ACSP: Chapter 205: Come at Me All Together!
"Eh? Look over there! Isn't that Jiang Chen?"
A sharp, piercing voice completely sliced through the relative quiet of the martial arts field, drawing everyone's immediate attention. In a fraction of a second, dozens of conversations died out as heads snapped around, their collective, intense gazes focusing entirely on Jiang Chen.
"It really does seem to be him... look at those features."
"I heard that Jiang Chen managed to completely crack Brother Zhao Shui's absolute Kotoamatsukami inside the Forest of Death secret realm last time; his raw mental fortitude and strength are supposed to be incredible!"
"Wait a minute, isn't he supposed to be entrenched back in Jinghai handling the aftermath? Why on earth did he suddenly appear inside our Magic Capital?"
"It seems the tactical rumors are true—he must possess an exceptionally high-tier space-time teleportation skill."
"As expected of our Great Xia Kingdom's newly risen, top-tier Super Kage-level Contractor... he even has an instantaneous displacement skill in his kit!"
In an instant, the loose atmosphere of the training ground shifted. Dozens of nearby Zhao Clan members abandoned their training dummies and sparring rings, rapidly surrounding the trio in a dense, suffocating circle. Their eyes stared intently at Jiang Chen, tracking his every subtle movement as if they were examining a priceless, mythical-grade treasure drop filled with pure curiosity.
This sudden influx of crowd pressure actually made things a bit difficult for Jiang Chen. He had anticipated cold arrogance or immediate hostility from a tyrannical clan like the Zhaos; he hadn't expected the younger generation to be quite this intensely enthusiastic upon seeing him face-to-face.
"Boss, it seems your reputation inside the broader Zhao Family is a bit louder than you let on," Li Dala murmured, deliberately nudging Jiang Chen's shoulder with his elbow as his mouth split into a joking grin. "Look at this reception. All these premium clan kids are practically acting like your personal fans."
Jiang Chen flashed a somewhat awkward, dry smile and was just about to say something to defuse the gathering crowd.
Unexpectedly, at that exact microsecond, a crimson-haired youth sporting an aggressive, sharp mohawk suddenly used his chakra to violently squeeze his way through the wall of bodies, stepping directly into the open space before him.
"Jiang Chen! I've read all the battle logs online, and I heard you even managed to outmaneuver and defeat Zhao Shui himself," the youth declared, his chest swelling as he straightened his posture, making a sharp, traditional 'please' gesture with his right hand. "I want to officially challenge you to a martial duel right here today!"
As the red-haired youth spoke, his facial muscles tensed, and his pupils underwent a dramatic, rapid mutation.
From his originally pitch-black iris, a wave of dark chakra erupted, instantly transforming his eyes into the blood-red, spinning patterns of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan!
Seeing this aggressive display, Zhao Bin's face turned white with anxiety. He quickly stepped forward, placing himself between them, and scolded sharply: "Zhao Kun! What the hell do you think you're doing? Jiang Chen is a VIP guest I am personally escorting into the East Pavilion! Don't you dare cause trouble for my line on my watch!"
The red-haired youth named Zhao Kun simply let out a cocky, dismissive laugh. "Step aside, Zhao Bin. Don't interfere in a warrior's business. I just want to personally test how powerful this legendary Jiang Chen really is in close quarters... and see if his combat matrix is actually as freakish as the viral rumors on the global forums claim!"
The moment those provocative words left his mouth, a ripple of intense anticipation spread across the surrounding Zhao Clan members. Some of the high-level fighters even began to slowly roll up their loose sleeves, their crimson eyes gleaming with a competitive fire, looking very much like they wanted to jump into the queue and join the fray.
"Good grief... so these arrogant bastards don't want to welcome you at all. They just want to use your skull as a stepping stone," Li Dala grunted, his enthusiastic grin instantly souring as he realized the true psychological layout of the crowd. He had thought these elite kids had rushed over out of pure respect. He hadn't expected their narrow-minded clan pride would drive them to try and humiliate Jiang Chen just to instantly skyrocket their own names on the national ranking boards.
