"Hmm, not bad."
Sensing that Aaron's Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist had actually improved slightly compared to before, Hell nodded with satisfaction and retracted his fist.
At the same time, Aaron, opposite Hell, canceled the 'Lion Never Perishes' secret technique, reverting his body from semi-Honkai-beast form to human, and also retracted his fist.
"Thank you for the guidance, Senior."
This battle seemingly had no winner, but Aaron knew he had ultimately lost to the opponent.
In the final moment, Hell propelled Whale's Domination with the Hell Wargod, then attacked him with Infinity Vibration Zen.
Hell, activating 'Infinity Vibration Zen', had no intention of completing the strike from the beginning. Instead, by demonstrating the usage of this secret technique in front of him, he was teaching him how to use it.
It was precisely for this reason that Hell stopped his fist right in front of Aaron's head, because from the start, he didn't intend to fully unleash the punch.
As for why Aaron stopped his fist, it was because, at the end, he felt the emotion exploding from Hell's fist when 'Infinity Vibration Zen' was activated.
Repressing emotions, then instantly shifting them to achieve a power outburst, thereby instantly amplifying the move's destructive power—this is the essence of Infinity Vibration Zen.
And after Hell blasted this strike at Aaron's head, Aaron felt the past emotions of this man from his fist.
The sadness of family dying, the despair of being unable to use power, the pain of subordinates' deaths... all these powers turned into the source of this man's strength.
And Aaron, realizing these emotions, had his brain shut down for that instant—this was the real reason he was forced to stop.
So he felt he had lost thoroughly.
After all, this battle was a senior playing a few moves with him in teaching mode. He couldn't be thick-skinned enough to say "Good game"; that would be too shameless.
"In this battle, the moves I used on you... I don't expect you to learn Hell's Sword, but as someone who inherited the 'Tyrant Fist', with your current Perfect Realm, learning Whale's Domination shouldn't be a problem. However—"
Looking at Aaron, Hell suddenly spoke with a serious expression.
"You probably won't be able to learn Infinity Vibration Zen in a short time. I hope when you study this move, you pay a little attention to the problem with you."
"Please speak, Senior."
"I don't know if it's the influence of the Power of Dominance or if your own state is just like this. Your mentality has already become seriously unbalanced."
"Although this hidden danger hasn't brought you much harm yet, if you don't adjust your mentality properly, you will inevitably get into trouble in the future because of mental reasons."
"The move Infinity Vibration Zen requires the user to perfectly grasp their own state of mind to release and retract emotions freely, thereby achieving amplification of the move's power through emotional control."
"You should use this opportunity to adjust the emotions in your heart."
"Yes."
"Also, there is one more point..."
Recalling the conclusion he reached during the battle, Hell looked at the boy in front of him and felt a bit of a headache.
"Your Perfect Realm... the problem is also not small."
???
"Is it... very serious?"
"Very serious. The Perfect Realm is the sum of a strong person's understanding and application ability regarding power usage, power concentration, power circulation, move variation, move intent comprehension, combat strategy, etc. For a normal strong person, these aspects might not be completely consistent, but at least they wouldn't have such severe shortcomings."
"You, on the other hand, have a Perfect Realm basically skewed towards move variation, move intent comprehension, and combat strategy. As for power usage, power concentration, and power circulation... I can't say you don't understand them at all, but due to lack of confidence in your own power, the Realm in these aspects cannot function normally."
*Wow, is it that serious?*
"And the reason for this situation is that in your thinking, you still define yourself as a 'weakling'. Although this mindset makes you constantly think about tactical strategies and move variations during battle, it causes you to lose the most basic thing of a strong person."
*I think it might just be because I simply became strong too fast...*
*No, Senior Hell is right. It is precisely because I became strong too fast that most of the time I still place myself in the position of a 'weakling', wanting to 'win against the strong as the weak'.*
"Even because of this trace of 'inconfidence' in your heart, your martial arts talent, which should have been more outstanding, is suppressed to a certain extent—in this point, you and that girl Mei are of the same nature."
Thinking of Raiden Mei's inner state, Hell let out a helpless sigh.
"Although she isn't as extreme as when I first met her, deep down she is still guarding against herself. Because she worries about her body being taken over by another consciousness, she subconsciously suppresses her power."
"And this mentality causes her Perfect Realm to slide to a state where it almost completely doesn't exist."
"If you two keep maintaining this bad mentality, then even if you improve your power through training, in the end, you won't be able to become true powerhouses due to your state of mind."
"As for the solution, it depends on what you want to do yourselves."
"Everyone's path is their own choice. I can only point out your defects. As for which path to choose in the end—that is a choice you must make."
"...I understand."
"Alright, this topic ends here. Considering you probably can't master Infinity Vibration Zen in a short time, I thought about it and decided I should give these two books to you."
As Hell condensed a bit of power, he created two books in his hands using Magnetic Field Rotation power.
"These two books contain supreme mysteries. Most of the moves of me and that rival of mine were developed by studying these two books."
"I can feel that your world is very wrong. Then, these two books should be of some help to you."
After taking the two books from Hell's hands, Aaron saw the titles on them.
