Chapter 186: Deviation

Chapter 186: Deviation

Lily was a decisive person. As soon as the thought arose, a storm-like barrage of attacks was unleashed towards Bran. She did not think Bran was very strong, because that night when she held him and spun around, their power s had already clashed—just that.

Even now, she still believed this—just that. He had gotten close to her, exploited a slip in her response, and completed a shameful sneak attack. Bran had been like this since childhood, habitually tricking and deceiving. As long as I got serious, all his crafty tricks would become useless, just like when we were kids.

But why was there unease and hesitation in her heart?

In the flurry of butterfly shadows, a fleeting expression on his face made her suddenly understand—seriousness! Bran had never been serious with her, from childhood until now, he had always been playing with her. He had always been giving in to me…

Now, was he finally getting serious?

This made her feel both happy and a little lost.

Finally, no longer giving in to me? Well, alright then!

Lily seemed provoked. The storm-like attacks became even more fierce, the blade lights began aiming for Bran’s vital points.

…

The situation on the Training Ground was a bit strange. No one could clearly see what was happening. They could only tell from the occasional shouts coming from Lily that she was not doing well.

The sounds seemed to travel over mountains and rivers, becoming somewhat distorted and ethereal by the time they reached people’s ears.

After a burst of light erupted from Lily, she seemed to start battling her own shadow. The light wanted to tear the shadow apart, but it only made the shadow grow darker and thicker.

Light and shadow ran and pulled at each other in the field. First, that ball of light stubbornly clung to the shadow. From time to time, light exploded from within the shadow, scattering it into chaos. But soon, the light gradually weakened, and that ball of light began to shrink smaller and smaller, rolling backward, fleeing. Wanting to escape the shadow’s embrace…

Lily felt she was going crazy. After another slap landed on her forehead, she heard the Little Fairy Lijia kindly announce a new number: 33…

“Shut up!”

“34!”

…

Bran appeared cold and ruthless. He had never treated Lily like this before. In a way, he had watched her grow up, although this girl always acted like the Sister, always wanting to protect him.

Bran had quietly arranged everything for her, but she grew up, gained her own power, her own ideas. So, she refused.

Bran once thought he didn’t care, but when he saw Lily again, he couldn’t help wanting to teach her a lesson.

A good, hard lesson! To tell her, she was still far from ready!

Human senses could always deceive oneself, but a Wizard had to use them to find the image closest to reality. Bran had spent a lot of time coordinating his senses with his Mana perception, making them both independent and complementary.

Lily grew too fast and too smoothly, which left her lacking sufficient patience. For much of the training, for many things that weren’t very urgent, she decided to leave them to time. This thinking was not wrong. Given a few more years, perception would naturally adjust and gradually synchronize in daily life.

In their rapid exchange of blows, this lack of synchronization in perception created countless echoes and illusions in her mind. The faster Bran’s movements, the more pronounced this effect became.

Her past opponents were too weak. Even amidst a thousand soldiers, this effect could be ignored. But when she faced Bran, all this became a fatal flaw.

She could no longer distinguish what was real and what was illusory. She felt trapped in a Nightmare, desperately wanting to escape, to wake up.

Countless butterfly shadows flitted past her eyes from time to time, obscuring her vision. Bran’s Magic Field also occasionally disrupted her Mana perception. The instant her vision was obscured, her Mana perception was also instantly cut off. In that moment, she was effectively both deaf and blind.

It was just the lack of synchronization in perception that prevented her from realizing it. She was in the Light, yet deep in Darkness. She was in the Light, struggling against endless Darkness.

Bran followed Lily like a Shadow, step for step.

He had taught her many things, but did not talk much about countermeasures. Attack and defense were complementary; advantages and disadvantages were intertwined. It wasn’t that he intentionally kept secrets, but after many techniques emerged, he also needed time to discover their flaws.

…

This shouldn’t be happening! He actually dared to hit me!

This shouldn’t be happening! He’s not giving in to me anymore!

Lily’s emotions began to spiral out of control, becoming chaotic. Her eyes also turned slightly red. From childhood until now, Bran had never really fought her seriously. More often, he was clowning around, trying to make her laugh.

How dare he treat me like this?

Is he disappointed in me? Or did I do something wrong?

In her confusion, she felt another crisp sound from her forehead. The voice of the Little Fairy reached her ear: 99.

“That’s enough!”

Lily suddenly stopped her movement. Blade lights swirled and surged around her body, pushing everything away, tearing the Shadow apart, scattering the Light.

She glared angrily at Bran. A huge butterfly shadow flashed before her eyes, making her instinctively jump backward. Although she still hadn’t figured out what the problem was, the repeated experience of getting slapped whenever a butterfly shadow flashed had finally created a conditioned reflex.

After the butterfly shadow passed, Bran couldn’t hold back a smile, causing flying clouds of blush to redden her cheeks again.

“Still want to fight?”

The hateful voice sounded in her ear. Lily snorted resentfully, “Fight!”

“So, shall we begin?”

“Wait!”

Bran spread his hands and looked at her with a smiling, patient, and extremely annoying expression.

Lily took a deep breath. “I understand now. Trying to defeat you using the skills you taught me is impossible. But I have discovered a new power.”

As she spoke, a pair of crimson-gold wings slowly unfolded from her back and then closed in around the Bran in front of her. The butterfly shadows around Bran instantly shattered. Countless black Mist visible to the naked eye wrapped protectively around Bran and began to spin violently.

Stimulated by this, a certain power that Bran had inhaled in Sandstone City, which had been lurking deep within his body all this time, also awakened.