Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

Now that Ayaka Kamisato has agreed to go with him, he has already examined himself and realized that he can no longer take her service for granted and must treat her as a friend.

But he never expected that Ayaka Kamisato would have such thoughts in her heart.

Such a person is insecure.

She even felt that she wasn't qualified to become a so-called "friend".

"I don't want to prove anything. I just want to see how far I am from catching up with Mr. Ryoko, so I'll use my best sword to ask him." Ayaka Kamisato said with a self-deprecating smile.

"Actually, I really envy this generation's current human priestess. She may have had a hard life, but she is very lucky. She was born to hold high power, she is very useful to Ryoko, and she is also beautiful, intelligent, and likable. So the gods bestowed Ryoko upon her, and even in her most dangerous time, she still has enough value to be valued by Ryoko... What's that Liyue saying, 'A beauty can make a man lose his temper.' But I can't find anything that Ryoko would care about."

After saying that, she looked at her brother and smiled wearily: "Brother, let me continue. I want to know if I will really... never see Ryoko's back again."

The competition has restarted.

The sound of a bullet hitting a wall.

The sound of a blade slicing through the air.

The sound of metal clashing.

The sounds of painful screams and groans.

The sound of falling and being smashed.

Once, twice, ten times, I don't know how many times.

Shen Liang pressed his knee against Shen Li Linghua's neck, pinning her to the ground. The girl's beautiful face was now covered in dirty dust and bruises, and apart from the referee, there was no one else watching.

Ayato and Hanayo Kamisato, among others, could no longer bear to watch and quietly left.

Of course, the referee was also glaring fiercely at Shen Liang. She seemed furious too, finding Shen Liang's ruthless behavior utterly outrageous! That was Princess Bailu, the gentle, beautiful, elegant, and ladylike Miss Daozaki! The unattainable beauty in the hearts of countless boys!

You just beat me up like that all morning! Are you even a man?! Even those uneducated, rough sailors on the docks have more gentlemanly manners than you!

"Again!" Ayaka Kamisato shouted stubbornly.

Shen Liang did not loosen his knees. He had been fighting alongside the indomitable girl for five hours, and he did not want to do it again.

He looked down at the burning fighting spirit in Ayaka Kamisato's eyes, his delicate face still showing little expression.

During the morning's struggle, he had felt the girl's willpower. She had at least seven or eight fractures all over her body, but she still endured the excruciating pain, and her movements with the knife showed no signs of weakening. With each strenuous movement, her pain would only increase, but she remained silent, simply getting up again and again.

Her attacks posed virtually no threat to Shen Liang. After being injured the first time, Shen Liang activated his teleportation barrier, preventing her from ever touching him again. To allow Ayaka Kamisato to see him clearly, he even abandoned his tranquilizer darts and repeatedly engaged her in close combat, but even so, she couldn't find any openings. The difference in their martial arts skills and the infinite teleportation barrier made it virtually impossible for her to defeat Shen Liang.

Unless he releases water into the sky.

Shen Liang continued to suppress her, then grabbed the girl's messy ponytail and pulled her towards him, forcing her to look up at his face. This almost rude action made the referee instinctively want to step forward, but after being glared at by Shen Liang, she instinctively backed down.

Ayaka Kamisato showed a pained expression.

"enough."

"Come again!"

"I've said enough." Shen Liang scrutinized the girl's beautiful face. Ayaka Kamisato had always been a beautiful girl, one could even say she was, in a strict sense, the most beautiful young lady in Inazuma, known as the "White Heron Princess" by the people; her appearance was flawless. But now, her face was covered in bloodstains and filthy mess.

She looked into Shen Liang's cold gaze and remained silent.

It's so frustrating! In the end, I still had no chance of winning at all... The gap was so huge that it was despairing. A sixteen-year-old child, a boy who wasn't even as tall as her, had already made it so difficult for her to catch up.

—Is this how you give up? Is this all Ayaka Kamisato's life is like?

A sorrowful voice spoke in her mind.

—Having been pampered since childhood, is it really as he said, that I'm just a hothouse flower, naive and unreasonable in everything? When I really want to do something, do I find that I'm so incompetent that I'm not worthy at all?

