I Shall Strike in Knight Form!

There were thousands upon thousands of forms of "Intent"! Love and hate were Intent, yearning was Intent, unyielding defiance was Intent, and wild arrogance was Intent. None was inherently superior to another. Yet "battle intent" was undoubtedly one of the Intents best suited to the Adventurer pathway. If not, it never would have manifested upon the Wolf Knight. The Troy civilization's development of the Adventurer pathway could be described as the pinnacle of achievement. During his Rank 5 phase, the Wolf Knight was still a fledgling heir to the throne, and an Intent rigorously vetted by an entire civilization possessed unquestionable, extraordinary potential. Crow had once shared with him an ancestor Extraordinary's summary of the Adventurer pathway: "Equally adept in offense and defense, daring to explore." "—Among the Twelve Destiny Pathways, combat reigns supreme!" This majestic, overbearing, and dominant Destiny pathway was a match made in heaven for battle intent! "Battle intent—" Bai Zhou could hear his own heart thumping against his ears, and even caught the rushing resonance of his blood flowing through his veins. A searing, restless "something" brewed in the deepest recesses of Bai Zhou's Fate Principle. He could clearly feel its presence—not through sight or hearing, but through a purely ineffable somatic sensation. This Intent had no fixed form. It was more elusive than the wind, yet fiercer than any tempest, curled up deep within his Fate Principle. Invisible ripples washed outward. Scorching currents seemed to course through all his limbs and bones, and invisible pulsations set every inch of Bai Zhou's muscles trembling. Scorching hot like magma and vibrating continuously like thunder, it brought every cell in Bai Zhou's body into an active state, drawing out latent potential from within. "So this is... battle intent!" Even Bai Zhou's gaze resembled a boiling lake, with something bizarre brewing within its depths. When he lifted his eyelids and attempted to guide this power to release spontaneously— *Crack!* Something like a faint white lightning bolt seemed to flash across midair. His invisible gaze sliced through the mist in midair, lightly stirring up the dust on the ground, having acquired a kind of tangible substance! If an ordinary mortal were struck by this force, nightmares would haunt them daily for the coming year, and their physical condition would deteriorate day by day, yet medical science would never be able to detect the slightest issue. However, this was not battle intent itself. It was merely an anomaly spontaneously derived from Bai Zhou's eyes under the influence of battle intent! Drawing upon the nourishment called "courage," the seed of battle intent stirred restlessly in the crevices deep within Bai Zhou's Fate Principle. Battle intent had "acknowledged" Bai Zhou's existence—or perhaps it had originated from Bai Zhou all along. It was the most primitive, stubborn brilliance bursting forth from within this eighteen-year-old soul when confronted with absolute oppression. It yearned to break through the soil, yearned to coalesce into tangible might, yearned to merge into one with Bai Zhou's sinews and Fate Principle, displaying supreme might in this world. Yet it remained stuck—just like a sprouting seed unable to push past the rock above its head, like a shout trapped in the throat that could not utter the slightest sound no matter how much strength was spent. Greater power lay just within arm's reach, if only— Perhaps it needed an opportunity! "Rank 5, is it...?" Bai Zhou murmured softly. The distance between him and Rank 5 seemed both far and near, appearing within arm's reach yet impossible to touch. Yet Bai Zhou had already realized that this time, with battle intent advancing to its second stage— The greatest threshold that trapped the vast majority of Rank 4 Extraordinaries in this world had perhaps already been crossed by him without him even realizing it! Rank 5! An advanced Extraordinary who had grasped Intent! Every single one of them was a pivotal figure on the other side of Tinghai! The Rank 5 Extraordinaries of the Blood Worship Cult were all scarlet-robed elders. Those vicious criminals who remained at large despite government departments hunting them, courted in secret by various factions, also required a threshold of Rank 5! And Bai Zhou was not merely an Extraordinary. —He was a Destined. A Destined Adventurer! Even in this minor secret realm of Yuanmeng Middle School, where powerhouses currently gathered like clouds, a Rank 5 Destined would be a rare powerhouse of renown, treated with immense gravity. The moment Bai Zhou achieved Rank 5 Destined status, even if he did nothing at all and was merely taking his first steps into the world, his name would resound across Tinghai. He would no longer be a