Chapter 597 - 327: Release

The two men, cloaked in overflowing Power, plummeted from more than twenty meters in the air. With a deafening BOOM, they smashed a large crater into the ground, sending chunks of stone and brick flying outward.

Fang Zhixin and Yu Lie were both shaken. To fall from such a height with no protection...

Amidst the scattering gravel, Chen Chuan leaped from the crater. He landed more than twenty meters away, flipping smoothly to his feet. After slowly straightening up, he turned his gaze back to the crater.

After using the Wrestling Takedown Force just now, Chen Bitong had borne the full impact of the landing. Chen Chuan himself had barely been affected.

Of course, when he’d grabbed his opponent with the Capturing Force moments ago, the simplest way to win would have been to snap his neck. But both his conscience and his intuition told him that such a move wasn’t right, and that it wouldn’t have the desired effect anyway.

And, just as he’d expected, the moment they hit the ground, the strange power he had witnessed before appeared once again. Sensing danger, he hadn’t stayed entangled, instead releasing his opponent in time and putting distance between them.

Chen Bitong now stood up and slowly climbed out of the crater. A faint, shimmering light glowed on his right hand. The aura of power around him was completely different from before, as if something within him had been partially unleashed.

Chen Chuan stared at him. ’This feeling... it’s a bit similar to that entity I encountered before, but not exactly the same.’

Chen Bitong glanced at his hand and said slowly, "Once a Fighter shatters the shackles that bind them, they transcend the limits of the human body and can enter a whole new realm.

Though there were many different names for it in the old days, in this new era, we call them ’Fighting Masters.’

A Fighting Master possesses a unique ability: they can use their spirit to directly interfere with reality. It doesn’t require the aid of Power; it is a pure manifestation of Spiritual Power.

But before becoming a Fighting Master, there is a necessary process. Your spirit must be elevated to a certain level. Once it’s high enough, you can use your spirit to channel a sliver of power from another world for your own use. Reaching this state is the true beginning."

He raised his other hand, and it too began to glow with a faint light.

"From then on, you use this power to refine your spirit, allowing it to gradually adapt until it shares the same characteristics. Once that is complete, you can truly walk the path of a Fighting Master."

’So that’s it,’ Chen Chuan thought. ’The Spiritual Reflection Method that Teacher Xue taught me is meant to elevate the spirit to a sufficient level. That means if I continue on this path and everything goes smoothly, I should be able to reach this state.’

Chen Bitong said gravely, "But even if you’re not a Fighting Master, once you can use your spirit to guide external forces, you are beyond what an ordinary Fighter can handle. That’s why even those two over there couldn’t hope to contend with this kind of power."

Chen Chuan’s eyes fixed on the faint light on Chen Bitong’s hand. He leaned forward, then stamped his foot and charged. With each step, his crisscrossing feet drew on the power channeled from his Mutated Organization. As he closed the distance, he splayed his hand open and struck out with the heel of his palm!

Chen Bitong shifted his footing minutely. He raised the faintly glowing arm, blocking Chen Chuan’s palm strike without so much as a tremor.

The moment their arms made contact, Chen Chuan felt all of his Power vanish as if it had been thrown into a void. Just then, he saw Chen Bitong’s other hand thrusting a palm strike toward him.

He raised a hand to block and was immediately struck by an immense, unfathomable power. His feet carved two furrows in the ground as he was thrown back, not stopping until he was more than twenty meters away.

He glanced at himself and saw the image of his Second Self had faded until it was almost gone. That seemingly light push had cost him one-fifth of its total durability.

’In other words,’ he thought, ’I can take at most five more hits like that. Maybe even fewer, since Chen Bitong probably isn’t even using his full strength.’

Just then, however, Chen Bitong frowned. The faint glow on one of his hands subsided, leaving only the other still luminous.

Chen Chuan’s eyes were fixed on him. ’During that close-range exchange just now,’ he thought, ’I sensed that he’s suppressing something. It’s like he doesn’t want to use this power.’

’And in that moment of contact, his spirit seemed unstable, too. But now that he’s reined in the power a bit, it’s stabilized again.’

’Does using this power too much come at a price? Or is there some other reason?’

He said, "Teacher Chen, our lesson isn’t over. Let’s continue."

Chen Bitong looked at him. ’Even after I’ve shown him this level of power, he still has the confidence to fight me?’

Chen Chuan took another deep breath. His body was so scalding hot that any rain landing on him instantly evaporated, merging with the white steam already billowing from his skin.

’That power is incredible, and right now, I can’t counter it directly,’ he reasoned. ’But Chen Bitong’s own physical conditioning hasn’t been enhanced to match. So, all I have to do is not let that power touch me.’

’With my Second Self merged, what I’ve displayed so far has mostly been strength. But besides that, I also have... speed!’

