[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-solflare-the-painter-s-secret":3,"chapter-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-68":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Solflare: The Painter's Secret",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1322896,1757,"Chapter 68: I Let Her Win","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-68",68,"\u003Cp>Leon exited from the changing room, placing his steps slowly as if an invisible force was weighing him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whispers rose and hit him like darts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hahaha... fighting with your own mother, Storm.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...I would love to see her crush you. I’m sure she’s fed up with you. Dusthollow Rat.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...As for this fight, I’m sure Zoe talked to the proctors to set it up.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Zoe emerged onto the platform, cheers rose. Not applauding her, but blaming her for pairing with him on the first day she made that decision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon exhaled sharply, turned his gaze, and focused on Zoe. She wore a standard dark pink training gear that he’d never seen her in before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her icy platinum blonde hair contrasted against the color of the fabric. Her face had the same unreadable expression she’d had when the incident with the treadmill occurred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn’t look at the crowd. Her pale silver-grey eyes held him like a ghost in a cage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon swallowed hard while his throat tightened. He saw no malice, no anticipation, just that steady, assessing look.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The countdown timer materialized in the air and on the invisible but touchable barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They stood there, letting the tense silence fall like a meteorite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>10:00... 07:00... 04:00... 03:00...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whispers rippled through the seats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This isn’t a place for reconciliation. Fight and take him out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Let him see why you’re part of the top 100, Qing Z.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Yeah, finish him as you did with all the opponents you fought, Zoe.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Confusion, speculation, and a bet on the time Zoe would finish the Rat broke first, then followed by a tiny number of people betting on the other side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s mind churned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’I will let her win no matter what.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His thought was clear, a decision he had forged in the instant he’d heard her name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He smiled as memories of the time Zoe had joined in alliance with him at the Shattered Land reeled in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>01:00... 00:30...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At 00:02, Zoe moved and crossed the distance in an impossible stride that seemed to warp the space between them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no burst of wind or footstep. One moment, she was far; the next, her hand was a blade aimed at the side of Leon’s neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s eyes widened, his brain trying to register the speed, while his body committed to its own surrender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zoe’s strike landed with a sickening thud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>White light exploded behind Leon’s eyes. At first, it wasn’t pain, but a profound failure he’d chosen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All sensation vanished from his limbs. The roar of the crowd turned into a muffled, underwater rumble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw the stone platform rushing up to meet his face, but felt no impact when the skin on his face bounced like rubber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkness danced across his eyelids.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When his consciousness returned in fractured pieces, a low murmur of voices rose at first, followed by the smell - sharp, damp concrete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He blinked twice and forced his eyes to focus. On the third, a ring of people moved around him, from broad shoulders, skinny ones like himself, and short ones he could press on their heads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At a distance from him, Tiger leaned against the doorframe, a satisfied smile carving his face, arms crossed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jade stood beside him, his expression unreadable, but having a detached, clinical interest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And at Jade’s right, the broad-shouldered boy—the one from the elevator, the one whose spit was still vivid in Leon’s memory. His smile was wide, as if he knew who Leon’s next opponent would be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Pathetic.\" Vera pushed through the rind, her pretty face twisted in contempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked down at Leon, her lip curled. \"I should have been the one on the platform with him. At least I’d have made it entertaining.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A jagged shard of anger pierced the fog in Leon’s head. It burned away the last disorientation, the strategic acceptance of his defeat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It ignited on the fuel of Tiger’s grin, Jade’s indifference, Vera’s scorn, and the broad-shouldered boy’s wide smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pushed himself up, but a deep ache throbbed in his neck where Zoe’s hand had struck, as his muscles protested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt dizzy but ignored it and stood straight. His gaze swept across Tiger, Jade, and then locked onto the broad-shouldered boy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s arm lifted, his index finger extending to point directly at the boy’s chest. \"You,\" he said in a rough but clear voice that cut through the room’s thick silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You, you, and you.\" He moved his finger from Jade to Tiger and stopped at the broad-shouldered boy. \"All three of you are the ones I want to face. Right now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A beat of stunned faces followed. Then the boy’s smile widened unnaturally, showing too many teeth, and he shook his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He chuckled in a low, grating sound. He took three deliberate steps forward, closing the distance until he was just an arm’s length away from Leon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He loomed over him, his sea-colored eyes glinting with malicious delight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You wouldn’t need them,\" the boy said in a voice that echoed in a husky rumble. \"I alone would love to see you bleed from the inside out, after I’m done with you in a few seconds.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He held Leon’s gaze for a long, promise-filled moment, then turned his head to look back at Jade and Tiger, as if seeking approval or sharing a joke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before anyone could speak, the sharp chime of the arena system echoed in the room, followed by the proctor’s amplified voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"NEXT MATCH: STORM, L. VS. AZAZEL.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The name hung in the air like a curse. The broad-shouldered boy’s smile didn’t falter while everyone turned to each other; it became something truly unsettling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gazed at Leon one last, lingering look, then turned and walked out of the changing room without a backward glance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The heavy door swung shut behind him, leaving the rest of them in a thick, loaded silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon exhaled a sharp breath he had no idea he was holding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without a word to the others, to Tiger’s silent watching or Vera’s simmering glare, Leon turned and pushed through the same door the boy had exited from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corridor felt longer, the noise from the hall a growing roar. His heart thrummed heavily in his chest like a drum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The earlier confusion that filled him was gone, replaced with a fight he wouldn’t throw away. The fight he needed, like the blood wiped off his lips when fighting with Grace.\u003C\u002Fp>",1076,"2026-06-05T19:15:29.583Z",1,"novelbin.me","fb31714e8de92474bf764aece7b3bb3b85a337e6eb96aeca43860ebe70df514f","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-69","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-67",272,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsolflare-the-painter-s-secret-cover.jpg"]