Death whistled ever so close, but even though the whirling guillotine came fast, Bubai's feet were even quicker!
Step, pivot, twist, step, step, step! His smooth-like-water sidestep twirled him out of the way!
The chasing cutter sang right past his neckside by a hair's breath and struck the barrier above, bouncing off like a frisbee!
But instead of ricocheting off into the distance, after flying less than a meter out, the fan defied physics and actually boomeranged back around for the kill!
At the same time, the fan's owner below puffed his chest! What came next was obvious!
It was a pincer attack from two directions!
But Bubai already prepared two key counters!
A hand patted his storage pouch and out popped a stiff, scorched corpse to intercept the returning fan!
Human Bodyguard Style: A Dead Man's Last Stand! No fan's getting through without asking this bad boy!
At the same instant, a mechanical ball slipped into his other hand and the surface full of pinholes aimed at the rooster that got too cocky.
Heheh. A little heat? Who's afraid of who?! Click—Hundred Poisons Style: Needle Execution!!!
Psshh—! Pew! Pew! Pew! A swarm of death fired out!
Facing the hailstorm of needles, Ge Tianqi only debated whether to trade injuries for half a heartbeat before he swallowed the fire in his throat!
Back to the basics! Defend!
His blood got pumping…
Like a bursting dam, the Qi in his meridians got riled up and forced out from all his pores to blast out a full-body shockwave!
"Haaa—AH!!!"
The incoming needles met the outburst head-on—
Then they actually got knocked back flying the other way! A counterattack against their owner!
But just in time, the human corpse, that caught the killer fan with its own neck, swished over like a shield to wall off the barrage of deflected needles!
In a blink, the corpse got a full-body acupuncture treatment!
Barely after turning into a semi-porcupine-human, a foot booted the corpse, sending the dead weight rocketing down at the airborne target dummy that still wanted to scatter another handful of leaves!
"Enjoy my free gift!"
Ge Tianqi reacted almost immediately and wanted to swat that roadblock aside…
But that dead weight smashed into him like a cannonball!
"KUUF—!!!"
The unexpectedly powerful force sent him barreling down all the way till—THUMP! A super smash landing!
Alas, that wasn't enough.
Staring at the still-alive loser far down below, Bubai grinned. "That looked like it hurt."
Unquestionably, he definitely won that trade.
But did that loser actually play that badly? Not really.
If this fire boy was ruthless enough, he could've traded injuries during that exchange. Pity...
Unlike that water boy from his previous battle, this fire boy possessed none of those outrageous universal healing potions.
Since his skin was obviously not impenetrable, if that many poisonous needles stabbed him... it was GG.
So his only option was to defend by relying on a foundation builder's bread and butter: the shockwave that newbie foundation builders with half-baked Qi control uses.
Textbook stuff—but it wasn't a bad call, especially since it turned his needle barrage around for a counterattack!
Honestly, with how easily his needle storm got resolved, it almost seemed like a wasted move.
But it wasn't.
Against a veteran cultivator possessing a deep foundation and a vast dantian forged over decades, little tricks like these really didn't have much effect.
But against a newly-promoted foundation builder who was still wet behind the ears?
Every exchange was an effective drain on their shallow pool of Qi!
All that fancy footwork? A huge chunk of energy.
And that full-body shockwave just now? That was an energy devourer!
His own consumption? Just some Qi to stick to the wall and boost his strength when it counts.
At this rate... he will still be in the green when the fire boy ends up in the red!
What a beautiful, cost-effective trade!
Especially since he threw in a little bonus beatdown at the end!
Though the needles were single-pointed, know that if the force is strong enough, needles can stab both ways!
Considering the skin toughness of the body-builder's corpse versus the paper tiger… there's no need to guess which way the needles will fancy stabbing.
But when the fire boy shoved the corpse off his chest, Bubai saw something unexpected.
All the needles drilled deeper into the corpse instead of the paper tiger!
The reason? Bubai noted the undamaged, yellowed robe and clicked his tongue.
Right. Almost forgot. All these clowns love wearing vests or robes sewn from spiritworm threads.
Bah! He is not jealous! Nope. Not at all!
Anyways, even if that was impervious to fire, water, and mortal weapons, it still can't cushion a fall!
The lightness kungfu of this world might be outrageous and unscientific, but the higher you climb, the harder you fall.
Once physics says no cheating, then the fall damage is enough to shatter bones and bless the careless with the internal injuries debuff!
Just look at that trickle of blood leaking from this fire boy's lips.
Obvious signs of burning himself while playing with fire. Who told him to show off? Deserves it!
Watching the fire boy wobble to his feet, Bubai folded his arms and sneered.
