One of Su Kuo's heads had been pulverized, and the remaining two instantly changed expression.
Broadly speaking, this was not a catastrophic wound for him. Though one head was gone, his hands remained intact, and once he purged the spiritual flames that had infiltrated his body, he could recover before long.
Yet many of the aberrant powers tied to a Visage of the Aberrant corresponded directly to the number of its heads. Losing one meant losing access to a corresponding aberrant power. Fortunately, the central head was bound to an aberrant power related to a bound oath that had already been triggered, so having it knocked off at this point made little difference.
Were either of the other two heads struck down, however, his combat power would instantly be slashed by more than half.
Light flared in the eyes of his left head, and his aberrant power shifted once more. His massive form trailed a spray of blood as it drifted backward with weightless speed.
The advantage of the Longevity View lay in an abundance of bodily energy, allowing one to consistently sustain peak condition. However, using aberrant powers not only depleted energy but also compounded the strain on the body's mutated tissues, imposing a hard limit on how many times they could be invoked.
He had already drawn upon them repeatedly since the battle began. By his estimate, he could wring them out two or three more times at most. This compelled him to tread with utmost caution through every subsequent move. Fortunately, he was not entirely without a path to victory—he simply needed to bide his time for now.
Seeing him retreat, Chen Chuan's spirit visage gave him no breathing room to recover, closing in aggressively.
In just a handful of strides, both sides crossed a vast distance, moving from one end of the battlefield toward the flank of the rear encampment. Yet in the relentless clash of pursuit, Su Kuo inevitably suffered several more lacerations. His fire of spirituality and the thick armor beneath were cleaved apart, his body flashing with bursting firelight as he fell back step by step.
Two strides later, Su Kuo shifted diagonally backward and finally planted his stance. He had retreated directly into an esoteric ritual. Since such arrays were prepared, he naturally intended to make use of them, even if they only bought him a fleeting pause.
Chen Chuan observed this clearly from below. Seeing Su Kuo step into the esoteric ritual, he vaulted into the air at once. A streak of blade light slashed precisely into the ritual's node, splitting it apart ahead of time as a wisp of twisted vapor dispersed.
Stamping the air beneath his feet with a shockwave ring, Chen Chuan surged forward like a fiery shooting star enveloped in platinum radiance, slamming straight into the joint of Su Kuo's knee.
In terms of sheer physical strength, Chen Chuan could not overpower his opponent right now—after all, the colossal disparity in size was undeniable.
Yet there was one crucial distinction: in the sheer volume of spiritual fire, he was indisputably superior. Naturally, he intended to exploit this advantage. Just moments before the impact, light flashed between his brows, and most of the spirit visage's fire of spirituality surged backward like a reverse tide, instantly converging onto his person.
This was effectively concentrating his entire store of spiritual fire into a single explosive point. Amid a resounding crash at the point of contact, the fire of spirituality coating Su Kuo's leg instantly shattered, accompanied by the distinct snap of fracturing bone.
In that split second, Su Kuo lost his balance and toppled sideways. Seeing the spirit visage closing in with its mace raised high overhead, he felt a jolt of alarm and was forced to trigger his aberrant power once more. At that moment, the numerous long whiskers draping from his body squirmed vigorously, carrying him into a rapid backward glide that pulled him out of harm's way just in time.
Yet even after briefly disengaging from the offensive, a grim foreboding weighed on him. Relying on the feedback of his aberrant power, he had assumed overpowering his foe would be effortless, or at least far from difficult. He had never imagined that the strength of Chen Chuan's spirit visage would rise alongside his own, suppressing him by more than a margin.
He realized that standard combat would never allow him to triumph over this opponent; he had to resort to other means. Fortunately, his repertoire did not end here. Aside from one aberrant power requiring specific conditions to activate, the most formidable trait of the legendary Tianxuli Demon lay in its bizarre dragon whiskers.
These whiskers possessed extraordinary resilience and adhesive force, growing at an astonishing rate. Once coiled around an enemy, they would interlace and proliferate, encasing the target from head to toe within moments. The victim would be unable to struggle or even disperse.
Legend held that the Tianxuli Demon used these whiskers to prey upon various divine beasts and monsters, hence the 'tianxu' in its name—truly its signature technique.
He had refrained from using them initially out of pride as a general of the battle lines, desiring to crush his adversary head-on rather than resort to unsightly maneuvers. But now that direct confrontation was an outright impossibility, he cast that vanity aside and unleashed the tactic.
Feeling the ground rumble, he watched the golden-armored spirit visage close the distance once more. This time, instead of evading, he moved in proactively. The long whiskers draping beneath his form rose like living serpents, lashing out to coil around the spirit visage's weapon, arms, and torso.
Sensing the intrusion, Chen Chuan's spirit visage slashed with its saber. Yet the whiskers were overwhelmingly numerous. Even when large clusters were severed, more swarmed in. Even the severed pieces that hit the ground wriggled like living vermin, crawling toward the spirit visage and latching onto its frame.
