460 Five Nodes (7)

Just one chapter today. I'm a bit busy...

...

Liu Ying had a very happy childhood.

Loving parents, caring siblings, and kind grandparents. She was surrounded by love from the day she was born.

As the Princess of the Demon Empire, she never lacked anything. Moreover, she showed great talent since she was a child, so she was never exposed to any negative emotions.

But everything ended when her family was betrayed and brutally killed.

Her parents, her siblings, and her grandparents died before her eyes, and the servants and soldiers that always protected her sacrificed their lives so she could survive.

In the end, the loyalist reached an agreement with the rebels to let her live in exchange for their loyalty to the new imperial family, and after that, she was sent to the Exiled Lands.

It was then that Liu Ying understood how weak she was.

She wished to have trained harder when she was a child. She regretted not polishing her talents when she could. She lamented the fact that she could do nothing but watch as her family was killed.

And when she was at the lowest point in her life, she met Bloed.

To Liu Ying, Bloed was like the sun. He was the light that showed her the path. He was her everything.

Although she did not show it as much as Regina, Liu Ying's love for Bloed was not less than hers.

However, unlike Regina, she was not sure if she should stay beside him.

Liu Ying had once lost everything she loved. Due to it, she was afraid of losing it again.

That was the reason why Liu Ying was so obsessed with training. In Machine Revolutio, nobody trained as hard as her.

Bloed thought that Liu Ying trained so hard to avenge her family, but in truth, that was only half of the reason.

The other half was that she wanted to be strong enough to protect the person she loved.

Fortunately, she was blessed with talent. She inherited her family's aspect, The Chaos Titan; plus a great affinity for mana.

Furthermore, she learned Silent Touch from Regina, bringing her potential to a whole another level.

Even so, Liu Ying knew that it was not enough.

Bloed was the most talented person she knew. His knowledge and strange techniques made him able to defeat people much stronger than himself. Plus, Regina was always beside him to protect him; and she was so powerful that it was unbelievable.

Due to that, Liu Ying's abilities seemed overshadowed.

Liu Ying knew that if she wanted to protect and help Bloed, she needed to be stronger. Strong enough to stand by his side.

And with that belief, she trained.

She trained every day and every night. She trained tirelessly, trying to become even a bit stronger.

And her efforts were not unrewarded.

Her proficiency in Silent Touch grew slowly, and her control over her aspect became better and better.

And one day, her efforts were finally showed fruit.

Remembering that day, Liu Ying closed her eyes and took a deep breath to circulate her mana.

Her aspect appeared behind her as the mana inside her body started to stir. Then, her mana rushed towards her right hand as she clenched her hand into a fist.

The Chaos Titan behind her, disguised as a black knight, clenched its fist as well. It gathered a crazy amount of mana on its fist, making the air around it distort.

Finally, after almost her entire mana was on her fist, she opened her eyes.

"Bloed asked me to destroy this node, and I won't disappoint him!"

Then, without any hesitation, she attacked the barrier.

"Silent Touch: [One-Point Destruction]!"

In the next instant–

*BOOOMMMM!!!*

An enormous explosion shook the place.

One-Point Destruction was a technique that released an enormous amount of kinetic energy at a single point. And when Liu Ying put her entire mana poon on it, it was able to injure even a demigod.

The barrier shook violently. Cracks appeared all over it, and it flickered at the edge of being destroyed.

But when Isabella and the others thought that Liu Ying was going to succeed, the barrier started to stabilize again.

"It can't be!"

"Sister Liu Ying!"

"Dammit!"

Isabella, Aya, and George put on nervous expressions, but Liu Ying did not pay any attention to them.

Seeing that she was about to fail, her eyes became bloodshot.

She trained so hard. She sacrificed so many things. How could she fail now!?

"Break!!!" She shouted and put even more strength on her fist.

At the same time, the aspect behind her started to tremble.

Intense fluctuations of mana erupted out of it as it granted Liu Ying even more strength.

"OHHHHH!!!!"

Soon, the barrier started to tremble more fiercely. New cracks appeared all over it, and it seemed that it was going to break at any moment now.

But Liu Ying could feel that it was not enough yet.

'Not enough...!'

Gritting her teeth, she summoned even more strength.

Even Liu Ying herself did not know where this strength was coming from. She only knew that she needed more power.

Unbeknownst to her, her aspect was becoming bigger and more real with every passing second. At some point, it stopped looking like an illusion and looked like a real titan!

Yes, a titan. The changes in her aspect made the disguise of the black knight disappear.

But Liu Ying did not know about that. She only knew that she needed more strength.

Thus, her aspect gave it to her.

Eventually–

*Crack!*

A sound like glass breaking reached her ears.

Liu Ying's eyes lit up.

"Break!"

With one last shout, the barrier shattered.

"Amazing…"

"Sister Liu Ying succeeded...?"

Isabella, Aya, and the others looked at her with astonished expressions. They could not believe that a young girl at the B-Rank managed to shatter a barrier made to stop demigods.

But then, they realized that now was not the time to admire Liu Ying's strength.

"Quickly, destroy the node now!" Liu Ying shouted while panting heavily with a pale face.

Right now, she could not move even a muscle.

The group finally reacting. George then charged towards the node.

But the creatures' attacks intensified at that moment. Several of them charged towards George as though they wanted to stop him.

"Dammit!" George cursed. He knew that he needed to destroy the node soon. Right now, Eres was stopping the demigod woman from interfering, but he did not know how long Eres could stop her.

Just then, he saw a shadow moving past him.

"Huh!?"

To his surprise, It was the black-haired cat girl! She appeared beside the node with a dagger in her hand.

"Aya!" Liu Ying exclaimed excitedly, but she realized that the creatures had noticed Aya as well and charged towards her.

"Careful!" She shouted nervously.

But Aya was calm. She ignored the attacks of the creatures and focused her senses on the dagger in her hand.

Just an attack, that was everything she needed to destroy the node.

Thus, she swung her dagger.

In the next second, the magic circle around Academy City trembled violently.

Another node had been destroyed.

...

P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels