Jun Guqiong

[Glass Shot: Consumes a small amount of mental strength to form 3–5 sharp shards of glass to shoot at the target.] Yu Xian checked his stats, his gaze settling on his newly acquired skill. He had been mentally prepared—any skill offered up for a wager was bound not to be particularly good. Still, going strictly by its description, this skill truly felt pathetically weak. Yu Xian was in no hurry to queue for the next match. First, he tested the skill. Three shards of glass instantly materialized before him, hovering roughly one and a half meters above the ground. Whenever Yu Xian wished, these three pieces of glass could shoot forward at a moment's notice. Chen Kun didn't possess the Enhancement +1 stat, so he lacked any true mastery over the skill; however it was meant to behave, that was how it came out upon activation. Yu Xian was different. Possessing Enhancement +1 gave him far greater control over his skills. For example, if Chen Kun had cast this skill, he could at most aim at a target, and the glass would automatically fire the instant it appeared. If Chen Kun wanted to alter its trajectory or behavior, he had to indirectly rely on the passive skill Glass Control to pull it off. For Yu Xian, it was much simpler. He didn't need any passive skills at all; when casting the skill, he could keep the projectiles suspended on the verge of firing, and he could even adjust their angle and shape. Normally, the glass created by Glass Shot took the initial form of triangular shards with razor-sharp edges. When fired, they spun at high speed, packing a punch that wasn't weak at all. However, Yu Xian had a different idea. Looking at the three glass shards before him, he gradually reshaped them into circles, then molded them into magnifying lenses. A moment later, he looked up at the sky above the arena. The three pieces of glass shot into the air together, coming to a halt and hovering midair. Activating the power of Grand Dao Myriad Phenomena alongside With and Against the Flow, he simultaneously enhanced the glass's light-focusing capability, then drastically raised the temperature of the light itself. Three beams of laser light instantly lanced down from above, scorching three tiny, charred spots onto the arena floor. Yu Xian made the lenses rotate. In the blink of an eye, three charred black circles appeared on the ground. Under the 'with the flow' state, the skill With and Against the Flow was absurdly overpowered. If Yu Xian wished, the lasers' potency could be amplified even further. Next, he carried out several more experiments. For instance, he tried pulverizing the glass completely. Unfortunately, once shattered into dust, it became exceptionally difficult to manipulate. At his current level, he simply had no way to direct glass powder to attack. After testing it once, Yu Xian began to understand why Chen Kun hadn't weaponized the powder while pursuing him earlier. If Chen Kun had been able to command the glass powder left behind by the shattered crystals, his lethality would have multiplied several times over. After all, if that powder were inhaled into the lungs, it could instantly shred internal organs, leaving the victim with no way to block or defend against it. Unfortunately, achieving such fine manipulation would probably require at least Enhancement +3 to pull off with ease; even Enhancement +2 would be an extreme stretch. Having concluded his experiments, Yu Xian reopened the light screen. [Congratulations to contestant Yu Xian on achieving 1 victory!] [Do you wish to continue competing?] Yu Xian immediately tapped to enter the queue. About two minutes later, an opponent was matched. Disappointingly, it was another player who refused to wager anything. Yu Xian directly used a water droplet to kill him in an instant. Most of the subsequent players refused to bet anything at all. They were all participating just to claim the participation rewards, and Yu Xian dispatched every single one of them with a clean one-shot. In truth, these players made up the vast majority. While many players were genuinely willing to gamble their skills, they were by no means the majority. Finally, after a ten-win streak, Yu Xian encountered an opponent willing to bet a skill. But when Yu Xian saw the other party's wager, his brow twitched slightly. Clearly, this was no pushover! [Match found!] [Contestant has accepted your wager.] [Opponent has proposed a wager: The loser will randomly forfeit one of their skills to the winner. Do you accept?] *How interesting.