Chapter 286: Be Proud, You Are Strong

He didn't want to be tamed by life, didn't want to forget the dreams he once had, and still wanted to keep fighting as that young version of himself chasing the supernatural!

So he gave it everything he had.

He supposed he had lost.

Lost his dignity as a human being, lost himself, and became a walking corpse gripping a sword.

But now, standing on this rain-soaked elevated bridge, facing that overwhelming sword pressure, that feeling of possibly dying at the other's hands at any moment...

Chu Tianjiao suddenly felt that sensation of being alive return to him.

It was as if he had finally remembered something.

That was the origin of everything.

When he was very young, he seemed to have had a dream.

In the dream, he saw a figure shrouded in radiant light swing a sword at a demon-like existence, slaying it in a single strike.

That dream felt so real, filling his young heart with longing and admiration.

But no matter who he told, they all thought it was fake, a delusional fantasy.

Yet Chu Tianjiao firmly believed it had truly happened.

From that day onward, he vowed to find the world of the supernatural and master such swordsmanship.

He wanted to see that vast, boundless world.

And at this very moment, despite having fallen into a dazed and confused state, he had rediscovered that long-lost excitement from his youth.

The figure before him seemed to overlap with the existence in his memories.

This girl of unfathomable strength was testing him with the Wind Capital Youth Palace swordsmanship he knew so well.

- I'm being respected by a sword master standing at the pinnacle of the supernatural.

His smile grew more and more unrestrained and radiant.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

Flames and sword light filled the sky!

The steel-reinforced concrete and asphalt of the elevated bridge crumbled beneath their feet like tofu, and the already-collapsed deck dragged the support pillars forward like a cascade of dominoes, shattering further ahead as rubble mixed with rainwater plunged down into the pitch-black Abyss below.

Only Chen Yujie, who had been pulled to a safe location at some point by a gentle force, watched this battlefield, her shock beyond words.

The rain fell harder and harder, yet the flames expanded far more ferociously than the downpour. Raindrops the size of beans slammed into the vast sea of fire, evaporating into thick clouds of white steam before they could even get close.

Within this curtain of rain and sea of flames, their exchanges grew faster and fiercer by the moment.

The girl's sword techniques became increasingly unpredictable, and the searing heat and curse power attached to her blade grew endlessly stronger, yet every move never strayed beyond the bounds of Wind Capital Youth Palace swordsmanship, as if she were deliberately testing him.

Chu Tianjiao's injuries grew heavier and heavier, his body covered in sword wounds and scorch marks, yet he felt himself becoming more and more clear-headed.

The cherry-haired girl seemed to be holding back, gradually increasing the pressure on him bit by bit, while Chu Tianjiao was the apprentice who had to use everything he had learned in his life to find a way forward.

But precisely because of this, the longer they fought, the more focused his spirit became, and the more focused he was, the more ethereal and refined his swordsmanship grew, improving with every exchange.

At the beginning, he was still wielding the sword violently, relying on instinct to recklessly unleash curse power, forcibly using both at the same time.

But as time went on, his control over curse power became more fluid, and his sword movements grew gentler, like a child casually swinging their arms, curse power and swordsmanship merging into one.

His sword techniques were no longer constrained by rigid forms. The raw materials he had once learned, the components that made up Wind Capital Youth Palace swordsmanship, naturally appeared in his hands.

The "Reverse Whirl Blade" of the Mirror Heart Style from Ying Country, the "Cloud Dragon Triple Manifestation" of the Mystic Gate Sword from the Secret State, the "Lionheart Strike" of the Holy Cross Swordsmanship from Shadow Country...

Chu Tianjiao had once studied swordsmanship at various sword halls to grow stronger, so he was familiar with most of the widely circulated sword techniques in the Secret State. But since he had first set foot on the path of the sword, this was the first time he could wield all the swordsmanship he had ever learned with such complete freedom.

No thinking required. Visions of crisscrossing sword light naturally surfaced in his mind, and all he had to do was let his hands follow his heart, replicating each one effortlessly.

What followed was an indescribable joy and delight.

Chu Tianjiao felt as if he had returned to over twenty years ago, when he was just eighteen, as unconventional yet full of spirit as his disciple named Lin Guang, firmly believing that the supernatural existed in this world and that he would surely find his way onto that path.

Now he had truly set foot on it, and he could see the scenery along the way.

So beautiful.

Rainwater washed the blood from his face as the scorching heat and sword wounds on his body grew increasingly severe. Facing that breathtakingly beautiful crimson glow, he kept swinging his sword, again and again.

Continuously surpassing himself, greedily drawing nourishment from the endless pressure, as if burning his very life, pouring out everything he had, all for the sake of making this magnificent world linger before his eyes for just one more moment.

Until, at a certain instant.

He suddenly felt he could no longer swing his sword.

His silvery-gray curse power was depleted, revealing the bronze-colored nature of the longsword beneath.

The next moment, crimson firelight filled his entire field of vision.

The girl's blade lightly deflected his sword's defense and struck his chest with pinpoint accuracy.

That strike split open the hard exoskeleton, yet instead of bringing a tearing, searing pain, it felt like a gentle breeze, severing the shackles bound to his soul.

His consciousness finally cleared.

Chu Tianjiao looked at the breathtakingly beautiful girl holding a flaming longsword before him, feeling that he had finally reached the end of his life.

He lowered the demonic sword that seemed equally content, and said in a hoarse voice, "Thank you for the lesson."

The girl sheathed her longsword and withdrew the endless flames. The torrential rain was finally allowed to pour down, yet it still couldn't touch her sakura-red hair.

She gazed at Chu Tianjiao with calm eyes, her voice sweet yet composed.

"Be proud, you are strong."

She seemed to think about it carefully for a moment, then looked at Chu Tianjiao. "Among all sword users I have seen, aside from myself, you rank third."

"..."

Third?

Chu Tianjiao stared at this mysterious girl who seemed never to have truly gotten serious, not even a single wrinkle on her skirt.

Really... so strong.

She's just trying to comfort me, isn't she...

He let out a bitter laugh and murmured, "I can't even tell if you're deceiving me..."

As his voice faded, the light in his eyes gradually dimmed. His body lost its support, tilted backward, and crashed heavily onto the bridge surface covered in puddles and rubble.

In the distance, Chen Yujie's expression grew complicated.

- Perhaps, for this old friend... this could be considered... dying a worthy death.

But the next moment, she suddenly saw the cherry-haired girl turn her head and look at her from hundreds of meters away.

A sweet yet indifferent voice reached her ears.

"Remember to fish him out of there."

"?"

Chen Yujie opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something more.

Wait, he's been modified to that extent and he can still be saved?

Could it be that this girl was actually just...

But the next moment, as if she had suddenly sensed something, she raised her head and looked at the sky.

There, within the sky-covering curtain of rain, an enormous presence that simply could not be ignored had suddenly appeared.

A massive translucent sphere with a radius of 200 meters, constructed from unknown materials.

At the same time, Wu Nuo's voice echoed through the air, amplified by the reverberation of spreading curse power.

"Domain Expansion -"

"Infinite Wind."