"If you think you're weak, then you're gravely mistaken!"
Blades collided, steel grinding against steel. Chu Lian stared into the hollow eyes of the girl before her and shouted.
"You don't understand at all..."
The white-haired girl shoved Chu Lian away with force. A strange curve lifted the corner of her lips as she replied flatly.
"How could I not understand!"
Twisting her body, Chu Lian swung her blade. As the two swords clashed, sparks burst outward. In this state, she had no intention of holding back. She would beat her awake—tear her free from the illusory web she had woven around herself and bound herself within.
"You just don't understand. Not at all..."
The white-haired girl was stubborn. Using her height to look down at Chu Lian, she spoke coldly.
"Heh. Whether I understand isn't for you to decide—it depends on whether I know!"
Chu Lian's foot shot forward, striking the girl square in the chest and forcing her away. She needed no one to look down on her—no one.
She drove her blade into the ground. From her spatial storage, she retrieved a hairband, swept her long hair up with one hand, and tied it into a high ponytail. Then she pulled the sword free and looked at the girl walking toward her, saying in a low, firm voice, "I'll show you just how absurdly wrong your thinking is."
"Then come!"
Her long white hair danced wildly as Kurosaki Satsuki slashed horizontally. If Chu Lian wanted her to understand, then she would have to prove it!
Blocking the strike, Chu Lian twisted her blade. The pommel slammed directly into Satsuki's chest, forcing her back once more.
Stepping forward, she leapt into the air and whipped a kick toward Satsuki's cheek. If that pale face took the blow head-on, it would likely swell red and bruised.
The white-haired girl seized her slender ankle. At the same instant, the hand holding her sword thrust toward Chu Lian's heart. The strike was swift and ruthless—meant to kill.
"My flexibility is excellent."
Bending sharply at the waist to evade, Chu Lian planted both hands on the ground, found her balance, and violently swung the captured leg backward. Kurosaki Satsuki, who had not released her grip in time, was flung away along with it.
Her body turning sideways, hands pressed to the ground, Chu Lian shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. She kicked Satsuki in the waist, sending her flying even farther.
"I'm not only skilled in martial arts. Right now—"
Yet while still airborne, Kurosaki Satsuki vanished in an instant. Her voice sounded at Chu Lian's ear, followed by a tremendous force striking her waist and hurling her skyward.
"You're not only skilled in martial arts—I'm not either. But right now, I'll defeat you using nothing but martial arts."
Suspended in midair, Chu Lian did not use Teleport to escape. She replied calmly instead. Spiritual power surged through her body, forcibly halting her ascent.
Turning sideways, she condensed a thin layer of spiritual power beneath her feet, using it as a foothold to drive herself downward.
Boom...
One above, one below—two blades collided. A whirlwind spiraled outward, scattering dust in all directions.
As steel clashed against steel, they saw their own reflections in each other's pupils—and both revealed faintly contemptuous smiles.
Chu Lian laughed at her pitiful state.
Kurosaki Satsuki laughed at her ignorance.
Flipping backward, Chu Lian landed. Her high heels struck the ground—tap, tap, tap. She glanced down, found them obstructive, and simply kicked them off. Barefoot like Satsuki, she steadied her stance.
"You're too foolish. Why refuse to use so many powerful abilities and insist on competing with me in martial arts? Look—after abandoning martial arts, how powerful I've become."
Though she had yet to trigger a large-scale world aberration at the peak of the Spirit level, localized distortions were well within reach. Green wind gathered around her as Kurosaki Satsuki spoke coldly.
Behind her emerged a towering pitch-black giant clad in samurai armor, a katana in its grasp. Its blood-red eyes glowed with eerie menace as it stared directly at Chu Lian.
"I said it before. I'll use only martial arts to resolve you."
Her katana pointed straight at the girl. Chu Lian's face was brimming with confidence—confidence identical to the white-haired girl's when she once held her blade the same way.
"Are you mocking me? Or ignoring my strength?"
Her grip tightened until veins bulged across her hand. Kurosaki Satsuki stared at Chu Lian, unable to understand why she would choose this path.
"Because I said it—that version of you was your strongest self. This complicated road doesn't suit someone as straightforward as you. A singular path will carry you farther. Yet you insist on walking my convoluted road. That disappoints me, young lady."
The tip of Chu Lian's black ponytail swayed in the wind as she tilted her head slightly and smiled.
"It's you who disappoints me. Show me all your strength. Let me see where the gap between us truly lies!"
Kurosaki Satsuki shook her head. The current Chu Lian felt far too weak—she no longer carried the aura that once made her tremble at first sight.
"In this state, you're not worthy of my full strength. The one who is worthy is that girl at mid–Spirit level, radiating danger and composure—not this puppet without autonomy."
Chu Lian shifted her steps forward. She was preparing herself.
"Who are you calling a puppet!"
Enraged, Kurosaki Satsuki shouted. Pushing off with force, she darted before Chu Lian and slashed.
Clang~
No matter how swift her blade, it was blocked. Chu Lian seemed utterly indifferent to her fury, parrying with effortless ease.
"Impossible!"
Her figure vanished and reappeared behind Chu Lian. Another strike.
Blocked.
Blocked again.
Why?!
"Impossible!"
The girl's furious voice rang in her ears. Chu Lian closed her eyes. The world unfolded within her mind like a painting, every movement captured in perfect clarity.
"I don't believe it!"
