Lin Bai's First PvP Fight

[Anger from Qingfeng Daoist; +1+1+1...]

Veins throbbed on the Daoist's smooth forehead. "Greedy," he snapped.

Lin Bai said, "As the saying goes, an inch of time is worth an inch of gold, and cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. You're buying a year of my time and killing my parents on top of that. Eighteen thousand taels and change is a bargain. You won't even pay ten thousand-odd taels? Your desire to save people isn't very sincere, Reverend!"

"..." [Deng Libuduo] stared at Lin Bai, awestruck.

"I have never seen anyone willing to throw away his life for such a paltry profit." The plump Taoist trembled with rage at Lin Bai's twisted reasoning.

"Well! Now you have." Lin Bai raised his eyebrows.

[Resentment from Qingfeng Daoist; +1+1...]

"..." The Taoist fell silent for a moment, then suddenly sneered. "Fine, fine, fine. Since you refuse to see reason, I might as well send you inside to keep them company. The result will be the same..."

"Wait, Reverend," Lin Bai hurriedly said. "It's not as though we can't negotiate."

"How?" the Taoist asked.

"I could give you a discount..." Lin Bai smiled, but halfway through his sentence, he bent his left knee slightly, swept his right palm in a circle, and thrust it forward. "The Haughty Dragon Has Every!"

A dragon's roar rang out. As Lin Bai's inner force circulated through his meridians, a dragon's head flew from his palm, hurtling straight at the Taoist.

The Taoist had already bared his fangs. Talking his way out clearly wasn't going to solve this.

Naturally, Lin Bai chose to strike first and seize the advantage. Wasn't this very day what he had been racing against the clock to complete quests for?

In a world full of players, settling disputes by force was practically inevitable. Was someone supposed to refrain from hitting you just because you had a silver tongue?

The Taoist opposite him had never expected a businessman to be so underhanded, let alone dare to strike first. Caught off guard, he already had the dragon's head bearing down on his chest. By the time he tried to dodge, it was too late.

Bang!

A sharp crack rang out.

The dragon's head formed from inner force scattered. The Taoist's head snapped back as he spat out a mouthful of blood. He staggered three steps backward before finding his footing, horror spreading across his face.

Little did he know.

Lin Bai was even more surprised.

A dragon's head!

Motherfucker!

I actually fired a dragon's head!

So this was the damn Dragon-Subduing Ten-Stroke Palm: Fragment?

And one palm strike had used up one-twentieth of my inner force. Apparently, five years' worth of inner force was only enough for one full set of palm techniques.

Wasn't that way too fucking mana-hungry?

Grumbling aside.

Lin Bai was pleased with the dragon head's effect. A single palm strike had made the Taoist cough up blood, proving he was nothing but a silver-plated spearhead made of pewter.

I should have realized sooner. How could a big boss possibly pop up in a Novice Village?

"You little wretch! I knew you were no good, consorting with ghosts." Internally injured, the Taoist flew into a rage. "Today, I shall send you on to the next life and restore purity to the mortal world..."

Whoosh!

Lin Bai had no intention of indulging him. While the Taoist was talking, he thrust both palms forward, using the incomplete move that was actually "Shock a Hundred Miles" but written as "Shocking a Hundred Armors."

It was the most powerful move in the Dragon-Subduing Ten-Stroke Palm.

Eighteen incomplete dragons emerged all around Lin Bai.

Some had only heads, some only bodies, and some were nothing but heads attached to half a neck. As for the one stripped of scales, wasn't that basically half a snake...?

Comparing the dragons he had unleashed with Chief Qiao's, Lin Bai was speechless. Was this supposed to make his enemies die laughing?

Still, to his relief, incomplete though they were, their power hadn't diminished.

For a moment.

A swarm of dragons that looked as though a chef had chopped them up before they escaped from the cutting board scrambled into the sky, glittering gold and dazzling to behold.

"My God." [Deng Libuduo] watched the dizzying display with mingled shock and delight. He was delighted that he had judged correctly—the shopkeeper really was a hidden NPC. What shocked him was how bizarre the shopkeeper's moves were. Had they fucking released the special effects before they were even finished?

So badass!

I have to learn this! I have to!

The Taoist let out a strange cry and traced circles with both hands, raising a transparent protective barrier around himself.

Crackle, crackle, pop!

The incomplete dragons slammed into the barrier, sounding like a string of firecrackers.

The barrier shattered on impact.

A dragon's tail and two dragon claws crashed through.

The Taoist spat out another mouthful of blood.

This time, the Taoist had learned his lesson. Dispensing with the pointless chatter, he endured his injuries and flicked his fly whisk during the gap when Lin Bai's previous burst of strength was spent and the next had yet to arise.

A phantom fly whisk, condensed into solid form, swept straight toward Lin Bai. Its audiovisual effects were far prettier than Lin Bai's incomplete dragons.

Startled, Lin Bai circled his left hand and thrust his right straight out, using "See the Dragon in the Say" to protect himself.

A headless, tailless dragon's body coiled around him, shielding him within.

Bang!

The phantom fly whisk struck the dragon's body.

Both shattered.

His inner force was limited. Just three moves had consumed a third of it. Not daring to hesitate, Lin Bai used the most powerful move, "Shock a Hundred Armors," again.

While he's sick, take his life. Who plays a pair of threes when they can throw down the joker bomb?

The Taoist inwardly groaned. A Spirit Talisman appeared in his palm. With a surge of spiritual power, it dissolved into motes of light and formed a new barrier, blocking all eighteen incomplete dragons.

