The blooming mushroom cloud of flames smoked up a great part of the field.
Tumbling out from it, Bubai clawed the ground and skidded to a stop.
While one hand snuffed out the embers on whatever was left of his tattered robe, his eyes darted to his other half-blackened arm that took the brunt of the explosive impact.
"Bloody Merlin! That storage pouch was a fake! Rigged with a trap too! How sinister!"
Honestly, he really didn't see that coming!
Man oh man, how he wished he could just use his divine sense! Alas...
"Ugh. Whatever. Lesson learned." Bubai rolled his shoulders with a wince.
A tanky physique boosted his fault tolerance and left him plenty of leeway for mistakes.
There's even more good news.
Compared to the bone-rattling damage he suffered during the previous battle, this level of damage was like a mosquito bite.
Nothing more than a little burn. By now, it really did feel like his flesh was adapting to all of this...
Did his fire resistance get enhanced?
Not sure. But he's sure what and where the bad news was.
Bubai looked at the rising silhouette behind the smoke screen that was gradually thinning out.
Sadly, after that interruption, he lost the best opportunity to finish off his killer combo.
"Bleh. Hate combo breakers!"
On the other side…
Leaning on the wall to prop himself up, Ge Tianqi spat aside a mouthful of blood, kicked aside the chain pooling on the ground, and shot a contemptuous glare at the lowlife who fell for his trap.
"Kukuku! I'm not so stupid to wear my real pouch on my belt like those pampered second-generation heirs. I knew lowlifes like you will get greedy for it! So predictable!"
Bubai let his healing arm hang limply and smiled back like it was nothing.
"Oh. Too bad though. Childish tricks like that isn't enough to kill me."
"Kuku, I admit it. Your combat instincts and resilience is even better than those naive Foundation Builders I hunted in the secret realm. But… I am no longer the same man I once was!"
Ge Tianqi fished out a Blood Sage Explosion pill from his inner robe and popped it into his mouth.
"Back then, I can only use traps and schemes to take down the strong, but now…"
Tasting the forbidden power melting on the tip of his tongue, a bloodthirsty grin climbed onto his face and he proudly threw his arms wide open.
"I. Am. The strong! Kukukuku!"
"Now!" Like a sword, his folded fan pointed over at the man rushing over!
"Let me show you the gap between heaven... and earth!"
FWIP! The fan flicked open and swept back to a crouch stance! "Wind spirits heed my call! White Tiger Splits the Heavens!"
Swoosh! A single big swing set off a fierce, howling wind that blasted away all the smoke!
Feeling the wind rushing at his face, Bubai could already see the prototype of some ultimate move and wanted to stop the wind boy!
But before he could even get close enough, the fan swung around for the second time—WHOOOM!
The wind doubled in force, turning into a typhoon that slapped his face and shoved him back!
Bubai held up an arm to shield his face and his Cloud Ascending Steps activated in full force to resist sliding back due to the strong wind pressure.
But just when he barely stabilized himself, the wind shoving him back actually turned around to drag him forward!
After lurching forward and stumbling a few steps, Bubai rooted himself to the ground once more.
When his squinted eyes peered out from under his raised arm, he was shocked by what he saw!
In front, the chaotic wind had somehow turned into a twister—growing larger and larger with each wave of the wind boy's fan!
"Bloody Merlin! First a tsunami? Now a tornado?!"
Are all cultivators playing the natural disaster route these days?! Is this still the foundation realm?! BS!
Then again, he should be happy that these low-level cultivators can't spam outrageous space-time abilities like those fresh academy graduates in the ninjaverse next door.
Yea, that's right. No substituting themselves for tree logs over and over again! No shadow clones everywhere!
Compared to that absurd stuff, there's only a tornado here. It's still reasonable!
But... how to deal with it?
Run up to give Mister Tornado a hug and get a free elevator ride to the top of the arena?
Yeah, no thanks.
Unfortunately, even if Bubai wanted nothing to do with that funnel of death, the wind fiend certainly wouldn't agree!
Gu Tianqi aggressively reeled his fan back with both hands and roared, "Go ride my path to heaven! Haaa—AHH!"
The fan swung hard—WHOOOM!
A powerful wind exploded out and sent the tornado roaring forward towards Bubai!
"Oh, hell no." Bubai's eyes quickly darted to the left, then right and routed out two flanking paths around the natural wind barrier.
"Great! Go! Go! Go!"
