Chen Xing's Flashback, A Song Called Courage

Episode six of Stellaris Prequel: Embers.

Boom!

The opening of episode six showed Tiandao attacking the superalloy test pillar with the Star Energy Technique—Black Azure.

Although the crater Black Azure left in the superalloy test pillar was not particularly earth-shattering,

the trembling test pillar had now caused the entire training room to shake visibly along with it.

This alone showed just how terrifying the power behind Tiandao's strike was.

It also showed how far from ordinary that seemingly ordinary superalloy test pillar truly was.

Through this scene, the viewers finally understood what the "earthquake" Chen Kong and the others had felt outside had been about.

"So, the most I can reach right now is ten times the rotational speed?"

"Caroline, did you record the Star Energy reading from that strike?"

"Star Energy reading: 1900. The impact force is equivalent to the initial stage of Rank 2."

"But your energy efficiency is only 95%, which means this is almost your current limit."

"Tiandao, personally, I think you should stop here for now. That remaining 5% efficiency isn't worth spending a great deal of time improving. The returns are too low."

"Only nineteen hundred?"

Through the conversation between Tiandao and Caroline, the viewers finally understood what level Tiandao currently stood at among the Starborn.

Possessing a Star Source and having a base Star Energy Value of one hundred points was the standard for a Rank 1 Star Envoy.

Tiandao was not only a genuine Rank 1 Star Envoy now.

The attacks of this Rank 1 Star Envoy had even reached a level comparable to a Rank 2 Star Envoy.

For the other Starborn, who generally lingered around Rank 1, Tiandao was undoubtedly a full two versions ahead of them.

Yet even so, Tiandao on the screen remained dissatisfied, his face plainly showing regret.

This outrageously showy display left the viewers utterly stunned.

No, you're already two versions ahead of everyone else, and you still think it isn't enough? Hax Tian, what exactly are you trying to do?!

Stop already, King of Men! You can't keep advancing! If you go any further... that'll be the realm of God!

Faced with Tiandao, who was still striving for perfection, the viewers were completely convinced.

Talented and hardworking—of course you deserved to be the strongest!

Not long after Tiandao temporarily stopped training, the training room door opened.

Seeing the Chen Xing siblings enter his training room,

Tiandao immediately greeted them with a smile.

But just as he had been in the previous episodes,

Tiandao was a man perfect in every way except his personality.

Because many times, Tiandao could have simply spoken properly, but he refused to. He just loved poking at whatever sore spot people had.

"Xing, look at how well your brother's injuries healed. There isn't even a single scar on him."

"Now look at you. Not only did you insist on keeping a scar on your arm, you even dressed it up by saying it was to remind yourself."

"If you ask me, your life has been too comfortable. You just love suffering for no reason. What normal person would skip scarless surgery and insist on getting one that leaves scars? Isn't that just sick?"

Chen Xing never indulged Tiandao's teasing, immediately firing back with domineering force.

Not only that, she even used the Star Source ability she had just acquired, Red Lotus Karmic Fire.

For a moment, under the production team's deliberate embellishment, the viewers could clearly feel the astonishing destructive power of Red Lotus Karmic Fire even through the screen.

Yet Tiandao casually brushed aside Chen Xing's exceptionally terrifying Red Lotus Karmic Fire.

"What, you're getting angry already? You won't even let people tell the truth now?"

Watching Tiandao effortlessly neutralize Chen Xing's attack,

the viewers once again gained a more intuitive understanding of just how "powerful" he had become.

After all, setting aside everything else, merely brushing flames aside with his bare hands was not something an ordinary person could accomplish.

Not to mention making it look as effortless as Tiandao did.

All they could say was that this man... was terrifyingly strong.

Chen Xing in the show was not surprised by Tiandao casually neutralizing her attack.

She had clearly suffered for it long ago.

Afterward, Tiandao and Chen Xing, this pair of happy enemies who clashed head-on every time they met,

went through another round of their usual bickering before it ended with Tiandao preparing to head to the cafeteria for a meal.

But before Tiandao had gone very far, Chen Xing suddenly called out to stop him.

"Wait."

"What is it now, my Young Miss Chen Xing?"

"I've been training all day. I'm exhausted. Can you say everything you want to say at once, please?"

"Tiandao, fight me again. I want to see the gap between you and me."

"Huh? Again?"

Tiandao, forcibly made to work overtime by Chen Xing, immediately expressed his resistance.

But as the number one Chen Xing doting enthusiast, he ultimately did not refuse her presumptuous request.

