Seeing Cheng Lie's wary gaze and his reluctance to acknowledge him, Chen Changming smacked his forehead and couldn't help laughing aloud.
Only then did he realize that his current face and build were utterly different from when he had served as "Ning Jin" in the Vermilion Bird Guard. It was only natural that Cheng Lie failed to recognize him.
With that thought, Chen Changming waved a hand. An invisible barrier silently rose around the two of them, cutting off all prying eyes from the outside world.
Then his body began to writhe, his bones crackling as his features flowed and shifted like water. Within moments, he had returned to Ning Jin's appearance from back then.
"Captain, it's me."
Chen Changming looked at Cheng Lie and nodded with a smile, his eyes full of the warmth of reunion.
Staring at the face before him—a face etched deep into his memories, more familiar than anything—Cheng Lie froze at first. Then his eyes widened. Even the finger pointing at Chen Changming trembled as he stammered, "N-Ning Jin? How did you become like this? And your cultivation..."
In his memories, although Ning Jin's medical skills had been exceptional and his talent for alchemy astonishing, his cultivation had never been among the best. At most, it had been slightly lower than Cheng Lie's own.
Yet when he focused his senses now, he discovered that this "Ning Jin" possessed an aura as deep and vast as an abyss, utterly unfathomable. He had shockingly reached the fourth layer of the Void Refinement Realm.
Meanwhile, Cheng Lie had cultivated bitterly for decades, yet was only at the third layer of the Void Refinement Realm.
After merely a few decades apart, his former brother had already left him behind?
Chen Changming remained composed, without the slightest hint of showing