Chapter 10 The Curtain Rises

[The match will begin in thirty seconds]

As the voice prompt sounded, the two players entered the arena in response.

The tenth round of the Pinnacle Showdown S3, [Hell Frontline] versus [Mountains and Rivers], began.

For [Mountains and Rivers], [Autumn Wind Serenade] was the vanguard.

While for [Hell Frontline], [Madness Unveiled] himself took to the field.

“Thunder Flash” versus “Mad Demon,” a highly anticipated battle, was about to erupt.

[Five… Four… Three…]

As the countdown sounded, neither of the two on either side of the barrier had moved. The difference was… Autumn Wind Serenade had already adopted a serious battle stance, while Feng Bujue was still standing with a lazy expression and his hands in his pockets.

[Two… One… Fight!]

As the sound fell, the battle began.

In that instant, a flash of lightning appeared where Autumn Wind Serenade was standing, and his figure disappeared from the audience’s sight.

Tzzzzz—

In less than half a second, amidst a wave of tearing buzzing sounds, Autumn Wind Serenade appeared in front of Feng Bujue as if teleporting, and punched him in the face.

Even Autumn Wind Serenade himself didn’t expect that this punch… would actually hit.

The fist filled with lightning struck Brother Jue’s face solidly, instantly creating a loud bang; of course, this was not because Brother Jue’s skin was thick, but because of the friction and collision of energy on both surfaces, which brought about a momentum that normal physical contact could not cause.

Whoosh—

After being hit, Feng Bujue flew out like a chain ball, his head being the ball and his body the chain; although he had energy protection, being punched in the face head-on like that couldn’t have no effect, so when he was still in mid-air… blood had already spurted from his nose.

“What’s going on?” You might not believe it… but at this moment, Autumn Wind Serenade, who had successfully attacked, was a little flustered.

“This probing attack, which only used seventy percent of my speed and fifty percent of my power… actually hit?” In those brief seconds, Qiu Feng’s mind was also thinking quickly, “Could it be that my current speed has reached a point where the normal Feng Bujue can’t react?” He quickly dismissed the idea, “No… that’s impossible, this guy must be acting; he must have seen through it before I made my move… ‘I left some strength in this attack, in order to deal with various changes that might occur after getting close’, so… he deliberately took a punch from me, to lure me to use my full strength in the next attack and reveal a flaw.”

Thinking of this, he had already stepped forward and chased after him, but he still retained some room for changing his moves.

Tzzzzz—

Even with seventy percent of its speed, the “Thunder Flash” was still faster than Brother Jue’s passively flying backwards.

His figure reappeared, and another thunder punch came out.

This time, Autumn Wind attacked Feng Bujue’s seventeenth spinal bone (i.e., the tenth thoracic vertebra); when the fist arrived, his middle finger was slightly protruding, adding a penetrating force, making the destructive power of this punch even stronger.

Bang—

As a result, this strike… actually hit again.

Brother Jue, who was hit in the spine, immediately turned pale, and spat out a mouthful of blood; his body also stopped due to the opponent’s direct strike from behind, and he landed on the ground smoothly.

“Tch… I won’t be fooled.” Autumn Wind Serenade succeeded again, but his mood became more and more irritable, he thought to himself, “Before you turn into white light, I won’t actively change my moves; if you want to keep acting… then just keep acting until you die!”

Having made up his mind, Autumn Wind immediately launched a series of attacks.

Since the current attack rhythm was effective, then he should maintain this rhythm, why should the advantageous side take the initiative to make changes and give the disadvantaged side a chance to take advantage of it?

So, a series of “Tzzzzz—” sounds of electric energy breaking through the air immediately sounded on the field; Autumn Wind constantly moved and struck… the speed and strength used in each strike were similar to his first strike, only the angle and movement of the strike were slightly different.

Although this kind of attack was not fatal, the damage was real, and after more than fifteen rounds of back and forth… Feng Bujue’s health was finally bottoming out.

There was no doubt that Brother Jue couldn’t be killed just like that, so the change in the battle situation… was at this moment.

“Alright, that’s enough.”

When the voice sounded, the punch that Autumn Wind Serenade was waving… missed.

He wasn’t surprised by this, in fact… it made him breathe a sigh of relief.

“What? Can’t hold on anymore?” Autumn Wind turned his head, looked at Feng Bujue, who had actively dodged the attack for the first time in the battle, and smiled, “Heh… I knew it, you kid was deliberately taking a beating, you’re at a loss now, right?”

“Brother Pi, you’re still the same…” Feng Bujue also responded with a smile, “You only know one thing, but not the other~”

“Brother Pi?” Autumn Wind Serenade’s mouth twitched immediately when he heard this, he obviously heard that the other party was playing with a meme, and the other party was waiting for him to reply with “What do you mean by Brother Pi”, so he simply continued, “If I’m not mistaken, if we have two or three more sentences of dialogue, you’ll have to call me ‘Brother Lei’, right?”

“Hahahaha…” Feng Bujue was not embarrassed at all after being exposed, and calmly continued, “Okay, okay, I won’t play any more sprite jokes, let’s talk seriously…” He paused, “Regarding the part about ‘deliberately taking a beating’, your guess is correct, but… you’re probably wrong about the motive for me doing so.”

“Ho~” Seeing that Brother Jue was standing there and didn’t show any signs of using health recovery items or skills, Autumn Wind Serenade wasn’t in a hurry to rush in; he paced sideways, looking for an opportunity, while chatting with the other party, “Then tell me, what is your motive?”

“Let me talk about your guess first.” As Feng Bujue spoke, he casually wiped the blood off his face with his thumb, the movement was as casual as wiping off the remaining cream after eating a snack, “Do you think… my behavior is to lure you to use your full strength to attack, so that I can kill you with one blow at some time when you ‘leave no room’?”

