Cyborg Tao Pai Pai

Let's go back to the previous match.

"Next up, from Section Four: Chiaotzu versus Tao Pai Pai!"

At the referee's announcement, the competitors' area, which had been as noisy as a marketplace, fell silent as if someone had hit a mute button.

Every eye, whether curious, contemptuous, or fearful, fixed on the makeshift Reinforced Concrete Arena.

On one side of the Arena, Chiaotzu hovered in midair, looking especially tiny.

His emerald-green Qing Dynasty-style official's jacket fluttered faintly in the breeze, and his pale little face, with two circles of rouge on his cheeks, was taut with tension.

His usually wide, adorable eyes were filled with instinctive fear.

Cold sweat slid down his smooth forehead and dripped onto the floor, shattering at once.

Across from him stood a figure who seemed to have emerged from the depths of a nightmare.

Tao Pai Pai.

He had once been his martial uncle.

He was also the assassin who had once struck terror into the hearts of martial artists across the world.

But now, he no longer looked entirely human.

Beneath his trademark pink robe, there were no longer warm, muscular contours, but cold alloy bones and a complex hydraulic system.

The left half of his face still looked human. A chilling, sinister smile curled his lips, framing the well-kept yet wicked face of a middle-aged man.

The right half of his face, however, was completely covered by a cold, silver-gray metal plate.

A red electronic eye turned soundlessly in its sunken socket, emitting a faint crackle.

Like a sophisticated scanner, it was breaking down the prey before him into a mass of data.

"Heh heh heh..."

Tao Pai Pai let out a low chuckle, his voice like coarse sandpaper scraping against rusty metal, grating and spine-chilling.

"I've missed this—the taste of being surrounded by fear. The air is thick with the trembling of the weak, like a fine aperitif."

"Kid, you're that old fossil Crane Hermit's student, aren't you? Too bad for you that you ran into me."

"You... you're..."

Chiaotzu's voice trembled. He could feel the energy radiating from his opponent.

It wasn't human energy. It was a cold, lifeless malice, brimming with the desire to kill.

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you're about to become a pile of scrap."

Tao Pai Pai slowly raised his fully mechanical left hand. The metal joints in his fingers clicked crisply.

The spectators and competitors around them began whispering, their voices full of unease.

"Hey, who's that half-robot? He looks brutal."

"You don't know him? That's Tao Pai Pai! They said Goku killed him a few years ago. How did he end up like this?"

"Oh my god, that little guy looks so pitiful. This isn't even a fair fight."

Below the Arena, Tien Shinhan stared at Tao Pai Pai with all three eyes, his pupils contracting sharply.

It was killing intent—pure, unadulterated killing intent.

He gripped the railing tightly with both hands. The iron bars gradually bent beneath his monstrous strength.

"Chiaotzu! Surrender! There's something wrong with that guy!!"

"D-Dodon Ray!"

Chiaotzu could no longer bear the suffocating pressure.

His instinct to survive drove him to strike first.

He thrust out his index finger, instantly concentrating all his energy at its tip.

A yellow beam of energy, blazing with heat, tore through the air and shot straight at Tao Pai Pai's heart.

The attack was as fast as lightning, carrying Chiaotzu's determination to win.

Yet Tao Pai Pai didn't even move his feet.

He merely raised his unmodified right hand and flicked his index finger.

"Clink!"

The sound was as crisp as a tap on fine porcelain.

The Dodon Ray, powerful enough to pierce rock and seemingly unstoppable to ordinary people, was knocked aside by a single finger!

The stray beam shot toward the hall's ceiling, blasting down a shower of rubble and dust and drawing gasps from the crowd.

"Too weak."

Tao Pai Pai shook his head, his electronic eye gleaming with mockery.

"Has the Crane School fallen this far?"

"That limp attack couldn't even tickle me. Is this what you call ki?"

"It's like a child's water pistol."

"Tien... Tien..."

Chiaotzu backed away in terror. He tried to call out to his senior through telepathy, but fear left his Mental Power in disarray.

He gritted his teeth and thrust out both hands, palms facing Tao Pai Pai, unleashing all his psychic power.

"Golden Binding Technique!!"

An invisible force of psychic energy enveloped Tao Pai Pai, trying to pin him in place.

Chiaotzu's stomach heaved. The technique took a heavy toll on him.

"Oh? Psychic powers?"

Tao Pai Pai felt the force restraining him and grinned even wider.

"Interesting. The old me might have found this troublesome. But now..."

"Clack, clack, clack... Ugh..."

A grating metallic grinding sound came from inside Tao Pai Pai, as though a monstrous engine were roaring within him.

"Break... open!!"

Tao Pai Pai suddenly strained against the force, and his mechanical left arm unleashed terrifying strength.