BOOM!

  Mikael’s aura and presence erupted outward, multiplying by an untold amount as waves of differently colored Special Energies and Qi swirled violently around him, his entire being shifting into serious mode—not quite ALL IN Mode since he still had a few trump cards hidden in his sleeves, yet far from the ‘casual’ approach he had shown during the earlier probing strike.

  Grip.

  Mikael’s hold on Sangrelia subtly tightened as he almost imperceptibly adjusted his stance before, without hesitation, he swung.

  Sangrelia’s form, carrying unimaginable power, tore through the air and headed straight toward Tharvonis’s Titanbone Combat Form – Mountain-Crushing Blow, both attacks radiating such destructive might that it felt as though even the world itself could collapse under their impact.

  Crackles, rip.

  An instant before collision, right in the space between their two attacks, the air trembled and twisted as a faint tear opened in reality—and then,

  BOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!

  Sword and fist met in a cataclysmic explosion that would have made a nuclear bomb blush in shame as both warriors were violently propelled backward by the overwhelming shockwave.

  Swish, fwoosh.

  After being flung more than a kilometer away, Mikael executed a backflip followed by several aerial movements to disperse the remaining force of the explosion before ultimately stabilizing himself, now floating roughly one and a half kilometers from the point of impact.

  “Interesting… too intriguing…” he murmured to himself as his battle-hungry grin grew slightly wider, his gaze filled with curiosity while remaining fixed on the distant figure—multiple kilometers away yet still perfectly visible, as though standing right before him.

  And what instantly caught his attention was the fact that Tharvonis wasn’t unaffected like during the earlier probing exchange, as the Varnari now looked down at his right hand with an expression of visible shock.

  “I am injured and… I am not healing?” Tharvonis’s voice, filled with a mix of shock, awe, and even child-like wonder, resounded through the air.

  His gaze remained fixed on his right hand—the same one he had used to execute the Mountain-Crushing Blow—and on it was a large, deep cut that reached the bone, marring the entirety of his knuckle in an injury that, had it been even slightly deeper, would have severed his hand entirely.

  This bone-deep wound should have been excruciatingly painful, yet if the total absence of suffering on Tharvonis’s visage was to be believed, it was clear that the Varnari genius had long trained himself to remain completely unaffected by pain.

  And this was a kind of training that nearly every Varnari went through, for how could they possibly make full use of their absurd healing factor if they were incapacitated by a ‘little bit’ of pain?

  Understanding this, Tharvonis’s reaction was perfectly normal—but what wasn’t normal was the fact that his injury wasn’t already healed!?

  After all, any Varnari, with their ridiculous healing factor, should have already recovered from the ‘small’ injury inflicted by Mikael, and this was doubly true considering how absurdly pure and potent Tharvonis’s bloodline was.

  If a normal Varnari was already ‘near immortal’, with a healing factor capable of restoring severed limbs within seconds and even allowing them to survive without a heart or head for a brief period until regeneration completed—against such beings, the best strategy was to repeatedly cut them down until they no longer had the energy to regenerate, their healing ability being particularly energy intensive…

  Against Tharvonis, forget a ‘small cut’—even being reduced to countless pieces should have been something his body could completely recover from in an instant!

  That was how absurd the Varnari healing factor could get, and it was the main reason why they were considered a superior race compared to humans; after all, if two equally skilled fighters—one human and one Varnari—were to face each other, the Varnari would almost always win simply because he could heal from his wounds, while the human… not so much.

  Touch.

  Tharvonis touched his wound with wonder and a growing smirk, “...Sword Intent, this is Sword Intent at work isn’t it?” he finished his words while looking up at Mikael with an excited glint in his eyes.

  Nod.

  The handsome human cultivator gave a small nod as an answer, which made Tharvonis’s battle lust explode, nearly launching himself back at Mikael for another round, but curiosity took over as he wanted to see how long it would take for his wound to heal, so he did nothing and simply observed his fist, and—

  Weirdly enough Mikael also did nothing, he simply observed Tharvonis’s injury which was beginning to slowly heal with the cold eyes of a researcher, not making any move to take advantage of the Varnari injury.

  …

  Ten seconds passed before Tharvonis’s bone-deep cut fully disappeared, leaving his fist uninjured.

  At that moment a glint passed through Mikael’s eyes, ‘So this is his healing speed with my Sword Intent interfering…’ a calculating light flickered in his galaxy-like gaze, ‘The healing speed itself doesn’t matter much, this won’t be a sprint but a marathon after all considering the Varnari’s characteristics, but—’

  A faint trace of relief appeared on Mikael’s features as he confirmed something he had been nearly certain of, yet needed proof for, since without that confirmation this battle could have turned very bad for him—but fortunately, he had just received it.

  ‘As I expected my Sword Intent interferes with Tharvonis Healing Factor in a way that the cost of healing is ridiculously increased, and it’s even better than I thought as the cost should be at worst increased by dozens of times but more realistically it should be by hundreds of times!’

  Vwoooosh!

  With him having the confirmation and the ‘data’ he wanted, Mikael didn’t have any reason to wait for Tharvonis any further, so he launched himself at a blur-like speed right at the Varnari genius.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  BOOM!

  A terrifying explosion like a nuclear bomb exploding once more resounded as Tharvonis also launched himself at Mikael, and soon enough the two clashed in a violent display, and then—

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Explosion and after explosions resounded as Mikael and Tharvonis, like two forces of nature, clashed again and again, creating a barrage of ‘nuclear bombs’ exploding as their bodies collided and clashed in violent displays of pure strength and martial skill.

