A pillar of blue energy, more massive, more condensed, more terrifying than any Hadoken before it, roared across the arena and consumed everything in its path!
Facing this ultimate technique capable of flattening a small mountain, Cloud simply stood there.
He slowly closed his eyes.
He didn't block. He didn't dodge.
He merely elevated his perception to its absolute limit.
Within that world-ending beam, he could clearly "see" the trajectory of every single energy particle.
He could clearly "hear" the unwavering dedication and yearning for the martial path that Ryu had poured into that strike.
Cloud's body began to move within that impenetrable pillar of light, tracing a trajectory that defied the laws of physics—like a butterfly dancing through flowers.
He was a dancer taking a leisurely stroll through a raging tempest.
Every subtle shift of his feet happened to avoid the most violent energy singularities.
Before the disbelieving gazes of everyone present—
He passed through that world-ending Shinku Hadoken completely unscathed!
Then he appeared before Ryu, who had exhausted himself unleashing his strongest attack.
He extended a single finger and gently tapped Ryu's forehead.
"You lose."
Ryu stared at him blankly, his eyes filled with confusion and incomprehension.
"Why... why?" he asked with difficulty. "My Shinku Hadoken... why..."
"Because your wave, while powerful, has a shape."
Cloud withdrew his finger and spoke calmly.
"But my martial arts..."
"...are formless."
The entire Hong Kong Coliseum fell into an eerie silence.
Then it erupted with earth-shaking cheers and screams that nearly blew the roof off!
"He... he won?! That man won again?!"
"What did I just see?! Did he... did he just walk through the Shinku Hadoken?! That's not scientific! That's more ridiculous than me typing with my feet!"
"My god! He's not human anymore! This is definitely a god descended to the mortal realm to experience life in the newbie zone!"
The audience had completely lost their minds. They felt the tickets they'd bought today were worth their weight in gold! They had witnessed the birth of a legend!
On the arena.
Ryu remained frozen in the exhausted posture from releasing his Shinku Hadoken.
He stared blankly at Cloud, those eyes that were always filled with pure fighting spirit now written over with confusion and self-doubt.
He had lost. Lost completely, without any suspense.
His proudest, strongest attack hadn't even touched the corner of his opponent's clothes.
The feeling was like a scholar who had poured his life's work into a paper he thought would shake the world, only to discover that his opponent had simply laid out "the ultimate truth of the universe" before him.
All his efforts had become meaningless in that instant.
"Why... why?" He asked the question again with difficulty. "Is my path... wrong?"
"Your path isn't wrong."
Cloud looked at his pitiful state, on the verge of having his martial heart shattered, and shook his head.
He walked to Ryu's side, patted his shoulder, and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"Your Hadoken school pursues harmony between man and nature, mastering the ki between yourself and heaven and earth through constant training. This path is righteous and orthodox, with unlimited potential. You've already come very far."
"However—" Cloud's tone shifted, his gaze becoming profound. "You've been deliberately avoiding the most primal, most powerful force deep within your heart."
"What force?" Ryu asked, not understanding.
Cloud smiled—a smile like a witch about to hand Snow White a poisoned apple.
"That force... the desire to fight, the desire to win, even the desire to kill."
"—The Satsui no Hado."
BOOM!
These four words struck Ryu's soul like a bolt of black lightning!
His body began to tremble violently, beyond his control!
A violent, cold, destruction-hungry aura of red and black began to leak uncontrollably from within him!
His eyes instantly turned crimson!
"No... no! That's not my power! It's evil!" Ryu clutched his head and roared in agony.
He had always known that a "demon" slumbered within him.
His master Gouken had once warned him never to touch this power, or he would be consumed and become a "demon" that knew only slaughter.
He had always suppressed it, avoided it, tried to purify it through the "Power of Nothingness."
But today, this secret had been exposed by the mysterious man before him!
"Evil?" Cloud looked at his agonized state and scoffed disdainfully. "Naive. I've said it before—power itself has no good or evil."
"You think it's evil only because you're too weak. So weak you can't control it, and can only be controlled by it."
"You're like a three-year-old child holding a loaded submachine gun. You fear it because it could misfire at any moment, hurting others and yourself."
"But what if you were a battle-hardened special forces soldier? That gun would become a divine instrument for protecting life and punishing evil in your hands."
Cloud's words were like a sharp blade, cutting open the deepest fear in Ryu's heart and laying the bloody reality bare before him.
"You..." Ryu raised his head, his crimson eyes full of struggle. "What... what are you trying to say?"
"What I'm trying to say is simple." Cloud extended a finger and pointed at Ryu's heart. "Don't suppress it. Don't fear it. Understand it, feel it, then control it!"
"Killing intent is also a part of you. Just like light and shadow, they coexist forever. A true warrior doesn't eliminate his shadow—he learns to dance with it."
As he spoke, a strand of extremely pure energy emerged from Cloud's fingertip—a simulated Satsui no Hado fused from "Orochi Power" and the "Blood of Yagami"!
That power was equally full of destruction and killing intent, yet Cloud had bound it perfectly to his fingertip, as docile as a tamed pet cat.
"See? Just like this."
Cloud slowly injected this strand of Satsui no Hado into Ryu's body...
...
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