Kiana thought.
The Mei she admired had inherited her family's Hokushin Itto-ryu. Her swordsmanship talent transcended the ages, allowing her to reach the realm of Menkyo Kaiden at such a young age.
The Raiden family's secret art was not the identically named school of swordsmanship currently popular throughout the Far East.
A transcendent ancient sword art—this classification alone was enough to establish Hokushin Itto-ryu's status.
Yet even Mei, in terms of swordsmanship alone, paled in comparison to Ling.
Could A Li handle her?
"I can't?"
Fu Li smiled at the girl's seemingly questioning concern.
He did not answer her question. Instead, he leaned close and whispered something into her ear.
Then he leaped out of her embrace and strode toward Ling, who was approaching with her blade drawn.
Clang!
Blade struck blade. Their gleaming edges reflected the crazed and calm profiles of the two fighters, while the piercing hum battered their eardrums.
Kiana swiftly retreated on instinct, yet she could not help turning back.
Ling's will and body were becoming increasingly synchronized. The Yae Style swordsmanship inherited through Stigmata genetic memories had originally come from Fleeting Slash.
The girl had indeed merely been copying the motions before, but now, every gesture she made carried the invincible, peerless bearing of the Eighth Seat of the Fire Moths.
And yet, even Ling like this was completely suppressed by Fu Li in every regard.
His swordsmanship was neither flashy nor cool. He merely placed Mikazuki Munechika in exactly the right position again and again, and every time, Ling's attacks would break in their transitions, exposing openings that happened to give him room to maneuver.
Her beast form had indeed been difficult to deal with, but in human form, it came down to swordsmanship. Could he not fight however he pleased?
Kiana bit her lip.
She knew she should not be overthinking things in the middle of battle, but the more she watched Fu Li's performance, the less he seemed like a newcomer who had only just awakened his abilities. Instead, he seemed increasingly close to the "body-snatching" joke she had made before.
Still, neither her feet nor her hands became confused by her chaotic thoughts. She moved with firm precision, following the instructions Fu Li had whispered to her earlier.
Seeing this from the corner of his eye, Fu Li finally relaxed.
Honestly, he had also been afraid Kiana might do something reckless.
His current behavior was indeed just a tiny bit different from before his rebirth. It was understandable that she would be suspicious.
But seriously, he still could not figure out how this girl had noticed anything and even specifically followed him here.
He had run off first thing in the morning after his rebirth!
Although he had returned to his rented room afterward to catch up on sleep, he had only seen her once in the hallway. It could practically be called flawless!
Of course, that was only from Fu Li's own perspective.
If someone had watched the actions of these boys and girls from a third-person perspective the entire time, they could easily solve his confusion:
Fu Li thought he was just an unnoticed nobody, never realizing that Kiana cared about him far more than he imagined!
"Fu Li and Kiana's Victory Speech"
Fu Li thought he was just an unnoticed nobody, never realizing that Kiana cared about him far more than he imagined.
Ling was the same.
Right now, she was deeply preoccupied with the white-haired girl hurrying away.
"Kallen..."
A name that did not belong on this battlefield slipped from Sakura's misty lips. After one clash, the red-eyed Miko suddenly abandoned Fu Li, turned, and rushed after Kiana.
Naturally, Fu Li would not let her have her way. A snow-white blade flashed upward, forcing her to block with her sword.
"Can you get the situation straight?" he asked from above. "Your enemy right now is me, not that Kallen, Kikyo."
"Kallen..."
Yet Ling turned a deaf ear to him. With her slender, shapely legs, she stubbornly chased after Kiana a second time.
The white stockings on her thighs had long since been riddled with holes during the battle, and the skin glimmering beneath the firelight was strikingly alluring.
Enraged, Ling no longer rejected Yae Sakura's memories. Clearly, that did not come without a price.
Memories shaped people. Though that statement was somewhat extreme, it still showed how important memories were to a person.
After merging with another's memories, one would naturally become attached to what that person had been attached to.
So what had Yae Sakura been attached to?
Naturally, it was the Kaslana Saintess who had wandered into Yae Village five hundred years ago—Kallen Kaslana.
Kiana's relationship with her was obviously not some absurd reincarnation story.
The problem was that both girls were from the Kaslana family, and Kiana possessed the exact same white hair and blue eyes as Kallen.
The misunderstanding was only natural.
"Tsk!"
Seeing Ling abandon him yet again, Fu Li unhappily raised his sword once more.
But his body abruptly stiffened unnaturally, allowing her to escape Mikazuki Munechika's range.
In the end, his endurance in his normal state was still insufficient.
He had already overdrawn himself once while fighting the Demon Fox. Even with two Healing Bullets as a temporary supplement, recovering to peak condition so quickly was impossible.
"Move!"
Fu Li could not help shouting a warning. Void Step activated again as he tried to intercept the enemy despite moving later.
Unexpectedly, Ling was even faster. Perhaps Fleeting Slash also contained a movement skill like Ground Shrink. She actually arrived before Kiana when Fu Li was still nearly halfway behind her!
"Kallen! Kallen!"
With a fanatical, twisted expression, she raised her long blade and slashed fiercely at Kiana's back!
The girl who had just finished Fu Li's instructions instinctively turned around. The blood-colored blade grew larger and larger in her eyes.
"Woof!"
At that critical moment, a dog's bark rang across the battlefield.
Soth, who had been ordered to stay away from the battle, leaped up and bit down on the Miko's sword-wielding wrist!
