Book 3, Chapter 324: Two Defeated
When Chen Chuan attacked, not a lot of refined force was contained in his punch.
Since the other two had set him up, he wasn’t going to play nice with them anymore. It was time to retaliate.
His fist collided with Chen Bitong’s, but while his attack looked powerful, not a single bit of refined force was contained within it.
Chen Chuan knew it. Chen Bitong had been teaching him for a long time, so he figured out his intentions the moment Chen Chuan shifted his saber to his left hand.
Chen Bitong took advantage of the situation. He caused a loud explosion to erupt where their fists clashed, so it seemed like there was real weight behind their punches.
This incredibly realistic lie wasn’t just due to his ingenious use of refined force. He also used mental energy for it. If Chen Chuan hadn’t known the truth of what was going on, he would have thought that he was dealing with a full powered strike from Chen Bitong.
Yang Shen and Nie Guanshan didn’t suspect anything. Chen Bitong paused for a moment, and they grabbed this chance they had been waiting for the whole time.
Nie Guanshan didn’t hesitate. He bent his back, pushed himself off the ground with the tips of his toes, and threw a punch at Chen Bitong.
Yang Shen flicked his fingers, and the cords floating in the air suddenly descended to encase Nie Guanshan and Chen Bitong.
Yet their attacks only pierced an afterimage, and they turned pale.
Realizing that things were about to go really bad, Nie Guanshan returned to a defensive stance and retreated to protect Yang Shen, who was the one most likely to get attacked at this moment.
He was too late.
At the same time the two attacked, one of Chen Bitong’s afterimages appeared above Yang Shen and struck at his skull.
Yang Shen had served in the development squad and had multiple life-and-death encounters. Once he realized that the situation was about to go bad, he reacted swiftly. Instead of collecting the cords he had released, he injected more refined force into them and swung them with a powerful fling of his arms. The cords tilted him forward, even though he wasn’t supposed to have been able to dodge at this moment.
He was able to avoid the punch hitting his skull, but Chen Bitong’s fist still landed against his shoulder.
In an instant, refined force penetrated every part of his body, and a wave of explosive cracks came from within him, especially his joints. Bloody holes also tore open on his skin.
His body twisted in unnatural ways. Even his bones and tissue were destroyed by Chen Bitong’s refined force, which showed just how powerful the punch was.
If this were a fight between two people, it would be over at this point.
Nie Guanshan arrived at that moment and tried to force Chen Bitong away.
But with one person out of the fight, Chen Bitong could fight with much greater ease. An afterimage appeared above Nie Guanshan. With his back against the light, he kicked down.
Nie Guanshan couldn’t tell whether this was the real Chen Bitong or not, but the Deity Worshipping Stance was both an offensive and defensive stance, so he didn’t need to worry about any attacks. Since he was in the defensive stance, he decided to go with the flow of the attack and release his refined force while switching to the offensive stance. When their fists collided, the afterimage above him shattered.
Another Chen Bitong showed up beside him and struck him. Nie Guanshan trembled before bending his back to return to the defensive stance so that he could negate the refined force.
Then, one more Chen Bitong showed up on his other side to hit his waist. Nie Guanshan turned around to throw his fists at this afterimage. Through the attack, his refined force pushed out the refined force that had penetrated his body layer by layer.
More afterimages appeared around him. Chen Bitong attacked various parts of his body with palm strikes and fists. Nie Guanshan kept switching between the offensive and defensive stances, bending his back, and punching forward.
As more refined force entered his body, he found himself unable to expel all of it out every time. Leftover refined force began piling up in his body, and his movements started slowing.
Nie Guanshan gritted his teeth and persevered. Even though things seemed dire, his resistance wasn’t meaningless. He was holding Chen Bitong back to create a chance for Yang Shen.
Third Limit martial artists at their level could recover quickly. As long as he could buy some time, Yang Shen would recover some of his fighting abilities. Otherwise, it was only a matter of time before he was defeated.
Chen Chuan was supposed to help him, but Chen Bitong’s afterimage had intercepted him as well, so he was held back.
Nie Guanshan didn’t know the truth of what had happened and didn’t think that anything had gone wrong with his ritual. He guessed that Chen Bitong was smarter than they thought and saw through their plans. He had fought fire with fire and lured them into his own trap.
Unfortunately, after activating this sort of ritual, he needed to gather power to use it again. Otherwise, he would have made Chen Chuan block another attack for him.
As he kept getting attacked, Nie Guanshan’s movements became slower. In a few more attacks, he would be completely overpowered.
Just when Chen Bitong descended from the sky again to deliver a decisive strike, a long cord bound his arm and went down to coil around Nie Guanshan’s leg.
