Interception

In the seventh car of the convoy, Xiong Jianyi sat with his arms crossed over his chest. Due to his towering build, he made the two security guards sitting on either side look rather petite. He was expressionless, sitting motionless in his seat. The two guards, however, watched him with intense wariness, and even the driver in front glanced at him every now and then through the rearview mirror. The vehicle was rounding a bend and naturally slowed down. Just then, Xiong Jianyi's expression suddenly shifted, and he pressed his body violently against the seatback. Outside the sedan, a wheel-like arc of blade light slashed down from above, slicing right through the middle of the vehicle. The jin transmitted through the blade instantly sheared the entire car into two halves, front and back! Both halves of the shattered chassis bounced and rolled through the air. The occupants were clearly not pushovers either; including the driver, all of them curled up and protected their heads the very instant disaster struck. Yet the rear half had barely lifted into the air when a domineering force shoved it aside, sending it hurtling into the distance, where it skipped and rolled across the ground. A tall, lanky figure emerged from within—at least two point one meters in height. A black, skin-tight protective suit hugged his bulging cords of muscle. His arms were exceptionally long, his fingers seemingly able to brush his knees with ease. He wore a pair of protective goggles, and his hair was tied back in a ponytail. Xiong Jianyi! From his movements and the jin he displayed, Chen Chuan recognized him immediately—this was a third-limit martial artist! As expected. Without reaching that level, the man probably wouldn't have dared to return to Great Shun. None of that mattered, however; right now, he only knew that this was his target. He had no time to stand off against him. The Gong family had guards of their own; once they closed in, things would get far more troublesome. Thus, straightening up from his downward slashing stance, he locked eyes with him for an instant. His fingers tightened around the hilt, and he burst forward in a sudden rush, flicking the long saber upward in a rising sweep! Xiong Jianyi had no weapons at hand—the Gong family kept a close eye on him—but he did not rely on weapons anyway. His greatest specialty was grappling, and he wore a specialized protective suit that, paired with his own jin, could somewhat resist a martial artist's edge. Facing the slash, he stepped back, leaning backward at the same time to narrowly evade the edge. Through his goggles, he watched every nuance of Chen Chuan's movement. The next move will be a slash... The blade shifted from an upward sweep to a downward chop, hewing toward his body. He kept retreating, the tip of the saber missing the bridge of his nose by a hair's breadth. He kept his gaze fixed on Chen Chuan. Next comes... a thrust! Sure enough, when the slash failed to connect, he saw Chen Chuan lower the hilt to his waist and sink his weight. At the same time, Chen Chuan brought his left hand up to grip the hilt as well, pointing the tip directly at him, on the verge of erupting forward. That was the moment Xiong Jianyi was waiting for! The muscles across his back writhed. The moment Chen Chuan lunged with the thrust—the very end of that surge of jin, when he would have to recover his stance and gather power for the next attack—Xiong Jianyi could exploit that fleeting gap to seize the blade, control his opponent, and snap his bones! Chen Chuan's eyes were calm and profound as he gazed at the opponent before him. At the precise instant the strike was about to unleash, he completely released all restraint on the mutated tissue throughout his body. At the same time, his furnace breathing engaged, setting his blood boiling instantly. Then, channeling every ounce of his power, he drove the Xuejun Saber forward! His blade initially appeared slow, seemingly no different in speed from before. Yet halfway through, it accelerated explosively. Man and blade blurred into an afterimage that proved difficult even for Xiong Jianyi to track. What?! Behind the goggles, Xiong Jianyi's eyes widened. His read on Chen Chuan's momentum had been based on the previous three strikes, but this sudden change caught him completely off guard, far outpacing his neural reflexes. Yet the intense rush forced an instinctive reaction from his body. Driven by layers of mutated tissue, his arms snapped up into a cross-guard before his chest while he shifted backward. Yet that blindingly fast blade light instantly impaled his crossed arms, punched through his chest, and burst out his back with a wet hiss. In a single exchange, Xiong Jianyi was gravely wounded. Third-limit martial artists possessed tenacious vitality, so this alone was not enough to kill him yet. But with both arms skewered by the blade, and grappling being his greatest strength, he was essentially stripped of his ability to retaliate in an instant. Still, he knew that if he let Chen Chuan withdraw the blade, he would surely die. In a one-on-one fight, any further struggle on his part would be futile. Fortunately, the Gong family's escort was flanking them and would soon react and come to his aid. He violently clenched all his muscles and mutated tissue, locking the blade firmly in place. At the head of the convoy, Gong Zhanyi's armored protection vehicle ground to a halt. Facing an abrupt ambush, he showed little panic, asking with supreme composure, "Which faction is it?" With their biological field currently jammed, he couldn't verify the situation himself. But an experienced man beside him took one look and said uncertainly, "Master, that trench coat... looks somewhat like the State Administration Bureau..." Gong Zhanyi's expression altered. They had anticipated that the Disposal Bureau might intervene, and the Disposal Bureau was manageable—but if it was the