Book 3, Chapter 341: Changed Hands

The moment Che Gaoyi heard his title, he knew that he was pure trouble. Immediately after, he remembered something. “You got the wrong person. The ones you’re looking for should be behind me. They should arrive in a little while.”

“Is that so?” Xiang Tiancheng sized him up. “How do you know that?”

Che Gaoyi was in no mood to talk to anyone from the resistance group. Their people had no fear and regarded companies and the government with great hostility.

“I sensed them on my way here. What I’m doing has nothing to do with you,” he supplied.

Xiang Tiancheng smiled before saying, “How could I know whether you’re telling the truth? Besides, I just told you my name. To make sure that you won’t reveal any information about me, I need you to die here.”

As he spoke, he brought his hand up. Che Gaoyi immediately entered a defensive stance. Just then, he heard a loud bang, and a huge figure pushed him away. It was Nine. He had rushed out, knocked Che Gaoyi away, and shoved Xiang Tiancheng back.

Che Gaoyi didn’t linger and immediately left.

Xiang Tiancheng didn’t mind being shoved back. He observed Nine with great interest before putting a hand on his chest. There was a dent there.

The heart had exploded when Xiang Tiancheng hit him the first time, and even Third Limit martial artists would have a hard time recovering from that.

But he could still feel a heartbeat, as if his heart was swiftly recovering. He could also sense another heartbeat.

Two hearts? Was he a combat puppet?

Was he from Proto-Being?

His eyelids twitched, and he spread his hands to grab Nine’s arms. Then, he dug his heels into the ground and stopped him. At the same time, he gave a vicious tug, and Nine’s massive body was thrown back.

He had no intention of fighting against Nine, because modified puppets were really durable. They had a unique fibrous bio-skeleton, manmade mutated tissue that covered practically their entire bodies, and integrated internal organs. If they weren’t killed in an instant, they could get back up on their feet no matter how mangled up they got. They could recover and keep fighting without end.

Worse still, these things were able to adapt to the enemy’s fighting rhythm, which meant that the longer one fought them, the more dangerous the puppets became. Also, Che Gaoyi was clearly the more important person of the two, so why should Xiang Tiancheng waste his energy on the puppet?

After tossing Nine to the back, he turned around, pressed his fingers together so that they resembled a knife, and jabbed Nine’s chest. An obvious ripple showed up on the muscles on his arm revealing the transfer of refined force. It went from his biceps to the tips of his fingers.

Snap!

Nine’s back arched grotesquely, and his huge body stopped moving.

Upon seeing that, Xiang Tiancheng ignored him and cast a glance at the direction where Che Gaoyi had fled. With a stomp on the ground, he jumped forward.

Soon after he left, Nine’s fingers twitched. Cracking sounds came from his twisted spine, and it started realigning itself.

***

Chen Chuan walked out of the tunnel and looked around him. He was sure that he had left Central City.

Based on the terrain and plants, he should be southwest. If he looked ahead, he should be able to see Split Waves Valley, which was where the Secret Python Cult was located.

He remembered Lan Shennan mentioning that the other exit was further down. If anyone used the underground river to escape, they would be there. Chen Chuan walked in the direction of the running water. Soon, he found the other exit.

After some careful inspection, he noticed two sets of footprints. Judging by the marks, the shoes were standard-issue, and based on how wet the soil was, it had only been some time since they left.

While he was observing the area, he sensed something and cast a glance into the tunnel.

But he soon looked away and turned around. He examined the footprints one more time and went where they led.

Some time after he left, Zhen Ping and Guan Xiaohui cautiously walked out of the tunnel.

“Was that Chen Chuan?” Guan Xiaohui asked uncertainly.

She had sensed his biofield from the distance, but wasn’t sure, because the pressure Chen Chuan gave her was much stronger than that of the other two men. Her breathing had almost stilled the moment she sensed him.

As a martial artist, Zhen Ping had better eyesight. “I think so.”

Then, she gave a stern reminder. “Xiaohui, Chen Chuan is now part of the government. He’s either here for us or for the other two. We need to be careful and avoid running into him.”

“Okay.” Guan Xiaohui nodded. Since Chen Chuan was part of the government, he was an enemy of the resistance group. It would be better if they didn’t run into each other, but if they did, who knew what was going to happen?

***

After running for a while, Che Gaoyi sensed something behind him, which meant that Xiang Tiancheng had caught up. He crushed the power-boosting medicine under his tongue. In an instant, a wave of energy filled his body. Then, he turned around with his back facing a large tree, tossed the briefcase far away, and entered a stance.

No amount of explanation was going to be enough now. Besides, Nine wasn’t going to be defeated so easily. As long as he could last for a while, Nine would come back. Then, he would have a chance to escape.

Xiang Tiancheng rushed up. Once he saw Che Gaoyi, he came to an instant stop, as if inertia wasn’t even a concept to him.