She appeared endlessly from different angles—slashing, thrusting—descending into frenzy, consumed by the sole desire to defeat the girl before her.
"Everything is illusion."
The white-haired girl's afterimages flickered faster and faster, until several identical figures surrounded Chu Lian at once.
From Inori's perspective, the entire rooftop seemed overtaken by her presence. Yet the girl merely smiled gently. She believed Chu Lian would not disappoint her. She would bring the white-haired girl back.
"I said—everything is illusion."
Chu Lian opened her eyes. Her expression shifted. No longer contemptuous nor calm—but furious.
"Do you really think I wouldn't dare kill you?"
A cyan-blue radiance blossomed. Her pupils transformed into luminous rings. The black demonic shadow lurking behind Kurosaki Satsuki—poised to completely corrupt and seize her soul—froze in place.
It was not alone.
Kurosaki Satsuki herself froze as well. The afterimages vanished. Her lips parted slightly as she lifted her katana to Chu Lian's neck—yet she could not bring it down.
Ignoring the blade at her throat, Chu Lian focused her gaze upon the demonic shadow behind her and said coldly, "I had intended to spare you out of pity, to allow you a chance at rebirth in the future. But now you've gone too far. I cannot let you remain. I cannot."
Under the gaze of those eyes in which all things were fated to die, the demonic shadow tried to move—but could not. For the first time, fear surfaced within it. This person was not someone its current self could contend with. Why had it provoked her? Was its hatred to vanish here and now?
Chu Lian leapt into the air, hovering. The tip of her blade pointed at its forehead as she murmured, "No matter how deep your hatred runs, no matter how tragic your origins, no matter how glorious your future might have been—if you harm someone I care about, then there is only one end for you. Death."
She gave it no chance to argue. In the final second of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, she swung her blade down.
Whoosh~
The massive figure scattered like ash in the wind, dissolving into the world, vanishing to nowhere. Whatever radiant past it once possessed, after that descending strike, it could only become a memory.
Clink...
With the demonic shadow gone, the abnormalities around Kurosaki Satsuki vanished as well. Her grip on the sword loosened weakly. Her eyes closed, and her slender body toppled toward the ground.
"Honestly... why be so stubborn? One does not become a demon without madness. Was it truly obsession taken too far?"
Using Teleport, Chu Lian caught her before she hit the ground. Cradling the girl in her arms, she looked at her pale face and sighed.
"Inori, help me hold these two blades. This foolish girl will need to sleep for a while before she recovers."
Chu Lian rose to her feet. The white-haired girl's long hair nearly brushed the floor. Seeing that, she crouched again, supporting her with one arm while gathering the flowing white strands with the other and arranging them neatly across her chest.
"Silly girl... was hurting yourself like this really worth it?"
Shaking her head, Chu Lian looked at Inori—who had stepped forward to pick up the two katanas—and asked, "Inori, do you think Satsuki is foolish?"
"Her obsession runs too deep."
Inori nodded. After spending these days together, she had formed her own understanding of what kind of person Kurosaki Satsuki was.
In the end, it was because Chu Lian's strength had grown too quickly. Twice, Satsuki had sought guidance from either Chu Lian or Li Mingxue and been refused. Confusion had taken root in her heart. Then Chu Lian returned even stronger than before, deepening that imbalance within her.
Under the deliberate guidance of that being—whether demon or something else—things had spiraled into this state.
No one could truly be blamed. It was simply fate playing tricks.
Fortunately, that thing had misjudged the situation. It believed that, before the current Chu Lian, it could seize an advantage. If it allowed the white-haired girl to defeat Chu Lian, it would have fully occupied Kurosaki Satsuki's soul and achieved rebirth.
What it did not know was that Chu Lian had indeed intended from the beginning to defeat Kurosaki Satsuki purely through martial skill. Even knowing how difficult that would be, she would not have given up.
But that creature had overstepped. It sought to make the white-haired girl disappear from this world entirely.
That touched her reverse scale.
Anything that touched her reverse scale had only one fate—eradication.
Thus, Chu Lian no longer wished to continue fighting the Kurosaki Satsuki under its control. If she was not the true white-haired girl, victory meant nothing. It was better to eliminate the hidden calamity outright.
That was why she activated the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and severed its existence completely.
"Yes... obsession can be a blessing in martial arts. But once other factors interfere, it becomes difficult to preserve one's original heart. After our previous two conversations, she had almost found her path. And because of that thing, all her efforts were undone. Who knows when she will find it again."
"As much as its presence was the reason Satsuki survived until now, if it tried to take her life, that is something I cannot accept."
Carrying the unconscious girl, Chu Lian walked slowly toward the rooftop entrance, explaining everything to Inori along the way.
"When she wakes up, everything will be better. You know it too—those who are stubborn are often the most simple at heart."
Holding the two katanas, Inori followed behind. Watching the two smaller girls carry someone much taller than themselves, she found the scene unexpectedly harmonious.
Lian could always blend perfectly into any setting. It was such a curious feeling—as though she were born to stand at the center of the world, as if everything existed for her sake.
In truth, this was the effect of World Affinity. After forming a contract with Chu Lian, not only would their strength influence and elevate one another, but other aspects would gain unique benefits as well.
This was a bond—one that would last a lifetime.
The wind swept across the rooftop. Left behind were only a pair of white high heels and a few scraps of torn cloth, as though frozen in time.