Just a moment ago, the instant Zijing Cheng's toes touched the ground, he immediately changed direction, forcibly moving horizontally across nearly three meters, blocking in front of Aotaki's shooting guard like teleportation.

His wide palm was held high, blocking out the sky and sun, sealing off all shooting angles for Aotaki's shooting guard.

Aotaki's shooting guard's mind went completely blank, and his hands began to tremble slightly.

He clearly saw with his own eyes that the opponent was defending Sendoh.

How could he appear in front of him in less than a second?!

The entire audience stood up in unison, their mouths wide open enough to stuff an egg.

"My god... What kind of speed is this?!"

"Horizontal teleportation? This is way too exaggerated!"

"How on earth did he get over there? I didn't even blink my eyes!"

...

Exclamations exploded like a tidal wave.

The expressions of many team members watching from the sidelines also changed.

"This kind of lateral movement speed... is no longer in the category of junior high."

"Too outrageous... This physical talent is simply a foul."

"It's really hard to imagine just how desperate it is to be opponents with a person like this."

...

"Here..."

Just when the shooting guard's hands were frozen in mid-air at a loss, Sendoh's voice suddenly came from the paint.

Subconsciously, the shooting guard flicked his wrist and threw the ball toward the direction of the voice.

The basketball traced a short, flat arc, falling toward the center of the paint.

Sendoh had cut inside by who knows when, and was rising into the air, reaching out one hand toward the basketball.

Caught.

Joy welled up in his heart, and with a flip of his wrist, he was about to execute a one-handed tomahawk dunk.

The rim was right in front of him.

But before the joy could last half a second, a strong sense of crisis violently struck from behind.

The wind whistled.

The hairs on Sendoh's back stood on end, and his scalp went numb.

He didn't even need to look back to know that Zijing Cheng must have chased after him.

How could it be so fast?!

His heart was terrified to the extreme, but his body's reaction was even faster.

Dunking was impossible; he would be pinned to the backboard one hundred percent.

In a flash, Sendoh slammed his wrist downward fiercely.

The basketball smashed fiercely into the floor, bouncing back toward behind him.

He wasn't sure who would catch the ball.

Right now, he could only take a gamble.

This was an instinctive reaction, and also the tacit understanding cultivated by fighting side by side with his teammates.

The exact moment the basketball bounced up, a figure rushed out from a slant.

Aotaki's power forward happened to follow up into the paint, grabbing the bounced basketball in his arms.

He didn't even have time to adjust his posture, leaping high purely on instinct, and softly tossed the ball toward the rim with one hand.

The basketball grazed past the top of Zijing Cheng's head, falling straight toward the rim.

Swish...

The net gently flipped up, successfully going in.

Tomakomai Junior High 15 to 12 Qinglong Junior High.

The entire venue fell silent for a second, then erupted with earth-shattering cheers.

"It went in... It actually went in again."

"This coordination is so beautiful. It was entirely played out of tacit understanding."

"My god, that was too thrilling. It was just a hair away from being blocked again."

...

Aotaki's bench completely boiled over, with players jumping up and waving their fists shouting.

It was too difficult, these two points came truly too difficultly.

After landing, Sendoh held his knees and panted heavily, his back already soaked in cold sweat.

He raised his head and looked at Zijing Cheng in front of him.

Zijing Cheng slowly retracted his arms, landed, and stood firmly.

There was no expression whatsoever on his face; neither the annoyance after conceding points nor the anger after being played, he just calmly looked at the basketball falling into the rim, with no ripples in his purple eyes.

Sendoh slightly frowned.

Not right.

This was the same as just before.

When conceding points in the first half, this person still carried obvious coldness and temper, but now... he was too calm.

So calm as if he were observing, and also as if he were adapting.

This feeling was even more unsettling than when the opponent was angry.

"Not the time yet?!" Zijing Cheng looked at his own hands, muttering in a low voice, "This feeling is truly annoying."

Sendoh snapped back to his senses, not understanding the meaning in Zijing Cheng's words.

Zijing Cheng didn't speak again, turning around and retreating back under the basket.

Seeing Zijing Cheng like this, Sendoh's heart grew increasingly uneasy.

The game continued.

Xiayaozhi inbounded and advanced, wanting to continue expanding the score gap.

But Aotaki's defensive intensity also came up, and Sendoh frequently helped defense and filled positions, messing up Xiayaozhi's offensive rhythm completely.

In the chaos, Asano Shu's passing route deviated.

With quick eyes and fast hands, Sendoh extended his long arm and accurately intercepted the basketball.

"Counterattack..."

He gave a low shout, dribbling at full speed toward the front court.

The same rhythm as last time, the same route.

Rushing to the front of the three-point line, he repeated his old trick, faking a shot and passing for real to the outside.

After receiving the ball, the perimeter player didn't stop, immediately passing the ball back to Sendoh who had looped to the other side of the paint.

The entire set of coordination was smooth and flowing, entirely a tacit understanding like muscle memory.

After receiving the ball, Sendoh glided up, holding the ball with one hand, about to lay it up across half a body length.

Zijing Cheng laterally moved over to block, his palm already reaching the side of his wrist.

Sendoh lightly flicked his wrist, the basketball tracing an even higher arc, grazing past Zijing Cheng's fingertips, and slamming into the rim with a clang.

Tomakomai Junior High 15 to 14 Qinglong Junior High.

It went in again.

A 1-point difference.

"Alright!"

"Awesome."

"Well done, Sendoh."

...

Aotaki's crowd celebrated in unison.

After landing, Zijing Cheng still looked at the basketball sliding off the rim, still with that expressionless look, not even frowning slightly.

He lowered his head, looking at his own hands, muttering to himself in his mouth.

"It's this way again. Just now I clearly felt I could defend it, but yet I failed to defend it."

"Is it because of my own limitations?!"

"This feeling is really unpleasant!"

"Clearly having the strength to stop it, but unable to unleash it due to one's own limitations."

Hoo...

Zijing Cheng took a deep breath, then turned his head to look at Aotaki's group retreating on defense, his gaze finally falling on Sendoh.

"In that case..."

...

Xiayaozhi inbounded from the baseline.

Yamamoto Takuma stood at the baseline, holding the basketball, but didn't inbound it immediately.

He was stunned for a moment, raising his head to look toward his own half court, a trace of astonishment flashing in his eyes.

The gazes of the entire audience also followed his line of sight, casting in unison toward Xiayaozhi's paint.

The next second, the entire venue suddenly plunged into dead silence.

There was no one under the basket.

That purple figure who was forever rooted in the paint and wouldn't even step a half step outside the three-point line was now slowly taking steps forward.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Finally, he stopped at the position of the free-throw line.

His feet apart, his hands hanging by his sides, he raised his eyes to look toward Aotaki's half court.

In his purple eyes surged emotions that nobody could understand.

The whole venue was dead silent.

Nobody could have imagined that Zijing Cheng, who had stood under the basket the entire game and was too lazy to even participate in offense, would actually take the initiative to walk out.