An unexpected upheaval

"Leomon, Ogremon, what are you doing?" Seeing Leomon attack him, Zheng Fan barely had time to twist aside. Leomon's fist struck his right shoulder.

"Leomon, stop! It's me, Zheng Fan!" Unable to bring himself to strike hard, Zheng Fan fought as he retreated.

"Big brother, be careful! Devimon's controlling the Digimon with Black Gears. Just break the Black Gears, and they'll come to their senses," Taichi shouted.

Black Gears? Zheng Fan recalled the countless Black Gears packed inside Devimon's body. Was Devimon being controlled by the Black Gears, or was he their source?

"Beast King Fist!" "Overlord Fist!" Still lost in thought, Zheng Fan failed to dodge and took a Beast King Fist straight to the nose. Blood streamed down his face, and his head rang. Under normal circumstances, even if he failed to dodge, Zheng Fan would never have ended up in such a sorry state. But he had grown accustomed to Leomon's straightforward, honorable way of fighting. Caught unprepared, he had no way to withstand the blow.

The fall from such a great height had already left Zheng Fan badly injured. Now, with this blow to the face, he momentarily lost even the ability to think. After all, Zheng Fan was no true battlefield veteran. Even deprived of conscious thought, a real veteran could have held on a little longer through instinct alone.

"Leomon, finish them off," Devimon ordered again. Leomon roared, but charged past Zheng Fan toward Matt behind him. Perhaps his pride made him disregard the grievously injured Zheng Fan.

It was at times like these that the extraordinary nature of the Heavenly Artifact Race truly showed itself. The Night Dawn Sword broke away from Zheng Fan and shattered Leomon's Beast King Fist on its own, protecting Matt and the others. Freed from the burden of its badly injured master, the Night Dawn Sword could unleash its power even more effectively.

"Overlord Fist-aargh!" Ogremon screamed. Agumon had lunged out of nowhere and sunk his teeth into Ogremon's arm, while Taichi and Joe each clung to one of his legs.

"Humans, now I'm angry!" Ogremon roared, violently flinging his arm and shaking his legs in turn, trying to throw off the three burdens hanging from him. But Taichi and the others were resolute. Though the shaking left them dizzy and dazed, they stubbornly held him back.

Zheng Fan finally regained some clarity. Holding two fingers together like a sword, he sliced off his agonizing nose. He covered his face with his other hand, and flames suddenly blazed in his palm, searing the wound into a mangled mass of flesh and blood. His mind, however, cleared completely, and he lunged straight at Devimon nearby.

Seeing Zheng Fan coming, Devimon merely sneered. "You useless fools couldn't even handle this little task. But it doesn't matter. I'll never have to see you again anyway." He seemed to have completed some sort of ritual and burst into unrestrained laughter.

Devimon's wild laughter was immediately drowned out by a thunderous rumble. The earth shook and slowly split apart.

Before the power of nature, even mighty beings capable of unleashing terrifying strength in an instant were helpless. Yet the weak but persistent power of technology could gradually counter nature through years of steady accumulation.

"Die!" Terrifying though the shaking ground was, it meant little to someone like Zheng Fan, who could fight in midair. A streak of sword qi shot from his palm. The next instant, Devimon's scream rose above the rumbling earth. A hole had been punched through his chest, but the attack had ultimately failed to kill him.

"Come any closer, and that human dies." Devimon's sinister voice rang out. Zheng Fan turned to look. Ogremon had finally wised up and was smashing one of the children clinging to his legs against a rock. The child had already begun coughing up blood. These children were only ordinary humans. Another couple of blows would certainly kill him.

"Ogremon, Leomon, kill every human and Digimon," came Devimon's final order. The fragments of File Island were already moving in their designated directions. No single person could stop them now.

"Ogremon, sorry about this." Zheng Fan kicked Ogremon into the sea, then kicked a large wooden plank over to him. After that, he no longer had the strength to stand.

"Joe, is this big brother really human? Even Agumon says he's a Digimon."

"Taichi, don't be like that. From a medical standpoint, this big brother is human. Feel for yourself. A heartbeat, a pulse, blood vessels-those are all things only humans have."

All Zheng Fan could feel was a pair of wicked hands roaming over his body.

By the time Zheng Fan awoke, a day had passed.

"Big brother, my name is Taichi Yagami." "I'm Joe Kido." "Thank you for saving us." Taichi and Joe bowed together.

"You two... Yagami, Kido. Are you from Fusang?" Zheng Fan asked. "We're not from Fusang. We're Japanese," Taichi said. Joe told him, "Taichi, Japan was called Fusang a long time ago. People just don't call it that anymore." "Really?" Taichi murmured.

"Are you the children chosen by the Digimon World?" Zheng Fan asked. "The Digimon have really been looking forward to your arrival."

