Chapter 123: Mutation

The Merkarian student who got the oak leaf looked conflicted for a moment, but after casting a glance at the determined Douma, he fled with a few of his companions.

Quite a number of Merkarian students chose to stay and stared at Guan Xinyin, Luo Kaiyuan, and the others warily.

Douma did not bother to convince them to run and just sighed.

Chen Chuan did not chase after the fleeing students. He did not care about the oak leaf, and Douma was in his way, so he could not stop them.

Guan Xinyin and Luo Kaiyuan did not move either. They just stared at Douma and the other Merkarian students.

Chen Chuan did not take the initiative to attack. If Douma and his students were willing to stay behind to fight him and the others, then there was no need for him to rush. The more time passed, the more people would come. Douma’s side was the one who could not wait.

After the students got on the motorbikes and fled with the oak leaf, Douma decided to move.

He spread his arms like a bird spreading its wings. His muscles bulged along with the motion, and the glow on his skin made it seem like there was water flowing on him, especially on his fingers. He seemed to be plucking some invisible string.

He also breathed and moved in a strange rhythm, as if he was using his body to play a musical piece.

Guan Xinyin and Luo Kaiyuan suddenly felt discomfort all over their bodies. The moment Douma moved his limbs, the beat in which his muscles bulged and flexed landed right in between the gaps of their breathing.

The key behind a martial artist releasing refined force was in their breathing. If their opponent struck precisely at the moment they shifted their breathing, their attack would land.

Guan Xinyin and Luo Kaiyuan wanted to avoid that rhythm and regulate their breathing, but no matter how they tried to change it, Douma’s actions still landed perfectly. Their breathing became more chaotic by the second, and they felt a weight pressing down against their chests and stomachs.

Douma did not even spare them a glance and kept his eyes on Chen Chuan. The greatest strength of meridians was sensing an opponent’s changes, then controlling them.

Through his mutated tissue, Douma could sense everyone’s blood flow, breathing rhythm, and even how their power was transmitted. His opponents were laid bare to him. It allowed him to move and use his strength with purpose and control the direction of the battle.

When he was considerably stronger than his opponents, he did not even need to attack them. He could defeat them by simply throwing their breathing rhythm into chaos.

Chen Chuan was an exception. Even though he tried to manipulate the young man’s breathing rhythm, the youth remained unaffected and maintained his breathing rhythm. It was as if he were tugging on a string drawn on a piece of paper. He could see it but not move it, and that put a burden on Douma instead.

By then, due to the shooting and fighting, the road had become deserted. There was no one except for Douma, Chen Chuan, Luo Kaiyuan, and Guan Xinyin in the area. Their only witnesses were a few people in the buildings on either side of the road watching the fight through gaps in their curtains.

When Douma realized that he could not control Chen Chuan, he knew that he couldn’t let this stalemate continue.

They were only ten minutes away from the downtown area. The Constabulary had to have already received news about this. Their squad would not take long to arrive, and the same went for the lecturers from Martial Valor University.

They did not have much time left.

If possible, Douma did not want to be captured. He had to take down all the people who were standing in his way. So, he headed to Chen Chuan with the intention to use his fists to solve his problem.

Chen Chuan did not back down when he saw Douma approaching him. Instead, he went toward him. Once they got closer, he launched the first strike by kicking Douma. His kick was so fast that even Douma felt threatened.

He ducked to avoid the attack and began accumulating power for a charge, only to realize that Chen Chuan had redirected his kick. He turned his body slightly and brought his arm up to block it. Then, he sensed a powerful refined force crashing into him.

Even though he managed to block the kick, he could sense a refined force seeping into him, as if there was someone pushing him with enough force to arrest his full attention.

Once Chen Chuan pinned him in place with his kick, he lowered his leg and took a step forward to grab Douma’s raised forearm. Usually, this could be followed with a takedown, but he did not do it. Instead, he tightened his grip over Douma’s forearm.

Principal Sanshou’s Curtain-Tearing Palm was not limited only for the face. The ripping motion could tear flesh and blood from all parts of the body. When Chen Chuan tried pulling, Douma tensed his forearm muscles, making them feel like a tire filled with air. His arm became slippery and tough, and Chen Chuan’s fingers bounced off the arm.

Then, Douma shot an arm toward Chen Chuan’s chest. His fingers were pressed firmly together, so his arm looked like a striking snake. The attack was so fast that Chen Chuan did not have time to block it. He turned his body slightly to the side, activated refined force all over his body, and rammed himself into the attack.

Douma immediately sensed something amiss. He spread his fingers apart and pushed to block Chen Chuan’s charge. With his other hand, he smacked Chen Chuan’s hand aside, effectively stopping him from grabbing him again. With the momentum, he grabbed Chen Chuan’s shirt. Just when he wanted to yank Chen Chuan off balance, Chen Chuan kicked at his ankle, and Douma was forced to bring his leg up to avoid it.