nameless nobody ignored by all. —What was more, Bai Zhou had never been a nobody to begin with. He was the mastermind behind the Tinghai serial bombings, a kill-on-sight target marked by both Major Luo, the Third Young Master of the Zijing Group, and the assassin syndicate known as the Fine Arts Society. More than that, he was an A-rank wanted fugitive of the Special Control Bureau! Even now, if Bai Zhou's identity were exposed and word got out about what he had done tonight—certain people would definitely lose sleep for days on end! *Rustle, rustle—* A sound resembling flipping pages suddenly echoed through the air, pulling Bai Zhou back to reality. Paper rustled against paper, accompanied by the clatter of desks and chairs swaying with the wind. A bizarre radiance washed across the sky, diffuse crimson clouds spreading toward the horizon. In the deep nocturnal curtain, the hue of the blood moon seemed to resonate with this place from afar. "Ah—" In a daze, everyone heard an extraordinarily grotesque reverberation. From deep within the billowing mist, it sounded as though countless people were singing in unison, a grand echo carrying far, far into the distance. The choral voice was sacred and beautiful, its tone grateful and uniform. "What is that sound... what is it doing!" The Rusted Silver Knight soon discovered that the sound actually originated from the center of the mountains of flesh, from the inverted demon whose very heart had been pierced through. This filled the Rusted Silver Knight with unease. Numerous Extraordinaries, including Bai Zhou, vaguely made out the words of that grand chorus. It seemed to go roughly like this: "I hear the classroom precepts resound, With pen as staff, guiding the lost lambs around! Laughter and dreams are but superfluous noise! When individuality is pruned into uniform poise, Praise the school hall, the one and only light!" The singing was cheerful, suddenly reaching its climax here as the grand wave of echoes rose accordingly. "Hallelujah! Sand away the untamed thorns! "Hallelujah! Pave the halls where glory is born! "Hallelujah, hallelujah—oh! Hallelujah!" Chant after chant echoed grandly, pious to the point of being stripped of all personal emotion, like countless precision-engineered machines chanting in unison! The sound wave rose like mountains calling, surpassing a tsunami. Especially when repeating "Hallelujah," that inexplicable devotion and sense of sacrifice almost made everyone who heard the song empathize with it. The singing of this chorus was remarkably ethereal, its melody soothing yet full of tension—a solemn, sacred hymn that nevertheless carried an inexplicable cheerfulness. It seemed as though it belonged in the most majestic, glorious cathedral, sung aloud with tilted necks by devout believers, rather than in this mist-shrouded school, deep within a building of flesh and blood. Only by listening carefully to the nuances could one discern an extraordinarily discordant stiffness, as if the singers were ten thousand marionettes manipulated by strings. The lyrics in particular sent chills down every listener's spine, making their hair stand on end! "The school is changing!" "The red light is growing brighter!" "The vibration in the air is getting more pronounced." Invisible ripples expanded, and crimson clouds drifted across the sky. Everything before their eyes turned crimson. Dazzling red light enveloped the entire school and even spilled outside, casting an eerie, horrifying red glow over the surrounding streets. *Buzz, buzz, buzz!* Outside, in Reflected Tinghai, many Extraordinaries had already noticed the commotion coming from here, but the nearby streets had long since cleared of people. "What's that commotion? Is that from Yuanmeng Middle School?" "I heard the FZDC surrounded it so tightly not even water could leak through. What's happening now?" "Looks like something went wrong... Better stay far away. I'm getting out of here first!" Unless there was something to gain, Extraordinaries always stayed as far away as possible when facing such dangerous places. Even the anomalies on the nearby streets were extraordinarily quiet—quiet to the point of death, frighteningly well-behaved as they did everything they could to diminish their own presence. If they could run, these anomalies, including the mimic trash cans beneath the streetlamps, would have already sprouted long legs and scrambled far, far away with loud clatters— "Look... look at the building!" Suddenly, a cry of shock arose from the crowd. Number 9's face was deathly pale. She pointed sharply toward the flesh building, her voice filled with incredulous horror, as though witnessing something unimaginably terrifying unfold. Everyone immediately followed her pointing finger and looked up, holding their breath in unison. The walls made of flesh and blood were gradually