Xia Lan: From Meeting a Martial Arts Girl

Chapter 69 Overestimating One's Abilities

"Looks like you Xia Lan are pretty ruthless too," Jiang Yiyou said, her voice coming down from the slightly higher ground. "You kill your comrades without hesitation, even more swiftly than I am."

Su Nian ignored him.

She squatted down and placed her hand on Zhao Meng's neck.

The pulse is still there, very weak, but still there.

Lin Xiaoxi is one, and so is Sun Li.

They are all still alive.

She controlled her strength when she struck; it looked ruthless, but each blow avoided fatal spots.

Zhao Meng's head hitting the stone was an accident, but Su Nian checked it and found that his skull was not fractured; it should only be a superficial injury and a mild concussion.

They are all still alive.

Su Nian stood up, turned around, and faced Jiang Yiyou.

She didn't speak, nor did she show any expression.

Her hands were still stained with blood, her face had scratches, her clothes were torn, and her hair was disheveled, but her back was very straight.

Jiang Yiyou looked at her, and her smile slowly faded.

"Not going to talk?" he said. "It's no use not talking. You know what you just did."

Su Nian remained silent.

She knew what this person was doing.

From that topic about power and humanity, to those zeros, to the possessed members of the gang, to this statement now.

Every step was meticulously designed.

He was trying to break down her psychological defenses.

First, make her fight, exhausting her vital energy and physical strength.

Then show her familiar faces to awaken her emotions.

Then she was made to attack those familiar faces herself, creating cognitive dissonance.

Finally, that sentence was used to amplify her inner conflict and guilt.

A complete psychological warfare process.

Su Nian learned this at Jiugongling.

The essence of psychological warfare is not to create pain, but to create "self-doubt".

When a person begins to doubt their own judgment, their own choices, and their own beliefs, cracks appear in their defenses.

Jiang Yiyou didn't need to kill her, nor did she need to defeat her.

He only needed to create a crack in her belief, and the crack would spread on its own.

Su Nian took a deep breath, shifted her gaze from Jiang Yiyou, and focused it back on the seven people.

Zhao Meng's finger twitched, Lin Xiaoxi's eyelashes trembled, and Sun Li's breathing became steady.

They will wake up.

It will hurt, it will leave scars, but you will wake up.

She doesn't "kill on a whim".

She was protecting them.

If she doesn't stop them, they will kill each other.

No, it's not a possibility, it's a certainty.

She had seen the look in their eyes when they attacked each other; it wasn't fighting, it was killing.

If she hadn't intervened, at least three of those seven people would be dead by now.

Jiang Yiyou knew this.

He knew she acted to save someone, but he deliberately said it as "killing without warning."

He was distorting the facts, redefining her behavior, and trying to make her see herself through his eyes.

Su Nian closed her eyes, then opened them again.

She won't fall for it.

"You just asked me," Su Nian finally spoke, "if victory can be achieved by sacrificing comrades, can the Xia Lan still be called Xia Lan?"

Jiang Yiyou tilted her head slightly, waiting for her to continue.

"I'll answer you now," Su Nian said, looking at him. "No."

Jiang Yiyou's eyes twitched.

"What makes a Xia Lan a Xia Lan is not how many battles they have won, nor how many people they have protected," Su Nian said calmly, without any emotional fluctuation, "but because... they will not treat their comrades as something to be sacrificed for."

"You said before that if the trouble is too big to be solved, sacrifice is inevitable, and there is no difference between voluntary sacrifice and involuntary sacrifice."

"There is a difference."

Su Nian's fingers tightened slightly.

"To sacrifice oneself willingly is to treat one's comrades as mere tools. To sacrifice oneself passively is to feel powerless after giving one's all."

"It's not that the Xia Lan are incapable of sacrifice; it's that they are unwilling to sacrifice."

Jiang Yiyou remained silent.

He looked at Su Nian, his curiosity growing stronger.

But there was no sign of him being persuaded in his expression.

"Interesting," he said.

Then he extended his right hand.

