Chapter 283: The Controlled Chu Tianjiao

No way!

And at this moment, the Cherry-Haired Girl's actions were still continuing.

In just a few minutes, she had nearly cleared away all obstacles along the road.

That red line seemed tireless, growing faster and faster, constantly changing direction, until it stepped onto the main road leading to the Southern District's elevated bridge.

That was the road leading to the southern outskirts.

Qin Shengshi immediately understood what was happening.

She was heading toward the main battlefield!

Suddenly, Qin Shengshi's pupils contracted.

She had been so captivated by this mysterious girl earlier that she'd forgotten to use the "Siren's Eye" to monitor the battlefield on the research institute's side.

Something had gone wrong with Chen Yujie!

......

High above the elevated bridge, ferocious azure water-ability curse power was converging into a colossal water dragon tens of meters in length.

Chen Yujie's figure was hidden within the water dragon's head, her curse power erupting outward at full force.

ROAR!!!

It let out an ear-splitting roar, diving toward the sword-wielding figure on the bridge deck like a heavenly river cascading down, its tremendous momentum kicking up a curtain of water mist that threatened to engulf everything nearby.

That was the creation condensed from Chen Yujie's spell and curse power.

Her killing blow, unleashed with everything she had.

But at the same time, reflected in the water dragon's eyes was a silver-gray sword light that filled its entire field of vision.

HUMM—

Words could hardly describe its sharpness.

It was as if all impurities had been stripped away through countless hammerings and refinements, leaving behind nothing but pure essence, yet it also carried a suffocating obsession.

As if the one wielding the sword had abandoned every superfluous emotion and distracting thought, leaving only a single-minded, maniacal sword intent.

That crescent-shaped sword light met the water dragon head-on.

SWISH!!

After only a brief stalemate, the silver-gray sword light surged upstream against the current.

In an instant, the massive water dragon was split cleanly open from head to tail by that thread of gray radiance, the rampaging water losing control all at once and crashing down onto the elevated bridge as a torrential downpour.

After severing the water dragon, that sword light continued with undiminished momentum, horizontally slicing through the bridge deck.

Then came the grating sound of steel reinforcement snapping and the dull rumble of concrete collapsing.

BOOM!

Accompanied by violent tremors, that section of the elevated bridge was forced to sink more than half a meter, countless fragments of rubble and accumulated water pouring down through the fracture.

BANG—!

Chen Yujie's body was sent flying backward through the spray of water, crashing heavily onto the sloped, waterlogged asphalt surface before sliding several meters before finally coming to a stop.

The bikini swimsuit she wore was tattered and torn, and the sword wound ran from her right collarbone all the way down to her left lower abdomen, her internal organs almost visible squirming beneath the gash.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Blood gushed from her mouth and nose in great surges, dyeing the puddle beneath her crimson. The harpoon that had accompanied her for years had also been neatly severed into two pieces, clattering to the ground beside her with a sharp sound.

If not for the fact that Chen Yujie's curse power was equally formidable and her reactions lightning-fast, that single sword stroke might have split her in two right then and there.

"Ugh..."

The next moment, she struggled to push herself up with both hands, kneeling half-upright in the icy puddle while gasping for air in great heaving breaths. Then she raised her head and stared at the monster slowly sheathing his sword ahead of her.

His body was covered in a layer of bizarre armor, a strange material somewhere between bone and chitin, presenting a cold, hard grayish-white appearance like an exoskeleton.

But the bio-armor didn't completely cover his face, leaving his right half exposed.

It was the face of a somewhat weathered middle-aged man, with stubble on his chin that hadn't been properly shaved, his features upright and solemn.

Her former elementary school classmate.

Chu Tianjiao.

But any thoughts Chen Yujie might have initially harbored about catching up with old acquaintances had long since been worn away by the fierce battle just now.

And Chu Tianjiao clearly had no such intention either.

His right eye contained nothing that could be called rationality, only some murky, instinct-driven daze gleaming beneath the grayish-white curse power. In his hand was a long sword measuring a full meter and a half.

The sword had an ancient, slender design, as if forged from bronze. Across its cold, smooth blade flowed a mercury-like silver-gray gleam, exuding an aura of sinister abnormality.

Chen Yujie knelt in the puddle, her gaze locked tightly onto that dull, lifeless right eye exposed before her.

He's been modified, and controlled...

During the battle just now, Chen Yujie had clearly sensed that the swordsmanship which suppressed her without leaving any room to fight back was incredibly fluid, betraying not a trace of the clumsiness one might expect from a puppet on strings.

But that swordplay definitely didn't originate from Chu Tianjiao himself. It felt more like it came from someone else.

His body had been injected with curse power and spells that didn't belong to him.

Not only that, but the sword itself was extremely eerie, almost as if it were alive.

In Chen Yujie's curse power perception, bone-chilling silver-gray curse power was burrowing through the sword's hilt into Chu Tianjiao's palm, spreading all the way up to his brain.

By now, Chu Tianjiao had likely lost his ability to think.

From the exchange of curse power just moments ago, she could truly feel that what was now dominating this modified body was probably nothing more than a single obsessive thought, amplified by that sword and endlessly reverberating through his mind.

Seek out the strong. Draw the sword and challenge them.

As if confirming that the powerful figure kneeling before him had been defeated and had lost any further value for combat or challenge, the faint gleam in Chu Tianjiao's eyes gradually cooled.

Then, he turned and walked away.

"......"

Not choosing to finish her off, huh...

Then perhaps, his threat level wasn't actually all that high after all.

Watching that retreating figure, Chen Yujie, who had been preparing a desperate final strike, breathed a sigh of relief, yet new questions welled up in her mind.

Why would the mastermind behind all this do such a thing?

Why would an ordinary person be worth all that effort to modify into what he was now?

Rather, it seemed like he rarely modified those who were already new-style superhumans or sorcerers. His chosen targets were all animals, or ordinary people.

What on earth was the purpose?

Her mind racing with wild speculations, she clutched her chest, forcibly using her curse power to expel the foreign curse power left inside her wound for self-healing, all while enduring the searing pain as she pressed her earpiece with difficulty and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Listen carefully..."

"If you see a man with half his face exposed carrying a sword... don't intercept him... let him pass... don't fight him to the death..."

Chu Tianjiao seemed utterly oblivious, his gaze already fixed on those two calamity-like figures in the center of the battlefield.

The next moment, he stepped over the rubble and accumulated water and continued onward. Leaving only Chen Yujie kneeling on the shattered bridge deck.

Watching his puppet-like retreating figure, she twitched the corner of her mouth.

Should she say congratulations?

He had finally found the supernatural he'd dreamed of, gaining terrifying power capable of crushing first-grade sorcerers at will, standing at the very pinnacle of Wind Capital.

But seeing him like this, having lost his sense of self, muddled and dazed, was this really something worth congratulating?

Or... should she feel sorrow instead?

All those years you spent desperately searching for the supernatural in the first half of your life, was it really just so you could end up like this?