Chapter 625: NO. 206: BLACK STAR

NO. 206: BLACK STAR

People are always enthusiastic about the story of heroes fighting evil dragons, and they tirelessly mention how heroes eventually become evil dragons, as if that would make it closer to reality.

Over time, they begin to chase the original feeling again, returning to the orthodox hero's story.

The constant shifting between cliché and anti‑cliché shows that the era's taste itself is a cycle.

But the fact has nothing to do with taste.

Aomo doesn't care whether the hero should ultimately become an evil dragon, but he believes that if the hero lacks the power of an evil dragon, he cannot fight one.

So he has liked the Devil God Z series since childhood.

Piloting Devil God Z, one can choose to become a god, or a demon, even to kill a god, or kill a demon.

To contend with extraordinary things, one must muster extraordinary power and resolve.

And those who possess this are truly too few.

Even in Central Teslen, where strange people abound and personalities are diverse, those horse girls are still students.

Despite being students, even Aimu Zhiji, scorched by negative energy and already abnormal, still retains a girl's own gentleness in daily life.

Gentleness, in this current environment, is a rather ironic word.

Just as it is even more ironic in the Jidong linguistic context.

Jidong people often praise gentleness in conduct, yet frequently scorn actions related to it, and end up being influenced by it, doing the hesitant, indecisive moves that other regions judge as typical of Jidong folk.

That 'Yasaxi' which East Flame people, and even some Jidong people themselves, self‑mock, is rooted in the hearts of the region's inhabitants like that loneliness.

Taught from childhood yet often unconsciously violated, it becomes a core of conflict.

But among those far psychologically healthier than her, gentleness is simply a natural trait, influencing their daily speech, behavior, and mental activities……

——becoming a landmine buried in their hearts.

This is a specific problem born of the peacetime zeitgeist and national education merging together, like 'Paris Syndrome' and 'fire disease,' a special mental disorder.

If unnecessary, it shows no abnormality; but when a situation calls for going all out, it appears hesitant and indecisive.

"I don't want to trouble the other," "I don't want to do something so excessive," "In this atmosphere it's absolutely impossible……"

Such nationally flavored hesitation, plus the fear that trying and failing would leave no room for rescue, became a restraint on people like Narita Lu and Zhenjiling, who could never go all in or bring themselves to strike hard.

Clearly Jidong people are also the region's most enthusiastic about going all‑in, having produced many famous gamblers known in world history from ancient times to now.

But obviously, the extreme individuals within the group cannot represent everyone.

These girls cannot muster the resolve to 'drag friends back even if friendship ends,' so they are destined unable to stop Aimu Zhiji's moth‑to‑flame determination.

Fortunately, a certain Bode youth always has this determination.

He has never lacked, since childhood, the experience of cutting off or sacrificing something for others' achievement, even when it concerns something closely tied to himself, and has never regretted it.

His extreme rationality, almost like an inorganic heart, was his original appearance.

At that time, the race listed on his ID was still human.

Not the demon person he is now.

At first glance it seems equally ironic, but this is actually the most natural point.

The devil, always listed as a villain, has an image that is gentle and refined, versed in ancient and modern.

By contrast, humanity can always give birth to beauty and ugliness so striking that even demons are stunned.

You may praise it as humanity's possibility, or see it as an expression of 'the forest is big, all kinds of birds exist,' but no matter the principle, that extreme possibility is possessed by people.

Now, the demon person has reclaimed that inhuman 'humanity' in the Man Shuo.

On his way to the gym, he dumped all chores from his mind, returning to that detached observer.

Efficiency‑first rationality, thus confident, thus unapproachable.

Everything his eyes sweep over seems to have a unique function; the logical connections of all things exist like the red‑heat imaging in a snake's eyes, containing a lake yet naturally present, and merely shifting the point of observation makes them clearer.

Including the individual named Narita Lu.

This run of Narita Lu and Aimu Zhiji, read as 'running side by side,' written as a showdown.

In fact, it is the confrontation between Aomo Lindun and Aimu Zhiji.

The seemingly confident, high‑spirited hero Narita Lu who seized the opportunity is merely a knife in Aomo Lindun's hand, pointing straight at the evil dragon Aimu Zhiji's reverse scale!

——the champion's glory, that is her most treasured possession.