At that very moment, his mind focused to a razor’s edge. He took a single step forward. In that instant, the world seemed to slow to a crawl. The thinning rain hung suspended in mid-air. The gravel rolling in the currents of air and the dead leaves swept up by the wind all seemed to freeze into solid objects.

Through his Spiritual Sensing, the focused expressions of the snipers aiming down from the tall buildings on either side, the anxious looks on Yu Lie and Fang Zhixin’s faces—it all flooded his perception.

He paid them no mind. His steps cracked the ground beneath him as he shattered countless raindrops suspended in his path. In a flash, he was before Chen Bitong, his fist raised.

Chen Bitong seemed to sense something. He slowly raised his faintly glowing arm to block, but before he could get it into position, Chen Chuan’s fist had already slammed into his face. A massive CRACK echoed through the square as Chen Bitong was sent flying backward.

His body skipped across the ground several times, carving out a series of craters before finally skidding to a halt dozens of meters away. After a moment, with his back still to Chen Chuan, he slowly got to his feet. When he turned around, a faint light flickered within his ruined cheek as the wound gradually healed and sealed itself shut.

But his expression had become extremely grave. Judging by the current situation, he realized he might not be able to win unless he drew upon more of that power.

But drawing on too much of it had severe repercussions. He might lose control of himself.

’Then there’s only one way left.’

He threw his head back. A series of sickening CRACKS echoed from his joints as his frame began to expand. Originally just over 1.7 meters tall, he grew to nearly 1.8 meters. His limbs elongated, stretching his clothes taut as slabs of muscle bulged into stark relief.

The wrinkles on his face smoothed away, and his salt-and-pepper hair returned to a lustrous, inky black. His eyes began to glow with a brilliant light.

It was as if he had instantly shed more than twenty years, returning to the prime of his youth. Wisps of a pale, cyan aura began to drift from his body.

String Void Force is divided into inner and outer aspects. The Outer String is for attacking, while the Inner String gathers and stores power, maintaining the body in a low-energy state. Now, however, he had fully unleashed it.

Chen Chuan’s eyes narrowed. He could feel it in Chen Bitong’s unconcealed, radiating Domain and spirit—his power had risen to another level.

’In that case...’

He took a deep breath, fully activating the effects of the drug he had taken earlier, which had been building up inside him. The white steam pouring from his body grew even thicker, forming a dense, rising pillar above him that refused to disperse.

After they stared at each other for a moment, both of their figures vanished from the square. A series of eardrum-shattering impacts followed. This time, Yu Lie and Fang Zhixin could barely distinguish their forms; all they could hear was the continuous roar of shattering air, like rolling thunder that would not cease.

They could feel the ground trembling without pause. Even the air gushing from the Rift seemed to recoil, howling and whipping violently at their clothes.

Suddenly, with a loud BOOM, a huge hole was blown into the wall of a nearby building. Chen Chuan was visible for a split second, frozen in a forward-punching stance. The next instant, he vanished, and a barrage of concussive blasts echoed from within.

The impacts tore straight through the base of that building and into an empty one across the street. Another massive hole exploded outward, and two blurry black shapes could be seen bursting out. A breath later, they crashed into the building closest to the square.

The man watching from a distance with binoculars couldn’t track such a battle at all. He had to get out of his car and run to the top of a nearby high-rise, struggling to report the situation to the combat command center based on the surrounding chaos.

But the command center couldn’t spare any attention for this location; the sixth wave-split was imminent. Even if they sent reinforcements now, anyone without sufficient power would be unable to intervene in the battle he was describing. They could only wait for a victor to emerge.

Inside that building, Chen Chuan and Chen Bitong attacked each other with everything they had. Their overflowing Power and rapid movements shattered one load-bearing pillar after another, causing broken floor slabs to rain down from above. Dodging the debris, the two leaped upward, fighting their way from the ground floor all the way to the roof.

Upon reaching the roof, Chen Bitong leaped again, ascending even higher, as if preparing to use his Flying Dragon Fist Strength once more. Chen Chuan wasn’t about to let him. He dug his hand into a wall, and with a flick of his wrist, sent countless shards of rock whistling through the air toward Chen Bitong.

Seeing this, Chen Bitong’s figure vanished. The next moment, he reappeared at Chen Chuan’s flank, striking out with his faintly glowing hand.

Chen Chuan instantly spun, shifting to Chen Bitong’s other side and slamming a palm downward. Chen Bitong raised his other hand to block, but the powerful concussive force sent him flying sideways off the roof, plummeting toward the ground.

Chen Chuan pushed off his feet and leaped after him. Both fighters adjusted their balance in mid-air, landing on the ground one after the other. Beside them, with a great RUMBLE, the entire building collapsed, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and rubble that billowed outward.

But at that exact moment, the nearby Rift flickered and began to expand once more. This time, it swelled outward and enveloped both men amidst the billowing dust.

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