"Shopkeeper, don't waste your strength. This is a Shield Armor Talisman crafted by my master. Unless you're stronger than him, you won't break it." Inside the barrier, the Taoist wiped the blood from his lips, took a bottle of pills from his robe, poured one out, and reluctantly popped it into his mouth as he spoke with difficulty.

"Who are you trying to fool?" Lin Bai scoffed. "Without a continued supply of spiritual power, any Shield Armor Talisman is just duckweed without roots. How long can it last?"

As he spoke.

He launched another "A Sudden Woman's Arrival."

Half a dragon's head flew from his left palm, struck the barrier, and burst into a spray of fireworks.

The barrier remained unscathed, but the Taoist's expression changed.

Guessed right. The barrier really couldn't last much longer.

Two consecutive uses of the most powerful move, "Shock a Hundred Armors," had consumed nearly half of Lin Bai's mana. Estimating his remaining inner force, he launched another "A Sudden Woman's Arrival," the move with the lowest mana cost.

Just then, his strength faltered. Lin Bai felt the supply of inner force through his meridians grow sluggish. Before he could react, the half dragon's head that had just emerged from his palm dissipated with a puff before it could fly away.

"No..."

At the same time, the Taoist inside the barrier cried out in alarm. But when he saw the dragon's head suddenly vanish from Lin Bai's palm, his voice cut off, and he stared at Lin Bai in disbelief.

Damn Nine Suns Scripture: Fragment!

This fucking turned me into Duan Yu!

What a scam!

Lin Bai cursed inwardly and casually tucked his hands behind his back. "Reverend, that barrier won't last much longer, will it? Fortunately, I can release and withdraw my power at will. Otherwise, I might have killed you."

"You've fucking run out of inner force, haven't you?" the Taoist cursed from inside the barrier.

"Why don't you dispel the Shield Armor Talisman and find out?" Lin Bai said calmly.

"Strike again if you've got the guts," the plump Taoist said coldly.

Lin Bai looked at him and smiled. "Reverend, as the saying goes, no friendship without a fight. You can't beat me, and I can't do anything to you. Why don't we sit down and talk this over calmly?"

"Bullshit!" The plump Taoist clearly lacked Lin Bai's composure. "If you hadn't ambushed me, you wouldn't have lasted three exchanges against me."

Lin Bai pondered for a moment, then turned to [Deng Libuduo]. "Little Deng, go gather some firewood and pile it outside the Reverend's barrier. It's dark, and the temperature's dropped. We mustn't let him freeze."

"..." [Deng Libuduo]'s mouth twitched violently. "Yes, shopkeeper."

The plump Taoist's expression changed drastically. He jumped up and shouted, "Shameless! How can someone as shameless as you exist? My master is Daoist Void of the Returning Dragon Temple. If you hurt me, he won't spare you."

"So you're a disciple of the Returning Dragon Temple." Lin Bai smiled. "What a coincidence. My palm technique happens to be the Dragon-Subduing Palm. I'm your natural counter!"

[Resentful anger from Qingfeng Daoist; +1+1+1...]

"Dragon-Subduing Palm, my ass. Anyone can tell you haven't mastered it." Qingfeng Daoist felt he was struggling to follow Lin Bai's train of thought. His face darkened. "Every dragon you produce is incomplete."

"That just shows your ignorance, Reverend." Lin Bai looked at the Taoist mockingly. "Dragon-subduing means exactly what it says: dragons that have been subdued. How could a subdued dragon possibly be intact?"

"..." Qingfeng Daoist felt another urge to cough up blood. "Shopkeeper Lin, stop spouting nonsense. You've ruined an important undertaking of the Returning Dragon Temple and injured me. That makes you our enemy. Let me leave, and we can let it end here. Otherwise, my master will never spare you..."

Calling in the parents when you can't win!

Shameless!

Lin Bai spat inwardly. "Reverend, I have a master too."

Qingfeng Daoist's words were choked off again.

"You look to be in your forties, Reverend, while I'm only twenty. If twenty-year-old me can beat forty-year-old you into submission, then obviously my master is stronger than yours." Lin Bai draped himself in a tiger's hide to make a grand banner. "I'm afraid you're the one bringing disaster upon the Returning Dragon Temple."

"I... I'm my master's least accomplished disciple," Qingfeng Daoist said.

"What a coincidence. So am I." Lin Bai raised an eyebrow. "After all these years of training, I still can't produce even one complete dragon."

You just fucking said you made the dragons incomplete on purpose!

Qingfeng Daoist choked. "My master has fellow disciples, and every one of them possesses heaven-reaching abilities."

Lin Bai wore an odd expression. "My master has no fellow disciples, but I have a whole group of senior brothers. Every one of them is a dragon or phoenix among men, with a hundred times my strength, and their influence spans the Nine Provinces and Five Oceans..."

"My lineage descends from the Heavenly Dao Sect..." Qingfeng Daoist refused to be outdone.

Lin Bai fell silent.

"Scared now!" Qingfeng Daoist said smugly.

Lin Bai looked at Qingfeng Daoist with pity and shook his head. "Not scared. I just find this a little childish. At your age, Reverend, you're standing here with a greenhorn like me, comparing whose elders are stronger. It's like two toddlers competing over whose dad eats more shit. I'm feeling a little embarrassed, so let's say you win."

Pfft!

Unable to hold it back, Qingfeng Daoist spat out a mouthful of blood. His face turned as pale as gold paper. He stared at Lin Bai, lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.

[Resentment from Qingfeng Daoist; +1+1+1...]