No matter how flashy and intimidating this natural disaster looked, a spell that moved in a straight line like this should be totally dodgeable!
But as if the wind fiend read his mind, he whipped out a scroll and cackled.
"Kukuku! Think it'll be that easy for you?! I saved this little beauty just for this moment!"
Fwip! The scroll unfurled midair like a banner of doom, revealing ink-black runic symbols spiraling around a single ominous character: fire.
The moment Ge Tianqi poured his Qi into it, the circle of symbols came alive and swam out across the page like tadpoles!
At the heart of it all, the fire symbol squirmed and ignited with a tongue of black flames that quickly spread outwards like oil-fed wildfire!
A flicker of panic flashed across Ge Tianqi's face and he hurriedly tossed out the scroll…
The burning scroll barely enjoyed its freedom before it got sucked towards the tornado!
Then fire met wind. For a heartbeat, everything paused.
Then—
FWOOM!
The black flames was like a match tossed into a barrel of oil!
The tornado roared, and ring after ring of black flames spiraled up to the heavens!
The next thing Bubai knew, the tornado transformed into a code black natural disaster!
Fire-Wind Combo: Infernado!
The first thing to slap Bubai's face was the heat wave.
But what really shocked him to a standstill was the color of the flames.
Merlin's sweaty hatbands… that's black!
Bubai recalled an infamous flame born from the eye power in the ninjaverse next door.
The eternal flame that's impossible to put out! The inferno that devours until there is nothing left!
Amaterasu!
T-T-This… can't be the same thing, right?! Right?!!
Seeing the black flames that were lashing out from the flaming funnel of death, Bubai had no intention of testing whether it was the real deal.
Just don't let it touch! He greased his feet and bolted away!
But only a few paces later, his Bubai tingle went haywire from the number of danger sources appearing behind him.
Bubai risked a glance over his shoulder, just to see the black flames of destruction raining down from above!
His eyes quickly jumped all the way up and saw the burning vortex overhead...
What the bloody hell! The skies are on fire?! No, wait—it was the barrier that was on fire!
But the barrier seemed to be fireproof. All the black fire that tried to cling on to it... peeled off like oil on glass and rained down instead!
This inferno Armageddon covered the entire arena! There's no place to hide!
Bubai could care less about running now and quickly slapped his storage pouch to summon his handy dandy backhand.
A little bronze water vat popped out and in a blink, it grew to full size!
"Haaah!" Grabbing the rims of the heavy cauldron, Bubai hurriedly tipped it over and dumped all the water over himself—SPLASH!
Then a convenient flip over later, the cauldron became a makeshift umbrella!
"Haha! Who's smart now—!"
But the black flames pelting him from overhead and landing all around him shut him up.
To make matters worse, he can sense the increasingly-suffocating heat that was searing his back!
He was still in the flaming tornado's path! How?!
Carrying his heavy umbrella, Bubai quickly made a sharp turn, zigzagging through the mess of black flames and risking a peek back.
In a glimpse, he locked onto the fire-wind fiend gliding on leaves and mirroring his movement at the opposite side of the funnel of death!
An upward swing of his fan blew away all the black flame falling towards him and another double-handed wave of his fan redirected the infernado in the fleeing turtle's direction!
"You can't escape! Feel the pain of getting roasted by the Eternal Sun's fire! Kuku...KUKUKU!"
Seeing the infernado closing in fast, Bubai grit his teeth. No choice! Can't escape! He can only gamble!
One moment Bubai was dashing. The next, the cauldron dropped and he turtled up inside!
As soon as he touched down, his black storage pouch got half-stuffed into his mouth, upside down.
Hope this works! He chomped down on it hard and opened its mouth wide—SHAAAA!
The water collected in the last round came gushing out like an unending waterfall!
Like iron claws, his hands held down the cauldron's rims that felt like it wanted to fly away and Bubai watched the water flood out through the uneven gaps below.
HISSSSSSSS!
The sound of water meeting fire! Steam gushed in from the crevices!
The boiling hot heat hit and the temperature spiked…
It felt like getting baked in a hellish sauna and gripping that glowing red-hot metal felt like touching a hot stove!
Still, Bubai held on for dear life while scooting forward...
The steam gushing in gradually fogged up his vision...
The last thing he saw? The bronze shell above starting to cave in.
Stinky Merlin's diaper… it was melting! And fast! What now?!!!