Absorption

Inside the Defense Department's command center, everyone stared blankly at the scene on the light screen. To be frank, they hadn't clearly seen Chen Chuan's final counterattack because the footage shown had been a complete blur. Yet judging by the final outcome displayed before them, an indescribable feeling welled up within their hearts—sheer, crushing annihilation! Hold out for three minutes? Who was the one who actually needed to hold out? A bizarre sense of reversed roles washed over them. Someone glanced at the time and fell into a daze; from the standoff to the end of the attack, less than twenty seconds had elapsed. Commissioner Liang looked up and said, "Connect me to Captain Chen." "Y-Yes, sir!" The communications officer's mind still seemed stunned by the scene on the light screen. Receiving the order, he paused for a second before snapping to, then hurriedly established contact between the two. Chen Chuan heard a rustle of static in his boundary credential, followed by a voice: "Captain Chen, this is Liang Guanghai." "Commissioner Liang?" He raised his head and asked, "Commissioner, what are your orders?" Commissioner Liang said, "To prevent the fissure from expanding further, we need to deal with that split sub-body immediately. However, it has been exposed outside for too long and suffered extensive contamination. Even if recovered, it would likely be highly unstable and unsafe. Therefore, Captain Chen..." His voice turned somber. "I authorize you to completely destroy this split sub-body." Chen Chuan responded firmly, "Understood!" Immediately afterward, he saw the disposal protocol for the split body transmitted to his boundary credential: first, locate and contain the split sub-body with a trap, then kill it, and finally sprinkle a special liquid solution onto its remains to ensure no residue was left behind. These items could be found in the reaction team's vehicles from earlier, as every squad bore the duty of destroying the split sub-body when necessary in addition to their recovery mission. He walked forward, searched inside an overturned vehicle, and quickly retrieved what he needed. Then, carrying the case, he came before the fissure. The split sub-body was just beyond. Since a stable breach had formed here, he would still be able to return the same way once inside. After taking a few looks, he stepped through. At that moment, the people hiding in the surroundings—mercenaries hired by the various corporations—all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Although they all had their weapons aimed at the fissure, not a single one had fired a shot from start to finish. They had been completely cowed by the destructive power of those combatants and Chen Chuan's nearly invincible might at the end, so much so that no one dared fire and court death. If not for the fact that he seemed uninterested in bothering with them, they would have fled already—in fact, some had begun quietly slinking away. After stepping past the fissure, Chen Chuan found the space before his eyes brilliantly lit, seemingly flooded with glaring light. Standing there, he could clearly feel the essence surging toward him from all directions. Yet he also knew this place was fraught with danger; something could cross over from the other side at any moment, so lingering long was unwise. He lifted the sensor lamp attached to the suitcase and swayed it. Soon there was a reaction from a certain direction: the light began flashing and emitted a buzzing hum. Following the indicator lamp's guidance, he located the spot in short order. He discovered a curled-up, off-white, sponge-like thing, only about the size of a fist. Its surface was folded with wrinkles and wrapped in a layer of glistening, translucent fluid, appearing suspended in midair. Chen Chuan could sense that upon arriving here, large amounts of essence were pouring toward this object. It turned out he wasn't the only one absorbing essence—this thing was drawing it in as well. Thinking about it, that made sense. Creatures like Fumu were originally used to defend against foreign incursions; especially after modulation, it likely acted this way by instinct, as essence also contained deep-level contaminants. He opened the trap on the case, placed it on the ground, and walked over with his Xuejun Saber drawn. At this moment, the split body seemed to sense something, trembling slightly, but showed no intention of fleeing elsewhere. Because the mother body had been modulated, split sub-bodies would not struggle when facing a trap, which was why even ordinary reaction forces could carry out retrieval and disposal. Chen Chuan reached it and decisively slashed down, cleaving it cleanly in two. Yet the instant the blade sliced through the split sub-body, the edge hummed and vibrated. Wisps of brilliant, thread-like ribbons of luminous mist billowed from the Xuejun Saber, swirling forward to entangle the cleaved sub-body until it was completely enfolded. In that instant, everything seemed to slow, giving the illusion that time had paused. But moments later, the luminous mist retracted, leaving two withered, shriveled halves of the split sub-body—plainly devoid of life—to drop to the ground. Chen Chuan held the Xuejun Saber up before his eyes to inspect it. The saber seemed to have undergone some sort of change, and he felt that it had slipped into a dormant state. He turned the thought over in his mind. Whatever was inside the blade had originally been brought out from Xiong Jianyi and was