On the Sun Disc high above the arena, the elders kept their divine sense trained on the boy stirring their interest.

  Combing through his braided beard, the Grand Elder Jia Wunan took the lead to broach the topic.

  "Resistance, reflexes, recovery... even his control over his physical form… they all far surpasses what a mere Qi Refiner should possess. Interesting... how peculiar..."

  “Elder brother is right, this kid is quite abnormal.”

  Rubbing his chiseled chin, the brawny Jia Gufan looked over to the old Ma Pei. "You said this kid hasn’t established his foundation?"

  “Hoho. I’ve conducted an in-depth probe already. His Qi might be... a bit special, but there’s no trace of a foundation seed.”

  “You’re absolutely certain?”

  “Ohoh? Can’t you trust me? My eyesight still hasn’t gone senile! How can a young brat hide anything from me? That said…”

  Ma Pei stroked his beard with the air of a scholar who’d memorized every line of a script.

  “Hoho. I’ve only brought this cheap brat under my wing for less than a year. Even dragons can’t grow up in a day. Tell me, have you ever heard of anyone on this continent breaking through so fast?”

  Here, scarecrow slumping into his throne creaked to life.

  “Old Fart, don’t forget about that evil dollie. Fang Bubai, was it?”

  At that, everybody fell silent. Even the two matriarchs showed solemn faces.

  But what nobody noticed was the complex glint in one of their eyes…

  Too bad each elder’s thoughts were like mazes to the others.

  After taking a sip of tea from memory lane, Mo Badao leisurely brushed the porcelain lid of his teacup against its rim while describing the aftertaste.

  “It seems the heavens is stirring again. These few years we’ve seen a rising trend of geniuses sprouting all over. A gathering storm of destiny. Perhaps... that legendary era of contention is arriving?”

  Hearing this, Jia Gufan crossed his muscular arms and scoffed. “Still harping about those bedtime stories from your old man?”

  Mo Badao threw a glance over. “It’s not just mere stories. Signs of a great upheaval are written in the currents of Qi. If you’d care to look beyond your fists, I’m sure you’ll feel it.”

  “Bah! Real or not matters not!”

  Jia Gufan raised a hand radiating with power and clenched it into a fist.

  “Rather than believe in heaven fixing our fate, I believe we should grasp it with our own fists. That’s what cultivation is truly about!”

  Everybody fell silent again. They were all walking a path to defy fate. Nobody can disagree.

  This time, the silence didn’t last long because the scarecrow watching over the field sat up like an excited child.

  “Hey, looks like that Wu Clan dollie will be making the first move. Aye, bout time! I was almost bored from waiting! Now we can finally see the curtain fall. Gawahaha!”

  “Old thief, don’t laugh too early! First move doesn’t always belong to the victor!”

  “Gah! We’ll see about that!”

  Down in the arena below.

  “Wuhaha! Seems the recovery ability of your physique is all just big talk compared to the might of our holy seed!”

  Sporting a wicked grin, Wu Xiaowei got up off his knees and crowed, “Now, are you ready to get sent to the Other Shore?”

  On the other side of the waterbank, the kneeling Bubai swallowed down the bitter pill and raised his head to show a solemn face. “Try me.”

  “Still acting tough?” Wu Xiaowei snorted and reached for his storage pouch.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Even a dud can see your condition isn’t good, and as for me? I’m not like that bald fool. Don’t even think about getting the chance to recover!”

  Out came a wooden swallowtail surfboard branded with rings of runic patterns...

  Wu Xiaowei tossed the board out and leapt right after it, landing on top with perfect balance.

  The runes glowed and a subtle shift of his weight was all it took for the board to surge forward with alarming speed!

  Seeing the surfer skimming across the shallow water as fast as ice skating, Bubai’s hand shot into his pouch and pulled out a kunai tethered to a fine metal wire.

  The wire quickly got looped around his wrist and his other hand went to rummage for a second weapon.

  By the time his fingers touched the metal sphere riddled with pinholes, the enemy already arrived!

  "Let’s see you handle this!"

  With the ease of wind cutting through reeds, Wu Xiaowei sharply veered his board around to send a wave of water crashing towards the crouching tiger.

  This time, the crouching tiger didn’t flinch back.

  An uppercut from his kunai parted the thin curtain of water into two and Bubai lunged right through the gap with the ferocity of a predator!

  Splash! Splash! Splash!

  The stinging pain eating away at his healing flesh like a thousand tiny blades did little to stop his charge and it took mere breaths to enter melee range!

