Honkai Star Rail: My Death Feeds Their Madness — Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Returning to the ArmyYou're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

Kagashi left the quiet halls of the Academy behind, trading his scholar’s robes for the cold, heavy armor of the Cloud Knights.

War was a relentless grinder of lives. In this era, the Cloud Knights suffered catastrophic casualties, their ranks turning over at a startling pace. A mere few centuries were more than enough to completely erase the familiar faces of an army. When Kagashi stood quietly behind General Teng Xiao on the vast parade ground, not a single soldier in the sea of armored veterans recognized him.

Teng Xiao kept the introduction brief. He made no deliberate mention of the Kagashi Family’s storied legacy, simply projecting his voice across the silent ranks to announce a new appointment.

“From this day forward, Valiant Guard Kagashi will serve as the Chief Swordsmanship Instructor and Chief Physical Training Director for the entire Cloud Knights army.”

The sudden appointment stirred quiet ripples of surprise through the formations, yet no one dared voice an objection. Everyone understood the gravity of the moment—the Xianzhou Yuque had recently divined an omen of great calamity, and Cangcheng was locked in a state of absolute combat readiness. At such a critical juncture, anyone entrusted with this heavy a burden by the General was certainly no ordinary soldier.

Kagashi offered no grand speech to justify his position. He simply let his actions speak.

Without hesitation, he unleashed the Kagashi Family’s closely guarded, brutal physical training regimens upon the three armies. Even for the resilient Long-Life Species, this special curriculum was nothing short of purgatory.

The baseline requirement—a long-distance run at fifty kilometers per hour while bearing a load of Five Jun—was merely an appetizer. The true nightmares were yet to come.

Once a soldier survived the basics, they faced mobility training. This required sprinting through high-speed obstacle courses while dodging erratic, lethal attack props and hidden traps. Then came unarmed combat, extreme physical flexibility, attack precision, force control, and bodily tempering.

The flexibility drills alone demanded soldiers contort themselves into a perfect, tight sphere—a terrifying stress on the bones and joints. Attack precision required every strike to accurately pierce a designated target area within 0.2 seconds. The size of that target? No wider than a single line drawn by a calligraphy brush. Force control demanded strikes with exact, measured power, allowing an error margin of no more than 0.1 percent.

Finally, the most grueling phase arrived: physical tempering. Searing flames, freezing submersion, and raw lightning strikes. The training grounds echoed with the agonized wails of the Cloud Knights, yet from that agony, they were reborn. Soldiers who had long hit a bottleneck in their martial path discovered that under Kagashi’s crushing pressure, their combat prowess skyrocketed.

Ironically, the complete swordsmanship training became the gentlest part of their day. The Cloud Knight Swordplay was a deeply ingrained tradition; every soldier knew its forms. After surviving Kagashi’s physical hell, they found their execution of the ancient swordplay flowing with newfound, lethal grace. It forced many to sigh in realization—without being pushed to the brink, one never truly knew where their limits lay.

Eight months slipped by in a blur of sweat and steel. The annual Military Camp Tour arrived as scheduled.

This Xianzhou tradition allowed Academy students to experience the harsh realities of military life through guided tours and practical drills. Centuries ago, during his own tour, a young Kagashi had achieved the impossible, defeating dozens of active-duty Valiant Guards and carving his name into history in a single battle. Now, that same youth stood as an active-duty Valiant Guard himself, tasked with testing the next generation.

Looking over the roster of assigned Academies, Kagashi’s calm gaze paused.

“Zhenshan Academy?”

Jingliu, the only daughter of his old friend Yu Huai, was on that list. In his memory, she was a gentle, dignified young lady of wealth. Her father had placed immense hope in her inheriting the family business. Kagashi hadn’t hidden his return to the military from Yu Huai, and the anxious father had privately begged him to look out for his physically frail daughter, pleading with Kagashi to ensure she didn’t overexert herself.

On the morning of the tour, Kagashi stepped before the Zhenshan students in his crisp military uniform.

“I am the commanding officer for this tour. You may address me as Guard Kagashi.”

Standing amidst the whispering crowd, Jingliu froze. She had met this gentle, refined teacher a few times before, but she never expected such a drastic shift in his aura. Clad in armor, the mild-mannered scholar had vanished, replaced by a blade resting quietly in its sheath.

“The Cloud Knight camp operates on strict discipline. I expect you all to remember the instructions your Academy teachers provided and adhere to them without fail.” Kagashi’s tone was solemn, carrying a quiet, heavy authority that made the teenagers hold their breath. “If anyone has doubts, raise them now.”

Silence fell over the courtyard. Not a single pin drop could be heard. After several breaths of dead quiet, he nodded.

“Very well. Follow me.”

Swallowing her shock, Jingliu followed the group, changing into a standard-issue uniform to officially begin this once-in-a-lifetime experience.and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

Kagashi first led the youths to the attack precision training grounds.

In the center of the field, holographic projections of Abominations of Abundance flickered, each marked with a black line as thin as a hair across their vital points. The soldiers were required to strike that exact line within 0.2 seconds, with zero margin for error.

Watching veteran Cloud Knights fail time and time again, the students exchanged dismayed glances.

Jingliu tentatively raised her hand. “Teacher Kagashi… Guard Kagashi, that black line is as thin as a thread. Can anyone actually achieve a seventy to eighty percent hit rate?”

“Naturally.”

Kagashi offered no further explanation. He picked up a standard training longsword with his left hand and, with his right, wrapped a strip of black cloth securely over his eyes.

Seeing this, the training Cloud Knights immediately halted their drills, stepping back in reverence.

“Do not blink,” Kagashi said softly.

A sudden eruption of sword light shattered the air.

Kagashi’s body remained perfectly still, but his wrist flicked with phantom speed, the blade carving a web of afterimages. As the Abomination holograms rapidly refreshed and shifted, the sword moved as if it possessed its own sight, biting flawlessly into the hair-thin black lines every single time.

Ten strikes in one second. All perfect hits.

The slow-motion replay on the overhead screen confirmed it: zero error.

A heavy silence gripped the field, followed instantly by an uproar of disbelief.

“Did… did the sword even move just now?”

“I couldn’t track Guard Kagashi’s movements at all!”

“That line is barely visible, and he did it blindfolded. How is he so strong…?”

The students were completely overwhelmed, but even the veteran Cloud Knights watching from the sidelines felt a deep chill of awe. They understood the sheer impossibility of those ten strikes.

Among the crowd, Mianxue and Qinghan watched with wide eyes. Their scheduled training for the day was attack precision, and they hadn’t expected to witness Kagashi take the field himself. Now, the General’s insistence that they seek out this former Academy teacher made perfect sense. One truly could not judge the depths of an ocean from its calm surface.

Jingliu stared blankly at Kagashi’s back, her heart hammering against her ribs. Growing up, she was accustomed to watching her father handle circles of merchants and soft-spoken literati. She had never witnessed such lethal, stunning martial grace. This gentle teacher harbored a terrifyingly sharp edge.

Kagashi lowered the blade and pulled the cloth from his eyes. He looked at the students, his expression grave.

“The Cloud Knights guard the Xianzhou. We do not allow for the slightest error.” His voice carried the weight of countless fallen soldiers. “If you cannot kill with a single strike, the Abominations on the battlefield will not grant you a second chance. Their recovery is absolute.”

The boys and girls stood in stunned silence. In some eyes, a quiet fervor began to burn. In others, a chilling realization took root—just how monstrous were the enemies that forced these soldiers to endure such hellish preparation?You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.