losing their luster, collapsing and flaking away in vast swathes, rustling down like peeling layers of aging paint. At the same time, beneath the echoes of the hymn, dense clusters of flesh buds began sprouting at the location of the demon's heart, wriggling and proliferating, intertwining and adhering to one another to become new flesh— "I understand! The hymn is a demonic ritual!" Emerald Flame cried out in shock, "It's absorbing the life force of the flesh building to heal itself!" "—That is the 'womb' that nurtured the demon; naturally, it contains the vitality to regenerate the demon!" "Then what should we do?" The Rusted Silver Knight immediately tightened his grip on his greatsword and asked, "Can we stop it... uh, stop it from singing?!" Whatever the demon intended to do, stopping it was the right move. Emerald Flame did not answer. Because she no longer needed to. Everything occurred in the blink of an eye. In the brief moment the Rusted Silver Knight took to ask, the hymn was already nearing its conclusion. The ritual began and ended in an instant. The inverted demon was no newcomer to the Extraordinary world; it would never leave such an obvious opening! "Again?" Seeing this, Bai Zhou's eyes widened, feeling a phantom toothache. "So... shooting the heart wasn't the right call?" This made Bai Zhou feel as if he had learned another useful lesson. Even without a heart, even after enduring such a devastating arrow, it had still failed to prove fatal to the demon. Perhaps for powerful Extraordinaries, a heart was no longer so vital... —If he encountered other Extraordinaries next time, Bai Zhou would definitely aim straight for their heads! Facing the demon's dramatic transformation, Bai Zhou stood fully on guard, yet he was not overly panicked. Unlike the anxious crowd, Bai Zhou, through careful observation, discovered with a sense of relief that the inverted demon's condition was by no means great; it was far worse than imagined. Although the demon's languishing state surged rapidly amidst the grand hymn— As the price, the "beast" it rode also collapsed and shrank rapidly. *Crash! Clatter!* *Splatter, splatter!* Vast swaths of pink meat lost their vibrant luster, turning into shriveled, grayish-black lumps that rained down upon the ground with squelching, bursting noises, like a black meteor shower. Rotten, foul-smelling corpse fluid spilled out from the ruptured grayish-black lumps, covering the ground. As this blackened flesh peeled away continuously, the things once hidden behind the pink flesh walls—or rather, the "skeleton" of the flesh building—were thus exposed to everyone— They were dense, stacked mountain-like piles of test papers, countless twisted, rusted iron desk frames, and broken, shattered chair legs, all pieced together like rebar... Beneath the monstrous flesh and blood of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood lay the cold skeleton named "School." "Halle—lujah!" "Halle—lujah!" Amidst the cheerful yet sacred hymn of praise, the expressionless demon slowly spread her slender, snow-white arms. To heal her wounds, the demon drained the fresh, tender lumps of flesh around her dry, and the building beneath her feet exposed more and more of its "skeleton." In the blink of an eye, the flesh building that had reeked of nauseating blood turned from a scarlet flesh beast into a grotesque bone dragon—half draped in meat lumps, half exposing bone, and riddled with holes punched through by the Evil-Dispelling Bolt! Her mount had been transformed. Sacrificing countless pieces of flesh from the building, the demon barely patched the wound at her chest, though even this could not completely seal the hollow where her heart had been. —Of course, even so, a demon was still a demon. Existing far above Rank 6, even if Deputy Director Liu were to return now, without the Thunderous Heavenly Bow, he would likely still be crushed to death with a single finger. Yet having lost the flesh building beneath her and gradually exposing her own weakness before everyone, no matter how lofty she had once been... At this moment, was she truly so far from being slain? Amidst the demon's chanting praises, Bai Zhou's palm unconsciously rubbed against the Thunderous Heavenly Bow. His eyes narrowed, lost in thought. "Hallelujah! For the bright red check!" "Hallelujah! For the heavy cross!" Near the hymn's end, the inverted demon sang solemnly, faster and faster: "Hallelujah! Happy children diligently exercise in the morning dawn." "Hallelujah! Fortunate students wander through oceans of books late into the night." "Future pillars of society! The price of silence! Dedicate your youth to the great school!" "All songs of praise belong to the school! Thou art worthy of all praise and glory! Let us shout aloud! Exalt the holy name!" "######" "Oh, oh, hallelujah! Oh! Hallelujah!" "What's