However, for this match, Tiandao immediately proposed a completely new set of rules.

He waved his hand and drew a circle around himself, only one meter in diameter, indicating that he would remain inside it from then on.

As long as Chen Xing could make him leave that circle within three minutes, it would count as his loss.

Watching Tiandao look like he was being forced into service by Chen Xing, yet had no choice but to comply, the CP fans went wild.

Lock them down! Tian Xing must be locked down!

Go ahead and spoil her. One day, you'll spoil her rotten!

It's just a little game between husband and wife. Look how excited you people are, how embarrassing! (I'm wriggling around wildly with excitement.)

Under the expectant gazes of the CP fans, Chen Xing immediately walked toward Tiandao with a solemn expression.

But as she passed Chen Kong, Chen Xing suddenly spoke.

"Watch carefully, Kong. Because you'll soon see the true gap between us and a monster."

"And that gap... is so vast it makes people despair."

Some words only became more lethal when they came from someone else's mouth.

Hearing Chen Xing personally say that a chasm called "despair" lay between herself and Tiandao,

the viewers became even more convinced of Tiandao's characterization as a Natural Strongman.

Because no comparison of combat power was more persuasive than No. 2 personally admitting that she was far inferior to No. 1.

Chen Xing, what are you trying to do? Without you, how are the rest of us supposed to contend against the Demon King Tiandao?!

Whatever. Isn't it perfectly normal for a wife to be unable to beat her husband?

The Tian Xing Party up ahead, don't go too far. Our Caroline is obviously the main wife. You're the ones who should back off!

Hehehe, main wife? That's hilarious!

Are there no Tian Liu Party members in the comments?

Tian Liu? What roadside stray is that? Go sit at the kids' table!

Just as the CP factions fiercely argued over "Tian Xing" versus "Tian-Ka,"

the scene in the show suddenly shifted to Chen Xing's childhood memories.

Unlike Tiandao's Flashback from before, Chen Xing's Flashback contained many scenes from her childhood.

In those scenes, although Chen Xing's parents' faces had been Phased out,

it was still clear that Chen Xing had lived a very happy life at the time.

But soon, that happiness disappeared.

On the screen, Chen Xing wore a paper crown and blew at the candles on her birthday cake with a beaming smile.

Yet with that single breath, the entire image instantly filled with glitching distortions like mosaic blocks.

This sudden tearing of the screen immediately gave the viewers a bad feeling.

Sure enough, when the image became "clear" again,

the warm little home before Chen Xing, once brightly lit, was gone.

In its place stood a dark, dusty, ruined room in the aftermath of disaster.

Although Chen Xing was still standing where she had blown out the candles, her cute, clean princess dress had become the hole-riddled T-shirt and shorts she wore now.

Furthermore, the birthday cake that had once been placed before Chen Xing had turned into a rotten loaf of expired bread, reeking of decay and surrounded by buzzing flies.

Watching Chen Xing go from heaven one second to hell the next,

everyone could feel the production team's intense malice.

This was the mark of a blade!

"Kong, stay here properly. I'm going out to find something to eat. Don't run around."

"O-Okay, Sis."

They were both young. They both needed someone to protect them.

Yet Chen Xing at that moment displayed a maturity and strength far beyond Chen Kong's.

After settling her brother down, she slung on her backpack and resolutely headed into the city ruins, filled with deathly silence and danger, beneath the night sky.

This scene also perfectly echoed what she had told Chen Kong during the Final Assessment.

Even if she knew that the very next step ahead was an abyss, she still had to walk into it without hesitation, because there was no one standing before her.

Chen Xing had always been proud, and the reason that pride had never made the viewers dislike her

was that her pride had never merely hung on her lips.

For the pride in her heart, she truly would exhaust every method to overcome any mountain blocking her path.

People might despise a hypocrite who held others to standards they did not follow themselves, but they would never slander a brave person carrying a burden as they marched onward.

Because courage was humanity's greatest hymn.

At the same time, Tiandao, who was watching episode six through the Dimensional Screen in his dormitory, was also stunned by Chen Xing on the screen and unconsciously sat upright.

This was not only because he had never expected the childhood Chen Xing to have already displayed such strength.

It was also because the content of episode six was something he had never seen in the original novel.

In other words, following his unexpected appearance, Stellaris Prequel: Embers had gone ahead and altered the plot on its own again!

And Tiandao knew absolutely nothing about the contents of this flashback.

PS: A small test of my blade, easily taking down the three-update mini-boss (no pressure, clothes only slightly dirtied).

Rightfully asking for follows and monthly tickets!