Chen Chuan used the break to take a few tubes of nutritional paste while he rested at the base of a building in Deep End District. He was wondering what sort of direction he should take for his refined force.

The All-Encompassing Force made him fundamentally different from others, and he couldn’t give up on this important distinction.

What he needed was something strong enough to end a fight in an instant, just like what the other refined forces could do. If he could bring out the full power of a refined force, nothing could stop him.

For Chen Chuan, it could be a grappling-type refined force, a takedown-type refined force, or a Sanshou-type refined force. No matter what refined force it was, he had to integrate them in a balanced way.

Regardless of which attack he used, he needed to pair it with the correlating offensive refined force. He even had to quickly and smoothly switch between them. To others, this was impossible, but Chen Chuan had an extremely high coverage of mutated tissue. He also had the All-Encompassing Force as his foundation, so he could absolutely do this.

Most importantly, once he had a sturdy enough foundation and a firm belief that he could do this, his mind would reflect his beliefs into reality and turn it into truth.

The first was a Sanshou-type refined force.

When he had fought against Chen Bitong and the others, he had used the Furnace Breathing Technique to activate the destructive refined force Chen Bitong had taught him, along with Wen Tong’s Cloud Ripping Palm.

One of them delivered wide-scale damage, while the other had concentrated damage. Both had their own strengths and weaknesses.

For the first one, he needed his second self as a shield to absorb the backlash for him. He also needed to charge up before using it. If he didn’t, he would have a hard time bringing forth its power.

As for the Cloud Ripping Palm, Chen Chuan had practiced it for a long time, so he could use it quickly and discreetly. It was strong and an even better match for the Furnace Breathing Technique.

But other people had polished this attack until it was near perfection. When Chen Chuan learned it, there was no need for him to change anything, which made it hard to infuse his unique nature and will into the attack.

The two refined forces were enough as Sanshou-type attacks, but they were lacking in certain areas, and if he thought that they weren’t good enough, he wouldn’t be able to make them fit his body perfectly. He needed to find another path that was suitable for him.

It was then that Chen Chuan remembered how the martial artists who reached the next limit were known as martial arts masters. Perhaps there was a reason behind it. Only those who had truly found their path could be called that.

Right now, while Chen Chuan hadn’t figured out a Heartbound Force that was suitable for him, many things couldn’t be accomplished instantly. He had only learned this technique, so he hadn’t accumulated enough experience with it.

Chen Chuan believed that all the martial artists who walked onto this path needed time to polish and perfect their own refined force.

So, what he needed to do next was to fight and spar with even more martial artists.

This was Chen Chuan’s strength. He could keep trying and performing bold experiments since he had his second self to absorb damage. This was something other martial artists couldn’t copy.

Also, he had Hongfu as a sparring partner. This was something all the martial artists not affiliated with the university couldn’t enjoy. Chen Chuan had to make full use of these things to perfect his own refined force.

Of course, he wasn’t going to neglect his mental energy training. Right now, his mental foundation had only been elevated to a state good enough for him to cross the threshold because of his second self. He still needed to improve his mind. Otherwise, when there came a day when his second self disappeared from damage during a fight, his strength would plummet. He had to make it up for this weakness.

The battles today hadn’t just given him a boost in his mental energy, but his second self had also gotten much stronger.

If he could make his second self become as strong as he was or even better, he could fuse with his second self a second time once he perfected both of their bodies and minds. By then, he should be able to surpass even the perfect limit that existed only in theory.

While thinking about it, Chen Chuan heard white noise from his Realm Pass before seeing someone trying to contact him. After looking at the signal once, he connected to it.

“Chen Chuan, is that you?” Pan Xiaode’s voice came through.

“Pan Xiaode? It’s me. What’s up?” Chen Chuan asked.

He quickly ran through his memories. Pan Xiaode didn’t seem to have a job outside the university, so the university must have given him an assignment for him to be outside now. If he approached him right now, could it be that he had run into some kind of trouble?

“I’m right above you,” Pan Xiaode said excitedly.

“You are?”

Chen Chuan looked up at the towering buildings around him, but he soon realized something and looked further up at the airship. Immediately, he saw a person leaning outside one of the airship’s portholes. That person was Pan Xiaode, and he was waving at Chen Chuan.

Despite being surprised that Pan Xiaode was over there, Chen Chuan said, “I see you.”

Pan Xiaode waved even more vigorously at him. “Are you on duty now?”

“I just finished a mission and am resting,” Chen Chuan answered.

“What a coincidence. Why don’t you get up here? I have everything, and it’ll also be easier for you to communicate with other people. If you want to go anywhere later, I can send you. It’s much better than traveling on ground.”

