Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Everyone was dead, even the bandits. Cheng Xiao followed the hoofprints and footprints for several kilometers and came across a long-abandoned makeshift camp. The camp was surrounded by stakes driven into the ground with rotten gun barrels, and scattered, broken bones lay on the stakes and on the ground around them.

A group of elite soldiers, aligned with the bandits, stormed the makeshift camp. They executed all the bandits and took away the wealth and people they had plundered. They were all on horseback, so they were likely a group of knights. Although he didn't know which knights they belonged to, Cheng Xiao decided to continue tracking them.

—An emergency call came through the Chaldea communicator beside him. He casually hung up—a communication at this hour meant only one thing: Hinako Akuta and the others were in danger.

[Looks like it's option two. That Lion King will become my enemy... The pinnacle of divine Servants, at least at the early stage of Weak 4. What a remarkable whetstone...]

He wasn't worried about the safety of Akuta Hinako and her servant, because Lanling Wang was a servant; if he died, he could simply be summoned again. As for Akuta, this magician whose essence was that of a True Ancestor, even if she were pierced through by the Star Lance, she wouldn't die—because the Star Lance was Gaia's weapon, and the True Ancestor was Gaia's tentacle. Gaia's spear couldn't harm Gaia's hand.

He simply continued forward, following in the footsteps of the knights to where they had been.

What... am I fighting for?

He walked and thought. Those old memories slowly surfaced from the depths of his mind. He remembered when he was just an ordinary second-generation rich kid, his mind still full of youth and passion.

At that time, he fell in love with a girl. She came from an ordinary family, had an ordinary appearance, and no outstanding talents or abilities. She could give him very little except love and gentleness—but he didn't care, because love never needs to be reasoned.

Then, one day, the girl died.

An accident, a mudslide, claimed her life. Afterwards, heartbroken by the loss of his beloved, Cheng Xiao turned to alcohol to drown his sorrows. After several months of emotional distress, he was persuaded by family and friends to abandon his reckless ways and, following his family's wishes, embark on a military career.

He followed the knights to the end. At the end stood a ruined castle. The castle had been breached by catapults and battering rams. And all the defenders lay in their graves.

Those knights were all dead. They were the defenders, and their castle had been breached by the enemy—all twenty-three knights perished on the walls. The attacking army, after breaching the castle, looted all its wealth and women before burning it down.

A woman who had been abducted came from that destroyed village. Cheng Xiao followed the traces left behind by this woman and continued his journey—this had happened at least two years ago, but Cheng Xiao, at the limit of the third rank, was able to do this—he tilted his head slightly and saw that the location of the Holy City was stained with a layer of blood light, but the next moment it was shattered by a soaring golden light.

—Hinako Akuta used the Holy Grail of Chaldea to restore her true form. However, her power as a true progenitor was shattered by the Lion King's Noble Phantasm.

—As expected.

Cheng Xiao continued to reminisce about the past—back then, he had enjoyed a rather smooth military life thanks to his own talent and the martial arts skills passed down in his family. His rank rose again and again, and he had risked his life to earn many commendable merits. Soon, he was selected to join a certain secret special unit, and this new identity allowed him to come into contact with even more secrets.

I discovered something, something terrible.

That mudslide back then was not actually a simple accident. It was a heinous murder, and murder implies the existence of a killer behind the scenes.

Then, after going through countless hardships, he finally found the murderer.

Cheng Xiao found the girl's last known location. It was a city that would still be considered prosperous even now—though the changes in the world had brought immense panic to the city. But traces of what had happened still remained in many corners of the city.

He strode past the chaotic crowd, past them, and read through the city's many records. Finally, he discovered that the woman's final resting place was in the very center of the city—right there, at the Governor's Mansion.

The woman was dead. Before she died, she poisoned the former governor of this place. While Cheng Xiao was puzzled as to how a heavily protected governor could be poisoned by a woman he had abducted, he gleaned stories about the former governor from the streets and alleys, and from channels that weren't exactly secret to him.

—It turns out that this governor was an orphan who suffered much bullying in the countryside. At a young age, he went out to make his way in the world and was spotted by a knight. He was adopted by the knight, distinguished himself on the battlefield, and after much effort, overcame the barriers between commoners and nobles to become the governor of a city.

Then, a cliché story unfolds: a poor boy, now wealthy, wants to find the girl next door he once secretly loved. But a group of bandits raids his village first. The reason those bandits appear is because the poor boy, unable to command respect, has purged some of the old powerful families.

So, bandits, transformed from noble families, plundered the village. His knights killed the bandits and escorted the young woman to a castle. Then, the castle was besieged by an enemy army.

The poor young man didn't come in person because the enemy army was attacking his city. And after the girl he loved was brought to the city walls, the already weakened young man chose to surrender.

