Book 4, Chapter 21: Illusion

The entire space was empty. Even the blood on the ground had vanished, which made Chen Chuan wonder whether a fight had even occurred here.

He was quite surprised but not too shocked, because when they left the place to return to the island, Talu had told him not to worry about the corpses. The predecessor would deal with it.

The predecessor, of course, was the lifeform blocking the hole to the other world.

Talu had also told him that when the previous Talus went into isolated training, they would sometimes not come out for a year or two. During that time, no one else was allowed into the gap.

Third Limit martial artists could go without food and water for a long time when they were not burning any calories, but even they wouldn’t be able to last that long. Hence, whenever they were thirsty or hungry and their minds started screaming at them for sustenance, the lifeform would secrete a huge amount of water and something resembling fungus for the Talus to eat.

In other words, the lifeform was releasing liquids from within its body and growing things inside of it as food for others. But the lifeform itself also needed to “eat.” Most of the time, its “food” came from the other world. Sometimes, though, it would also digest creatures that entered the gap from the physical world. Some of its “food” was various types of dead bodies.

Regular people would have a hard time accepting this, and fortunately for Chen Chuan, he came out for regular food and water, so he never needed any of the lifeform’s “food.”

Chen Chuan looked around. The space had been cleaned up until it was spotless. The lifeform had even absorbed the people’s clothes and weapons, though there was also the possibility that they had been ejected.

The six had only been mediocre martial artists, so their weapons were standard issue for soldiers of the Linacrox Union. They had no collector’s value, so even if they were lost, Chen Chuan was fine with it.

In truth, he didn’t consider the group’s arrival as an interruption. They couldn’t even be considered a bother. In the beginning, he had thought that Serene Radiance School had sent people over.

Setting aside their strength, disciples from that school would definitely give him more inspiration, considering the techniques and refined forces they learned.

Chen Chuan started walking forward, but after a few steps, he felt something different, as if the domain had transformed.

He looked ahead and saw a person, though only vaguely. The man’s face was a blur, and the only identifying feature on him was Single Flow School’s martial arts uniform. Chen Chuan was able to recognize it because it was similar to Talu’s uniform.

This gave him a sense of deja vu.

The person looked similar to Hongfu, Li Ying, and other active biosentient entities. All of them looked like illusions but were real. Just as he was thinking about this, the person entered a stance, and Chen Chuan raised an eyebrow at that.

But the person didn’t attack him. Instead, he started demonstrating his moves. Whenever he showed one, green light shone within him.

After watching for a while, Chen Chuan guessed that this was a refined force technique of Single Flow School. The shining spots were the mutated tissue that was to be used to generate power.

He couldn’t help but remember what Talu had said: Some of Single Flow School’s lost secret techniques were here. Back then, he couldn’t understand what she meant, but by the looks of it now, it was related to this.

But why didn’t the man show up before?

Was it because his mental energy wasn’t strong enough?

That shouldn’t be the case. His strength hadn’t changed much. Could it then be that the person only showed up after absorbing those corpses?

Chen Chuan nodded to himself. That was highly likely.

After demonstrating the techniques several times, the person vanished. The special domain also disappeared.

Chen Chuan didn’t know whether those corpses were only enough to show this limited set of techniques, or whether there was another way to make the person show up. Still, he intended to tell Talu about it when he went back.

Since everything had returned to normal, he walked forward and sat down in his usual place. The twisted feelers moved away, and light shone on him once more.

This time, though, soon after he got immersed in his training, he heard something.

It was a rustling sound, as if people were discussing something in rapid whispers.

He also saw something flickering in the light on the other side. After a while, he saw a shadow attached to the entrance. It looked like it was trying to crawl over.

Chen Chuan watched it calmly. It should be something from the other world. Since he was less than one meter away from the hole, it looked like the thing could rush over and attach itself to him at any moment, but Chen Chuan was unbothered. He had the lifeform blocking it out, so it wasn’t going to be able to cross over. All Chen Chuan needed to do was ignore it.

The night passed.

At 5 a.m., he finished his meditation and checked his watch. Then, he grabbed the Frost King Saber and left the place.

Once he was back on the cliff, strong gusts of wind blew at his clothes, making them flutter. He heard the flapping of wings, and Dawncall descended from the sky.

Chen Chuan patted it and gave it a tube of Photon Nest’s specially made nutritional paste. Then, he clapped his hands, and Dawncall flew toward the training ground, and the children cheered.

