Chen Chuan’s attention was on Chen Bitong when he sensed a wave of light in front of him. His mental sense became obstructed, and he temporarily lost perception of the outside world.

Since he had experienced something similar before, he immediately realized that he had been dragged into the rift.

But he didn’t think that he needed to stop his offense because of this. Even if the light and the smoke from the building’s collapse had blended together, he could still see the vague outline of the person before him. He shifted through the curling smoke and flashing lights to throw a punch.

A glowing hand shot out of the smoke to block it. Just as their hands were about to touch, Chen Chuan unfurled his fist, bypassed Chen Bitong’s arm, and pressed down. His goal was to push the arm back.

Chen Bitong was quick to react. He brought his arm up and jutted his elbow out to intercept Chen Chuan’s palm. When they collided, refined force spilled out everywhere.

Chen Chuan and Chen Bitong closed in on each other and exchanged a few blows. Their movements and the refined force stirred up raging wind and dust along with loud howls and explosive bangs.

Chen Chuan suddenly saw his second self becoming faint, and an unfamiliar wave of mental energy came from the distance.

The light at a certain spot had become a little brighter than elsewhere. Then, the space trembled, and a large hole of light formed.

That wasn’t all. Once the hole appeared, Chen Bitong’s mind seemed to have changed, as if he had some kind of connection to it. They were experiencing some kind of pull and seemed to be merging.

Chen Bitong was also growing stronger. After exchanging blows again, Chen Chuan looked up and met Chen Bitong’s eyes. What he saw caused his gaze to sharpen.

An expression that was a mix of indifference and madness was on one half of his face, while the eye behind the half-face mask remained calm.

His refined force suddenly exploded forth, but Chen Chuan didn’t endure it head-on. Instead, feeling wary, he took a few steps back. A strong gust of wind charged over, and the dust as well as light hid Chen Bitong from view.

“It’s here for me,” Chen Bitong said. “Captain Chen, if I do anything extreme, you must stop me. If I can’t control myself, kill me.”

His voice was normal in the beginning, but later on, there were no longer any inflections or emotions in it. It was what he had planned, even if his body had changed.

Chen Chuan swung his arm to chase away the dust in front of him. When he looked over once more, he felt as if he was looking at another person. Chen Bitong’s appearance remained the same, but his biofield and demeanor had changed in its very essence.

Once he linked this with what Chen Bitong had said, he realized that Chen Bitong’s body had either been occupied or polluted by “it.” But for now, “it” hadn’t completely replaced Chen Bitong, so he had to stop “it”.

Chen Chuan didn’t hesitate. At lightning speed, he lunged forward and reached out to grab Chen Bitong’s stomach.

Chen Bitong felt a sharp, tearing pain from within his body, as if something was churning in him, and he froze.

But the Void String Force immediately protected his organs and fortified his bones as well as his fascia. Once he activated his refined force, the thing inside was blocked and couldn’t tear into his flesh.

Yet even if he had managed to stop it, he had frozen for an instant. Chen Chuan arrived near him and grabbed his wrist. A grappling-type refined force surged into Chen Bitong’s body.

Chen Bitong growled and activated the internal Void String Force to protect himself. At the same time, he brought his other hand up. It was glowing when he threw a punch at Chen Chuan.

This time, though, Chen Chuan didn’t dodge. He brought his hand up. With a loud bang, he blocked the glowing palm without stumbling in the slightest.

Chen Bitong froze in shock. When he looked down, he saw a pair of calm eyes.

When Chen Chuan blocked the attack, his second self blurred out so much that he almost couldn’t see him. He had lost almost two-fifths of his overall durability, so at most, he could only take two more punches, but that was enough.

He flipped his hands over, and with two loud smacks, he seized Chen Bitong’s arms. A wave of grappling-type refined force charged into Chen Bitong again, causing him to tremble, and the internal Void String Force was unable to defend him anymore. The supernatural raccoon in Chen Bitong’s body cheered and started devouring his organs.

Chen Chuan dragged Chen Bitong away from the hole of light, took several steps back, threw him over his shoulder, and slammed him on the ground.

Chen Bitong let out a low but thunderous roar, as if he was no longer a person, but something else. His entire body started giving off the faint light.

But Chen Chuan remained unaffected. He punched Chen Bitong in the head and sent his refined force inside.

No matter how strong the power controlling Chen Bitong was, it wasn’t as if Chen Chuan had no way of fighting against it.