Jiang Chen's expression remained entirely flat, his dark eyes indifferently scanning the eager faces of the surrounding Zhao Clan members. He naturally saw right through these guys' shallow motives and let out a small, silent sigh inwardly. It seemed the ancient old-world proverb was entirely accurate: 'Fame brings trouble just as a fat pig invites the slaughter.'
However, a guest is fundamentally a guest. Since these arrogant Zhao Clan practitioners wanted to test his operational ceiling through a formal spar on their own dirt, completely refusing would make him look like he lacked the spine to back up his reputation.
"Whoever among you wants to spar with me... save yourselves the energy of waiting in line. Come at me all together," Jiang Chen said smoothly, his eyes casually locking onto the crowd as his baseline voice carried an unbending, heavy weight of absolute, unquestionable pressure.
He had massive macro-strategic goals to accomplish today with their elders. He didn't have a single spare second to waste playing gatekeeper to a bunch of mid-tier teenagers.
Zhao Kun immediately became profoundly insulted upon hearing the casual dismissal. His face flushed a bright, angry red, and he roared out in a furious tone: "Hey! Jiang Chen! You are looking down on the bloodline of the Zhao family far too much! I am at the very least a Level 56 Jōnin Contractor, and I have fully awakened the complete Three-Tomoe array! You won't even grant me a solo spar—what the hell is the meaning of this insult?!"
Jiang Chen simply shrugged his shoulders, his posture completely loose and defenseless: "It doesn't have any hidden meaning, kid. I just genuinely don't want to waste my afternoon."
"You are bullying our branch too much!" Zhao Kun completely lost his temper, his chakra exploding outward as his face twisted in a rage. "Today, I will personally show you what true, elite strength looks like!"
The very microsecond his voice dropped, his physical body blurred into a jagged afterimage, rushing forward with a violent, explosive burst of speed. The velocity was so intense that the surrounding lower-level students could hardly track his spatial movements with the naked eye.
Jiang Chen let out a very soft, bored sigh.
He didn't make a single move to weave hand seals, didn't shift his stance, and didn't manifest a weapon; he just stood there entirely quiet, his hands resting casually in his pockets.
But at the exact microsecond Zhao Kun's clawed hand approached within an inch of his throat—
A terrifying, absolute gravitational vector instantly awakened around Jiang Chen's form. Before Zhao Kun's fingers could even brush against his collar, an invisible, crushing wall of pure kinetic force violently slammed directly into the youth's chest.
—BOOM!
With a sickening crack of displaced air, Zhao Kun didn't even realize what had hit him. His explosive forward momentum was instantly reversed as he was blasted backward like a stone shot from a catapult, tearing up the stone tiles of the courtyard as his body skipped violently across the dirt before crashing heavily into a distant weapon rack.
Before Zhao Kun could even process the violent reversal of his momentum, a dense, crackling layer of raw electrical current suddenly exploded outward from Jiang Chen's frame.
"—Lightning Release: Chidori Current!"
The densely packed, blinding blue currents intertwined and converged in mid-air in front of Jiang Chen, instantly transforming into a jagged, massive web of electricity that completely enveloped the rushing youth.
Before Zhao Kun could even attempt a defensive counter-measure or weave a replacement seal, his physical body was already tightly wrapped in countless crackling, high-voltage currents. His muscles jolted violently under the absolute paralyzing shock, and an expression of extreme, suffocating pain instantly twisted his face.
Jiang Chen had come to the East Pavilion to negotiate a high-level military alliance, not to slaughter the younger generation of a potential partner. He didn't want to make this internal friction too big or trigger a blood feud, so he decisively withdrew the lightning matrix with a sharp flick of his wrist.
The moment the blinding arcs of lightning dissipated into the air, Zhao Kun's overloaded nervous system lost all sensation.
His knees buckled beneath him, his legs completely giving way as he collapsed directly onto the stone ground. He barely managed to prop his trembling torso up with his palms pressed against the dirt, his face pale and utterly written with a mixture of bitter defeat and helpless unwillingness.