Children loved Dawncall, mainly because it was smart and unafraid of strangers. They were giving it all of their attention over the past few days.

Chen Chuan walked over and found Talu drinking coconut milk under a fortified shack. Gan Guo was there too. He told them about what he saw after he went back.

Gan Guo was quite shocked. “Your mental energy levels are really high, Mr. Chen! I heard from the former Talu that only when a person’s mental energy levels reach a certain point will they be able to see the legacy left behind in the gap.”

Talu stared at Chen Chuan in admiration. “Yeah. I heard from my master that the legacy is right there, though I’d only be able to see it after I achieve the conditions to learn the techniques.”

“Since it’s your secret legacy, I didn’t take a close look at it. You don’t have to worry about me stealing your legacy,” Chen Chuan said.

Talu didn’t care and said seriously, “It’s fine. You can look at it if you want. Both my master and I joined the purity faction a long time ago. Our secret legacy is already the purity faction’s secret legacy. As long as you’re a purity faction member and are strong enough, you can learn it.”

Chen Chuan nodded, but he still had no intention of learning it. Only those who had learned the rest of Single Flow School’s legacy could bring out the full power of the secret legacy, since it required some unique mutated tissue groups. Outsiders would never be able to learn the true essence of the secret legacy. Chen Chuan could only study it as a reference.

After the discussion, Chen Chuan left to sit on the lotus flower seat and relax after the night of training.

Since his mind could rest while his thoughts focused, Chen Chuan usually chose to develop his Heartborn Force after sitting down.

After days of thinking, he had formed some ideas.

Most of the people he saw using the Heartborn Force didn’t just merge their mental energy with their refined force, but integrated it into their fighting style to bring out its greatest power.

All the people he met used only one kind of Heartborn Force, which was because they could only use one kind of refined force, but Chen Chuan didn’t have that limitation. Due to the unique nature of the All-Encompassing Force, he could fight in a variety of ways and use all kinds of Heartborn Forces.

Besides, fighting with different kinds of refined force and changing between them in a seamless, agile way had always been his battle strategy. He didn’t intend to give up on it.

With this as his foundation, Chen Chuan would pick and polish his Heartborn Forces.

His advantage lay in his strength and speed after overlapping with his second self. It allowed him to instantly release overwhelming refined force that regular people wouldn’t be able to compare to.

Even if Chen Chuan fought without his second self’s boost, very few people could win against his physical constitution.

Hence, once he was engaged in a fight, he needed an aggressive power to charge forward and shatter his enemy’s defenses. That was Chen Chuan’s plan, and he was confident that he could bring it to fruition.

While the thought settled in his mind, he felt a wave of power rise naturally within him. Driven by his thoughts, his refined force created it. Of course, his mind needed to be focused and project this thought to his mutated tissue to generate the power.

It was different from all the previous Heartborn Forces Chen Chuan had used. The ones before weren’t generated from his beliefs. He was only able to generate them due to the strength he gained after overlapping with his second self.

Chen Chuan had improved greatly after all the mental training he went through since the Gate to Heaven opened, and he finally truly picked up a technique.

However, as he examined the power, he realized that he still needed to verify its strength in real combat. Only through repeated refinement could he slowly adjust and fix its flaws. Then, he would be able to bring out its advantages.

***

Gan Guo put on medicine for a teenager under a shack outside the training ground. Then, he started massaging his muscles while teaching another teenager learning by the side the keys on how to get ready for mastery.

Once martial artists began learning martial arts, regulation and conditioning became really important. This was especially so for those who lacked talent. They needed to pay special attention to this. Otherwise, they would destroy their bodies before they could even grow mutated tissue.

While he was teaching the teenager, he saw a young man walking up the mountain with a huge backpack.

Gan Guo was quite surprised, since the young man was doing so despite the strong wind blowing against him. He was a messenger. Since some of the islanders had relatives outside the island, and some students were outsiders, it was inevitable that they got letters. Sometimes, the people outside would also send some things over.

But it wasn’t convenient traveling back and forth the island. Usually, letters and packages only got delivered once every ten days. Right now, they were caught in the middle of the strong wind season. Crossing the ocean on a boat was incredibly dangerous, so why was the messenger delivering letters at this time?

He had a bad feeling about it.

The messenger walked up covered in sweat. Once he reached the shack, he greeted everyone and removed his backpack. He wiped off his sweat, searched around, and retrieved a letter with a black envelope, then handed it to Gan Guo.

Once Gan Guo saw it, his expression changed.

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