Douluo Continent: The Eternal Order of the Azure Sky.

When Zhang Lexuan looked at Kong Tianxu, she saw his profile. He was handsome and resolute, yet still had a slight childishness, which reminded her of a familiar boy.

What's wrong with me?

Zhang Lexuan smiled self-deprecatingly to herself. Seeing that Kong Tianxu was still fiddling with the giant sword, she composed herself and said:

"A very powerful soul tool, what's its name?"

At this moment, Kong Tianxu could confirm that Zhang Lexuan was indeed different from her during the day. Her voice seemed to have shed some kind of disguise, or perhaps it had put on some kind of harder shell.

"The sword of judgment." As she spoke, Kong Tianxu kept swinging the heavy sword in the air, the heavy sword making no sound.

"Now I know why you are so young yet so strong. I don't know if I could persevere in honing my skills in this environment. You must have practiced for a long time to be able to display the same swordsmanship as during the day."

Zhang Lexuan spoke softly, took a few steps to the side, and gently put one hand on her arm.

"However, although I don't know why you're pushing yourself like this, sometimes you need to learn to relax. You're too tense. I used to be like you for a while. But later I found that it didn't work, and it actually had a negative effect on my cultivation."

"You're overthinking it. It's just a warm-up."

Zhang Lexuan turned around and saw that Kong Tianxu had casually stuck the Sword of Judgment into the soil, sat down on the ground, and then took out two grilled fish.

"I'm hungry, do you want one?"

The finest green leaf fish, of moderate size, lightly garnished with perilla leaves, immediately releases an enticing aroma.

Kong Tianxu was just being polite, but he didn't expect Zhang Lexuan to ask, "You've been to Tianling City?"

Kong Tianxu nodded. "I passed by there once before. You seem to know the place very well?"

Zhang Lexuan gave a wry smile: "That's my hometown, but now, I'm probably not as familiar with it as you are."

Kong Tianxu smiled and gestured to her with the grilled fish in his hand.

"Thank you."

Zhang Lexuan hesitated for a moment, but finally took it carefully and bent down like Kong Tianxu.

She seemed to cherish it, eating it in small bites, her eyes drifting into the distance, as if she could see a distant past through the familiar taste, and even a hint of happiness in her eyes.

"Do all soul tools possess such miraculous abilities?"

Chapter 172 doesn't tell a story about sesame cakes, but it does tell a story about grilled fish.

"Only part of it, but our country is trying hard to make it available for civilian use, but you have been resisting this process."

Kong Tianxu ate very elegantly, but very quickly, so much so that his voice was somewhat muffled.

Zhang Lexuan was amused by his somewhat direct way of eating, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly, but the smile quickly disappeared.

“Is it necessary to draw such a line? We are classmates now, but more importantly, we are teammates.” She tried to steer the conversation back on a more relaxed track.

Kong Tianxu pulled out a small thorn, held the tip with two fingers, and slowly broke it off, making a soft, crisp sound.

"That's what you might think, but I've been targeted more than once, and you should know that we have different positions, and I'm not here simply as a student."

Zhang Lexuan was speechless for a moment. She couldn't deny the subtle attitude within Shrek Academy towards the exchange students from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, or the extreme incidents like Dai Huabin's.

"Senior Brother Jin isn't very good with words, but he's a kind-hearted person. I hope you won't take what happened during the day to heart. As for Dai Huabin, I apologize for what happened to him. However, I can at least guarantee that such a problem will not happen again at Shrek Academy. I will do my best, and I believe time will prove everything."

When she said the last sentence, a deeper meaning also appeared in Zhang Lexuan's eyes.

Kong Tianxu smiled slightly, "You can only represent yourself."

"And... ha, time, time is the least valuable thing. Many things can't be changed by time alone. Don't say I'll only stay at Shrek for three years at most, even if it's five, ten, or twenty years..."

Kong Tianxu crushed the thorns into powder and met Zhang Lexuan's slightly stunned gaze directly. "That's all meaningless."