* This player's proposed wager was identical to his own, and they had also accepted Yu Xian's stake. Yu Xian offered a faint smile and decisively clicked accept. That meant the loser would have two random skills extracted and awarded to the victor. Right now, most players only had four or five skills in total; losing two was a devastating blow on par with having an account ruined. Now, it all came down to who would be more unfortunate. Yu Xian looked toward the opposite side of the arena, where a refined, scholarly young man appeared. "Jun Guqiong!" Yu Xian recognized him immediately. The gatekeeper of the top ten, ranked eleventh on the Powerhouse Leaderboard. His actual combat strength was not inferior to the players in the top ten; the only reason he sat at rank eleven was that his lethality wasn't quite high enough. Across from him, Jun Guqiong's expression turned solemn the moment he saw his opponent was Yu Xian. The opportunity to prove himself had arrived. If he could defeat Yu Xian, he would no longer be just the gatekeeper of the top ten, but an unacknowledged master akin to the Sweeping Monk of Shaolin. On the other hand, if he lost to Yu Xian and surrendered two skills, he wouldn't even have the right to remain the gatekeeper of the top ten. Yet here he stood. He had to fight, and he had to win! [Yu Xian (Score: 1855) vs. Jun Guqiong (Score: 1584). Match start!] With that prompt, the match began. Yu Xian didn't use Time Stop right away, as he knew full well that Time Stop would be ineffective against Jun Guqiong. The tournament had been running for over ten days. Let alone the top ten players, virtually all of the top one hundred were scrutinized by countless competitors, who analyzed every player's class and skills through various match recordings. After all, most players today were veterans who had been forced to start over by Yu Xian. The classes they had seen, encountered, and fought against were innumerable. Yu Xian had altered the rules of the Zhen Realm, but he hadn't changed the classes themselves. As a result, many players who had originally held these classes chose to expose all the details the moment they saw their old professions in action. Jun Guqiong's class had long since been laid completely bare by other players. Yu Xian might not know about those ranked beyond fiftieth place, but how could he not know the stats of the gatekeeper of the top ten? Well, to be fair, there was something he didn't know. Namely, whatever new skills Jun Guqiong had acquired from winning earlier today—the sole variable in this battle. On the other side, Jun Guqiong didn't rush into using a skill either. Yu Xian's class had also been exposed down to the bone, and Jun Guqiong had studied every single one of Yu Xian's battles meticulously, rewatching even the dullest one-shot matches several times. In his understanding, Yu Xian possessed abilities like Time Stop, Forward Light Shield, Water Control, and With and Against the Flow. His upfront burst power was immense, but his sole weakness was a lack of answers to anomalous entities and unconventional defenses. For instance, Yu Xian had struggled visibly in his earlier match against Chen Lan. As it happened, Jun Guqiong's class was supernatural in nature. A pure physical fighter like Yu Xian might not necessarily be able to handle him—not to mention that Jun Guqiong had just gained two new skills. [Name: Jun Guqiong] [Level: 25] [EXP: 33] [Class: Painted Skin Scholar] [Skills:] [Outer Painted Skin: Consumes 1% HP to form a layer of painted skin over the body's surface, stacking up to 12 layers. When suffering a fatal attack, 1 layer of painted skin is consumed to grant complete immunity against that fatal blow.] [Painted Skin Clone: Sheds 1 layer of painted skin to transform it into a clone possessing 80% of the user's stats, capable of casting skills on the user's behalf. Maximum of 12 Painted Skin Clones.] [Brush and Ink Shield Technique: Consumes hair color to form a black ink shield. The darker the shade, the stronger the defense; the lighter the shade, the weaker the defense.] [Blank Horror: Forms a blank human face on the chest of the user or a clone. Upon physical contact with a target during battle, the face will gradually morph into the target's appearance. Once the mimicry is complete, it copies the target's skills and consumes 1 layer of painted skin to create an uncanny painted skin entity that fights for the user.] [Mental Seed: Consumes mental strength to condense a mental seed that can trigger a massive explosion. The closer the user is to the blast, the greater its power.] [Multicast: Every time a skill is activated, there is a chance to trigger Multicast, doubling the skill's effect.] …… …… With these new skills, his current strength was terrifying!