—So all I can do is silently watch his back? While he was conquering the world with unstoppable momentum and high spirits, I could only watch silently... Kamisato Ayaka could only be left behind step by step, and in the end, she would become just one of the slightly prettier ones among the countless passersby on his life's journey?

—The trendsetters of the times...and ordinary folks.

Chapter 238 Where is it out of reach?!

There will always be a time in life when one suddenly wakes up from a dream. It's not that one is suddenly jolted awake, nor can it be said that one suddenly experiences setbacks.

I just realized that I'm just an ordinary person.

Who doesn't dream of a golden life when they're young, even the usually quiet Ayaka Kamisato?

She clenched her right fist, gritted her teeth, and swung it at the boy who was pressing down on her with all her might. Then, as expected, Shen Liang simply pulled her ponytail slightly, and she loosened her grip in pain.

Tears welled up silently in her eyes, and she could no longer muster any semblance of resistance. Her entire body was covered in mottled blood; Shen Liang's fierce attacks had torn her clothes and skin. Her white fighting uniform was now tattered and filthy from rolling around on the ground. Her beautiful silver ponytail was also being pulled by the boy, hanging in a disheveled mess.

"I lost."

The hardest thing is to admit one's ordinariness. Just like the young man who once wielded a sword in the hearts of many, after the age of thirty, he has to mingle among the common people.

At that moment, she felt someone reach out and stroke her face.

"How did you get beaten up like this?" Shen Liang looked at her sobbing face and said softly, "You look so ugly. You cry when you can't win. Are you a child?"

Ayaka Kamisato looked at the handsome boy standing before her, bowing low, his eyes expressionless. Her mind was a jumbled mess; she couldn't tell if she felt wronged or angry and resentful towards herself.

“I can’t keep up with you… I’ll never be able to keep up with you,” she sobbed.

Shen Liang stood there silently for a while, then sighed.

"So you natives are really... idiots."

Ayaka Kamisato stared at him blankly.

“I never imagined that someone like me, a killing god who instills fear in all of Inada's wives, would have to take on the responsibility of psychological counseling, you silly girl.” Shen Liang ran his left hand through her messy long hair and gently stroked it. “I agree with your concept of value. Yes, one-sided giving and taking is not friendship. Friendship is built on an equal footing. Only if you are valuable to me can I consider you my friend.”

He wiped away Ayaka's tears. "No one will maintain a basic friendship with someone who has no value. Just like you, you have to stay by my side and always be useful to me. Don't cry, it'll make you look ugly. I have very strict standards of beauty, and I don't like girls around me who aren't good-looking."

Ayaka Kamisato wiped away her tears. This boy really didn't know how to comfort people. He said "psychological counseling," but his words were like knives stabbing into her heart one after another.

But she had always been well aware of Shen Liang's sharp tongue; this young man had always been like that. Normally, she didn't dislike his sharp tongue, because when Shen Liang was being sarcastic and fierce, there was a kind of endearing, albeit childish, charm about him. But now, she couldn't muster any energy; she could only weakly lower her eyes.

“Yes, Ayaka… she’s worthless.” Her voice trailed off.

Shen Liang's patience finally ran out.

"No, that's not right. Listen, while I admit your theory of the value of friendship has some merit, how I define value is my business! Your value has nothing to do with what you think; only the value I recognize is value!" Shen Liang impatiently pulled her in front of him, his eyes fierce and his tone equally so. "You think you're useless, and that doesn't count for your opinion, okay? You just keep spouting a bunch of self-deprecating things. Have I neglected you or put you down? Don't I consider you a friend?"

“But even my most prized swordsmanship… has been defeated by you. I have nothing left to boast about.”

"Still crying? Don't you understand what I'm saying?" Shen Liang took a deep breath.

"Have I ever told you about the Coral Palace Heart Sea?"

Ayaka Kamisato remained silent.