Unsurprisingly...
—They were precisely the *Bodhidharma Sutra* and the *Royal Ultimate Book*.
................................
Real World
In the real world, Bronya, having nothing to do, inexplicably chose to turn on the computer in the room.
Through her self-taught hacking skills, Bronya easily obtained some data she hadn't looked at but wanted to check.
Data on her foster mother, Cocolia, in the outside world.
From two years ago until recently, Cocolia had always been the person Bronya respected and loved most.
Therefore, in these two years, Bronya, who already possessed extremely high intelligence, actively chose to ignore some facts she could easily deduce.
But now, whether due to the power of erosion in her body, or because the tragedy of Nagazora City and Aaron's words were too impactful, Bronya's feelings for Cocolia became much more complicated.
She certainly still respected and loved her foster mother, but this respect and love was now mixed with some doubt.
Once an emotion is no longer pure, it becomes easy for subtle changes to occur in the face of certain facts.
During this time, Bronya investigated news about ME Corp following Raiden Ryoma's incident.
And just this news was enough to make her feel very uncomfortable.
As a globally renowned enterprise, the funds ME Corp could actually mobilize were terrifyingly vast.
After Cocolia framed Raiden Ryoma and seized ME Corp, using just a tiny bit of ME Corp's funds could have made the companions in the Cocolia Orphanage live better.
But in reality, what about the companions in the Cocolia Orphanage?
One couldn't say they couldn't survive; at least the house was good, and the food was normal.
But thinking of that not-so-abundant food and the house that had left invisible "traces" due to the passage of time, thoughts kept popping up in Bronya's brain.
*Is Mother Cocolia trying to temper our will and make us endure more hardship...*
*Or is it...*
*No, Bronya cannot be like this.*
*Mother Cocolia is the one who allowed Bronya to regain her 'heart'. How can Bronya doubt her true intentions because of this?*
*But...*
*During the Experiment X-10, she knew clearly that the experiment would put everyone in danger.*
*And under this premise, she still let everyone participate in the experiment.*
*We were just children after all. Under the persuasion of our foster mother, it was easy to ignore the danger Experiment X-10 brought to us due to a rush of hot-bloodedness.*
*If Mother Cocolia really loved us, why would she choose to persuade us to participate in Experiment X-10...*
Bronya was certain that Cocolia genuinely cared about her when she was pushed down the stairs by Sin.
*But that sentence 'I don't want the experiment to be affected because of your injury'...*
At this moment, Bronya actively turned off the computer, trying to empty her brain and stop thinking about anything regarding Cocolia.
Just checking casually, she found some intelligence and deduced some possibilities she didn't want to admit.
She was worried that if she continued investigating, she would truly deny the warmth Cocolia brought her in these two years from the bottom of her heart.
However, Bronya, trying to empty her brain, actually knew clearly she had already reached the answer.
If she had confidence in Cocolia, she would definitely continue investigating, using favorable evidence to prove her foster mother loved them.
It was precisely because she lost confidence in Cocolia's actions that she lost the courage to continue investigating.
*In the future, Bronya better not do these boring things.*
*Some things are better left unknown.*
*Knowing too much might not be happy.*
*Right, Bronya has other things she can do.*
*Although everyone in the orphanage has no worries about food and clothing, nutrition is still a bit lacking.*
*But as long as Bronya works hard to earn money, and finds a way to use this money on everyone in the future, everyone's life will always become better...*
*But although Experiment X-10 is over, will Mother Cocolia conduct new experiments in the future?*
*After new experiments begin, everyone's safety...*
Bronya, who didn't want to continue struggling with these matters, realized at this moment that she couldn't bypass Cocolia at all.
Even if she wanted to ignore those "special circumstances" about Cocolia, she couldn't ignore the possibility of Cocolia continuing to bring danger to the orphanage crowd.
Once she thought that everyone might end up like Seele... no, maybe even worse than Seele, Bronya felt she had to act.
Seele just got lost in the Sea of Quanta; Bronya will find her sooner or later.
*But if Mother Cocolia really starts new experiments, then when the time comes... what if others die on the spot because their Honkai resistance isn't enough?*
Once seeing through the essence of some things, Bronya suddenly discovered with horror just how insane the things she and her foster mother did were.
Externally, Cocolia directly guided the outbreak of the Third Honkai Eruption, bombing millions of people to death. Internally, she was also using orphans for experiments.
*And I actually actively ignored this all along, putting my companions in the orphanage in danger...*
*Bronya, really is a dummy.*
*Bronya should have thought of this kind of thing long ago.*
*Mother Cocolia's explanation to us was that Experiment X-10 was conducted to let everyone survive.*
*But... to let everyone survive, some people had to risk their lives to participate in Experiment X-10 first...*
*Isn't this putting the cart before the horse?*
*Mother Cocolia, what is your true intention?*
*Bronya... really wants to continue believing in you now.*
*But these things you've done make Bronya really uneasy.*
*In the time to come, how many more people will you continue to kill for your 'greater good'?*
*Will everyone in the orphanage fall into new dangers during this time because you have new ideas?*