Yu Lie reached one of the cavalrymen almost instantaneously. Striking out with a single punch against the horse's flank, he sent jin surging straight through the beast's body and into the rider.
Without pausing to look at the result of that blow, he darted beneath one horse after another. With every horse he passed under, he slammed a fist or palm up into it, leaving a rapid succession of impact sounds in his wake.
The cavalrymen stiffened for a fleeting moment before tumbling down one after another along with the dragon-snout horses beneath them. By the time they hit the ground, their breath had ceased, and they were already dead.
In just the span of a single breath, the entire small squad of cavalrymen that had emerged, including their squad captain, was completely wiped out.
Chen Bitong did not make a single move from start to finish, watching it all with detachment.
Yu Lie glanced toward the fissure and feigned a relaxed tone. "The split sub-body is on the other side, right? Won't those on the other side take it and use it to control this fissure?"
Fang Zhixin said, "No need to worry. Though this appears to be a single fissure, it is actually the junction of three passages. The split sub-body will only hide in the seam between two realms. As long as they cross over from there to our side, the fissure will only connect them to us—unless no one else comes across."
Yu Lie asked, "Then what do we do next? Guard this spot and wait for them to come through?" He looked ahead. "That was probably their advance squad, wasn't it? When they don't see any message sent back from their advance squad, will they still come across?"
Fang Zhixin gazed at the fissure and said seriously, "They won't give up such a stable anchor point. They're certain to assemble their forces on the other side and charge through in one concerted push. What we must do is hold back anyone attempting to cross the fissure."
At this point, Yu Lie was somewhat perplexed. If their goal was to stop them, why create this thing in the first place?
Yet his outward persona was someone who disliked prying into matters and acted utterly indifferent to most things. Asking even those two extra questions had already stretched the bounds of his character, so he suppressed his curiosity and said with careless nonchalance, "Then we'll just crush them as they come."
Fang Zhixin looked at him. "I wasn't referring only to the other side, but also to people coming from behind us."
Yu Lie grinned and maintained his tough front. "Makes no difference."
Just as he said those words, a muffled gunshot suddenly echoed from the distance. Startled, he instinctively turned to look.
Chen Bitong was holding a grasping posture. He casually opened his fingers, and with a metallic clink, a long-range sniper bullet nearly ten centimeters long fell to the ground.
He looked forward, where a group of people was walking over.
Old Hu spoke into his boundary credential, "Don't waste your effort. The spot where you're standing is inside his field. The moment you stepped in, every single thing you do has been crystal clear to him."
The sniper hiding on the rooftop checked the distance—it was at least three hundred meters away. Could a field really cover such a vast expanse?
Old Hu looked ahead and said, "Don't doubt it. He is Chen Bitong, after all." Turning to the mercenaries following behind him, he added, "Since you took the money, do the job."
Even after witnessing Chen Bitong catch a bullet bare-handed, the mercenaries did not shrink back. Instead, one said, "Of course. We follow the rules."
Old Hu said nothing more. Signaling for A-Han and the four team members to follow him, he walked toward Chen Bitong's position as though he had no misgivings whatsoever.
Chen Bitong waited until Old Hu reached him before saying, "Old Hu. I didn't expect it to be you. It's been five years in the blink of an eye. You joined the Provisional Special Operations Committee?"
Old Hu said in a raspy voice, "What does it matter where one joins?" He took off his gloves and drew a document from his coat pocket.
"By order of the Special Operations Committee, you are under arrest on suspicion of treason. Chen Bitong, will you come with me quietly, or must I take you by force?"
Chen Bitong said in a deep voice, "If you want something, come take it yourself."
Old Hu looked at him with dark, cold eyes, yet he did not make a rash move.
Back when he and Chen Bitong had both been members of the exploration team, he had known full well how formidable and capable Chen Bitong was. Moreover, five years had passed in the blink of an eye, and Chen Bitong's reputation had only grown. Although Old Hu had made progress himself, the Chen Bitong of today was already somewhat different from the man he used to know.
He gave a signal, and the four team members Mr. Chu had assigned to him charged forward without hesitation.
At that moment, gunfire erupted from the tall buildings on either flank—the shooters Chen Bitong had stationed there beforehand were firing. However, all four men wore protective suits, so they merely raised their arms to shield their heads and faces.
From behind, Yu Lie saw Old Hu and the four operatives and knew that the Operations Committee's people had arrived. He finally felt a sense of relief. Still, it was not yet time to blow his cover, so when he made a gesture as if to step forward, Fang Zhixin held out a hand to stop him.
"That gentleman is an old friend of the teacher's. Teacher can handle him on his own."
Even as they spoke, the clash ahead had already reached its conclusion. The four men had each thrown a punch at Chen Bitong, yet in the end, not a single blow struck him.
The closest one was still half a meter away when his fist ground to a halt.
It looked exceedingly bizarre. Their punches were aimed in the right direction, and Chen Bitong had not moved from his spot, yet they had inexplicably misjudged his position, their strikes all hitting empty air.
Worse still, as though all their strength had been siphoned away in an instant, the men wobbled and crumpled headlong to the ground.
