"How is this possible?"
"How do you know the Divine Tiger Fist?"
Flette felt as if he were looking in a mirror. His opponent's secret technique for mobilizing his entire body was clearly from the Divine Tiger Sect.
What was even more incredible was that his opponent's realm had also reached the Grandmaster Level.
"What's so impossible about it?"
"A Fighting Technique like this? You just have to see it once to learn it."
Chen Qi said it nonchalantly, but Flette didn't believe him at all.
Even he, after loading the chip, had spent half a year to master it completely.
"Hmph. We'll see if it's real or not soon enough."
"[Tiger Evil]"
Flette attacked again, but unlike the previous two times, his opponent actually fought back.
"BANG!"
Their two hand-chops collided, scraping together with a shower of sparks.
By now, Chen Qi's hands were completely covered in metal strings, woven into a pair of golden-threaded gloves.
This was to block Flette's attacks, since the guy was practically invulnerable to blades and bullets.
The next instant, their palms crashed together, and a thunderclap echoed through the air.
...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
In a mountain ravine several hundred meters away, Taruno watched their battle, dumbfounded.
In his eyes, this was no longer a 1v1. It was a brawl between dozens of afterimages from both sides.
Could they even be considered human anymore?
...
"Impossible, impossible!"
Fierce winds howled and shockwaves rolled out. Shallow craters appeared at the center of their battle, as if some giant beast had trampled the ground.
As much as Flette found it hard to believe, the fact remained that his opponent had also mastered the Divine Tiger Fist at a Grandmaster Level.
What he found even harder to understand was how his opponent could always predict his attacks and block them with ease.
'Does this guy have some kind of precognitive ability?'
Flette was wondering this because Chen Qi had kept his eyes tightly shut throughout the entire fight.
This filled him with an inexplicable sense of humiliation.
He baselessly assumed Chen Qi was humiliating him, so his attacks became even more violent, completely forgoing defense.
However, Chen Qi truly had no intention of humiliating him.
He had closed his eyes to focus his concentration and capture the [signals] more clearly.
What Flette didn't know was that an invisible Puppet Thread was parasitizing his body, and it had even connected to the neural network controlled by the chip.
The Puppet Thread could easily intercept all commands issued by the chip from the neural network and then transmit them.
Through his special connection with the Puppet Threads, Chen Qi could instantly obtain this information.
This was why he was able to instantly learn the Divine Tiger Sect's Fighting Technique and predict all of Flette's movements.
Because it was just like "secretly downloading a pirated copy."
Flette's opponent had only ever been himself.
However, this was not without risk. If it were any other player, they could have easily destroyed this Puppet Thread.
It would be like losing one of ten fingers. As a price, the Red Heart 7 would suffer heavy damage, and Chen Qi would also lose all his abilities for ten days.
All this data came from [Jomoya's Diary]. The diary detailed over a hundred different experiments conducted on the Card.
Unfortunately, Fley was ultimately just a Mortal and couldn't perceive the existence of the Puppet Threads.
...
"HUFF... HUFF..."
After that violent storm of attacks, Flette realized his efforts were futile. He finally calmed down and stopped all movement.
"You... you copied me?"
Although Flette didn't know how his opponent did it, after thinking it over and over, this was the only answer he could come up with.
Chen Qi remained noncommittal, clearly having no intention of enlightening his enemy.
"Heh heh, I admit, I was arrogant just now."
"But if you think this is all there is to the Black Blood Federation's Extreme Path Chip, then you're sorely underestimating human Wisdom."
Having regained his composure, Flette seemed even more terrifying than before.
"Flette, rumors say that the Black Blood Federation's chips have only been developed to 30% of their potential!"
"You seem so confident. Don't tell me they've also managed to crack Secret Techniques?"
Chen Qi's expression remained as calm as still water, but Flette's words had piqued his interest.
"Hahaha, how much of the news that circulates outside is actually true!"
"We, the Black Blood Federation, of course we succeeded!"
