Planet Atlan-13571. The Cloud Knights Command Center thrummed with quiet intensity. Holographic tactical displays flickered across the walls while officers moved between stations with practiced efficiency. Mo Tingquan stood at the central console, his posture rigid as he methodically dispatched reinforcements and coordinated the scattered detachments locked in combat across the war-torn surface.
A communication channel suddenly patched through. Kanzaki's voice cut across the line, clear and direct.
"What is the situation on your end?"
"The detachment was nearly wiped out. Only two soldiers were rescued," Mo Tingquan answered, his tone steady yet heavy with the weight of fresh loss.
"Enemy scale?"
"The Rhinoceround Hound Great War Chief is dead."
"...I understand."
Those few short sentences carried everything that mattered. The battlefield was simply that cruel. An entire detachment had been almost completely annihilated, and a deep grief settled in Mo Tingquan's chest. Yet there was nothing he could do to change it. In the chaos of war, no one could predict the horror waiting in the next breath.
He had never expected a Great War Chief of the Rhinoceround pack to be hiding on this planet.
"When will you return to the command center? We need…"
"Within three days. You remain in charge of dispatching. I have other matters to attend to."
"Has the General issued new orders?"
"No. I'm going to kill Abominations of Abundance."
"...Currently, there are too many detachments executing sub-missions on Planet Atlan-13571. Regulations require the chief commander to be present…"
"Following the reasonable orders of the chief commander is also a Cloud Knights regulation."
"..."
Mo Tingquan found himself cut off before he could finish. The line went dead a second later. He could only smile bitterly. The words were blunt, but the logic held firm. He understood exactly what drove Kanzaki at this moment. If their roles were reversed, he would probably make the same decision. Otherwise the pressure building inside might truly drag him into the mara-struck state.
Current projections showed that fully liberating Atlan-13571 would still demand at least half a system month of brutal fighting.
But Mo Tingquan could never have imagined that Liberation Day would arrive far sooner than anyone expected.
While countless Cloud Knights detachments remained locked in bloody, desperate combat with the Abominations of Abundance, a blood-soaked figure suddenly burst from one flank of the battlefield. Without a single word, the crimson shadow plunged straight into the heart of the melee, ruthlessly harvesting enemy lives.
Wherever he passed, Abominations of Abundance crumbled into scattering ash. The overwhelming aura radiating from that blood-red afterimage and the devastation he left behind sent chills racing down every witness's spine. Their hair stood on end at the sheer terrifying presence.
Had they not glimpsed the unique insignia of a Xianzhou Cloud Knight Vanguard still visible on his blood-stained armor, many would have turned their blades against him out of pure instinct. That aura felt far too close to the Abominations of Abundance themselves.
Yet no one truly entertained the thought. On this planet swarming with horrors, only one Cloud Knight Vanguard possessed such overwhelming combat power. Combined with the knowledge that the Valiant Guard unit at the command center had already been replaced by Mo Tingquan, the identity of the rampaging figure became obvious to all.
In less than three days, not a single Abomination of Abundance remained on Atlan-13571. Not even a trace could be found.
However, Kanzaki himself had entered a state of partial isolation. Only Xueyi and Hanya, who had returned to the command center earlier, reassured everyone not to worry. And only they truly understood what Kanzaki was doing in that moment.
The sub-mission on Atlan-13571 concluded more than ten days ahead of schedule. Shortly after the battle report reached the main fleet ship, new orders arrived. Detachment 1, led by Kanzaki and Mo Tingquan, could return to the main ship at any time for rest and resupply. Clearing the battlefield and tallying losses would still take time, so the detachment was expected back in five days.
Xueyi and Hanya temporarily separated from the main force on the grounds of direct orders from Kanzaki. Mo Tingquan did not question it, nor did he dwell on the matter. After all, beyond their roles as detachment captains, the two sisters also served as Kanzaki's personal guards.
Far from any land, thousands of meters beneath the ocean surface...