"Perhaps you are right, some things really can't be forced."

A numb corner in her heart was slightly stung, and Zhang Lexuan sighed softly, but then her gaze sharpened again.

"But as long as you are sincere and continue to make efforts and communicate, you can always gradually resolve the barriers. Just like..."

She paused slightly, her gaze drifting as if she had traveled through time and space to see the figure in Shrek Academy who was gradually growing up.

"Like many things, as long as you persist long enough and put in enough effort, time will always give you an answer, or at least allow you to have a clear conscience."

Her words seemed to be addressed to Kong Tianxu, yet also to convince herself.

Kong Tianxu raised his eyes and looked at Zhang Lexuan. In the moonlight, her profile carried a gentle yet stubborn quality, as if she were immersed in the past.

"It sounds like some kind of self-comforting excuse. If you're sure that something has no meaning for yourself or others, cutting your losses is the most important thing. Otherwise, so-called persistence is just numbing yourself."

"That's because there are some things you haven't experienced. Once something becomes a habit, or even an instinct, it's not so easy to give up."

Zhang Lexuan's already fair face appeared even paler under the moonlight. Her slender hands gripped the grilled fish skewers tightly, and her smile seemed somewhat forced.

The moonlight was bright, but the sky was overcast, and even the surrounding branches and leaves seemed to have changed color. Kong Tianxu seemed to have discovered something, and his demeanor became unusually aggressive.

"When you realize it's instinct, it's no longer instinct. Forgive me for being blunt, but to continue indulging in it after realizing this is just a continuation of a mistake."

"What if this is measured in ten years?" Zhang Lexuan's lips trembled slightly, her words carrying obvious repression, her eyes shifting rapidly.

Kong Tianxu retorted without backing down, "I said, twenty years is the same, it's meaningless. A mistake doesn't become correct just because it lasts a long time."

"Clap."

With a soft thud, unexpectedly, Zhang Lexuan threw the grilled fish in her hand onto the ground.

She suddenly raised her head, her gaze turning icy and sharp, all her previous gentleness vanished, and a chilling hostility pressed down on Kong Tianxu almost tangibly.

The peace and reminiscence she had just felt shattered instantly. Her face was frighteningly pale in the moonlight, and her chest rose and fell slightly with her rapid breathing.

“You have no idea what ten years means. It might have become a part of someone else’s life.” Zhang Lexuan’s voice was very low, but it was trembling with suppressed emotion.

"You have absolutely no right to judge other people's lives from a superior position."

This outburst of control lasted only a moment before she abruptly turned around, walked to the edge of the camp, turned her back to Kong Tianxu, her shoulders slightly tense, and her hands tightly gripping her arms, as if she was trying her best to restrain something.

It was as if she would shatter under the moonlight if she didn't do this.

Oops, I accidentally danced in someone's minefield.

Kong Tianxu squinted at her back as he tore off the last bit of fish and chewed it slowly.

The night breeze swept through the woods, bringing a touch of coolness and slightly dissipating the intense emotions that lingered between the two.

Kong Tianxu picked up the grilled fish that had fallen to the ground, his gaze still fixed on Zhang Lexuan's tense back, but his tone was unexpectedly calm, no longer carrying the sharpness of before.

“These two grilled fish were a gift from a couple,” he suddenly said, his voice unusually clear in the quiet night. “They run a grilled fish stall in the city; they’re very skilled and their business is good. They have a daughter whom they cherish.”

Zhang Lexuan's back moved almost imperceptibly, but she didn't turn around, as if she was listening silently.

"Later, an epidemic struck, and the couple fell ill for a long time. Their meager savings couldn't afford a healing-type Soul Master, and after a while, they couldn't even afford to buy medicine." Kong Tianxu's voice was calm. "How old was their daughter back then? Five or six? I can't remember. Since they didn't have money to buy medicine, they carried a basket on their backs to the Tianling Mountains to collect herbs, and then went to the pharmacy to exchange them for some cheap medicinal materials."

