Book 3, Chapter 114: Shattering Illusions, Gaining The Divine Cry

It was 10 a.m., and the matches were being held at the arena. Today, Huo Yucheng and Yu Shen were supposed to fight against each other. There were two other matches also arranged for the day.

The organizers wouldn’t actually let them fight to the death, since it didn’t align with their interests. The judges and security guards would keep a close watch, and once one of them was defeated, the judges would immediately announce them to have lost, and the security guards would separate them.

Even if one of them was heavily injured or lost a limb, the medical team could save them or replace the missing limb with an implant.

Both Huo Yucheng and Yu Shen had gotten on stage at this point, and the pre-match promotions and rallying of the crowd had begun. This process usually lasted for around forty-five minutes to more than an hour.

Just then, the arena descended into a ruckus, and the two contestants working together with the organizers for the promotions were surprised. They didn’t know what was going on.

The huge screen above them flickered to show the scene at the crossroad. The road shown on the screen was a mess. Overturned and stacked cars could be seen everywhere. Some of them were even smashed or cut through. It didn’t seem like this was due to an accident, but rather, a fight.

Whoever was showing the crossroad on the screen zoomed in on two people facing each other. The destruction in the area was linked to the two of them, so, without a doubt, they were Third Limit martial artists.

The crowd was immediately able to recognize one of the two people.

Wei Wusheng!

He was a wanted criminal with countless news articles attributed to him recently. At that moment, however, he looked quite the pathetic sight.

Who was the person fighting him?

After the domain signal was recovered, Chen Chuan and Wei Wusheng’s fight caught the organizers’ attention. Once they held a spontaneous meeting, they came to a decision to postpone the match in the arena and pour all their resources into showing the fight at the crossroad.

This was a fight between Third Limit martial artists, so the organizers wanted to seize the chance to boost the popularity of the tournament. After all, without the organizers’ equipment, the spectators wouldn’t be able to see this sort of fight, which meant that broadcasting the fight wasn’t a loss for the organizers whatsoever. They could even win over the hearts of the spectators, especially those of the middle- and upper-class.

Wei Wusheng suddenly whipped his head up. In that instant, his eyes held two different gazes. One of them was steadfast and firm, while the other was ghastly and treacherous. Again, it was like there were two different people in him.

His mutated tissue and muscles pulsed to reconnect the dislocated shoulder. The swelling also disappeared. Then, he stood up as if nothing had ever happened.

That wasn’t all. His muscles also seemed to have grown in size. The veins in his muscles tensed. His trapezius bulged up so much that he looked like he had become much bigger and taller.

When the Resolution Department officers saw this, their expressions turned grim. Body hardening experts were really durable. No matter how many times they were beaten down, as long as they didn’t suffer a fatal wound, they could swiftly recover and remain in top form.

Fortunately, some time had passed since the fight started. As long as Chen Chuan could survive and drag out the fight until reinforcements arrived, it would be fine even if he didn’t manage to defeat the enemy.

Wei Wusheng started walking toward Chen Chuan again. When he passed by a box truck, he lifted it and threw it at Chen Chuan from dozens of meters away.

When the spectators saw this, they cried out in surprise, which created a sound as loud as the roar of a tidal wave. Most of them had never seen such monstrous strength before.

Chen Chuan stood still. When the box truck arrived in front of him and its shadow was about to envelop him, he reached out, pushed it up, and flung it back. The box truck tumbled backward with loud thuds, stirring large clouds of dust behind it. The wind it stirred up made Chen Chuan’s dress shirt flutter.

The spectators gasped in surprise again. These two people’s display of strength was just too shocking, and it made their adrenaline soar. What the two showed just now was not something a normal human could do, and it hit harder than watching the fights between Second Limit martial artists.

As Huo Yucheng and Yu Shen watched the two people on the screen, their hearts trembled in shock.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

So, this is the Third Limit?

***

Chen Chuan leaned forward and pushed off against the ground. In an instant, he charged through the entire stretch of the road. Even after the organizers had adjusted the frequency band, the spectators only saw a blur before the two met each other.

