As Xunchilong collapsed, Su Kuo was forced to disengage from the saddle. Instead of retreating, he gripped his hammer with one hand, bracing for Chen Chuan's charge while hoping to buy a fraction of time for Xunchilong to recover.
He knew well the stubborn tenacity of his steed's vitality. With just a brief moment and a few exchanges to hold the line, it might rise once more.
Chen Chuan planted his foot and appeared before Su Kuo in an instant, cutting across in a vicious horizontal slash. Su Kuo raised his hammer to parry. Despite his preparation, the colliding light detonated as the sheer ferocity of the blade overwhelmed him. Amid dispersing fiery sparks, he was hurled backward through the air, followed immediately by a thunderous boom that ripped through the atmosphere.
Chen Chuan was about to pursue when Xunchilong, having already fallen, suddenly struggled back up. Ignoring the blood gushing from its neck, it stomped its twin forehooves straight toward his back.
Such an extraordinary steed possessed savage momentum and immense strength, easily comparable to a formidable martial artist. Chen Chuan did not ignore it. Sidestepping smoothly, he raised an arm and clamped down around the descending, tree-trunk-thick hoof. Applying seizing jin, he snuffed out a vast expanse of the spiritual flame cloaking the horse's frame, then twisted and hurled it outward. With a deafening crash, it slammed onto its side.
The beast still attempted to thrash about, but Chen Chuan stepped forward and hammered downward with a fist. A colossal concussive blast erupted. The horse's head sank violently, punching a massive crater into the earth and jolting its colossal body upward. Chen Chuan then raised his blade and thrust down into its skull, instantly piercing the residual fire of spirituality. The jin penetrated straight through the cranium. Xunchilong's four hooves twitched and spasmed, and as fresh pools of blood spread across the dirt, it finally ceased to move.
On the other side, Su Kuo had been blasted far into the distance. He had meant to steady his footing mid-flight, but his senses flared. With a sweep of his long hammer, he smashed two incoming projectiles out of the air, detonating them mid-flight. They were specially crafted spears hurled by Zharnik and his companion.
Under normal circumstances, such an attack posed little threat to him; taking the hits directly would not have inflicted any real damage. But propelled by Chen Chuan's tremendous force, Su Kuo had been trying to adjust his stance and dissipate the momentum so he could double back and potentially save Xunchilong. Having his balance abruptly broken ruined that plan. The motion threw off his center of gravity, forcing him to stumble several steps sideways—and with that, any hope of rescuing his mount vanished completely.
Looking up, he stared at his beloved steed's motionless form slumped in the dust and let out a quiet sigh. Strands of mutated tissue sprouted from his severed stump, swiftly intertwining to form a functional limb identical to his original arm. Clasping the long hammer before him with both hands, he took a deep breath, and the crimson spiritual flames around him surged violently.
Chen Chuan walked over at an unhurried pace, long blade in hand. With the bond between man and mount broken, Su Kuo's speed and power had undeniably dropped by a tier.
If there was any avenue left for a comeback, it lay in those peculiar aberrant powers.
Yet the fact that Su Kuo still refused to manifest his Visage of the Aberrant almost guaranteed that his visage was tied to some sort of aberrant power—most likely a passive ability that reacted to various enemy conditions.
Chen Chuan had no interest in guessing what it might be. Just as he had resolved earlier, there was no need to match the enemy's rhythm; he would simply act as he saw fit.
After a few strides, his figure flickered. When he reappeared, he was already right in front of Su Kuo, a crescent of blade light slashing downward.
Caught off guard, Su Kuo raised his hammer across his chest to block. Yet this strike, fierce as it appeared, carried not rigid force, but pliant, yielding strength. The upper portion of the blade met and pushed against the hammer's shaft, unleashing an irresistible leverage that made it impossible for Su Kuo to brake in time. Once again, he was driven backward in heavy, stumbling steps.
He was massive, nearly three times Chen Chuan's size. Visually, there was no comparison, yet in direct clash, Su Kuo was the weaker party. The stark contrast created an eerie sense of dissonance.
Chen Chuan twirled his blade and advanced with steady, measured strides.
Su Kuo had already unleashed techniques that pushed his physical prowess to its limits, yet facts proved that even with his physical baseline elevated, he still struggled to withstand his opponent. At least, however, he was not entirely helpless.
Rich in combat experience, he knew retreat would only invite disaster. Backing away made it far easier to be overwhelmed; only proactive aggression offered a chance. Stomping so hard the ground fractured, he surged forward wrapped in scarlet flames, raising the long hammer high before smashing it down toward Chen Chuan's head.
Watching him approach, Chen Chuan paused slightly, then raised a hand to block. He caught the plunging giant hammer rock-steady, a rolling wave of air blasting out beneath his feet. Immediately afterward, he flicked his blade sideways, throwing Su Kuo entirely off-balance.
Against absolute strength, all technique and offensive momentum became meaningless.
Feeling his center of gravity slip, Su Kuo instantly realized the danger and activated his aberrant power. In a flash, his massive frame seemed to lose all weight, allowing him to evade several subsequent slashes of blade light in succession.