Anyone who wanted to draw power into this world needed to gather up mental energy, which meant that if they couldn’t focus their minds, they wouldn’t be able to do that. Unless, of course, that person was already a martial arts master.

After the punch, Chen Bitong’s head swayed violently, but his body seemed to be going through some kind of transformation. His head was completely unhurt, even though Chen Chuan had sent a wave of Sanshou-type refined force into him. But the light on him had vanished for a brief moment.

Soon, the light appeared on his palm again, and he tried to grab Chen Chuan’s arm, but Chen Chuan threw a punch forward without hesitation, and Chen Bitong froze once more.

Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened, and he split his hands to grab Chen Bitong’s arms. With a twist, he released yet another wave of grappling-type refined force.

Crack!

He broke Chen Bitong’s arms, and the light instantly vanished.

Then, he turned around and knelt on Chen Bitong to start raining down punches on him. Light flashed in Chen Bitong’s eyes for a while, but when Chen Chuan hit him so hard that his mind was knocked off kilter for a moment, it vanished.

Chen Chuan continued punching Chen Bitong. Every time, he successfully sent Chen Bitong’s head slamming back into the ground. Thunderous bangs echoed inside the rift.

After delivering an unknown amount of punches, Chen Chuan brought his arm up again. A weak voice came from below him at that moment.

“You can stop now.”

Chen Chuan could sense that Chen Bitong’s aura had returned to normal. His unstable mental fluctuations had also stabilized.

Then, Chen Chuan turned to the side.

More importantly, the hole of light had disappeared.

Slowly, he lowered his arm, got up from Chen Bitong, and retreated.

Surprisingly, the supernatural raccoon also returned to him. It seemed to have eaten and was sleeping peacefully. Surprise flickered faintly in his heart.

As Chen Bitong lay on the ground, he struggled to breathe before asking, “Aren’t you worried about me recovering and continuing to fight you, Captain Chen?”

Chen Chuan watched Chen Bitong and said, “If I could defeat you once, I can defeat you again.”

Praise appeared in Chen Bitong’s eyes, along with a hint of melancholy. After a while, his broken arms healed, and he used them to push himself off the ground so that he could sit up.

Chen Chuan heard footsteps and the clanking of armor in the distance.

This place was the intersection of gaps, which was why it was known as a rift. Some imperial soldiers had come before, so the other side of the rift should be the merged space, which meant that whoever was here was bound to be affiliated to the royal family.

Just as Chen Chuan expected, he saw people amid the dust and light. From the outline of their weapons, he was even certain of their identities.

They were warriors and soldiers who were in charge of guarding the space, but after several failed attempts at charging out of the rift, they were no longer in a hurry to attempt another attack. Instead, they chose to wait for reinforcements.

Since this rift had been confirmed to lead straight into Central City and was the most stable of all the rifts and gaps at the moment, there was no way they could give up on it.

And just a moment ago, some strange noises had come from within the rift, so it was only natural for them to come and check.

Chen Chuan turned around and headed toward them. After just a short while, rows upon rows of soldiers and a small number of warriors revealed themselves amid the light and dust.

They saw Chen Chuan, but before they could react, a wave of mental energy crashed into them.

The soldiers acted as if they had been hit by a hammer, and all of them lost consciousness. As people collapsed, Chen Chuan soon found himself standing before a field of bodies.

Chen Chuan then took a look at Chen Bitong. When he found that the latter was still recovering, he turned his attention back to the army and started walking over.

Dozens of steps later, he sensed that he had passed through a thin barrier. A layer of fog was ahead of him. After taking a few more steps, he observed the area ahead.

The entrance of the gap was located at the top of a mountain, and there was a path leading down.

When he looked further ahead, a grim expression settled on his face.

There was a huge army at the base of the mountain.

Even though the merged space was covered in dense greenery and fog, which made it impossible to see details, the fact that he couldn’t see the end of the army told him all he needed to know.

Was this the main imperial army?

A battalion seemed to have noticed movement above and was pointing at the top of the mountain. At the same time, some people started running up.

After some thinking, Chen Chuan returned into the rift via the gap.

Chen Bitong was leaning against a spear stuck in the ground.

After taking a few steps back toward Chen Bitong, Chen Chuan saw Chen Bitong’s hat on the ground, so he bent down, picked it up, dusted it, and handed it over.

Upon taking the hat, Chen Bitong put it on and adjusted it. Then, he looked Chen Chuan in the eye. “Have you seen them, Captain Chen?”

Chen Chuan nodded and asked, “What exactly are you trying to do, Instructor Chen? Can you tell me now?”