Nie Guanshan was ready for this. He pulled back abruptly, yanking Chen Bitong down from the sky. With a flip, he landed on his feet, but more cords shot forward and bound half of his body.
As blood trickled down from his mouth while he lay on the ground, Yang Shen grinned savagely. “Caught you.”
The Dragon Binding Force wasn’t made solely of refined force techniques. It also had mental techniques. The key to it was this word: Bind.
The moment his enemy’s refined force entered his body, his mind would remember its signature.
After this, no matter how many afterimages Chen Bitong created and where he fled, Yang Shen would be able to accurately pinpoint his location.
However, if he lost his strength, being able to locate his enemy was useless. That was why he had another trick up his sleeve.
The long cords weren’t weapons. Instead, they were mutated tissue that grew out of his body after he mastered the Dragon Binding Force. It could be said that they were a type of vitalized creature, which he could move at will.
This was his most powerful trump card.
Once he marked Chen Bitong with his mind, he waited until Chen Bitong reached the most crucial moment of his attack against Nie Guanshan. At that moment, he was able to bind him.
The cords were tough. Once they captured a target, no one could escape them easily.
And in a battle, a small pause could change the entire course of the fight.
This was just one of the duo’s backup plans, because they didn’t think that the World Ring Defense System would be able to send someone capable enough to stop Chen Bitong. The ones at the same level as them had other missions and wouldn’t work together with them, so they had prepared contingency plans for when the person the World Ring Defense System sent was completely useless for them.
If the situation went south for them, they could use this to turn the tides as well.
But it was just a contingency plan. If possible, they didn’t want to be caught in such a dangerous situation. Instead, they were going to prioritize their safety. However, at this point in the fight, they had no other choice but to do this.
The results were good. After Chen Bitong was bound, he couldn’t break free in an instant, and the afterimages disappeared one after another.
The Dragon Binding Force had bound the flying dragon.
Nie Guanshan had been waiting for this moment. With a shout, he summoned all his strength and threw his fists at Chen Bitong’s chest.
Chen Bitong wouldn’t be able to dodge at this point, and even he would be heavily injured after getting hit by such an attack.
Victory had been right before Chen Bitong’s eyes, but they had turned the tides. This was all thanks to their teamwork. Their margin of error was simply far higher than that of a single person fighting alone.
Chen Bitong’s mental energy suddenly changed, and he snapped his head up. He brought his unbound arm forward to act as a shield.
A faint light shone on the arm.
When Nie Guanshan punched Chen Bitong, all his refined force that surged forward seemed to have entered a bottomless pit. He received no feedback, no backlash, no refined force coming back, nothing.
For a moment, he was stunned. Then, he saw the faint light and recalled something. Shock and fear appeared on his face.
At that point, he no longer had the time to think about attacking. With a stomp, he retreated. Judging by his movements, he wasn’t even thinking about defending himself. He was trying to leave the place.
With a yank, Chen Bitong snapped all the tough cords binding his body. Then, he moved as quickly as lightning and caught up to Nie Guanshan.
Nie Guanshan entered the Deity Worshipping Stance, but the shining arm rammed into his stomach.
His body curled inward. For the first time since he used the Deity Worshipping Stance, his feet were knocked off the ground.
He had a hard time blocking off the refined force penetrating his body. The torrential force crashed into him and wreaked havoc inside.
Chen Bitong took another step forward and rammed his elbow into Nie Guanshan’s throat. The sound of bones snapping was loud and clear, and it was followed by a series of explosive cracks.
But Chen Bitong’s attack hadn’t ended. He punched Nie Guanshan’s forehead, causing his eyes to roll back, and sending him flying back. When he crashed into the ground, he did not seem to be breathing.
Yang Shen climbed up to his feet. During that short moment Chen Bitong fought Nie Guanshan, he had healed some of his wounds. At this point, he did not have time to check on Nie Guanshan. He just stumbled away.
Gunshots suddenly rang from above, and a shower of bullets landed on him.
If they were unable to gather their mutated tissue, even Third Limit martial artists wouldn’t be able to endure this many bullets. Fortunately, Yang Shen still had his protective gear and gloves. He brought his hands up to cover his head while he ran away amid the bullet shower.
Before he could go far, someone appeared in front of him.
Shocked, he jumped aside, but a hand came sweeping at him before striking his neck. The Void String Force went straight to his spine, and explosive cracks came from every vertebra.
Yang Shen twitched violently in midair. After being knocked back more than ten meters away, he tumbled forward a little more with his body twisting in all the wrong angles. When he eventually stopped, he lay on the ground like a boneless sack of skin.
