In theory, the top speed of a first-class vehicle was practically an airplane on land. Even the world's most elite motorcycle racer would never do something this crazy on a road they had not familiarized themselves with beforehand.
He was practically dancing on the edge of a blade with his life.
It was not only Ganesha behind him. The speed of the escape itself was also the Grim Reaper's scythe. The slightest mistake at such an extreme speed would be enough to destroy both the bike and the rider.
Su Qing'an himself did not know how long the Kawasaki H2R could last with its engine running at full power from the very beginning, or how long its engine and fuel tank could hold out.
When he bought this bike, he had never considered that he would be hunted by an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
But it did not matter. Ever since he realized that shaking off Ganesha was impossible, he had never intended to engage in a prolonged escape.
Fleeing on the Kawasaki H2R was only part of his plan. Success would naturally be cause for celebration. If he failed, he could only continue to fight and gamble with his next plan.
His physical strength and mental state had already determined that if this plan failed, he would certainly die.
But aside from this, he had no other choice.
He was here. Su Qing'an looked at the building a hundred meters away. It was a half-constructed tower. All the workers had now become Zombies, so the project was destined never to be completed.
However, preliminary calculations showed that the project had received a great deal of investment. Even at only about half completion, its own weight should still be hundreds of thousands of tons.
If possible, Su Qing'an wished it were even heavier. It would be ideal if it could reach the 800,000-ton dead weight of the central tower in Canghai City, Shenzhou.
Ganesha was indeed very strong—so strong that even if it merely charged him instead of attacking, he would die. But even this strength could be put to use.
That was even more true with Ganesha's crude, animal-like thought process.
He wanted Ganesha to roll straight into the tower and smash all the load-bearing columns, then use the building's weight of hundreds of thousands of tons to crush it into shutdown.
Yes, even if the plan succeeded, Su Qing'an did not think he could kill the Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
His ultimate goal was to crush it into shutdown, render it inoperative, and escape while he had the chance.
When choosing materials for load-bearing columns, engineers would use concrete rated C60 or higher. The steel reinforcement was extremely strong, and the columns would also be strengthened with stirrups. In theory, each load-bearing column of this quality could withstand 2,700 tons.
But compared with the limit imposed by the building's own weight, the four forces of tension, bending, torsion, and shear also fell within the load-bearing columns' functions. Clearly, however, their ability to withstand those forces was nowhere near as exaggerated as 2,700 tons.
Su Qing'an had no doubt that Ganesha could smash through all of it with ease. While deliberately leading Ganesha toward obstacles, he had already understood that no building could stop it.
All along the way, it had practically encountered no resistance, moving as easily as if it were crossing level ground.
The world's largest tracked bulldozer, the ACCO, with 1,300 horsepower and a working weight of 183 tons, was like an infant in front of Ganesha—too weak to do more than play with building blocks.
Su Qing'an's Kawasaki H2R had already smashed through the warning sign telling people to stop and the reinforced glass recently installed in the tower. Its arrogant roar should have drawn the Zombies here to give chase, but Ganesha came rolling down right behind him.
Compared with its violence, the Kawasaki H2R was practically child's play.
Su Qing'an began to slow down. No matter how fast his reflexes were or how good the bike was, he could no longer act recklessly in the tower's conditions.
More important than all of that, however, was that he pressed down on the bike and began drifting through turn after turn without pause. He had to guide Ganesha's movements and direction to achieve his goal.
Clearly, unlike the palace-like underground drainage project, the tower's interior was far too cramped for a behemoth like Ganesha.
The Emperor-class Honkai Beast rolled furiously, smashing apart everything that obstructed its path. Even load-bearing columns capable of withstanding 2,700 tons were nothing more than slightly troublesome stones along the way.
Almost there. Almost there. Su Qing'an, circling around and guiding Ganesha, had already lost count of how many load-bearing columns and walls it had smashed apart.
Success was drawing closer and closer.
The tower had begun to show signs of collapse. The building's groans echoed through the space, but all of it was drowned out by the roar of the 998cc inline four-cylinder engine mounted on the Kawasaki H2R, like the howl of a beast fighting to the death drowning out the sounds of Ganesha and the building beside the youth's ears.
I have to live.
I absolutely cannot die here.
Not even to an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
If I die here, how will I save Satou Yunona?
