The moment Chen Chuan spoke those words, the man's expression shifted from stunned disbelief to chagrin, and then to deflated resignation—a remarkably rich display of emotions.
After quite a while, as if all strength had suddenly drained from him, he said dejectedly, "You were sent by them to capture me, weren't you? Go ahead and take me away, but please don't harm my children..."
He looked up at Chen Chuan. "You don't look like a bad person..." Then he quickly lowered his head, muttering as if trying to convince himself, "You wouldn't do that, would you? No, you wouldn't, you wouldn't..."
Chen Chuan looked at him, genuinely wondering how someone in this state had managed to stay hidden for fifteen years. Pulling the slip of paper from his pocket, he walked over, set it down in front of him, and said, "Senior Tian, you left this, didn't you?"
Tian Rui glanced at it, his expression twisting in conflict. "Yes..." he stammered. "But please believe me, I didn't want to hurt any of you. I just... I just wanted you to leave... You can't beat him..."
Chen Chuan said, "'Him'?" He realized Tian Rui was likely referring to the person from back then.
While they were speaking, Tian Wo rode his bicycle into the yard. He spotted Chen Chuan first and let out a surprised sound. "Aren't you that...?"
Then he saw his father sitting there looking utterly defeated while Chen Chuan stood towering before him. Sensing that something was wrong, he threw his bicycle aside, dashed to Tian Rui's side, and asked anxiously, "Dad, what happened?"
He glared at Chen Chuan, his eyes blazing with fury. "Who are you? What do you want?"
Tian Rui grabbed his hand, looking nervous. "Xiao Wo, this is my business. It has nothing to do with you. Go inside."
"Old man!" Tian Wo snapped in irritation, shaking off his grip. "Every time you say that, there's trouble! I'd love to just stay out of it, but when haven't Mom and I had to clean up your mess? Out with it—who do you owe money to this time, or what did you go and promise?"
Tian Rui stammered sheepishly, "No, no..." He protested, "Son, it's really not that this time..."
Tian Wo scoffed, not believing him for a second. "Like I don't know you?"
"It really isn't! Xiao Wo, you have to believe me!"
"Then tell me—what's going on?"
"I... I..." Tian Rui began hemming and hawing. Seeing the contempt in Tian Wo's eyes, he grew flustered and blurted out, "It's about what happened back then! It has nothing to do with you!"
"Back then..."
Tian Wo froze for an instant, and his gaze turned wary as he looked at Chen Chuan. Pulling Tian Rui back a few steps, he asked, "Dad, where is he from?"
"He's... No! Hey, stop!"
Just as Tian Rui muttered "He's...", he saw Tian Wo already charging toward Chen Chuan, shoving his father backward into a stumble. Panicking, Tian Rui shouted desperately for him to stop.
In Chen Chuan's eyes, Tian Wo's charging figure blurred almost into an afterimage. He raised an eyebrow. *This speed... the third limit?*
Earlier in the fighting ring, this boy hadn't displayed anything like this; his movement rhythm hadn't shown the slightest hint of the third limit.
As the incoming fist closed in, Chen Chuan raised a single hand. With a dull thud, he blocked it, then casually parried away a follow-up kick.
In a split second, Tian Wo unleashed dozens of ferocious punches and kicks, but every single strike was deflected by Chen Chuan's single hand.
Tian Wo was stunned.
To tell the truth, he had never thought much of ordinary fighters. Growing up, he had broken through every bottleneck with effortless ease, and to this day he had never met anyone who could stand toe-to-toe with him in a fair fight.
Behind Tian Rui's back, he had secretly sparred with several third-limit fighters, and none of them had been his match. Due to his extraordinary talent, he had always concealed his true strength using a method someone had taught him, giving him absolute confidence in himself before today.
Yet now, his fists couldn't penetrate Chen Chuan's guard in the slightest. The man hadn't even shifted an inch from where he stood, deflecting every attack using only one hand. It was almost impossible to accept.
Tian Rui rushed over, grabbed him, and urged anxiously, "Tian Wo, stop!"
Yanked back by his father, Tian Wo glared unblinkingly at Chen Chuan, his chest heaving slightly.
Chen Chuan looked at him and said, "It's plain to see that you haven't undergone rigorous training. Your fighting techniques haven't been meticulously polished; you reached your current level purely on natural talent.
"Mm, you must have practiced a special form of jin that conceals your movement rhythm and keeps your power output capped at a lower limit.
"The person who taught you that method likely did so to keep you from standing out and drawing attention. But doing it for too long gives you a skewed, unrealistic perception of both yourself and your opponents."
"Who are you to judge me?!"
A surge of shock and anger welled up in Tian Wo—Chen Chuan had read him like an open book. His competitive spirit flared. Taking a deep breath, a wisp of steam rose from the crown of his head.
