novel bin Page 158
Page 158
"Have you told your family?"
Zhou Ye's question interrupted their excitement.
"said."
Rias scratched her cascading red hair sheepishly, a hint of childish embarrassment flashing in her eyes.
Just as you predicted, my parents gave me one last chance to handle this myself.
"me too."
Cang Na responded, her expression returning to calm, but her tone becoming more serious.
“However, my sister hopes to meet you during the ranking tournament when Rias breaks off her engagement.” The Demon King Leviathan, Seraphicedy, wants to see him. Zhou Ye remained unmoved, simply nodding. This meeting was already part of his plan. He dusted off the cookie crumbs on his hands and stood up.
"Alright, let's not waste any more time. The 300 days to change your destiny begin now."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Nami suddenly interrupted, crossing her arms and scrutinizing Rias and Sona with a critical look.
"Boss, is this deal really worth it? Letting them use such a valuable place for free? We're also short on time, and Saeko and Jill need to train too."
Rias's smile froze on her face. Sona's brows furrowed slightly. They realized then that they seemed to have taken Zhou Ye's help for granted. Zhou Ye glanced at Nami, who immediately understood and shut her mouth. What he wanted was never the girls' verbal thanks or any material reward their families might offer. He looked at Rias and Sona, his gaze as calm as a deep pool, yet it sent a strange shiver down the spines of the two demon noblewomen.
"Do you really think that three hundred days is enough?"
"Of course!"
Lia answered without hesitation, a testament to her confidence as the heir to Gremory.
"Theoretically, it's feasible."
Cang Na gave a more rigorous answer. Zhou Ye smiled. It wasn't a mocking smile, nor a smile of relief, but a smile that was almost one of pity.
“Foolish. What do you think Kirkbor is? A street thug? He is Old Deng, who survived the ancient war that swept across the three realms. Although he is Old Deng’s disgrace, his strength is still above yours.”
His voice wasn't loud, but it made the temperature in the living room drop to freezing point again.
Rias and Sona's faces went from excitement to pale. They were speechless, stunned by the prospect Zhou Ye had described and its cruel reality. "Then...what should we do?"
Rias's voice trembled slightly. Zhou Ye walked to the open space in the center of the living room, but did not answer immediately.
"I have prepared some suitable opponents for you. Let me make this clear first: if you are afraid of pain or injury, or if you find my training ruthless, you can leave now and obediently accept the fate arranged by your family."
When Rias heard the words she least wanted to hear, she clasped her hands together, raising her heart high, and said:
"Hmm, Ye, you underestimate me, Rias. If such an opportunity to change my destiny were to slip through my fingers, I would be the one who would regret it."
Himejima Akeno gritted her teeth, recalling unpleasant memories:
"Me too. If I had the power back then, my mother wouldn't have died."
Kasumigaoka Utaha, Busujima Saeko, Yotsuya Miko, and the others remained silent, but demonstrated their resolve once again through their actions. They stood even straighter, facing Zhou Ye, awaiting his instructions.
Zhou Ye clapped his hands.
"Alright, since you all have this awareness, I have prepared corresponding opponents for you in the [House of Time and Spirit]."
Zhou Ye added in his mind, "[A mechanical version of the Honkai Beast configuration]."
As Zhou Ye finished speaking, the air in the living room froze instantly. Everyone could sense that something dangerous was brewing.
Opponent? Sona adjusted her glasses; her rationality made her wary of that word.
What kind of opponent?
Zhou Ye did not answer directly, but slowly raised his right hand. The ability of [Spatial Rhythm] was quietly activated, and the ceiling of the living room began to distort, rippling like water.
A massive spatial rift tore open, revealing a scene from another world.
It was a vast, white training ground, an endless expanse of empty land, where dozens of metal behemoths, each three meters tall, stood. They were ferocious in appearance, covered in silver-white armor, with blood-red energy cores gleaming on their chests.
【Mechanical Honkai Beast Tank Class】
Nami gasped.
Boss, these guys don't look like trouble!
It only looks that way.
Zhou Ye's voice carried a hint of mischievousness.
I've adjusted their strength to a level that will leave you in despair, but not in a deadly way.
Saeko Busujima's pupils dilated instantly, and her hand unconsciously pressed against the hilt of her sword. The murderous aura emanating from those mechanical behemoths made her blood boil, and she also felt an unprecedented sense of oppression.
Can these things... kill us?
Yotsuya Miko's voice trembled slightly.
Of course.