Moreover, the fire of spirituality coating the spirit visage's exterior seemed scarcely able to drive them away.
Though these appendages resembled whiskers, they were actually formed from countless minute, interlocking tentacles. Even if severed, they sought each other out to reconnect and grew continuously at a speed that far outpaced the rate at which spiritual energy could dissolve them. In a matter of moments, the spirit visage's movements grew sluggish.
Seizing this opportunity, Su Kuo rapidly purged the spiritual flames that had penetrated his body. Wisps of vapor began rising from his missing head and severed arm; given just a little more time, he would fully regenerate.
Watching from below, Chen Chuan did not act immediately. Only after both giants became locked in place did he spread his palm, aiming straight at Su Kuo's towering body. After gathering momentum for an instant, a brilliant orb of light erupted forth.
Bound to the spirit visage by the entangled whiskers, Su Kuo had no way to evade. With a thunderous boom, a massive black crater blew open across his lower abdomen, sending violent tremors through his entire frame.
Colossal size granted greater reserves of spiritual fire and a tougher physique, yet even that could not withstand a highly concentrated spiritual impact.
That blast was only the beginning. Within a few breaths, several more spiritual light spheres detonated continuously against his body, blowing away vast chunks of flesh and blood.
Realizing things had turned dire, Su Kuo no longer dared to keep the foe ensnared. He hastily severed his own whiskers and retreated on skittering tentacles. Yet even so, under the relentless bombardment of subsequent spiritual light spheres, gaping hollows and breaches tore open across his torso, and half of one arm was blown clean off.
With a violent heave, the spirit visage snapped the remaining whiskers binding it. Spinning on its heel, it hurled the mace from its hand with a sharp whistle.
An instant later, the mace slammed directly into Su Kuo's chest right as he weathered the barrage and his fire of spirituality scattered. The heavy thud knocked his towering frame backward at a sharp tilt.
The spirit visage charged forward, its free hand grasping the drifting residual whiskers on his body to wrench him close, while thrusting its saber straight ahead. Su Kuo hastily brought his ring around to lock the strike, but his strength fell short. The tip of the blade plunged into his chest, and fire of spirituality immediately seeped within. Su Kuo frantically clamped both hands onto the blade to halt its advance, his feet stumbling backward in rapid succession.
At that precise moment, his right head snapped forward to face the front. A strange light flickered in its eyes, and its maw gaped wide.
Legend told that the Tianxuli Demon devoured souls and spirits, and his final aberrant power was tied to this trait. If the distance between combatants was close enough for their fires of spirituality to touch, he could swallow more than half of his opponent's energy in a single breath.
Much like his other aberrant power, this ability could be activated at will, but its potency depended on the injuries he had sustained. The deeper his wounds, the more energy he could siphon. Even against a master of the Longevity View, this could instantly rob the opponent of all fighting strength.
He could turn the tables in a single stroke!
Knowing that enduring any longer would leave him no chance at all, Su Kuo drew a deep, ravenous breath toward Chen Chuan's spirit visage, while lifting his ring and spear to counterattack the instant an opening appeared.
Yet to his utter bewilderment, Chen Chuan's spirit visage showed no reaction whatsoever, as if nothing had been drawn from it at all.
Chen Chuan had remained vigilant against whatever aberrant powers Su Kuo might possess. Knowing that many such powers defied all logic, he had kept his guard up even while holding the upper hand, refraining from committing too heavily to the primary assault.
The moment he saw Su Kuo's abnormal gesture, he noticed his Second Self begin to exhibit a severe, persistent blur of insubstantiality, which even affected the enhancement it provided him. He knew immediately that it was absorbing the effect of some aberrant power.
Because the Second Self bore the entire brunt of the technique, neither the spirit visage nor his true body suffered the slightest effect. Naturally, he would not let this opening pass.
Leaping outward, Chen Chuan tore through the spiritual radiance with a single slash, piercing the armor and driving the blade down through the instep of Su Kuo's foot, burying it straight to the hilt.
Simultaneously, the spirit visage twisted at the waist, yanking the saber out of Su Kuo's chest. Deflecting the incoming ring with an armored forearm, it pivoted with full force and brought the blade sweeping violently across his neck. With a crisp crunch amid scattering bursts of spiritual light, another head went flying into the air.
The head hurtled far across the sky, crashing to the ground half a li away with a deafening thud. It flattened several tents and catapults before rolling onward, crushing a squad of soldiers who failed to dodge in time, throwing nearby horses into terrified whinnies.
Amid the billowing dust and grit, dense cords of sinew and whiskers still whipped frantically at the severed neck, struggling as if possessed of life. Witnessing this scene, the officers and soldiers of the former imperial house were overcome with sheer bewilderment and terror.
Chapter 1032