Book 3, Chapter 268: Image Imprinter

Chen Chuan simply watched. From the fight and Yu Lie’s biofield, he had figured out that Yu Lie’s greatest strength was grappling-type refined forces.

But perhaps he had a high coverage of mutated tissue as well, because he could use other refined forces too.

Yu Lie also fought in an uncompromising, intense manner. His plan was to defeat everyone before the start of the lesson, including Chen Chuan.

He didn’t back down, but went forward, just like Yu Lie wanted. He didn’t avoid the other’s hands either. He brought an arm up to block, and grabbed it and sent a wave of refined force into him.

Grappling-type refined forces could lock mutated tissue and cut off the activity in blood vessels and muscles. Even if someone had stronger refined force than the user, they would have a hard time fending it off. That was why Yu Lie was confident. But this time, after sending his refined force into Chen Chuan, he found that it didn’t produce the desired effects.

“Body hardening?” His gaze sharpened.

Only body hardening-type refined forces could withstand grappling-type refined forces. Despite that, Yu Lie didn’t panic.

While body hardening experts were hard to defeat, the human body made many spots where he could grab to defeat his enemy, such as the joints or certain delicate parts. Once he seized them, his attacks would still prove effective.

What really shocked him, though, was that his mental energy hadn’t affected Chen Chuan in the slightest.

He could tell that Chen Chuan had begun mental training as well, but based on the spark in his eyes, it hadn’t been long since he started his training. Yu Lie was also much older than Chen Chuan, so he should be more skilled in that regard.

But he overlooked one thing: Only a strong body could cultivate a strong mind. Chen Chuan paid extra attention to building his foundation, so he had a large pool of mental energy. After learning Settling Thoughts and the tempering method, he wasn’t affected by such simple mental attacks even without using his second self.

Yu Lie needed to change his attacks, but Chen Chuan didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest. Before Yu Lie could generate any further power, Chen Chuan stepped closer and grabbed his arm. At the same time, he sent a wave of grappling-type refined force.

Yu Lie was intimately familiar with grappling techniques, so he was quite surprised that Chen Chuan could use them. He naturally knew how to fend against them and break free from locks, so he believed that Chen Chuan had just done something stupid.

Things were now different than if he had continued using body hardening techniques. Before, Yu Lie would have to think about how to break down his defenses and might end up in a battle of attrition, which he didn’t want. Yet Chen Chuan had moved the fight into familiar territory. So, with a savage grin, he activated his mutated tissue to negate the refined force. At the same time, he pushed his arms outward to break free of Chen Chuan’s hold and to seize him again.

Chen Chuan went with the flow and loosened his hold before moving an arm up to grab his shoulder. In an instant, he switched to a takedown-type refined force.

This was completely against Yu Lie’s expectations. Grappling techniques and takedowns were two completely different things, so he quickly adjusted his mutated tissue.

But it was too late. Chen Chuan moved his other arm to his waist. The two waves of refined forces he sent into Yu Lie connected and froze him. Chen Chuan brought his arms up and lifted Yu Lie into the air.

He kept him airborne for a moment before violently throwing him down.

Boom!

Even if the floorboards were custom-made and the floor slabs had been fortified, they trembled, and ripples spread out on the floor.

Since Yu Lie had been unable to gather together any mutated tissue to put up a defense after Chen Chuan grabbed him, most of his bones shattered when he was thrown on the floor. With twisted limbs and stuck to the floorboard, he lay on the floor. Most of his teeth had recovered before, but now they were shattered again, along with his chin.

While he remained conscious, he couldn’t move. He painted quite a grotesque picture.

Chen Chuan watched him for a moment before saying, “You can also rest for a few days, Lieutenant Colonel Yu.”

It had only been three minutes since the four people went up against Yu Lie, and there were around eight minutes left before the start of the lesson.

Yet no matter how intense the fighting got, no one came over.

The ones in charge of administrative work were in the building, so there was no way they didn’t know what was happening, but no one had come to stop them.

This was a training center and not a military base. Chen Bitong was also not in charge of their actions and personal safety outside lessons.

Footsteps came from outside, and Fang Zhixin walked in. He cast a glance at the chaos on the floor before shaking his head and saying something into his Realm Pass.

Soon, medical officers hurried into the hall and brought everyone out.

“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” Chen Chuan said.

“That’s the sort of person Yu Lie is. He causes trouble wherever he goes, but he comes from a powerful family. Instructor Chen didn’t say no after he submitted his application, so I couldn’t stop him from coming,” Fang Zhixin said in recognition. Despite that, he knew that Yu Lie had most likely come because he saw that the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee had set their eyes on Chen Bitong. That was why he had come to beat them up.

Fang Zhixin was happy about it.

