018, You Really Are Master Roshi!!

Mary Sue once again took up a defensive stance, seeming determined to defend and not attack.

"Still using the turtle-shell strategy?" Zhang Wutian scoffed.

"As long as it works, I don't care if it's a dung beetle strategy," Mary Sue said without backing down.

In fact, Zhang Wutian had a very simple way to break Mary Sue's defensive strategy: fire a ki blast from a distance. If he used a ranged attack, any counterattack technique would be a joke.

It just feels like I'd be admitting defeat if I did that. But Zhang Wutian refused to do it. He was determined to break through his opponent's defense head-on.

In an actual fight, it would indeed be as foolish as charging into a mountain. But this was only a tournament, and Zhang Wutian was enjoying himself.

After wiping the blood from his face, Zhang Wutian clenched both fists and held them at his sides. Every muscle in his body tensed as he let out a mighty roar.

"Ahhh—ahhh—ahhh!!!"

An astonishing burst of ki erupted from him, blowing rubble and shattered stones off the broken ring.

"Can he power up even further? What kind of joke is this? Did Master Korin teach some kind of monster?"

As if she'd heard Mary Sue's mutter, Zhang Wutian spoke up. "A monster? That's only because you don't know what that cat's really capable of. As I am now, I'm merely on par with him."

"Only his ki is barely catching up to mine. He's still far behind in every other way, meow!" Master Korin grumbled from high atop Korin Tower as he watched TV and leisurely munched on dried fish, completely at ease.

"That stinking cat was holding back on me?" Mary Sue gritted her teeth, then looked at Zhang Wutian. "Your ki is indeed strong, but even this level won't get through my Heaven-Earth Reversal Style."

"Is that so?" Zhang Wutian didn't argue. He decided to let his actions speak for him.

The next moment, using the recoil from stomping through the ground, Zhang Wutian charged ferociously at Mary Sue, who had taken up her stance.

Stretching his fist out to its full extent and aiming at Mary Sue, Zhang Wutian unleashed a Dash Heavy Punch.

Mary Sue's hands once again met Zhang Wutian's fist, and their bodies clashed.

The next moment, a series of crackling sounds rang out.

The sleeve on the outside of Mary Sue's arm instantly disintegrated. Countless tiny beads of blood burst from her muscular arm, yet she still held Zhang Wutian's fist back with all her might. Then she drew it in and pulled.

She was about to follow through with a twist, but in that gap of less than a tenth of a second, Zhang Wutian struck first.

Ki burst violently outward from Zhang Wutian's fist.

"Break!"

"Impudent!" Mary Sue gave it everything she had. Faced with Zhang Wutian's explosive attack, she desperately tightened her grip, never letting him break free.

Pushing her ki to its limit, Mary Sue unleashed a vast, deep reservoir of energy from within her. At last, Zhang Wutian's ki was suppressed. The moment passed, and the Heaven-Earth Reversal Style took effect once more. Zhang Wutian's body flipped around again, spun by the force that turned heaven and earth upside down, and lost its balance.

Just as his face was about to hit the ground, Zhang Wutian watched a shoe grow larger and larger before his eyes.

Boom! The tremendous thud sounded like a drumbeat. Mary Sue kicked Zhang Wutian's head like a ball, sending him flying backward along with the rest of his body.

Half-conscious as he flew through the air once more, Zhang Wutian saw Mary Sue launch a follow-up attack—one that would likely leave him unable to get back up if it landed.

Mary Sue leaped into the air, aiming to drive Zhang Wutian into the ground with her knee. If the blow connected, it would probably crush his internal organs.

Zhang Wutian instantly threw up both hands to defend himself, barely blocking Mary Sue's knee. Even so, the attack drove him into the ground.

The ring at the Martial Arts Tournament was struck a devastating blow once more, leaving it even more shattered than before.

Though he'd blocked Mary Sue's attack head-on, Zhang Wutian had taken another heavy blow to his back when he hit the ground. Combined with the trauma to his head and the waves of dizziness, "battered from head to toe" was the perfect description of his condition.

But Zhang Wutian's fighting spirit hadn't diminished. If anything, he was getting more excited as the fight grew more intense.

But just then, a small interruption broke the rhythm of the battle.

"What's going on? Contestant Mary Sue has undergone an astonishing transformation! Who is this young, beautiful woman on the ring? Did contestant Mary Sue secretly switch places with someone while we weren't looking?" The announcer's booming voice rang through the entire venue.

With the youthful, radiant face of a woman in her twenties, Mary Sue—who seemed to have gone from middle-aged auntie to young woman in an instant—frowned as she looked at Zhang Wutian, who had narrowly escaped danger at the last moment.

"You're really tenacious. At this rate, this will go on forever."

"No, more importantly, what happened to you? Rejuvenation? Is this what happens when you push your ki to its limit?"

"I used too much ki, temporarily activating my body's cells and giving myself the illusion of youth. Are you smitten with the way I look now?"

Mary Sue had reason to say that. Now that she was younger, she could be considered a dashing female martial artist. But Zhang Wutian wasn't the least bit moved. The reason was simple.

You really are Master Roshi in disguise, aren't you? The difference is huge!! Are women's disguises always this good? Is this some kind of innate skill of yours?!

If she could use ki to change herself from a forty-year-old auntie into a twenty-year-old woman, then surely she could do the same and go from a four-hundred-year-old granny to a forty-year-old auntie.

That wrinkled old woman was enough to put an end to anyone's lascivious fantasies.

"I'm not going to lust after a granny over four hundred years old."

"Oh my, you saw through me? Keep this a secret from my disciples, okay?" Mary Sue... Master Roshi made a cute pleading gesture at Zhang Wutian. Such a perfectly natural gesture paired with Master Roshi's identity and background made the whole scene unbearably incongruous.

"That doesn't matter," Zhang Wutian said. "You're at your peak right now, aren't you?"

"That's right," Mary Sue answered readily.

"I'm going to defeat you here, while you're still at your peak."

"It's good for young people to be full of spirit, but you shouldn't force yourself to do the impossible."

"Pushing past your limits is a privilege of the young. What's wrong with that?"

Zhang Wutian drew his right fist back to his waist.

He opened his left hand and laid it over his right fist. At the same time, a massive amount of ki surged into his right fist.

Mary Sue watched his movements with a grave expression and silently took up her stance.

Ki gathered in Zhang Wutian's hand, expanding until it gave off a visible glow.

"That's enough! If you keep going, you won't be able to control that power!" Master Korin said in front of the television. But his voice clearly couldn't reach the Martial Arts Tournament venue, and Zhang Wutian continued gathering power.

"I can't let him keep charging up." Realizing this, Mary Sue launched a surprise attack at Zhang Wutian.

Mary Sue struck first with a crescent-shaped downward chop, hitting Zhang Wutian's body.

No, she hadn't hit him. Her attack passed right through Zhang Wutian and struck empty air.

"An afterimage?!" Since Mary Sue herself knew a technique called Afterimage Strike, she immediately realized what her opponent was doing. But there was inevitably a brief delay between realizing it, reacting, and moving.

Zhang Wutian was already incredibly fast, and that instant gave him a chance to counterattack.

"Now you can't block my attack, can you? You can't use that counterattack technique you're so proud of!"

"Take this!"

The glowing fist grew larger and larger before Mary Sue's eyes...