Palms facing up, fingers slightly spread.

A red light shone from his palm.

Red light danced in his palm, and with each dance, the surrounding air would distort.

She had never felt the aura emanating from that red light before.

It was not primordial energy, not zero force, not any kind of power she was familiar with.

A word flashed through Su Nian's mind.

The Vermilion Bird constellation.

This is what she's looking for.

It was in Jiang Yiyou's palm.

It was less than fifty meters in front of her.

Jiang Yiyou jumped down from the slightly higher position.

His movements were very light, and he made almost no sound when he landed.

Those zeros automatically parted to make way, neatly and silently retreating to both sides.

He walked towards Su Nian.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Unhurried and unhurried, just like every time before.

Su Nian stood still, without retreating.

Her gaze shifted from the red light to Jiang Yiyou's face.

He approached, so close that Su Nian could see every detail on his face.

Jiang Yiyou stopped two steps away from her.

He looked down at Su Nian.

He was half a head taller than her, and at that distance, Su Nian needed to tilt her chin slightly to meet his gaze.

The dark red sky spread out behind him, making his silhouette stand out sharply.

He extended his right hand in front of Su Nian.

The red light was right in front of her, so close that she could feel its heat brushing against her face.

"This is what you wanted," Jiang Yiyou said. "You want it?"

Su Nian looked at the red light in his palm.

want to.

Of course she wanted it.

She came here for this.

Yi Songjin was waiting for her, Xiaoman and Baozi were waiting for her, and Lu Siye, the guy who was soaking in the hot springs in Japan, was also waiting for her.

She arrived on this unfamiliar continent carrying everyone's hopes, and found clues, direction, and goal.

Now her target is right in front of her.

Less than half a meter.

You can reach out and grab it.

Su Nian raised her head and looked at Jiang Yiyou's face.

That ambiguous smile was still lingering on his lips.

He was waiting for her answer.

It wasn't really asking her if she wanted it, but rather, "What are you willing to go to get this?"

Su Nian glared at him fiercely.

It wasn't anger, it wasn't hatred, but a more direct, more instinctive emotion.

She hates this person.

It wasn't because he hit her, nor because he trapped her, nor because he used her companions to torture her.

It was because he always had that smile on his face while doing all of this.

That smile seemed to say: All your struggles are just amusement in my eyes.

Jiang Yiyou saw what was in her eyes.

He smiled.

Then he turned around, his back to Su Nian.

His back was completely exposed to her.

This is a fatal flaw.

No well-trained martial artist would make such a move in front of an enemy, unless... he doesn't consider the other party to be an "enemy" at all.

Or rather, he simply didn't think the other party was qualified to be his enemy.

Su Nian did not hesitate.

Her right fist was clenched tightly, and all the vital energy that had just been restored in her body was concentrated on the surface of her fist.

There are no martial arts techniques, no skills, just the purest and most primitive punch.

A punch that was infused with all her strength.

She blasted Jiang Yiyou toward the back of the head.

The fist landed.

No, it didn't hit.

When her fist was less than a palm's distance from Jiang Yiyou's back, a purple light appeared out of thin air, like a transparent wall, blocking the space between her fist and Jiang Yiyou's body.

Purple.

The fist struck the purple wall.

"boom!"

The enormous recoil force returned from the point of contact, like a heavy hammer slamming into Su Nian's chest.

She was sent flying as if by an invisible giant hand, her feet leaving the ground, her body arcing through the air for seven or eight meters before crashing heavily to the ground.

The ground is hard.

Su Nian's back slammed into the gravel and sand, sending a sharp pain through her spine.

A metallic taste filled her mouth, she choked, and spat out a mouthful of blood, which splattered onto the grayish-brown ground in front of her. The dark red blood was quickly absorbed by the dry soil.

Su Nian lay on the ground and coughed a few times, each cough carrying a metallic smell.

Her right arm was completely numb. The recoil from the blow had numbed her entire arm, from her shoulder to her fingertips; she felt nothing.

Footsteps.