"Boy! Don't go scaling walls if you only got half-baked skills. Just stay down where you belong."
As if the wind had carried his mocking words down to his ears, Ge Tianqi glared up at the side-ways-standing monkey.
"Kuku! It's just a little set-back, but you act like you've already won? Dream on!"
"This Leaf Island Moon Steps of mine is good enough for swatting those pesky sword-riding hypocrites right out of the sky, let alone a half-baked wall hugger like you!"
"Just wait for me! The next time I come back up, it'll be your time of death!"
Seeing the braggart pop a pill, Bubai's face fell. "Oh no you don't! Like I'll give you a chance to recover!"
Tap! Swoosh! Bubai dived straight down the wall like a hawk swooping for his prey!
Panic flashed across Ge Tianqi's face and he dashed over to the corpse to pull out the fan that was stuck in the corpse's half-decapitated neck...
The fan barely got yanked free when the hunter kicked off the wall and launched towards him like a man of steel!
"Taste my Face Makeover Fist!"
But facing that punch, Ge Tianqi's panic changed into a "gotcha" scowl.
Kukuku! This lowlife actually dared to compete head-on against a foundation builder?! Courting death!
Like wind gathering into a storm, True Qi surged to his own fist and he punched right back!
WHAM! Fist met fist! Qi exploded out!
The winner should've been obvious, but—
The force from the clash caused Ge Tianqi's eyes to bulge in pain and shock! "Wha—?!"
Next thing he knew, he got sent sliding back more than ten full paces before barely skidding to a stop!
Clutching his shaky arm that was hanging limply, Ge Tianqi gawked at the beast in human skin who took his hit like it was nothing!
Impossible! How is he so strong?! Isn't he injured?!
That thought barely registered in his mind when he saw the beast who just landed blur out of existence!
What?! Illusion?! When?! No—Where?!
His eyes couldn't find—no, it couldn't keep up at all!
But his fully-active spiritual sense registered the bulldozer that whooshed straight for him!
Dodge!
A claw came right for his face! But Ge Tianqi ducked just in time!
Rippp!
Ge Tianqi immediately felt the scalp-numbing pain from having a large part of his hair ripped out!
What speed! What power! He can't compete! Disengage!
FWIP! The fan snapped open and swung out hard!
Almost instantly, a chaotic gust of wind blasted out and pushed away the hair-grabber who just sped by!
Simultaneously, Ge Tianqi got launched back in the opposite direction, trying to open up a gap!
But Bubai was having none of that!
His hands dove into his pouch and quickly fished out two kunai, each fastened to a chain!
Borrowing all his momentum from swerving around, both kunai whipped out toward the fleeing airborne prey like an infinitely-extending chain!
Fang Bubai Style: Death Sentence!
Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!
One chain swept low like a striking snake, the other high like a scythe ready for harvest.
Ge Tianqi didn't seem to even get a chance to flick his fan before the chains hooked around him and wrapped him up!
CHIK! CHAK! Prey secured! Bubai grinned and a yank reeled in the fish!
Whoosh!
The fish got reeled in fast, but the firepower brewed just as fast!
Just when Ge Tianqi got dragged back into melee range, his mouth burst open like a furnace and a torrent of fire spewed out right at Bubai's face!
FWOOM! Counterattack! Fire Style: Torch Blowing technique!
But like he anticipated that, Bubai ducked right in time!
The firestorm howled above, barely roasting his legendary hair style off before his body folded like a hinge.
Then one one claw swiped for its target. The other hand slapped onto the ground.
His spin was fast like a whirlwind and his kick aimed straight for the firebreather's jaw to shut him up!
Fang Bubai Style: One-Handed Senpu!
BAM! Ge Tianqi's head snapped back! The living daylights got knocked out of him and for just a heartbeat—the world blinked out!
When it blinked back in, he found himself high up in the air—up and up, until—!
JERK! A tug came from down below and the chains imprisoning him dragged him back down!
His eyes that were spitting fire dropped down just in time to see a dented but thick and heavy sword batting over!
WHAMMMM!
"KUUH?!" That caved into his gut, knocking all the air out from his lungs and sending him flying off like a broken kite!
"Home run! Super Smash Bruhtah!!!" Bubai grinned and tossed aside his badly-dented heavy sword as if it were a toothpick.
"And now for the finishing touch!"
Just when Bubai was about to tug on the chains again to follow up with his gate lotus combo, his Bubai tingle flared up!
Danger?! His eyes pinpointed the source: the new pouch he just swiped out of habit...
Now, it was turning into an inflating hot potato!
"Shi—!" BOOM!!!