Extermination

Chen Chuan withdrew his blade, letting Sigvard's body drop to the ground. Turning around, he looked toward Qi Qianyang, whose eyes had already turned a deep, blood red. Qi Qianyang grinned. "Kept you waiting." Chen Chuan raised a hand to press down the brim of his cap and said calmly, "I told you, it makes no difference." Qi Qianyang said nothing more. After all, from this moment on, every passing second was consuming his life force. With a loud roar, he spun his body around in a sweeping pivot and whipped his long whip forward with all his might. The power within the whip surged forward segment by segment until it reached the lash's tip. Chen Chuan sidestepped at that instant. A thunderous blast erupted beside him, the spot where he had just stood bursting open into a massive crater—an explosion barely distinguishable from that of a light artillery shell. Ignoring the blast, Chen Chuan held his blade trailing behind him and leaned forward into a charge, the scarf around his neck snapping and billowing in the wind behind him. Following the strike, the whip bounced high into the air, then was pulled rapidly back under a guiding force. Yet at this moment, the retraction speed was almost matching pace with Chen Chuan's surging figure. The enhancement to Qi Qianyang's senses allowed him to see this scene with stark clarity. He had not expected Chen Chuan to be even faster than before. Yet he would soon learn that this enhancement was not limited to speed alone—it extended to every other aspect as well. After slaying so many adversaries in succession, Chen Chuan's resonance with his Second Self was deepening. While merged with his Second Self, his prowess steadily climbed with each duel against a formidable opponent. Sensing something amiss, Qi Qianyang realized he had no time to retract his whip before Chen Chuan reached him. Out of necessity, he threw up an arm to parry. A faint ring of light blossomed across his arm, halting the downward slash of the long blade. Because the power of spiritual perception a blade could channel was limited—far less than what could be channeled directly through one's own limbs—blocking a weapon barehanded was not an insurmountable feat when one's power of spiritual perception was abundant. Though doing so might heavily tax his spirit, this heightened state could only last around two minutes. Throughout this window, all of his attributes were peaked, meaning there was no need to worry about such expenditure. Blade light flashed. Chen Chuan slashed several times in rapid succession, yet Qi Qianyang blocked every single blow. Seeing that the man seemed utterly unaffected by the jin behind the blade and was keeping up with the strike speed, Chen Chuan knew this was the empowering effect of Qi Qianyang's temporary state. Realizing sword strikes were ineffective, he immediately switched his angle of attack. Letting go of his blade, he darted into the inner ring to strike with open-hand combat. Seeing him charge in, Qi Qianyang instantly pivoted his shoulders and whipped his arm like a lash, a conspicuous ring of light gleaming along the edge of his palm. *Smack!* Fist met palm. In an instant, bursting air blasted in all directions, and their power of spiritual perception erupted like sparks. At that moment, the Second Self turned slightly illusory for a fraction of a second, while Qi Qianyang did not even flinch. Under the influence of the secret technique, his mutated tissue was robust enough to withstand such force, especially with his Fuming Jin, which paired exceptionally well with this technique. Chen Chuan's eyes flashed. Keeping his hands pressed along his opponent's arm, he deflected and seized. His seizing jin seeped in. Though it still proved ineffective, he succeeded in locking down Qi Qianyang's arm. Qi Qianyang's expression changed the moment he was grabbed. Spiritual perception power spilled outward from the points of contact, yet the glow across Chen Chuan's palms shone just as brightly, mutual annihilation occurring between them. In that moment, Chen Chuan yanked him close while driving a punch toward his abdomen, a shockwave bursting across the knuckles. Though his jin could not penetrate, raw physical strength was not something Qi Qianyang could match. Qi Qianyang was dragged forward in an instant. Frantically letting go of his whip's handle with his other hand, he threw it up to block the incoming punch. Yet the force of that punch was unimaginably heavy. Qi Qianyang's hand was driven backward, smashing straight into his own abdomen. The faint glow on it vanished in an instant, and his metacarpal bones shattered with a sickening crack. The heavy impact violently shook his entire body, nearly sending him flying. But Chen Chuan yanked him back once more and drove a knee upward. *Boom!* The knee strike arched Qi Qianyang's back like a shrimp; his feet left the ground in an instant, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets. Pulling on his arm, Chen Chuan stepped in close against his body and slammed him downward with full force. With a loud crash, Qi Qianyang was smashed into the ground. Chen Chuan casually scooped up the fallen whip, wrapped it swiftly around Qi Qianyang's neck, and pulled hard to both sides, choking him tight. Qi Qianyang let out a muffled groan and began struggling desperately. Yet no matter how he clawed and pounded, the hands gripping the whip remained as unyielding as cast iron and poured steel. Chen Chuan had noticed earlier that Qi Qianyang was continuously burning through his life force with every passing moment. This state could not possibly last long, so he simply waited in silence. Qi Qianyang thrashed and writhed frantically on the ground, attempting to channel various secret techniques and jin, even exhausting his power of spiritual