with all the halle-whatever..." Bai Zhou only found the demon excessively noisy. That uniform chorus dragged out long high-pitched notes, wave upon faster wave, closing in overwhelmingly until one could barely breathe. Yet Bai Zhou still keenly caught an extraordinary anomaly within it. After "Exalt the holy name," what lyrics did the demon chant? At the end of this hymn to the school, what exactly had she sung? She seemed to have recited a very long string of words, yet Bai Zhou's cognition felt blocked by something. He had clearly heard it, yet he could not comprehend it, could not cognize it, could not observe it—he even turned around and forgot it entirely, as though he had heard nothing at all! "What was that...?" And along with the recitation of that passage, the demon's hymn concluded entirely. In less than half a minute, with the rapid chanting of a song, an unfathomable and mysterious ritual was complete. Immediately after, the aura of life on the demon skyrocketed crazily! Her cascading black hair glowed and whipped through midair, and the "π" rune atop her head burst with intense radiance. An important shift had clearly occurred. "Could it be—" Seeming to finally figure out certain crucial points, Emerald Flame showed a look of astonishment: "It looks like True Name Protection and True Name Liberation!" "What blocked cognition was True Name Protection! The true function of that hymn's ritual was to liberate the demon's true name!" "—How dare she!" Emerald Flame could not comprehend it. A true name was simply too important to a demon; liberating it granted incredible power. Unless driven to absolute desperation, a demon would never liberate their true name, because no matter how well a true name was concealed, the traces left behind might be spied upon by other demons. Within a certain timeframe, a demon could generally only liberate their true name once, and the cooldown period was usually measured in centuries. Yet in an unborn embryonic form, even if the demon liberated her true name, the power she could obtain would at most restore her to her previous embryonic state, or perhaps slightly stronger—what was the point? Ultimately, the worst outcome was merely a failed descent. In a demon's vast lifespan, what did a single failure amount to? Emerald Flame was truly bewildered. Taking such a desperate gamble, paying such huge risks and costs, just for this little gain? What was she after? Aren't demons supposed to be the shrewdest of all? Why make such a losing trade? —However, Emerald Flame soon noticed that while the icy inverted demon's aura of life had almost solidified into a tangible, invincible presence... Her figure, already somewhat ethereal, was now even more insubstantial than before, like a video with an unstable signal, flickering and wavering from time to time. Certain parts of her body even flickered intermittently into clusters of indescribable, blurred imagery, like the tip of an iceberg of some monstrous entity, completely incompatible with a human form. "—I see!" At this moment, Emerald Flame had an epiphany. The damage dealt to the demon by "Senior Zhou's" incomprehensible blood arrow was likely far greater than they had imagined— Before this human journey could even begin, it had been declared dead in the water by Senior Zhou's sudden arrival. —Neither they nor the demon would have ever expected that Senior Zhou, appearing out of nowhere, would resolve all problems with just one arrow, uprooting the demon's descent like autumn winds sweeping away fallen leaves! A complete sweep, wiping the board clean! Without Senior Zhou, their ragtag band would not have amounted to a plaything before the demon. And the school demon, facing a situation where an uninvited guest had inexplicably and effortlessly achieved an upset against her— "She's furious from shame!" Emerald Flame quickly reached a verdict. Any supreme entity would be enraged to the extreme when overturned by a tiny, despised creature. Let alone a demon of myth— "The demon's body is growing increasingly unstable! She could be expelled by the world at any moment!" Emerald Flame spoke words that sounded like good news, yet she stepped back slowly with a grim expression, her nerves wound to the limit. "Right now, the demon is furthest from a successful descent—" "But be extremely careful—right now is also when the demon is at her strongest!" A beast on the brink of death was often at its most dangerous. Seeing all her efforts go down the drain, what the demon planned to do after calling upon her true name to restore herself to her peak was blatantly obvious— "Watch out for the demon lashing out in desperation!" Emerald Flame shouted to warn everyone, "Before she is expelled from the mundane realm, the last thing she will do is kill every last one of us!" "Especially..." Before her words even