It was absurd, on the face of it. Kash was considered the strongest cultivator of the Jade Alliance. He was one of four peak-tier Kambilis in the non-demon cultivating world.
“Why?” asked Eugene.
“Because I want to know what you discovered, and I want to know fairly.”
“And what are your conditions?”
Eugene was getting straight to the point. When a cultivator challenged another of a lower rank, it was common for their win conditions for the fight to be different, and make it easier for the lower ranked one to win in order to make it even.
“Simple. If you land a single hit, I’ll concede.”
“And you want me to tell you what I discovered if I lose?”
“Yes.”
“And what would I get if you lost?”
“The Papa Pole. I have it on me, but I’ll agree to not use it during the fight.”
Eugene considered the situation. The Three Leaders of the Dawn and Dusk Sect were in their meditation caves pondering Kevin’s License Plate. They gave orders to not be disturbed except if the sect was attacked or some equally calamitous event occurred. If Eugene chose to accept the challenge, it would be incredibly risky. The Sect Elders would absolutely not want him to fight Kash on these terms.
If Kash lost, then Eugene would get one of the most powerful Hibiscan artifacts of all time, the legendary Papa Pole. But if Eugene lost, not only would he have to give away the information, but the Leaders would be absolutely furious.
He was explicitly told not to share knowledge of Kevin’s License Plate with anyone. However, Eugene could simply expend some of Kevin’s License Plate to travel a few seconds back in time to dodge attacks, guaranteeing that he wouldn’t lose. However, Kash would likely notice that. If Eugene suddenly dodged an attack that he shouldn’t have been able to, it would be suspicious. If he did so multiple times in a row, as would probably be necessary, Kash would certainly know that something was up.
But it would be good for Eugene to have the Papa Pole, even if it made Kash assume Eugene had some powerful technique that allowed him to fight above his level.
“I agree to your terms. Let’s finalize it into a Bondage Vouch.” declared Eugene.
“Oh, and one more thing,” said Kash, “we’ll include a line that prevents you from using any bullshit.”
“Bullshit?” asked Eugene.
“Yeah,” said Kash, “like any hidden techniques you’re keeping that I would have zero way of knowing about.”
“That’s unfair.”
“Then it applies to both of us. We’re not allowed to use any abilities in the fight that would be extremely implausible for either of us to have.”
Eugene considered the situation. This made the agreement far more unfavorable for him.
“I agree.”
What was the purpose of traveling seven hundred years into the future if not to fight against the strongest cultivators? Eugene lived for battle. He needed worthy opponents. Kash had a warrior’s honor and offered him a fair deal. What man would Eugene be if he didn’t accept?
“Then let’s get on it,” said Kash.
“I swear by the blooming purple hibiscuses,” declared Eugene and Kash.
The Bondage Vouch was struck.
The attention of the Four Gods was briefly directed to them, acknowledging their vouch, before moving on.
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It was not the first time Eugene had felt their presence. The years-long process of creating Kevin’s License Plate was the most difficult thing he had ever undergone. Not because of the billions of innocent people he had to harvest. Not because of other cultivators trying to stop him. No, it was because the Four Gods stared at him the entire time. The heavens willed him to stop, and he refused. Such was the mental will he had to exert that he nearly went insane.
Yet he survived even that, continuing to defy the Four Gods. So they sent the Oil Avatar.
It was presumed that each of the Four Gods had an avatar they would deploy when demon cultivators on Earth became too arrogant and destructive in their actions. The Dawn Avatar was used to save the Dawn and Dusk Sect from an army of demon cultivators. At that point, the Dawn and Dusk Sect was the last bastion of righteous cultivation in the world. Those were the only two that could be confirmed to exist.
Apparently the cultivators of the modern era frequently debated which Avatar was stronger, with there being no consensus. The only thing known about the Oil Avatar was that it left Eugene nearly dead after they fought, whereas the Dawn Avatar had more concrete information available from all the eyewitness accounts.
