Book 3, Chapter 180: Crush

Gai Er did not give Chen Chuan any sort of warning before he moved, and his attack was swift, fierce, and abrupt. Anyone facing it would react cautiously.

When Chen Chuan saw the three-section staff getting closer to him, he didn’t move at all. The moment the three-section staff was an inch away from his face, it straightened with a clang and stopped.

Through impeccable judgment, Chen Chuan could tell that the three-section staff would stop right in front of his face. Gai Er’s biofield had also told him that this was just a feint. His real attack would come after, and he would only execute it after seeing Chen Chuan’s reaction.

Just as Chen Chuan predicted, when Gai Er saw that Chen Chuan didn’t dodge, he grabbed the last section of the three-section staff and pushed it forward. As his power traveled forth, the straightened three-section staff turned into a real long staff. The front pierced through the air with a howl and shot forward.

Chen Chuan didn’t draw his saber. He just brought his arm up slightly and accurately pushed it against the tip of the long staff.

Bam!

A shockwave blasted outward from the part he touched.

His hand didn’t budge an inch.

When Gai Er saw that this was useless, the long staff turned into a three-section staff again, and he spun on his feet to use his waist to swing the three-section staff. It spun around him once with a whistle. Power came up from his feet, traveled upward until it reached his arms, and he swung the three-section staff at Chen Chuan diagonally downward.

At that moment, it was as if the three-section staff had turned into a steel whip. A dull but powerful howl roared in the air.

The thrust and whip were a series of connected moves known as Armor Shattering Whip. The martial artist had to first use firm force to deliver the thrust, forcing the enemy to avoid or parry the attack. The moment they did, the firm force would charge into the enemy through the point of contact, freezing them on the spot.

At the same time, the martial artist would collapse the three-section staff to negate the rebound, allowing them to recover just a tad faster than their opponent. After that, they would deliver a swing at full power with the goal of killing their opponent in one move.

This was a killing move. Up to now, it had seldom failed.

Chen Chuan seemed to have been unable to dodge in time due to the firm force. That was why a loud explosion tore through the air when the three-section staff slammed into his neck with no problem.

This exchange of blows had happened so quickly that none of the others were able to see it clearly. They only realized that something had happened when the three-section staff hit Chen Chuan’s neck.

When the Clear Road Transport members saw this, they were shocked, and a lot of them felt their hearts leap to their throats. As for Toxic Ants, they grew excited, because they had witnessed Gai Er split a car in half in one move before.

But Chen Chuan remained still after the attack and just tilted his head a little. With a calm gaze, he looked at Gai Er and asked, “Is that it?”

Gai Er’s pupils shrank, and he tried to pull his weapon back to continue fighting.

But due to him using too much force just now, he had ended up tilting forward, which led to him being a step slower when he tried to retreat. Chen Chuan took a step forward and closed in on him.

Shocked, Gai Er hurriedly moved back, but Chen Chuan kept up with his speed and stayed close to him. It was as if they had never moved.

Gai Er suddenly felt a powerful force, which could overpower him, charging at him, and his breathing froze.

Chen Chuan brought his hand up and seized his neck. A grappling-type refined force slammed into Gai Er, and Chen Chuan lifted him up in the air. Once he brought his arm up as much as he could, he slammed Gai Er on the ground.

Crash!

The ground under Gai Er shattered as did the bones below his knees. Due to Chen Chuan’s refined force, his mutated tissue was unable to protect him, and Gai Er could only endure the impact. His skin tore, and blood gushed out. He was even bleeding from his orifices.

Chen Chuan let go, and Gai Er fell to his knees. The throw just now had made even breathing hard for him. His lungs felt like they had shut down, and he couldn’t move anymore.

But Gai Er was a martial artist who had fought his way up from the very bottom. He gritted his teeth and held on, refusing to collapse as he glared at Chen Chuan. Due to blood essence, his skin and flesh pulsed, and his wounds started closing.

Chen Chuan watched him for a while before reaching out and placing a hand on his forehead. With a gentle nudge, Gai Er lost his balance and fell backward.

Then, Chen Chuan walked over to his head. When Gai Er realized what he was going to do, panic and fear flashed in his eyes. He moved his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but due to the attack just now, he could not catch his breath. All he could let out were faint wheezes. Stringing together a full sentence was impossible for him.

Chen Chuan brought his leg up and stomped down on Gai Er’s head.

Crack!

A pit formed beneath him, and the shattered stones from the ground flew out. Gai Er spasmed violently.