"But we can't beat Devimon," Taichi said glumly. "And I don't know how Gomamon's doing." Joe had become separated from Gomamon while saving the others.

"Don't worry too much. It'll be all right," Zheng Fan reassured them. He was not merely offering empty comfort. These children carried a power of destiny. Though it hardly made them immortal, their safety was assured. Perhaps the Digimon World was too weak-so weak that it no longer had the power to find another group of children.

"Big brother Zheng Fan, Andromon told us you're a human who can fight Ultimate Digimon. But can humans really be that strong?" Taichi had struggled to hold the question back, but finally asked.

"Taichi, Joe, you think I'm not human?" Zheng Fan's nose had yet to recover, yet he bared his white teeth as he asked such a frightening question. He really would have been well suited to horror films.

"Across the entire void, the Human Race is actually a broad designation. That's mainly because humans truly have noble origins, but the differences in their strength are enormous. The so-called superior races are only considered superior because they have no equivalent to the Human Race's mortal tier. You two, for example, belong to the weakest category of humans," Zheng Fan said.

Joe looked dejected at Zheng Fan's words, but Taichi asked eagerly, "So humans can become stronger than Digimon through training? Big brother Zheng Fan, can I become strong?"

"Fusang falls under Buzhou's jurisdiction, so I can help you become stronger. But what I teach you will only be enough to keep you alive. Anything beyond that isn't allowed to be passed on to outsiders."

"Big brother Zheng Fan, should we formally become your disciples?" Joe asked.

"No need," Zheng Fan said. "You're not from Buzhou, so naturally, you wouldn't count as my disciples. Besides, not many people in Buzhou pass on their teachings through master-disciple relationships. Anyone with sufficient ability can become an instructor there. Nobunaga from Fusang is one of our military law instructors, too." As he spoke, Zheng Fan remembered his days in Buzhou, and a faint smile rose to his lips.

"Big brother Zheng Fan, when can we stop training like this?" It was the third day since File Island had broken apart, and Taichi, Joe, and Agumon were suffering under Zheng Fan's training. Agumon had it particularly hard. As their main fighter, ninety percent of Greymon's movements were unforgivable openings in Zheng Fan's eyes. At one point, even the Greymon card in that pile of cards had come out to complain to him.

"When you no longer complain of exhaustion from this level of training, you won't have to train like this anymore." Zheng Fan's answer was perfectly serious, but he could not see the hundred thousand Sukamon stampeding through Taichi's and Joe's minds. Agumon, on the other hand, kept practicing diligently.

Suddenly, a thunderous rumble came from nearby. Zheng Fan looked in that direction and frowned. "You two stay here. It's extremely dangerous over there. Even if Greymon could survive, you two would definitely die." Without waiting for Taichi and the others to answer, he flew off.

Over these three days, Zheng Fan had already made contact with the Digimon in this area. Though this was only a fragment, File Island was enormous. To put it in perspective, the strongest Ultimate Digimon were comparable to Dao Realm experts in Buzhou or Nascent Soul experts in the Cultivation World. In the Cultivation World, it was perfectly normal for a single Nascent Soul expert to rule a remote planet. Though Buzhou was somewhat smaller and had more experts, each Dao Realm expert still oversaw an entire war zone. File Island had once been the birthplace of all Digi-Eggs, and even now, two Ultimate Digimon remained on it. Its sheer size was therefore considerable.

"There aren't any destructive Digimon in this area. Why would the gentle Triceramon become so violent?" Seeing the herd of Triceramon charging from the distance, a glint of resolve flashed through Zheng Fan's eyes. I absolutely cannot let that rampaging herd reach the Village of Beginnings.

"Elecmon, do you know what's going on with the Triceramon?" Zheng Fan landed and saw several Poyomon reporting to Elecmon. Poyomon were the only In-Training Digimon that could fly, though their speed left much to be desired. Aside from Elecmon, a Rookie, everyone in the Village of Beginnings was an In-Training Digimon.

A Pagumon answered, "The Triceramon herd seems to have seen something. They ran out of a cave near the rift. Even Wizardmon couldn't stop them." The rift Pagumon mentioned was where File Island had been torn apart.

"Zheng Fan, you're here! Thank goodness. What happened? How did File Island break apart?" In the end, Elecmon was only a Rookie Digimon. The sudden sight of Zheng Fan, whose fighting strength rivaled an Ultimate, finally gave Elecmon someone to rely on, lifting the weight from Elecmon's heart.

"Now isn't the time to talk about that," Zheng Fan replied. At the end of the road, more than ten Triceramon were charging toward the Village of Beginnings. In that vast village, aside from Elecmon, the Poyomon, and the Pagumon serving as Elecmon's adviser, everyone else was a bewildered In-Training Digimon.