Book 3, Chapter 165: Binds Released

Chen Chuan escorted Meng Shu and Yan Yi to the parking lot and said, “You have a place to hide, don’t you? I’m sure that Mr. Meng has made arrangements for you.”

“Yes. My grandfather gave the coordinates to a safe house just now,” Meng Shu answered with a nod.

“Hide there, then.”

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Meng Shu asked.

“I still have something to do,” Chen Chuan said as he looked in the direction of the manor. With a wave of his arm, he brandished the Frost King Saber and went back.

Meng Shu watched him leave as Yan Yi went up to her. “Miss Shu, we have to go to the safe house. We can’t help him, but we should not become his burden.”

***

Aunt Yu had pinned down Meng Huang’s security guard. She struck his cervical vertebrae and crushed it, but he didn’t die. So, she grabbed his collar and turned around to ask, “Mr. Meng?”

“Leave too, Aunt Yu. Go down,” Meng Lai ordered.

Aunt Yu nodded, but just as she was about to leave with the security guard, she sensed something off and threw the security guard away.

Before the body even landed, the security guard’s skin exploded, and a substance similar to melted wax gushed out from within him. It landed on the floor and walls.

Sizzling sounds rose up as the substance corroded the sturdy floorboards and the wall. The effect spread, instantly destroying the ritual.

“Looks like you’re prepared as well.” Meng Lai immediately understood what was going on. While the security guard had appeared like any other normal person, Meng Huang must have tampered with his body.

Meng Huang cackled. He grew even taller, and now, he looked like he was about to break through the ceiling.

Meng Lai immediately ordered, “Aunt Yu, run!”

“You can’t!”

Meng Huang had been standing still, but now, he started struggling. His shadow became solid and covered the walls of the study. Cracking sounds rose, and cracks formed on the walls.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Aunt Yu was already trying to make it out when Meng Lai spoke. But after trying to break out through the windows and door, she found that the shadow had shut them tight and blocked her way out. The black mass appeared to be just a shadow, but it could hurt her.

Meng Huang knew that Aunt Yu was Meng Lai’s most trusted confidante, so she might need to carry out some sort of plan for him. Even if she didn’t, getting rid of her now was better than fighting against her later. Hence, he moved, and one of the large, squirming, limb-like shadows on the wall went charging at her.

Aunt Yu sucked in a deep breath. Patterns of flowers and vines appeared on her fair skin, and she pushed a palm outward.

Despite her delicate-looking hands and her gentle movements, she managed to stop the formless limb from touching her. Then, she rolled her shoulders back and pushed her other hand outward before swiftly twisting her waist. With a push, she shoved the limb back. Using the momentum, she jumped forward and slammed her palm against Meng Huang’s chest.

The attack contained great strength, and despite his gigantic size, Meng Huang fell back. Aunt Yu lowered her center of gravity and quickly tried to move past him through a gap out.

When she reached the door, the shadows suddenly gathered together to form a larger limb that blocked her way and shoved her back.

Aunt Yu pushed her hands forward to push back, only to find that the limb was so strong that no normal human could possibly stop it. She could only negate the impact before doing a backflip.

Hence, even though she managed to avoid the hit, she was forced back to Meng Lai’s side. She said calmly, “Mr. Meng, I might be unable to leave, but I can hold him back for a time.”

“No. You must leave,” Meng Lai stated grimly.

He tightened his grip around the pocket watch he had been holding since the beginning. Just when he was about to open it, they heard something from behind the door.

Bam!

Even when Meng Huang grew in size and pushed against the door, the thick door hadn’t broken, but now, it shattered into pieces. Someone showed up behind it.

Chen Chuan took his time strolling in while observing the situation inside. Then, he cast a glance at Meng Huang’s large body. “Looks like I made it in time.”

Meng Huang immediately turned his attention over. His eyes—both human and the large one—blinked, while the densely packed teeth seemed to be grinding against each other.

Even though Meng Huang was a distance away from the door and couldn’t make it out yet, the room was swaying heavily, so he was clearly about to break out of the binding ritual.

Meng Lai was quite surprised by Chen Chuan’s presence and marveled, “I wasn’t expecting you to come back, Officer Chen.”

Just then, a large, shadowy limb came flying at Chen Chuan in the blink of an eye. Since Aunt Yu had experienced how strong it was just now, she shouted a warning, “Careful!”