  Pulling out the metal ball, Bubai aimed it right at the foe surfing away. “Have a taste of my ballz!”

  Click. Pshhh!

  The pinholes came alive, unleashing a storm of a hundred needles that fanned out to cover a wide area that left the target no room to dodge!

  But Wu Xiaowei didn’t show an ounce of fear. “Knew you won’t die so obediently!”

  With a fluid pivot, Wu Xiaowei stomped down on the tail of his board, propping it up in front of himself just in time to wall off all the needles coming his way!

  Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!

  The needle barrage ended within a breath, and Wu Xiaowei’s smug mockery came from behind his board.

  “Wuhaha! Thanks for the gift! Now let me return it—taste my lightning spear!”

  Again?! Bubai felt the shock knock on his heart.

  But the gap was already close enough to put him at an awkward spot! There’s not much room for maneuver!

  How to evade that lightning fast spell? Go left or right? Or another leap of faith?

  Instinct took over. Bubai’s sharp eyes went into full focus mode and his body was ready to react in a split second.

  The kunai tied to the wire was already spinning circles in his hand, ready to fly over to establish a connection that will let the other party share his fate.

  Good stuff like electrotherapy must be shared!

  But when that propped-up board fell back down, all Bubai got greeted by was a “guang” rune glowing bright on its burning talisman paper...

  In the next instant, his vision bloomed into a world of blinding light!

  Bubai immediately felt the stinging pain in his eyes and almost cursed out loud.

  Bloody hell, it’s a low-grade Darkness Banishment Talisman!

  It’s just a rather tasteless bright flash mainly used to scare away weak evil spirits and creatures dwelling in dark caves.

  Who would’ve expected it to be used like this here, and by the enemy to boot!

  Dear Merlin, what an annoying smarty-pants!

  He thought only protagonists would be clever enough to come up with cliché underhanded tricks like this, but…

  Who says only the protagonist can be smart?

  The irony wasn’t lost on him.

  He himself entertained the idea of using this flashbang as a surprise killer, but to think he didn’t even get the satisfaction of pulling it off before falling for it...

  Seriously, it makes him feel dumbed down like a side character.

  Merlin above, is he really not the protagonist? But he got a golden finger to help him cheat!

  Nobody answered his doubts.

  Sadly, there’s no doubt that his cheat didn’t help him instantly recover from this temporary blindness.

  After all, this status condition wasn’t harmful, per se, nor did it go as far as taking control of his mind or body.

  It wasn’t surprising that there was no reaction from his seed.

  This left him groping with this blindspot of his cheat.

  Fortunately, Bubai could already see the black spots swimming in the world of white and knew his vision was heading towards recovery.

  It won’t be long before he could see again.

  Unfortunately, this brief lapse of sight was the perfect opportunity for his enemy to take him down!

  Sensing the heated disturbance in the air and the warning from his Bubai tingle, he instinctively sprang back and zipped to the side.

  Fwoo! A blast of heat scorched past… Shhh!

  Though blind, Bubai could feel the intense heat sizzling at the spot he just vacated and hear the steam rising.

  No need to guess. It was definitely a fire spell of some sort.

  Good news. There wasn’t another lightning spear to put the final nail in his coffin.

  Bad news. He could almost taste the vaporized poisonous fumes in the air.

  This was not good. It’s probably this water boy’s last reliance.

  He didn’t need to see to guess this water boy was trying to light up the battlefield as a last ditch effort!

  But not on his watch!

  After a spin to gather momentum, the wire-bound kunai swinging circles in his hand was let loose, sweeping outwards in a wide arc like a scythe clearing the area.

  The first circle around hit nothing but air.

  Thanks to his vision that was gradually fading back in, Bubai barely made out another blur of red incoming.

  His body snapped into motion, and a dart to the side was all it took for that slow ball of flame to whiff past.

  He didn’t even spare a second glance at the fireball exploding behind.

  Those impaired eyes of his were already hunting for the blurry silhouette on the move.

  Found him!

  The swinging kunai whipped around once more…

  That blurry figure leapt straight over it almost too effortlessly, but...

  A spin let a second wire-bound kunai whip right over, catching the acrobat in mid-air!

  Hooked! Feeling the momentum wrapping the dumpling tight, Bubai grinned and gave the wire a hard tug to yank the falling prey over.

  Fang Bubai Style: Death Sentence!

  Smelling the fish within reach, the grim reaper followed the line and flashed forward.

  Hunter and prey converge!

  This fight has dragged on long enough. Time to finish this!