very likely connected to the Ferris Wheel Company, though he didn't know what it truly was. Still, his intuition told him this change was advantageous to him. Now was not the time to investigate, however. He glanced at the remains of the split sub-body, returned to the case, and retrieved the bottle of disposal solution from inside. Unscrewing the metal cap, he poured the liquid over them and, as instructed, sprinkled a circle of it around the perimeter as well. The moment it made contact, the remains seemed to gradually dissolve before disappearing completely into the pool of liquid. At the same time, the massive fissure seemed to undergo a subtle shift. Not only did its outward expansion halt, but it also felt as if it had contracted inward slightly, albeit very slowly. Inside the Defense Department's command center, the active conscious entity Watchtower spoke: "Split sub-body field detected to have vanished... Fissure generation halted... Assessed that the split sub-body has been destroyed." Everyone in the command center breathed a sigh of relief, smiles appearing on their faces. Most of the split sub-bodies in other areas had now been recovered or destroyed, and this location was the most severely impacted during this wave of division. Had it continued, it likely would have led to a major crisis, but now it had been neutralized. Once Commissioner Liang confirmed this, he immediately issued instructions for one of the two emergency teams en route to turn back, and directed the Defense Department to dispatch another reaction squad over. Then he turned his gaze back to the light screen, watching the massive fissure. A moment later, Chen Chuan emerged from the fissure. Only now did he carefully assess himself: spurred by this battle, his mental strength had experienced tremendous growth. And most notably, through these consecutive fights, his second self had bounded straight past the threshold of the third limit! Although his second self did not yet possess his current level of strength, it had undoubtedly stabilized firmly within the standard of the same tier. Once the two merged, while his power might not strictly double, his physical condition would genuinely see a substantial leap. If his second self reached his current level, their mental strength should stack as well. He could sense, however, that advancing further grew increasingly difficult—yet fortunately, this world did not lack opponents. Just then, the sound of armored vehicles came from outside. He looked up to see two armored cars driving toward him—precisely the vehicles belonging to his teammates. Yuan Qiuyuan's voice sounded over the boundary credential first: "Captain! We're here... Wait, Captain, you're already done fighting?" At that point, static rustled across all their boundary credentials, and the communications officer spoke up: "Captain Chen, and agents, because the fissure in your area has been detected as the largest in Center City at present, please remain stationed here for now. Forces will arrive shortly to set up defensive and containment fortifications. We kindly ask for your cooperation." Chen Chuan said, "Understood." He looked outside. This fissure was indeed conspicuous, and more people might rush this way later, so guarding it was certainly necessary. Still, this worked out well—it afforded him more time to absorb essence. At the same time, in the Weiguang District of Center City, on the seventieth floor of the building housing the training team. Chen Bitong stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the scene outside. The fissures from the split flashed intermittently, overlapping with the crimson glow above like twisted fireworks. Fang Zhixin and Yu Lie stood behind him, one leaning against the wall, the other standing with hands in pockets, idly flipping a coin with one hand. Yu Lie appeared utterly nonchalant, yet his gaze darted toward Chen Bitong from time to time. This mannerism aroused no suspicion, however, as everyone knew he was a fervent admirer of Chen Bitong; it was his usual habit, and everyone was accustomed to it. A notification chimed on Fang Zhixin's boundary credential. Straightening up, he read it for a moment, then looked up and said, "Teacher, the Government Affairs Department rejected your deployment application... Speaker Quan... hopes you will hold fast in the Weiguang District, saying you are needed here more." Then another alert arrived on his boundary credential. He checked it; this time it came from the Defense Department. He added, "The Defense Department replied as well. Due to the tense situation, they require Weiguang District to be kept completely secure, so they do not recommend you deploy outside, Teacher." Chen Bitong gave an "mm." He asked, "Is everything ready?" Fang Zhixin replied, "Everything is ready." Yu Lie showed no reaction on his face, but his heart jolted. Ready for what? What was Chen Bitong planning to do? How did he not know about this? Should he report to his handlers right now? Or wait a little longer? While he was pondering this, Chen Bitong stood quietly for a moment, then said, "Let's go." With that, he turned and walked outside. Fang Zhixin followed behind him. Reaching the doorway, Fang Zhixin looked back and called to Yu Lie, "Let's go. What are you standing there for?" Yu Lie grinned, said "All right," caught his coin, and followed them out. On the surface, he still maintained that careless, intrigued expression, yet faced with the unknown, his nerves suddenly tightened. ... ...