While I was chanting a curse, the system said I was Xiao Yan?

Looking at Naoya's eager expression, Tenyan suddenly found it a little funny.

It's true that this person has a bad personality, but at least he's straightforward and hasn't been corrupted by the decadence of the Zen school in some ways. He's much better than those old fogies who only know how to gossip behind people's backs.

Of course, more importantly...

On the martial arts arena during your coming-of-age ceremony, you faced another challenge. Unexpectedly, your opponent resorted to cheating by using an object whose power didn't belong to him! This is something you, as the Flame Emperor, cannot tolerate. After all, you've only come here to accomplish three things: fairness! Fairness! And damn it, fairness!

[Side Quest Triggered: Defeat Xiao Ning!]

[Task Reward: Low-level Xuan-rank Battle Skill: Fire-Blowing Palm]

What is a kind and honest person?

Translate this: what exactly does "a damn honest person" mean?

Zenji Naoya was undoubtedly a kind and honest person!

Adding to the previous "one-year agreement," you can complete two tasks in one go!

Win-win!

Tianyan forcibly suppressed a smile that was even harder to suppress than AK's. He untied the sash of his outer garment, took off his kimono, and casually draped it over the back of a chair, revealing the black short-sleeved shirt underneath.

"OK."

He stretched his neck, his knuckles making a crisp cracking sound: "Then consider it a farewell gift."

The power of the spell surged from his body, and the black iron-colored bone armor began to spread from his fingertips, covering his palms, wrists, forearms, and upper arms layer by layer, until his entire upper body was enveloped in that dark scale armor.

Unlike before, this time the bone armor was a deeper color, gleaming with a dark golden luster in the morning light, a result of repeated strengthening by the Foundation Establishment Elixir.

Two bone blades, each about thirty centimeters long, pierced out from her elbows. The blades were sharper than ever before, and one could even see fine magical energy flowing across their surfaces.

Naoya's eyes lit up.

"That's more like it!" he said.

The next instant, his figure disappeared from the spot.

Tianyan did not move.

He closed his eyes.

One second is divided into twenty-four frames. The essence of the projection spell is not acceleration, but prediction.

Users can preset 24 frames of motion within one second, and as long as the laws of physics are not violated, the motion can be executed in a way that is almost absolutely precise.

But Naoya forgot one thing.

He lost last time because Tianyan created a variable "outside the script".

And this time...

Tianyan suddenly opened his eyes and threw his right fist towards the empty space on his left!

The fist seemed to strike empty air, but it landed squarely on the right fist that Naoya was about to throw, which appeared from the afterimage.

Sparks flew as the knuckle duster clashed with the bone armor!

Two protrusions were mixed in; it turned out that two of the barbs on the brass had broken off!

'Click'

A sound like shattering glass echoed in Naoya's mind, and he froze on the spot.

Naoya's pupils constricted sharply: "What?!"

"Your lack of combat experience has led to your starting moves being too predictable."

Tianyan's voice rang out nearby, calm as if he were giving a commentary: "Every attack starts with a change of direction and a feint; the real attack direction is only revealed in the ninth frame. Do you think I don't know that?"

He retracted his fist into an elbow, and the cold bone blade stabbed fiercely into Naoya's abdomen!

Naoya's eyes widened to their limit.

In that instant, what flashed through his mind was not pain, nor retaliation, but a series of utterly absurd images.

Zenji Naoya, the son of the head of the family and the inheritor of the projection spell, was stabbed through the stomach with a bone blade by an outsider. Blood splattered everywhere, and he lay paralyzed in his own living room like a dead dog.

The old servant was so frightened that he fainted on the spot.

When the clansmen arrived, they saw Tianyan expressionlessly drawing his bone blade, while Zhizai was clutching his stomach, convulsing on the ground with his intestines spilling out.

Then the news spread: "Zen-in Naoya has been killed by Zen-in Ten'en."

Then again?

And then that was it. Whether Tianyan was executed or exiled, what did it have to do with him?

He was already a corpse.

A shameful, pathetic corpse pierced by a bone blade.

"I..." Naoya uttered a short, almost inaudible syllable.

He didn't even have time to finish his sentence.

The tip of the bone blade had already touched the fabric of his abdomen.

The cold touch traveled through the fabric to his skin, and Naoya's hair stood on end in that instant.

Then......

Nothing happened.

The expected excruciating pain of having one's flesh pierced did not come, warm blood did not spurt out, and even the clothes were not torn.

The moment the bone blade touched his abdomen, it seemed to be paused, abruptly stopping there.

There was a thin layer of fabric between the blade tip and his skin, so close that Naoya could feel the chilling aura, but he didn't move forward an inch.

Then, the bone blade began to dissipate!

The black iron-colored bone material resembled snow melted by sunlight, gradually turning into tiny specks of magical energy starting from the blade tip and silently dissipating in the air.

Almost instantly, only a smooth bone fragment remained at Tianyan's elbow; the weapon that had been powerful enough to pierce through a human body was gone without a trace.

Instead, it was an elbow strike!

boom!

Naoya was so shocked that he staggered back three steps, only managing to regain his balance after his heel hit the threshold.

He looked down at his abdomen.

The kimono was perfectly intact, without even a single crease, and there wasn't a single wound or even a red mark on the stomach.

Because the previous blow wasn't heavy to begin with!

He looked up at Tianyan again.

Tianyan had already retracted his bone armor, and the black iron-colored scales on his upper body were slowly fading away, revealing his perfectly intact black short-sleeved shirt underneath.

Why didn't you stab me?

This question lingered in Naoya's mind, and he could still feel that chill from before!

"You..." Naoya opened his mouth, his voice a little dry, "You didn't stab me?"

Tianyan tilted his head: "Why would I stab him?"

Yeah, why stab them? They're not mortal enemies, and Tianyan isn't the kind of person who would kill someone at the slightest provocation.

But if Naoya felt that he was in that position, he might not hesitate to take action. He wouldn't die, but he could achieve his goal, right?

If you want to protect your two younger sisters, wouldn't seriously injuring yourself, who is the "enemy," be a good choice?

Why then...?

"You want to surpass Mr. Shen'er, don't you?" Tianyan's voice suddenly rang out.

Naoya was taken aback. This was a secret he had kept buried deep in his heart. How did Tenen know about it?

"I know that, because that's my goal too."

He stood there, hands in his pockets, his expression as indifferent as if he were saying, "The weather is nice today."

"Although going to the vocational college was not my original intention, going out has always been part of my plan."

"The Zen temple is very big, but if you stay here and remain a hothouse flower, you will never be able to catch up with Mr. Shen'er."

"Therefore, Naoya-kun."

"Come to college with me!"