becomes chaotic, you need to find ways to create distance and regulate your breathing…”

“This is completely transformed beyond recognition!”

Yan Qi threw the controller on the desk, his composure slightly crumbling.

The combat skills he had painstakingly developed in “Looking Back is the Shore” were completely useless in “Eternal Cycle”!

He had been in a good mood today, planning to continue progressing after “Eternal Cycle” updated.

But nearly ten minutes had passed, and he was still in training mode adapting to basic operations…

This feeling of regression was truly difficult to accept.

It was like a student who had studied hard for several years, mastering the knowledge of various courses, just doing practice questions daily while awaiting exams, when suddenly the exam syllabus dramatically changed. Everything previously learned became useless, and all knowledge had to be relearned from scratch!

Just thinking about it made him despair.

But Yan Qi couldn’t just skip the training mode and go fight monsters, because he knew very well that the in-game combat mechanics had definitely changed too.

Either way, he would suffer—either in training mode or in the normal game progression.

Thinking this way, suffering in training mode seemed better, at least he wouldn’t have to repeatedly respawn.

After calming down, Yan Qi silently picked up the controller and continued familiarizing himself with this new combat system.

In the original combat system of “Looking Back is the Shore,” the right joystick didn’t actually have much function—it only adjusted the camera angle when not locked onto an enemy.

Once an enemy was locked on, the right joystick became completely useless.

But in “Eternal Cycle’s” combat system, the right joystick truly fulfilled its purpose after locking onto an enemy.

Yan Qi kept subconsciously repeating “upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right” and other positional terms, while his right thumb simultaneously pushed the right joystick, strangely giving him the feeling that he was performing special moves in a fighting game.

The metallic clashing sounds were constant as Yan Qi’s parrying became increasingly fluid and his timing more accurate.

Yan Qi breathed according to the game’s martial deity rhythm while mentally reciting positions for parrying. Just as the opponent finished a series of attacks, he found the exhalation state and struck with his blade.

“Clang!”

The opponent parried this strike, but even so, his footsteps faltered and his body lost balance.

“Hmm? The execution threshold has been reached!”

Yan Qi instinctively pressed the attack button, and the martial deity performed a clean and decisive execution move, finishing off the opponent.

“That was too fast!”

Alongside his pleasant surprise, Yan Qi also felt confused.

Because the opponent still had plenty of health left. Previously, Yan Qi had been exchanging blows continuously and failing, with the opponent seeming like an unkillable war god. This had seriously made him wonder if, because this was training mode, there was no execution mechanism at all.

Now he understood. Training mode did have an execution mechanism—he just hadn’t triggered it!

The frequency of perfect parries he had performed earlier was too low to disrupt the opponent’s breath value. Instead, he had messed up his own breath value, making the opponent seem so formidable.

“I understand now.”

“Simply put, this combat mechanism is kill or be killed.”

“If you only use sidesteps, jumps, and other conventional means to avoid attacks, it would take a very long time to disrupt the opponent’s breath value, making the entire battle extremely drawn out.”

“But if you frequently exchange blows with the opponent, triggering perfect parries, you can quickly disrupt their breath value and achieve execution conditions.”

“In other words, the number of strikes doesn’t matter at all, but the timing of strikes is extremely important.”

“It’s better not to strike for a whole minute, but when you do strike, it must be at the most appropriate time.”

“Interesting!”

After understanding the correct approach to this combat mechanism, Yan Qi suddenly appreciated its enjoyment.

The original combat system of “Looking Back is the Shore” could be seen as an optimization and continuation of traditional combat mechanics. Although there were some improvements in feel and operational details, it ultimately still emphasized “the number of correct attacks.”

Under the premise of not being greedy with attacks and avoiding enemy strikes, killing the enemy one blow at a time.

Both sides had very high attack power, and the consequences of each mistake were very serious. This required players to restrain their impulse to be reckless and take rational actions.

But even so, it still emphasized “quantity.”

That is to say, it didn’t matter if the battle dragged on longer; the key was not to make mistakes. After all, the number of strikes needed to kill a Boss was fixed—you just needed to find a way to reach that number.

But “Eternal Cycle’s” combat mechanics completely overturned all of this.

What it emphasized was no longer “quantity” but “timing.”

Parrying or attacking ten times at the wrong moment wasn’t as effective as parrying or attacking once at the right moment.

Trying to grind a Boss to death using “Looking Back is the Shore’s” approach had become completely unrealistic, because strikes at the wrong time yielded extremely low returns, or even negative returns.

These two combat mechanisms with completely different core experiences also gave players entirely different combat experiences.

The combat in “Looking Back is the Shore” was more like that of an ordinary person, focusing on safety, carefully dodging and weaving, doing everything possible to avoid the opponent’s attacks, then seizing openings to counterattack, gradually wearing down the opponent.

But “Eternal Cycle’s” combat truly embodied a martial deity, dancing on the edge of a blade at every moment. Even if failing in an exchange meant instant death, one still had to continuously exchange blows, adjusting breathing while waiting for the right moment.

Once the right opportunity was found—one strike to end it all!

This was somewhat like a duel between two ancient martial artists, requiring careful observation of the opponent’s moves, countering appropriately, finding the opponent’s weakness in the clash of blades, or using overwhelming pressure to force the opponent to create an opening, then deciding the battle with a single strike.