Impact

Chen Chuan hadn't brought pack horses this time, but had carried the case directly on his back. Lowering it to the ground, he opened it right where he stood and changed directly into his Investigation Supervisor uniform. He slipped two layers of overcoats over it, donned protective gloves, flexed his fingers, and glanced at the traced markings on them. These were esoteric cult patterns he had inscribed before setting out. Yet before opponents possessing immense mental power and protective artifacts, they might not necessarily work. He didn't rely heavily on them, treating them merely as an everyday habit—one more precaution held in reserve. Ultimately, a fighter spoke through actual combat capability. Once his garments were fully in place, he put on his peaked cap. After a thought, he retrieved a protective face mask resembling polished jade from the case and buckled it onto his face. Then, seizing the already unsheathed Xuejun Saber and lightly brushing the fluttering red scarf, he walked toward the camp. Though field monitoring was in place there, through Hongfu's field assessment he saw clearly that as long as he reined in his own field, the enemy had no way of detecting him from a distance. However, once he stepped out of this dense forest, he would enter the sentries' line of sight. Rushing silently into the camp's interior was virtually impossible. In that case, there was no need to make any deliberate effort at concealment. Even as he strode forward, he released the restrictions on his mutated tissue, letting it become fully active. A few steps later, his skin grew scalding hot, wisps of white vapor rising from his body. And as he took yet another step—*bang!* An explosive crack echoed. The damp, unhardened ground blasted open into a deep crater, sending mud and gravel flying. The tree branches on both sides swayed violently. Then, a figure wrapped in white mist shot toward the camp like an artillery shell, trailing a tremendous sonic boom. Yang Yuncheng had already retreated to the high slope they had crossed earlier. It was far enough away, yet offered a view of any movement in the camp, and allowed him to pull back into the dense woods at any moment to respond immediately if anything arose. Yet just as he found his footing, he heard an explosive roar. It was a sound he knew all too well—the sonic rupture produced when a fighter burst through the atmosphere at extreme speed. He couldn't help glancing over. Through the forest, a white wake parted the trees like breaking waves. The woods and ground seemed severed in two by a single straight line, and this white streak charged toward the Combine's camp at unmatched speed. *This is...* Shock and disbelief were written all over his face. He had assumed Chen Chuan came here for reconnaissance or to make contact with an insider, never expecting him to make a move that seemed utterly mad. This was a fully armed base fortified with heavy defenses. Charging in like this went completely beyond his imagination. Though reason told him it was impossible, the sheer audacity sent a thrilling shiver through his body and soul, and his gaze remained glued below. Such a massive disturbance was first caught by the field surveillance operators. But the speed was simply too great; before they could discern what it was, the intruder had already reached the front of the camp, leaving them only enough time to sound an alarm. The riflemen at the perimeter sentry posts reacted faster. The moment they detected the anomaly, they spun around and aimed their Skadi long-range rifles toward the incoming sound. Yet the enemy's speed far exceeded their estimates. As the forest parted to either side and dust exploded outside the perimeter, they saw only a jet of white vapor sweep into the camp with a sharp hiss. *Bang! Bang! Bang!* Gunfire rang out in quick succession, yet every round struck empty air. Chen Chuan stared ahead, his body leaning forward at a narrow angle to the ground. The Xuejun Saber was held back behind his flank, while his overcoats and the crimson line behind him snapped taut in the wind. At such high speeds, transverse trenches over ten meters wide posed no obstacle at all; a light tap of his toe carried him clean across. Longitudinal trenches required only a minor adjustment of angle to bypass in advance, and even camouflaged terrain stood fully exposed under Hongfu's display. As for barbed wire and staggered metal barricades ahead, whenever he saw them, he merely brought the Xuejun Saber forward with a light flick, cleaving through the obstacles. He had scouted out the thickest barriers beforehand and avoided colliding with them directly. At that moment, machine gun fire erupted from the defensive nests. The firing angles had long been calculated, forming a dense crossfire that locked down every inch of space beyond. Facing such an overlapping barrage, even at his extreme speed, dodging every bullet was impossible. But there was no need to dodge. Lowering his head slightly and shielding his face with a hand, the moment bullets struck him, his external conditioning Mind Jin reacted automatically. Reinforced by the double layer of overcoats, the rounds were deflected one after another. Aside