When Chen Chuan pulled back his foot from Gai Er’s caved in face, a deformed skull with bits of crushed stone wedged into flesh was revealed.

Lao Bian saw this through his Realm Pass, and he couldn’t help but shift, as if he was about to run away. His heart started hammering against his chest.

Silence fell over the area. The only sound around was the onlookers’ rapid breathing.

The leader of the Moss Gang was stunned, and his skin crawled. He gulped and said into his Realm Pass, “G-Gai Er is done for. His head has been crushed...”

The person on the other end of the Realm Pass also seemed to be shocked. He said nothing and just ended the call.

Chen Chuan didn’t even bother looking at the other people and left the space. Not once during the fight did he draw the Frost King Saber. He had killed Gai Er with his bare hands.

Strictly speaking, he had managed to subjugate Gai Er when he threw him on the ground. If this was a spar, the fight would have ended then.

When he walked past the three-section staff, he pushed his foot under it, and with a flick, the weapon shot up from the ground. He grabbed the first section. Then, with a flick, the three sections folded into one section.

Among the Clear Road Transport members, Lan Shennan was the first to recover from her shock. She squashed down her excitement and immediately used her Realm Pass to remind the other members to be careful of Toxic Ants doing something unexpected in desperation.

Fortunately, everything that happened later was within the realm of expectations. None of the Toxic Ants members were stupid. They knew just how destructive Third Limit martial arts were, so they didn’t dare to provoke Clear Road Transport at this moment.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Moss Gang kept motioning for his driver to leave the place as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to stay here for even a second longer. If Clear Road Transport’s Third Limit martial artist wanted to do something to him, he was not going to make it out alive.

Lan Shennan walked over to Chen Chuan and gave him an earnest nod. Then, she continued onward until she arrived in front of Toxic Ants. As she stared at the people hiding behind their barricades and forts, she said, “You lost. According to our previous agreement, you need to give up all the territories you seized. If you go back on your promise, we won’t honor our promise either.”

No one stepped forward to talk, even after a long time passed, but someone said, “We know the rules, Captain Lan. We’ll honor our promise, but you need to give us some time.”

“Two days. That’s plenty of time. If you don’t leave within two days, we’ll seize the territories ourselves,” Lan Shennan declared resolutely. With that said, she turned around and left.

Chen Chuan had already returned to his RV and picked up his unfinished cup of hot tea. He took another sip and thought that the temperature hadn’t changed much.

His fight with Gai Er had ended in one move. Gai Er hadn’t been able to put up a proper defense, even if he wasn’t weak.

Based on Chen Chuan’s assessment, Gai Er was a little stronger than the Viper Order’s Sheng Hui and Xuan Quanfeng. If Gai Er had been fully prepared, it wouldn’t have been that easy for Chen Chuan to win against him.

Chen Chuan had noticed when he read Gai Er’s biofield that he was an extreme and self-interested person. If he noticed that things were going badly for him, he would abandon the Toxic Ants members and run away without batting an eye. He wouldn’t care that he was actually in a duel.

If Gai Er managed to get away, it would create huge trouble for Clear Road Transport. That was why Chen Chuan had to kill him, and to do it fast.

When he intentionally took the hit to the neck, it was to intimidate Gai Er and knock him down a peg. At the same time, Chen Chuan used his biofield to put pressure on him, which shook Gai Er’s composure. This was why Chen Chuan had been able to take him down in one hit.

It might look like he had defeated Gai Er without breaking a sweat, but his tough body, great fighting strength, and correct strategy were the contributing factors behind his victory.

Still, while Gai Er’s hit to his neck had seemed really powerful, and Chen Chuan had been ready to use his second self to absorb the attack, it wasn’t as strong as he thought it would be. He didn’t even use his second self. He just used his blood essence and negation technique.

Just then, he received a call from an unknown caller. After some thinking, he decided to answer it.

“Mr. Chen, this situation runs deep. Are you sure you want to get yourself involved in this mess?” said a voice with no identifiable traits.

“And you are?” Chen Chuan asked.

The other party didn’t answer. Instead, they said, “We know your strength, and we respect you. But you can’t get yourself involved in the matters of the lower city district just because you want to. It’ll bring trouble to a lot of people, including yourself and those around you.

“If you leave now, we’ll give you a satisfactory reward. We hope that you’ll make a wise decision. Once you’ve made up your mind, you can contact me through this signal.”

They ended the call.