Chapter 81: A Family

Like the reenactment of myth in an ancient epic.

The gods who command thunder and lightning clashed above the sky, upon the earth, and over all creation.

Thunder gathered into a colossal white shark that tore open the heavens, while waves of dark golden light crashed down like an endless sea, shattering the land. Buildings split and crumbled inch by inch, as a world of fantasy was miraculously rendered real.

A gigantic structure slowly toppled, once again blocking the path forward for Chu Zihang and Chu Tianjiao. In reality, this skyscraper—marked with a certain emblem—belonged exclusively to a vast financial consortium and boasted construction quality far above average.

Yet, in the hands of two superhumans battling at supersonic speed, it was nothing more than a child’s plaything. The mere aftershocks of their conflict tore it apart with ease. Only then did the thunderous boom of breaking the sound barrier and the clash of metal ring out, while by that time, Liu Tian and Odin had already shifted to a new battlefield.

“Unlucky, unlucky, unlucky!”

Excessive use of Word Spirit had turned his blood turbulent, awakening countless nameless fantasies in his mind—a youth bearing wings on his back like a dragon, a battlefield where blades fell like a torrential downpour...

A torrent of images, hovering between dream and reality, flashed through his mind.

Leaning against a wall, he watched as shattered concrete rained down like a storm, crushing the approaching death servants beneath it. Chu Tianjiao gripped his blade tightly in his left hand, his daughter even tighter in his right. The safe bearing the World Tree emblem was strapped to his back, and both he and his daughter were thoroughly stained in black blood.

Along the way, using Time Zero and the alchemical weapon Divine Blade Muramasa, Chu Tianjiao had lost count of the death servants he’d slain, each one stripped of reason. Yet no matter how many he felled—one, then ten, then a hundred, then a thousand—there were always more.

Within this vast Nibelungen, countless death servants, freed from mortal limits, lay dormant. They were Odin’s deathless legion, amassed over countless years for this final battle. Now, a mere fraction of this army was awakening.

Even if only a ripple in a boundless sea, it was a tidal wave Chu Tianjiao could never withstand. He and his daughter—two small fish—could only struggle desperately in the storm.

Originally, Chu Tianjiao could have tried to escape in his modified Maybach, but unfortunately, the newly awakened Liu Tian cared little for such things; the car was destroyed the instant he moved. Thus, Chu Tianjiao fled with his most precious treasure—his daughter—and the secret that might, in the worst case, buy her life.

But perhaps it was a blessing he didn’t get into the car. In a calamity like this, no sports car could match the agility of two superhumans—especially one who could accelerate further using Time Zero.

Collapsed buildings continuously blocked their path, but also bought them precious time.

“Unlucky, unlucky, unlucky,” Chu Tianjiao gasped, “Everyone says Time Zero is a cheat, the perfect Word Spirit for slaying dragons, but now it seems I’d rather have something simple and brutal like Sovereign Flame. If I could scour the land with thousands of degrees of heat, why would I be fighting so hard now?”

---

“What on earth is happening? What’s going on?” Chu Zihang blinked, her mind overwhelmed by the rapid, relentless pace of events in the past few minutes. She could only follow her father’s lead, dashing wherever he went.

Now, during this brief respite—when neither could run any further—she finally voiced the question burning inside her.

“It’s nothing,” the man replied, lowering his gaze, shadows obscuring his expression as if he couldn’t bear to meet his daughter’s eyes. “Honestly, I always hoped this day would come later—much later.”

“Or perhaps, I’d pick a bright, beautiful day and tell you everything: about dragons, about the world, about the truth behind it all—but I hesitated.”

“I shouldn’t have come today, but when I got your message... I couldn’t help myself. I had to pick you up.”

What are you talking about?

Chu Zihang wanted to ask, but the clash of steel like thunder roared again in the sky. Suddenly, she felt tired. After a moment’s silence, she asked quietly, “Is this what you’ve been fighting all along?”

“During my parent-teacher meetings? When I was filming? At my middle school entrance ceremony?”

“Not all the time,” Chu Tianjiao suddenly grinned, his tone brightening, “Maybe ten days out of every month—kind of like how girls have that regular time each month.”

“A man as strong as your father has to shoulder a few burdens.”

“Mission, mission, mission?!” Chu Zihang burst out in fury. With strength hard to imagine in her slender, pale arm, she hoisted her father—who weighed at least a hundred kilos—clear off the ground. “What mission can’t we shoulder together? What can’t we do as a family?”

“We’re family, aren’t we...”

As she spoke, tears finally broke free, trickling down her cheeks to splash on the ground, where black droplets spattered. She could no longer lift her father; covering her face, she sobbed in anguish.

“Don’t—don’t cry. If you keep crying, you’ll look like a little kitten. Don’t cry, don’t cry.” The man was silent for a moment, then comforted her softly as he had when she was little. “I always thought living in an unreal world would be happier. We could laugh, enjoy ourselves, never have to scheme or be dragged into too many rights and wrongs, never have to force ourselves—be ruthless.”

“But now, I think maybe I was wrong. Maybe a family should face things together—whatever comes, we bear it side by side. At the very least, you deserve to know.”

Chu Tianjiao admitted his mistake in a low voice. Suddenly, like a blade gleaming in the moonlight, he struck—a crescent moon flashed, and with a single stroke, he sliced through the death servant trapped by the concrete.

---

With a metallic chime, an alchemical blade, so much like the Muramasa in Chu Tianjiao’s hand, fell to the ground. Even after thousands of years, the demon blade was sharp enough to pierce the earth as easily as slicing through tofu.

“I’ve never truly taught you anything, my daughter.” Slowly, but with undeniable force, he pressed Chu Zihang’s hand onto this trophy. “Now, I’ll give you a lesson in what I do best.”

“Come, hold it tight. The two of us—father and daughter—will fight our way out. When we make it, I’ll apologize to your mother. From now on, I’ll be there for every parent-teacher meeting.”

In an instant, time slowed. Wind and rain thickened, the shadows attacking them moved as if through syrup; the world became a slow-motion film.

In this decelerated world, only Chu Zihang and Chu Tianjiao remained as they always were.

“Daughter, do you know?” he said, swinging his blade as he moved—stepping, gliding, the silver arc of his blade dancing like a swallow in flight. Thick, black blood oozed and hung suspended in air, as if ink swirling in water.

In this slowed world, he laughed wildly as he fought, like a demon unleashed: “My favorite movie used to be Indiana Jones. I always thought the professor and his son were awesome! My lifelong dream was to have a dad driving up front and a son firing the machine gun in back!”

“But now, there’s no car, no machine gun—just a father and daughter, each with a demon blade!”

“But that’s not so bad, is it?”

“Ahahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

“You pack of bastards, come at me all at once—watch as my daughter and I fight side by side and slaughter every damn one of you!”