Book 3, Chapter 105: Break The Shell

The sky was covered in dark clouds, and it suddenly started pouring. It only lasted for around ten minutes before the clouds seemed to have released all the water they had accumulated. Sunlight returned to the streets and the residential buildings. The only signs of rain just now were the wet roads and the humid air.

The boy hid under the stairs and peeked at the roof of the building across from him. The sound of rain and thunder had filled the area, but he could still hear the faint sounds of intense fighting on the other roof. Yet due to the dense raindrops and the fight being quite far away, the boy hadn’t been able to see anything clearly.

Just then, a shadow loomed over him.

Nervousness seized the boy’s heart before he sighed in relief and said, “Mister.”

Then, he saw Wei Wusheng clearly, and he subconsciously took a few steps back.

There was a large hole in Wei Wusheng’s chest, as if his flesh and bone had been torn off by something. The boy even thought that he could see Wei Wusheng’s beating heart. In his hand, Wei Wusheng held his hammer, while two savage-looking heads with their eyes wide open hung by his waist. He had tied them together with their hair.

The boy gulped.

Wei Wusheng threw something at him, and he caught it in a flurry of motion, only to realize that it was a Realm Pass. Judging by the model, it was much more high-tech than the secondhand Realm Pass the boy was using.

“Put it on and take a picture,” Wei Wusheng said and left.

“Okay,” the boy replied and started walking while putting on the Realm Pass. Just then, he noticed that Wei Wusheng had more than ten wounds from sharp weapons on his back. The skin was torn apart and looked terrifying, but the man didn’t seem affected by his injuries. He continued walking at a steady pace. Soon, he was already a good distance away.

The boy didn’t know whether he was imagining things or not, but he felt as if Wei Wusheng had grown taller. Once he finally fixed the Realm Pass on his head, the boy ran after Wei Wusheng.

***

After finishing his daily training, Chen Chuan was about to rest in his room when Tan Zhi sent him a message. He didn’t think much about it. Tan Zhi had gone to watch the tournament and often sent him videos of the matches and stuff related to them. So, he just clicked on the message.

The content this time was different. Tan Zhi had sent him a high-definition photo.

A tall, well-built man stood in the photo with his back turned to the camera; his figure occupied most of the photo. In his hand, he held an eye-catching hammer with blood on it. By his feet were two headless, mangled corpses.

At the top of the photo were two hanging heads tied together. Their eyes were rolled back and dead. Blood vessels, muscle fibers, and bundles of mutated tissue hung down from the cut.

It was a really sensational photo.

Chen Chuan stared at the photo. Was that... Wei Wusheng?

Then, he checked the two heads. While their faces were twisted, he could tell that they were quite similar. He had also seen them recently on the bounty platform, so Chen Chuan was pretty sure that the heads belonged to the Pei brothers.

Their introduction back then stated that they were cousins with a wealth of fighting experience. They had excellent teamwork, so no ordinary martial artist could win against them. They also had great reviews on discussion threads. Many people believed that they were the most likely bounty hunters to defeat Wei Wusheng.

By the looks of it now, the results turned out to be the opposite.

Chen Chuan observed the photo closely and found a lot of information. Based on the cousins’ wounds, their necks were broken while they were alive and yanked off.

When he compared Wei Wusheng to the objects around him, he also felt that Wei Wusheng seemed to have grown taller. Still, he was just looking at him in a photo, so Chen Chuan wasn’t sure about it.

Was this a reward Wei Wusheng received for fulfilling the purpose of his heart?

While thinking, Chen Chuan heard a faint sound, and he whipped his head around to see the egg swaying in the incubator.

A part of the shell had cracked open and formed a gap. One part of the shell was slowly being pushed away as something was coming out. Then, there was knocking and the sound of something moving around. The cracks, too, grew bigger.

Chen Chuan stood up from the sofa and went to the incubator. Once most of the egg was covered in cracks, a small creature crawled out and shook off the eggshell fragments on its body before looking at him with wide eyes and chirping in a young voice.

Chen Chuan’s first thought was that the small creature was a snake, but once he took a closer look, he found that it was a fusion between a lizard and a bird. It had feathers and claws on its front limbs, but a pair of bat-like wings with feathers of different colors on them. All the feathers were drenched.

The small creature chirped again, and Chen Chuan reached out to play with it for a bit. It climbed up his finger and went up to the back of his hand.

Chen Chuan could sense its heartbeat and body heat. After some thinking, he took out the nutritional fluid the Secret Python Cult had sent to him along with the incubator. Apparently, all the lifeforms the cult created could consume it. So, he took out a disposable paper plate and poured some of the fluid on it.

The small creature immediately climbed off Chen Chuan’s hand and happily lapped away at the fluid. When it was full, it felt exhausted and returned to the incubator, where it shut its eyes and fell asleep. It didn’t make a single sound again.