finished. Everyone's eyes turned in unison toward the figure standing at the very front in the mist. Without question. This person was the greatest contributor to this battle. The archer of that miraculous arrow. The unfathomable Destined. The one the demon undoubtedly hated with gritted teeth— "Senior Zhou!" Gazes of varying intent converged on Bai Zhou—some probing, some curious, some wary, and some full of anticipation. Perhaps— Could he create another miracle? "—Curse my luck, curse my luck, curse my luck!" Cold air shot straight up Bai Zhou's spine, and the instincts deep within his Fate Principle sounded near-hysterical alarms one after another. A sense of a deadly blade pressing right against his throat arose in the dark. Bai Zhou looked up and met the demon's ghastly pale eyes staring straight at him. This... wasn't right, was it? *We're in trouble!* Bai Zhou cursed internally. Sure enough, even a cornered rabbit would bite. A trapped demon was even less likely to do nothing! This was— "The demon's death throes!" "—And her parting revenge!" Bai Zhou should have known. In any legend, demons were notoriously vengeful creatures. The history of the Extraordinary was practically littered with countless tales of petty demons bickering and matching wits against evil, cunning mortals. A demon bearing an honorific name was naturally even more so! "What do I do?" On the surface, Bai Zhou maintained his composure and gripped the thunder bow, making it impossible for the demon staring straight at him to gauge his true state, but inside he was already screaming that he was done for. Although Bai Zhou was still part of the spiritual tide at this moment, He knew his own limits. There was only one Evil-Dispelling Bolt, and it was still embedded in the ground far away. Even if he retrieved it, he could never loose another shot like the one before— Because his body had long been completely drained! How could firing such an arrow be easy? Guiding that much spirituality to surge and detonate through him—even merely serving as a relay station—how could that feel comfortable? What was more, before that, Bai Zhou had been hunted across the map by various factions for half the day. Even a mule would drop dead on the grinding mill! "Ow, ow, ow, ow—" Every muscle in his body was twitching; it felt as if not a single blood vessel was free of pain. His head was still buzzing from repeatedly using the word "Soothe"— Right now, Bai Zhou was relying entirely on the support and nourishment of the school's spiritual tide to keep from fainting on the spot. If he guided the spiritual tide to do something again... Bai Zhou was not at all sure whether his current body could hold out. In this state, fight a demon that was slightly stronger than before? And when the other party feared neither life nor death, seeking only to strike him dead before leaving? Bai Zhou took a deep breath and cast a profound look back at the titled trio behind him. Wait—don't back off! I've done more than enough. As the official authorities, shouldn't you step forward right now to protect an enthusiastic citizen who performed a good deed?! The next instant. *Rumble!* The building, half skeleton and half flesh, moved. Seeing that Bai Zhou dared to be distracted, the silent demon said nothing, merely driving her building to tear itself violently from the earth! A colossus dozens of meters tall swept across the blood-suffused sky with a thunderous roar, shedding black rotting flesh. Like a giant island suspended in the sky, it pressed down over the school with overwhelming oppression. The sudden emergence of this massive shadow in the air was visible even from far outside the school. Yet tonight, aside from the continuous rumbling from Yuanmeng Middle School, the normally "bustling" Reflected Tinghai seemed as if all evils had submitted and a hundred ghosts slept peacefully; everywhere was quiet to an absurd degree. At most, a few reckless Extraordinaries spied the shadow of this flesh building flying into the air from a distance, only to black out and faint, dozens of pale maggots squirming out of their heads. —Only at this moment did the FZDC personnel stationed outside realize in horror. Facing a demon inside the secret realm of Yuanmeng Middle School versus encountering a demon outside the school were two entirely different matters! "..." Inside the school, in the sky. The gaze of the demon suspended upside down in the heavens dropped. It fell, naturally, upon Bai Zhou. In that split second, the air physically solidified, and oxygen was rapidly vacuumed away, leaving Bai Zhou barely able to breathe. Bai Zhou instinctively tightened his grip on the Thunderous Heavenly Bow in his hands! The next instant. *Rumble, rumble!!