"So incredibly strong... he didn't even form a single visible hand seal just now, yet he could instantaneously perform such a devastating, large-scale Lightning Release skill!"
"Don't be stupid, it's not that he didn't form seals—it's that his raw seal-forming speed was mathematically too fast for our naked eyes to register!"
"Right! I caught his left hand twitch slightly inside his pocket just now. He must have executed the formula via one-handed seals!"
"Even if that's the case, that is still profoundly terrifying, okay? One-handed seals coupled with extreme, microsecond execution speed... if it were any of us in the ring, I'm afraid none of us could pull off a high-tier skill like that under pressure."
The surrounding crowd of spectators broke out into a flurry of surprised, anxious murmurs, their crimson eyes wide and filled with undeniable shock.
Previously, they had only learned about Jiang Chen's operational parameters through text summaries and edited clips uploaded to the international Dark Web forums; they lacked any direct, visceral experience with his combat ceiling. But this time, watching their top fighter get dismantled effortlessly, they finally, truly felt the crushing weight of Jiang Chen's actual power.
It was simply too strong.
You have to realize, that Zhao Kun was verified as the single strongest, highest-level clansman present on this training field today. The opponent had even fully activated his premium Three-Tomoe Sharingan right before the clash to maximize his kinetic tracking. No one in their wildest dreams expected that he wouldn't even be able to last a single, solitary round against the Super Kage-level Contractor.
"If anyone else still wants to spar... you can all come at me together right now."
Jiang Chen looked down indifferently at the panting Zhao Kun, then immediately shifted his gaze back to the surrounding perimeter of the Zhao family clansmen, smoothly repeating his previous ultimatum. His posture remained perfectly loose, his hands sliding back into his pockets.
The elite students all looked at each other in utter dismay. For a long, heavy moment, the entire outdoor martial arts field went completely, suffocatingly quiet.
Those arrogant Zhao family clansmen who had originally been rolling up their sleeves, eagerly wanting to challenge Jiang Chen to boost their personal reputations, all chose absolute silence at this microsecond. It wasn't that their pride had magically vanished; it was just that they genuinely lacked the operational ability to survive a single interaction.
After all, even their peak benchmark, Zhao Kun, was taken out in one clean hit without the guy even moving his feet. If they marched up there now, they would definitely just be taken out in a single, equally embarrassing hit! They certainly weren't stupid enough to deliberately perform such a humiliating stunt in front of their entire branch.
"To possess such an unbending spirit and absolute dominance at such a young age... it seems you have a massive amount of confidence in the limits of your own strength, young man."
Just as the entire crowd stood stunned and paralyzed, a weathered, raspy old voice suddenly echoed from behind the wall of bodies.
The moment Zhao Bin's ears caught the cadence of that voice, his anxious expression changed instantly, his posture dropping into a respectful stance.
"Elder Zhao Xuansu has arrived..." he whispered in a rapid, urgent tone to remind Jiang Chen of the incoming authority.
Jiang Chen turned his calm gaze toward the source of the sound.
He watched the dense crowd of students rapidly part like the Red Sea, allowing a white-haired, elder statesman of the clan to walk slowly toward them, flanked by a core group of high-level personal enforcers. The old man was clad in a traditional, flowing black robe; his face looked somewhat gaunt and lined with age, but his eyes were exceptionally sharp, spirited, and piercing—radiating an aura that felt as though he could effortlessly see right through the hidden secrets of any contractor standing before him.
And tracking directly behind the elderly leader...
Jiang Chen's eyes caught a highly familiar, brooding figure navigating the path.
It was exactly Zhao Shui—the very same high-tier Contractor who had fought him to a bitter, psychological standstill inside the survival zones of the secret realm last time. The direct legacy Contractor of Uchiha Shisui.
"Jiang Chen?!"
Zhao Shui stopped dead in his tracks, his head snapping up as his voice cracked with pure surprise. He adjusted his focus, his gaze locked onto the young man with utter disbelief. He genuinely hadn't anticipated that the man who was supposed to be hunkered down thousands of miles away in Jinghai City would actually materialize right in front of his face today inside the private sanctuary of the East Pavilion.
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