"Hey, what's with that look?" Belle drifted closer, her brow knitting in confusion. She nudged his arm, looking at the lingering traces of black mist. "You look like you just dropped your favorite ice cream in the dirt. We won, didn't we? He's gone, and honestly, with how fast he bolted, I doubt he's coming back for a second round of being a punching bag anytime soon."
Huang Wen snapped out of his reverie and let out a dry, self-deprecating chuckle. "Winning is one thing, Belle. But letting a guy like that slip away? That's like leaving a poisonous snake in your backyard because it's 'too tired' to bite you right now. It's a ticking time bomb."
He shook his head, his eyes turning sharp. "You didn't see the look in his eyes. That guy is old, arrogant, and extremely petty. If I didn't have Silly Girl's power backing me up today, that fight would have been a coin toss. If he finds a way to heal those arms and comes back with a better plan, it's going to be a massive headache for everyone at the martial arts hall."
"He's that big of a deal?" Belle asked, her voice dropping an octave as she realized the weight of his concern.
"He's the head of an global syndicate," Huang Wen explained, his fingers tracing the cold metal of the ring he'd stolen. "His reach is everywhere. Leaving him alive is basically handing him the initiative to pick the time and place for the next round."
"Then let's keep hunting," Belle suggested, her eyes glowing with a faint blue psionic light. "We can sweep the entire mountain range again."
"No, don't bother," Huang Wen sighed, waving a hand dismissively. "He's gone underground—literally or metaphorically. He's hidden his presence behind some kind of high-tech masking field. If we haven't found a blip by now, we're just chasing ghosts." He then flashed a sudden, confident grin that caught Belle off guard. "But hey, as the saying goes: when the soldiers arrive, we build a wall; when the water rises, we dig a dam. If he's stupid enough to come looking for a rematch, I'll make sure his 'doomsday' arrives ahead of schedule."
"Spoken like a true martial arts master," Belle laughed, the tension finally breaking. "Alright then, let's get out of this freezer. Where to next on the 'Huang Wen World Tour'?"
"Let's just keep moving south for now," Huang Wen said, taking her hand. But internally, his mind was already screaming at the system interface.
System, I don't care about the missing character draw anymore. Give me the consolation prize. Claim mission reward—activate the Legendary Skill Lottery!
In the dark recesses of his consciousness, a pillar of brilliant, neon-blue light erupted. It was a hue so deep it felt like it was vibrating against his soul, far more intense than any 'Epic' reward he'd ever seen.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained the Legendary Skill: Space Spear.]
Huang Wen blinked. Space Spear? Sounds cool, but what's the catch?
The system description began to scroll, and as he read it, his expression went from excitement to utter bewilderment.
[Source: Derived from the 'logic' of a legendary anti-Japanese war drama where a soldier claimed to kill an enemy from 800 li (roughly 250 miles) away with a single rifle shot. Through the system's 'Forced Logic' and 'Optimization,' this absurdity has been transformed into a conceptual spatial combat skill.]
[Function: The user can manifest an invisible 'Perception Eagle'—a construct of pure mental energy and spatial coordinates. This eagle is undetectable by conventional means and can track any target known to the user. Once the target is locked, the user can deliver long-range attacks through the 'Eagle's' position, bypassing physical distance.]
[Special Note 1: Due to the 'Long-Range' nature of the original absurdity, you cannot use this skill for melee combat. Only projectile or ranged energy attacks can pass through the spatial link.]
[Special Note 2: You cannot use Dream Butterfly Escape to teleport to the Eagle's location. This is a weapon, not a taxi.]
"Are you kidding me?" Huang Wen muttered under his breath, his eyes bulging. "The '800-li Sniper' meme? The system actually turned a TV blooper into a Legendary skill? This is... this is peak 'forced explanation' right here."
He imagined himself standing in New York and punching a guy in London through a ghostly bird. The mental image was hilarious, but the utility was undeniable.
Wait. The Mandarin.
The old man had vanished into a hidden base, likely shielded by some kind of frequency-masking technology. But Huang Wen knew exactly what he looked like, smelled like, and felt like. The 'Perception Eagle' didn't care about metal walls; it cared about the concept of the target.
A predatory smirk tugged at the corners of Huang Wen's mouth.
System, new mission. Goal: Kill the Mandarin.System: [Processing...] Due to the target's current state and your newfound capability, the rewards have been adjusted. Kill the Mandarin: One Legendary Character Draw. Defeat the Mandarin (again): One Legendary Item Draw.
Huang Wen paused. Wait a minute. If I just 'defeat' him first, then kill him later... can I double-dip?
The system didn't object. It was a loophole as wide as a canyon.
