At ten in the morning, the arena tournament at the dueling arena was underway. Today's match pitted Huo Yucheng against Yu Shen, with three bouts scheduled in total.
In this kind of competition, the organizers would never allow them to settle life and death in a single stroke. That did not align with their interests. Referees and ring security kept a close watch; the moment one fighter was knocked down, defeat would be declared on the spot, and the two would be promptly separated.
Even in the event of severe injuries or severed limbs, the medical team could rescue them in time or replace lost parts with implants.
By now, the two had already stepped onto the stage and begun the pre-match promotions and hype, a process that usually took forty-five minutes to an hour or more.
Yet right at this moment, a commotion broke out across the venue. Still going along with the pre-match publicity, both fighters were caught off guard, wondering what had happened.
The gigantic screens flickered, cutting to a scene of a street intersection. The ground was in utter shambles, strewn everywhere with rear-ended, overturned, and piled-up vehicles. Some had even been smashed to pieces or sliced clean in half. This looked nothing like a traffic accident—it was clearly the aftermath of a battle.
The camera zoomed in, revealing two figures confronting each other. The surrounding devastation had to be their doing. If so, there was no doubt these two were third limit fighters.
And someone immediately recognized one of them.
Wei Wusheng!
He was the wanted felon featured most often in recent news broadcasts, though at this moment, he looked rather battered.
Who was the other person fighting him?
Once field communications were restored, the battle between Chen Chuan and Wei Wusheng immediately caught the organizers' attention. After a hurried consultation and decision, they ordered the match inside the venue delayed and redirected all field resources toward the intersection.
This was a battle between third limit fighters. The organizers were eager to seize this chance to drive up hype. Without their equipment, the audience had no way to watch such a clash at all, so the venue lost nothing. Moreover, doing this would greatly curry favor with spectators, particularly those from the middle and upper classes.
Meanwhile, back at the scene, the seated Wei Wusheng jerked his head up. In that instant, two completely different looks appeared in his eyes: one was resolute and ferocious, while the other was sinister and bizarre—as if two distinct people inhabited the same body.
Inside, his mutated tissue and muscles writhed, snapping his dislocated shoulder back into place and causing the swelling and bruising to recede before he stood up as though nothing had happened.
Not only that, the muscles across his body swelled outward slightly, thick veins bulging tautly against his flesh. His trapezius muscles bulged particularly high, propping up the back of his neck, and his frame seemed to expand a fraction taller.
Watching this scene, the Disposal Bureau personnel wore grim expressions. External conditioning made a practitioner exceptionally resilient. No matter how many times he was knocked down, any non-fatal wound could be mended in very little time, allowing him to maintain top condition.
Fortunately, considerable time had already elapsed. So long as Chen Chuan held out until reinforcements arrived, it wouldn't matter even if he couldn't bring the man down.
Wei Wusheng began striding toward Chen Chuan once more. Passing a panel van, he casually hoisted it up and hurled it toward Chen Chuan across dozens of meters.
Seeing this spectacle, the spectators in the arena venue let out a collective, tsunami-like gasp. Most people had never witnessed such inhuman strength in their lives.
Chen Chuan stood motionless. Only when the van reached him and the looming shadow was about to engulf him did he reach out, catch it with a gentle prop, and effortlessly sweep it behind him. With a dull thud, the van tumbled backward into the distance, throwing up a dense plume of dust behind him. The displaced airflow merely fluttered the collar of his shirt.
Another prolonged chorus of gasps swept through the arena. The display put on by both men was utterly staggering, sending adrenaline surging through everyone's veins. This packed vastly more shock value than watching Second Limit fighters duel; it had already transcended the boundaries of what could be considered human.
Gazing up at the two figures on the massive screen, Huo Yucheng and Yu Shen could not help feeling shaken to the core. So this was the third limit...
Chen Chuan leaned forward. The instant his foot tapped the ground, his silhouette streaked across the entire street toward Wei Wusheng. Even after frame-rate modulation, to the viewers' eyes, it took only the blink of an eye for the two to collide.