Even while displaced and on the run, Flette still held the pride of the Black Blood Federation.
"Do you know what a true Grandmaster Level Martial Artist is?"
"Do you know why Martial Artists believe that Martial Dao will is the foundation?"
"I'd love to see if you can imitate a Secret Technique that contains Martial Dao will."
Flette's expression was graver than ever before. Every time he used a Secret Technique, it was like "shortening his lifespan."
Because the Secret Technique loaded by the chip came with a "Curse."
The creation of every single chip required a Grandmaster Level Martial Artist as a sacrifice.
Flette didn't know the reason behind it, only that it had something to do with the so-called Martial Dao will.
...
"[Evil Tiger Carrying Corpse]"
This was the Secret Technique of the Divine Tiger Sect. As the chip began to load it, Flette's body, which was already like that of Hercules, underwent another Anomaly.
He became taller, stronger, and more ferocious.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP. The sound of his violently beating heart could be heard a hundred meters away.
Flette's precisely arranged muscles began to twist and shift continuously.
Gradually, a black [Evil Tiger Carrying Corpse Painting] emerged on Flette's back, and a terrifying, ghastly face condensed over his heart.
'What the hell is this thing?'
The moment Flette loaded the [Secret Technique], Chen Qi found that he could no longer decipher it in real time.
As the transformation deepened, he could no longer even recognize the neural network signals he was intercepting.
And what was even more unbelievable was that as the [Evil Tiger Carrying Corpse Painting] emerged, especially after the ghastly face appeared, Chen Qi's Puppet Thread parasitizing Flette's body sensed the birth of... something.
Even the Red Heart 7 pattern on the back of Chen Qi's left hand began to flicker, as if it were about to be awakened.
'Is it... developing an urge to feed?'
The strange activity from the Red Heart 7 left Chen Qi deep in thought.
Unfortunately, the thing born from Flette's body seemed too weak to fully awaken the Red Heart 7.
"Hahaha, it seems you can't imitate this!"
"I've won!"
Seeing that Chen Qi showed no signs of transforming, Flette was ecstatic.
He could already see himself becoming an Executor and obtaining a Superpower.
"Wrong. I'm the one who won."
"In fact, the moment this fight began, you had already lost."
Although this development was interesting, things were starting to deviate from Chen Qi's plan.
Chen Qi had only wanted to see what the Black Blood Federation's chip could do; he hadn't planned on getting so reckless that he'd crash and burn.
In his current state, Flette now had the potential to kill him.
So, it's time to end this.
"PFFT!"
A mouthful of fresh blood suddenly sprayed from Flette's mouth, mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
"You, you..."
Flette discovered in horror that a metal string had suddenly appeared inside his body, shredding him from the inside like a meat grinder.
The next instant, his internal organs were pulverized, and his brain was turned to mush.
Flette left this world without even having the time to leave any last words.
'What a pity.'
Seeing his opponent fall like this, Chen Qi felt a pang of regret. After all, he hadn't been able to witness the full display of the [Secret Technique].
With Flette's death, the metal string, like a horsehair worm, returned to Chen Qi's hand carrying a chip.
However, what was strange was that it seemed to have become some kind of living creature and had no intention of returning to the [Red Heart 7].
This was the price for fully releasing the Puppet Threads. Chen Qi even suspected that the metal string was now a part of the Red Heart 7.
Chen Qi's relationship with this metal string was now like that of a master and a pet.
Although he could control it remotely, he could no longer manipulate it freely as he wished.
This was also why the Puppet Threads were able to complete the [Illusionary Transformation] and turn into a metal string.
Because the Illusionary Transformation was an innate ability it possessed; Chen Qi had merely given the order.
Unless he could completely merge [Body Control] and [String Strangulation] into a single skill, Chen Qi would never be able to achieve the [Transformation of Reality and Illusion].
If he could do that now, he would have transformed the Puppet Thread into a metal string and strangled Flette the moment it took control of him.