BUZZ... THUMP...
BOOM!
BANG!
After the first bloody kill, Li Chang’an relentlessly pressed his attack, weathering the combined assault of a Tier Eight and a Tier Seven Evolver.
The Divine Hand activated again and again. Every time the Tenfold Attack triggered, a Tier Seven Evolver would either be gravely wounded or vanish into thin air.
Behind him, Su Ruobing, long since forgotten by everyone else, was completely stunned. She stared in disbelief at the scenes unfolding on the battlefield before her.
After another ten minutes or so, an anxious Hu Xiuyuan finally arrived in Linjiang City.
As a Peak Tier Eight Martial Artist, he naturally had plenty of methods at his disposal. He used a Magical Treasure to pinpoint the spatial fluctuations around the battlefield, forcibly tore open a passage, and entered the internal battlefield enveloped by the bag.
The frantic Hu Xiuyuan appeared at the edge of the battlefield in an instant. When he saw Su Ruobing standing not far away, frozen like a clay statue, he couldn’t help but ask urgently, "Where’s Chang’an? What’s the situation?"
From the moment he received Su Ruobing’s message, Hu Xiuyuan had realized the gravity of the situation. He had immediately dropped everything, used every method he had, and crossed thousands of kilometers in just over ten minutes.
Now that he had finally made it to the scene, only to find Su Ruobing with a dazed expression, his heart sank as he imagined the worst.
Hearing Hu Xiuyuan’s voice, Su Ruobing, who had been lost in a daze, finally snapped out of it. With a complicated gaze, she looked toward the utterly ravaged battlefield nearby and said, "Governor, Chang’an is over there!"
He didn’t need her to tell him. Hu Xiuyuan’s perception was also extremely sharp. He hadn’t detected anything before only because the churning Chaos Energy on the battlefield ahead was so intense that it had somewhat dulled his senses.
Now, with Su Ruobing’s guidance, Hu Xiuyuan quickly located Li Chang’an amidst the surging waves of Spatial Energy, fighting a Martial Artist.
Without a second thought, Hu Xiuyuan took a step forward, about to go and help, but Su Ruobing stopped him.
Su Ruobing shook her head at him and looked back toward the battlefield. Only then did Hu Xiuyuan realize that in the brief moment he had been distracted, the Martial Artist who had been fighting Li Chang’an was already underfoot. Half of his body had been stomped in two by a now gigantic Li Chang’an.
With the Martial Artist’s death, the two remaining Law Enforcers scattered and fled like headless chickens. The way they looked at Li Chang’an was as if they had seen some indescribable monster in broad daylight.
Li Chang’an, however, shrank back to his normal size and began a game of cat-and-mouse, chasing them down.
Hu Xiuyuan’s first reaction upon seeing this was utter confusion.
He glanced at his surroundings, then at the shattered body of the Martial Artist scattered nearby. If his senses weren’t mistaken, that was a Tier Eight Early Stage Martial Artist, right?
A Martial Artist of that level... just a minute ago, Li Chang’an had transformed into a towering giant and crushed him like an ant?
’Did something go wrong with me, or with the world itself?’
Hu Xiuyuan felt his eyelid twitching uncontrollably and couldn’t help but start to question reality.
Fortunately, Su Ruobing understood his bewilderment and took the initiative to explain. "Lord Governor, we don’t know what bargaining chip the Gu Family used to incite the Cao Family of Kyoto this time. The Cao Family sent Cao Hui, a scion of their direct lineage, along with a Tier Eight Martial Artist, a Tier Seven Peak Secret Mage, and four Tier Seven Early Stage Evolvers. As of now, Chang’an has killed the Tier Eight Martial Artist on the spot. The ones left are the Tier Seven Peak Secret Mage and a Tier Seven Early Stage Mage..."
Although he had already made his own guesses and was mentally prepared, hearing Su Ruobing’s report still made Hu Xiuyuan wince.
He was also aware of Li Chang’an’s last major fight, after all.
