“Oh, ho~ You don't even get angry in this situation? No wonder you're the model youth (rich, handsome, refined, and employed) that everyone in the neighborhood praises…” Feng Bujue joked, “But I personally suggest you take the initiative and attack more. Forcing Brother Fa to use defensive moves would be more advantageous for you.”

Although he was smiling and joking on the surface, Jue-ge naturally didn't want Xiao Tan to be defeated here, so the latter half of his words were tactical guidance for the former.

“Heh… Mr. Feng is right.” Rabbit Fa-ge replied with a smile, “Young Brother Wang… With your abilities, if you were serious and approached 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 never intended to harm me. I can tell from your attack methods and strength… that you only wanted to incapacitate me, but…” He paused for half a second, his eyes changing, “Having that kind of mentality while fighting me… is disrespectful.”

At this point, Rabbit Fa-ge adopted the classic stance of the Bei Dou… err… Duan Mao Shen Quan (Short Hair Divine Fist), legs slightly bent, one foot in front of the other, one hand raised and held horizontally in front of his chest, the other angled at his ribs.

In less than two seconds, an astonishing fighting spirit erupted from his body, turning into visible, smoke-like white lines.

“Ooh-WOAH!” Then, Rabbit Fa-ge let out a long howl, his muscles suddenly bulging, causing his short shirt to explode.

“Whoa… he even ripped his shirt…” Feng Bujue stared intently at the rabbit-person's muscular physique, “Hmm… nice body!”

“What are you complimenting, idiot!” Xiao Tan couldn’t help but turn around and retort to Jue-ge, “How obsessed are you with these 1980s clichés?”

“Instead of complaining about me, you should look at the situation in front of you…” Feng Bujue said, his expression changing to a serious one in the next second.

“That’s right, I won't be so polite from now on!” Rabbit Fa-ge said, appearing in front of Xiao Tan as if teleporting, “Duan Mao Shen Quan Secret Art—Musō Tensei!”

“Huh?” Wang Tanzhi had also seen *Fist of the North Star*, so when he heard the name of the technique, he immediately reacted, “Adding a Buff counts as a move?”

“Idiot! Don't be careless!” Feng Bujue, seeing that Xiao Tan didn't seem to realize the terror of Musō Tensei, shouted to remind him, “You’ll be killed!”

However, his words were half a beat too late.

Rabbit Fa-ge’s next attack was already launched, the first time he hadn't shouted out the name of the technique during a fight—[Duan Mao Arhat Strike]!

Fierce power, invisible speed, a fist without thought or mind.

If this punch landed, Xiao Tan would surely die.

And it was impossible for this punch to miss, because Rabbit Fa-ge had already activated Musō Tensei, which was practically a state of close-combat invincibility.

However… at that instant…

…………

“So slow…” The world before Wang Tanzhi’s eyes seemed to freeze, “What’s going on? Why did it stop?” He tried to look up at his opponent, 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; Xiao Tan had experienced this state during the finals of the Peak Tournament S1, the moment when Root used tendriL_BArrAre_devAstAtor.

“Assuming… Time Dust enters the body of a powerful higher life form, there are usually two reactions… First, the dust is suppressed by the creature’s own power and completely fails; second… the effect of the dust ‘stealing time’ is suppressed, but the effect of ‘awakening time’ is gradually released.”

What Taliom had said at Spooky Electric Company… gradually surfaced in Xiao Tan’s mind.

“But… there’s almost none left…” Xiao Tan thought, “I can feel it… the ‘Sand of Time’ that has seeped into my blood… the ‘power’ that I have absorbed, or rather… ‘time’, is almost completely exhausted.” He concentrated again, murmuring, “Hmm… this is undoubtedly the last bit of ‘extra time’, like the few drops of residue that never quite pour out of the bottom of a yogurt container. The evidence is… that my own body is also in a state of immobility right now; only my mind is still working.”

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, “Alas… it seems I'm going to die here. Even if I had time to slowly consider how to respond… it’s physically impossible for me to dodge this move.”

He was right. When time resumed its flow, even if he activated [Dance of Death], it would be too late to dodge Fa-ge’s fist.