The evil dragon craves all treasures, for she is never satisfied, just as her 'atonement' has no end.

One year ago, Narita Lu snatched from Aimu Zhiji's grasp the Jidong Derby crown she had locked onto.

The evil dragon that should have been invisible to anyone's eyes ended up bearing a deep impression from that hero's single blow, so that in the subsequent G2 Race, the negative energy shrouding her body and the wavering emotions in the stands blended together, covering nearly every competitor on the track.

Especially directed at Narita Lu.

This may be an unconscious guidance unnoticed by the parties involved.

The so‑called negative energy has always been this kind of subtle thing, arising from each person's heart yet hardly noticed by the parties, often only becoming their hindsight remorse after mistakes or disasters have been made.

The demons in the mansion are like this, and Aimu Zhiji's deeply hidden negative energy is the same.

And that wavering fervor in the audience stands is also why Aomo refused to go to the racetrack in his early years.

Especially the Changchang Racecourse.

——Changchang City is notorious for chaos, once topping the vote as the worst‑rated urban district for earthly security, and its audience quality is also the worst of the lot.

Such a foundation of negative energy, plus Aimu Zhiji's subconscious flag‑waving guidance, fairly blankets every horse girl, even suppressing the few who originally trained in red skills.

And further emphasis on Narita Lu……

When Aomo watches Aimu Zhiji's bone‑shattering, soul‑devouring final kick in the audiovisual room, he thinks of how heavy the darkness unconsciously stirred by her then would be.

Yet, while briefly maintaining an edge under that darkness shroud, how blazing would Narita Lu, running neck‑and‑neck with Aimu Zhiji, be?

At first, those unusual elements—the 'no‑adjustment,' the 'other horse girls, even those with red skills, being unnatural,' the 'back‑and‑forth of crowd cheers,' Aimu Zhiji's final heart‑shaking running posture, and——Narita Lu's final struggling advance——

All those conditions are naturally summoned in Aomo's mind, linked by a logic that Miss Meteor cannot comprehend; even changing trainers would make it hard to react.

For Aomo, in the mere few seconds of thought while the video was still playing, he already had a clue.

Moreover, when on the way to the gym, upon catching sight of Narita Road, an idea occurred to him.

It was as if he had found a tailor-made dragon-slaying blade, and he put on that habitual, flawless false smile that accompanied his rational demeanor.

There was no excuse of coincidence; only control akin to fate.

Reasonable, smooth communication was like a labyrinth of false words and nonsense.

Miss Vega learned part of Umastar's social skills, and with it long resisted the Miss whom Umastar had painstakingly trained.

But the Umastar seen by both of them was not complete.

Thus they had never witnessed the outstanding ability closely tied to that completeness.

The comet, its state uncertain yet its obsession burning, is entwined in blackness; the blazing sun, which harbors determination.

Both ran wildly on that somewhat grassy ground where feet could sink, their all-out bursts of motion so dazzling that even the faint traces of moonlight could not be seen.

Wanting to win…

Wanting to convey…

Want to make a clean break!

Want to truly begin!

In the middle stage they began fierce competition, and by the end stage they were deadlocked like shifting stars, progressing together!

The ultimate essence of will versus will lay in their opposition; in the extreme burning and brilliant, dazzling radiance, no trace of darkness remained.

However, at that final stretch, in this critical moment that allowed not a hair's breadth—

Seated in the stands, Chengtian Bai Ren, who ought to have been closely watching Aimu Zhiji, actually became distracted at this moment.

She turned her head amid the sting of shadows like needle pricks, and looked toward the youth beside her whose expression remained perpetually calm.

Seeing him smile at this moment.

Hearing that fervent heartbeat, seeing that scorching aura, the youth revealed a smile utterly devoid of emotional contagion.

"Have you heard it?" he suddenly asked, his dark-red eyes holding a trembling narrow slit.

Turbid and pitch-black, the pool's surface deep and unfathomable.

That icy yet ferocious gorgeous enchantment actually caused Chengtian Bai Ren to nearly lose his senses.

"What?"

"I heard the sound of that person's world being pierced by light." The youth said softly, turning his head back to look at the moment of crossing the finish line, still maintaining that restrained smile.

That sound, like the reverse scale of an evil dragon pierced by a hero's long sword.

"Exceptionally clear, so pleasing to the ear."