One-Punch Knockout!

Fang Yuan sent Qinglang flying with a single punch.

Viper's gaze sharpened. He hurriedly struck with Viper Strikes the Pearl, a Snake Fist move, driving it toward Fang Yuan's left eye.

Fang Yuan had just thrown his Thunder Fist and had yet to recover his stance when the snake-shaped hand reached his eyes.

He hurriedly leaned backward, falling toward the ground.

Viper raised a foot and stomped down.

Fang Yuan planted his left hand on the ground and performed a back handspring, dodging the stomp, then used Gliding Step to retreat five meters before stopping.

Bang!

Viper's foot struck the ground, shattering the concrete floor with a bang.

Fang Yuan slowly exhaled, still feeling a little shaken as he recalled the instant that foot had come down.

Had that stomp landed on him, it would definitely have shattered his bones.

Fang Yuan let out a light breath and glanced at Qinglang, who had been sent flying.

Thunder Fist had struck Qinglang in the abdomen, displacing his internal organs. He lay on the ground vomiting violently, unable even to get up.

"Useless trash!"

Viper glanced at Qinglang with a cold snort, then turned back and unleashed Snake Fist, continuing his assault on Fang Yuan.

Every punch was as swift and fierce as a venomous snake striking its prey.

Moreover, he wore an iron finger guard on his index finger.

When his Snake Fist struck a wall, the wall shattered.

When it struck an iron canister, the canister was pierced.

Its power was absurd.

Fang Yuan dared not meet him head-on and kept dodging with Gliding Step.

The dozen or so underlings nearby surrounded him, swinging iron clubs.

Fang Yuan used Gliding Step again to evade Snake Fist.

An iron club swung at him from behind.

Fang Yuan reached back and caught the club, then sent Qinglang's underling flying with a kick.

Viper's Snake Fist followed right behind.

Holding the iron club, Fang Yuan turned to block Viper's fist.

Bang!

Snake Fist struck the arm-thick iron club, bending it.

The tremendous force of Snake Fist drove Fang Yuan back five or six steps before he regained his footing.

"Kid, I'm a little surprised you managed to take so many of my punches. But you're no match for me. Wash your neck and wait to die."

Viper rotated his wrists and formed his snake-shaped hands again, his snakelike pupils gleaming coldly.

Fang Yuan slowly exhaled. Viper really was a difficult opponent.

His wrist still hurt a little from knocking Qinglang out with a single Thunder Fist.

If he wanted to use Thunder Fist again, he had to succeed in one strike, or things would become difficult afterward.

Viper attacked again, his Snake Fist even faster.

His arms repeatedly struck and snapped like two venomous snakes, his punches both ferocious and unpredictable.

Fang Yuan kept dodging with Gliding Step.

Fortunately, the warehouse was spacious enough. In a smaller place, he would have hit a wall after just a few evasive steps.

As he dodged, Fang Yuan also analyzed Viper's strength.

28.8 strength, 32.4 agility, and 22 constitution on top of that.

Viper's stats on paper were already off the charts.

Fang Yuan had no chance of winning a head-on clash.

He carefully observed Viper's punching movements and gradually noticed something strange.

Although his punches were ridiculously powerful, they were not very accurate.

That was also why Fang Yuan had been able to keep dodging.

Generally speaking, Snake Fist emphasized steadiness, accuracy, and ruthlessness.

Viper's Snake Fist was steady and ruthless enough, but its accuracy was lacking.

This was where his job as a substitute instructor at the martial arts school came in handy.

While filling in, Fang Yuan had met several students who practiced Snake Fist.

So although he did not know Snake Fist himself, he understood its attack patterns somewhat.

As he dodged, Fang Yuan could clearly sense that Viper's Snake Fist always deviated slightly from the optimal trajectory.

It was always off by a centimeter or two.

Most of the time, a deviation of one or two centimeters made little difference.