Eugene’s fight against the Oil Avatar was unlike anything he had experienced before or since. It was entirely composed of Hibiscan energy transmuted into literal crude oil. It shifted between different levels of refinement and purity during the fight, and would frequently set parts of itself on fire. Eugene started losing the second the fight began: he was only able to chip away at its Hibiscan essence very slowly, while the Oil Avatar did him continuous severe damage.
Eugene decided to open his dimension expulsion to end the fight as quickly as possible. He managed to seriously hurt the Oil Avatar, but then it stopped holding back. Its Hibiscan energy increased tenfold. It spit out a glob of burning jet fuel that Eugene blocked with a quick transmutation of his Hibiscan energy into steel.
But that was just a feint, for the Oil Avatar dashed behind Eugene, moving faster than it had ever ran before, and split itself into four spears of bubbling oil. Eugene just barely dodged out of the way, sacrificing each of his limbs in exchange for not instantly dying. The Oil Avatar opened its own dimension, instantly overpowering Eugene’s, and hit Eugene with thousands of simultaneous burning oil attacks. Then, the Oil Avatar closed its dimension and slipped away back to the Heavens.
Eugene’s followers found him alone, in a desolate, smoldering wasteland that was the result of his fight. He was merely a scorched torso of a man, barely even identifiable as Eugene. They took him away to the Eugenian Demon Sect to be healed. He was back to full strength after a few months, limbs fully regrown. But in that time the Jade Alliance had beaten back most of his armies. And he ordered his remaining loyal cultivators to split up into seven hidden sects, because he would face the Jade Alliance on his own.
After he lost his fight with the Avatar, the Four Gods slipped their gaze away from Eugene. He had proven himself to be strong enough to fight the Oil Avatar when it was only using 10% of its power, an impressive feat for a mere Eugene-rank cultivator, so they let him do what he pleased from that point onwards.
His fight with the Oil Avatar profoundly affected Eugene and his fighting style. Eugene typically fought by transmuting his Hibiscan energy into rat poison, which burned away at a cultivator’s health and vitality every time they were hit with it. His main Dimension Expulsion was based on that, though he had alternatives he could pull out depending on what kind of Hibiscan essence he tinged his Vantablack Dimension template with. Eugene was at least proficient in nearly all the known Hibiscan energy transmutations, and so could fight with a great deal of versatility.
But what he realized is that, as powerful as the rat poison transmutation was, there were many ways of countering it. Eugene had learned the ability to transmute Hibiscan energy into oil, imitating how the Oil Avatar used it, and began building a dimension expulsion centered around that concept. Eugene hadn’t had cause to use that one in a fight, though.
Of course, Eugene couldn’t show off his unique dimension expulsions for the upcoming fight, because it would expose him as Eugene. Ideally, he would win without pulling out a dimension expulsion at all. According to the terms of the contract he would be allowed to do so, because of course dimension expulsions in general were a technique that Kash knew of, despite him probably assuming that Eugene wouldn’t be able to perform one.
“Eugene!” shouted Kash, jolting him out of his train of thought.
“Let’s go.”
Eugene nodded and followed behind Kash, who was walking towards one of the larger arenas. Wang and Mieszko quickly caught up to Eugene.
“Wang, inform the gamesmaster that we’ll be fighting. Mention our respective win conditions. Oh, and tell him to livestream it.”
“Mieszko, take these purple stones and bet it all on me winning. I’ll give you 10% of the profit.”
Eugene produced several hundred purple stones from his robes which had previously been stashed in the timeless realm and handed them to Mieszko. Eugene’s companion could barely carry them all, and hobbled off to register the bet.
Kash and Eugene flew up to one of the largest sphere arenas orbiting the larger central combat sphere. Eugene glanced back before entering. Spectators weren’t allowed to directly observe such high-level matches, so instead they crowded around massive screens placed in other orbs. Using Hibiscan energy enhanced vision, he saw that nearly everyone in the Sect had paused what they were doing to watch.
As the three Sect Leaders meditated, unaware of what was happening, tens of thousands of Dawn and Dusk cultivators prepared themselves to witness the battle. Kash had picked a good time indeed to challenge Eugene. No one could stop their fight, their great wager from taking place.
Eugene would have the Papa Pole for himself, and he would be hailed as the legend that won against Kash Imo.