  ‘What..!’ Lian’er mouth was wide open in a mix of shock and stupor as she stayed frozen in her hidden spot, her gaze fixed on the clashing figures of her beloved Junior Brother and the other Varnari!

  The suddenness and the randomness of the situation caught her completely off guard—who would have thought that just as she was waiting for the ‘opportunity’ to manifest, Mikael would suddenly appear and, an instant later, erupt into a heaven-shattering battle with a Varnari?

  Suddenly Lian’er’s pupils dilated in disbelief as recognition struck her. ‘Tharvonis… this is the Varnari genius, Tharvonis! Mikael may be in trouble!’

  These thoughts flashed through her mind as she observed the duo battling high in the sky in a rather strange display, as they didn’t fight like ‘normal cultivators’, which was more often than not a clash of pure power with the winner simply being the stronger one.

  A situation where one Skyburst Cannon Fist faced against Eclipse Fang Kick, with the victor ultimately being the one who was strongest when all factors were taken into account, with next to no skill mattering, but these two—

  These two were the complete opposite, both fought like transcendental warriors who had experienced countless battlefields, controlling their bodies to perfection, using feints, predicting their opponent’s movements, unleashing sudden bursts and hidden techniques.

  If a ‘normal cultivator’ fight was pure strength with little to no technique, this was a battle of transcendental power and supreme mastery.

  The instant Lian’er recognized Tharvonis her heart skipped a beat as she was hit by a wave of worry, one which was amplified the next moment as she saw Tharvonis use a feint and his superior speed to maneuver around Mikael and successfully land a punch!

  “NO!”

  A worried scream escaped Lian’er, fortunately Mikael tilted his body and contracted his defense at the very last instant before he was hit.

  But that wasn’t all as Mikael then let himself be carried and sent flying by the terrifying momentum of Tharvonis’s punch in a way that he flew kilometers backward, yet as he did so he performed complex aerial maneuvers that dispersed the punch’s momentum to the maximum, drastically reducing the damage he would take.

  Thud, Swish!

  Of course Tharvonis wasn’t idle and instantly pursued, and without giving Mikael time to retaliate he followed with a barrage of fast and terrifyingly powerful punches and kicks.

  Swish, fwossh.

  Mikael maneuvered through the storm of attacks with an almost uncanny grace, moving in a way that made it seem as though he could predict every one of Tharvonis’s movements before they happened.

  Naturally, Mikael wasn’t content with playing the role of a punching bag, so while evading Tharvonis’s blows he also counterattacked, his beloved Sangrelia infused with Sword Intent as he slashed and cut toward the Varnari genius.

  Each counterstrike drew blood, forcing Tharvonis to pay a price for his relentless offense, but—

  Tharvonis remained utterly unfazed by pain or injury; he was a Varnari after all, and as such, he pressed forward without hesitation, his attacks continuing to pour down on Mikael, who, despite giving everything he had, still found himself being ‘rapidly’ pushed back.

  In this way both men fought and battled while at the same time inadvertently crossing immense distance!

  Ba-Dum!

  Lian’er heart loudly beat in her chest as she saw that fortunately Mikael was fine from the previous attack which had given her quite the scare but at the same time…

  At the same time he was rapidly moving away from her while seeming at a disadvantage as he continued to be pushed back again and again!

  ‘Wait for me Mikael! I am coming to help you!’

  Lian’er thought with determination and then without wasting a single instant the ground under her feet exploded as a sword manifested in her hand while she erupted at full speed toward her beloved Junior Brother who was in danger!

  Fwoosh!

  She gave her all and flew at an insane speed right after Mikael without caring in the slightest about the ‘opportunity’ that she thought to be linked to the ray of light.

  The instant she saw Mikael in danger the opportunity vanished from her mind, after all what was an opportunity compared to her beloved Junior Brother?

  Since that night under the moonlight when she had ‘confronted’ Mikael and come to terms with her own feelings for him, how could she not forfeit everything to help him!?

  Even a single strand of his hair was infinitely more precious than ANY opportunity!

  A dark glint appeared in the eyes of the flying Hua Lianyu eyes, ‘If as much as a single hair of Mikael is hurt…I will kill—No, this is far too gentle for daring to touch my beloved Junior Brother even a thousand deaths wouldn’t be enough!’

  Lian’er usually gentle, lively and mischievous gaze grew darker and darker by the moment, gaining an obsessive and possessive quality as her hazel orbs grew dark,

  ‘Wait for me Junior Brother, I’ll come save you and dismember the…thing that dared to hurt you and then—’

  Lian’er cheeks grew rosy as the obsession in her gaze increased further but this time it gained a ‘pink’ quality, “Hehehe, he will be happy and maybe pat me and call me his~, beloved Senior Sister~”

  For a moment Lian’er flight slowed down as she brought her hand to her cheeks as her expression grew hazy and dreamy, “Hehehe, Mikael presence and love, his love, his love, all for me, for me~ hehehe!”

  With each word her tone grew softer, her expression more dreamy and obsessive, but then her gaze caught sight of Tharvonis and Mikael’s gradually distancing figures, and in an instant her expression twisted into a dark one.

  Without a single further word she exploded forward at full speed toward the duo!

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  ———

  A/N:

  Hoho, Kiara is having competition!

  The chapter under the moonlight where Lian’er had a semi-confession were as long as you aren’t Japanese Protagonist level of Dense you gets the implicit message and at that time we saw hint of yandereness and…

  Yeah these hint of yandereness grew in the background and now Lian’er has ‘evolved’ into somebody who would give the now tamer Kiara a run for her money!

  ———

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  Thanks for walking this path with me.

  — End of Chapter —