Chapter Thirty-Six: Qin’s Secret Legacy

Caught in the enemy’s scheme, stripped of his greatest weapon, and forced into a fight bound by restrictive rules, what was he to do under such disadvantageous circumstances? The answer, naturally, was to find loopholes in the rules by any means possible.

Be it the gauntlets, the black sword, or the bizarre machines scattered throughout the factory, every contraption he devised was crafted with one aim: to avoid direct combat at all costs. Gongsun Ce was acutely aware of his own close-quarters abilities; without his supernatural powers, he couldn’t even best a university girl, and a brawl with a muscle-bound man would be little better than courting death.

That was precisely why he wracked his brain for solutions, determined to counter brute force with wit and intellect. The methods he now employed were a testament to his cleverness—twenty tons’ worth of cleverness.

“Come on! I’ll run you down with this dump truck!”

The man with sunglasses turned and fled.

“Damn you, Gongsun Ce! To use such vile tactics in a fair duel!”

From the driver’s seat, Gongsun Ce shouted back, his voice no less thunderous, “Spare me the sanctimony! I’m forbidden from using my greatest weapon, forced to fight you on your turf, under rules you set, and you dare prattle about fairness?”

Xu Junyi sprinted toward the far diagonal, hoping to escape the danger zone before the slow-starting, cumbersome truck could catch up. Yet the noise behind him only grew louder, the sense of imminent peril intensifying rather than abating.

He glanced back, eyes widening in shock. “How—?!”

The earth-colored dump truck was closing in far faster than he’d imagined. From the shattered glass, the superhuman’s voice rang out, “Forgot to mention—this truck’s locally made, and what model it’s meant to emulate, you’ll just have to judge by the impact.”

Gongsun Ce’s posture was especially odd; he gripped the wheel with his ungloved hand, while the mechanical gauntlet he’d crafted aimed toward the rear of the cabin. Out of Xu Junyi’s sight, the gauntlet fired backward, its crimson fist piercing the cab and the dump body, embedding itself deep within the truck’s cargo.

Dust mingled with black particles, swirling in the bed.

Had the middle-aged man in sunglasses seen this, he might have guessed something. But Xu Junyi was too busy fleeing through the construction site, not even daring to look back.

“You’ve got guts, using a dump truck to run someone down!”

Gongsun Ce showed no remorse. “You said no one would truly die here if defeated—so what’s left to worry about? In the Duel of Shadows, you can’t lie; those are your own rules.”

He floored the accelerator, the truck roaring forward at full speed. The man in the trench coat knew escape was impossible. With a shout, Xu Junyi leapt into the air as the earth-colored hood grazed his back, disappearing from Gongsun Ce’s sight in the blink of an eye.

Boom!

Just a glancing blow from the truck’s front sent the burly man flying like a rag doll. Sand erupted from a dune on the far side of the site, revealing a brown figure sprawled amidst the dust.

He must be incapacitated… Anyone witnessing such a scene would think so, even without ever seeing a traffic accident.

Yet Gongsun Ce turned the wheel, aiming the vehicle to strike once more.

The feeling of the wheel was as real as ever, and the gauntlet, now refilled, had returned to his right arm. All signs pointed to the duel not yet being over. The Wild Aspect Mage prided himself on his physical strength; Xu Junyi, at the Manifestation level, wouldn’t be dispatched so easily.

Would he mutate like a Starborn? Or transform into a monster, as Tyrellos did? Lacking intelligence, Gongsun Ce could only rely on his few remaining weapons and continue the fight.

The dump truck thundered forward, the gray-haired youth watching the approaching man with cold indifference. “Come, let’s run you down again.”

“You won’t manage it… Damn brat, you think I, Xu Junyi, am powerless? You think I’ll let you humiliate me?”

“Hearing your voice so full of vigor, you don’t seem badly off. Aren’t you out of supernatural abilities? With your Wild Aspect physique, this is the kind of close combat you excel at. Who’s humiliating whom? Give me my powers back, then talk about fairness.”

The dragon devotee gave no reply. Gongsun Ce couldn’t see his expression, but the heavy, labored breathing betrayed emotions far from calm—he was truly enraged.

“Ha!”

