Squelch. The dagger slid free.

  Bubai wiped clean the bloody dagger on the loser’s patchwork trousers and finally let go of the ragdoll.

  The eyes of the dead were shrouded by the smoke, never to see the sun again.

  Perhaps this man has his own story, his own life, and somewhere, maybe, a family waiting, but… he was missing the most important thing.

  A powerful backer.

  Since this lone wolf dared to covet his meat, there was no need to show mercy.

  Under his combo, the poor soul didn’t even get the chance to surrender!

  In some ways, Qi refiners indeed surpassed mortals, but in other senses... they were just as fragile.

  There was just too many exploitable weaknesses.

  Throat, organs, fatal vulnerabilities just like any other mortal.

  Other senses like sight, smell, and acuity to sound were enhanced, but all still had a limit.

  No matter how good they were, there was no x-ray vision, scent tracking, or echolocation.

  That’s why smoke can play such a wonderful role in this battle.

  Of course, rarely would anyone use smoke bombs so extravagantly like him in cultivator battles.

  After all, its use cases were rather awkward.

  For those of higher realms, ordinary smoke is rather tasteless.

  Let’s not even mention how they can just fly out of the smoke field in a real battle.

  Just consider their perception abilities alone...

  Under their radar-like spiritual sense, having smoke... was the same as having none.

  So, to foundation-builders, smoke was just a toy that can’t even do its job as an escape tool, let alone cover other aspects.

  On the other hand, most Qi refiners might use it to disengage, but similarly don’t utilize it on a large scale because doing so was basically blinding both their foes and themselves.

  If nobody can see, how to fight?

  Of course, there were indeed skills for detecting foes, but at lower realms, most only work if the opponent isn’t purposefully hiding.

  Others might not bother learning any concealment skills, but Bubai? That was the favorite on his wishlist.

  By changing to cloth shoes, keeping his Turtle Breathing technique active, and restraining his usage of any Qi, even if the opponent had better detection skills…

  Yeah. Good luck finding him when the ghost was constantly on the move.

  On the flip side, how did Bubai lock onto his opponent?

  Well… the wires he purposefully fanned out towards the center was a good trail to follow to get a general gist of the opponent’s location.

  For a more accurate positioning...

  Thanks to the smokescreen shielding away a majority of the watching eyes, the debuff disorienting his senses was nerfed, and his sensitive ears were back online.

  Henceforth, his good ears definitely didn’t get a chance to go AFK, especially since his opponent made the super idiotic mistake of trash talking during the fight.

  That was as good as painting a target on himself!

  Sure, the dead giveaway did cleverly shift his position, but every shuriken thrown wasn’t for show.

  Each hit or miss was a probe to gauge the enemy position and calculated to keep the prey in about the same place.

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  Plenty of experience playing battle ship while growing up made this all the more fun.

  On the off chance that all else fails, his Qi-color-viewing Bubaigan was always ready to cheat!

  Ahem, let’s just say he was literally all set with the gentleman’s codes for this game.

  Without an AOE skill that can cover the entire smoked area, there wasn’t much the blind guy can do against him.

  Too bad any large-scale spells was very energy intensive for Qi refiners.

  Every cast meant Bubai had successfully used his money ability to waste their energy.

  Sounds impressive, but truthfully... kinda not worth it.

  If Bubai was truly a Qi refiner, then yes, it was awesome, but with his current strength, smoke was wholly unnecessary to tip the scales in his favor.

  It was much more cost-effective if he just went all out!

  Seriously, if Bubai wanted, he can just directly flaunt his physique’s brute power and kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

  But if he did that… will any two-bit challenger still offer their head up on a silver platter?

  Maybe not, but if there still were… they must have come up with some countermeasure to target him!

  At that point, Bubai will have to show even more cards just to preserve his spot!

  That’s why this was the best route to take when he took into account what was to come.

  It guarantees his win while keeping the most cards hidden to prepare for the real big show.

  Sure, it hurts his pockets a little, but... let’s just treat it as a little investment for the big picture.

  Still, wasting precious spirit stones for a battle like this really made Bubai’s teeth itch in pain.

  “Hopefully, the loot will make up for some of the loss.”

  Crouching down, Bubai patted down the dead body.

  Tied to the waist was a little patchwork pouch.

  Bubai peeked inside and sighed. “Just a normal pouch of itching balm.”

