The deadly white light gathered once more at Mercenary Tao's fingertip. The icy breath of death enveloped Lin Fan, who lay in the ruins, barely conscious.
He could even feel the faint burn of the destructive energy radiating toward him.
Was this the end...
At that critical moment—
"Bastard! Get away from him!!"
A shrill scream rang out from the alley entrance, choked with tears yet blazing with fury!
The next instant, a huge machine came charging in with a thunderous rumble!
It was a massive yellow-and-black Engineering Robot, three stories tall and designed for construction sites!
Bulma was in its crude cockpit, her little face deathly pale and tears welling in her eyes. Yet she gripped the controls with all her might and swung the robot's enormous metal shovel down at Mercenary Tao!
Clearly, in her panic, she had rushed over after commandeering the first machine she found at a nearby construction site!
Whoosh—
The enormous shovel came crashing down with a terrifying gust of wind. But to a killer of Mercenary Tao's caliber, it was as slow as a snail and riddled with openings.
Mercenary Tao didn't even turn around. He simply flicked his sleeve with a careless backhand.
Bang!!
A muffled crash rang out!
The enormous metal shovel, powerful enough to dig through rock, had struck an invisible wall of steel. It instantly rebounded with even greater force!
The massive Engineering Robot lurched violently with it. Bulma screamed as the impact shook her in the cockpit, nearly throwing her from her seat!
"Another annoying fly."
Mercenary Tao's icy gaze finally shifted from Lin Fan to the lumbering robot. A flicker of undisguised disgust and killing intent crossed his eyes. "Fine. I'll get rid of you both."
The finger he had aimed at Lin Fan shifted slightly, pointing at Bulma, who was panicking inside the cockpit.
The light of the Dodon Ray blazed at his fingertip once more!
Bulma saw the deadly beam aimed at her and shut her eyes in terror, her mind going blank.
Yet Bulma's clumsy, reckless interference had bought Lin Fan a fraction of a second—perhaps less than one, but a crucial fraction all the same!
The agony and the threat of death jolted Lin Fan's hazy consciousness awake!
His instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else!
He couldn't die! He absolutely couldn't die here!
His gaze swept across his blood-soaked chest, the wreckage of the totaled sports car nearby, and finally settled on his waist, where several small Hoi-Poi Capsules hung. One of them held the daily necessities—and pills—Bulma had packed for him!
There was still a chance!
One last chance to risk everything!
The dangerous passage about Foundation Establishment in the Great Dao Source Scripture flashed through his mind: an enormous amount of energy was needed to smash through the barrier. Succeed, and he would be reborn; fail, and his meridians would shatter, killing him!
He should have taken it slowly, but now... there was no choice but to face death and fight for life!
With the last of his strength, he tore off the capsule and pressed it, taking out everything inside: five or six bottles of freshly mass-produced Qi Recovery Powder, and... a small glass vial containing a thick liquid that glowed with a faint green light, brimming with vitality!
It was the essence he had carefully extracted in his pill furnace from a Senzu Bean he had come by by chance! Perhaps it had been a souvenir Bulma brought back from Korin Tower.
Or perhaps Goku had given it to her earlier? He had no idea.
He had planned to save it as a genuine trump card. Its life energy far surpassed that of Qi Recovery Powder!
There was no time to worry about that now!
A crazed glint flashed through Lin Fan's eyes. He shoved all the Qi Recovery Powder pills and the small vial of Senzu Bean Essence into his mouth, chewed them up, and swallowed!
Boom!!!
It was as if a bomb had gone off inside him!
An unimaginable torrent of energy erupted in an instant!
The medicinal power of the Qi Recovery Powder surged like a raging river, while the tremendous life energy of the Senzu Bean Essence crashed through him like a tsunami!
The two forces combined, nearly bursting his already gravely wounded body apart! His meridians screamed with tearing pain, and his dantian burned like fire!
"Ahhh!!!"
Lin Fan couldn't hold back a howl of pain. The veins bulged across his body, and his skin turned red!
The sudden burst of energy and Lin Fan's grotesque condition gave Mercenary Tao pause as he prepared to kill Bulma. Another flicker of surprise crossed his cold eyes.
What had the kid swallowed? Was he still going to put up a struggle on the brink of death?
"Now!!"
Lin Fan screamed inwardly. Enduring the agony of his body coming apart, he followed the Great Dao Source Scripture's method and frantically directed the uncontrolled, destructive torrent of energy within him. He no longer tried to heal his wounds. Instead, he sent it all crashing toward the impenetrable Foundation Establishment barrier!
Succeed, or die trying!
The immense energy roared like an enraged dragon, battering the invisible threshold of his cultivation realm!
Every impact brought tearing pain, but it also made the immovable barrier finally... tremble ever so slightly!
It was working!
Bloodshot eyes, Lin Fan drove the energy harder, unleashing one final, all-or-nothing assault!
Fine beads of blood began to seep from his skin. Blood poured from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. He looked utterly wretched, yet his aura surged at an astonishing rate, growing violent and unstable!
Mercenary Tao, who had been about to fire the Dodon Ray, finally frowned.
He could clearly sense that the bug at his feet, who should have been dead, was giving off an incredibly chaotic yet enormous energy signature!
"Last-ditch struggle."
He snorted and stopped paying attention to the Engineering Robot, which was still frozen in terror. Once more, he aimed his fingertip at Lin Fan.
This time, he would erase the bug and that strange energy along with him!
But just as he was about to fire the Dodon Ray—
Hum!!!
A strange, indescribable pulse suddenly spread from within Lin Fan!
It wasn't powerful ki. It was something more primordial, more fundamental... a tremor at the level of life itself!
The violent energy around Lin Fan abruptly collapsed inward, as if swallowed by an invisible black hole!
The terrible wound that pierced his chest began to writhe and heal before their very eyes!
The charred tissue fell away, and new flesh sprouted at a frantic pace!
Inside him, the sturdy Foundation Establishment barrier finally... burst open beneath the relentless assault of the immense energy provided by the Senzu Bean Essence and Qi Recovery Powder!
A stream of True Essence, far purer and more abundant than the energy of the Qi Refining Stage, imbued with a hint of primordial power, surged through every limb and organ like a newly born river!
The Foundation Establishment Stage!
At the brink of life and death, Lin Fan had forced his way through the barrier by gulping down pills and Senzu Bean Essence!
He abruptly lifted his head, his eyes blazing! He was covered in blood and looked utterly battered, but his aura had become completely different!
Mercenary Tao's finger stopped in midair.
He stared at Lin Fan, who seemed to have been reborn. For the first time, that eternally frozen, impassive face showed genuine...
Shock.
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