A person who could not keep their word was worthless. It was just like his parents in this world and the last. Neither of them had ever done what they promised.
They were both worthless people.
Su Qing'an had always hated people like that the most.
He did not want to become one of them.
He had already broken his promise once—to Hua.
So there absolutely could not be a second time.
He would never speak of something unless he was certain he could do it. Once he made a promise, he would fulfill it no matter the price.
He had already decided to see with his own eyes whether Satou Yunona was truly dead.
If she was dead, he would bury her. If she survived, he would flee with her.
Even after encountering a calamity like an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, Su Qing'an did not regret it in the slightest.
Before fulfilling his promise, even if he fell into the abyss, the youth had resolved to drag his burdened body back up by force.
"Ganesha, even if you're an Emperor-class, don't think you can kill me that easily." His whisper was hoarse and faint, yet it contained an abnormal obsession that could not be ignored.
The youth stared straight ahead. His consciousness was already close to becoming muddled, but for some reason, at this moment that would decide life and death, he suddenly stopped being afraid. He did not need to silently recite the Sword Heart Technique. He was neither nervous nor afraid, and his heart was as calm as still water.
As Ganesha smashed through the tower's final massive load-bearing structure, the Kawasaki H2R broke through the wall and flew out.
The final surge of Honkai Energy caused Su Qing'an's consciousness to sever for several seconds. After traveling several hundred meters on inertia, the unmanned Kawasaki H2R plunged headfirst into a stretch of ruins. Even during those few seconds when he was unconscious, his fingers had remained tightly wrapped around the handlebars. Otherwise, he most likely would have been thrown off along the way.
But even though he had not let go, Su Qing'an, whose consciousness had barely returned, understood that he was seriously injured.
His fine control over his body allowed him to clearly determine his injuries: minor intracranial bleeding, three broken ribs, and his left leg and left arm, which had struck the ground, were both broken outright. Without a doubt, he had lost his basic ability to move and could die at any moment.
The steel beast that had kept him alive until now was also completely wrecked.
The roar of the collapsing tower beside his ear deafened him. The youth struggled to raise his eyes and look back at the tower, now transformed into a massive ruin.
The Emperor-class Honkai Beast seemed to have been successfully buried beneath it. Su Qing'an could sense the Honkai Energy reaction inside suddenly fall silent.
Ganesha had successfully been crushed into shutdown by the tower. His plan had worked.
But then, sensing Honkai Energy slowly gathering at the center of the ruins, Su Qing'an knew that Ganesha was gradually regaining consciousness. With his own ability to move restricted, his ending had practically been decided.
It's not time to give up yet, he told himself.
He could no longer manipulate Honkai Energy. That was an obvious fact.
His physical strength had reached its limit, blood kept seeping out, and his body was battered beyond recognition. All of that was true.
But it was not time to give up yet. He could not give up like this.
He had already fought with all his might. He had already exhausted his wisdom. He had already tried so, so hard. How could he fall at the final step?
The youth rolled his body over. His spine was not broken, his right arm was intact, and his right leg could still move. He could still struggle.
In truth, being able to move only meant that his bones had not broken.
Every time he crawled across the ground, nerves throughout his body twisted in agony.
It hurt. It hurt so much. It hurt so much. It hurt so much. It hurt so much. His reason wailed while his body issued warnings.
But he could not stop. He could not rest. Only the pain stimulated his consciousness and kept it awake. It was not merely the price of using Honkai Energy; the massive blood loss from his ruined body was also eroding his awareness.
Every step Su Qing'an took forward across the ground now lay beyond the extreme. Every step exacted the price of overdrawing his body's life.
After ten long minutes, Su Qing'an had moved only fifty meters forward.
After the tenth meter, he was no longer crawling with some remnant of strength or physical stamina. He was like a puppet with only one thread left, and that thread, called willpower, dragged his body through the remaining forty meters.
The ruins behind him began to tremble. Ganesha's breathing seemed to have reached his ears. Whether it took five seconds or a minute, this Emperor-class Honkai Beast would completely awaken and then kill him.
He understood. There was no chance left.
At that moment, Su Qing'an suddenly thought of Chen Junxuan.
Teacher, you said that even in a desperate situation, a martial artist must never give up or waver, didn't you?
I did it.