  Not even a percent of what he owns.

  He simply stuffed it into his own storage pouch and kept digging.

  Soon, Bubai found an insurance bamboo slip. That’s two spirit stones. What a waste!

  Finally, in a patchwork pocket stitched along the trousers, Bubai fished out two small pellets. “Meh. Qi Condensation pills. Figures.”

  These pills are meant to assist Qi refiners in gathering and condensing Qi strands, but for late-stage Qi refiners, they were more widely used for Qi recovery.

  Even in the late stages, Qi refiners with their one-way Qi circulation routes can’t run their cultivation methods to replenish Qi during combat.

  So, Qi recovery pills became the staple.

  It’s just that each pill costs a spirit stone, but it can’t even recover half as much as absorbing the spirit stone directly!

  “A total rip-off. But since it’s free…” Into his pocket they went.

  Sadly, just these alone still meant his balance sheets was still in the red.

  Let’s not count the big package of burning balm.

  Just to keep that smoke spree going, Bubai smashed more than fifteen smoke pellets!

  That’s five spirit stones! It hurts!

  So, don’t blame him for not respecting the dead and stripping this guy bare!

  And Bubai was glad he did because lo and behold, he found a small pouch stitched to the inside of the guy’s dirty underwear!

  “Aha! What’s this…?” Bubai peeked inside and his eyes lit up.

  A storage pouch! There was two spirit stones to boot!

  “Well, well. As expected, even a poor grassroot genius must at least have this much or his title is worthless!”

  Too bad the pouch was just an inferior-grade with less than a cubic meter of space.

  “Meh. Petty gains, but counting this, I can barely break even.”

  The eye-catching stones were moved to his own pockets.

  There wasn’t much else left in the little space except for a few crumpled sheets of stained paper.

  Unfolding one, Bubai memorized the crude scribbles in a glance.

  “Oh, just a shoddy copy of the Torch Blowing technique. Somebody’s been making a living doing a side hustle.”

  Bubai stuffed the paper back in.

  The dirty storage pouch was then wrapped up, stuffed inside a cleaner, coarser one, and secured to his own waist.

  The now-stripped body didn’t escape his claws and was dumped to a corner of his high-grade pouch. Just give it a scan later.

  Seeing the smoke has cleared for the most part, Bubai spread out a worn blanket on the floor and took out a broom.

  “Now, gotta clean up, can’t waste anything here…”

  Down below, the winner was sweeping up the powder, weapons, and even the broken wires...

  High above on the sun disc platform, the spectating elders watched with varied expressions.

  The scarecrow Tai Yinsu nodded approvingly. “Good habit. Got to save where you can.”

  Some of the other elders rolled their eyes in response.

  The brawny, bald Jia Gufan scanning the battlefield with interest took the chance to comment.

  “Itching balm, smoke… little tricks all to herd his foe right where he wanted him. His martial skills and spells aren’t worthy of mention, but this kid’s combat intuition isn’t bad at all. Shame he’s too reliant on these mortal means.”

  Ma Pei stroked his beard like a sage and chortled. “Hoho, this is still an effective way to fight. Besides, the cheap brat hasn’t even shown his tail yet.”

  Grand Elder Jia Wunan’s eyes twinkled. “Oh? Could it be…?”

  “Just watch. Maybe you’ll all be in for a surprise.” Ma Pei sported a sly smile.

  Sitting right beside him, Mo Badao gently blew on his tea and inserted, “Old stallion, you’re selling this young blood quite a bit. Hope it won’t be too... disappointing.”

  Ma Pei dismissively waved back. “Hoho, patience, old devil, you’ll see.”

  Here, the Feng clan Matriarch finally broke into the men’s squabble. “The cleaning’s nearly done. Check on the next challenger?”

  “I already did.” Jia Gufan flashed a grin. “The next one happens to be a junior of mine.”

  He shot the grand elder a glance. “Elder brother?”

  “No rush. We still have an incense stick’s time after I make the announcement.” Grand Elder Jia Wunan inserted a fresh incense stick into the burner with an unhurried smile.

  It’s just that… the incense seemed to be cut shorter than usual, but none bothered commenting on it.

  So, the customary announcement unceremoniously rolled off the Grand Elder’s tongue like a foregone conclusion.

  “Next up, Sun Snake List third seat, Jia Liang, challenging… Inner Disciple Mo Bubai!”