Chen Chuan brought an arm up, and the limb slammed into it.

Crash!

The entire room trembled, but Chen Chuan didn’t even budge.

As he stood there, he said in a relaxed and steady voice, “Mr. Meng, you have your plans, while I have my job.”

He punched the shadowy limb. His attack was followed by a loud, thunder-like rumble. The shadowy limb shattered to pieces, and even Meng Huang tilted to the side due to losing his balance.

There seemed to be clouds gathered around Chen Chuan’s fist.

“The Cloud Ripping Palm?” Aunt Yu cried out in surprise.

The entire room swayed. The decorations around them exploded, and cracks formed all over the room, from the ceiling to the floor.

Finally, Meng Huang broke free of the binding ritual, and his power returned to him. But he didn’t attack anyone in the room. Instead, he attacked the floorboards.

Boom!

A large section of the floor slab crumbled. Even the cement and bricks on the ceiling fell down.

Chen Chuan shoved away the crossbeam that came at him with a casual fling of his arm and took two steps forward to look down. Rumbling sounds came nonstop from below, and he could feel violent tremors from underneath. Meng Huang broke through the floor slabs on the floors below as if they were sand and landed on the bottommost floor.

Chen Chuan leapt down from the ninth floor and landed with a loud bang. He had bent his knees a little to negate the pressure, and a layer of dust spread out from around him.

When he was down, he found that Meng Huang had changed again. He had turned into a formless shadow and phased through the floorboards while heading further down.

Aunt Yu had also jumped down by using the damaged floor slabs on each floor to give her leverage. “Come with me. There’s a way down behind us.”

Chen Chuan looked down and said, “No need.”

He clenched his fists and sucked in a deep breath. After a brief pause, he threw a punch down.

The floor started rising and falling in waves. With a loud bang, broken shards flew outward. When the dust settled, a pit that could fit two people had appeared below them. Wisps of steam spread out from his fist and kept drifting upward.

Aunt Yu stared at Chen Chuan in shock. Even if he possessed this sort of power, he should suffer a considerable amount of rebound. Was he really alright?

Chen Chuan didn’t look at her and just jumped down. When he landed, he saw a passageway that was around six meters tall and more than ten meters in breadth. Cars could pass through it. He could also see a fork in the distance.

Meng Huang could no longer be seen. The biofields he could sense were a mess as well, though Chen Chuan recalled that they existed everywhere Meng Huang passed through, so he couldn’t tell where exactly he went.

He shut his eyes, and the center of his brow twitched. A moment later, he opened his eyes and started running.

Aunt Yu landed as well. She had wanted to tell Chen Chuan where to go, but when he started running in the right direction, she shut her mouth and followed him.

Chen Chuan moved fast. Even though more forks appeared occasionally in front of him, he didn’t need even a moment to figure out which was the right path. He was able to find the right direction without slowing down. His act of not caring about his joint endurance shocked Aunt Yu.

Soon, they arrived at a rather large underground space that resembled a parking lot. Ahead of them was a vertically interlocking circular door. Meng Huang was pressed against it, as if he wanted to break in but couldn’t.

Chen Chuan stopped. He could see a large number of ritual arrays on the walls and door. He asked, “What’s behind the door?”

Aunt Yu also arrived. She took a few steps forward to stand next to Chen Chuan. “That’s where Mr. Meng’s real body is resting. Meng Huang has been looking for it.”

“He did all this just to kill Mr. Meng?” Chen Chuan asked.

“He’s mainly here for the secret key behind the implants and...” Aunt Yu hesitated.

When Chen Chuan saw that Aunt Yu didn’t want to continue, he didn’t probe further. He just stared at Meng Huang. He had transformed again. Black smoke came out from the tears on his body, though when Chen Chuan took a closer look, he found that it wasn’t smoke. It seemed to be a fusion of the physical and immaterial.

Chen Chuan thought that he could see something he couldn’t decipher squirming inside the smoke, and it went against all normal understanding of the world. It made him squirm. It didn’t just give him goosebumps, but also made him mentally uncomfortable.

Slowly, he brought the Frost King Saber up and positioned it horizontally in front of him before pulling the sheath away. A section of the saber’s snow-white blade appeared. With a flip of the saber, Chen Chuan went over to Meng Huang.