The MK-II Type mechanical dog was not merely capable of tracking people by scent. The tungsten steel saw teeth in its jaws had a biting force of a full ton!
With force concentrated over such a narrow area, combined with Ling having spent five hundred years corroding Yae Sakura's body—
Soth's bite failed to tear her wrist off outright, but it effectively disrupted the attack!
"You mutt! Get lost!"
Having been attacked, Ling completely forgot that she herself had once been a canine creature. She lifted her leg and kicked Soth hard in the stomach.
Her full, beautiful thighs became weapons of slaughter in that instant, splitting the mechanical dog in two with a single blow!
"Whine!!!"
Soth whimpered, yet it still clamped down on Ling's wrist without letting go.
"Soth!"
Kiana cried out, and Fu Li, who had arrived in time, roared, "Let go!"
The mechanical dog, with only its upper half remaining, obediently released its jaws. Fu Li then scooped it up along with Kiana, one under each arm.
Ling clearly had no intention of sparing the same kind that had bitten her. Her embroidered fist turned over and smashed down, crushing the dog's remaining half to pieces.
Then she continued relentlessly pursuing Fu Li and Kiana in his arms.
Ling's footwork was superior, and the distance between them was soon reduced to less than three meters.
It looked like a repeat of the previous situation, except this time, Fu Li would not give her another chance.
He turned in midair and planted a foot on Ling's unprepared forehead, kicking her into a stagger.
"Go down, Kikyo."
Crimson Lotus bloomed before him. A spherical, blazing-white barrier rose up, enclosing the enemy only a hair's breadth away.
Endless flames, like a falling sun, swallowed the Miko's grotesquely twisted figure.
Name: Solar Apollo Level: C-rank Category: Item/Explosive Effect: A special alchemical weapon that took the form of a soft, springy red crystal. It contained an extremely terrifying amount of energy and could be detonated through Mental Power or by injecting energy into it. It required priming before it would explode during use, but it could also be charged in advance and planted. After detonating, it formed an orange sphere with a diameter of fifty meters that lasted for thirty seconds. The temperature inside the sphere reached an extremely terrifying level, with power far exceeding the simultaneous detonation of dozens of fuel-air bombs. Not even a trace of heat would leak outside the sphere. Apollo itself contained enormous energy and was relatively stable under normal circumstances. Please do not court death by stimulating it, such as by injecting energy into it. Remark: Reincarnation Paradise activated! Pipi Xiao, let's go!
Fu Li had said from the very beginning that there was no such thing as too much exploding in war.
Thus, victory and defeat had been decided.
Although Solar Apollo could be made into a trap, Fu Li had abandoned that idea from the start and chosen to carry it on him.
The aftermath of an A-rank battle could collapse entire mountains. If he planted it in advance under such circumstances, either Apollo would be struck by an attack and explode prematurely, or the enemy would simply run away the moment it detonated.
Forget a blast diameter of fifty meters—even with a radius of fifty meters, Ling and Fu Li could escape with a single step.
What? Why not just detonate it on her from the beginning?
Why did Ultraman always use his ultimate move at the end? Why did people always save their ultimates for the last moment when playing LOL?
The enemy was not stupid either. If she took a vicious hit at the beginning, why would she keep fighting you head-on? Were her legs just for decoration? Could she not run?
Most importantly, this thing could not instantly kill Ling at her peak, when her defense was absurdly high. That big fox had thick hide and even thicker flesh, ridiculously durable. Even Seven Swords Nuclear Blast had to wear her down for ages before catching her off guard and barely finishing her with a focused strike.
Therefore, in this battle, Apollo could only serve as a last-resort method of mutual destruction.
Fu Li had indeed planned it that way, except he did not need to die with her. He had the Flying Thunder God Kunai.
The Miko Ling's second phase had indeed exceeded his expectations. At the very least, there had been no mention of it in the information he possessed.
But he had not panicked. Instead, he feigned weakness and lured the girl closer and closer.
All warfare was based on deception.
Put simply, it meant fooling people.
Ling had indeed played along wonderfully. She had even been so confident that she walked up to Fu Li and used the back of her blade to lift his chin and tease him. What a precious iconic scene of "a Miko taming a rebellious puppy."
Then, just when Fu Li felt he could finally claim this beautiful head, the sky boomed, and Kiana made her dazzling entrance.
The moment he saw her, Fu Li's brain short-circuited, like an author whose computer crashed before he saved a four-thousand-word draft he had just finished at the word limit.
It was not quite that all his efforts had gone to waste, but he had basically been busy for nothing.
Fortunately, this new teammate was fairly capable. While he and Miko Ling fought in a desperate entanglement, Kiana completed Fu Li's final instruction and placed Solar Apollo in its designated position.
What happened next went without saying. With a BOOM!, the sun fell to earth, and divine flames surged into the heavens.
If Ling could still enter a third phase after this, Fu Li would have nothing left to say.
It was fate.
Fortunately, Ling did not give him a chance to save her. Thirty seconds later, the artificial sun created by Solar Apollo gradually dimmed.
At the center of the crater with a twenty-five-meter radius, the black Corrosion Gem reflected an enticing halo.
There was also a crystal containing a vast amount of Honkai Energy. It was the Honkai Beast Core Ling had removed from the Four-tailed Fox Demon when she hastily transferred bodies.
As a product of the Authority of Corrosion, it was highly contaminating and basically impossible to use. It was just right for throwing into the system lottery.
Before you continue