Li Chang’an, with his Tier Six Mid Stage strength, had swept the entire regional tournament, setting what was likely the best record ever achieved in the history of Linjiang, and perhaps even Xiangnan Province.
For that, even he had received commendations and praise from his superiors.
Hu Xiuyuan had thought that record was surprising enough, but he never imagined that after such a short time, Li Chang’an would once again redefine his understanding of ’growth’ and ’combat power’.
To be able to break through a group siege and kill a Tier Eight Martial Artist... didn’t that mean Li Chang’an’s current strength was now on par with his own?
It was simply outrageous!
Who was Hu Xiuyuan? The Governor of Xiangnan!
He was worldly and experienced, having seen almost every kind of prodigy there was.
But he had truly never seen someone like Li Chang’an, who had grown to such a degree in just three short years. Before this, he hadn’t just never seen it; he’d never even heard of it.
Even the tall tales on the Reincarnator forums wouldn’t dare to be this wild.
He took a deep breath, finally managing to calm himself. The distant battlefield was gradually quieting down.
Glancing around, Hu Xiuyuan noticed that besides Li Chang’an on the battlefield, there was another young man standing stiffly not far away, completely petrified.
His figure flickered, and in an instant, he appeared beside the young man.
But the young man didn’t react at all, as if he’d been hit by a Body-Freezing Skill, utterly still.
Su Ruobing walked over as well.
Looking at the young man’s increasingly rigid body, Su Ruobing said with a grim expression, "Lord Governor, this is the direct lineage scion the Cao Family sent to deal with us. Let’s capture him first!"
However, Hu Xiuyuan didn’t move. Instead, he stared intently at Cao Hui for a moment before shaking his head. "He’s already dead. I don’t know if he was scared to death, killed by the shockwaves of the battle, or perhaps he took some unknown poison..."
His expression was also complicated. He paused before continuing, "I’ll have someone carry him out later and carefully examine the cause of death!"
Now that Li Chang’an had turned the tables and killed the forces sent by the Gu Family, what Hu Xiuyuan had to do was make them pay the highest possible price.
If he could find clear evidence proving the Gu Family was pulling the strings behind the scenes, then even if he couldn’t topple them completely, Hu Xiuyuan and the powerful figures backing him could make the Gu Family shed a layer of skin for this.
Not far away, Li Chang’an’s battle was drawing to a close.
It was clear Li Chang’an had been trying to capture one or two alive, which was why the cleanup was taking a relatively long time.
But his opponents refused to cooperate, resisting to the death.
A Tier Seven Evolver on the verge of going berserk is incredibly difficult to capture alive. Left with no choice, Li Chang’an could only opt to kill them.
With the death of the last person, this battle, which could almost be called a farce, finally came to an end.
Although Li Chang’an had won, it wasn’t an easy victory.
His body was covered in all sorts of wounds. Some spots were a mess of mangled flesh and blood, with grim white bone even exposed.
These injuries were all from attacks he had sustained while using the Gigantification Divine Technique. Though not fatal, they left him looking exceptionally battered.
He took a heavy breath and scanned his surroundings, spotting Su Ruobing and Hu Xiuyuan at the edge of the battlefield, watching him with complex expressions.
In a few leaps, Li Chang’an arrived before the two of them. "Governor Hu," he said, "I’ve resolved the matter. I’m afraid I’ve made a bit of a scene."
Hearing Li Chang’an’s words, the expression on Hu Xiuyuan’s face became indescribably complex.
It was a mixture of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty...
...a palette of emotions so colorful it could have supplied a dye works.
Hu Xiuyuan vaguely remembered the first time he met Li Chang’an. Back then, he was just a Newcomer who had just set foot in the Rebirth World.
How much time had passed since then?
He had become so unrecognizable.
They stared at each other in silence for a long time. Finally, Hu Xiuyuan opened his mouth, a bitter taste within it, and asked, "Um... Chang’an, can you tell me what level of an Evolver you are right now?"
...