The spear-wielding man's eyes widened, his throat tightening as he watched his comrade's body shatter against the pillars.
"LIAAAANG!!!"
The scream broke out, laden with desperation that tore through the air.
Nona Li did not waste time on sympathy. To her, failure was a stain, and the only way to erase it was to eliminate its source. She stomped her foot, triggering an explosion of sonic waves that functioned like a jet engine, launching her body as she charged toward Haoran. Dust and gravel beneath her feet were hurled away as if struck by a grenade blast.
Haoran turned around calmly. Amid the chaos that was collapsing the concrete structures around them, their gazes met. Nona Li's eyes gleamed with fury and arrogance, while Haoran's glasses reflected her enraged face. Nona Li thrust her palm forward from a fairly close distance, a Sonic Wave erupting from her hand.
WUSH.
The blast only tore through an afterimage.
Haoran was no longer there.
In a single blink, he appeared behind Nona Li—silent, light, as composed as a predator certain its prey had no escape. The air at her back trembled faintly, enough to serve as a warning for a fraction of a second.
Nona Li snorted softly.
She did not bother turning around. Her heel struck the ground—BOOM! A sonic wave exploded from her foot, forming a dome of pressure that swept dust and fragments of stone within a five-meter radius. The floor trembled, the air split apart, and a gray haze rose into a blurred curtain that swallowed her silhouette.
Without pause, she shot forward, her body spinning sharply along the momentum of that explosion. Her hair whipped with the motion, her palm already gathering energy for the next strike.
And she dashed ahead, spinning swiftly, ready to launch a follow-up attack. Yet the sight before her made her freeze.
Haoran stood there, utterly unaffected by the tension of this deadly battle. With an unhurried motion, he adjusted his slightly crooked glasses. His right hand slipped into his pocket, retrieving a cigarette and a metal lighter. He placed the cigarette between his lips. A crisp click sounded as he flicked the lighter's wheel. His left hand rose, curving protectively around the small flame against the fierce wind howling through the exposed floor of the building. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled a thin stream of smoke into the air.
"Tchh," muttered the spear-wielding man who still stood. His face flushed red at the insult. With the remnants of his strength, he compressed the concrete material, forming a long, sharp spear. Without calculation, he lunged forward, delivering a reckless, emotion-filled thrust toward Haoran's chest.
Haoran finished drawing from his cigarette, releasing gray smoke that slowly faded into the air. Just before the concrete spear's tip tore into his clothing, he vanished again. He reappeared behind Nona Li. His hand lifted, fingers curling into a deadly precise fist.
Nona Li possessed reflexes honed through thousands of battles. The moment she realized Haoran had disappeared from her sight, she instantly triggered a sonic explosion at her feet, shooting forward like a silver bullet. She stopped beside the spear-wielding man and turned around warily.
BOOM!
Haoran's punch that struck only empty air unleashed an overwhelming pressure wave. Its kinetic effect was so immense that it created a natural sonic boom. The concrete floor at the impact point was obliterated, leaving a gaping hole as if struck by a wrecking ball weighing dozens of tons.
The spear-wielding man trembled violently. His face drained of color at the raw power just released. A punch that hadn't even made physical contact had pierced the structure of the building.
'I have to leave this fight as soon as possible… before I—'
His thoughts were cut short. Reality moved faster than his neural signals.
Before he could finish his internal sentence, Haoran's hand had already clamped onto his head. In a motion too fast for the eye to follow, Haoran swung his arm, throwing the man as if tossing a pebble. The spear-wielder's body crashed into several reinforced concrete pillars, shattering them into dust before being hurled beyond the building's edge, free-falling toward the distant ground below.
Down there, Yan Shuo looked up, breath caught in his throat. He saw the silhouette of a body plummeting from above, slamming into the asphalt with a heavy crash.
"I thought Uncle was going to lose," the boy murmured, clutching his golden book tighter.
Nona Li watched her comrade discarded so easily. The nerves at her temple throbbed. "Truly a monster," she thought, admitting for the first time that her opponent stood on a different level. She stomped the floor, using sonic propulsion to leap to the upper floor through a hole in the ceiling. She landed above with only minor bruises on her body, while sonic waves continued to radiate from her feet, making her appear as though she were hovering atop vibrating air.
"If this continues, I'll be the one turned into a punching bag," Nona Li thought, attempting to reassess her strategy. But Haoran gave her no time to breathe. He had already shifted behind her, ready to deliver a crushing blow.
Nona Li glanced sharply. She amplified her sonic output, creating an instant explosion that propelled her body sideways at extreme speed. Haoran's punch once again struck empty air, yet he did not stop. He shifted to the lower floor, leaving behind a faintly warped distortion in the air.
Nona Li looked down, seeing Haoran below, calmly taking another drag from his cigarette and exhaling smoke. Her gaze then shifted to the communication radio in her hand. The device bore a faint scratch—a subtle mark from Haoran's earlier movement.
"Is he targeting my radio!!"
