By entering the gap, Astrid had avoided Chen Chuan’s attack, but she had abandoned her armor to do that and lost the sensory transmission cord attached to it. This left her unable to find her way back. She had to rely on signals from the other side to make it back.

She closed her eyes and did her best to breathe long and deep to sense the gaps appearing periodically around her while she chanted in her heart, Hurry up... Hurry up...

She was on the other side of a gap, which was part of it. The place was connected to the other world, so being here for an extra second could expose her to danger.

Something she couldn’t identify was already attacking her.

She had been fine with the armor protecting her, but she had been forced to abandon it to escape from Chen Chuan’s clutches, and it left her exposed and completely defenseless.

But she believed that Sigrid would do whatever she could to bring her back. Setting aside the fact that the company wouldn’t accept losing the implants in her, they also wouldn’t give up on the data from the fight.

She sensed something far behind her stirring awake, and fear bubbled in her.

“Hurry up already!”

As Astrid was tormented by nerves, she sensed a familiar signal coming out of an opened gap in front of her. Without a hint of hesitation, she jumped through it.

Before leaving, she cast a glance backwards to see what was coming, but there wasn’t anything aside from a white expanse of light.

Gongying Changxiu’s headless corpse lay a few kilometers from where Astrid originally was. The head was near its body.

The tentacle that had dragged it into the gap was wrapped around the corpse. It was a plant that resembled an octopus. Its feelers had crawled into Gongying Changxiu’s body and head, as if they were absorbing something.

A moment passed, and the tentacle-like plant started trembling violently. Its sap was being sucked into Gongying Changxiu’s body. It tried to break free, but couldn’t.

In just a few minutes, the plant became pale and withered. In the end, it lay on Gongying Changxiu’s body motionless.

A moment later, fleshy tentacles grew out of Gongying Changxiu’s severed neck and head before extending outward to explore.

They were attracted to each other and soon caught hold of one another. The tentacles from the neck dragged the head back to the body.

Once they were next to each other, the tentacles moved the parts around until everything was correctly in place. Then, they merged into one.

A few more minutes passed, and Gongying Changxiu opened his eyes. His blank gaze slowly regained vitality, and a strange smile appeared on his lips.

With a flick of his wrist, he brushed aside the withered feelers, stood up, and exercised his neck. The final bloody gash soon closed up as well.

His aura had become much stronger than before, and his gaze turned incredibly profound. Faint black smoke was seeping out of him. His hair grew until it reached the small of his back and his bangs covered most of his face.

This was Feeding The Phantom, a secret technique of Windforest School.

The disciples of this school didn’t refine and nourish mental energy to attack other people. Instead, it was put aside to nourish the Phantom Of The Windforest. Core Windforest School disciples who had gone through the Demon Gate could develop a second consciousness in their bodies.

When the body was severely injured and the first consciousness died, the other consciousness would take over and do whatever it took to repair the body so that it could return to life.

After going through this transformation, they would successfully form the Demonic Body and become much stronger than before, especially in terms of mental energy. This was a great increase in strength, but they had to go through a death tribulation to get it.

After getting the Demonic Body, they had to overcome the trial of the Heavenly Body. After overcoming the tribulations for the Mortal, Demonic, and Heavenly Bodies, they would complete their Divine Body. That was the only way to truly walk on the path of becoming a sabermaster.

If they wanted to complete this process, they needed to fight against powerful opponents that would leave their body mostly intact after killing them. Suffice to say, the requirements to become a sabermaster were really tough.

After returning from the Demon Gate, Gongying Changxiu hadn’t met anyone who could kill him, so he came to Jibei Road’s Central City in search of a chance to be killed when the Gate to Heaven opened. The first one he approached was Chen Chuan.

He had brought four Windforest School disciples in order to ensure that his body would be preserved in relatively good condition. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

When he looked around, he knew that he had ended up on the other side of a gap. His junior brothers hadn’t managed to carry out his instructions.

He cast a glance at the withered feelers on the ground and smiled. Even so, the results were good.

His face was gaunt, making his smile look like a demon’s.

His Human Body had perished and was replaced by the Demonic Body, but that came with a price. If he wanted the Human Body and Demonic Body to merge together, he had to use up all his blood essence to perfect himself and become stronger.

He got a feel for the flickering gap in front of him with his stronger mental energy. After a moment, he found the correct path and took a step forward. The scenery before him flashed, and he walked out of the gap onto a street.

It wasn’t the place where he fought against Chen Chuan. With a jump, he leapt to a higher place and took a look at the buildings around before comparing them with the map on his Realm Pass and where his fight with Chen Chuan took place. Then, he ran back.