After all, a strike between the eyebrows and one to the eye socket were equally lethal.

Besides, random deviations actually made the attacks harder to defend against.

After noticing the deviations in Viper's punches, Fang Yuan found it increasingly strange.

Judging by his Snake Fist movements, he must have practiced for many years. His technique was extremely well-honed.

Normally, someone so practiced in a fist technique should not have such deviations in his punches.

Besides, Snake Fist placed the greatest emphasis on hitting precisely where one aimed.

There was only one possible explanation: something was wrong with Viper himself.

For instance, an arm injury could affect the accuracy of his punches.

But judging by the ferocity of his strikes, he did not seem injured.

Where could the problem be?

Fang Yuan used Gliding Step to dodge again, watching Snake Fist brush past two centimeters in front of his eyes, its force whipping up the hair over his forehead.

After gliding backward, Fang Yuan swept his gaze over Viper's eyes.

Seeing those snake-pupil-like eyes, a conjecture immediately formed in his mind.

Awakeners had all sorts of abilities. Not every ability provided benefits; some could inflict penalties or have side effects.

Abilities such as "light allergy" and "body stiffening," for example, were downright lousy abilities.

Some other abilities were useful in themselves but also produced side effects.

Those side effects came in all sorts of forms, too.

Fang Yuan studied Viper's eyes and found that his pupils really did resemble a snake's.

Snakes were notoriously shortsighted and could not see things clearly beyond a meter.

They mainly hunted using their tongues' sense of smell and heat detection.

So poor eyesight did not affect snakes very much.

But if a human had snake pupils, that was another matter.

A possibility immediately occurred to Fang Yuan.

This "Viper" had eyes that were also mutating into snake pupils because of his "viper muscles" mutation.

That mutation made his eyesight extremely poor, which was why his punches were inaccurate.

To test this conjecture, Fang Yuan grinned. "Hey, you're going blind, aren't you? You could miss even if I stood still."

Viper's movements faltered, an icy gleam flashing in his eyes. "Bullshit! My eyes are as keen as a venomous snake's. Stand still and try it if you've got the guts."

Although he denied it, Fang Yuan had already seen his Rage Points increase by 10.

That meant his words had angered Viper.

If they had not hit the mark, he would have had no reason to get angry.

Only having his weakness exposed would enrage him.

A smile tugged at Fang Yuan's lips. He began using Gliding Step even more frequently, sliding left, then right, as he taunted, "You probably don't know this, do you? Snakes are practically blind. They can't see clearly beyond a meter. Your eyes really are just as blind as a snake's."

"You have a death wish!"

Viper grew angrier and unleashed ferocious Snake Fist strikes, the bangs shaking the air as though it would explode.

Yet although his punches grew fiercer, their trajectories became increasingly chaotic and inaccurate.

Fang Yuan glided left and right, making Viper see several overlapping images of him.

Not only that, Fang Yuan also began feinting, throwing a punch to the left and a kick to the right, not aiming at Viper's body but flashing layers of fist afterimages before his eyes.

"Aah!"

Viper grew angrier and angrier, roaring as he sent more than a dozen large iron canisters flying with a series of bangs.

Seeing that the time was right, Fang Yuan abruptly clenched his right fist.

Thirty-six streams of Star Power erupted.

Thunder Fist blasted out again.

Bang!

The punch struck Viper's abdomen, folding him into a bow and blasting him away.

"Aah!"

Viper screamed as he flew backward and slammed heavily into the ground, passing out.

A decisive one-punch knockout.

Fang Yuan let out a long breath.

Just then.

Clutching his abdomen, Qinglang climbed to his feet, drew a black pistol, and aimed at Fang Yuan, snarling viciously, "Die!"

Fang Yuan turned and saw the dark muzzle. His gaze sharpened, and he cried inwardly, Not good.

No matter how high their stats were, low-level Awakeners were still flesh and blood. They could not withstand the power of a bullet.