Foolish Game of the Chapter 694: Not as Strong as Big Cat, but Far More Troubles

If you had to na the most miserable person in this firestorm, it wasn't Cheng Shi — the designated target — but "innocent" Wu Cun.

Of course, her suffering wasn't from the fire itself. Oblivion's power was woven into a shield around her body, and the falling flas posed no real threat. What truly threatened her was... a certain person who looked suspiciously like a mummy.

Yes — her "innocence" had been imposed by Cheng Shi.

Cheng Shi was desperate too. When he realized there was nowhere left to stand and no respite from the fire above, he figured he needed to break the stalemate and catch his breath. And the only way to do that was to force the relentlessly-shooting Hawk Eye Scout to stop.

But Qin Xin was far more troubleso than he'd imagined!

The mont the Torchbearer realized Cheng Shi could inflict close-range damage on him, he simply refused to let Cheng Shi get close again.

No matter how Cheng Shi tried to approach, Qin Xin leveraged his hunter's agility to instantly create distance and snap off a couple of shots, making the fire rain even fiercer. After four or five rounds of this, Cheng Shi had exhausted nearly every ans of closing the gap. Even the dice he'd planted were being incinerated by the all-consuming blaze.

Left with no choice, Cheng Shi fell back to his next best option.

'When I can't beat a War follower, I can at least take a step back — and beat an Oblivion follower.'

And just like that, Wu Cun had beco Cheng Shi's shield, muddled and bewildered.

Cheng Shi didn't treat Wu Cun as a person. He seized her ankle with his nearly-indestructible Decayed arm, spun her like a top, and spread the Oblivion force clinging to her body into an umbrella overhead — blocking the rain of fire.

At this point, in a pure one-on-one assessnt, Cheng Shi had more or less lost. Though the opening had been his one concession — tacitly allowing Qin Xin to fence off the arena with fire arrows — failing to close out the fight in an enclosed space was an undeniable fact.

But battlefields and duels were not the sa. "Anything that can be used is a weapon in my hand" was a basic military principle. Even Qin Xin cracked a grin of appreciation at the sight, then — laughing — amped the fire rain's intensity by another thirty percent.

Now it was truly a sea of fire.

Old flas hadn't died before new ones crashed down. The blazing inferno inside the fire wall had scorched nearly every inch of the cramped arena. Space itself began warping. A little longer, and reality might burn through entirely — plunging everything into the Void.

Feeling his skin lt and slough off continuously, Cheng Shi furrowed his brow tight.

He'd launched several more probing attacks during this ti, but every one was read in advance and deflected by Qin Xin.

The man's fighting style was a self-contained system. The Hawk Eye Scout's traits gave him a panoramic view of the battlefield, letting him read the flow of combat from the subtlest details, anticipate the enemy, and seize every advantage.

After several exchanges, Cheng Shi felt he wasn't facing a wall of fla but a towering volcano — one utterly impossible to climb.

The last ti he'd felt this kind of pressure was watching Big Cat go blow-for-blow with Eposka.

Of course, Qin Xin and Hong Lin were completely different. Big Cat's montum lay in her fortress-shattering force and fearless charge. Qin Xin's lay in the precision of his "troop deploynts" and the accuracy of his "tactical commands."

He was acutely sensitive to shifts in the battlefield and devastatingly precise in seizing openings. Where Big Cat fought on sheer hot-blooded montum, Qin Xin's combat was devoid of emotion — pure technique.

He distilled War's grandeur into micro-precision, using pinpoint judgnt to force Cheng Shi into retreat after retreat.

This Hawk Eye Scout might not be as powerful as Big Cat — in the sa ti fra, Big Cat might have already sealed the win — but he was far more troubleso.

A fire prison plus a fire rain made the Scout nearly invincible!

War's followers truly excelled at war.

A faint sense of helplessness crept into Cheng Shi's heart.

He figured maybe only Big Cat could brute-force a bloody path out of this kind of deadlock, powered by sheer talent alone.

Of course, the clown wasn't out of options. He was just reluctant to use them.

The Curtain Call Ball — he still had one that recorded the Grand Tribunal's Elental Judges flooding a city. Replaying that scene here would undoubtedly drown the endless flas. But... was it worth it?

Non-consumable tricks could be used freely. But the mont he burned a consumable, this would beco a genuine fight to the death.

Cheng Shi had already achieved what he'd set out to test. He naturally wasn't willing to waste another shred. But if this war of attrition dragged on — even with the Thorn Weeping Rite replenishing him — he couldn't be certain he'd be the last one standing. Especially since Wu Cun, currently serving as his shield, was being suffocated by the extre heat.

Nobody could endure an offensive of this scale for long — including the attacker. Player ntal energy wasn't infinite. No matter how many item boosts you stacked, exhaustion would co.

Cheng Shi couldn't quite figure out why Qin Xin dared spend so lavishly. But he wasn't entirely without counterasures.

In fighting technique, the clown might be inferior to the Hawk Eye Scout. But in unconventional... magic tricks, ten Hawk Eye Scouts couldn't match a single clown's cunning.

So, to dodge his opponent's sharpest mont, Cheng Shi was forced to make a painful decision. He killed the Extinguisher — again.

Yes — the man who'd revived Wu Cun had now killed her with his own hands at the mont of her near-death.

The Extinguisher didn't even understand what was happening before her few-minute guest appearance in this show was over.

Naturally, Cheng Shi didn't bother fabricating excuses like "I'm relieving your suffering early." He didn't have ti.

The instant he snapped Wu Cun's neck, he pulled out the Door Key and transmuted her bones into a bone gate wreathed in spectral fla. Then he stepped through, using the gate to the Abyss of Desire as his new shield against the heavenly fire.

The move was devastatingly effective!

Because War's flas truly could not burn through the corridor forged by Death's own hand. And Qin Xin — watching this unfold — was so stunned that the arrows on his bow actually froze mid-draw.

Corruption again!

He could already sll the dense Corruption aura seeping from beyond the gate. Watching Cheng Shi borrow Corruption's power for the second, third ti — the Torchbearer's expression grew darker and darker.

"When you sought Its shelter, did you ever consider that every compromise with desire is a chip It silently collects?

Your resistance threshold will only sink the closer you drift to the Sea of Desire. And when the debt accumulates, Cheng Shi — aren't you afraid you'll slip and plunge into the Sea?!"

Qin Xin was livid. He drew his bow once more, aiming at the gap in the Bone Gate, clearly intent on blasting Cheng Shi out with a single shot.

But Cheng Shi didn't open the door. He didn't go deeper, didn't step back — just hung in the threshold, wedging a Destiny die in the crack, and peered out through the gap with a grin:

"Tell

— have you never sought His shelter?"

"Never. I believe only in the fire I hold in my own hands." Qin Xin's tone was absolute.

"Heh — if War's fire could burn forever, how would the Era of Chaos have ever begun?

There'll co a ti when your fire isn't enough. What then?"

"Then I'll bleed every last drop.

Give it everything. Die with no regrets!"

"..."

'Damn. He actually out-cooled .'