Book 4, Chapter 137: Lightning Fall

Once the Lightning Siblings touched ground, they rolled on it a few times to neutralize the force from the fall. Then, they propped themselves up to look ahead.

Even though they had managed to block the attack with spirit sense, the Heartborn Force behind it left them numb. Their mutated tissue was damaged, and they could not do much for a time.

Then, they saw Heros being pierced with the longspear, and shock as well as fear rose in their hearts.

Heros was their leader. They respected him and treated him as their goal. They had always thought that if anyone had a chance of reaching the Fourth Limit, it was him.

Yet even someone like this lost to Chen Chuan after a short, direct fight. There were no flashy moves involved, only a clash of strength, and after just a few punches, Heros lost. This was a major shock.

After Chen Chuan defeated Heros and grabbed the saber while looking as relaxed as ever, he turned toward them, and they tensed up.

Then, Chen Chuan looked past them at Qi Qianyang, as if he didn’t really care about them.

The Lightning Siblings felt some of the tension leave their bodies, but a moment later, they felt angry and ashamed at their cowardice. They also felt insulted for being ignored.

Chen Chuan turned around slowly and faced the crowd once more.

He was standing at the edge of a crack. His clothes fluttered in the wind as thick trails of white smoke rose from his shoulders, back, limbs, and the rest of his body. As the ground rose, it made it seem like the sky was shifting. The sight of Heros kneeling dead beside him made the crowd’s hearts tremble.

For a time, the dozen or so martial artists scattered all over the clearing were intimidated by his strength and demeanor. It wasn’t just the Lightning Siblings who were affected.

Ingram’s eyes were full of wariness. Right from the start, his group and he stood in the distance and didn’t move. They did not attack or try to nab the artifact.

The others weren’t strong enough to even see Chen Chuan’s movements clearly. While Ingram could somewhat see him, he couldn’t find a chance to attack. He felt that no matter how he attacked, it was going to be useless. Chen Chuan seemed to be on guard against all of them.

As a commander, Ingram was strong, but he had no desire to risk his life. After a brief moment, the victor between Chen Chuan and Heros was already decided, and Ingram no longer had to think about whether he should attack or retreat.

Chen Chuan didn’t really care about the rest of the Union and the Linacrox Union’s martial artists. He kept his eyes trained on Qi Qianyang, who had gotten up. Qi Qianyang cast a glance at the dead Heros and clicked his tongue.

Even if he hadn’t been taken down, it would have been impossible for him to help Heros. He could see openings in Chen Chuan’s attacks and ways to use them, but that was all.

While he appeared nonchalant about this, he was actually shocked. He couldn’t understand how he wasn’t able to stop Chen Chuan’s attacks after doubling his strength and speed.

Chen Chuan had defeated him in a direct fight without exploiting Qi Qianyang’s mistakes. This meant that if they fought again, the results were likely going to stay the same.

Do I have to use that now?

There was one more thing he hadn’t used yet. However, in order to bring out the full effects of the secret technique, he needed some time to gather his strength.

Do I have the time for it?

While he was thinking about it, Chen Chuan moved, and he reacted by cracking the whip and making it circle around him.

Bam!

The accursed saber came toward him again to strike the whip. At the same time, a powerful refined force gushed out.

It was the leftovers from after the whip endured the attack. If the saber had struck him directly, Qi Qianyang couldn’t begin to imagine its destructive power.

He could have switched the structure of his refined force to neutralize Chen Chuan’s refined force, but Chen Chuan was attacking too fast, and he was simply too strong. Qi Qianyang needed to put all of his strength and speed into his whip for it to keep up with the saber. Under that sort of pressure, he couldn’t perform any of the intricate refined force transformations. All he could do was to trade blows.

As the saber kept swinging, Qi Qianyang retreated while trying to expand his defensive area. Based on the fight earlier, though, he didn’t think that he’d be able to defend for much longer. So, he had to make some sacrifices.

He made up his mind and whistled. The bird circling above them dived down like an arrow behind Chen Chuan, but the moment it got near, Chen Chuan sliced through it. The bird screeched in pain when Chen Chuan brought his saber up and tumbled past while breathing its last. Only its cries lingered in the air, along with its scattered feathers.

