Chapter Eighty-Nine: Explosive Impact

The young woman’s own strength may not have been especially dazzling in the Heaven and Earth Gathering, but her luck was excellent. Three matches in a row, and like Zhang Chulan, she had slipped in by skipping class and never fought a single bout.

Even Ye Yan could not help but sigh that luck, at times, was part of strength too.

"Sister Bao, your opponent is that Xiao Xiao who uses breath-blowing technique. You sure you’re okay?"

Having finished with Li Ziyuan, the next person up was Feng Baobao. Among the four from the North China team, the only remaining match was hers.

"No problem."

Feng Baobao still wore that blank, childlike expression, showing no sign of much pressure at all.

...

...

On Arena Three.

The match had not even begun, and Zhang Chulan was already bustling about, running errands like a lackey.

"Brother Yan, have a soda. Brother Yan, eat a big popsicle. Brother Yan, are you hot? Want me to fan you without asking first?"

"No need. Just sit there."

Having someone at one’s side to serve was, of course, a marvelous thing. But with someone like Zhang Chulan—so talkative, so fidgety, always running back and forth—Ye Yan felt no pleasure at all. If anything, he found it a little annoying.

At Ye Yan’s words, Zhang Chulan obediently sat down, his gaze quickly settling on Feng Baobao and Xiao Xiao below the platform.

"That guy who uses breath-blowing technique is not easy to deal with. Baobao’s probably going to suffer a bit."

Xu Si still looked his usual carefree self. Before the match had even officially started, he was already pessimistic, drawing strong dissatisfaction from Xu San beside him.

"If you can’t keep quiet, are you gonna die?"

"I’m just saying."

Xu Si lazily held a cigarette between his lips, but before he had even taken a couple of puffs, Xu San snatched it from him and ground it out underfoot. "Smoking in public, you bastard—do you have any sense of decency at all..."

Faced with Xu San’s forceful demeanor, Xu Si could only shrug helplessly and did not resist.

This was a bloodline suppression.

Amid the fervent cheers and the bickering of the two men, the match below soon began.

Against Feng Baobao, Xiao Xiao did not dare be careless. At the moment they faced each other, both released their aura outward, colliding fiercely within the vast arena.

Feng Baobao held a short boning knife in hand, relying on her nimble footwork to dart and weave around Xiao Xiao, searching for any opening that might fell him in one strike.

Xiao Xiao, meanwhile, relied on his breath-blowing technique to defend against her attacks with seamless precision.

His breath-blowing art was formidable indeed. With every inhale and exhale, the aura he spat forth could inflict tremendous damage upon an opponent, which was precisely how he had fought his way here with that one technique alone.

Still, among those who had reached the top sixteen, Feng Baobao’s abilities needed no further explanation.

Though her movement let her find no truly fatal flaw in Xiao Xiao, even his wide-reaching breath-blowing technique could not threaten her much.

Their battle, fierce at first, gradually grew tense and deadlocked as each tested the other.

"Your speed is very fast, but if that is all you have, you’ll never get close to me."

In the midst of combat, Xiao Xiao even found time to speak.

Having once again evaded a burst of breath-blowing technique by leaping and dodging off the side wall of the arena, Feng Baobao answered very seriously, "That’s right."

She knew very well that with her speed alone, it was difficult to get within three steps of Xiao Xiao.

This especially infuriating technique of breath-blowing was swift to deploy, covered a wide area, consumed little aura, and was highly controllable besides. Its power was also far from ordinary.

To breach such a technique and close in on Xiao Xiao was no easy matter for Feng Baobao either.

But the technique had a flaw as well: its attack range was short. So long as one kept a certain distance from the caster, it could be avoided.

After seeing this, Feng Baobao abandoned the idea of winning through close combat and instead chose another means of fighting: ranged attacks.

A deep blue aura flame slowly appeared around her, and her entire presence shifted abruptly.

She planted herself in a horse stance, waist and legs united, and as she raised her hand she did not forget to call out the name of her technique:

"The Ava Eighteen Style—Direct Hit."

As the final word fell, a mass of deep blue aura slowly condensed in her palm. With a flick of her hand, that huge sphere of energy shot forth like a comet with a trailing tail, smashing brutally toward Xiao Xiao in the distance.

...

...

What had been an intense battle was thrown completely off balance by the bizarre name of that technique.

"Xu Si, you bastard, I told you not to teach Baobao those weird things."

"Go to hell."

Xu San could no longer bear Xu Si. Turning around, he seized Xu Si by the collar of his shirt and unleashed a rain of punches.

Caught within the dense blur of fists, Xu Si howled in misery, able only to clutch his head with both hands.

"Ouch, bro, stop hitting me—don’t hit the face! So many people are watching. Give me a little dignity."

"Dignity? Now you know about dignity? When Baobao shouts out those weird things on the field, you had dignity? Go die, you punk."

"..."

Xu San was truly furious this time, and he laid into Xu Si with a ferocious pounding, leaving him black and blue while Xu Si did not dare fight back at all.

Ye Yan, standing nearby, watched the two brothers’ mutual torment with great interest. Compared with the fighting style on the platform, what was happening below was clearly far more entertaining.

This Ava Eighteen Style.

It was actually rather interesting.

Ye Yan even felt a little regret. Back then, when Feng Baobao had wanted to trade this for her One-Time Kick, he had not agreed. If he had known, he would have made the exchange.

How amusing.

Below, many spectators also turned their eyes toward the match, clearly sharing Ye Yan’s thoughts.

Gossip. The fun of watching the spectacle.

Compared with the relaxed uproar below, Xiao Xiao on the platform dared not ease up in the slightest.

Though he had not experienced it personally, if such a massive sphere of aura struck him, it would certainly not feel pleasant.

Xiao Xiao promptly gave up on continuing to use breath-blowing technique and sprang aside to dodge.

The enormous aura sphere missed, but Feng Baobao did not pause in the least; she continued to maintain her relentless direct hits.

Xiao Xiao kept dodging in succession.

Avoiding the incoming spheres.

"At this speed alone, there is no way to hit me."

The speed of the direct-hit attack was not fast. If that was all, it would not trouble Xiao Xiao much.

"Is that so?"

Feng Baobao tilted her head, then the speed at which she condensed aura spheres suddenly increased. In an instant, she formed more than a dozen of them, blanketing the area around Xiao Xiao.

"This..."

Xiao Xiao was also startled by the terrifying number of aura spheres. At such a dense rate, there was no way to evade them with speed alone.

Enveloped within that storm, Xiao Xiao for a moment seemed to have no answer, and could only watch helplessly as the dense barrage of aura spheres exploded upon his body.

In an instant, a terrifying light burst forth, blinding all eyes, and Xiao Xiao, trapped within it, also let out an involuntary cry of alarm.