perception to fight back, causing faint light to scatter around his neck. Yet Chen Chuan suppressed all of it ruthlessly, countering with his own spiritual perception. Every effort Qi Qianyang made was rendered futile, merely pounding and thrashing a deep depression into the ground, sending blades of grass and clods of earth flying everywhere. Two minutes passed quickly. At that moment, Qi Qianyang's ferocious power seemed to vanish all at once. Like a deflated ball, his once full, firm muscles withered, and his eyes sank deeply into his skull. In mere seconds, he looked like nothing more than a skeleton wrapped in shriveled flesh. Chen Chuan ripped his arms outward with force. With a sharp snap, Qi Qianyang's head was wrenched cleanly off his body by the whip, tumbling and rolling away. Only then did Chen Chuan release his grip, leaving the mummy-like corpse lying motionless on the ground. He straightened up and walked over to the severed head. The flesh on Qi Qianyang's face wriggled, turning the head upright. Looking up at Chen Chuan, he grinned. "Teacher will come looking for you." Chen Chuan looked down at him and said, "If he doesn't come looking for me, I'll go looking for him sooner or later." He lifted his foot and stomped down hard. Qi Qianyang tried to say something, but with a wet crack, his entire head was crushed to pieces. Having dealt with this man, Chen Chuan looked into the distance and saw that Major General Therbil and his group had actually slipped away, fleeing at high speed. Because they moved so swiftly, in just moments they were reduced to a tiny black speck on the horizon. Chen Chuan cast a glance at them, reached out his hand, and made a grasping motion toward Therbil's back. Mid-sprint, Major General Therbil suddenly stumbled and dropped to his knees, clutching his abdomen. He felt as though something inside him was thrashing and leaping about, tearing and gnawing at his mutated tissue and internal organs. Worse yet, the thing seemed to be trying to crawl up into his brain. What was more, it appeared incorporeal; none of his bodily tissues posed any obstacle to it. This sent a jolt of terror through him. He channeled his mental power, trying to drive it out. Had it been the civet from before, he likely would have expelled it from his body, and his injuries would have regenerated before long. However, after absorbing power from the relic, the civet was no longer something mental power could easily suppress. Moreover, his resistance only seemed to enrage it, causing it to thrash inside him even more violently. Quite a few people were fleeing alongside Major General Therbil, yet not a single one turned back—whether they failed to notice or simply did not dare. Major General Therbil had no choice but to pump more vital essence from his heart to repair the damage. Staggering back to his feet, he stumbled forward. The insect swarm was right behind him; he could not stop here. He had to get away immediately. Furthermore, he judged this to be Chen Chuan's doing. According to his experience, such methods had a limited range; as long as he got far enough away, he would be able to break free. Chen Chuan saw through his intentions. The civet urban legend did indeed have a range limit, but that distance was vast. Back in Center City, it could act across multiple districts, and now its reach was likely even greater. Given Therbil's current pace, whether he could endure it was questionable; even if he did, he would still have to survive the insect quicksand. No longer minding the man, Chen Chuan turned around and took a few steps over to where Heros had stomped the relic into the earth. With a gentle kick, a pulse of jin shot forward. The soil churned, and the object rolled out on its own. He bent down and picked it up. From the distance came the fluttering of wings. Chaoming flew over, its talons carrying a light travel pack. Reaching Chen Chuan's side, it released its grip to drop the pack, then tucked its wings and landed beside him with head held high, letting out a chirp. Chaoming was very clever. When the insect quicksand appeared, it had flown off to bring Chen Chuan's travel bag to him. But because the bag was too heavy to carry all at once, it had used its talons and beak to unzip the pack and transported the contents—already compartmentalized in individual parcels—one by one across more than ten trips. Finally, it had not forgotten to bring back the now-empty pack as well. Chen Chuan nodded in approval. Chaoming had done very well this time. After all, the bag held the medicines he would need in the future. He hadn't felt comfortable leaving them at home, which was why he kept them on him; they could not afford to be lost. He stroked Chaoming's head, took out a can from a parcel, opened it, and fed the bird some specially prepared nutritional feed. By now, the commotion beneath him had grown increasingly intense. Looking out, the ground around him had risen considerably, reaching thirty to forty meters above the surrounding terrain. At this point, he could roughly make out part of the creature beneath him. It appeared to be a colossal, earthworm-like creature covered in concentric rings of hard shell and rugged folds. Its body wound and coiled out of sight, stretching for at least several kilometers, while beneath it, countless thick, writhing prolegs slowly propelled it forward. He watched it thoughtfully. He had already guessed what it was earlier; now that he saw it with his own eyes, he was certain. In that case, with the insect quicksand raging all around, there was no urgent need to leave this spot. Still, where were Captain Xu and the others right now? Just as the thought crossed his mind, he sensed something and looked in a certain direction, where numerous figures were rapidly approaching. ... ...