Finding an opening, he managed a block, only to be jolted back once more. After skidding a short distance, however, his footing held. He had retreated into an esoteric ritual.
As the commanding general, he knew every inch of this battlefield intimately. This was a position he had picked out long in advance. While it could never truly stop Chen Chuan, it had been established specifically to counter surprise raids by martial artists, granting him a desperately needed breath of respite.
His chest heaved continuously as he fought to recover as much stamina as possible.
In truth, it was not just Chen Chuan. Ever since the battle began, he could feel the gazes of the Great Shun martial artists constantly fixed upon him, and that grated on him most of all.
Without Chen Chuan, he would not have cared in the least. But with such a monumental threat looming directly in front of him, requiring his undivided focus, how could he spare any attention elsewhere? Yet he could not ignore them either; merely having them watch him from the sidelines felt like thorns pressed against his spine. He could only force himself to endure it.
Chen Chuan walked up to the edge of the esoteric ritual and inspected it. Such rituals were exceedingly common, meant to prevent martial artists from tearing through army ranks to slaughter ordinary soldiers at will. Though not difficult to break, it could indeed disrupt an attacker's rhythm.
He swept his blade outward, producing a sharp ripping sound as though tearing through something solid. The surrounding airflow churned, and fine cracks fractured across the stone discs buried underground.
Su Kuo had prepared himself within. The moment the ritual shattered, he poised to strike, only to look up and find Chen Chuan suddenly standing level with his gaze, those deep, calm eyes staring directly into his.
Su Kuo's heart leaped into his throat. With a furious roar, he recklessly blasted the crimson spiritual flames cloaking his body outward in every direction.
Chen Chuan's figure vanished on the spot, reappearing far in the distance to watch coldly. With a resounding blast, a pillar of deep red energy surged skyward from where Su Kuo stood, rumbling through the earth beneath.
Yet the radiance soon subsided. The instant the aura receded, Chen Chuan took another step, surging through the scalding air to close in on Su Kuo. Right now, the man was caught in the brief lull that followed a full spiritual eruption, virtually stripped of defensive capacity.
Under normal circumstances, Su Kuo never would have made such a blunder. But the threat Chen Chuan posed had been so suffocating that he had no choice but to unleash everything he had, leaving no room to guard against what came after.
Seeing that things were turning dire, the observing embroidered-uniform envoy gripped a cluster of long needles, intending to intervene. At that moment, however, Mr. Zhuan turned his head to look directly at her. The mask over his face flashed with a gleam of light, causing her movements to freeze.
Not only that, but Zharnik and his companion let out savage roars, grabbed their weapons, and charged down the hillside. Fierce blood-red flames flared across their bodies as they swelled in stride, ballooning to over twenty meters tall in an instant. They brutally trampled and smashed through everything blocking their path, barreling straight toward the embroidered-uniform envoy and Gai Shuhe.
They had held back earlier because their mere presence served to pressure Su Kuo and divert part of his focus. Now that Chen Chuan held absolute dominance, there was no need to wait any longer.
Neither the embroidered-uniform envoy nor Gai Shuhe had any intention of facing them head-on, immediately retreating without hesitation. Lacking the advantage in numbers, their only option was to fall back on the rear esoteric rituals for support. As for the regular troops, they could spare no thought for them now—nor would the martial artists waste their finite strength on common soldiers.
On the other front, Chen Chuan's blade came slashing down. Su Kuo had nowhere left to dodge. Yet at that critical juncture, the gear pouch at his waist abruptly burst open, and a streak of green light shot straight toward Chen Chuan's eyes.
Chen Chuan recognized it as a bizarre insect with long, hooked limbs, imbued with the mental power of a Visage of the Divine martial artist. Refusing to underestimate it, he turned his blade mid-slash and severed the thing in midair.
Su Kuo seized this brief reprieve to step back—not to flee, but to open the distance needed to strike. Raising the long hammer with both hands, he brought it crashing down at Chen Chuan with the full measure of his remaining strength.
With his blade extended, Chen Chuan had no time to swing it back, so he simply raised a hand to block. Bang! A shockwave burst outward. He caught the massive hammer bare-handed. Before his opponent could bear down with his weight, Chen Chuan shoved upward. Su Kuo displayed exquisite command of force, using that upward momentum to flip the hammer around and thrust the pointed spike at its base straight back at Chen Chuan.
By then, Chen Chuan had pulled his blade back. With a reverse vertical parry, he deflected the spike aside. Su Kuo seized both ends of the hammer's shaft, spinning around on the spot to deliver a sweeping horizontal smash. Yet seamless though the transition was, and flawless though his redirection of force appeared, to Chen Chuan's eyes it was ultimately half a beat too slow.
Chen Chuan tapped the tip of his foot, a ring of air exploding beneath him. In a flash, he appeared diagonally above Su Kuo. Twisting midair, he drove his blade straight into the man's neck, burying more than half the length of the steel into his flesh!
Su Kuo froze instantly. Seeing this as he retreated, Gai Shuhe cried out in horror:
"General!"
Chapter 1030