Will you withdraw yourself, or shall I help you withdraw

“These aren’t edible.”

Chen Guan reached out and pressed down on Baobao’s head. He could sense that these new paper constructs contained far greater power than the ones before.

This guy really was troublesome.

“Awoo?” Baobao tilted its head, clearly unconvinced by its master’s judgment.

“Such an ignorant beast.” Kamitani sneered, pointing his folding fan into the distance.

Dozens of paper cranes let out shrill cries at once. Icicles, mixed with bone-chilling winds, came crashing down from the sky.

At the same time, the paper demon foxes on the ground transformed into streaks of yellow ghostly shadows, closing in from every direction. Their razor-sharp paper claws sliced through the air with a series of sharp whistles.

Chen Guan held his scythe horizontally before him. A wisp of black flame quietly ignited along its blade.

Resonance—Raging Flame.

The black fire silently licked the scythe’s edge. It gave off none of the heat of ordinary flames, yet the surrounding light warped around it, as if it would devour everything in existence.

There were still people watching their battle from outside. Because of that, Chen Guan couldn’t directly summon the complete form of Raging Flame. He had no choice but to use it in a distorted form.

The gentle smile on Kamitani’s face cracked.

He had seen all kinds of supernatural abilities and countless strange flames, but never anything as ominous—or as pure—as this black fire.

“Parlor tricks.”

Though he spoke with contempt, the folding fan in his hand had already opened. He pointed it toward Chen Guan, clearly treating him with far greater seriousness now.

“Go.”

The paper cranes overhead and the demon foxes on the ground attacked simultaneously. Icicles and claws came from two entirely different directions, weaving together into a web of death.

Chen Guan stepped forward into the curtain of falling ice. His scythe, burning with black flame, swept upward, tracing a clean crescent through the air.

The icicles condensed with bone-chilling cold melted without a sound the instant they touched the black fire, vanishing like snow thrown into a furnace. Not even a wisp of steam remained.

The black flame’s trajectory did not slow in the slightest. It continued downward, passing through several pouncing paper demon foxes.

Their agile bodies froze in midair for a moment. In the next instant, their iron-hard forms began to be silently devoured by the black flame from the cuts it had made, vanishing into nothingness without leaving behind even a trace of ash.

Baobao watched from the side, drooling with excitement. It stuck out its tongue and licked at the air, as though savoring the aura of destruction, only to taste nothing at all.

But these black flames seemed even more delicious than the paper itself. Its eyes lit up.

“Your hospitality leaves something to be desired.”

Chen Guan shook his scythe. The black flames dancing along the blade seemed to be mocking Kamitani’s ineffectiveness.

Kamitani’s expression finally darkened.

He folded away his fan and lightly tapped its ribs against his palm. The contempt in his voice had disappeared.

“Since you lack the refinement to appreciate the beauty of intricate construction, I’ll let you witness pure power.”

He suddenly spread open the folding fan. The illustration of a hundred ghosts on its surface instantly came to life.

This time, no new shikigami appeared. Instead, a violent gale erupted from the fan, sending the trees in the forest swaying wildly and rolling dead leaves into the air. A tornado rose from the ground to the sky and descended toward Chen Guan like a pillar connecting heaven and earth.

“Chen! He’s trying to blow out your fire!” Ross shouted at the top of his lungs. The wind pressure left him barely able to stand.

“Idiot.”

Chen Guan spat out the word. It was unclear whether he meant Ross or Kamitani.

Faced with a gale powerful enough to tear steel apart, he not only failed to retreat—he began spinning the scythe in his hand.

The black flames were flung from the spinning blade in deadly whips. Instead of being scattered by the tornado, they seemed to have found an outlet for their fury, actively merging into the vortex.

“Wind feeds the flames. That’s basic knowledge.”

As Chen Guan murmured those words, the originally invisible tornado was completely dyed black.

A colossal storm serpent wrapped in destructive black fire rampaged through the forest, roaring as it twisted around. Then it changed direction and, carrying ten times the power it had possessed before, surged back toward its creator, Kamitani.

“You!”

The apocalyptic scene was reflected in Kamitani’s pupils. He could no longer maintain his elegance. He staggered backward and snapped his folding fan shut, erecting a translucent barrier of runes before himself.

Boom!

The black fire dragon slammed into the barrier, exploding with a deafening roar. The translucent runic wall flickered violently as spiderweb cracks spread across its surface in an instant.

Kamitani grunted, a thread of blood escaping the corner of his mouth. The backlash had inflicted serious internal injuries.

“That was incredible! Well done, Chen!” Ross excitedly waved his fist from a distance.

“God, I’m going to treasure the recording of this kid getting beaten for the rest of my life!”

Chen Guan, however, showed no sign of relaxing. His first attack had failed to finish the fight, and his grip on the scythe only tightened.

Amid the smoke and dust, Kamitani slowly straightened. He raised a hand and wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth. The gentle mask he had worn had shattered completely, leaving behind nothing but icy killing intent.

“Very good.”

He looked at Chen Guan and spoke one word at a time. “You’ve successfully made me take you seriously, barbarian from the East.”

“As a reward, I’ll let you witness the true power passed down through Kamitani Academy for a thousand years.”

Kamitani bit into his right thumb. Using the bright red blood, he quickly drew a complicated and eerie crimson rune across the pure-white surface of his fan.

“By my blood, the blood of Kamitani, I respectfully summon…”

Before his chant was even halfway complete, a piercing sound tore through the air and interrupted the solemn ritual.

Chen Guan’s figure faded into an afterimage where he stood. His entire body had already transformed into a black streak racing low across the ground.

His scythe dragged behind him, its blade scraping violently against the earth and plowing open a charred trench. Black flames left fleeting burn marks in its wake.

“You!”

The rapid approach of that deadly arc was reflected in Kamitani’s pupils. He tried to retreat, but the immense power of the summoning ritual had pinned him firmly in place. He could not move.

All he could do was watch helplessly as the scythe, burning with ominous black fire, swept toward him with utterly brutal force.

The chant came to an abrupt halt.

Cold metal pressed against Kamitani’s throat. The wisp of black flame flickered quietly in the corner of his eye, carrying with it the threat of burning even his soul to ash.

Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

In the distance, Ross stood with his mouth hanging open. He had only just begun to get up, but now he collapsed heavily back into the mud. He stared blankly at the scene before him—the utterly shocking reversal of the battle.

The Kamitani Academy's top student, who had been so arrogant that he treated them like ants; the onmyoji who could summon a hundred ghosts with a casual gesture—now looked like a chicken caught by the throat. All his elegance and composure had been shattered on the ground.

“How dare you…” Kamitani’s voice was dry and hoarse. The muscles of his handsome face twitched, his features twisted by rage and humiliation.

Weren’t you supposed to obediently wait until I finished chanting? You dishonorable bastard barbarian!

Chen Guan did not answer this idiotic question. He simply pressed the blade of his scythe another fraction deeper into Kamitani’s skin.

A thin line of crimson blood slid down the blade.

“Are you quitting on your own, or do you want me to make you quit?”