After the reinforcements from the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee joined, the density of the gunfire from the buildings on the sides of the road dropped by a large degree. The mercenaries trying to press forward sped up and drew closer to the rift.

Since Yu Lie was holding Fang Zhixin back, he couldn’t stop them. If nothing changed, the mercenaries would get into the rift and find as well as destroy the propagated offspring. Then, the rift would lose the thing keeping it stable.

This would happen if no one stopped them, of course.

Lao Hu watched Chen Bitong coldly and waited for him to do something. Even if Chen Bitong was able to hold back from doing anything, once the propagated offspring was reclaimed, Lao Hu had the patience to continue whittling down Chen Bitong’s strength.

But he knew Chen Bitong. He was the kind of person who couldn’t sit around and let such a thing happen. Instead, he would act swiftly and decisively.

That was why while he looked relaxed, his guard was up. He was ready to counterattack once Chen Bitong took action.

Yet Chen Bitong didn’t look at him. Instead, he cast a glance in the distance.

***

Chen Chuan was watching from the window and could sense Chen Bitong casting his gaze in his direction, or rather, the building where the three of them were.

Chen Bitong had detected their presence.

That made sense. People who had perfected their mental energy would definitely notice it if they were observed for long periods of time, especially since Yang Shen and Nie Guanshan didn’t even bother hiding their actions. It seemed like they wanted to give Chen Bitong pressure.

***

Chen Bitong looked away and met Lao Hu’s gaze. Lao Hu didn’t seem to have reacted to Chen Bitong’s attention being trained on him, but in truth, his nerves were strung tight.

Then, Chen Bitong started walking over to him. He seemed to be moving slowly, but after taking just one step, he appeared in front of Lao Hu. He took another step and was a distance away from him.

His movements weren’t straightforward. Sometimes, he moved back. At other times, he appeared in other directions.

He was using the rift to move about and adjust his position, so he could appear at any place at any moment.

Lao Hu stayed still. His eyes appeared to be flickering about, because he wasn’t using solely his senses to figure out where Chen Bitong was. He was also using his mind to track him.

Once, Chen Bitong appeared less than three meters in front of him. To martial artists of their level, that was practically the same as Chen Bitong standing right in his face, but Lao Hu remained still, as if he was waiting for something.

Another few breaths passed before he sensed something, and his gaze focused. He swung his arm to the side.

Bam!

Chen Bitong appeared right there.

Things were different this time. Two waves of refined force crashed into each other, and the point of contact felt as if a cannonball had exploded between them. A large cloud of dust and smoke surged outward.

Then, Lao Hu sensed something. Aside from the first wave of refined force crashing against Chen Bitong’s, the second wave had entirely missed its mark. Meanwhile, Chen Bitong had vanished. Another Chen Bitong appeared beside him and thrust a palm at him.

Lao Hu was prepared. His body remained still, and he only moved his left hand under his right hand to slam his palm against Chen Bitong’s. A loud, thunderous explosion shot through the air.

There was yet another Chen Bitong on his other side, while a third showed up behind him to reach for the back of his head.

Chen Bitong was moving so quickly in and out of the rift that he left afterimages and traces of his mental energy.

His mental energy’s signature was also plastered everywhere, which threw Lao Hu’s perception into chaos.

At that moment, he was using his hands to deal with the two afterimages by his sides and looked like he could do nothing about the one behind him. But with just a tilt of his head, his tough, spikey hair swung, bringing with it a fierce refined force that slammed into Chen Bitong’s attack. Then, the afterimage looked like it was about to scatter.

Right then, the first wavering afterimage Lao Hu had exchanged palm strikes with suddenly gained substance, and a great wave of refined force surged out from it.

Lao Hu sneered. It’s here.

Lao Hu had released three waves of refined forces consecutively, and all of them contained solid power. Usually, even if he wanted to release another wave of fierce, torrential refined force, he wouldn’t be able to. That was why even if Chen Bitong couldn’t defeat him using this attack, he could retreat safely after their clash before searching for another chance. But Lao Hu had prepared for this day.

Before stepping into the fight, he had taken the medicine the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee had specially prepared for him. At that moment, the medicine’s effects activated, and his mutated tissue as well as biofield reached the peak of their strength. Then, he unleashed a full-powered Severance Force in Chen Bitong’s direction.

The attack went straight to where their finger and palm touched. Chen Bitong’s arm started being sliced to bits. The damage spread to his shoulder, and Lao Hu could see the cut bones and flesh. If his refined force could travel through Chen Bitong’s entire body, all of it would be shredded, and he would have won the fight.

