After Yang Shen and Nie Guanshan quickly and discreetly discussed things among themselves, they turned to Chen Chuan. “Since you think that it’s not right for you to be solely responsible for attracting Chen Bitong’s attention, we won’t assign anyone to do this. We’ll decide on who will do it based on the situation later.

“Once the fight begins, one of us must step forward to hold Chen Bitong back.”

Nie Guanshan cast aside the distant, aloof expression he previously had and gave Chen Chuan a cordial look as he asked for his opinion. “Captain Chen, is there anything else you’d like to adjust in the plan?”

Chen Chuan scrutinized them a bit, but didn’t continue arguing. He agreed without hesitation, “Alright. We’ll do that, then.”

Nie Guanshan smiled. “I’m happy we’ve come to an agreement. Let’s wait. If the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee member can kill Chen Bitong, it’d be for the best. We wouldn’t have to waste our energy on it. But if he can’t, we’ll have to jump in.”

He then extended a hand to make himself look even friendlier. “I hope we can work well together, Captain Chen.”

Chen Chuan shook his hand and did the same with Yang Shen. When he saw that the two men had no intention of giving him anymore information, he didn’t linger around. Instead, he headed to another place.

The two men occupied the window to observe the fight and left no room for Chen Chuan to see what was going on. He needed to find another place to watch the fight.

It was obvious that the two had no intention of changing their original plan. Their whole talk about acting according to the situation was just to appease and humor him, or rather, it was to make sure that no one could find anything off when they submitted the mission report later.

Chen Chuan hadn’t mentioned that the plan wasn’t good because he was against the idea of being the one to bear the pressure of Chen Bitong’s attacks. That was nothing. Someone had to do it.

The main problem was that neither of the men told him about their refined forces or the specifics of what he was required to do. They just wanted him to improvise once the fight started.

If that was because they ranked higher and had no need to explain much else to him, it would be fine. But after Chen Chuan told them about his rank, their attitude remained the same, which showed what the problem was.

There was also another issue. During the clash of biofields, he couldn’t sense a firm will and determination from either man.

The two men simply thought that this “plan” of theirs was feasible, so they could try it out. If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t throw themselves into seeing it to the end. They might even give up and retreat.

That didn’t matter to Chen Chuan, though. As long as he managed to secure some control, it was good enough even if it was superficial. He wouldn’t even say no to fighting against Chen Bitong alone, but eagerly agree to it.

Chen Chuan arrived at a window that could let him watch the fight. He stopped walking and looked over.

Even though the window was more than three kilometers away from the fighting, he could see everything happening over there clearly.

Chen Bitong was fighting against someone in a black trench coat. Not a soul could be found in a large area around them. Not one person, and not a single insect. More accurately speaking, all the insects that entered their area were instantly killed. This should be a result of their biofields crashing against each other at a high frequency.

They weren’t fighting nonstop. Instead, they would have a brief standoff before moving forward swiftly. After exchanging a few blows, they would retreat into a standoff. After a moment, they would fight again.

Their attacks were held back and measured. None of their hits seemed to land cleanly, but Chen Chuan could see invisible ripples spreading in the air.

Chen Bitong seemed to be on the defensive and avoiding direct contact with the man, but the latter also seemed to not want to attack at full power. They were cautious, and the fight lacked the shocking impact Chen Chuan thought it would have.

Since he wasn’t right there, Chen Chuan couldn’t detect any specifics, but based on what he could see, he believed that the men were engaged in a mental fight as well.

The fight might seem to be going slowly, but the two parties were reading and searching for openings and weaknesses in each other’s minds.

Upon realizing this, Chen Chuan watched the fight from another perspective and could sense the underlying danger.

The two men were suppressing a great power within themselves while waiting for a suitable chance to let it explode forth.

Chen Bitong kept avoiding having physical contact with Lao Hu. His Severance Force was strong. In the past, when they were in the development squad, Lao Hu was their strongest attacker. He was usually the one to deliver the final hit.

If he were to release his refined force at full blast, the body of anyone hit would be cut to shreds, unless they were a body hardening expert. Chen Bitong was no exception.

But martial artists at their level could use mental energy to sense their enemies’ intentions, as long as they had a deep enough understanding of them. Hence, the moment he noticed Lao Hu showing signs of attacking, he retreated and looked for another chance to attack.

Lao Hu’s eyes were fixed on Chen Bitong. He had been sent to kill him because he knew Chen Bitong’s habits, fighting style, fighting characteristics, and the refined forces he used.

After joining the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee, he had even worked with psychologists to look into Chen Bitong’s psyche. Hence, before coming here, he was quite confident that he could kill Chen Bitong.