* Baring fangs and brandishing claws, it bore down ruthlessly upon Bai Zhou. A shadow spanned the sky, like Mount Tai collapsing overhead! "Profanity—" A grand consciousness swept through every corner of the school. The school demon's voice roared at Bai Zhou like thousands of teachers and students shouting at once: "Must be executed!" "Damn it!" Incomparable pressure suffocated Bai Zhou. He gritted his teeth, knowing that no matter what, he had to pull himself together. Because there was no one in front of him to hold up the falling sky. The only card he could rely on now was to put his life on the line! Sensing the fear transmitted to him by the spiritual tide, Bai Zhou sent out a request to cooperate once more to the spiritual tide pervading the entire school— Yet this time— What responded to Bai Zhou even before the school was the blood-colored greatbow in his hands, trembling incessantly, bloated with spirituality! Whether it was Bai Zhou's imagination or not— At this moment, from this non-human weapon that was the Thunderous Heavenly Bow, Bai Zhou sensed an "Intent" similar to his own seed of battle intent. "This is..." Sensing the "knowledge"—or rather, the "request"—suddenly conveyed into the depths of his heart from the Thunderous Heavenly Bow that had unlocked its blood-red form, Bai Zhou was stunned. "Run! Senior Zhou, run!" Seeing the building dive down toward Bai Zhou, its massive black shadow looming to blot out his back, Emerald Flame's eyes went bloodshot. Witnessing the greatest contributor of this operation about to be sacrificed, even though they did not know each other, she was still unwilling to sit by and watch this temporary ally meet such an end. "We have to do something!" The Rusted Silver Knight was about to open the Black Box immediately, even though he knew that once opened this time, he would never be able to "come back." The Sword of Winter also ceased his retreat. He said nothing, merely gripping the Ice Soul Greatsword in his hand. In this fleeting instant, he looked up at the building in midair, bending his knees, poising himself to spring. Compared to the two men of few words, Emerald Flame, who knew more secrets, was even more frantic. Her words fired off faster than a Queen Bee-200 heavy machine gun: "Run! You really have to run! Meeting it head-on is foolish! Don't make a pointless sacrifice!" "True Name Liberation has a time limit! As long as you avoid its sharp edge, the demon will fall back into a weakened state afterward—" "..." "—I should avoid its edge?" Bai Zhou suddenly spoke. His voice was not loud, yet it inexplicably carried clearly across the entire clamorous battlefield. "What?" The three Titled Extraordinaries froze simultaneously. In the space of that daze. *Rumble!* The sky-covering building of flesh and blood, dragging along a downpour of falling rotten meat, smashed down with ruthless force! The demon's eyes carried a razor-sharp detachment. A casual glance cast at the three was enough to leave them freezing, as heavy as if plunged into an ice cave. —Now, Bai Zhou had no hope of escaping! Above and below, all paths were sealed by the flesh building. Being pulverized into meat paste would be this great hero's only destination. The expressions of the three Titled Extraordinaries shifted at once. Even as rage shook their minds, they could not bear to watch the scene about to unfold. —Then, they heard a soft whisper. It was not loud, but for three sharp-eared Titled Extraordinaries, it was impossible to miss. "It wouldn't let me run anyway." "Some say time is like water in a sponge—give it a squeeze, and there's always some left... But in truth, the only things that can be squeezed and pushed aren't just time and sponges." "—There are also people." It was Bai Zhou's voice. The next instant. Thunder erupted! Ten thousand bolts detonated simultaneously, their echoes deafening. *Crack!* *Rumble, rumble—* At this moment. Thunder roared, its sound shaking a hundred li! Not just Yuanmeng Middle School, but half of Reflected Tinghai City heard the colossal boom of thunder at this moment. Simultaneously, a bloody flash of light and shadow shot past beneath the flesh building, so fast it could not be tracked. "—What?!" The three Titled Extraordinaries were stunned at the same time. Could this mysterious Senior Zhou still have another trick up his sleeve? *Buzz, buzz, buzz!