Soon, he reached the place, but it was deserted. There was some blood on the ground, along with a broken saber stuck in the ground.

He couldn’t sense Flowing Cuts Saber here, so he left and returned to the car he took to come here.

When he grabbed the door handle, he ended up yanking off the car door. He threw it aside and took out a cross spear. After a twirl, he set its end on the ground.

The cross spear was known as Demonic Dance. It was the best weapon for him after he successfully created the Demonic Body.

After this, he needed to create the Heavenly Body.

Gongying Changxiu searched around the car for a while before retrieving a briefcase. After opening it, an insect with a round head flew out.

Its feelers swayed a bit. Then, as if sensing something, it flapped its wings and flew against the wind. Gongying Changxiu kept his eyes on the insect and followed it.

***

Back at the command center, Liang Guanghai and others watched Chen Chuan approach Chang Kuanghai. Their expressions were grim, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everyone was paying attention to this fight.

Honestly, they weren’t asking for Chen Chuan to kill Chang Kuanghai. If he could just hold the man back, the other emergency response units would go through the gap and retrieve the propagated offspring once they arrived.

They couldn’t tell who was stronger between Gongying Changxiu and Chang Kuanghai, because aside from their foundation and combat aptitude, their fighting styles and split-second battle judgment also played a role.

This meant that while Chen Chuan won against Gongying Changxiu, it didn’t mean that he could win against Chang Kuanghai. The latter practiced the Heavenly Pardon Fist, and his body hardening technique allowed him to run down formations and kill generals on the battlefield. Chang Kuanghai wasn’t stronger than Gongying Changxiu in terms of raw power, but he was definitely harder to defeat.

After some thinking, Liang Guanghai said, “Tell Captain Chen about his next opponent’s background and strengths.”

“Understood.”

While the response units who arrived had all been killed, the domain entity in the cars nearby survived and could transfer messages.

***

Soon, Chen Chuan received a message on his Realm Pass. After taking a look, he got an idea of what his opponent was like. He raised his head and looked at Chang Kuanghai. “Are you saying you’ve been waiting here for me?”

“You should remember Wei Wusheng. We studied under the same master,” Chang Kuanghai said grimly.

Chen Chuan nodded. After learning that Chang Kuanghai was from the Heavenly Pardon Gang, he had guessed that he might be connected to Wei Wusheng in some way, but it was unlikely that he came to take revenge. He should have the same goal as Chen Chuan.

“You should have sensed that when the Gate to Heaven opens, martial artists like us need suitable opponents to climb to greater heights, but such opponents are hard to find,” Chang Kuanghai remarked.

“My master watched your fight against my junior brother and said that in less than two years, you’ll be able to fight against me on equal ground.

“He’s always right. If possible, I’d love to give you more time to grow, but the Gate to Heaven has opened, and I can no longer wait.”

Chen Chuan stared at him, then at the large gap behind him. He grabbed the Frost King Saber’s hilt and drew it out as he said sincerely, “It’s unfortunate, but I have something to do today, so I won’t be able to entertain you for a long time, Mr. Chang.”

A group of mercenaries hired by a company arrived behind them and lay down in wait on the roof of a building.

Before them was the largest and most stable gap in Central City, which meant that there was definitely a propagated offspring inside. That was their goal.

They drew their guns out and trained the muzzles on Chen Chuan and Chang Kuanghai. While the two were Third Limit martial artists, they could still hit them with long-distance weaponry.

But this wasn’t the time to attack, because these two were in perfect fighting condition. Besides, there were more mercenary groups around, which meant plenty of competitors. They needed to cautiously choose their time to attack.

Chang Kuanghai grabbed the axe beside him and pulled it out. The axe was about the same size as his body, which meant more than three meters long. It looked heavy, but Chang Kuanghai swung it around like a blade of grass as he walked over.

Chen Chuan lifted the Frost King Saber and went up to meet him.

As they drew closer, Chang Kuanghai swung the axe with one hand.

Whoosh!

A powerful sonic boom tore through the air, as if the air had exploded. Snow flew, and everything in its path was cut apart.

Chen Chuan lowered his center of gravity and positioned himself in a staggered stance before swinging the Frost King Saber up to block the attack.

The two weapons clashed. A shockwave exploded outward from between them and blew away all the snow on the ground.

When Chen Chuan blocked without stumbling in the slightest, Chang Kuanghai was surprised. Ever since he mastered his body hardening technique, he had never seen anyone, aside from Yu Hongming, his master, capable of withstanding his axe.

A smile broke out on his face. Chen Chuan’s strength and fighting style made him the exact type of opponent he wanted.

“Good!” he shouted and swung his axe in the same trajectory as before. It went charging back at Chen Chuan.