Judging by his words, it seemed like Pan Xiaode could call the shots in the airship, which was pretty amazing. Right now, they were relying on the airships to relay messages, so moving around and sending messages from an airship was much better than from the ground. Hence, Chen Chuan didn’t hesitate and just said yes.

Pan Xiaode seemed to have turned around to say something to someone else. After a moment, he said, “Hey, Chen Chuan, see that building beside you? It’s not so easy for airships to land, so go to the roof. We’ll pick you up from there.”

Chen Chuan took a look at the building. It was an office building with sixty floors. Right now, there shouldn’t be anyone inside it. While it was locked down, that didn’t mean that Chen Chuan couldn’t go up it.

He took a few steps toward the building before speeding up and running up the wall. Soon, he arrived at the roof.

The airship came down slowly. It seemed like there was some kind of paint on it, because when it got closer, the insects circling the area started flying away. Once it was above Chen Chuan, a flexible ladder fell down.

Chen Chuan grabbed it, and the flexible ladder started pulling him up. When he got close to the opening under the airship’s belly, he grabbed it, pulled himself up, and jumped easily into the airship.

Pan Xiaode was waiting for him. With great joy on his face, he went up to give Chen Chuan a high-five. “I saw you from up there and immediately thought about calling you.”

“Why are you here, though?” Chen Chuan asked.

“My family owns Skyshark Airships, which is the largest airship company in Central City. The government deployed a lot of airships for this mission, so Martial Valor University sent me over to communicate with the company and set up a defensive line,” Pan Xiaode said.

After a few more questions, Chen Chuan learned that most of the airships in Central City, including the transport and combat airships, were from Skyshark Airships. They even received some deals from the military.

But this company was different from the other companies. They weren’t involved in other businesses, so they didn’t have any armed forces of their own, so they were closer to traditional companies from the old era.

Pan Xiaode had never mentioned any of this, so he actually kept quite a low profile.

While they were talking, two stony-faced security guards appeared. Pan Xiaode explained that the Department of Administrative Affairs had sent them to be in charge of the safety of the airship.

They shook hands with Chen Chuan and communicated with him through the Realm Pass.

Security guards: Captain Chen, please don’t reveal any information not open to the public while you’re resting.

Chen Chuan understood their presence then. Instead of coming to protect the airship, it would be more accurate to say that they were here to make sure no special information was leaked.

Chen Chuan: Got it.

“Have you eaten?” Pan Xiaode asked warmly.

“I’ve been busy with work since dawn. I didn’t have time to eat,” Chen Chuan answered.

Pan Xiaode checked his watch; it was 11:45 a.m.. “I haven’t eaten either. I’ve been busy coordinating things and maintaining the airships. Come on. We might as well grab some food together.”

Chen Chuan gladly accepted the invitation.

Pan Xiaode brought him to the reception hall at the upper middle section of the airship. Since this was originally a sightseeing airship, it had large see-through windows for tourists to look down while eating.

Chen Chuan went to the window to take a look and saw a dense swarm of insects. He hadn’t been able to see them clearly from below, but from above, they formed several round, gray swarms. They stood out like sore thumbs.

Pan Xiaode joined his side and said, “These insects came from the merged space, didn’t they? Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard about such a place, as well as the fact that our world is about to collide with another one. It really shocked me.”

He then turned to Chen Chuan and asked curiously, “Have you been there before?”

Then, he quickly added, “Wait, if it’s tied to the NDA, ignore me.”

“It’s not as if I can’t say it. I’ve been there, yeah. Once you reach the Third Limit, you can see it too,” Chen Chuan said.

Pan Xiaode clenched his fists with great enthusiasm.“Honestly, I want to fight against the mercenaries, just like you did. I also want to chase all those merged space insects back so that we can get through this crisis soon. I’m not strong enough right now, but next time, I’ll definitely be down there.”

Chen Chuan observed him. Pan Xiaode’s family clearly trusted him. Otherwise, they would not have told him a portion of the truth about the two worlds. However, they didn’t tell him about the Fu-Mu Entity’s propagation.

Just then, two servers came in with trolleys and placed plates of tasty-looking, gorgeously plated food on the table.

Pan Xiaode gestured at the food. “Let’s eat.”

Chen Chuan nodded, then froze for a moment.

“What’s wrong, Chen Chuan?” Pan Xiaode asked.

“It’s nothing,” Chen Chuan said.

He had been using Awakening Clarity to absorb quintessence from the other world. Just now, though, he sensed some kind of ripple from the other world.

Any other person in his place would have thought that this was due to the gaps not being stable, but Chen Chuan didn’t think so.

It might be pure essence spilling outward from the gap in the World Ring. By the looks of it, it was soon going to enter the world in waves.