He cast a glance at Che Gaoyi’s posture before smiling. It made alarm bells ring in Che Gaoyi’s head, and he dodged to the side. Xiang Tiancheng’s arm then ended up so deep in the tree that half of it was embedded inside it.

An opening!

Xiang Tiancheng exposing such an obvious opening felt like a blatant trap, but if Che Gaoyi couldn’t take him down even after such an opportunity presented itself, he might as well just give up.

He reached out and grabbed Xiang Tiancheng’s arm and injected refined force into him, only to find no resistance whatsoever.

Since he was an expert in grappling-type refined force, he should have practically won by now, but he had a nagging feeling that something was off. He just couldn’t point out what it was.

Xiang Tiancheng put on a teasing grin. Then, as if he wasn’t affected in the slightest, he delivered an elbow strike. Che Gaoyi brought his arm up to block it. He was prepared for the hit, but didn’t feel the impact he had imagined he would face. Instead, he felt a familiar wave of refined force.

Grappling-type refined force? No, wait! This is mine! Xiang Tiancheng actually sent my refined force right back into me!

He quickly used his mutated tissue to negate the force, but the moment he succeeded, more refined force came crashing into him, so he had to summon whatever he had saved as backup to block it, only to find the impact he had been bracing for not entering his body once again. A moment later, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. A wave of refined force exploded there, and he froze up.

Xiang Tiancheng grinned. He had mastered the resistance group’s Rapid Flow Force, which was only taught to their own people. Not only could he use all parts of his body to send out powerful waves of refined force, but he could also send his opponent’s refined forces right back into them under certain conditions.

Earlier, he had shoved Nine into the mountain slope with the puppet’s own strength.

The most ingenious part of the refined force was that if the opponent couldn’t negate the refined force in time, Xiang Tiancheng could use his mind to make the refined force explode without physical contact. He could even use it to manipulate his opponent’s body, thus catching them off guard.

Che Gaoyi was horribly injured, but he didn’t give up, because he still had Xiang Tiancheng’s wrist in hand. During the few exchanges of blows, he had figured out most of the characteristics of Xiang Tiancheng’s refined force.

Once he knew it, he could use targeted strategies against it.

He tightened his grip, but this time, he didn’t release a grappling-type refined force. Instead, it was a penetrating, destructive force. He wasn’t aiming to incapacitate Xiang Tiancheng in one shot, though, only to damage his arm. If he succeeded, he could release the entire wave of refined force. Then, even if Xiang Tiancheng wanted to transfer his refined force back into Che Gaoyi, it wouldn’t be that easy.

Xiang Tiancheng realized what he was doing and adapted, but it was useless.

So, he simply let Che Gaoyi’s refined force enter his arm. Xiang Tiancheng couldn’t defend against refined forces that stabbed into him like needles. While he could disperse the damage to all parts of his body, there was no need for that.

When Che Gaoyi noticed his refined force entering Xiang Tiancheng, he immediately injected the entire wave. Even if it was transferred to the other parts of the body, that was fine. Che Gaoyi was even hoping that he would do that.

He had noticed that the refined force needed a moment to flow through Xiang Tiancheng’s body. If he could destroy it during that time, he would have a small chance of defeating him.

After releasing the refined force, Che Gaoyi rammed his head into Xiang Tiancheng while slightly lifting a leg to point his toes at Xiang Tiancheng’s vitals. At the same time, he moved a hand into position to serve as backup.

He had set up this chained offense specifically for Xiang Tiancheng. It allowed him to bring out all the power that he could at the moment.

The moment they butted heads, Xiang Tiancheng pushed back with his forehead and had one knee shoot up to block the leg that came swinging over, then jutted an elbow outward to block the hand.

These movements were done together, and he managed to block all the attacks, even though he had acted an instant later.

This wasn’t because he had predicted Che Gaoyi’s actions, but because his physical constitution was far greater. Thus, he was able to react after seeing Che Gaoyi’s attacks. In the face of absolute reflexes and strength, no matter how skilled Che Gaoyi was, it was useless.

After a few more attacks, Che Gaoyi’s breath ran out, and he froze.

Xiang Tiancheng pressed his fingers together and jabbed Che Gaoyi’s neck. A large hole was torn open there, and blood gushed out like a released arrow before spilling on the grass.

It was only at this moment that Xiang Tiancheng broke free of the grip around his wrist and took two steps back. Che Gaoyi covered his neck before falling to his knees, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop the blood from flowing out. All he could do was let out suppressed roars.

Xiang Tiancheng watched him for a moment before saying, “Sorry about that, but it’s your fault for working in a company. I could smell your stink from far away. I hate people like you the most, and you just had to appear right before my eyes, you know? You only have yourself to blame for this.”

He stopped talking and looked into the distance. Someone grabbed the briefcase Che Gaoyi had thrown away.

“Hey, that’s mine.”

Chen Chuan looked back at him with the briefcase in hand. “If you want it, come get it.”