"You say you envy her, then I'll use her as a comparison. You say she wields great power, can wage war, and is extremely valuable to me, but why don't you consider that when I entered Haiqi Island, the current goddess priestess was her aunt? She was just a young palace attendant, with neither military nor political power; her actual strength was probably not even as strong as yours." Shen Liang said angrily, "I became friends with her not long after we met. What did I want from her back then? To be honest, it was because she was incredibly beautiful—I was a sucker for good looks! I just wanted to sleep with the little mermaid!"

Ayaka Kamisato was a little dazed.

"But of course I didn't sleep with her. That was a long time later. We became good friends, and I did a lot for her, and she did the same for me. Where is the value you're talking about?" Shen Liang shouted. "Because value is subjective, it's not just what you think it is, you understand? I like Xin Hai, her beauty is value to me, her gentle personality is value to me, her slightly silly side when she's strategizing is value, and her coming to me when she messes things up is also value!"

"Abilities? That little mermaid is probably no match for you in a fight. What do military and political abilities have to do with me? Do I need them? Do I, the regent, even have an army under my command? The interest we agreed to earn for me back then was halved every year by her aunt. When asked, she said she was saving it as dowry. By your logic, that's practically a negative return!"

"So you understand?" Shen Liang's gaze was fiery. "Value is never what you think it is. It's not just what you can see that has value. Does feeling comfortable with someone mean that feeling is worthless? I agree with your view on friendship, but your view is biased. There are many beautiful things in this world to experience together, like hugs, kisses, and mutual support... well, that goes a bit beyond the scope of friendship."

“But that’s because you like Coral Palace Heart Sea.” Ayaka Kamisato suddenly laughed. “Liking someone is already the biggest premise. Your friendship was already established before you even had a chance to think about it.”

Shen Liang was in great pain, "How did you get inside and can't get out..."

"because I……"

Before Ayaka Kamisato could finish speaking, she saw the boy in front of her bend down. The afternoon sunlight streamed in through the dojo's window, the beams of light carrying flying dust.

He forcibly lifted the girl's chin as she knelt on the ground and kissed her somewhat dry lips. The kiss was fierce and domineering, and her subconscious resistance was completely ineffective until she was pried open and thoroughly conquered without restraint.

Shen Liang tightened his arms around her, a gesture of declaration, a grand ceremony to proclaim that this girl belonged to him, to establish a contract called friendship. Blood trickled from their lips, which were cracked from fighting for hours, but they paid no heed. Instead, they embraced and collapsed onto the wooden floor of the dojo, taking from each other and enduring each other's pain.

The referee was dumbfounded. For a moment, she didn't know whether to immediately go out and report to the mistress or loudly reprimand the two and separate them. However, as a maid who had watched Linghua grow up, she felt that this was not a good idea. As someone who had been through it all, she knew very well whether her princess was rebelling or cooperating.

If I just go out like this, I feel like I'll not only fail to please anyone but also offend people...

Name: Ayaka Kamisato

[Progress: 53%]

[Progress: 76%]

[Progress: 77%]

[Progress: 78%]

【…】

Shen Liang released her, licked her injured lips, and said irritably, "Isn't that enough? Did I ever say I didn't like you?"

"Have I been...wrong all along?"

"It's not wrong to refuse to admit defeat, Princess Egret. But to become someone truly powerful, the most important thing isn't what you're doing right now." Shen Liang looked down at the girl lying on the floor. "The most important thing is to have passion, to never let your blood cool down. Even if I tell you you can't do it, that you should give up, that you have no future, you should ignore it. You should hold your sword, sweat profusely, and fight against fate. How can you betray yourself? You are the super genius who will catch up with the other world, the Regent of the Sea, the Fire God of Nashiina, the Executioner Shen Liang, Ayaka Kamisato!"

"Besides, I won't say those things to you. We're friends, and friends are meant to grow together," Shen Liang said with a smile. "I won't abandon you because you'll always keep up with me! How could the calm, excellent, and never-give-up White Egret Princess not keep up with me?"

The beautiful silver-haired girl finally laughed out loud.

"Even the people offering encouragement are so arrogant," she whispered.

Shen Liang scratched his head.

"But they're just friends?" Ayaka Kamisato suddenly said, "Just because they're friends... does that mean you're going to take away Ayaka's first kiss? Ryoko is going too far."