Clashing with Chen Chuan again, Wei Wusheng took a punch directly to the chest. This time, however, the blow failed to knock him down or repel him as before; he weathered it squarely and swung a counter. Chen Chuan swayed aside to evade, spun smoothly, and snapped out a kick. Wei Wusheng blocked it with his shoulder and answered with a kick of his own.
Because both were moving at extreme speed, continuously orbiting each other, the surrounding scenery seemed to blur and spin around them.
Wherever they passed, anything they brushed against shattered. Craters and fractured pits caved into the asphalt beneath their colliding strength, and every so often a car was struck, flipping or sliding sideways across the pavement.
Facing Chen Chuan's onslaught, Wei Wusheng blocked what he could and tanked the rest with his external conditioning, all the while attuning himself to the rhythm of his opponent's breathing.
After tanking over a hundred punches, he spotted an opening. He locked onto Chen Chuan's arm, channeling grappling jin to pin him. Yet when the force discharged, it failed to budge Chen Chuan in the slightest. Instead, Chen Chuan gripped his wrist, yanked him inward, pivoted on the spot, and hurled him away with a sharp whoosh, bowling over several cars in succession.
Moments later, the mangled vehicles were blasted aside with a deafening crash as Wei Wusheng's hulking frame charged out once more. Chen Chuan ducked slightly, dodging several ferocious punches and treacherous grappling grabs. He clamped down on Wei Wusheng's elbow and drove forward, his other hand with fingers splayed thrusting straight toward the man's face.
Sensing danger, Wei Wusheng twisted abruptly, driving his elbow up to parry the palm. But this left his center wide open. Chen Chuan whipped a kick upward into his hip. Stripped of his balance, Wei Wusheng stumbled back once more.
Before he could regain his footing, a shadow materialized before his eyes, followed by a relentless barrage of strikes raining upon him. He had no choice but to shield his head, face, and other vital spots.
Chen Chuan's heavy fists hammered down like a torrential storm, targeting every weak point and relatively fragile joint.
Even though tough mutated tissue guarded those vulnerable spots, Chen Chuan possessed more than enough power. Every punch and kick struck like a genuine sledgehammer, fracturing the fascia and bones at the point of impact, penetrating layer upon layer of jin inward to continuously breach and tear apart internal tissues.
Even if the mutated tissue could regenerate under the effects of external conditioning, under attacks so dense and rapid—with each strike inflicting substantial trauma—it was impossible to mend the damage in time.
Wei Wusheng's condition plummeted under the assault. After two full minutes of sustained battering, his head felt dizzy and heavy. His body was furiously siphoning energy to fuel self-repair, and the relentless stream of damage left his brain deprived of sufficient blood.
Just then, a heavy blow caught the back of his knee, forcing him to tilt sideways. He caught sight of a sweep kick hurtling straight toward his head. Hastily throwing up an arm to shield his face, he blocked the strike, but the impact sent him skidding laterally across the ground for several meters.
Rolling once, he sprang to his feet and whipped an elbow back at the pursuing Chen Chuan. Chen Chuan ducked, caught the elbow with a raised forearm, and gripped the arm in reverse. Pivoting cleanly, he effortlessly flipped Wei Wusheng over his back, unleashing throwing and grappling jin to slam him ruthlessly into the earth.
The ground beneath Wei Wusheng's back fractured into a web of fissures. His internal organs violently jolted, and even his resilient bones developed fractures. An involuntary groan escaped him as blood welled up from his lips.
Lying there, he looked up to see Chen Chuan gazing calmly down at him.
"Is that all...?" Wei Wusheng growled, struggling to rise. But he was only halfway up when a fist drove straight into him, slamming him right back down!
And that was not the end. Chen Chuan's other fist was already coming down. Wei Wusheng's arms suddenly turned supple, coiling upward like serpents in an attempt to lock the fist. Yet the muscles on Chen Chuan's arm snapped taut, blasting both arms aside. The fist struck true, driving Wei Wusheng's entire head into the pavement.
Immediately afterward, blow after blow rained down like dense hail, all aimed squarely at his head. Under the relentless barrage, the asphalt beneath his skull fractured as though struck by a pile driver, gradually carving out a shallow crater beneath him.
