Kun was not in the present battleground, and when the small bugs were crushed, so too was her vision. She had now lost all sight of Han Sen.
Kun was taken aback by this, needless to say. The first thing she did, though, was spawn another swarm of small bugs with her small bug powers. They took off in flight, fanning across the area and rabidly searching for Han Sen.
But before the bugs could find Han Sen, the place was doused in a golden light. Countless coins came raining down from the sky, crushing every single one of the bugs Kun had spawned.
Kun was shocked. She spawned another host of small bugs as she moved away from the vicinity.
Kun regretted the fact she hadn’t put more distance between herself and Han Sen earlier. Doubly so, after running a short while and seeing a gold shadow appear above her.
Kun screamed and flapped her wings in panic. Bugs came out of her in a swarm that was as thick as a fog. They went racing towards Han Sen, seeking to distract him while she made a desperate escape to save herself.
Han Sen blasted the incoming swarm with a geyser of fire. His body was like a human flamethrower, and he scorched through the bug fog and appeared directly before Kun.
Kun wished to turn and attack, but when she tried to do so, she lost control of her vision. Things began to spin. The world was swirling around her, and she could not re-orient herself. Shortly after, she hit the ground and saw her own headless body drop to the forest floor.
Seeing Han Sen cut Kun’s head off, Hai’er became incredibly angry.
After Kun was decapitated, though, the paper of her registration did not get torn up. The reason why was soon revealed, as a bigger bug emerged from the brain inside her lopped-off head. The bug flew up and then shredded the paper itself. After that, the bug vanished from sight.
“It looks like not even Kun has what it takes to overcome the power of Coin. We need someone who has real power to face Dollar and emerge victorious in a one-to-one bout.”
“I am afraid only Lone Bamboo might have what it takes.”
“Kun is very strong, but Dollar is no average opponent. He was able to exploit her weakness.”
The audience was eager for more. Although Kun had used a strange power to bring Dollar some trouble, fights like that were not exciting enough. It didn’t quench their thirst. So, most people immediately moved on to anticipating the fight between Dollar and Lone Bamboo.
The genius of Sky Palace versus the mysterious Dollar. Before the fight was even to begin, people were talking about it everywhere. Many people believed Dollar would be the one to win, but many others thought Lone Bamboo could actually beat him. Both sides were adamant about their beliefs, and convincing the opposition seemed to be an impossible task.
Many gambling organizations had placed the odds at a very even sum, suggesting not even those experts could determine who might be the winner.
Han Sen knew that he was going to fight Lone Bamboo next, and although he really wanted to win, even he wasn’t sure if he could defeat the powerful Sky.
He had battled Lone Bamboo once before, and neither of them bested the other. Their last bout ended in a draw. Lone Bamboo had suffered a terrible swelling of emotions, and he eventually put his knife away.
“I wonder how much Lone Bamboo has grown since then. Will he still lose control to a flareup of bad emotions?” Han Sen did not want to encounter Lone Bamboo, but he did have a simmering excitement for it that he could not deny. He wanted to fight him as much as he didn’t.
Dragon Eight was physically more powerful than Lone Bamboo, but while Dragon Eight was like a perfect killing machine, Lone Bamboo was as refined as art.
Killing machines were perfect in the way they were big and scary. Their greatest weakness, however, was in the flexibility of their talents. They often lacked diversity and breadth in their skills, and so they could not adapt to changing situations.
On the other hand, Lone Bamboo’s capabilities were always stunning, even to elites. His strength was nowhere near perfect, but it was beautiful. And that often took people by surprise.
If Han Sen had to select an opponent for life, it would be Lone Bamboo. Dragon Eight was a dangerous opponent, but Han Sen already understood him. He could calculate what a person like Dragon Eight would do, winning or losing. But Lone Bamboo always had something up his sleeve, and he could always do things that his opponents would never expect.
Han Sen had joined the Geno Being Scroll to gain fame and draw the attention of that so-called god. He had achieved his goal by now. He had established his name, and it no longer mattered if he won or lost.
But even so, Han Sen wanted to win the fight against Lone Bamboo.
In Sky Palace, Lone Bamboo sat inside a stone pavilion. There was a teacup beside him, but he did not move it. He simply looked up at the moon in space.
“What do you think of Dollar?” The Sky Palace leader suddenly appeared in the stone pavilion.
“He is a very strong individual,” Lone Bamboo answered.
“How so?” When the Sky Palace leader asked this, he did so with a smile.
“Feeling,” Lone Bamboo quietly answered.
“Feeling?” The Sky Palace leader raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Lone Bamboo dipped into serious thought for a moment. “His body is strong like an elite Dragon’s. His Coin can suppress someone like Dragon Eight, and if he summons it in large quantities, it can annihilate a swarm of insects. But to me, that is not the scariest thing. What scares me is what I feel when I watch him fight.”
“What feelings does he stir within you?” the Sky Palace leader asked.
“He makes me think he is indestructible,” Lone Bamboo said with a tone of gravitas.
The Sky Palace leader nodded and asked him, “What are you planning to do?”
Lone Bamboo stood up and seriously told him, “I plan to win.”
“Good.” The Sky Palace leader patted him on the shoulder and said nothing more.
After Lone Bamboo left the pavilion, a woman with a black mask appeared by the side of the Sky Palace leader. She quietly said, “Do you think Lone Bamboo has what it takes to win?”
“You don’t have to doubt the abilities of Lone Bamboo,” the Sky Palace leader said.
You shouldn’t say that. And that isn’t what I asked. I am asking you if you think he will win.” The black-masked woman stared at him.
The Sky Palace leader opened his hands and said, “You saw the powers possessed by Dollar. We don’t know him enough yet, but I must say he is a scary guy. We can only wait and see if Lone Bamboo will triumph, but he has never disappointed me before.”
Lone Bamboo returned from Sky Palace and went to his own private isle. Before he entered his bamboo house, he stopped for a moment and looked at it.
The bamboo door was pushed open slightly, and a little girl leaped through the opening. Behind her, however, was a black-haired young man.
“Who are you?” Lone Bamboo asked the young man.
He could tell that the man was one of the Sky, but he had never met a young Sky that strong before. The man’s presence was akin to that of a terrifying beast or even the darkest reaches of the abyss itself. Even though the man was standing right there, Lone Bamboo’s senses couldn’t tell him anything about the man.
“Evil Eye.” The man smiled.
Lone Bamboo frowned. He knew that name, but he had never expected Evil Eye to have been reborn as one of the Sky. And on top of that, he had brought a little girl into Sky Palace in secret.
“What are you doing here?” Lone Bamboo asked.
Evil Eye rolled his shoulders in a shrug. “I came here for you. You and Dollar are interesting. I want to fight you both, but you two will be meeting first. To make sure that I don’t miss out, I have come to see you first.”
“Actually, we are looking for Dollar. We do not know where to find him, though, so we came for you first.” The little girl spoke with a surprising amount of seriousness.