But that confidence disappeared after he learned that Chen Bitong could move into rifts to dodge attacks. While Chen Bitong was wary of Lao Hu’s Severance Force, Lao Hu was also wary of Chen Bitong’s evasive abilities and his Void String Force.

He didn’t dare to take any unnecessary actions. Each move he made was full of caution, because the moment either of them revealed an opening, the other would seize the opportunity to attack. Due to this, the fight was in a stalemate.

With their stamina, they could continue fighting like this for a few days and nights with no problem.

But Lao Hu couldn’t drag out the fight for so long. He had come with a mission.

He didn’t know what Chen Bitong’s goal was, but he had a lingering sense that it was dangerous. If he dragged out the fight, things could go horribly wrong.

The National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee had stopped the World Ring Defense System from joining the attack and took up the task entirely by themselves. After doing that, they needed to get rid of the rift and the propagated offspring.

The rift had been open for almost two hours, but they still were far off from closing it. He could already imagine the World Ring Defense System putting a lot of pressure on Mr. Chu.

Even if the ones at the rear hadn’t sent him any word to hurry, Lao Hu knew that he couldn’t continue dragging things out.

He cast a glance at the rift. Right now, he was sure of one thing: The propagated offspring was really important to Chen Bitong. If Lao Hu tried to seize it, Chen Bitong would surely stop him, and it would force him to fight against him head-on.

But he couldn’t find a chance to do so earlier, because the cavalrymen kept coming out of the rift nonstop. The interference caused the rift to refuse to lead him to where the propagated offspring was. Now, though, it had been quite some time since anyone came out of the rift, so Lao Hu could try to retrieve the propagated offspring.

But he wasn’t going to take that chance.

He cast a glance at Yu Lie, who was the mole the committee had planted beside Chen Bitong. Now, there was no need for him to keep his identity hidden anymore.

He sent a message into his Realm Pass.

Lao Hu: Stop hiding, kid. Do it!

Yu Lie was standing in front of the rift. When he received the message, he didn’t want to turn against Fang Zhixin, not when they had been fighting side by side and not when the royal family might still be a threat to them. But he did not have the time to hesitate.

He turned around and threw a punch at Fang Zhixin, but since he wasn’t determined and decisive enough, his punch was a tad slower than usual.

Fang Zhixin was able to block it with a turn. It looked like he had been prepared for it a long time ago. Yu Lie was surprised. “You knew.”

“I guessed,” Fang Zhixin said with a sigh. He would have preferred that Yu Lie exposed himself a little later so that they could continue sharing the burden of fending off threats from the gap.

Yu Lie scoffed. Since things had already progressed to this point, there was no need for them to talk any further. All he needed to do was fight.

Yu Lie threw two consecutive punches, but Fang Zhixin blocked all of them. He had been studying with Chen Bitong for a long time, so he had received a lot of guidance. But his strength was not in fighting barehanded. It was in flexible swords.

Knowing just how strong Fang Zhixin’s flexible sword was once it was fully extended, Yu Lie chose to engage him in extremely close-quarters combat. He launched a flurry of attacks so that Fang Zhixin wouldn’t have the chance to use his flexible sword.

While they were fighting, the mercenaries also received orders from Lao Hu and tried to get into the rift. Some of them were even carrying government-issued capture devices.

The moment they rushed forward, a shower of bullets rained down on them from the buildings.

They came from the dozens of people Chen Bitong had brought with him. They were scattered among the buildings and could easily fire at the area beneath.

Chen Bitong had taken great care when he chose this place. There were firing positions on both sides of the rift. Behind it was a river, which was also within firing range. There was practically no way to get into it from the back. They could only go through the front.

The correct method to counter this situation was to occupy and destroy one of the firing positions before charging forward, but the mercenaries didn’t have the manpower and resources to occupy buildings with defenses already set up. They could only lift their shields to protect their bodies and try to reach the rift.

Their advance was dangerous, slow, and inefficient, but they had no other choice. The perimeter was covered in road blocks and trenches, which made them unable to drive over in armored cars. Advancing on foot was the only thing they could do.

Mr. Chu was watching the fight with a pair of binoculars, and he could tell what Lao Hu was planning. He was trying to attack the rift to force Chen Bitong to fight against him.

Mr. Chu didn’t sit by and do nothing. He had the committee members stationed in the area to attack the buildings to alleviate some of the pressure from the mercenaries’ shoulders.

Fortunately, the mercenaries hired by Mr. Chu himself had also arrived. He didn’t keep them by his side but instead sent them all in.

In an instant, a large swarm of people pressed into the area. Intense gunfire rose up, and the fight turned fierce and chaotic.