* The blood-red Thunderous Heavenly Bow levitated into midair on its own. The dark red lightning flowing across its entire body no longer brimmed with destruction, but instead exuded an ancient, majestic, and mysterious aura, like a slumbering sovereign awakening. Opposite the Thunderous Heavenly Bow, Bai Zhou endured the pain, pouring his entire focus into guiding the spiritual tide. At this moment, within Yuanmeng Middle School. The cracked athletic field, the dilapidated classrooms, the rotting library, the withered flowers and trees—every object in the school, living or dead, as long as it existed, contributed its own spirituality toward Bai Zhou. Not out of submission to a Principal, but in the face of an existential crisis of survival, contributing their own meager power to the savior who had stepped forward in their stead! A spiritual tide as resplendent as an aurora, multicolored like shifting clouds, surged tempestuously through Bai Zhou's body as a conduit, pouring violently into the bow! Then, the thunder runes upon the blood-red bow were no longer simple lightning arcing across its frame. They began to extend, expand, intertwine, and construct around the bow! The sea of thunder swelled, then spread. *Boom!* Under the dumbfounded gazes of everyone, under the demon's furrowed brow— A massive, intricate phantom of a mechanical heavenly palace, filled with precision gears and sacred reliefs, above the Thunderous Heavenly Bow, atop the sea of thunder— Manifested into the world with a resounding roar! "This is it!" Bai Zhou's spirits rose. A second ago, while the inverted school demon was still falling through midair— Bai Zhou had received a piece of knowledge, or rather a request, from the Thunderous Heavenly Bow. To be precise, the bow had asked Bai Zhou: "Liberate spiritual name, unlock the Thunderous Heavenly Bow's final form?" —Did he even need to ask? The gale howled past his ears, the air practically solidified, and death seemed closer than ever before. Facing the flesh building overhead that collapsed like the sky itself, facing the honorific-bearing demon advancing in mad-dog vengeance to claim his life— If Bai Zhou hesitated for even a thousandth of a second, it would be the utmost disrespect to his own life. "Liberate! Liberate, liberate, liberate!" Bai Zhou answered, "Everything that can be unlocked, unlock it all, unlock, unlock again!" At this moment. Everything seemed to freeze. The howling gale at his ears fell silent. Rotten corpse meat plummeted from overhead, splattering foul corpse fluid everywhere upon crashing into the ground; Bai Zhou could even see the rain-like droplets of corpse water hanging suspended in midair. Black, sickeningly foul, and carrying potent corrosion. Dense arcs of blood lightning vibrated beside him, like joyful chimes. The clamor of the building pressing down, the shouts of the Extraordinaries rushing toward him—all vanished, no longer registering in Bai Zhou's mind. Deep in Bai Zhou's mind, at this moment, he could hear only the roar of thunder from the Thunderous Heavenly Bow. That vast, majestic sound of thunder reverberated endlessly, deafening, as if it would reach the highest heavens, yet also sounding like a response to Bai Zhou's latest command. It said: [Understood!] The next instant. Having finally eaten its fill after a long drought, and sensing the presence of battle intent, the Thunderous Heavenly Bow had willingly acknowledged its master, and could not wait to display its divine might. In an instant, thousands of thunder streams erupted! A grand heavenly palace formed of lightning emerged atop the sea of thunder! Thunderous Heavenly Bow? —It was Thunder, and Heavenly Palace! *Clack! Clack!* Mingled with echoes of lightning, crisp mechanical sounds emanated from the palace. Every rotation of its mechanisms was accompanied by an immense expenditure of spirituality. —Fortunately, the only thing Bai Zhou did not lack right now, and the only thing he could provide, was spirituality! And so, the heavenly palace began to transform. Then the thunder echoed, the Thunderous Heavenly Bow asking Bai Zhou: What was the strongest, largest entity in his memory? Whatever it was, the heavenly palace could become it! Bai Zhou immediately thought of the massive Senate that had descended from the heavens and stood upright in the Xiluo Empire. That colossal structure that had shattered the sky and fallen from above was suffocating, like a primordial titan. "—No!" Yet the moment Bai Zhou conceived the image of the Senate titan, his mind convulsed violently. His brain felt as if pierced by thousands of needles, as though he had touched some taboo that must never be revealed before the world. Thus, Bai Zhou had to settle for second best. He chose the "tin-can knights" under the Senate, standing four to five meters tall, riding atop massive dinosaurs. To be precise, the [Imperial Guard under Count Saxon, Sector Forty-Seven of the Xiluo Empire]. Though nominally just an Imperial Guard— Every one of them strode across the heavens, and whether in terms of presence or performance— Even Skeleton General Ale paled in comparison! They were the strongest beings Bai Zhou had ever witnessed in his life, second only to the "Senate" giant. And the image Bai Zhou envisioned right now was the tallest, largest, strongest, and most burly captain among them— *Buzz, buzz, buzz!* Instantly, multicolored spiritual vapors surged like wind and clouds, converging from all directions! *Clack! Clack! Clack!