This action prevented Douma from yanking his opponent forward, and Chen Chuan tried to grab his fingers. Since Douma had already witnessed the power of Chen Chuan’s refined force, he knew that his body parts that did not have support from muscles and mutated tissue would be ripped apart, so he quickly let go and retreated.

Chen Chuan went after him and swung his arms up to grab Douma’s ears. Douma ducked and retreated with a special technique that let him move two paces away from Chen Chuan in an instant. He pressed his elbows together, bent his knees, and coiled up like a spring. Then, he uncoiled his body in an instant and delivered a Spinning Diamond Force, driving it diagonally upward.

Chen Chuan turned and blocked the attack with his arm. This was the first head-on clash between them, and it was as if two solid, heavy objects had collided into each other.

Bam!

It ended with Chen Chuan remaining in his spot while Douma stumbled a few steps back. The Merkarian students could not believe their eyes.

Douma was an incredibly strong young lecturer. Otherwise, he would not have been chosen to lead their team, but he was forced back by a Martial Valor University student?

They could not accept this and felt that something had gone wrong. The reality and their bias toward Douma caused them to sink into a conflicted state of anxiety and panic.

Guan Xinyin and Luo Kaiyuan did not think much about this. They had personally experienced how strong Douma was, but Chen Chuan had managed to force him back. They were shocked and impressed.

But as Chen Chuan watched Douma retreat, he knew that he had not actually won the clash of fists. His second self’s shoulder had blurred out heavily, while Douma negated the force by retreating. He emerged unscathed from their clash.

It only looked like Chen Chuan had the upper hand.

By this point, he had already gained a general understanding of Douma’s strength: In terms of strength, Douma was way above him since he had already reached the Second Limit, but Chen Chuan’s reflexes and speed were a match for his. He might even be better than Douma in this regard.

With that being the case, Chen Chuan had to use his advantage in reflexes and speed to trade blows with Douma.

So, he straightened his body and continued forward. In the eyes of others, he gained an imposing presence.

When Douma saw that Chen Chuan was unharmed, he was shocked and amazed as he thought,

A gifted person, huh?

They had not used refined force at the final head-on clash, but they had used it the whole time before. Any other person in the First Limit would have collapsed after using so much refined force.

This was why those in the First Limit could not win against those in the Second Limit. Setting aside the much greater improvements in all physical aspects, the frequency at which those in the Second Limit could use refined force was at a completely different level compared to those in the First Limit.

But Chen Chuan broke that rule, for which the only explanation was that he had a gift that ordinary people could never hope to attain.

Douma felt horrible. To think that he would run into a naturally gifted person in one of Martial Valor University’s branch campuses, even though they could not find such a person in all of Merka after searching through every nook and cranny of the country.

After taking two steps forward, Chen Chuan sped up and threw a punch. Douma could not see it clearly and took a step back to maintain distance. At the same time, he kicked Chen Chuan’s head, but the young man ignored it and just let the kick land while he rammed his fist into Douma’s chest.

Douma felt a strong pressure and had difficulty breathing. Knowing that this was bad news, he quickly brought his arms up to smack Chen Chuan’s hand off, but the moment Chen Chuan’s fist moved away, he delivered a series of punches, elbow strikes, and knee strikes, which forced Douma to retreat.

Meanwhile, Nali took a punch from Zhuang Zhi and punched his opponent right back to force him to retreat. During that brief break in the fight, he turned around to cast a glance at Douma, only to find Douma being overpowered. Anxiety and puzzlement filled his heart. Why wasn’t Douma using Merka’s Meridian Fist? Why was he fighting against Chen Chuan with the Great Shun Republic’s fighting style? He was not using his real strength.

The reality was that Douma could not use the Meridian Fist. He had not just forgotten about it. He could sense Chen Chuan’s breathing, blood flow, and even the strength and weakness of every hit, but the strength and speed he displayed were an entirely different thing from what he sensed, preventing Douma from making an accurate judgment.

It upset him, because decades of training had ingrained in him the habit of aligning what he sensed with his use of refined force to control his opponents. But now, he was fighting against an opponent who displayed strength and speed completely differently from what Douma sensed. His brain knew what he should be doing, but his body kept doing what it believed to be the right response, forcing him to pay attention to what his body was doing and correct himself mid-attack. It led to him being slower than Chen Chuan.

Worse still was that even though Chen Chuan was not as physically strong as he was, he was not that much weaker. His reflexes and speed were also better than Douma’s. So, even if Douma was not expending a lot of stamina and did not seem hurt, he looked like he was being overpowered.

At this point, he finally realized that he could not run away, but his students should not have their lives ruined. He had to create a chance for them to run. This was the only thing he could do—shoulder all the blame on his shoulders.

Resolution shone in his eyes once he decided to fight Chen Chuan head-on. Using the force from their clash, he retreated far back. Then, he sucked in a deep breath, crossed his hands, and started tensing and relaxing his muscles.

In just a moment, veins popped up on his body like the veins of a leaf. At the same time, his body turned red and hot. A threatening feeling came rolling off of him in waves.