Kanzaki appeared half-mad as he unleashed attack after undirected attack. Monstrous waves churned the sea into violent chaos around him. Had Xueyi not reacted with lightning speed and maneuvered their star skiff to safety, the titanic surges would have swallowed them whole.
"Sister, let me go down."
"Mhm."
Hanya leaped into the turbulent sea without hesitation. She braved the terrifying currents and powerful undercurrents, diving deeper toward the dark seabed.
In the past, without specialized equipment, reaching such extreme depths would have been impossible for her. But now it posed no challenge. She and her sister were no longer the people they once were. Yet as they had declared before, they would never regret their choice.
The seabed lay pitch black, the water currents violent and chaotic. Hanya's visibility was severely limited. She could only track Kanzaki's position through pure perception and spiritual sense.
Hours passed before the seabed finally began to calm. Only then could she draw close.
The scene that greeted her shook her to her very core.
Punch after powerful punch, Kanzaki repeatedly shattered his own head and torso. The broken and destroyed parts regenerated almost instantly in the very next moment, again and again in a horrifying cycle. To call it "the next second" felt like an understatement. The regeneration happened in an instant.
Such terrifying regenerative ability would cause any native of the Xianzhou to view him as an extremely dangerous threat.
Yet in Hanya's eyes, in her heart, and throughout her entire being, only endless pity and sorrow welled up.
Yueque. Cangcheng. Shuhu had appeared in both of those devastating Abundance wars, causing Kanzaki to lose his family and ultimately leaving him with nothing. He had yet to complete his revenge against Shuhu, but he was already forced to confront the inevitable fate of all long-life species: the mara-struck condition.
Once taken away by the Ten-Lords Commission for interment and meeting an early end, how could he speak of revenge anymore?
To fight against the mara-struck state and gain the power he needed, he had not hesitated to touch the taboo. He activated the forbidden Self-Actualization Aspect Method, transforming himself into this current form that looked even more monstrous than the Abominations of Abundance.
Because their consciousnesses had briefly merged with his when they fell into the irreversible abyss together, both Hanya and Xueyi now understood the painful secrets buried deep within Kanzaki's past.
On the day Cangcheng fell, he already had one foot in the abyss of mara infection. The only anchor that kept him holding on was the silent entrustment from Qiu Zhiyan before she lost her sanity: Jingliu.
That was his mother's final request, and he was both unwilling and unable to fail her.
Thus, a man who originally had nothing left to lose and no price he would not pay once again found himself with a duty different from revenge, one he could not simply abandon.
After rescuing the girl named Jingliu, he did not have to plan any future for her. Even if she spent her entire life trapped in nightmares she could not escape, she could at least continue living safely on the Xianzhou.
But Kanzaki did not choose that path.
When the girl asked him to teach her his arts, he taught her. Gradually, she came to occupy a greater and greater part of his heart, becoming a vital anchor that helped him cling to the last threads of sanity within his body.
She had even become a new fear reborn in the depths of his mind and soul.
He had already lost everything once. He could not bear to lose anything more.
Otherwise the broken mirror could never be mended again.
How tragic was this situation?
A whirlwind of complex emotions surged through Hanya's heart. The descendants of the Kanzaki Family seemed destined to face endless loss throughout their lives.
Lady Qiu Zhiyan had been terrified of losing her last remaining relative. She had begged Kanzaki to retire from the military and live out centuries as an ordinary citizen. Yet in the end, she still met her fate in a form that was impossible to accept, vanishing forever from Kanzaki's world.
Now Kanzaki was walking the exact same path as his mother.
He could not, and dared not, imagine a future without Jingliu in it.
So he chose to be selfish. He chose to make things difficult for Jingliu, deliberately delaying the time when she would have to participate in large-scale battles.
Yet within this selfishness and harshness lay a deep, unspoken concern for her well-being. If there were any other choice, who would ever want the person they cared about most to constantly walk along the edge of life and death?