As for his fight with Chen Chuan? Once Yu Lie got into one of his moods, it was difficult to stop him, though Fang Zhixin didn’t believe that Yu Lie could threaten Chen Chuan. Instead, he had looked forward to the menace suffering a bit.

Things had turned out exactly as he thought they would. Yu Lie simply wasn’t Chen Chuan’s opponent.

This was the best outcome.

While they were talking, Chen Bitong walked in. He didn’t say a single thing about what had happened and just told Fang Zhixin to get new students to take the four’s place. There were reserves ready every day, so new people immediately came to take the four empty slots after Fang Zhixin notified them.

It was about time for lessons to begin, so Chen Bitong said, “Let’s begin first.”

Chen Chuan nodded.

The scenery around them changed again. The training center disappeared, and Chen Chuan found himself in the hologram version of the merged space.

Over the past few days, Chen Bitong had taught him how to fight against various creatures. Among them, the most difficult was a half-plant, half-animal creature called Phantom Vine.

They lurked underground and were hard to spot. Once they decided to attack, a large group of them would come crawling out, and there was no way to run away from them.

In such a situation, martial artists had to swiftly find the ones with the strongest biofields and kill them. That was the only way to escape.

But these things weren’t just going to stand still and be killed. The fluctuations of their biofields also changed at times, so the attacker had to focus to find the correct targets while avoiding their attacks.

This was a huge test for the body and mind. During the first test, Chen Chuan fought them for two hours, but even after the lesson ended, he didn’t manage to kill them all.

When he went back, he thought of a strategy and took three days to learn how to quickly break out of their encirclement. He felt that after that particular lesson, he became much better at reading his enemies’ intentions.

In his fight against Yu Lie, he had predicted every single one of Yu Lie’s movements, which was why his opponent had been unable to complete any of his attacks.

Chen Chuan was supposed to only be able to train this ability by facing different types of powerful enemies, but he did it in the training center. If Martial Valor University focused on polishing his foundation, then the training center focused on developing his fighting abilities and giving him more experience.

While Chen Chuan was wondering what sort of enemy he would have to face today, he saw a ball of light appear around him. Then, the scenery shattered and became chaotic.

Chen Chuan focused. He had seen this before. It was when he fought against the existence from the other world at Meng Lai’s manor.

Chen Bitong spoke up. “Our main task while defending the World Ring is to stop the existences from the other world from infiltrating our world. Whenever their power seeps through, the line separating the corporeal and incorporeal becomes blurry.

“Whenever that happens, you have to be careful. Usually, those who don’t have a strong-enough will and a focused-enough mind will be corrupted by the existences from the other world the moment they let their guard down.

“The most common of such existences is also the most bothersome. It’s called the Image Engraver. You can also call it the Image Imprinter.

“This thing doesn’t have a physical body, but it can invade a person’s mind through the gaps in the mind.

“This is different from vitalization. The Image Imprinter has its own mind. When it invades a person, it subtly changes their mind and twists their thoughts to make the person fall under their control without even realizing it.

“It’s hard for others to tell whether another person has been affected. For example, do you think that I’m the one talking to you, or is an Image Imprinter talking to you?”

Chen Bitong had said the first half from his own mouth, but the second half came from behind Chen Chuan.

When Chen Chuan turned around, he saw another Chen Bitong standing behind him.

“As you can see, we’re at the same level of strength, and we appear the same. Even our speaking habits are no different,” the first Chen Bitong said.

“Even our friends and families can’t tell us apart. How do you think you should differentiate between us?” the second Chen Bitong asked.

Chen Chuan thought about it. If they weren’t in the hologram version of the merged space, his answer was clear: the moment such an existence appeared, it would cause his second self to blur, and he would immediately be able to tell.

But he also needed to consider the possibility of being in an environment where the unseen damage was everywhere. If that happened, even he would have a hard time locating the true cause by just observing his second self. He would have to use another method to verify the truth.

“Checking my vitalization rate should be a good start. If it’s as you said and the Image Imprinter imprints itself on another person’s mind, it doesn’t seize full control of the body in an instant. So, there’s bound to be problems of discordance.”

Chen Bitong nodded. “You found the key. Image Imprinters’ vitalization rate is always between thirty and forty. You can find the existence through this, but you can’t rely solely on it, because your Realm Pass is just an instrument. You can’t be sure whether the number you see is real or not, and if you don’t identify the Image Imprinter in the beginning, once it adjusts itself to the body, it’ll be hard to find any signs.

“So, I need you to remember: if you ever suspect that there’s something wrong with your team members, there’s a simple solution.

“Tell your team members about it and attack them. If they fight back, don’t hold back. Because in that sort of situation, the first thing you need to do is ensure your own safety.”

Chen Chuan met his gaze squarely. “But how can I show to my team members that I’m fine?”