The moment they clashed fists, Chen Chuan rammed his fist against Wei Wusheng’s chest, but he didn’t manage to force him back or knock him off his feet like earlier. Instead, Wei Wusheng managed to endure it. At the same time, he tried to throw a punch back, but Chen Chuan dodged it by shifting a little to the side. With a spin, he delivered a roundhouse kick, but Wei Wusheng blocked it with his shoulder and returned the kick.

Since they were moving fast and kept circling around each other, the things around them rapidly changed as well.

Anything that they came into contact with was destroyed. Deep pits formed one after another on the road whenever they attacked each other. Sometimes, when they touched or crashed into the cars in their way, those cars ended up getting overturned or skidding to the side.

Wei Wusheng blocked whatever he could of Chen Chuan’s attacks. Otherwise, he just used his tough body to endure the force of the attacks. In the meantime, he paid attention to Chen Chuan’s breathing pattern.

After more than a hundred punches, he noticed a chance and seized Chen Chuan’s elbow. Then, he channeled a wave of grappling-type refined force into Chen Chuan to lock him down. But the refined force he delivered wasn’t able to make Chen Chuan freeze. Instead, he dragged Wei Wusheng over, spun on his feet, and threw him over his shoulder, where he knocked over several cars.

A moment later, the cars were all pushed away, and Wei Wusheng charged forward. Chen Chuan bent his back and avoided several refined force-laced punches and cunning attempts to grab him. Then, he grabbed Wei Wusheng’s elbow and closed in on him as he spread his fingers apart and tried to reach for Wei Wusheng’s face.

Wei Wusheng sensed it and suddenly twisted his body, dragging his elbow forward to block that palm strike, but that left his torso unguarded. Chen Chuan quickly drove his knee up and hit his waist, causing Wei Wusheng to lose his center of balance and staggering backward again.

Before he could regain his footing, Chen Chuan reached him. Then came a torrent of punches and kicks so rapid that Wei Wusheng could do nothing but cover his head and other vital parts of his body.

Chen Chuan’s powerful attacks rained down on every weak point of Wei Wusheng’s body and relatively weak joint with the force of a raging storm.

While the weak points were protected by powerful mutated tissue, Chen Chuan was strong enough to get through them. Every punch and kick was like a sledgehammer that tore apart the fascia and bones he hit, and he kept channeling refined force into Wei Wusheng to continuously destroy his mutated tissue.

Even if Wei Wusheng’s mutated tissue could repair itself due to his body hardening technique, since Chen Chuan attacked him continuously at such a high speed and since every attack hurt him, Wei Wusheng was unable to heal the injuries as they came.

Wei Wusheng kept getting weaker under the barrage of attacks. When the two-minute-long offense ended, his head was swimming, and every part of his body was fighting against each other for the energy to repair its wounds. The damage he sustained also resulted in his brain not having enough blood.

Suddenly, a powerful attack hit the back of his knees, and he fell to the side. At the same time, he saw a kick sweeping from the side toward his head. He brought his arms up to cover his face and blocked the attack, but he still ended up being pushed several meters to the side.

With a tumble, he got to his feet to throw an elbow strike. Chen Chuan ducked and brought his arms up to parry the attack, then grabbed the elbow, spun on his feet, and easily flipped him over his back. In an instant, he generated a takedown-related refined force and threw Wei Wusheng on the ground.

Bam!

The place where Wei Wusheng’s back came into contact with the ground instantly shattered. The violent shock caused his bones to crack, and he grunted as blood seeped out of his mouth.

As he lay on the ground, he looked up and saw Chen Chuan looking down at him calmly. “Is that all?”

With a growl, he tried to get up, but halfway through, Chen Chuan punched him, sending him sprawling on the ground once more.

That wasn’t the end. Chen Chuan’s other fist hit him right after. Suddenly, Wei Wusheng’s arms became pliant and wrapped around Chen Chuan’s arm like a snake in an attempt to keep the fist in place, but Chen Chuan tensed his muscles and bounced off Wei Wusheng’s arms. His fist then landed squarely on Wei Wusheng’s face, sending his head back onto the ground again.

