The comments said I was deeply affectionate, I just added points by using an alternate account.

"Long Ao has gotten stronger again. His punch speed is so fast that it leaves afterimages."

"That Chen Guan is really amazing. He was being beaten so badly, yet he didn't get hurt at all. No wonder he won first place."

Because Long Ao was absent from the individual competition, the debate over who was stronger between the two has been ongoing on the school's internal forum, with each side having its own fans.

At this moment, to outsiders, Chen Guan was completely overwhelmed by Long Ao, but only Long Ao himself knew how frustrated he was.

Every punch he threw landed on a slippery mass of air.

The opponent's body seemed to have no physical form, always managing to dodge at an unbelievable angle just before he was about to hit.

The feeling was like fighting your own shadow, unable to muster any strength.

"drink!"

Long Ao roared, his muscles bulged, and a faint red glow appeared on his skin.

His momentum surged again, and the power and speed of his punches instantly reached a new level.

This is a characteristic of endless combat; the longer the battle lasts, the more terrifying the power accumulates.

Faced with Long Ao's outburst, Chen Guan finally stopped dodging.

He reached out, his fingers spread, and grabbed the fist that Long Ao was throwing at him.

boom.

A muffled thud.

Long Ao's punch, capable of shattering steel plates, was caught steadily by him. The violent energy exploded out, only rustling the hem of Chen Guan's clothes, but not making him retreat an inch.

Long Ao's eyes widened. He could feel that his power had crashed into an insurmountable wall and been completely absorbed without even causing a ripple.

"How is that possible..."

Chen Guan didn't give him time to be surprised. He grabbed his wrist and pulled him down with a sudden force.

Long Ao felt an irresistible force coming from him, and his whole body was involuntarily thrown forward.

Chen Guan turned to the side, raised his knee, and gently but firmly pressed it against his abdomen.

Long Ao's body instantly arched like a shrimp, but he gritted his teeth and used the momentum to turn his other elbow into a sharp blade, striking Chen Guan in the back.

The battle continues.

Forty minutes later.

Long Ao lay sprawled on the cold ground, his chest heaving violently, his entire body soaked with sweat as if he had been pulled out of the water.

He struggled to move his eyes to the side.

Even if the power is stacked up to be strong, it's all for nothing if you can't hit the target.

Chen Guan remained standing there, in the same posture, without a trace of sweat or even a change in his breathing frequency.

[Ding! Your opponent's battery is depleted.]

[Brother Ao, you're in trouble.]

Tell Sai Xiaoxi that I've found endless energy.

In the silence, Long Ao's hoarse voice rang out.

He looked at the sky above the training field, his eyes somewhat unfocused, as if he had used all his strength to ask that question.

"Feed".

"You... don't you get tired at all?"

Chen Guan looked at him without saying a word.

Silence is the most direct answer.

The lights from the training field ceiling reflected in Long Ao's pupils. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he squeezed out a dry, self-deprecating laugh.

The laughter was breathy and sounded very defeated.

"monster."

He uttered those two words, then stopped looking at the coffin. He tried to sit up, but his arms were weak and trembling. He managed to lift himself up half an inch before falling back down heavily.

The back of his head hit the mat with a dull thud.

Chen Guan looked at him and finally moved. He reached out, grabbed Long Ao's arm, and gently lifted him up.

A gentle yet irresistible force came, and Long Ao's leaden body was lifted up lightly.

He steadied himself, staggered slightly, looked away, and dragged his feet toward the bench at the edge of the field.

With each step, the muscles in my thighs trembled slightly in protest.

Chen Guan followed behind him, neither too close nor too far.

[Ao Ge's pride was shattered.]

[Brother Coffin, you're so gentle, I'm crying my eyes out.]

[Stop hurting me! Stop hurting me! Ao-ge is just a kid, how can he be compared to someone who's cheating?]

So what exactly was Brother Coffin's answer just now? Yes or no?

[Is that even a question? Absolutely! I suspect Brother Coffin could run 10,000 meters without batting an eye.]

The barrage of cheers and laughter filled the air, while on the other side, Long Ao sat sullenly on a bench.

He grabbed the water bottle next to him, unscrewed the cap, tilted his head back, and poured it into his mouth.

Half the bottle of water was gone in the blink of an eye, and the cool liquid slid into my stomach, finally suppressing the burning heat.

Water trickled down his chin, across his jawline, and dripped onto his sweaty neck.

Chen Guan leaned against the railing, his gaze fixed on his classmate who was sweating profusely in the distance, without disturbing him.

The noise, shouts, and sounds of fists and feet clashing on the training ground were all shut out, becoming blurred and distant.

After sitting quietly for two minutes, Long Ao was finally able to catch his breath and calm the tightness in his chest.

He tightened the water bottle cap forcefully, making a crisp click.

"How much of what that woman from Black Wind Mountain said do you believe?"

His voice was still a little hoarse, and his eyes were fixed on a junior student practicing kicks in the distance, as if he were just chatting casually.

Chen Guan turned his gaze from the distance and focused on him.

Which sentence?

"Sacrifice everything in exchange for destruction."

Long Ao lowered his voice and finally turned his head to meet Chen Guan's gaze. In those eyes that always burned with fighting spirit, there was now a confusion that he himself did not realize.

My grandfather told me some things before.

He paused for a moment, then decided to shift the blame to his grandfather.

"I know a little more about the Guiyuan Group than An Changqing does."

Chen Guan remained leaning against the railing, his ears perked up.

Could it be that Long Ao knows something he doesn't?

Long Ao was oblivious to Chen Guan's sudden change in demeanor, lost in his own thoughts.

"My grandfather said that the Guiyuan Group is not a bunch of lunatics, and their goal is not simply destruction."

His brow furrowed as he tried to recall the hazy conversation.

He said they were on a very difficult path, a path that no one understood, and that the whole world would treat them as enemies.

"The world is sick, and it's an incurable, spreading disease. What they're doing is preserving as much of its healthy parts as possible."

Long Ao repeated these words, his eyes filled with even deeper confusion.

"Sounds similar to what that woman said, right?"

He tugged at the corners of his mouth, revealing a bitter smile.

"But he never said what the terminal illness was."

"He just kept telling me to become stronger, strong enough to protect the people I want to protect, strong enough to make my own choices instead of being pushed around by others."

After saying all this, Long Ao seemed to have exhausted all his strength. He leaned his head back against the wall, stared at the light on the ceiling, and stopped talking.

He laid bare his deepest confusion, hidden in his heart, before the coffin.