"Oh, oh~ you're not even getting angry after all that? No wonder everyone in the neighborhood speaks highly of you as an upstanding youth (rich, handsome, cultured, and successful)..." Feng Bujue said jokingly, "But I personally suggest you attack more proactively. Forcing Brother Fa to use defensive techniques would be more advantageous for you."

Although he was smiling and joking on the surface, Brother Jue naturally didn't want Little Tan to be defeated here, so the second half of his statement was tactical guidance for the latter.

"Heh... Mr. Feng is right." Brother Fa, the rabbit, also replied with a smile, "Young brother... with your capabilities, if you were to get serious and face me with the intent to kill... I'm afraid I would indeed be in danger. But you are kind-hearted, and from beginning to end, you haven't thought about harming me. From the way you attack and the force you use, I can tell... you just want to disable me, but..." He paused for half a second, his eyes changing, "Fighting me with that kind of mentality... is disrespectful to me."

Having said that, Brother Fa, the rabbit, adopted the classic stance of the Hokuto... uh... Duan Mao (Short Hair) Divine Fist, his legs slightly bent, separated by a step, one hand raised horizontally in front of his chest, and the other placed diagonally in front of his ribs.

In less than two seconds, astonishing fighting energy ignited from his body, turning into visible white lines, like wisps of smoke.

"Ugh—whoa!" Then, Brother Fa, the rabbit, let out a long howl, and his muscles suddenly swelled, causing the short shirt on his upper body to burst open.

"Whoa... he's even ripping his clothes..." Feng Bujue stared intently at the rabbit-alien's well-toned physique, "Hmm... nice body!"

"What's with the compliments!" Little Tan couldn't help but turn his head and retort to Brother Jue, "Why are you so fixated on these 1980s gags?"

"Instead of complaining about me, you should look at the situation in front of you..." Feng Bujue changed to a serious face the next second.

"That's right, things won't be so polite from now on!" Brother Fa, the rabbit, said, and appeared in front of Little Tan as if he had teleported, "Duan Mao Divine Fist Secret Art—Musō Tensei (Unconscious State of Rebirth)!"

"Huh?" Wang Tanzhi had also seen *Hokuto no Ken* (Fist of the North Star), so when he heard the name of the technique, he immediately reacted, "Does adding a buff count as a move?"

"Idiot! Don't be careless!" Feng Bujue saw that Little Tan didn't seem to realize the horror of Musō Tensei, so he shouted to remind him, "You'll be killed!"

However, his words were half a beat too late.

Brother Fa, the rabbit's next strike had already been launched, and this was the first time he hadn't shouted the name of the move during combat—[Duan Mao Arhat Strike]!

Fierce power, invisible speed, and a punch of no mind and no thought.

If this punch landed, Little Tan would surely die.

And it was impossible for this punch not to land, because Brother Fa, the rabbit, had already activated Musō Tensei, which was almost an invincible state in close combat.

But... at that instant...

…………

"So slow..." The world in front of Wang Tanzhi seemed to freeze, "What's going on? Why did it stop?" He wanted to look up at the other person, but found that everything around him was in full view, and his eyeballs hadn't moved at all, "Eh? This is..."

It was a familiar feeling, during the finals of the Pinnacle Melee S1, when Lu Te used tendriL_BArrAre_devAstAtor, Little Tan had experienced this state.

"Assuming... time dust enters the body of some powerful high-level creature, there are usually two reactions... First, the dust is suppressed by the creature's own power and becomes completely ineffective; second... the 'time-stealing' effect of the dust is suppressed, but the 'time-awakening' effect is gradually released."

What Tariom had said at Ghastly Power Company... gradually surfaced in Little Tan's mind.

"But... there's almost none left..." Little Tan thought, "I can feel... those 'sands of time' that have seeped into my blood... those 'powers' that I have absorbed, or rather... 'time,' is almost completely exhausted." He concentrated again, and muttered, "Hmm... this is undoubtedly the last bit of 'extra time,' like those few drops of residue that never quite come out of the bottom of a yogurt container. The proof is... my own body is also unable to move at the moment, only my thoughts are still working."

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "Alas... it seems I'm going to die, even if I have time to slowly consider how to deal with it... it's impossible for me to physically dodge this move."

He was right, when time flowed again, even if he activated [Dance of Death], it would be too late to dodge Brother Fa's punch.

