Release

Enveloped in overflowing jin, the two figures plummeted from more than twenty meters in the air. With a thunderous crash, they slammed into the ground, blasting open a massive crater and sending a shower of shattered stone and brick flying in all directions. Fang Zhixin and Yu Lie both felt their hearts lurch. To fall from such a height completely unprotected... Amid the scattering debris, Chen Chuan leaped out of the pit. Sailing more than twenty meters away, he flipped cleanly, landed steadily on his feet, and slowly stood upright before looking toward the crater. Having applied grappling jin moments ago, Chen Bitong had absorbed the full impact of the landing, leaving Chen Chuan virtually unscathed. Of course, when he had snared his opponent with seizing jin, the simplest way to neutralize him would have been to snap his neck. Yet both his gut instinct and intuition told him that doing so was ill-advised and would fail to produce the desired effect. And just as he had anticipated, the moment they struck the ground, the very power he had witnessed earlier resurfaced. Sensing danger, Chen Chuan had chosen not to press the grapple, releasing his grip in time to retreat outside. Chen Bitong now rose from the crater and slowly stepped out. A faint, shimmering light flickered across his right hand, and the aura and power radiating from him were completely different from before, as though something had been partially released. Chen Chuan stared intently at him. This sensation bore a slight resemblance to that entity he had encountered once before, though it was not entirely the same. Chen Bitong glanced at his hand and spoke slowly. "Once a fighter breaks the shackles binding him, he transcends the limits of the human body and enters an entirely new realm. "Though the old era had various names for it, the new era refers to such individuals uniformly as 'martial artists.' "A martial artist possesses a particular ability: to exert the spirit's interference upon reality. That requires no aid from jin; it is a manifestation of pure spiritual power. "Yet before becoming a martial artist, one must undergo a process. The spirit must be elevated to a certain height. Once it reaches that height, you can use your spirit to draw forth a fraction of power from another world for your own use. Reaching that stage serves as your starting point." He raised his other hand, which also lit up with a faint luminescence. "Thereafter, you temper and cleanse your spirit with this power, allowing it to gradually adapt and take on identical properties. Once that is complete, you may truly embark upon the path of a martial artist." Chen Chuan's thoughts turned rapidly. The Spiritual Illumination Reflection Method Teacher Xue had taught him was designed precisely to push one's spirit to a sufficiently elevated state. That meant following this path would smoothly lead to this very realm. Chen Bitong said in a deep voice, "Yet even if one is not yet a martial artist, the ability to channel external power through the spirit makes them impossible for ordinary fighters to resist. That is why not even the two lying on the ground could contend with such power." Chen Chuan looked at the faint light flickering over Chen Bitong's hands. Leaning forward, he kicked off the ground and charged, his shifting footsteps channeling the power surging from his mutated tissue. Closing the distance in an instant, he flattened his palm and drove the heel of his hand straight down toward his opponent! Chen Bitong shifted his feet slightly apart and swept his glowing arm upward. Without a flicker of tremor, he blocked the strike. The instant Chen Chuan made contact, he felt all of his jin drain away into nothingness, as if cast into a bottomless void. Just then, Chen Bitong thrust his other palm forward. Chen Chuan raised an arm to guard. A vast, unfathomable force surged through the blow, plowing his feet into the earth and driving him backward for more than twenty meters before he finally came to a halt. Glancing down, he saw that his Second Self had faded to near transparency. That seemingly casual push had shaved away a fifth of its total endurance. In other words, he could withstand at most five such strikes—perhaps even fewer, given that Chen Bitong had likely held back his full strength. Yet Chen Bitong frowned. The faint light faded from one of his hands, leaving only the other glowing. Chen Chuan kept his eyes fixed on him. In that brief clash at close quarters, he had sensed that the man was restraining something, as if reluctant to wield this power. Moreover, for that brief instant of contact, Chen Bitong's spirit had seemed unstable, settling down only after he withdrew a portion of that power. Did excessive use of this power come at a heavy cost, or was there some other reason? Chen Chuan spoke. "Teacher Chen, my request for your guidance isn't over yet. Let us continue." Chen Bitong looked at him. Even after seeing such an ability displayed, did he still have the confidence to fight? Chen Chuan drew in another breath. His scorching body turned the falling raindrops to steam the moment they touched his skin, blending them into the billowing white vapor rising around him. That power was formidable indeed, and for now, he had no means of directly confronting it. However, Chen Bitong's baseline physical attributes had not received a corresponding boost. So long as Chen Chuan did not let that power touch him, it would make no difference. When merged with his Second Self, what he had displayed earlier was mostly raw strength. But beyond that, he also had... speed! Focusing his spirit to its absolute limit, he took a step forward. In that instant, the entire world seemed to slow to