Jiang Yiyou's footsteps.

He didn't turn around, but he stopped.

He stood there, his back to her.

Then he turned around.

He walked back, stood in front of Su Nian, and looked down at her.

Su Nian lay on the ground, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her right arm hanging limply at her side, her hair scattered on the ground, covered in dust.

Jiang Yiyou frowned.

That smile disappeared.

Instead, it was more like the expression of someone who had seen a beautiful piece of porcelain with a corner accidentally chipped off.

"Overestimating oneself," he said.

Su Nian gritted her teeth and tried to stand up, supporting herself with her left arm.

My arms were shaking, and I fell back down halfway through.

Her vital energy was almost gone; that attack had completely depleted the little bit of energy she had managed to recover. Now there was nothing in her dantian, not even the faint flame that had been there.

Jiang Yiyou watched her struggle but didn't move.

Then he squatted down.

He squatted down in front of Su Nian, looking her in the eye.

Jiang Yiyou extended her right hand.

Su Nian thought he was going to hit her.

She instinctively closed her eyes.

But the hand didn't land on her face.

It landed on her shoulder.

Su Nian opened her eyes and saw Jiang Yiyou's palm on her shoulder, his fingers slightly spread apart.

A soft light shone from his palm.

A warm feeling spread from my shoulders throughout my body, like a warm stream of water diffusing along my blood vessels.

First the shoulders, then the arms, then the chest, then the whole body.

Where that warmth reached, the pain disappeared, the fatigue vanished, wounds began to heal, broken fibers reconnected, and torn muscles regrowed.

Su Nian regained feeling in her right arm.

My fingers can move, my wrists can rotate, and my elbows can bend.

She glanced down.

The bruise on my right arm faded at a visible rate, and the purplish-black skin slowly returned to its normal color.

The dantian inside the body also began to react.

The primordial energy is recovering.

30%. 40%. 50%.

It's even more abundant than before the injury.

Jiang Yiyou withdrew her hand.

He stood up, took a step back, and looked down at Su Nian again.

His facial expression returned to that ambiguous smile, as if nothing had happened.

Su Nian supported herself on the ground and slowly stood up. She stood steadily, her legs stopped shaking, and her breathing became even.

She looked at Jiang Yiyou.

This person first knocked her away, causing her to vomit blood and almost unable to stand up.

Then they cured her, making her even better than before she was injured.

It wasn't out of pity, it wasn't out of regret, it wasn't any emotion that a human being should have.

From beginning to end, he never paid any attention to her.

He knocked her away because she "overestimated herself" and attacked him.

She was cured because...

Perhaps it's because she's still useful.

Maybe it's because he hasn't had enough fun yet.

Perhaps there is no reason at all.

This person may not need a reason to do things.

Jiang Yiyou put her right hand into her pocket and looked at Su Nian.

"Should we continue?" he asked.

Su Nian looked at him and remained silent for a few seconds.

Then she shook her head.

All her resistance was futile in the face of this man.

The gap in strength is indeed enormous.

More importantly, she and he don't operate within the same logical system at all.

All her actions—fighting, defending, counterattacking, and even fleeing—are examples of her behavior.

They are all based on a rational logic of "ends-means": doing this is to achieve that end.

However, Jiang Yiyou's actions were completely purposeless.

He didn't hit her to defeat her, he didn't heal her to use her, and he didn't do any of this for any ultimate goal.

He just wanted to do it.

Once you've done it, move on to the next thing.

You can't negotiate with someone who has no purpose.

You can't defeat someone who has no defenses.

You can't beat someone who doesn't care about "victory".

Su Nian took a deep breath and wiped away the blood remaining at the corner of her mouth.

"What do you really want?" she asked.

Jiang Yiyou looked at her, the curve of her lips remaining unchanged.

"I already said that," he said.

"Let me see just how far your protection can go."

He turned around and walked toward the zeros.

Zero made way for them again, walked through them, walked up to the slightly higher spot, stopped, turned around, and looked at Su Nian again.