"Hmm? What is this feeling?" Suddenly, Little Tan noticed something different, "This is... what?"

As the power of those sands of time gradually faded away, something seemed to gush out from Little Tan's consciousness, like a swimming pool that had finally been cleaned and suddenly began to fill with water...

…………

Bang!

The fist arrived, fighting energy exploded, and blood mist rose.

"Sorry." Brother Fa, the rabbit, confidently turned his head and looked at Feng Bujue, "It seems your partner... isn't good enough." He shook his head and said with a regretful expression, "I was very serious, but he had naive thoughts, using a pile of ordinary iron to deal with me..."

"Ah... I understand, he deserves it." Feng Bujue replied coldly, but the second half of his sentence took a turn, "But... Brother Fa, the fight isn't over yet, is it really okay for you to turn around like this?"

As the words fell, the Fist Master was shocked.

At that moment, Brother Fa, the rabbit's face first showed shock.

"Nani (What)?" After uttering this classic line of the defeated, he suddenly turned his head and found that the man in the scarlet assassin's outfit... was still standing tall.

"Always ordinary iron, ordinary iron... annoying..." Little Tan said, slowly raising his hand. At this moment, a hidden blade suddenly appeared on his right wrist (Altair's Touch was equipped on his left wrist), and black flames were faintly wrapped around the hidden blade, "Then I'll use this to fight you!"

[Name: Tan]

[Type: Psionic Weapon]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Attack Power: ???]

[Attribute: Unknown]

[Effect 1: Flame Devour (The black flame can devour various substances on the physical and non-physical levels according to the user's will)]

[Effect 2: No Sound (Enters a silent zone within a radius of two meters around oneself, continuous skill, no cooldown time, no consumption)]

[Equipment Condition: Wang Tanzhi]

[Note: First sigh, life is impermanent, second sigh, it's hard to find a confidant...]

"Haha..." Feng Bujue looked at the equipment's description from a data perspective and laughed, "He actually brought out a psionic weapon..."

"This is a psionic weapon..." Little Tan replied, "Whatever... I just feel pain in my hand right now."

"That's a must... because your ring finger is gone." Brother Jue replied.

"Huh?" Little Tan seemed to not even know about this, he looked down at his right hand, but his hand was completely wrapped in black flames at the moment, and he couldn't see clearly, "Forget it... it doesn't matter, anyway, my whole hand has a burning sensation, and I don't feel any particular pain."

Feng Bujue laughed, "It really doesn't matter..." As he said that, he turned his head to look at Brother Fa, "Brother Fa, I'm really grateful to you... this spar with you has become an opportunity for my partner to break through some kind of bottleneck."

"My greatest honor." Brother Fa, the rabbit, had regained his composure at this time, his eyes fixed on Little Tan's right hand, "Just now... it was the spiritual power that erupted when that 'spiritual artifact' awakened that canceled out my fighting energy, right? Heh..." He smiled, "Good! That's more like it!"

It seemed that Brother Fa had also entered an excited state. His fighting energy, which had originally begun to converge, increased again, and he shouted, "Watch carefully... this is the second-to-last move—Heavenly General Raging Burst!"

With a wave of both palms, fighting energy surged.

NPCs of Brother Fa, the rabbit's level, could naturally see the danger of the weapon [Tan] at a glance, so he abandoned his close-combat ultimate move and used his strongest long-range secret technique.

At first glance, this move was not much different from the second move he used, "Duan Mao Gang Palm Wave," but in reality... the principles of these moves were completely different, and the power was also several times greater.

"Ha!" This time, Little Tan didn't dodge or evade, just let out a light shout, raised his right arm, and spread his five fingers to block.

In an instant, the black flames on his wrist greatly intensified, like a black vortex, changing the trajectory of the rushing fighting energy, forming a layer of distorted energy turbulence in front of Little Tan.

"Pu—" But after receiving the move, Little Tan still bent his knees and took half a step back, spitting out a large mouthful of blood, and his face became very unsightly, "Tch... couldn't completely receive it..."

"Hmph... that's the inevitable result." Feng Bujue continued in a tone that poured cold water, "'Flame Devour' is strong, but it can't surpass the upper limit of your personal ability..." He paused for a moment, "To use an analogy... it's like an extremely powerful 'move,' which needs 'internal energy' to support it. When the opponent's internal energy exceeds yours by a lot, even if the move is not as exquisite as yours, it can still hurt you."