Inside the arena venue, the entire audience held their breath, jaws slack as they watched the scene unfold.
After landing an unknown number of punches, a sharp crack echoed out. Chen Chuan's fist halted. He could feel that the hard skull beneath had shattered, and the body under him had ceased breathing.
Slowly, he stood up, stepped away from the body, and walked off. But after he had taken roughly twenty paces, a sound stirred behind him.
He glanced back. A scrawny figure clad in a black imported formal suit had materialized there at some unknown moment.
The figure seemed vaguely familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before. Chen Chuan thought back for a second. Old Cat Han?
The man grabbed Wei Wusheng's hair with one hand while the sharp digits of his other slashed toward the neck. "Wei Wusheng's head is mine!"
In a single instant, he could sever Wei Wusheng's head, vanish from the area, and claim the bounty. As for Chen Chuan doing all the fighting earlier...
Heh. The bounty only called for Wei Wusheng's head. Whoever held the head got the payout.
Who told Chen Chuan to be so careless? He had waited all this time for this exact opportunity.
Yet as his Five Claws swept across to cut, the claw blades that usually sliced through everything encountered a rigid barrier. Startled, he sensed something was wrong and instantly sprang into the air, trying to retreat.
His movements were exceedingly nimble. No matter how powerful Wei Wusheng was, it meant nothing if the brute couldn't touch him—which was why he had dared to take this contract and boast about it publicly.
Yet this time, the moment he leaped into midair, he felt his foot seized in an iron grip. Shock flooded through him.
Still, he was an accomplished fighter after all. Using the pulling force, he flipped and twisted downward. This escape technique could slip out even when snagged by grappling jin. As he rolled, he thrust both hands toward Wei Wusheng's chest. But the instant his ten fingers penetrated the flesh, a layer of supple muscle clamped down on them, trapping his hands firmly in place.
Suddenly, he was pinned right on top of Wei Wusheng.
Not good!
Cold sweat broke out on Old Cat Han's brow.
And then he felt the body beneath him slowly sit up and seize his other leg. Realizing what was coming, he cried out in terror, "Don't—"
Before the cry finished, Wei Wusheng gripped both legs and wrenched outward with violent force. With a sickening rip, the man was instantly torn in two!
A shower of viscera and blood rained down, splashing across the ground and Wei Wusheng's own torso.
Chen Chuan fixed his gaze upon him. Wei Wusheng's eyes were rolled back white; he had clearly lost all consciousness, and was devoid of even a breath, yet he was standing back up. The sight was deeply grotesque.
At the same time, Chen Chuan detected a powerful thumping, pounding in his ears like a drum. He looked toward the man's chest. "A heart...?"
Though Wei Wusheng's skull was fractured and his consciousness completely gone, the other consciousness latent within his body had awakened.
Dwelling within the heart, this consciousness capitalized on the extinction of Wei Wusheng's mind and the imminent threat of death to finally intertwine the two forces, merging the two hearts into one.
Yet the entity existing now was no longer Wei Wusheng—it was Xiong Jianyi!
Watching him attempt to rise from the shallow pit once more, Chen Chuan slowly raised his hand, pressing his fingers tightly together. Then he stepped forward and surged ahead. In that instant of charging, his Second Self merged with him. In a flash, he crossed twenty meters of space. With a sharp squelch, his forearm drove straight in like a blade, plunging deep into Wei Wusheng's chest.
Looking into the grotesque face, Chen Chuan said softly, "Safe travels."
Then his fingers clenched, violently crushing the pulsing organ.
Wei Wusheng's body shuddered violently. His head drooped limp, and blood poured profusely from his facial features and the wounds all over his body.
Chen Chuan slowly drew his arm out, letting the newly risen body collapse backward into the cracked roadway. The pooling blood soon filled the shallow crater.
And right at this moment, he sensed it as well—as though some shackle had been undone. A resounding boom like a bell and drum rang by his ears, and a surge of immense power raced swiftly through every limb and bone.
Chapter 343