Chen Chuan recorded it on his Realm Pass and sent the video to Zuo Handan to ask him what sort of creature this was.

After a while, Zuo Handan called him. “This is a Bird Reptile. We wanted to create combat-type lifeforms, but we were unsuccessful.

“They went through an unidentified mutation, and a large group of them regressed. That’s why we canceled the project and destroyed all the eggs.

“The one you received might have gotten mixed up with the gifts while on its way to be destroyed. The Bird Reptile only has cosmetic value and is not a threat. If you don’t like it, you can return it to us, and we’ll take care of it while giving you another gift.”

Chen Chuan knew exactly how they would “take care” of it, so he said, “You don’t have to take it back. How do I take care of it, though?”

In an apologetic voice, Zuo Handan said, “Since this is our mistake, we’ll send you some tools and a detailed instruction manual.”

“Alright. Thanks for that,” Chen Chuan said.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Once the conversation ended, Chen Chuan cast another glance at the Bird Reptile. When he saw how soundly it was sleeping, he didn’t bother it. It seemed like the temperature of the incubator was really comfortable to it.

Chen Chuan then checked the platform and found that in just a while, Wei Wusheng’s photo had spread all over the platform. There was a flood of comments under the photo. Many people joined the discussion, and in just a short moment, the photo trended all over the platform.

The Pei brothers were famous, but they had died horribly in Wei Wusheng’s hands, which was a shock to everyone. Someone analyzed their deaths and Wei Wusheng’s wounds visible in the photo in order to recreate their deaths and the entire fight.

Chen Chuan checked some of the analyses and found that some of them had substance. They caught a lot of details that Chen Chuan didn’t notice. However, there were a lot more people talking about the impact of the Pei brothers’ deaths and whether the other bounty hunters even had a chance of winning against Wei Wusheng.

They had believed that the bounty hunters could take him down, but now, they weren’t so sure. Some of them even started saying that the bounty hunters didn’t live up to their reputations. The enemies they faced in the past weren’t that strong, while this time, they ran into someone truly powerful, and the truth about them being weaklings was revealed.

Others came forward to refute their words. The bounty hunters’ fans started arguing about this.

The heated discussion on the platform attracted even one of the bounty hunters’ attention. Old Cat Han came forward and stated that he was going to kill Wei Wusheng with his own two hands, and he was going to post a photo when he was done.

The moment he spoke up he stirred up another heated wave of discussions. Some people wanted to summon other bounty hunters to speak up about the issue, but they weren’t as flashy as Old Cat Han. No matter how much people called for them to come forward, they refused to say anything.

Chen Chuan left the platform after seeing this. By the looks of it, Wei Wusheng had become even stronger, but that didn’t affect his mood, so he just continued with his training.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten days passed. During that time, Chen Chuan went to Split Waves Valley for another metamorphosed snake service, which should be the last time he purchased it before he reached the Third Limit. Hence, he didn’t reserve another one by using the excuse that he was going back home for the holidays.

This was a common reason, so no one thought much about it. In truth, the ones buying the service repeatedly were in the minority. After all, even if their bodies could recover quickly, it would be hard for them to overcome some of the effects left in their minds.

It was now late July.

After Chen Chuan finished his sparring session with Hongfu and left his training room, he felt thirsty due to the large amount of energy he had spent in the fight. He really wanted to grab some water, so he quickened his footsteps.

His feet moved so much faster that Chen Chuan felt as if he reached the other end of the living room in a flash. The cup was in his hands before he even realized it. When he noticed it, he froze for a moment.

All of this was natural and in no way out of the ordinary, but Chen Chuan noticed to his surprise that at some point in time, he could display speed almost on par to those at the Third Limit.

The thing that had truly surprised him was: When he was sparring against Hongfu just now, his body had been in the pre-fusion state. Even now, he was still in the pre-fusion state. Yet he had been able to display such speed.

He brought the cup to his lips and took a slow sip. Without a doubt, this meant that he was getting closer to the threshold and was about to cross it.

But he didn’t feel anything, though it might be because Hongfu’s strength increased along with his. Even though he could make Hongfu keep the same strength and speed while training with him, in order to give himself a sense of pressure, he removed that limit, leading to him not being aware of his own improvement.

After putting the cup down, Chen Chuan relaxed and closed his eyes to assess himself. With the help of his breathing technique, he could get a clear grasp of every part of his body.

He could sense that his judgment just now wasn’t wrong. All that was left for him to do was take one more step across the threshold.

But he had a feeling that something was off.

He didn’t want to be rash, so after giving it some thought, he put on his Realm Pass and called Mr. Ding. Soon, the call went through, and he asked, “Mr. Ding, is Senior Cao around? I have some questions for him.”