* The blood-red thunder palace transformed in midair with sharp mechanical snaps. *Rumble!* Innumerable gears meshed and spun frantically. Metal components forged of thunder restructured in a dazzling transformation. Resplendent colored clouds and tempestuous blood-red lightning intertwined, rapidly weaving around a certain form! With multicolored clouds condensed from solid spirituality serving as its flesh, and the blood-red, flowing thunder palace as its skeleton—the outline of a gargantuan titan rapidly materialized amidst the sky of lightning and clouds! A ten-meter-tall giant knight rose from the ground! To call it a knight, it was actually more like some kind of "mechanical colossus," looking at first glance like a massive tin can. Though clearly an illusion woven of dense lightning, the colossus's exterior resembled a variegated iron titan, its lines sleek and packed with explosive power, fitting the most perfect aesthetic of war, with ancient thundercloud patterns engraved upon its armor plating. Only upon close inspection would one realize that this so-called iron was unmistakably a stunning product woven from dense lightning and spiritual cloud masses! From every joint of this thunder knight surged violent blood-red lightning. Upon its pauldrons sat massive thunder-forged wings resembling a griffin's, spreading wide to blot out the sky. The greatsword in its hand flowed with scarlet lightning that had almost liquefied, and the cloak behind it, formed of colored clouds, billowed without wind like the evening glow drifting across the horizon, shimmering with a dreamlike luster. Crowned with a discordant blood-red crest of lightning, with dark red electrical arcs wrapping around its body and crackling intermittently, the mechanical thunder knight—a fusion of blood-red and vibrant colors—made its debut before the eyes of all! "What... what is that?!" "A mecha? Where did a mecha come from?!" "I must be losing my mind to be seeing a Gundam here!!" In the distance, even the three Titled Extraordinaries were left slack-jawed, while the other Extraordinaries were driven nearly mad. Yet the clamor of the Extraordinaries no longer mattered. For this had become a battlefield of myth. Rather than myth descending upon the mortal world, it was more like fantasy bleeding into reality. Even against a demon returning for vengeance, a path to survival could still be carved from despair. Gratitude to everything in this place, and gratitude to the courage that still surged unabated within the depths of this body. —A miracle had descended here. *Boom!* Bai Zhou watched as the ten-meter-tall thunder giant raised both hands with slight mechanical stiffness, catching the falling flesh building with a deafening crash. This left Bai Zhou momentarily speechless. Although his body was weakened and pained to a certain limit—even faintly surpassing that limit—it did not stop Bai Zhou's spirit from soaring with excitement. How did that line go again—? Bai Zhou inexplicably recalled a movie poster he had once asked Section Chief Liu for, just to cover up a hole in the wall of his Special Control Bureau dormitory. On one of the posters, a massive robot was depicted. Even though its steel frame was battered and bruised, it still swung its fist against a hideous, terrifying beast. A battle of gods between colossal beings, kicking up monstrous waves upon the ocean. And in the center of that image, written in bold, striking crimson font, were these lines: "There are things you can't fight... acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you get out of the way... But when you're in a Jaeger, suddenly, you can fight the hurricane." "—A real man pilots a mecha!" —His thoughts flowed to this point. Bai Zhou took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the tremor in his heart. Before a catastrophe that felt like the heavens and earth were collapsing, beneath a shadow that blotted out the sun. The youth slowly raised his hand, gripping the Thunderous Heavenly Bow that hovered in midair, dancing with electrical arcs, as if taking hold of the control stick of this ten-meter-tall thunder giant— Following Bai Zhou's motion, the stiff, dull eyes of the thunder giant seemed to gain a hint of vivid life. A crisp chime sounded beside his ear, like the turning of gears, like the joyful hum of electric arcs. Vaguely, Bai Zhou heard a voice surrounded by thunder: "Neural synchronization, 100%, confirmed." At this moment, Bai Zhou raised his head, looking up at the demon suspended upside down beneath the sky of mountains, his gaze lowering slightly. Then, gripping the Thunderous Heavenly Bow in his hand with utter focus, Bai Zhou allowed the dark red lightning to crackle, wrapping around his arm layer upon layer. He said— "I shall strike in knight form!"