Accept!
"Hey, Belle, hold on a second. I just remembered I left something... 'cooking' back there," Huang Wen said, coming to a halt mid-air.
"Cooking? In this weather?"
"Just a little experiment."
Huang Wen closed his eyes and focused. He felt a sliver of his telekinetic power detach from his mind, weaving itself into a transparent, avian shape. The Perception Eagle didn't exist in the physical spectrum; it was a ripple in the fabric of space. He sent it flying back toward the mountains they had just left.
It moved with frightening speed, ignoring the wind, ignoring the rock. It was guided by the 'scent' of the Mandarin's qi.
Suddenly, Huang Wen's mental vision shifted. He was 'seeing' through a distorted, fish-eye lens. He saw a mountain that looked perfectly normal, but as the Eagle passed through the rock, it entered a hollowed-out chamber.
There it was. An alien ship, sleek and silver, pulsating with a rhythmic hum. Inside, the Mandarin was sitting cross-legged in a pool of medicinal liquid, his face twisted in agony as he tried to knit his shattered bones back together.
Found you, you old bastard.
Huang Wen raised his hand in the empty Siberian sky. To Belle, he looked like he was about to swat a fly.
"Let's see how you like the 'Ice-Fire Palm' from 800 miles away," he whispered.
He didn't need to be close. He didn't even need to aim. He simply funneled his internal qi into the spatial link.
BOOM!
Inside the spaceship, the Mandarin's eyes snapped open just as a massive, swirling vortex of flame and frost erupted out of thin air right in front of his face. There was no warning. No energy signature. Just instant, violent combustion.
"WHA—?!"
The explosion slammed into the Mandarin's chest, throwing him out of the healing vat and crashing into a console. His robes caught fire instantly, the blue flames of the Ice-Fire Palm eating through the silk and searing his skin.
"ARGH! HOW?!" the Mandarin screamed, rolling on the floor.
Suddenly, the ship's automated systems kicked in. A fine, shimmering mist—a mixture of liquid nitrogen and magical suppression gas—jetted from the ceiling, dousing the flames.
Huang Wen, watching through the Eagle, raised an eyebrow. "A magic fire extinguisher? High-tech indeed."
He didn't stop. He flicked his fingers, and this time, the qi transformed. Instead of a palm, he sent a barrage of Ice Cones—sharp, jagged needles of frozen qi that flew through the spatial portal like a machine gun.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A shimmering hexagonal barrier snapped into existence around the Mandarin, the ice needles shattering against the energy shield.
"Scan the room! Detect the intruder!" the Mandarin roared, his voice cracking with panic. He was frantically looking around the empty chamber, his broken arm throbbing. "Where is he? How is he inside my shields?!"
The ship's computer beeped a negative response. There was no one there.
Outside, Huang Wen scratched his chin. "That shield is tougher than it looks. My long-range projection loses about thirty percent of its power through the Eagle. I can't break that barrier with just qi palms."
He looked at Belle, who was watching him move his hands in the air like a crazy person. He then looked at the bag of snacks he had in his spatial ring.
"Who says I only have three long-range moves?"
Huang Wen reached into his storage ring and pulled out a crisp, red apple. He took a huge, crunching bite out of it, savoring the sweetness. Then, with a mischievous glint in his eye, he tossed the half-eaten core toward the 'Eagle's' coordinates.
Inside the spaceship, the Mandarin was huddling behind his barrier, his eyes darting everywhere. Suddenly, a half-eaten apple core materialized out of thin air and bounced off his hexagonal shield with a wet thwack.
The Mandarin froze. He stared at the apple core on the floor. It was fresh. There were tooth marks in it.
"Is he... is he mocking me?" the Mandarin whispered, his face turning a shade of purple that matched his bruised arm.
Thwack! A banana peel hit the shield.
Clunk! An empty soda can.
Huang Wen was standing in the Siberian sky, laughing his head off as he turned his spatial ring into a literal trash chute for the Mandarin's 'secret' base.
"You want to hide in a hole? Fine," Huang Wen chuckled, taking a bite of a pear. "I'll just turn your sanctuary into a garbage dump until you're annoyed enough to drop those shields."
Belle stared at him, watching him throw fruit into a literal hole in space. "Huang Wen... are you okay? Should we see a doctor?"
"Never better, Belle," he grinned, winding up for a toss with a leftover chicken bone. "I'm just doing some 'long-distance' pest control."
The Mandarin, surrounded by a pile of bitten fruit and discarded wrappers inside his billion-dollar alien fortress, let out a scream of pure, helpless rage that could have been heard for miles—if only he wasn't 800 miles away.