The burly man shed his trench coat, flinging it ahead. The brown coat draped across the windshield, obscuring most of Gongsun Ce’s view. The youth smashed the glass with his gauntlet, yanked the coat inside, and twisted the wheel, aiming to ram his opponent from the side—

Gongsun Ce realized he’d made a poor choice. He’d assumed the man would exploit the coat’s cover to attack, so he’d spun the vehicle to avoid that angle. But Xu Junyi hadn’t launched a physical assault as expected; instead, he remained stock-still atop a sand heap.

And now, in his hands, he wielded an additional weapon—a bundle of ribbed rebar gathered from the open ground.

Like swinging a bat, Xu Junyi hefted the steel, bellowing, “Qin’s Secret Arts!”

“You know that move?!”

Qin’s Secret Arts—a martial technique passed down in a certain combative family, a deadly skill only used by Miss Qin Qianbai when fighting seriously.

At those words, Gongsun Ce immediately abandoned the truck, kicking open the passenger door and leaping out on the side furthest from his opponent.

“Mountain Penetration!”

In the next instant, the thick rebar pierced the truck’s side door, spearing straight through the cab. The driverless vehicle lurched forward, and Xu Junyi, vaulting atop the steel, landed on the roof. From his lofty vantage, he found his hated foe and pounced.

“Land Sinking!”

Even without seeing its power firsthand, Gongsun Ce could imagine from the name how devastating the blow would be. Instinctively, he rolled across the ground—a desperate act that saved his life: he was merely flung by the shockwave, but escaped being cleaved in two.

The dragon devotee’s furious strike carved a deep pit in the site, concentric circles radiating from the impact. Xu Junyi slowly stood, glaring at the youth not far away. “Come, boy. Let’s see what other tricks you’ve got.”

Gongsun Ce pushed himself up, bracing against his knees. He noticed blood at the dragon devotee’s lips and his stance was less stable, faintly unsteady. The dump truck’s ambush hadn’t been in vain; Xu Junyi had taken serious damage, otherwise Gongsun Ce wouldn’t have dodged that last blow.

“Let me think… How about a simple provocation? As an Imperial official and Unchanging Mage, you must hold some rank, understand the duty to defend the nation. Yet here you abandon that responsibility, pursue the evil dragon, and attack a civilian like me. Have you no shame—how can you face your younger self?”

Xu Junyi was about to advance, but paused at those words.

“How did you know I—?”

The superhuman brushed the dust from his clothes. “It’s barely reasoning, just elimination. The name Xu Junyi isn’t from the Qin family, yet you use their techniques—so you must have learned from them. Without official ties, how would you have met their instructors? If this tells us anything… I’d guess the reason you’re on this path is the Calamity of the Firmament, ten years ago.”

“…You’re wrong.”

The middle-aged man released his fist and gazed at his palm. “I’m a native of Ruoshui City… That year, I returned home for a family visit and witnessed Its advent with my own eyes.”

The superhuman fell silent, meaning to say something, but remembering that the man before him sought to repeat tragedy in the City of the Firmament.

In the end, he murmured, “I’m sorry… But you must understand why I try to stop you.”

The middle-aged man answered coldly. “Your apology reveals only your ignorance and shallowness. You think my family died? They should have become residents of the new world, basking in the divine radiance for eternity… It was the Empire that destroyed it all.”

Xu Junyi’s hands trembled, as memories weighed so heavily they stilled his body.

“Since coming to this city, I’ve felt nothing but pain. The dragon’s wail from ten years ago still echoes in my ears, yet the ignorant masses here notice nothing. They tread upon the shoulders of gods like ants trampling a giant’s head.”

“They even remade the body of the god into such a form!” He clenched his fist again, charging like a savage beast. “It was the Empire of Eternal Light that killed the god! Mortal ignorance destroyed my family! Arrogant boy, you think you’re saving the world? You’re just another executioner, butchering life!”

A dull thud sounded as his body halted, the fist meant for Gongsun Ce’s face intercepted midair by the crimson iron gauntlet.

“Living humans turned to bodiless mist, transformed into statues fused with stone… You call that eternity? You dare call those who stopped it executioners?”

Gongsun Ce locked his grip on the man’s right fist.

“Enough, Xu Junyi.”

Now, Gongsun Ce felt true anger. Far greater than when he fought Tyrellos, far greater than when he faced the masked man; a rage born from within consumed his reason, driving him to strike at the man with reckless abandon.

“Get out of my way—!”

Xu Junyi’s knee slammed into his abdomen.

“Stop your monologue! You’re not the only survivor of the dragon phenomenon!”

At that moment, the furious youth smashed his fist into the enemy’s face.