The next moment, the two Jun Guqiongs scattered at the same time, looking just like a pair of sprinting braised eggs.
They did not run in the same direction; instead, one dashed toward Yu Xian's front while the other sprinted behind him, leaving Yu Xian able to keep eyes on only one of them.
Yu Xian naturally kept his gaze fixed on the real Jun Guqiong. As for the uncanny painted skin version, he only needed to glance at it from time to time to make sure it never got close.
From there, he continued pursuing the real Jun Guqiong, though his attacks struck the Brush and Ink Shield Technique to distinctly poor effect.
In truth, all his attacks up to this point had merely been testing whether Jun Guqiong possessed any other new skills. All his caution stemmed from the possibility that Jun Guqiong might still be concealing a trump card.
As for Jun Guqiong's original abilities, he had devised ways to counter them long ago. Before the match, while watching recordings of Jun Guqiong, he had already come up with several countermeasures tailored to his own strengths.
He had not deployed them right away purely out of caution.
After all, defeat here meant forfeiting two of his own skills, so he would not allow Jun Guqiong the slightest chance of turning the tables or seizing victory.
He would rather be prudent and spend more time testing the waters and probing his opponent's depths than take unnecessary risks.
By now, however, the testing was nearly complete. Jun Guqiong most likely possessed only that single new skill. While its power was decent, it posed no real threat to him.
*Perhaps it's time to make a move!*
Suddenly, a thought crossed Yu Xian's mind, and time froze once more.
Riding atop his Forward Light Shield, he slammed swiftly toward the real Jun Guqiong. Under the impact of the Forward Light Shield, the Brush and Ink Shield shattered instantly, and the light shield crashed directly into Jun Guqiong himself.
Up to this point, the Forward Light Shield could smash through ninety-nine percent of the shields he encountered; regardless of elemental attributes, in the end, it always came down to sheer hardness.
Unfortunately, this attack could still only count as a single instance of damage.
Yu Xian quickly pulled back while glancing up at the laser beams in the sky. Once he confirmed their positions, he immediately resumed the flow of time.
Jun Guqiong, who had still been running, nearly tripped and fell when his Brush and Ink Shield shattered. He quickly regained his balance, realizing at the same time that he had lost a layer of painted skin.
Acting decisively, he prepared to cast Brush and Ink Shield Technique again, but a laser beam struck him, stripping away another layer of painted skin.
Two layers down.
Jun Guqiong's heart lurched. The next second, he triggered Brush and Ink Shield Technique.
Time stop!
The instant the Brush and Ink Shield took shape, Yu Xian decisively froze time.
Steering his Forward Light Shield, he slammed into Jun Guqiong once more. Smashing through the Brush and Ink Shield, he rammed violently into Jun Guqiong himself before quickly retreating again.
From Jun Guqiong's perspective, it felt as though he had just unleashed the Brush and Ink Shield Technique when his surroundings dimmed slightly, followed immediately by the shattering of his shield.
Another layer of painted skin was gone.
Just like that, he had lost three layers in the blink of an eye.
Before he could react, another laser beam struck his body, reducing his painted skin count by yet another layer.
*It's over!*
In that split second, Jun Guqiong froze completely.
He abruptly realized that Yu Xian had found a foolproof method to counter him: if he didn't raise a shield, he would be killed by the lasers; if he did raise a shield, he would be struck down during the time stop.
Either way, he could only pick between two bad options.
The lasers moved too fast for him to dodge, forcing him to rely on painted skins to absorb the hits. The problem was that generating painted skins cost health—how much HP did he have to waste against Yu Xian's lasers?
Only raising a shield could solve that problem.
Yet the moment he shielded, Yu Xian would freeze time, smash his shield, and strip away another layer of painted skin in the process.
If he chose not to shield, he could immediately activate his skill to restore his painted skins once the time stop ended, but the lasers would seize the opportunity to burn through another layer anyway, leaving him down by one all the same.
And if he chose to raise a shield first, it would simply repeat the previous loop.
A vicious cycle.
A binary choice: either raise a shield, or restore painted skins.
No matter which he picked, his painted skins continued to dwindle, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
*No, there's still a way!*
Jun Guqiong suddenly remembered his uncanny painted skin.
He could actually hide inside the uncanny painted skin's shield! That way, Yu Xian wouldn't be able to kill him. As long as he stalled for three minutes, two new uncanny painted skins would spawn, making it even harder for Yu Xian to take him down.
The moment he realized this, he sprinted toward his uncanny painted skin, which dashed toward him in turn.
Seeing this, Yu Xian frowned slightly. Although he didn't know exactly what Jun Guqiong was planning, since Jun Guqiong wanted to rendezvous with his avatar, all he needed to do was prevent it.
Time Stop activated.
Yu Xian manipulated water to first shatter a layer of Jun Guqiong's painted skin, then coiled the water around Jun Guqiong's body and hurled him away, instantly widening the distance between him and his avatar.
The process was lightning-fast. The moment Jun Guqiong was thrown, Yu Xian resumed the flow of time. Jun Guqiong felt the scene before his eyes flicker in a blur—first the ceiling, then the spectator stands—before he crashed heavily to the ground.
Before he could clamber to his feet, another laser shot down, reducing his painted skin count by one more.
"Damn it!"
Jun Guqiong scrambled up and roared hysterically, instantly activating his avatars.
This time, he unleashed five avatars in a single breath. The avatars darted around chaotically alongside him before scattering and sprinting toward the uncanny painted skin.
Unfortunately, the very next second, all the avatars suddenly burst apart, and Jun Guqiong discovered that his dwindling supply of painted skins had lost yet another layer.
Evidently, Yu Xian had activated Time Stop once again and blown apart every last avatar.
Confusing Yu Xian was completely impossible!
In fact, the method Yu Xian had initially envisioned to counter Jun Guqiong involved bombs. Back then, he didn't even have Water Control, so the only thing he could think of was timed explosives.
Once he acquired water droplets, he had thought of controlling them for delayed attacks; so long as the timing was calculated precisely, Jun Guqiong would never have a chance to turn the tables.
And now, with the Glass Shot skill, his arsenal had grown even more versatile.
Even so, Jun Guqiong still hadn't given up. He frantically generated painted skins as lasers rained relentlessly upon him, his layers alternately shrinking and growing.
He was gambling on Multicast.
As long as he triggered Multicast five times in a row, he could fully restore his painted skins.
Though the cost in HP was enormous, he couldn't afford to worry about that now. Only by surviving would he have a chance to win; if he didn't struggle, death was the only certainty.
However, his actions soon exposed the fact that he possessed yet another skill.
Yu Xian had been keeping count of his painted skin layers all along. After all, the Painted Skin Scholar class was no secret, nor was the fact that Jun Guqiong could hold a maximum of twelve layers.
Yet Yu Xian had now counted fifteen layers of painted skin stripped from him.
Something was off!
Yu Xian frowned slightly. His first suspicion was that Jun Guqiong possessed some sort of rank-broken passive skill—such as breaking through the limit to reach thirty or forty layers of painted skin.
The other possibility was Multicast.
That skill wasn't a secret either. The moment Yu Xian considered the possibility, his eyes gleamed with interest, and he pressed his offensive with even greater vigor.
Now it came down to who had better luck. If Jun Guqiong proved luckier and repeatedly triggered Multicast, then once the three minutes were up, he might truly have a shot at surviving.
If Yu Xian had better luck and exhausted Jun Guqiong's painted skins first, he would take Jun Guqiong down right then and there, claiming two of his skills at random.
Chapter 606