“Hmm? What’s this feeling?” Suddenly, Xiao Tan noticed something strange, “This is… what?”

As the power of the Sand of Time gradually faded, something seemed to gush out from Xiao Tan’s consciousness, like a swimming pool that had finally been cleaned out, suddenly starting to fill with water…

…………

Bang!

The fist landed, fighting spirit exploded, and blood mist rose.

“Sorry.” Rabbit Fa-ge confidently turned back, looking at Feng Bujue, “It seems your partner… isn't ready.” He shook his head, saying with a regretful expression, “I was very serious, but he had naive ideas and tried to deal with me with a pile of ordinary iron…”

“Ah… I understand, he deserved it.” Feng Bujue replied coldly, but the latter half of his sentence took a turn, “But… Brother Fa, the battle isn't over yet. Is it really okay for you to turn around like that?”

As his voice fell, the boxing master was shocked.

At that moment, the expression on Rabbit Fa-ge’s face was one of astonishment.

“Nani?” After uttering this classic loser’s line, he suddenly turned back and found that the man in the scarlet assassin outfit… was still standing tall.

“Always ordinary iron, ordinary iron… It’s annoying…” Xiao Tan said as he slowly raised his hand. At that moment, a hidden blade had appeared out of nowhere on his right wrist (Altaïr's Touch was equipped on his left wrist), and black flames were faintly coiling around the blade, “Then I'll use this to fight you!”

[Name: Sigh]

[Type: Psionic Weapon]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Attack Power: ???]

[Attribute: Unknown]

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

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

[Equipment Condition: Wang Tanzhi]

[Note: One sigh for the impermanence of life, two sighs for the rarity of true friends…]

“Haha…” Feng Bujue looked at the equipment description from a data perspective and laughed, “He actually brought out a psionic weapon…”

“So this is a psionic weapon…” Xiao Tan continued, “Whatever… I just feel a pain in my hand now.”

“That's a must… your ring finger is gone.” Jue-ge replied.

“Huh?” Xiao Tan seemed unaware of this himself. He looked down at his right hand, but his hand was completely wrapped in black flames, so he couldn't see clearly, “Never mind… it doesn't matter. Anyway, my whole hand has a burning sensation; I don't feel any particular pain anywhere.”

Feng Bujue smiled, “Indeed, it doesn't matter…” As he said this, he turned to look at Fa-ge, “Brother Fa, thank you very much… Your sparring match has become the trigger for my partner to break through a certain bottleneck.”

“My greatest honor.” Rabbit Fa-ge had regained his composure at this time, his eyes fixed on Xiao Tan's right hand, “Just now… it was the spiritual power that erupted when that ‘spiritual artifact’ awakened that canceled out my fighting spirit, right? Heh…” He smiled, “Good! That's more like it!”

It seemed that Fa-ge had also entered a state of excitement. His fighting spirit, which had originally begun to converge, rose again as he shouted, “Watch closely… this is the penultimate move—Heavenly Generals' Rampage!”

With both palms thrust out, fighting spirit surged forth.

Rabbit Fa-ge, a NPC of his level, immediately recognized the danger of the weapon [Sigh], so he abandoned close-combat techniques and used his strongest ranged secret art.

At first glance, this move wasn't much different from the second move he used, "Duan Mao Gang Palm Wave", but in reality… the principle of this technique was completely different, and the power was several times greater.

“Ha!” This time, Xiao Tan didn't dodge or evade, he just shouted lightly, raised his right arm, and opened his five fingers as a block.

In an instant, the black flames around his wrist surged, changing the trajectory of the incoming fighting spirit like a black vortex, forming a twisted layer of energy turbulence in front of Xiao Tan.

“Puh—” But after receiving the move, Xiao Tan still took half a step back, spitting out a large mouthful of blood, his face becoming very unsightly, “Tch… couldn't completely block it…”

“Hmph… that was the inevitable result.” Feng Bujue interrupted from the side with a discouraging tone, “'Flame Devour' is strong, but it can't exceed your personal ability limit…” He paused for a moment, “To put it in an analogy… it's like an extremely powerful ‘technique’ that needs ‘inner strength’ to support it. When your opponent's inner strength far exceeds yours, even if their technique isn't as refined as yours, they can still hurt you.”

