Xiang Tiancheng noticed the uniform Chen Chuan was wearing and rubbed his chin. "The Disposal Bureau? Government people? That's troublesome."
When fighters took measure of one another, even without direct field contact, they could generally assess where an opponent stood through experience alone.
Facing Chen Chuan now, his expression was nowhere near as relaxed as it had been against Che Gaoyi, because he could sense an unmistakable warning of danger radiating from Chen Chuan.
Only someone standing on the same level could give him that feeling.
It seemed the briefcase truly contained what he suspected. Otherwise, it would never have drawn such serious attention from both the corporations and the government, prompting them to send out fighters of this caliber.
He had to take it back, no matter what.
Besides, why should he bust his back doing all the heavy lifting, only for someone else to swoop in and reap the spoils? The thought left him thoroughly irritated.
His eyes locked onto Chen Chuan's silhouette. He stepped one foot out and slowly spread his hands.
Yet just as the jin began circulating through his body and his heels lifted off the ground in preparation to strike, tremors suddenly rippled through the earth in the distance. He glanced over and saw Number Nine sprinting straight toward them—and judging by its heading, it was bearing down on Chen Chuan.
It had clearly been drawn by the briefcase in Chen Chuan's hand.
Xiang Tiancheng chuckled, halted his step, and remained where he was.
Chen Chuan also saw Number Nine charging toward him. He thrust the Xuejun Saber into the ground, freeing one hand, and stood calmly in place.
Number Nine charged with tremendous speed. Combined with its hulking build, it whipped up a palpable, rushing blast of wind pressure as it closed in, sweeping snapped branches and weeds into the air behind it and churning up a rolling plume of dust in its wake.
Chen Chuan lowered his center of gravity slightly. The moment it reached him, his hand shot forward with pinpoint precision, seizing Number Nine's reaching wrist. In the next breath, he pivoted smoothly, using the momentum to fling the brute far into the distance.
This throw not only borrowed Number Nine's own forward momentum but also channeled a whip-like flinging jin. Flying through the air, Number Nine snapped several trees in succession, gouged a long furrow into the earth as it tumbled, and finally slammed into an earthen slope with a heavy thud, throwing up a huge cloud of dust and dirt.
A moment later, the bio-fiber skeleton within Number Nine snapped its dislocated arm back into alignment, and its various impact wounds and abrasions rapidly healed. It rose from the ground as if nothing had happened.
Yet the moment it stood and took its first step forward, it froze.
When Chen Chuan subdued it earlier, the final throw had not only infused seizing jin, but had been unleashed as Mind Jin.
This force lingered within the target's body. If it was not neutralized and discharged in time, it would inflict even greater internal destruction. As a result, Number Nine now suffered a secondary shockwave—one far more destructive than the initial impact—leaving it temporarily paralyzed.
And at the exact moment Chen Chuan flung Number Nine away, Xiang Tiancheng moved on the other side.
The latter had no care for chivalrous notions of a fair duel. The Resistance Front and the government were open enemies; why would he pass up such an obvious opening?
They were not far apart to begin with, and in an instant Xiang Tiancheng closed the gap, whipping a horizontal kick straight at Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan raised an arm in time to block. Fist and foot collided with a booming shockwave of displaced air that sent the surrounding soil and weeds blasting outward.
Chen Chuan's gaze turned profound. *Mind Jin...?*
Seeing his kick blocked so firmly, Xiang Tiancheng's eyes narrowed as well. *Mind Jin?*
His casual smirk vanished. A fighter who had mastered Mind Jin was in a completely different realm from the two earlier. Unless one had trained in external conditioning, taking a single strike from such an opponent could end the fight right then and there.
Yet he was an exception. Swirling jin could divert and convert incoming force to a certain extent, so no matter how formidable his opponent's power, he had little reason to fear.
Twisting his torso, he lashed out with another kick, following up in rapid succession with a flurry of punches and kicks. Capitalizing on the brief interval before Chen Chuan could fully reset after tossing Number Nine, he pressed his attack with relentless aggression.
This sort of proactive offensive was his favorite. It allowed him to keep relentless pressure on an opponent. Meanwhile, unaware of the nature of his jin, the opponent would typically refrain from hasty counterattacks, choosing instead to hold a solid defense and wait for his momentum to wane before striking back.
He was thoroughly experienced in this dynamic. An opponent would inevitably unleash their jin in a fierce counterburst once they reset themselves—unaware that doing so played right into his hands.
He would seize that very moment to reflect the incoming force right back at them using his swirling jin. Even if that didn't grievously injure them, it would instantly crush whatever counter-momentum they had just built.
In his past experience, after a few such exchanges, the opponent's rhythm would fall apart completely, leaving the match entirely under his control.
Chen Chuan steadily parried every incoming strike. However, he noticed a telltale detail: after their initial clash of Mind Jin, instead of retreating or evading, his opponent charged straight in without hesitation.
Every subsequent strike was a head-on, reckless collision, as though Xiang Tiancheng had zero concern for the threat of Chen Chuan's jin.
Between two fighters who commanded Mind Jin, such behavior was completely abnormal.
Most fighters could not guarantee they would emerge unscathed from a direct collision of Mind Jin; acting this way was simply reckless and counterproductive.
Therefore, for him to fight this boldly meant either he possessed absolute confidence in his jin, or his jin had some unique property—like Nie Guanshan's—that allowed him to shrug off direct clashes.