Qi Qianyang didn’t have time to show any sympathy for his bird. He used the fraction of the second it won him to attack Chen Chuan. At the same time, he shouted at the Lightning Siblings, “Hey, do you two want to live? If you do, buy me some time! I don’t need a lot, just ten seconds or so!”

Upon hearing this, Siegfried looked in the direction of their fight and asked, “What should we do, Silvia? Should we leave?”

“Don’t even think about it. We can’t leave. Night will descend in a few hours, and those disgusting insects are right behind us. By tomorrow, we’ll be nothing more than a pile of shit. Our best option is to fight and kill that investigator, provided that guy isn’t lying.

“Besides, we belong to the company, and they won’t let us give up. We can’t retreat, you know?”

Siegfried hesitated. “Then, are we using that?”

“Yes,” Silvia replied firmly.

Once they made up their minds, they took out a drug their company had given them from a hidden compartment in their protective gear. After removing the seal, they took out a dark purple pill and put it under their tongues.

The drug boosted their speed, increased their mental energy, and gave them more spirit sense.

But it was still in its experimental stage. After using it, they would fall unconscious, so even if they won, they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves. However, if they didn’t use it, Chen Chuan would come after them once he killed Qi Qianyang.

Their hearts started racing upon taking the drug. Blood surged through their veins, and their senses became much stronger. Great power flowed through their bodies, and they had a strong urge to release it.

Faint light shone from their eyes, and their minds became excited. After gulping down a few breaths, they exchanged looks, nodded, and vanished from the spot.

Chen Chuan sensed it. He redirected his saber to the left, then swung it to the right to parry the two refined forces coming at him. They crashed into him, and two loud rumbles passed him by with trails of dust.

The Lightning Siblings had never felt this free before. They had never been able to achieve such speed. If they hadn’t been running at full power, they would have started cheering in joy.

After dashing past Chen Chuan, they passed each other and ran in the trajectory of a swallow’s tail to turn back. When they stepped on the ground, the air moved away from them.

Upon seeing the Lightning Siblings attack, Qi Qianyang perked up, but didn’t join the fight. The two weren’t trustworthy allies. Besides, even if they had gotten a boost in strength, they could only stall Chen Chuan for a moment. Qi Qianyang would have to rely on his own strength at the crucial moment.

He retreated and stood still while using a breathing technique called the Ultimate Reversal. It belonged to the refined training faction, though it was a modified version of it. This breathing technique required using his mental energy and refined force at the same time. Once he activated it, he could suppress all the refined force that had been injected into him so that he would no longer be affected.

His greatest worry during his fight against Chen Chuan was the clash of refined forces. If he got rid of this weakness, he could fight much better.

At the same time, the breathing technique could temporarily increase the power output of his mutated tissue. With these two benefits stacked together, he wouldn’t have to worry about fighting Chen Chuan anymore.

But this breathing technique was also incredibly harmful to the user. With each second, it drained the user’s mutated tissue’s energy and life. If Qi Qianyang hadn’t absorbed the power from the existence, he could only use it for thirty seconds at best, but now, he could use it for around two minutes.

As he continued using the breathing technique, a blood-red light shone in his eyes.

***

Chen Chuan positioned his saber horizontally and looked around. Light passed him by, and with a loud rip, a tear was left behind on his sleeve. Another flash of light passed by his back, and a tear appeared on his shoulder. They came from refined forces grazing his body. When someone traveled at an extreme speed, their movements alone could produce great cutting force.

Chen Chuan remained unmoved and just stood still while holding his saber. The world slowed down around him as he concentrated, and the Lightning Siblings’ movement became clearer.

When they approached him again, Chen Chuan brought his saber up and slashed forward at one of them before swiftly reversing his grip and thrusting backward.

Silvia’s body was cut in half. Due to the inertia, she flew far away. Meanwhile, the thrust to the back went straight through Siegfried’s head. Like a flag blowing in the wind, his body drifted about before going limp.

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