Master Abian's Identity

Major Franka stared at Zhang Tie in disbelief. Over the past year or so, he had advanced by leaps and bounds. He had thought he could take Zhang Tie down with ease, yet he had never expected that with just one move, the youth before him would destroy everything he had...

At that moment, Major Franka could no longer even feel pain. All he felt was the numbness and chill of weakness rushing in after a balloon had been slit open, along with the sensation of life about to drain away. He lowered his head to look at the arm piercing through his chest, then looked at the faintly mocking expression on Zhang Tie's face.

"I never thought... you... would improve so quickly!"

The moment he finished those few words, mouthful after mouthful of blood poured from Major Franka's lips.

Zhang Tie swiftly pulled back his hand, tossed the lump of scrap metal in it onto the ground, and stared coldly into Major Franka's wolf-like eyes. "Back in Brapet, you should have known that time was not on your side!"

"No... is it?"

After murmuring that to himself, Major Franka collapsed.

The instant Major Franka fell, Zhang Tie pounced toward Master Abian.

Abian had been watching quietly all along, without the slightest trace of panic on his face. When Zhang Tie lunged at him, he merely stamped his foot on the floor. A steel-bar partition wall, its bars as thick as a child's arm, dropped from the ceiling at once, blocking Zhang Tie several meters away. Abian himself slid down through an opening exposed in the floor and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Tie had never expected Abian's room to contain such mechanisms and arrangements. As he dodged the barrier falling from above, Abian