“Tch…” After having his thoughts exposed, Autumn Wind Serenade spat unhappily, but he didn’t deny it.

“Hehe… don’t show that expression.” Feng Bujue shrugged and smiled, “Who told you to keep attacking with the same attack pattern, the thoughts behind it are too easy to expose.”

“Alright, alright, stop pretending to be mysterious.” Autumn Wind and Brother Jue were quite familiar with each other, so he wasn’t embarrassed, “You just want to say… I guessed wrong?”

“Wrong.” Feng Bujue didn’t wait for the other party to ask before continuing, “Actually, my real purpose is to let you beat me to a ‘near-death’ health level.” He paused for half a second, then continued, “So… it’s a lot easier for me that you keep using the same attack method to damage me… if you keep changing your moves, it would be difficult for me to control my health.”

As soon as he said this, Autumn Wind Serenade’s expression… changed.

He wasn’t regretting his strategy just now, because regret was meaningless, and he didn’t think there was anything logically wrong with his guess.

The real reason why Autumn Wind Serenade’s expression changed was… when Brother Jue said the second half of the sentence, Autumn Wind had already thought of the other party’s purpose of “controlling health.”

“You…” The next second, Autumn Wind opened his mouth and said, “… don’t tell me you want to release some skills that can only be activated in a ‘near-death state’?”

“Hehe…” Feng Bujue smiled lewdly and responded loudly, “As expected of you, your brain is turning quite fast.”

Chi—

At the moment when the word “fast” came out, the sound of energy exploding and splitting the wind rose, and a bloody color instantly enveloped Feng Bujue’s body.

“First… is ‘Blood Asura’…” Brother Jue, who had successfully transformed, spread his arms as if to show off his form, and said loudly.

This scene shocked Wu Tianzhi, who was watching the live broadcast in the club’s conference room.

And Autumn Wind Serenade… was still calm; his mind was indeed fast, and he quickly grasped the main point of the other party’s words: “You said… ‘first’?”

“Heh…” Feng Bujue didn’t answer, just smiled evilly, and then continued, “Then… it’s ‘Godly Battle Qi Armament Color Haki’.”

After speaking, the battle qi around his body underwent a qualitative change again, the bloody energy became thicker and more textured than before.

“[Beep—]?” This time, Da Brahma, another “eliminated player” who was watching the battle, couldn’t calm down. He directly shouted “fuck” in the conference room, of course… because there were other people in the room, these two words were blocked.

“You…” When Autumn Wind Serenade saw this second change, he basically concluded… that it wasn’t over yet.

“Finally…” Sure enough, in less than two seconds, Feng Bujue spoke again, “… plus ‘Ultimate Martial - Asura Transformation’.”

As soon as this move came out, Brother Jue’s skin turned pitch black, his hair turned into raging flames, and a demon mask appeared on his face; in addition, there was a dark golden energy mixed into the already very strong bloody color around him, and they merged into a ferocious and rampant demonic energy.

Needless to say, Asura, who was watching this scene as an audience, was also dumbfounded…

“I won’t ask you how you achieved this inhuman transformation…” Autumn Wind Serenade stared at Brother Jue for a few seconds, and then… simply complained, “I just want to know, why did you have to use this in a duel with me…”

This was indeed a good question—it was obvious that Feng Bujue deliberately chose to activate this “three-stage transformation” in the duel with Autumn Wind Serenade; if he simply wanted to show off his skills, he could have shown them off in any of the previous five rounds, anyway, it was also “controlling health” to activate.

“Isn’t that obvious…” In less than a second, Feng Bujue’s response came from under the demon mask, and his tone revealed a sense of course, “The people I met in the previous few rounds were all strangers, they have no grudges against me, and they are casual players, why bother to leave a psychological shadow on others.”

“So… I have a deep hatred with you?” Autumn Wind muttered, narrowing his eyes.

“No.” Feng Bujue replied, “But… we’re familiar with each other.”

“You just specialize in screwing over acquaintances, right?” Autumn Wind said again.

“Hey~ Friendship is only one aspect…” Feng Bujue replied, “On the other hand… after all, our match is also a long-awaited focus battle.” He paused, “Since we’re going to show off… we should find a bigger platform.”

“Okay, okay, okay…” Autumn Wind rolled his eyes helplessly and muttered, “Then let’s see…” Suddenly, his pupils, really turned white… and gradually filled with a burning white light, “… who exactly is showing off whom!”

Amazing words, earth-shattering change!

Before Autumn Wind Serenade’s voice fell, his figure had already leaped forward and turned into a white light.

“Thirty Million Volts Thunder Bird!”

His stern shout echoed in the air like layers of sound waves, his figure had synchronized with the electric light, and spun around Feng Bujue at high speed, but it could not be captured by the naked eye.

And his move, when the shout sounded, had already approached the back of Brother Jue’s neck.

Tzz—Bang!

Blue streamer, sparking golden sparks.

In the explosive sound, a giant thunder bird, faster than the speed of sound, exploded behind Feng Bujue’s neck.

However, before the light dissipated, Brother Jue’s voice had already sounded: “A mere thirty million volts… can’t even break through the battle qi that I unconsciously exude on the surface of my body…” He reached out and touched the back of his neck, “It’s like throwing a spark into the sun, the level of energy is too different, don’t try energy attacks anymore… it’s better to use a physical method…”

“I don’t need you to remind me!” Before Brother Jue could finish speaking, Autumn Wind’s follow-up move had already arrived.

It was seen that, at the moment when Autumn Wind appeared, he was already beside Feng Bujue, and… was in mid-air.

At that moment, his whole body was entwined with electric light, his body was slanted, his right leg was straight, and his left leg was bent and raised, a move called [Electric Light Drill], was bound to hit.