So the city changed its flag. The governor remained the governor. A new lady joined the governor's court, and after learning the whole story, she poisoned him in front of him.

Cheng Xiao shook his head and left the city.

—This story is not interesting.

—It's so boring and pointless.

--because.

"Everyone in this story is just a pawn being played by God."

Why God and not fate?

Cheng Xiao knew the odds of randomly choosing a village to stay in and being drawn in. He also knew the odds of being drawn in and then stumbling upon a seemingly mundane story that would resonate with him.

Alice once said that there are no coincidences in extraordinary life. And this mission is the last bit of help he can get from his teammates, who are at least extraordinary.

—They're just a bunch of pawns. Just a bunch of things like him.

In the final moments of his past memories, he finally found the murderers who killed his girlfriend—who were they? His parents, his relatives. Because they couldn't bear to see him so 'self-destructive,' they decided to help him, to remove the obstacles that were hindering his progress.

So, the girl died. And what could he do? Could he possibly betray his own family and kill all his relatives himself?

He can't do anything because everyone is doing it for his own good, and he can only be manipulated by them.

There was only one thing he could do: despair.

Then, I set foot here.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly.

I think I understand why, despite all the years of accumulation, trials, and blessings I've received, I still ultimately fail at this final step towards transcendence—it turns out, what I lack isn't a bloody battle. It's...

[...a reason to go into battle, a reason to accept this kindness.]

He embarked on his journey to the Holy City. He saw the decaying city shrouded in mist. As he entered the city gates of this misty city, he and the city's ruler sensed each other's presence.

He continued forward, past the ruined streets and countless fallen headless knight statues. He saw Hinako Akuta, who had transformed into Yu Ji, imprisoned in a golden coffin with her servant, and he saw the enemy he was about to face.

He saw the Lion King—no, perhaps it wasn't the Lion King. Not the Spirit of the Holy Lance, but some other being. For the Lion King's eyes were empty blue, devoid of anything but his mission, while in the blue eyes of this Pale King, there was only hatred and pain.

He heard the queen's voice and sensed the hatred and obsession in her words.

"I... will no longer be manipulated by anyone!" The holy spear in her hand was pointed directly at Cheng Xiao, her fighting spirit and anger pouring out to him like tangible words.

"Hmm," Cheng Xiao nodded. Then he assumed his stance and raised his fist.

“Me too,” he said casually.

Chapter Ninety-Two: The Battle of Heaven - 'Cheng Xiao'

fist.

Cheng Xiao's fist technique was honed over countless years, using the Big Dipper Three System Three Fist Method as its foundation, and drawing inspiration from Hong Kong comic book martial arts such as Magnetic Field Rotation, Military Path Killing Fist, and Tathagata Palm.

His boxing style had no particular rules, no specific intent, and no fixed routines. He couldn't teach his art or take on disciples. Because his boxing style was his past, his life, his memories, himself—he had gathered everything he had experienced into a single style of boxing. Therefore, he named this style of boxing 'Cheng Boxing'.

But that was before he came here, because back then, he didn't understand why he was throwing punches.

If the mind is not perfect, the fist will not be perfect.

When the mind is at peace, the fist is invincible.

Now, this "Cheng Fist" style has a new name. That name is "Cheng Xiao"!

Cheng Xiao's Cheng, Cheng Xiao's Xiao.

With a single step, he pierced through the void within the city of mist and arrived before the Pale King!

The first punch, Cheng!

The simple straight punch displayed nothing but brute force. The central tower of the Fog City was instantly shattered, the throne crumbled, and the Pale Queen barely had time to raise her spear to block before being sent flying backward like a meteor, a pale line torn from her body by the air with a muffled groan. In an instant, she crashed into thirteen fortresses and towers of varying sizes, shattering them all!

A heavy punch, stirring up gravity and tearing apart magnetic fields. But brute force is brute force precisely because it will always collide with brute force stronger than brute force—before the fourteenth city tower collapsed, the Pale King stomped on the ground, his entire armor cracking, and the surrounding stone slabs immediately crumbled into dust!

And then the second punch followed—

The holy spear faded, replaced by a pale holy sword that was neither gold nor black. With a soft shout from the king, a pale blade of light, three meters wide and thirty meters long, extended outwards. With a powerful sweep, all structures within a thirty-meter radius shattered in an instant. Within each fragment, a pale, deathly light flowed from its inner structure, tearing and destroying them into countless equal fragments the size of fingernails.

No one could dodge such a dense barrage of sword strikes; no mortal could do so. Cheng Xiao's rapidly approaching figure was shattered by the sword energy, but the next moment, the White King's blue eyes suddenly narrowed—

—What was destroyed was only the residual image formed by the energy.

And thousands upon thousands of extreme senses of crisis simultaneously emanated from above, below, and the sides!

The second punch, roar!