Old Hu, watching from behind, saw it with absolute clarity: this was a mental influence that distorted their senses, leading them to believe Chen Bitong was standing right where their fists struck.
Furthermore, through that same mental guidance, they had recklessly poured out every ounce of their strength, even triggering their vital essence in a single burst. Consequently, they suffered internal trauma and passed out from sheer exhaustion.
Once a fighter attained complete perfection in both spirit and body, whether utilizing mental power or physical strength, either one alone was sufficient to crush any fighter below that realm—not to mention that Chen Bitong had no weaknesses in either aspect.
He cast a deep, measuring look at Chen Bitong, yet still refrained from acting. Instead, he said, "A-Han, you go."
The man called A-Han stepped forward without hesitation. Ripping away his outer smock, he exposed a muscular body covered in scales.
He bared his teeth at Chen Bitong in a menacing sneer, revealing a mouth packed with razor-sharp fangs. His eyes possessed round pupils like those of a lion or tiger—clearly the result of comprehensive implant modifications.
The sheer bulk of his exposed musculature was suffocating, yet the step he took was remarkably light and agile, showing that his coordination was superb and his speed would be formidable.
He fixed his gaze on Chen Bitong for a few moments, the space between his brows throbbing as though guarding against something. Once satisfied, he darted off diagonally at a speed so blinding that even Fang Zhixin and Yu Lie behind them could barely track him with their eyes.
Having flanked Chen Bitong, he lunged forward. Before he even reached him, several long appendages branched out from his back, whipping forward to instantly bind Chen Bitong's body tight.
Feeling solid contact, he rejoiced inwardly and tightened them with all his might. Raising a hand, he slashed sharp talons straight toward Chen Bitong's face!
Yet before his claws could descend, he realized Chen Bitong completely disregarded the bindings. With a mere slight lift of Chen Bitong's hand, those tough appendages snapped section by section like soft dough. Then, two fingers tapped the center of his forehead before his strike could land. In that instant, he seemed to hear the sound of something shattering.
To the onlookers, a bloody crater exploded out of the back of his head, spraying implant tissue and fluid outward in a violent jet.
The massive frame tumbled backward and crashed to the ground, limbs splayed wide. A rapid barrage of snaps and fractures erupted from all across his body; from the sound alone, one could tell those places had been twisted and burst apart by some unseen force.
"String-Void Jin, is it...?"
Old Hu withdrew his gaze from the still-twitching corpse and looked at Chen Bitong. "Do you know who he was? Old Chai—you remember him, don't you? Old Chai, who followed you back then and took a spear for you. A-Han was his son."
Chen Bitong fell silent for a moment before saying, "I saw him once, when he was a child."
Old Hu stared intently into his eyes. "Beating to death the son of an old comrade—a teammate who covered you with his own life—how does that feel right now?"
From behind, Fang Zhixin stepped forward a few paces and said, "Chai Zihan, while carrying out missions for the Defense Department, routinely bullied and abused subordinates, claiming credit that belonged to ordinary operatives.
"Upon discovering that an operative had reported him, he promptly murdered the man and falsely claimed the subordinate had attacked him with a gun out of resentment. Afterward, the Internal Affairs Department stripped the operative's family of all pension and compensation.
"Even then, he refused to spare the man's wife and children, ordering them doused in oil and burned alive. Doesn't scum like that deserve to die?"
Old Hu said, "So you give no regard whatsoever to old comradeship?"
Chen Bitong said in a deep voice, "Even if he were to come at me again, I would kill him just the same."
A cold sneer crossed Old Hu's face. Right at that moment, as though sensing something, he raised his head and looked toward the fissure. The light there had visibly flickered and surged.
Yu Lie stood closest to the fissure. Sensing something amiss, he turned around immediately, just in time to see something crash violently outward from within.
He barked a shout and stepped up, slamming both palms forward in an attempt to block whatever was coming. Yet the moment he made contact, his expression shifted drastically. The incoming force was so overwhelmingly fierce that his entire body shook uncontrollably.
Even so, he gritted his teeth and held on.
Yet it was utterly futile. The creature drove relentlessly out of the fissure, and he could not impede it for even a fraction of a second.
By now, the thing had fully revealed itself—a colossal beetle roughly three meters tall, its entire body encased in a shell resembling metal. As it continued its advance, Yu Lie could no longer hold out against the brutal force; he was blasted backward through the air and tumbled onto the ground to the side.
Meanwhile, the beetle pressed on ahead with ferocious momentum.
Chen Bitong stood right along that path.
Yet he showed no intention of moving. The beetle rumbled straight through him, but seemed only to strike a phantom image, meeting zero resistance as it barreled onward toward Old Hu further behind.
Old Hu's eyes were dark and cold. He simply raised his hand, bringing two fingers together, and once they reached a certain height, he swung them violently downward toward the front!
A crimson arc of light seemed to flash past. In an instant, the entire beetle was cleaved cleanly in two from head to tail. After skidding forward a distance on momentum, the halves fell apart to either side.
Inside, its tissues were completely charred. Old Hu stood there, his masked face devoid of discernible expression, while the tips of his fingers glowed bright scarlet, wreathed in thin tendrils of rising steam.
Chapter 545