Immediately after, Chen Chuan rained down yet another barrage of punches at Wei Wusheng’s head. The onslaught made the ground behind his head shatter like it had been struck by a hammer. A shallow pit formed under him.

All the spectators in the arena had forgotten to breathe as they watched this scene with their jaws slack.

After delivering an unknown number of punches, Chen Chuan heard a loud crunch, and he stopped. The sturdy skull under him had shattered, and the body beneath him had stopped breathing.

Slowly, he stood up and stepped away. When he was twenty paces away, he heard something behind him.

Chen Chuan turned around and saw a tiny man in a black suit standing beside Wei Wusheng. He had no idea when the man had shown up.

He appeared familiar, though, as if Chen Chuan had seen him before. Once he dug through his memories, he recognized Old Cat Han.

The man grabbed Wei Wusheng’s hair and cut into Wei Wusheng’s neck with his sharp nails. “I’m taking Wei Wusheng’s head!”

He just needed one instant to claim Wei Wusheng’s head, and he would leave the place to claim the reward.

As for Chen Chuan being the one to defeat Wei Wusheng?

Heh. Wei Wusheng’s head was required to claim the reward, so the money was going to whoever had it.

It was Chen Chuan’s fault for being careless. Old Cat Han had been waiting for a while for this chance.

The moment his nails sank in, he was met with great resistance, even though his nails usually cut everything in their way. Shocked, Old Cat Han had a bad feeling and shot to his feet to leave the place.

He was incredibly quick on his feet. If Wei Wusheng couldn’t hit him, no matter how strong he was, it would be useless. That was why he had publicly declared that he was going to take Wei Wusheng’s head.

While airborne, however, he felt Wei Wusheng grab his leg, and shock filled his entire system.

Still, he was a competent martial artist. Using the force of Wei Wusheng’s grip, he curled downward and twisted his body. With this method, he could break free of practically any hold, even a grappling one.

While tumbling in midair, he stretched his hands toward Wei Wusheng’s chest, and his nails sank into flesh.

Then, a flexible layer of muscles clamped down on them, and he couldn’t pull them out anymore.

Old Cat Han was trapped above Wei Wusheng.

Oh no!

Old Cat Han broke out in cold sweat.

Wei Wusheng was slowly sitting up and reaching for his other leg. A thought appeared in Old Cat Han’s head, and he cried out in a panic, “Don’t—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Wei Wusheng wrenched both of his legs apart.

Rip!

He was instantly torn in half.

Organs and blood splattered down on Wei Wusheng.

Chen Chuan watched the fight intently and noticed that Wei Wusheng’s eyes were rolled back. Even though he was no longer conscious or even breathing, he still managed to stand up. This was something out of a nightmare.

Chen Chuan heard a powerful heartbeat roar in his ears, and his eyes traveled to Wei Wusheng’s chest. “His heart, huh?”

While Wei Wusheng’s brain was destroyed and his consciousness was effectively dead, the other consciousness hiding in him stirred awake.

Following the death of Wei Wusheng’s consciousness, the purpose in his heart was on the verge of disappearing, and this threatened the existence of the other consciousness. It allowed the two to finally blend together, and their hearts merged into one.

The one standing before Chen Chuan right now, though, was no longer Wei Wusheng, but Xiongjian Yi.

Chen Chuan watched as Xiongjian Yi stood up, then brought his hand up, pressed his fingers together, and charged forward. His second self overlapped with him, and he crossed twenty meters in the span of a second.

Squelch.

Like a knife, his forearm plunged into Wei Wusheng’s chest.

While looking at the man’s terrifying face, Chen Chuan said, “Rest in peace.”

Then, he clenched his fist and crushed the still beating heart.

Wei Wusheng’s body trembled violently, and his head lolled to the side. Blood gushed out from his orifices and all the wounds on his body.

Slowly, Chen Chuan pulled his arm out and let Wei Wusheng’s body fall back down on the shattered road. The blood flowing from him soon filled up the shallow pit.

Then, Chen Chuan felt it.

Some kind of shackle was removed, and he heard a loud bang in his ears, as if someone had struck a drum right next to him. At the same time, a powerful wave of heat filled his body.