The essence of throwing a punch is to transfer the kinetic energy generated by the muscles to the inside or outside of a designated target and cause deformation. Even in slightly more developed low-level martial arts worlds, there are secret techniques to make the force of a punch change direction in mid-air.

The principles behind these methods vary. Some utilize different media to transfer kinetic energy in multiple ways, while others involve the collision of punching forces to achieve a change in trajectory. Some methods are slightly idealistic, allowing the punching force to move between existence and non-existence, while more materialistic methods involve making the punching force leap through space.

There are countless styles of boxing, but their essence remains largely the same. Their effectiveness and underlying principle are nothing more than leveraging one's strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses. It's about using one's own fist to strike the enemy's vulnerable spot. And in this one punch, all the myriad techniques that Cheng Xiao has integrated into his own boxing style are displayed simultaneously!

The second punch was purely skillful. It was a collection of techniques that all mortals below the extraordinary could comprehend. Countless punches of force, large or small, overt or covert, strange or direct, spiraling or vibrating, overlapping or converging, burst forth from countless incredible angles along countless different kinds of media, sealing off every corner of the White King's operation!

In an instant, countless fist, foot, finger, and claw marks appeared simultaneously on the surface of the armor worn by the White King. And a moment later, this sudden burst of energy completely shattered the White King's defenses!

For all life forms below the extraordinary, this strike is a fatal blow.

They are doomed to die. No matter how tall their physique or how imposing their armor, they cannot escape their fate of destruction.

Because everything has a flaw, and as long as there is a flaw, it is destined to perish under this attack.

The next moment, the White King's armor shattered into pieces. From the cracks in the armor, a massive amount of light and blood gushed forth!

And the third punch had already landed right in front of her—

—And then, it came to an abrupt end!

Blocking the third punch was a sword sheath, adorned with gems and engraved with glory, primarily blue and gold, but gradually tinged with pallor from the outside in. And the instant the third punch was blocked, the wounds and cracks covering the White King's body visibly healed and filled.

Following closely behind, its brilliance shone forth.

The Noble Phantasm was unleashed, and an intensely blazing pale light erupted from the sacred sword known as Excalibur. In an instant, the spot where the White King had stood was vaporized and melted, transforming from cold rock into a boiling ocean of lava. The pale light continued to expand outward, leveling buildings, dispelling the mist, and the Mist City, which had previously replaced the Holy City, collapsed and crumbled in a flash. In its place rose an active volcano!

Within the volcano, a dragon roars. Its main color is red, with pale markings. And a tide of flames, equally crimson tinged with pale, sweeps outwards from its center in all directions.

The sky is burning, the earth is melting.

The golden coffin containing Akuta Hinako and her servants was thrown far away amidst bursts of air and shockwaves, landing in some unknown corner far from the battlefield. Neither side paid any attention to them, for their life or death, or even their very existence, had become utterly irrelevant at that moment.

Inside the erupting volcano, Cheng Xiao, his upper body bare, was giving the half-dragon-transformed king a good beating!

His punches were heavy; each punch sent the scales and flesh on the White King's body flying everywhere.

His fists were skillful; no matter how nimble the White King's footwork or how intuitive his movements, he could easily exploit the flaws in his actions and then imprint his fist on the Dragon King's body.

He had the upper hand and suppressed the enemy step by step.

However, the tide of battle gradually turned in his favor.

Although the dragon-transformed monarch couldn't withstand his punches, all his injuries were completely healed during the interval between his next punch. Whether it was breaking his spine, shattering his ribs, or bypassing the blind spot of the protective sheath to turn his skull and the brains inside into a chaotic paste, all his efforts would be rendered useless when the second punch landed.

Because with one punch he could bring the Dragon King to the brink of death, but being near death meant not being dead. And not being dead meant being unharmed. The boiling flames and lava from the volcano threatened him, but they also became the White King's source of nourishment, protecting her wounds. Even though he shattered the channel of this protection in two, he ultimately could not suppress the healing radiance overflowing from the scabbard that was so closely connected to the White King.

He was strong, stronger than the White King, stronger than the dragon-transformed monarch in many ways. His strength was greater than hers, each strike causing her to vomit blood. His skill was superior, each punch dodging her movements. He was faster than her, more experienced than her, more intuitive than her, and more resilient than her—he surpassed her in many areas, by a great many, yet there was only one thing in which he lagged behind her.

His level of existence is below hers.

Because he could almost be considered the strongest mortal in this single universe. But his enemy was a slightly weaker superhuman on this stage.

When mortals face extraordinary beings, the difference is as thin as the ocean. This is because he is ignorant of magic and cannot rely on the power of the universe. Even Alice, when facing Megatron, who had just entered the realm of the extraordinary, had to rely on the combined power of Heaven, Earth, and Man!

He won't win, even if he lands ten thousand punches in a row and brings the Dragon-Transformed White King to the brink of death.