from the machine gunners, some riflemen were fighters specifically assigned to the role. One of them didn't even look at Chen Chuan's silhouette, nor did he aim; keeping his eyes shut, he seemed to be sensing something. A moment later, his eyes snapped open, and he squeezed the trigger hard! The shot perfectly anticipated Chen Chuan's trajectory. Yet just as the bullet was about to strike the side of his head, a hand shot out. With a sharp *clap*, he caught the armor-piercing round capable of penetrating steel plate, then casually tossed the deformed slug to the ground. At the same time, sharp light flared from his eyes, flashing with intensity. The very next instant, the rifleman's eyes rolled back, and he tumbled backward from his perch. And not just him. Wherever Chen Chuan passed, within a radius of five to six hundred meters, anyone below the third limit lacking mental protection collapsed headfirst, knocked unconscious on the spot. Even third-limit fighters suffered severe dizziness, clutching nearby fixtures just to keep from falling, unable to clear their heads immediately. In that breath, the nearby firepower went silent across the board, leaving only scattered shots ringing in the distance. "Who is it?" With the camp alarms blaring and the roar of Chen Chuan's charge shaking the base, Lenoir and the camp's security personnel were jolted into action, scrambling to make sense of the situation. An operator monitoring the fields cried out in panic, "Sir, that vector... it's heading straight for Mr. Wilhelm!" Lenoir and the others immediately snapped their gazes to the field display, followed by an involuntary collective gasp. From the field frequency, they could tell the intruder was a single individual. But the person's speed was simply too terrifying—the field monitors couldn't even refresh fast enough, leaving behind a smeared blur across the light screen. Lenoir wasted no more time watching. Rushing out of the building, he saw a path that seemed to slice horizontally across the camp, plunging straight toward the Linakes Federation's sector. Explosive concussions thundered wherever it passed, rattling his head and chest. Debris shattered and flew everywhere, some even drifting to where he stood. Raising his voice, he roared into his boundary credential, "Activate highest-clearance field surveillance!" Then he added, "And awaken Taks!" Inside a building in the Linakes Federation sector, Wilhelm was on a second-floor sun terrace. Seated in an armchair, he had been reading an intelligence dossier on the Confluence. He had noticed the disturbance in the distance the very moment it appeared, immediately taking off his sunglasses and fixing his gaze upon it. Then he saw the sonic streak charging in his direction, accompanied by an intense sense of threat he hadn't felt in a very long time. In that instant, every cell in his body seemed to enter a state of feverish excitement. He stood at once, reached out to open a long case resting nearby, and drew out a spear forged in the Western Continent. A full four meters long, the great spear twirled effortlessly in his single hand. At the same time, a pale blue hue began to show within the vessels beneath his skin, quickly spreading over his entire body. A light signifying mental projection leaked from his blue eyes. Grasping the spear with both hands, he slowly lowered its point. His muscles swelled and rippled; beneath his deceptively lean frame lay a physique that looked cast in iron and steel. From the age of five, he had trained in breathing techniques atop the snow-capped peaks of Piloais. At ten, atop the hundred-meter sacred pillar of Gorivier, he had chanted the *Book of Vanhe* to begin his formal training. By his seventeenth birthday, he had broken through the third limit. Thereafter, in the haunted oak groves of Moeti, he had honed his spearmanship day after day. Every fraction of mutated tissue and every bundle of muscle fiber in his body had been tempered through a thousand trials; his mind had endured the Threefold Trial of Afflictions. He had polished himself into a near-perfect weapon. He stood with spear in hand while around him, attendants and security personnel throughout the building collapsed one after another to the floor. With those blue eyes, he gazed upon the incoming enemy. The world seemed to slow. He saw the wake blasting through great cushions of air ahead, splintering barriers and structures to pieces along its path. He saw the plume of white vapor close the distance in the blink of an eye amid deafening roars. Amid that impossible-to-miss leap of vivid crimson, a brilliant saber light traced a flawless arc, cleaving down toward him. Wilhelm snapped his spear up with both hands and thrust straight forward. With that motion, the surrounding air was blasted aside as if his body were a battering ram, and a shockwave exploded from the spear tip. In angle, speed, and force, this thrust was a nearly flawless strike. The next instant, the blade light clashed violently into the great spear. With a thunderous boom, the building beneath his feet violently caved in and shattered, while the tip of the spear exploded into fragments in a fraction of a heartbeat. ... ...