"Let's save similar analyses for after I'm done fighting!" Little Tan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, shouted loudly, stepped on the ground, and attacked Brother Fa, the rabbit.

Little Tan knew that there was only one move left in this ten-move test; he had also sensed that... aside from defensive moves, the offensive moves that Brother Fa used were getting stronger and stronger... If nothing unexpected happened, if Brother Fa were to launch an attack again, he would use a move stronger than "Heavenly General Raging Burst."

Reaching this point, it was already a bit of a fluke that Little Tan was still alive, and he didn't think he had any way to resist the opponent's next attack, so... he decided to strike first.

Ordinary attacks wouldn't trigger the opponent's move, Wang Tanzhi was very clear about this, he had to use a skill with a certain intensity or above. Otherwise... he would lose.

"Don't you dare die!" Finally, in this battle, Little Tan used a skill that could be called a killing move for the first time, "Bone Carving Blade Technique!"

The skill [Bone Carving Blade Technique] had been in Little Tan's skill bar since the Unparalleled Melee Tournament, this was a "limited-time" active skill, and the remaining time at that time was "2532 minutes." Converting it... that was about forty-two hours.

Of course, this was game time, and it would only start counting when the "player was in a script world."

In the days that followed, Little Tan acquired several more skills, and the twelve skill slots were full, so he didn't bring this blade technique with him in every script. Therefore, the time for this limited-time skill had not been used up yet.

Now, after a brief deliberation, he chose this A-level martial arts skill... to force Brother Fa, the rabbit, to use his last move.

Feng Bujue, who was watching the battle from the sidelines, understood that this was indeed the best choice that matched Little Tan's personality... because using [Reverse Blade Whirlwind Slash] was too weak, and using [Special Beam Cannon] was too much... Only this [Bone Carving Blade Technique] seemed to be able to force Brother Fa's move, without endangering the NPC's life.

Shua shua shua—

In that split second, Little Tan had already rushed in front of Brother Fa, a pair of hidden blades dancing wildly like a storm.

Accompanied by the sound of the blade breaking through the wind, the edge of the blade flashed, and black flames splattered...

The attack speed of this Bone Carving Blade Technique was shockingly fast, Brother Fa didn't react at all, just stood there and took the beating...

Seconds later, Little Tan saw that the opponent's torso had been hit by several blades in a row, and he hadn't made any evasive movements at all... so he quickly stopped and jumped back.

"Hey... Brother Fa..." This time, it was Little Tan who looked at the rabbit-alien with a worried expression, "Are you okay?"

"Ha... ha ha ha..." Brother Fa, the rabbit, burst out laughing, "Young brother, looking at your outfit... you're an assassin, right?"

For some reason, he didn't answer Little Tan's question, but changed the subject.

"Uh... yeah." Little Tan replied somewhat woodenly.

"I advise you to change careers." Brother Fa, the rabbit, shook his head, "It's too wasteful for someone like you to wield knives and guns."

As he spoke, he completely retracted his fighting spirit and snapped his fingers. With a "snap," a brand new sailor suit appeared on Brother Fa's body as if by magic.

"Don't worry, he's mostly doing rescue work." At this time, Feng Bujue seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief, and said to Brother Fa with a casual attitude, "Being an assassin is just a hobby."

"I see." Brother Fa, the rabbit, nodded.

"Hey? What's going on?" Seeing this scene, Little Tan was a little confused.

"Heh... young brother, you have passed the test." Brother Fa, the rabbit, said to Little Tan with a smile, "Just now, when you attacked, before you even made a move... I knew that this move was difficult to block, so I used the 'Dragon Turning Breathing Technique' in the Duan Mao Divine Fist in advance to deal with it." He shook his head, "Heh... who knew... you saw me standing still and thought I didn't have time to react, so you stopped your move halfway and retreated."

"That's just how he is..." Feng Bujue said with a smile, his tone like a parent talking to the homeroom teacher about their child, "Whether you call him 'naive' or 'stupid'... this is his 'true nature,' and I'm afraid he won't be able to change it in this lifetime."

Hearing this, a look of loss flashed in Brother Fa, the rabbit's eyes, as if he had recalled something. After a brief silence, he changed the subject, "Uh... all right, the test ends here, you two... please choose the treasures you want to take away."