State Administration Bureau... He said in a deep voice, "Open fire. Kill Xiong Jianyi immediately!" The steward's heart tightened. "Yes, sir!" As the order came down, other members at the front of the convoy raised their muzzles toward the rear without hesitation. In the rear, the moment Xiong Jianyi clamped down on the blade, Chen Chuan exerted force with his hands, wrenching the saber back toward himself. Skewered through the body, Xiong Jianyi could not produce a complete flow of jin at all. His body was pulled forward by the motion, and Chen Chuan thrust a palm straight toward his skull. Sensing imminent disaster, Xiong Jianyi activated the mutated tissue from his neck to his shoulders, reinforcing his neck. At the same time, he ducked his head sharply, whipping his long hair toward Chen Chuan like a lash. Chen Chuan paid no attention to the whipping hair. His palm slammed into Xiong Jianyi's forehead, blasting jin inward. Blood sprayed from Xiong Jianyi's nose and mouth as his head snapped back, exposing his throat. Chen Chuan's five fingers brushed onto his cheek and slid gently downward. When they reached the throat, his fingers hooked inward and ripped down with the momentum—rrip!—tearing away the soft tissue and flesh by force! Xiong Jianyi let out a wheezing, leaking whimper as blood gushed from the mangled wound, splattering across Chen Chuan's scarf. Right at that moment, Chen Chuan sensed an unusual commotion from behind. He twisted the saber at once, using Xiong Jianyi's frame to swap their positions. Bang! Bang! Bang! A string of gunshots rang out. Every bullet struck Xiong Jianyi. Most of those hitting his protective suit ricocheted off, yet Chen Chuan caught a strange sound amidst the gunfire, and immediately felt Xiong Jianyi's tense muscles go completely slack. The gunfire ceased. Chen Chuan looked up and saw a large hole blown through Xiong Jianyi's forehead. A bullet had entered through the back of his skull, precise and fatal. Even for a third-limit martial artist, once the brain was blown to bits, no amount of vitality could keep him alive. At that moment, he suddenly noticed a strong sign of blurring across his Second Self, but it merely flickered once before disappearing. Hurried footsteps came from behind. The Gong family's rear security personnel had arrived; spreading out, they raised their firearms toward his back. Chen Chuan seemed not to notice them at all. Applying strength to his arm, he calmly withdrew the saber from Xiong Jianyi's body. As that bright arc of blade light was unveiled beneath the daylight once more, he gripped the hilt, rotated his wrist, and flicked the blade to the side. At that exact moment, deprived of support, Xiong Jianyi collapsed backward, limbs splayed wide as he slammed heavily onto the ground. The Disposal Bureau team sent to back up Chen Chuan had arrived by now, but they never expected that before they could even make a move, everything would already be over. They had actually arrived quite quickly, but from the moment Chen Chuan leaped off the balcony and sheared the vehicle in two to the moment Xiong Jianyi was shot dead, less than twenty seconds had elapsed in total. When they arrived, they only saw Xiong Jianyi collapsing in the distance, while Chen Chuan stood in the middle of the road with saber in hand, flanked front and rear by tense Gong family security personnel aiming their weapons at him. Chen Chuan turned his gaze toward them and recognized from their uniforms that they were Disposal Bureau personnel. With a quick turn of thought, he understood: they were likely sent to clean up after him in case something went wrong. He lowered his saber and walked over to them. At the head of the convoy, the steward turned to look at Gong Zhanyi, who shook his head. With no order given, not a single person fired, watching him walk away. Leading the team, Shao Heng watched him approach and gestured to a squad member beside him. Catching the hint, the member headed into a nearby residence where they had set up a post. By the time Chen Chuan arrived, the team member stepped back out and tossed a scabbard toward him. "Little Brother Chen, your gear." Chen Chuan caught it cleanly and thanked him. Looking at the squad leader, Shao Heng, he said, "Senior, Xiong Jianyi is confirmed dead. According to mission protocol, I need to head back to report in." Shao Heng grinned. "Great work, kid. Head on back. The rest is none of your concern—we'll handle it." Chen Chuan nodded to him and the surrounding squad members, adjusted his scarf, sheathed the long saber, and strode away from the scene. Shao Heng glanced ahead and signaled a squad member to go make contact with the Gong family. Right then, his boundary credential suddenly came back online, and Captain Li's voice came through: "What's the situation on your end?" Shao Heng replied, "Captain Li, Xiong Jianyi is dead." Captain Li asked, "So fast? Did your team take care of it?" "No, it was the newcomer. Chen—Chen Chuan, right? By the time we arrived, he had already taken the guy down." Captain Li fell silent for a moment. "What did you say?" Shao Heng raised his voice: "I said, by the time we got here, he... had... already... taken... him... down!" Captain Li seemed incredulous. "Can you confirm that?" Shao Heng glanced at Xiong Jianyi again. "There's a hole blown clean through his head, and the inside's scrambled mush. I don't think anyone's bringing him back from that." Captain Li took a breath. "Bring Xiong Jianyi's body back." "And then?" "Then pull out. The higher-ups will handle the aftermath." After ending the call, the member who had retrieved the scabbard brought out a few items. "Brother Shao, look at this." Shao Heng took a look and was shocked as well. Good grief—every single one was a potent stimulant meant to unlock potential. Taking all these together, wasn't he afraid of blowing himself up? Were all newcomers this reckless nowadays?