“Save the analysis for after the fight!” Xiao Tan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, shouted loudly, stepped forward, and attacked Rabbit Fa-ge.

Xiao Tan knew that only one more move remained in this ten-move trial. He had already sensed that, leaving aside defensive techniques, the offensive techniques that Fa-ge used were getting stronger with each move… If Fa-ge were to attack again, he would use a move that was even stronger than “Heavenly Generals' Rampage”.

Being alive at this point was already a bit of luck for Xiao Tan. He didn't think he had any way to withstand the opponent's next attack, so… he decided to take the initiative.

Ordinary attacks wouldn't trigger the opponent's technique; Wang Tanzhi was well aware of this. He had to use a skill with a certain degree of power. Otherwise… he would lose.

“Don't you dare die on me!” Finally, in this battle, Xiao Tan used a skill that could be considered a killing move for the first time, “Bone-Slicing Knife Technique!”

The skill [Bone-Slicing Knife Technique] had been in Xiao Tan's skill bar since the Unparalleled Martial Arts Tournament. It was a “limited-time” active skill, and the remaining time at the time was “2532 minutes”. Converted, that's about forty-two hours.

Of course, this was game time, and it only started counting when “the player was in a scenario world”.

In the days that followed, Xiao Tan acquired several more skills, and his twelve skill slots were full, so he didn't bring this knife technique with him every scenario. Therefore, the time on this limited-time skill had not yet run out.

Now, after a brief deliberation, he had chosen this A-level martial arts skill… to force Rabbit Fa-ge to use his last move.

Feng Bujue, who was watching from the sidelines, understood that this was indeed the best choice for Xiao Tan’s character… because using [Reverse Blade Spin Slash] was too weak, and using [Special Beam Cannon] was too much… Only this [Bone-Slicing Knife Technique] seemed capable of forcing Fa-ge to use his move without endangering the NPC's life.

Shua shua shua—

In that instant, Xiao Tan had reached Fa-ge, and a pair of hidden blades danced like a whirlwind.

Accompanied by the sound of blades cutting through the air, the blade edges flashed, and black flames splashed…

The attack speed of this Bone-Slicing Knife Technique was astonishingly fast. Fa-ge didn't react at all, just standing there and taking the hits…

A few seconds later, Xiao Tan saw that the other party's torso had been hit repeatedly and had not made any evasive movements… so he quickly stopped and jumped back.

“Hey… Fa-ge…” This time, Xiao Tan looked at the rabbit-person with a worried expression, “Are you alright?”

“Ha… hahahaha…” Rabbit Fa-ge laughed out loud, “Young brother, looking at your attire… you're an assassin, right?”

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

“Uh… yeah.” Xiao Tan replied somewhat blankly.

“I advise you to change careers.” Rabbit Fa-ge shook his head, “It's too wasteful for someone like you to wield weapons.”

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

“Don't worry, he mostly does rescue work.” At this time, Feng Bujue seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said to Fa-ge with a casual attitude, “Being an assassin is just a hobby.”

“I see.” Fa-ge nodded.

“Hey? What's going on?” Seeing this scene, Xiao Tan was a little confused.

“Hehe… Young brother, you have passed the test.” Rabbit Fa-ge said to Xiao Tan with a smile, “When you attacked just now, before you even made a move… I knew this move would be difficult to block, so I used the ‘Dragon Turning Breathing Technique’ of the Duan Mao Shen Quan in advance to respond.” He shook his head, “Hehe… Who knew… You saw me standing still and thought I was too slow to react, so you stopped and retreated halfway through the attack.”

“That’s just how he is…” Feng Bujue said with a smile, his tone like a parent talking to their child's homeroom teacher, “Call it ‘naive’ or ‘stupid’… this is his ‘original heart’, and I'm afraid it can't be changed in this lifetime.”

Hearing this, a look of melancholy flashed in Rabbit Fa-ge's eyes. He seemed to have recalled something. After a brief silence, he changed the subject, “Uh… well, the test ends here. You two… please choose the treasure you want to take with you.”