a crawl. The thinning raindrops appeared suspended in midair, while the tumbling pebbles in the air currents and the withered leaves caught in the wind hung like frozen sculptures. Within his spiritual perception, every detail registered distinctly: the intent expressions of the snipers aiming down from the tall buildings flanking the street, and the taut, anxious faces of Yu Lie and Fang Zhixin. Ignoring all else, he stepped across the cracking ground, shattering countless raindrops suspended along his path. He closed in on Chen Bitong and drew back his fist. Chen Bitong seemed to sense the shift. He slowly raised his glowing arm to form a guard before his face, but before it could settle into position, Chen Chuan's fist detonated against his cheek. A deafening sonic boom tore through the square, and Chen Bitong went hurtling backward. His body bounced repeatedly across the pavement, gouging out a succession of craters before finally stopping dozens of meters away. After a moment, he slowly rose with his back turned to Chen Chuan, then turned around. Faint light flickered within his torn cheek, the wound steadily knitting and sealing shut. His expression had turned exceedingly grim. Gauging the situation now, if he did not draw upon enough power, he might not be able to win. Yet drawing upon too much would carry severe repercussions, to the point where he might lose control of himself. That left only one option. He tilted his head upward. A series of sharp crackles echoed through his joints, and his frame visibly elongated. Originally standing just over 1.7 meters, he grew to nearly 1.8 meters. His limbs stretched, the fabric of his clothes pulled taut, and his muscles swelled into distinct, defined ridges. The wrinkles crisscrossing his face smoothed out, the gray streaks in his hair vanished back into ink-black strands, and his eyes ignited with brilliant luster. It was as though he had suddenly shed more than twenty years, returning to his prime. Strands of pale cyan vapor drifted outward from his body. String-Void Jin was divided into internal and external aspects. External string-void was used to attack the enemy, while internal string-void gathered and conserved power, keeping the body functioning at a low-consumption state during ordinary times. Now, it had been fully unleashed. Chen Chuan's gaze narrowed. He could sense from Chen Bitong's unreservedly radiating field and spirit that the man's strength had surged to a whole new level. In that case... Taking a deep breath, Chen Chuan activated all the medicinal potency stored within his body from earlier. The white vapor enveloping him thickened rapidly, churning upward into a cohesive, unyielding pillar of steam. After a brief exchange of gazes, both figures vanished simultaneously from the square. Next came an ear-shattering cacophony of collisions. This time, Yu Lie and Fang Zhixin could barely make out their silhouettes; only the relentless detonations of compressed air reached their ears, like unending rolls of thunder shaking the heavens. They could feel the ground trembling beneath them, accompanied by the howl of backdrafting currents blasting out from the fissure, violently whipping at their clothes. With a tremendous crash, a massive hole blew open in the wall of a nearby building. Chen Chuan remained frozen in a forward-leaning punch, only to vanish an instant later as explosive impacts continued to reverberate from inside. The violent tremor tore through the base of the structure and punched clean into an empty building across the way. Another massive breach blasted open, and two dark shadows could be seen bursting through. In the span of a single breath, they smashed into the building nearest to the square. The scout observing from afar with binoculars could no longer track the fight. He had to abandon his vehicle, scramble up a nearby high-rise, and strain to report the situation to the command center based on the surrounding destruction. Yet the command center had no attention to spare for this location. The sixth split wave was fast approaching. Even if reinforcements were dispatched now, anyone lacking sufficient strength would be incapable of intervening in a battle of this caliber; they could only wait for a victor to emerge. Inside the building, Chen Chuan and Chen Bitong fought with everything they had. In their blur of motion and the wake of their overflowing jin, load-bearing pillars shattered one after another, sending fractured floor slabs crashing down. Dodging the debris, the two leaped upward, battling from the ground floor all the way to the rooftop. Reaching the roof, Chen Bitong vaulted into the air, aiming to deploy his Flying Dragon Fist Jin from on high once again. Chen Chuan had no intention of allowing it. Clawing a hand into the wall, he whipped his arm forward, sending countless pieces of rubble shrieking through the air like shrapnel. Seeing the incoming barrage, Chen Bitong's figure flickered and vanished. The next instant, he appeared at Chen Chuan's flank, thrusting his glowing palm forward. Chen Chuan pivoted immediately, shifting to his other side and pressing his palm down. Chen Bitong raised his opposite hand to block, but the concussive force sent him skidding sideways, hurling him over the roof's edge into a free fall. Chen Chuan kicked off the ledge and plunged after him. Realigning their centers of gravity in midair, they landed one after the other on the street below. Behind them, the entire building collapsed with a deafening roar, sending billowing plumes of dust and debris rolling outward. At that exact moment, the fissure nearby flickered and suddenly expanded once more—this time engulfing both combatants within the swirling dust.