Zhou Ye nodded without hesitation.
But rest assured, in the House of Time and Spirit, death is not the end. You will die in agony, and then be resurrected in agony, and so on, until you learn how to overcome them.
Several sounds of swallowing saliva were heard in the living room.
Kasumigaoka Utaha's face was pale:
This...this isn't training, this is torture!
What is the difference between training and torture?
Zhou Ye countered with a question,
It all depends on whether you can grow from it.
He walked towards the spatial rift, turning back to look at the group of girls who were looking at each other in bewilderment.
Rias, you said you didn't want to regret it. Akeno, you said you wanted power. Since that's the case, then stop hesitating here.
Rias clenched her fists even tighter, her nails digging into her palms. She raised her head, her crimson eyes burning with an indomitable flame.
You're right, Ye. If I can't even endure this little bit of pain, how can I talk about changing my destiny?
She strode towards the spatial rift, glancing back just as she stepped through:
Zhu Nai, and everyone else, let's do it together!
Himejima Akeno followed, a resolute expression appearing on her gentle face:
Yes, what is this pain compared to losing someone important?
Sona took a deep breath and pushed up his glasses:
As the student council president, I cannot fall behind the students.
One by one, the girls stepped into that white hell.
In the end, only two prisoners remained kneeling on the ground.
Zhou Ye glanced at them: You two, go in too. But your training will be different.
Lina raised her head, trembling: Master... what are we going to face?
Confront your inner fears. Zhou Ye's answer chilled them to the bone: there, you will encounter everyone you have ever hurt. They will question you, torment you, until you truly repent.
Kara's face was ashen.
This...this is too cruel...
Cruel? Zhou Ye sneered. Compared to what you've done to those innocent people, this is just a piece of cake.
With a wave of his hand, two fallen angels were pushed into a spatial rift by an invisible force.
Little Sister Elsa was trembling with fear, never expecting Zhou Ye to be so terrifying.
"Aisha, don't look at me like that. I'm not a bad person. You need to train too."
"What kind of training, Mr. Zhou?"
"Your stamina is too weak, let's go!"
A spatial rift swallowed Aisha and sent her to cultivate.
The living room fell silent again, leaving only Zhou Ye alone.
Chapter 126 The Cruelty of Training
pure white.
Endless pure white constitutes the entirety of this world. There is no sky, no earth, only a pristine plane stretching to the horizon, and above, an equally pale void radiating a uniform light.
As soon as Rias and Sona's familiars appeared, they instinctively huddled together, forming two distinct camps. Their demonic instincts caused them to have a physiological aversion to this overly "clean" space.
On the other side, Nami, Saeko Busujima, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and the others seemed much more comfortable. They checked their weapons, adjusted their breathing, and quickly entered a state of combat readiness.
In the silence, space begins to move.
It was as if an invisible giant hand had cast ink dots onto a pure white canvas, and dozens of dark figures appeared out of thin air and quickly solidified.
They were humanoid behemoths, each three meters tall. Their bodies were covered in thick, menacing silver-white power armor, with complex mechanical structures and energy lines exposed at their joints. On their chests, a blood-red, rhomboid crystal pulsated at an ominous frequency, radiating a chilling sense of oppression.
Their weapons varied: some wielded massive high-frequency swords capable of cleaving tanks, others carried heavy multi-barreled energy cannons, and still others were equipped with enormous tower shields. This was a silent and deadly legion of steel.
A somber atmosphere enveloped the entire space.
"Hey, hey,"
Nami's voice broke the deathly silence. She pointed at a humanoid weapon wielding a giant sword, her face filled with absurdity and disbelief.
"We train by fighting against these things?"
Following her finger, everyone looked and saw a very familiar cartoon cat head printed on the shoulder armor of the mechanical behemoth—a blue Tom cat with a smirking grin.
The comical symbol contrasts sharply with the cold, cruel design of the weapon, instantly turning the tense atmosphere into something eerie.
Just then, the red core on the chest of the mechanical behemoth that Nami was pointing at flickered. A cold, emotionless synthesized voice echoed in the space.
"Yes, Miss Nami, we are just the appetizer. Depending on the number of people you send, we will arrange corresponding opponents to fight against."
The mechanical behemoth slightly turned its metal head, its scarlet electronic eyes scanning every girl present.
"This training will focus on magic and physical melee combat. It's all about skill, not numerical values."
"The magic we will use is earth, fire, wind, water, and lightning. As for spatial magic, we will not arrange it for the time being."