Chang Kuanghai, Gongying Changxiu, and Astrid turned to the gap.

Even though Chen Chuan was standing alone in front of it with a saber in hand, he gave off such an aggressive aura that they felt that they wouldn’t be able to bypass him.

Among the three, Gongying Changxiu was the most sensitive to aura, and he squirmed in discomfort.

The aura from the mind was incredibly peculiar. Its presence alone could affect another person. If he didn’t do something right now, Chen Chuan would overpower him in terms of aura, and he would also be affected when using his mental energy.

Light flashed in his eyes, and an invisible mental energy shot at Chen Chuan.

It was the Demonic Body’s unique technique, the Shadow Arrow. It could remotely attack a target’s mind without the need for any medium.

Mental battles were dangerous. If someone were unable to defend the mind properly and got their mental gemstone destroyed, they would lose consciousness, and whoever attacked them would win without much effort.

Gongying Changxiu wasn’t hoping to destroy Chen Chuan’s mind in one go, because remote attacks weren’t strong and suffered great limitations, but this wasn’t the entirety of his offense. He just needed his attack to affect Chen Chuan a little.

The moment he executed the attack, Gongying Changxiu moved. With the spear in hand, he lunged forward.

Everyone in the area saw multiple afterimages when Gongying Changxiu jumped into the air and landed in front of Chen Chuan. They made it hard to tell just which was the real one.

The first to reach lifted the cross spear and thrust forward.

All of them were actually Gongying Changxiu, but the first to arrive was his mental energy.

When he had his Human Body, he used techniques for most of his attacks, while his mental energy served as just a complement. But now, things had reversed. Mental attacks became his main focus. As for his techniques, aside from using them for their inherent power, they were mainly there to build a bridge for his mental attacks.

Chen Chuan stood in place with a calm gaze. The Shadow Arrow was the first to barge into his biofield, but it didn’t cause a reaction.

Then, the first afterimage thrust the cross spear at him, but Chen Chuan remained still and just let the cross spear get closer. Waves of mental energy crashed into him. His overlapped second self started drifting, as if he was about to scatter.

In everyone else’s eyes, the afterimages thrust their cross spears at Chen Chuan and disappeared. When another one attacked, Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened, and he brought the Frost King Saber up to slam it down.

Cross spears could be used like hook chains. When another weapon crashed into it, just like how the saber had slammed into it right now, Gongying Changxiu should twist the cross spear to hook the saber and take control of Chen Chuan’s weapon, but he couldn’t do it.

The power coming from the Frost King Saber was like a tidal wave, and it made Demonic Dance tremble, as if it was about to fly out of his hands. Gongying Changxiu had to do everything he could to keep a tight hold over the spear. Even so, the refined force that charged into him caused his balance to tilt so badly that it almost knocked him off his feet.

Then, Chen Chuan lifted the Frost King Saber above his head. After a brief pause, it came swinging down.

Gongying Changxiu could see everything clearly, but he could not lift his cross spear. That was because Chen Chuan was moving too quickly. Even though his mind could keep up, his body couldn’t, and he could only watch as the saber came down.

His pupils shrank. During this moment of life-and-death, the center of his brow twitched, as if it was about to burst open. The mental foundation he had accumulated exploded forth.

It stimulated Demonic Dance, and a wave of power shot out from it, making it tremble on its own. That motion brought his body backward, and a saber flashed past him.

A long, deep, bloody gash appeared at the center of Gongying Changxiu’s body. It was an inch deep, and it went from the center of his brow to his stomach in a straight line. If Gongying Changxiu had been a second slower, he would have been cut in half.

As he fell back, the ground shook violently. After Chen Chuan delivered the slash, Chang Kuanghai executed the Bull’s Charge behind Gongying Changxiu. As his refined force propelled him forward, he threw a punch.

Chen Chuan didn’t avoid it. He threw a punch at Chang Kuanghai too, and their fists rammed into each other.

Chang Kuanghai trembled violently, and a series of explosive, cracking sounds came from his punching arm. The flesh and skin tore open from his fist to his shoulder. Bones were exposed to the air, and fine cracks could be seen on them. The aftershock from the punch threw him back.

Almost at the same time their fists connected, something flashed behind Chen Chuan. Astrid appeared behind him and thrust her rapier at his shoulder.

Chen Chuan didn’t even bother acknowledging her and let the rapier hit his shoulder. The weapon started shattering inch by inch from the tip. The shards flew outward, and the backlash from the attack was so powerful that Astrid’s arm almost broke from it. She could only retreat in the direction of the force.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The three of them landed at the same time and staggered. In the end, they fell back, collapsed on the ground, or took a tumble backward before kneeling on one knee.

Chen Chuan stood where he started in front of the gap. He hadn’t budged an inch, while he had forced all three of them back. Wisps of fog trailed up from his fist.