Zhang Lexuan had her back to him, and the trembling in her shoulders seemed to have subsided slightly, as if she were listening silently.

“When she comes home at night, she has to stand on a small stool and cook for herself and her parents in front of the stove. She will also keep saying that she must cook it well so that her parents will have an appetite.”

Kong Tianxu carefully cleaned the surface dirt and small pebbles off the grilled fish, while Zhang Lexuan turned slightly to the side, her eyes red.

"More than two months passed like this, and perhaps God opened his eyes, the old couple's illness actually gradually got better."

"Can--"

Zhang Lexuan's lips unconsciously tightened, and Kong Tianxu's voice showed a very subtle fluctuation here:

"But then the girl collapsed. She was even more ill than her parents."

"The elderly couple exhausted all their resources, begged everyone they could, and desperately tried to save her, but... it was too late."

In the darkness, his words were like a blunt knife, slowly cutting through the air.

"When the girl passed away, she was very quiet, and she was so thin that she was just skin and bones. Her mother held her gradually cooling little body, and instead of wailing, she kept repeating the same sentence over and over again."

Kong Tianxu mimicked that hollow and desperate tone, and said softly:

"How could there be such a wonderful child in the world? And how could he just happen to be my child?"

The story was over, and the night returned to silence, with only the rustling of the wind through the leaves and Zhang Lexuan's slightly trembling breath.

"and after?"

Yes, and then what happened? A story like this should have an ending.

Kong Tianxu stood up and walked behind her. His expression was clear and calm in the moonlight:

"Later, not long ago, when I saw them, the stall was open as usual, and the grilled fish still tasted great. They may have been completely defeated, struggling in the abyss of the past, just like you. But they survived, carrying that burden, but no longer just living in sorrow."

So that's how it happened.

Tonight, Zhang Lexuan's sensitive side seemed to be fully unleashed; her own pain and the pain of others surged forth, almost overwhelming her.

Kong Tianxu handed the skewer of grilled fish to Zhang Lexuan. She seemed to sense Kong Tianxu's movement, her body stiffened slightly, and she finally turned around completely.

The agitation and hostility on her face had faded, replaced by a deep weariness and confusion, with lingering moisture in the corners of her eyes.

In just a short while, Kong Tianxu had carefully removed the dust from the grilled fish, bit by bit, without damaging much of the fish skin except for the parts she had bitten. The fish still smelled faintly of its original aroma.

She looked at the grilled fish in Kong Tianxu's hand, and instinctively wanted to take it. Her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something.

However, in that moment of hesitation—

Kong Tianxu didn't even look at her. Between his palms holding the bamboo skewer, an indescribable deep purple light cut a crack in the impenetrable night.

The next moment, the skewer of grilled fish, along with the bamboo stick, vanished completely in his hand, as if it had never existed in this world.

The real moonlight enveloped his figure, not so bright, but even more breathtaking.

“Some people might feel it’s a pity, pick it up, wipe it clean, and tell themselves that it’s still edible, as if that can salvage something.”

Kong Tianxu's tone was calm and even, as if he had just done something perfectly natural, and his words were as cold and hard as if they had been forged from cast iron.

"But to me, from the moment it fell to the ground and got covered in dust, it no longer mattered. The last thing the couple said to me was—"

He raised his eyes and looked at Zhang Lexuan, who was standing there stunned. His gaze was clear and resolute, as if what he had just destroyed was not a skewer of grilled fish, but a symbol of the past.

"Keep moving forward, don't look back."

He opened his palm, and after losing the grilled fish, what flowed in his palm was a moonlight as smooth as water.

"The path to salvation lies not in the illusions of the past, but in every step we take toward the future."

Zhang Lexuan was completely stunned. She stared at Kong Tianxu's eyes, which seemed to see through everything yet were cold and cruel, and her mind went blank.

Throughout her life, she had met many wise and strong people, but they were all often bound by their own attachments and indulgences. She had never imagined that there could be such a person.