Just then, Lao Hu felt Chen Bitong’s body wavering, and only the first layer of his refined force had real form. Everything else at the back lacked substance.

He widened his eyes in shock. The second Chen Bitong—the one to his right—suddenly turned solid, and a huge wave of refined force was about to charge over.

At the same time, he felt danger coming from behind him.

Where exactly was Chen Bitong?

Since Chen Bitong’s mental energy was scattered everywhere, Lao Hu couldn’t tell where the real attack was coming from.

However, due to his understanding of Chen Bitong, he knew that the fatal attack was highly likely to come toward his back, since he wouldn’t be able to turn around in time. The back was also the weakest part of his body. Even if Chen Bitong couldn’t destroy it, he wouldn’t come off worse from the attack. So, Lao Hu focused his remaining refined force into his hair.

To his surprise, the real attack came from Chen Bitong’s severed arm, which belonged to the first afterimage on his left.

Lao Hu realized to his shock that the first Chen Bitong was still around and had never disappeared.

The attacks from the right and the back were just him using his mental energy to confuse Lao Hu. The refined forces coming at him from the right and back were superficial and would scatter the moment he touched them. Even if he ignored them, they wouldn’t hurt him.

But he came to this realization too late. All his refined force had been redirected. He could only watch as Chen Bitong raised his other completely unhurt hand and punched his shoulder blade. A powerful, unstoppable wave of refined force crashed into Lao Hu and surged to every part of his body.

In an instant, the sounds of his bones shattering and his joints exploding came from his body.

The Void String Force had great penetrative and invasive power. It didn’t focus on killing an enemy in one shot, but had destructive power. Anyone hit by the Void String Force would instantly suffer a huge impact to their mutated tissue and organs, which would tear them to shreds. The person hit would then be unable to summon complete waves of refined force.

After being hit, Lao Hu could no longer fight. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Knowing that he no longer had any chance after that one miscalculation, he stared at Chen Bitong and asked, “That mental energy... Have you...”

As if he knew what Lao Hu was trying to ask, Chen Bitong answered. “I’m still a step away, but I’m not too far off now.”

His image suddenly turned unsteady. Even this Chen Bitong was just an afterimage.

Lao Hu’s eyes turned bloodshot. The next moment, violent explosive sounds shot out of his body, and thick smoke surged out from him until it went up more than a hundred meters in height. Then, a torrential shockwave spread outward.

Chen Bitong watched this from dozens of meters away. He knew Lao Hu. He would rather take his own life than die in Chen Bitong’s hands, so he was absolutely the type to install powerful explosives in his own body. The last question was likely just a trick to make him stay, which was why he had stepped away.

A black dot fell from the sky and crashed on the ground not far from Chen Bitong. It only stopped moving after bouncing off the ground a few times.

It was the half mask Lao Hu wore, but it had become twisted out of shape.

Chen Bitong cast it a glance in silence before turning to his dangling left arm.

Around three fifths of it had been cut. His bones and flesh were a mangled mess, and they only remained stuck to his body because the muscle fibers were doing their best to keep them connected to the arm.

He used his other arm to fix the dangling pieces and merged them together before sending blood essence out of his heart to heal it. In just a moment, the bones gathered together and healed. His blood and flesh also reconnected. Soon, no signs of his arm being cut could be seen.

When Yu Lie saw this, his heart sank. Lao Hu had died, so what was the point of him still fighting here? He leapt back, but Fang Zhixin didn’t chase after him.

“You should leave,” Chen Bitong said.

Yu Lie bared his teeth. “I’m not going to. I can’t win against you, but I’m confident I can stop the cavalrymen from the royal family. I’m staying to stop them. I won’t take part in any attempts to kill you.”

Chen Bitong said nothing. Perhaps he accepted Yu Lie’s determination.

After Lao Hu died, the mercenaries lost their will to continue fighting. Before even receiving new orders, they gave up on their target and fled from the space.

“Mr. Chu, Mr. Hu is dead,” a panic-filled voice declared.

Mr. Chu’s face remained blank. He stood in the observation post with half his face covered in shadow as he hissed, “Trash.”

Meanwhile, Chen Chuan, Nie Guanshan, and Yang Shen were still in their building. Yang Shen spat out the umpteenth cigarette from his mouth and rolled his neck. As it cracked, he said, “The fight’s over. Since the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee guy couldn’t do it, we’re up next.”