I worked so hard to survive until now.
It's just that martial arts, willpower, and wisdom all have their limits.
But if I use Honkai to fight Honkai, how can I possibly defeat an Emperor-class Honkai Beast when my Honkai Energy resistance has a limit?
But...
How unwilling he was. How unwilling he was. How unwilling he was. How unwilling he was.
How unwilling he was. How unwilling he was. How unwilling he was. How unwilling he was.
He had not yet derived another path for martial arts. He had not yet properly experienced what this world looked like. He had not yet met the gentle older sister from his memories.
In the end, he had fulfilled neither his promise to Hua nor his promise to Satou Yunona.
To die like this, to die after becoming the person he hated most...
He was truly unwilling.
But...
If I am certain to die, then I will die in battle.
The youth's final will rekindled from the ashes. With his right hand, he painfully drew [Calming the Tempest].
He could no longer stand, but given Ganesha's size, whether he stood or not made little difference. His only goal was to swing one sword before he died.
Boom, boom, boom! The massive concrete chunks pressing down on Ganesha in the ruins were violently flung away, and the sound resounded through the sky.
The weight of a tower weighing hundreds of thousands of tons had only crushed it into shutdown for ten minutes.
This was strength beyond Su Qing'an's comprehension.
Yet the youth stared fearlessly at the Emperor-class Honkai Beast. In this life-and-death pursuit that had ended in failure, Su Qing'an had received a baptism that even his previous deaths had been unable to give him.
The youth's composure was no longer the calmness granted by the Sword Heart Technique. It was genuine courage.
Su Qing'an swung his sword.
"Crack."
[Calming the Tempest] shattered. Before Ganesha even reached him, the sword had already broken apart.
Yes. You had gone through all this trouble for me. You must have worked hard, too.
I'm sorry, Teacher. I broke the sword my teacher's wife gave you.
And so the youth smiled and threw a punch.
It was such a weak and powerless punch that even an ordinary person would have been shocked by how feeble it was.
But it was also such a powerful and unwavering punch. In this hopeless situation where death was certain, after the blow of his sword shattering, the youth did not waver in the slightest. He had not even needed to think before throwing that punch.
That willpower.
That courage.
That decisiveness.
All of it was witnessed by the girl. Ganesha's fangs were less than a meter from Su Qing'an, yet that single meter seemed to separate two entirely different worlds.
"Inch Force, Mountain Collapse." One punch—just one punch.
It was an extremely complex martial art transformed into a technique that was supremely simple, yet supremely fierce.
Ganesha let out a wail. It was a painful howl it had never made even when buried beneath a tower weighing hundreds of thousands of tons.
Bang! Its body, larger than an African elephant, was sent flying directly into the tower's ruins. At the same time, one of its fangs was shattered by the girl's punch.
Su Qing'an's mind was overwhelmed. The girl's figure was engraved into his thoughts. It had nothing to do with her stunning beauty; that incomparable [brilliance] and [power] became a quality that seized the mind, domineeringly engraving this scene into his soul at the moment between life and death.
Her movements were indifferent, her expression serene, and her bearing was like that of an immortal from myth.
The girl's martial arts had completely surpassed those of his teacher, Chen Junxuan.
No, it should not be called surpassing or transcending.
The so-called pinnacle of martial arts should have belonged to this person from the very beginning.
But aside from that...
So familiar. So familiar.
It was as if he had seen this person somewhere before.
Yet he could not recall it. In his memories, he had never known such an existence.
Oh, right.
She seems a lot like Hua.
"You've already worked hard enough. Leave things to me now." The girl said this while looking at the youth behind her, battered all over yet still forcing himself to stay conscious.
With that amount of blood loss and those injuries, it would have been no surprise if the pain had knocked him unconscious outright. Yet this youth seemed to possess an obsession bordering on stubborn madness. He had not feared death, and the punch he had thrown truly possessed pitifully little strength.
But if it was the girl, she could understand.
Aside from the willpower worthy of praise, his control over the strength throughout his entire body was also impossibly perfect. At the very end, the youth had even accelerated his blood flow, forcibly squeezing out the last trace of strength from his ruined body.
What recklessness. It seemed she would have to finish this quickly.
The girl's back as she walked toward Ganesha became the most magnificent sight Su Qing'an saw before losing consciousness.
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