He looked down at the trio. They looked absolutely disheveled. Calmly, he asked, “Is that all?”

Shock and alarm appeared in their eyes, but they knew by now that Chen Chuan wasn’t someone they could defeat by themselves. Even though they had no prior discussion or exchanged any glances, they knew what was the correct move to make.

Chang Kuanghai’s arm quickly healed, and his bones realigned themselves. He went over and yanked his axe off the ground. As he held it, he sucked in a deep breath.

Gongying Changxiu had nearly been cut in two. His wound was closing while he kept his eyes trained on Chen Chuan. Then, he lifted Demonic Dance and positioned his feet in a staggered stance before pointing the cross spear at Chen Chuan again.

He could sense his spear trembling, as if it hadn’t recovered from the clash just now.

As for Astrid, she was feeling quite nervous. If not for the protection her armor offered, the backlash would have dislocated her arm. Even so, her armor had become slightly deformed.

And she had only been testing the waters with her attack. It was clear that if she didn’t rely on the two men, she wouldn’t be able to bypass Chen Chuan and get the propagated offspring. Right now, she only had one strategy left.

“Sig, support me. I’m going to use that,” she said.

“Careful. Don’t go too high on the dosage.”

“I know.” Astrid sucked in a deep breath and punched a part of her vambrace. The medicine hidden inside it was injected into her body through a syringe.

In an instant, her mind became stronger, and she started hearing vague voices, which caused her to shake her head violently. Even though she faced a certain amount of distractions from pollutants, the medicine increased her sensory abilities.

Due to the side effects, though, she didn’t dare to use too much of it, and once the medicine’s effects started kicking in, she only had a bit of time before the distractions assaulted her in full force, so Astrid decided to immediately leave after she got the propagated offspring. She wasn’t going to stay for even a second longer.

After recollecting themselves, the three moved at the same time.

Gongying Changxiu and Chang Kuanghai flanked Chen Chuan from the sides. Since they weren’t too far away from him, they appeared next to him almost instantly.

Meanwhile, the area behind Chen Chuan flashed, and Astrid appeared there.

Since they were moving too quickly, their bodies were practically suspended in air, though their distance from the ground was different, and they formed a staggered formation. As they got a read of each other’s rhythm, they attacked Chen Chuan at the same time.

But just when their attacks were about to land, Chen Chuan looked up from his position at the center and his body blurred. He disappeared from their sight and was no longer where he originally was.

“What?”

They were shocked.

When Chen Chuan showed up again, he was standing behind Gongying Changxiu. After overlapping with his second self and activating the Furnace Breathing Technique fully, not only did he get an explosive increase in power, but his speed had also increased by leaps and bounds.

Gongying Changxiu’s gaze hardened. His mind could sense that Chen Chuan had arrived behind him and was screaming at his body about this new piece of information, but he was still thrusting the cross spear forward under the previous orders.

He could only watch as Chen Chuan calmly tightened his grip over the Frost King Saber and delivered an upward slash at his back to cut him in two. Then, he moved past his severed body to cut at Chang Kuanghai.

Chang Kuanghai roared. The muscles on his arms bulged, and he lifted his axe to fight. Their weapons clashed again, but this time, Chen Chuan’s monstrous power and astonishing speed allowed him to cut the axe in two.

The Frost King Saber didn’t even slow down. It continued straight for Chang Kuanghai—its real target. Chang Kuanghai’s expression turned savage as he tensed his muscles to make them as hard as metal. They turned a faint, black, metallic color; a sign that he was using the Heavenly Pardon Fist’s body hardening technique to the extreme.

Chen Chuan’s gaze turned profound as he continued swinging the saber down. With a loud bang, Chang Kuanghai was slammed into the ground.

Chen Chuan didn’t stop moving. He stepped on Chang Kuanghai’s head and back to reach forward and grab Astrid’s ankle just as she wanted to move past him. Then, he threw her on the ground, and a cloud of smoke and dust shot up.

After the dust dispersed, Chen Chuan stood still with his saber in hand. The white fog behind him continued rising like a large column of smoke. The wind and light from the gap occasionally churned and flickered. Meanwhile, the three people who had attacked him together lay sprawled on the ground.

Astrid’s armor had cracked, which revealed her body and face. Her survival was unknown.

Chang Kuanghai’s body was flat against the ground, and his head as well as spine had caved in when Chen Chuan stepped on them. He wasn’t moving either.

Gongying Changxiu’s severed halves lay a step away. Fleshy tentacles stretched out from his organs, as if they were trying to reconnect the body.

Chen Chuan turned around and strolled over to stare at Gongying Changxiu’s upper torso. Then, very sincerely, he said, “I hope that you’ll seek me out again, Mr. Gongying.”

“No. I—”

Before he could finish, Chen Chuan stomped down on his head.

Crack!

Gongying Changxiu’s brain was reduced to mush.