In the rattling cargo hold of the truck, Zhou Chen rested with his eyes closed.
The bloody holes gouged into his arms by the metal Finger Tiger were still gruesome, but they had stopped bleeding. A tingling itch emanated from his fractured arm bones, a sign they were slowly healing.
Even for an Ascender still in his growth phase, a fracture of this severity was hardly serious—just a minor injury that would heal on its own in about three or four hours.
The whole fight was an act, a calculated play to infiltrate Birdman's organization. First, he used the excuse of having awakened his powers by chance while on the brink of death. This plausibly established his identity as an Ascender. Then, he killed the iron-masked man—another Ascender—to showcase his impressive strength.