Chen Chuan glanced over. "Oh? The Furnace Breathing Technique?"
The skin across Tian Wo's body grew scalding hot. Shoving Tian Rui aside once more, he charged in a second time. His strength and speed leaped to an entirely new level, yet an instinct told him he couldn't break through head-on, so he began circling Chen Chuan, looking for an opening.
Chen Chuan remained motionless, his expression calm. Even when Tian Wo darted behind him, the boy couldn't spot a single vulnerability.
Yet the more impenetrable Chen Chuan seemed, the less Tian Wo was willing to concede defeat. Circling back to the front once more, he refused to wait any longer and lunged forward in a fierce onslaught.
Chen Chuan simply raised one hand with the same placid expression. It was no different from before—no matter how Tian Wo attacked, no matter how much faster he moved, he couldn't break through.
The Furnace Breathing Technique relied heavily on stored energy while rapidly draining physical stamina. After launching continuous attacks for over half a minute, Tian Wo's body could no longer endure the strain. He was forced to fall back, panting heavily. Sweat poured down his face and body, leaving him looking as though he had just been fished out of water.
He clenched his fists tightly and ground his teeth, glaring at Chen Chuan. The other youth didn't look much older than him, yet his strength was unreachably high. It was a crushing blow to Tian Wo's former confidence.
Chen Chuan turned to Tian Rui. "Senior Tian, did you teach him the Furnace Breathing Technique?"
Tian Rui made a bitter face. "I didn't teach him. The brat snuck around and learned it from me."
Chen Chuan said, "It wouldn't matter even if you had. The truth of the matter hasn't been cleared up yet, and you are still a member of the Purist Faction for now. It's not my place to dictate what techniques you pass on. Now, can we have a proper talk?"
"Talk?" Tian Rui blinked, taking a moment to process. "Oh, right, right..." He said, "Supervisor... Supervisor Chen, why don't we head inside?" He nervously added, "I'll tell you everything."
Chen Chuan looked at him, nodded, and followed him into the house.
Tian Wo stood alone outside. By now, he had also realized that things were not as he had assumed. Wiping away his sweat with a vigorous swipe of his arm, he walked into the living room without a word.
Tian Rui invited Chen Chuan to sit, poured him a glass of water, and sat down across from him, tentatively asking, "Supervisor Chen, where should I start...?"
Chen Chuan looked at him and said, "Start with what happened back then. The faction has always wanted to understand why you vanished so suddenly, Senior Tian, and why there wasn't a single word from you for fifteen years. If you simply wished to leave the Purist Faction and had a valid reason, I believe the faction wouldn't have stood in your way. But leaving without a trace back then—don't you think you owe the faction an explanation now?"
Tian Rui hung his head in dejection. "Yes, it's my fault. I didn't want it to happen like that either, but..." He clenched his fists. "I couldn't just stand by and watch it happen. I couldn't..."
"What exactly happened? Can you tell me?" Chen Chuan asked patiently. "If there was an injustice, or someone within the faction was obstructing you, just speak up. If you're in the right, I'll do what I can to report it to the faction."
Tian Rui shook his head. He turned to Tian Wo, who was standing nearby. "Son, go on out for a bit. It's not appropriate for you to hear this."
"I'm not leaving," Tian Wo refused flatly.
With uncharacteristic sternness, Tian Rui said, "This is faction business. You aren't a member of the Purist Faction, so you cannot listen." Seeing the rare severity on his father's face, Tian Wo was taken aback. He clicked his tongue and turned to leave.
The moment his son left, Tian Rui's stern facade instantly crumbled. Remembering something, he lifted himself off the armchair and craned his neck to peer outside.
Chen Chuan said, "Senior Tian, your house has good soundproofing. If you're worried about your son overhearing, we can talk through our boundary credentials."
"Oh, right, right..." Tian Rui pulled his head back, somewhat embarrassed. He exchanged contact frequencies with Chen Chuan, then drew in a breath and said with difficulty, "Back then, the team leader really did violate faction rules—severely. But the child was innocent. I couldn't stand by and watch a child get dragged into it..."
"Wait." Chen Chuan interrupted his disjointed explanation. "Whose child? Yours, Senior Tian? Or your team leader's? What—did he have a child?"
Tian Rui's expression was conflicted. "It was the team leader's child."
Chen Chuan looked at him. "I don't recall the Purist Faction having a habit of punishing family by association. Or did someone lay a hand on his child? Does this have something to do with what followed?"
"It does... it has everything to do with it..." Tian Rui kept his head bowed, clutching his knees, his fingers trembling slightly. "That child... was the team leader's child, but..." His grip tightened until his knuckles groaned under the strain, almost as if he were about to crush them. In a trembling voice, he said, "That was... that was a child he had with an entity from the other side."
Chapter 688