San Zhenghe put away his knife and found a clean rock to sit on. He took a small water skin from his belt and slowly drank the clean water, while not far away lay a corpse with eyes wide open in death.
After enduring silently since the beginning in order to bloom in the end, his light was extinguished in an instant. He died without understanding how a blade could catch up to the speed of light.
San Zhenghe put the water skin next to him and took out a small paper package from his inner pocket. Inside were delicate pastries emitting a peach fragrance.
"Finally I can eat." Happily picking up a pastry and putting it in his mouth, San Zhenghe revealed a sweet, girlish smile and turned to look in the direction Li Changan and the others were fighting.
There were three pastries left. San Zhenghe reluctantly put them away, retied the water skin, and walked in that direction.
-----
"You want to get close to me?" Charles looked mockingly at the youth rushing towards him from fifty meters away. "While I was fighting Salman, you took out a despicable sneak attacker for me. Concede defeat and I'll spare you."
Li Changan did not answer. Dodging the continuous thunderbolts was tiring. The thunder and lightning wove together into an electric net, blocking his way forward. He needed to find a way through.
His speed was insufficient and he had to make up for it with reaction time. He couldn't keep up with the speed of the thunderbolts but he could see every minute movement Charles made, down to the fluttering of his eyelashes.
He could confirm Charles had broken through to S-rank in the Trial Field. He couldn't fully control that terrifying power yet. Every time he released thunderbolts, his gaze would involuntarily flicker towards where he wanted to attack.
This was Li Changan's only chance - when he felt Charles' gaze on him, he would dodge with minimal movement so as not to affect his speed.
From around seventy meters when Charles first noticed him until now, Li Changan had closed the gap to less than fifty meters.
Charles frowned. Of all the opponents he had faced, none had ever confronted his thunderbolts in this way. This was thunder and lightning - how could anyone dodge so easily?
Since when did close combat espers become so gutsy?
Charge! Charge! Li Changan had only one thought left in his mind. He had to get close to Charles to create an opportunity for Wen Anran.
"Stop right there!" Charles raised his hand and the electric currents interweaved to form an impermeable giant net, falling towards Li Changan's head.
Li Changan did not slow down. Seeing the electric net coming at him, he tore off his coat and threw it forward. The rubber lining commonly used as insulation was still insufficient against the thunderbolts. The powerful electric current would turn rubber into a conductor.
But all Li Changan needed was a moment's resistance.
Slipping through the hole created by his coat, Li Changan leapt through like a fish. After landing he continued charging forward without stopping, secretly relieved that Charles did not take the chance to attack during that moment when he lost sight of him in mid-air jump. That should have been the best opportunity for Charles to strike.
"You seem quite used to my methods of attack." Charles retreated. This was the first time he had retreated since entering the Trial Field. The youth before him posed tremendous pressure.
Like an assassin staking everything on one strike of the sword. One strike that would certainly take a life.
Li Changan had closed in to within thirty meters. Charles still could not hit him. Rather, the long-range advantage that should have favored him had become a weakness against Li Changan.
Espers activated according to the workings of the mind but Charles’ mind was still not operating fast enough to match Li Changan’s speed. Each evasion seemed as unpredictable as a drunkard’s stumbling yet somehow precisely avoided every thunderbolt.
Charles continued retreating but Li Changan drew nearer and nearer. He could turn and flee or ascend into the air but damned pride prevented him.
"The Pendragon Family has no cowards!" Charles roared, his convictions growing ever firmer. Taking big strides towards Li Changan, thunderbolts in hand, he hurled out spears of lightning like an angry god.
Ten meters! No slowing down! Li Changan gritted his teeth and narrowly dodged the lightning spear, feeling the smell of burnt hair from his temples. But this finally brought him within five meters of Charles.
Charles gripped the condensed, silvery white thunder sword and slashed horizontally before him. Everywhere it passed was charred black and even the air reeked of scorching.
Li Changan bent back to evade this strike like a compressed spring, rebounding towards Charles even more fiercely.
Clenching his fist, he smashed it forwards!
A transparent barrier quivered into view under the force of Li Changan’s blow but ultimately stabilized.
Experience had taught Li Changan not to be greedy with his strikes. Seeing no effect from one punch, he immediately flashed sideways into Charles’ blind spot and retreated.
Feeling the tremor in his defensive barrier, Charles reacted instinctively, slashing down with his sword. But Li Changan had already left that spot so the blow did not connect. The radiating thunderbolts only tore his clothes, leaving some black scorch marks on his muscular chest amidst old burn scars from boiling water.
Li Changan tore off his tattered shirt. Clothes were only drag now. He even considered stripping fully naked. Non-insulated clothing increased his area vulnerable to strikes.
But both Jiang Shuibu and Wen Anran had said battles still required some elegance. Fighting naked seemed crude, like a powerless human.
So in the end Li Changan only removed his top, still feeling rather discomforted.
Charles sucked in a breath. This was the first time he had seen someone with so many scars covering their body - cuts, bullet holes, burns, as if this man was a human model exemplifying all manner of trauma.
"You must be insane!" Charles tightened his grip on the sword. The over one meter long broadsword began shrinking until thunderous might was concentrated into a less than one meter length behind the silvery white blade. Space itself seemed slightly warped around it.
In less than ten seconds, Li Changan’s left ribs were slashed open. The white hot sword parted flesh and blood while cauterizing the wound. Electric current raged inside his body.
Such powerful swordsmanship. Could his trump card actually be his swordsmanship? Li Changan barely dodged the next stab, feeling somewhat sluggish from the tingling currents.
Gripping his sword, Charles smiled faintly. “Surprised? I first held a sword at three years old. After over a decade studying every sword art in this world, no one knows my wish is actually to become a sword saint!”
Li Changan was stunned before his expression gradually turned icy cold. Laughing angrily through gritted teeth he said, “Admire me? Don’t joke around. Do you really wish to become a worthless cripple like me? If we switched places, would you truly be willing? If I...”
Li Changan suddenly raised his head, “I don’t need your pity!”
Killing intent raged, making the lightning writhe.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