Her anger flared. With an irritated expression, she aimed downward. A massive sonic wave was released, slamming into Haoran's position with pressure capable of flattening steel. The concrete floor around him cracked and caved in. Yet beneath that crushing force, Haoran remained standing. He looked up at Nona Li with both hands tucked into his pockets, as though the attack were nothing more than a gentle breeze.
Nona Li grew even more furious. She released the radio from her left hand; it fell and shattered before hitting the ground under the force of her own pressure. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a pair of white TWS (true wireless stereo) earbuds, and put them on. Instantly, her energy frequency resonated. With full confidence, she shot downward toward Haoran.
Haoran remained motionless.
She extended her palm, unleashing a focused sonic wave. Haoran, who had been standing still, shifted aside, allowing the attack to pierce the floor. Two levels beneath them were instantly perforated by the blast.
"So strong, my body will have difficulty withstanding that attack," Haoran thought. He realized the sonic waves were growing stronger. Nona Li raised her right hand, releasing a spiraling sonic blast. Its destructive power multiplied.
"I can't see her attack clearly, but it has grown significantly stronger since she put that thing on," Haoran thought again.
Nona Li smiled faintly. Her left hand followed, launching a second sonic wave. Haoran shifted positions. Her right hand fired again. Haoran shifted once more as the building's structure gradually crumbled into fragments around them. The barrage was endless. Haoran kept moving, but he began to notice the change in Nona Li's attack pattern.
He observed her fingers. Previously, they had remained outstretched, allowing energy to flow constantly. Now she clenched them—the sonic wave paused briefly, compressed within her fist. When her palm opened again, a far denser pressure blast shot out.
She repeated it without hesitation. Open. Clench. Open.
A relentless barrage of sonic waves fired continuously, striking every corner without pause. "If she keeps launching attacks like that, this floor will collapse and I'll be at a severe disadvantage without footing," Haoran thought.
He decided to shift into higher airspace, avoiding the cascading explosions below. Nona Li looked up, her eyes gleaming. "I won't let you get close!" She stretched both arms without pause, generating a continuous stream of sonic waves as if wielding a frequency cannon.
Haoran danced between gaps in the sound. "Now's the time," he murmured softly.
He shifted behind Nona Li, clenching his fist for a finishing strike. But unexpectedly, a sonic wave came from the side, forcing him to shift again downward. The wave did not hit the wall—it curved sharply, pursuing his new position.
"It curves?" Haoran muttered.
He shifted again, yet the wave bent through the air, locking onto him. "Not only does it curve, it tracks its target," he thought.
Nona Li laughed mockingly. "So this is a Special Realm? So weak—you can't do anything against me!"
Haoran discarded the remainder of his cigarette, focusing entirely. He teleported repeatedly around Nona Li—front, back, side, above—creating a series of afterimages that confused her senses.
Her sonic waves began losing direction, unable to match the increasing madness of his teleportation speed. Suddenly, Nona Li's cheek was sliced. Fresh blood seeped from her skin. She jolted, seeing sharp concrete shards streaking through the chaos.
"What's happening?" she thought in panic. She wiped the blood away with her left hand while her right continued firing purposeless sonic attacks. Another shard struck her right hand, then her right leg.
Her eyes tried to capture what was happening within a fraction of a millisecond. She saw it. Haoran was not merely shifting positions; at every teleportation point, he picked up fragments of the collapsing building and hurled them with absolute force toward her.
"I thought someone else had arrived, but it's him… teleporting without pause, confusing my attacks, and now in between teleports he's grabbing chunks of debris and throwing them at me!" Nona Li began to falter. Small but lethal strikes rained upon her body. "The longer I stay here, the worse my condition becomes." She chose to end this with an area attack. Her right hand ceased firing. She brought both palms together, clapping them violently to create a devastating omnidirectional sonic explosion.
Haoran immediately stopped and shifted away, landing beside Yan Shuo to shield him. Together they watched as the floor beneath Nona Li was utterly destroyed, collapsing into rubble under the pressure. Nona Li stood amid the devastation, her breathing slightly heavier, yet her gaze remained cold and filled with hatred.
Haoran exhaled softly, preparing for the next round. He walked forward calmly, but suddenly two buildings at their sides collapsed simultaneously. Something massive shot through their structures.
A gigantic black iron sphere, the size of two buildings, hurtled straight toward Haoran. Realizing the impact could devastate the area where Yan Shuo stood, Haoran chose not to teleport. Instead, he stood firm. He raised both hands, catching the immense momentum of the colossal sphere. The sound of metal clashing against raw strength rang deafeningly. Haoran was pushed back several meters, his feet carving trenches into the concrete road, yet he halted its advance.
Slowly, the black iron sphere shrank, compressing until it was only the size of a car tire, though its density remained terrifying.
In the dust that had not yet settled, a figure stepped forward. His clothes were shabby, the fabric dull and torn in several places, hanging loosely over his heavy, plump body. Each step caused the ground to tremble faintly, his breathing rough like the exhale of an old furnace. In his hand, a thick chain rattled as he pulled back the black iron sphere, now dark and devoid of shine.
"It seems you're having trouble, Miss."