Chen Chuan leaned toward the latter explanation. In head-on collisions, this man's jin seemed unremarkable on the surface, which practically screamed that there was more to it beneath the exterior.
Yet Chen Chuan felt no apprehension. He maintained his own rhythm, weathering over a dozen blows while using the defensive exchanges to realign himself. The instant he keenly sensed a subtle hesitation creeping into the opponent's offensive flow, he threw a punch without a second thought, driving it straight through the gap in the man's guard.
Xiang Tiancheng's eyes lit up. This was the exact moment he had been waiting for. He brought his palm up to meet the blow, instantly funneling the immense concentrated force into his body. Then, driving off his rear foot, he channeled that borrowed jin alongside his own gathered power and whipped out a kick.
Chen Chuan raised an arm to block the kick. As both combined forces surged into his body, his expression did not waver in the slightest. With power to spare, he thrust two fingers forward like a spear.
Xiang Tiancheng was shocked that his strike had failed to produce the expected result. Though his mind had miscalculated, his body reacted instinctively, twisting to evade while raising an elbow to parry outward.
Chen Chuan's two fingers struck squarely against his arm. Because Xiang Tiancheng had scrambled to defend and failed to marshal enough jin in time, he could not withstand the Mind Jin assault. First, the flesh at the point of contact split open with a sharp crackle. Then, as the force penetrated deeper, the bones in his arm fractured, and the destructive jin continued boring inward toward his torso.
Had that force been allowed to rampage unchecked, it would have left him grievously injured in a single blow. But at that crucial juncture, Xiang Tiancheng finally managed to adjust.
His swirling jin could be triggered from any part of his body. Buying a sliver of time with his arm's defense, the mutated tissue throughout his body twisted in unison, dispersing and redirecting the invading force elsewhere across his frame to prevent further catastrophic damage.
He did not dare channel it downward into the ground, as that would cause the earth beneath him to cave in and compromise his footing. In high-stakes combat, he would rather bear the strain in his flesh than allow his footwork to be restricted.
Yet even though he averted immediate disaster, he had undeniably lost an exchange.
Chen Chuan's follow-up followed instantly. Spreading his five fingers, he clamped onto Xiang Tiancheng's arm, instantly shifting from open-hand striking jin into seizing jin.
When facing Che Gaoyi earlier, Xiang Tiancheng could divert and transfer jin with ease, but before Chen Chuan, his power fell short of his intent.
Right now, the mutated tissue across his body had shifted entirely into self-preservation, unable to exert any control over foreign force. Worse still, this was Mind Jin applied through seizing technique. The moment it invaded, half of his body went numb, the mutated tissue there instantly losing responsiveness, and the paralysis was spreading rapidly throughout the rest of his form.
*I'm done for,* Xiang Tiancheng thought in dread.
Between masters, a single miscalculation was often the boundary between life and death. He was now backed into an absolute dead end.
Yet at that very instant, the wind howled and a looming shadow bore down. Number Nine was charging in once again, barreling straight toward the two of them.
Chen Chuan's eyes flashed. He whipped out a kick, and a violent burst of power detonated against Number Nine's neck. With a sickening snap, its neck skewed at an unnatural angle, and its massive body was hurled sideways.
Xiang Tiancheng seized upon this like a drowning man clutching a lifeline. The mutated tissue in his half-paralyzed body sprang into motion, dispersing the seizing jin, while his palm simultaneously lashed out at Chen Chuan's face.
Sensing his jin being led astray into empty space, Chen Chuan did not insist on maintaining the hold. He released his grip and raised a hand to block. Xiang Tiancheng's palm struck him, but instead of releasing a concussive force, he used the recoil to push himself backward, putting distance between them.
Landing at a safe distance, the injuries on Xiang Tiancheng's arm and the numbness in his body quickly receded. He looked at Chen Chuan. *This guy really has some bite. Definitely ran into a tough nut to crack today.*
*But next time, I won't make the same mistake.*
*This fight is far from over.*
Chen Chuan glanced at him, then shifted his gaze toward Number Nine. In just this short span, the creature's snapped cervical spine had already reset itself, and it was climbing back to its feet.
He understood now: this thing possessed absurd resilience. If he didn't destroy it thoroughly in one go, it would continue disrupting his battle. He drew a deep breath, and wisps of white steam immediately began rising from his body.
A sudden chill ran down Xiang Tiancheng's spine, making his hair stand on end. Giving no thought to attacking, he leaped backward.
Number Nine possessed no such awareness. Its consciousness held only its mission objective: so long as the briefcase remained with Chen Chuan, it would continue to attack him ceaselessly. And so, it charged once more.
Chen Chuan's gaze grew profound. In an instant, his figure vanished from where he stood. A thunderous roar detonated across the clearing, followed by a concussive boom that sent a massive cloud of dust billowing into the air.
Xiang Tiancheng looked over, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
Within the dust, Chen Chuan stood holding the posture of a forward-pressing palm strike, wisps of steam curling from between his open fingers.
Opposite him, Number Nine lay sprawled on its back. Its upper torso and head had been blown apart from the inside out. The artificial mutated tissue within was still trying to squirm and regenerate, but the destruction was simply too catastrophic, leaving it to writhe feebly.
Chapter 571