Hu Kan was taken aback by the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's sudden move. He cursed under his breath, "That vicious old hag! I bet she sticks needles in voodoo dolls of the dog emperor behind his back all the time!"
Xu Chan glanced ahead and saw that the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary was running faster and faster. Neither of them could match her speed, and if this continued, she would slip away sooner or later.
Since verbal taunts were useless, only action remained. He suddenly planted his feet, raised both hands to aim straight ahead, and a flashing glow ignited between his facing palms.
Even as she fled, the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary kept a close eye on her pursuers. Sensing something amiss, she instantly pivoted to the side with nimble grace. With a sharp whoosh, a beam of light shot past where she had just been and slammed into the distant ground. A brilliant flash and a thundering roar erupted, followed by billowing clouds of smoke and dust.
She had never imagined that Xu Chan, who did not seem particularly strong, would resort to an attack as energy-draining as a spiritual impact. It was fine for mystery martial artists of the Longevity View to throw them around—their reserves were virtually bottomless—but for someone like him to use one as well?
Still, she had to admit that the blast successfully disrupted the smooth momentum of her forward dash.
Though Hu Kan looked crude and reckless on the surface, his mind was clear as a mirror. The moment he saw Xu Chan make his move, he knew exactly what to do. With a sharp swish, he hurled one of the massive hammers in his grip.
Nor was it a random throw. Having chased her for this long, he had mapped out her movement and exertion habits down to the finest detail. He calculated that at the slightest unexpected development, she would instinctively dodge to her own right, so he hurled the hammer straight at that trajectory.
Sure enough, the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary veered to that side, right into the path of the incoming hammer, as if the two had coordinated beforehand.
Because the spiritual impact was so blistering fast, the slightest lapse would have meant taking a direct hit, leaving her virtually no time to react. Her body had dodged on pure instinct. What she had not anticipated was that Hu Kan would anticipate her move with such pinpoint precision.
Fortunately, what an Embroidered-Uniform Emissary excelled at most was delivering messages, leaping, and staying concealed. With a brief flicker of spiritual light across her frame, she twisted her body midair in an impossible maneuver, narrowly clearing the hammer as well.
Yet having thrown the hammer, Hu Kan seemed to have anticipated that she would dodge it. Already coiled with built-up momentum, he sprang forward with explosive force, hurtling toward her on an intercept course that, once again, led her movement.
To broaden his interception area, his body swelled rapidly midair. In an instant, he transformed into a double-headed divine general five or six meters tall, clad in a golden tiger-head helmet.
His physical strength was utterly formidable. Moreover, martial artists bearing the Visage of the Aberrant were notoriously thick-skinned and tough, and close-quarters combat was their greatest specialty.
As a cultivator of the Visage of the Aberrant, he also possessed aberrant power. However, aberrant powers required years of arduous cultivation to develop, their potency varied wildly, and some practitioners might never master a truly practical ability in their entire lives. Crucially, unleashing them required prior preparation and specific conditions, making them impossible to deploy on short notice in the heat of fast-paced combat.
Seeing him bear down on her, the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's expression changed slightly. She pivoted midair, stamped against the empty air, and folded her frame in an uncanny snap. This time, instead of evading, she darted straight toward Hu Kan.
As the two rapidly closed the distance, a swirl of mist enveloped her entire body, and her form underwent a transformation of its own. She was likewise a martial artist of the Visage of the Aberrant, yet rather than expanding into a colossal form, her body abruptly shrank to half its original size, taking the appearance of a half-human, half-fish creature sporting a long beak and four wings.
This was the "Star-Colliding Emissary," an entity from ancient legends that opened pathways and carried lanterns for celestials. Though lacking in raw destructive power, its swiftness and agility were second to none. Seeing Hu Kan raise the hammer in his other hand, she suddenly flickered and darted forward.
Like a swimming fish, she slipped right beneath Hu Kan's armpit. Her speed surged abruptly, the fire of spirituality enshrouding her form carving a trailing streak of light across the air.
And the direction she was darting toward was none other than Xu Chan's position.
Having been forced to dodge a moment earlier, she knew she could not easily shake these two off. If she traded blows with Hu Kan, then once Xu Chan caught his breath, the two would pincer her together. Escaping then would be extraordinarily difficult, if not entirely impossible. Since that was the case, she might as well eliminate Xu Chan first!
Xu Chan had just expended energy on a spiritual impact; he was bound to be caught flat-footed, catching his breath and temporarily incapable of making another move. This was her golden opportunity.
Once he was out of the way, only the cumbersome Hu Kan would remain, and whether to fight or flee would be entirely up to her. In truth, she was inclined to flee. Great Shun held too great an advantage right now, and she dared not linger in one place for long.
Xu Chan still held both hands out in front of him, his chest heaving slightly, clearly unable to steady his breathing after that burst of power. Facing the assault crashing toward him, he seemed only able to tilt slightly to the side, a relatively faint sheen of spiritual light rising around his body.
Predictably, this flimsy barrier was torn apart with ease by the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's arm. It pierced clean through his chest, blowing a shower of flesh, blood, and internal organs out through his back.
The Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's gaze was cold; she moved to unleash her spiritual fire to tear him completely apart, intending to leave him thoroughly incapacitated even if the blow failed to kill him outright.
Yet just as her fire of spirituality surged outward, it hit an unexpected barrier. The mutated tissue wrapping Xu Chan's torso snapped violently inward, locking the arm that had pierced his body in an ironclad grip.
Xu Chan raised his head, all signs of weakness gone from his eyes, replaced by sharp, cold focus. He reached up with one hand and clamped down firmly on the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's shoulder, preventing her from pulling back.
The emissary was shocked. She realized in an instant that he had never lost the ability to resist; he had deliberately invited her attack to pin her in place.
Sensing disaster, she unleashed a frantic flurry of strikes against Xu Chan, her sharp wings sweeping forward to slash and cleave. Her attacks became a piercing barrage of streaming awls, shattering the spiritual light and sparks covering his body in all directions.
To keep her locked down, Xu Chan could only parry repeatedly with a single hand. But her strikes were simply too rapid and ferocious, and since he had to protect his head from lethal blows, three gaping holes were punched clean through his chest and abdomen within moments. Even the arm clutching her was sliced halfway through, held together only by the tough mutated tissue inside.
Despite sustaining such catastrophic injuries, his expression remained completely unchanged. He held her in a vice grip, ignoring the damage entirely. As long as his head was not ripped off then and there, attacks of this caliber could not kill him.
The Embroidered-Uniform Emissary grew increasingly frantic, bordering on panic. She had never imagined that with two opponents against one, they would resort to such a suicidal, desperate gamble.
By this point, Hu Kan had already spun around and charged back. He bellowed, "Catch this!"
In truth, long before the shout left his mouth, his hammer had already come crashing down. With a thunderous boom, it slammed directly into the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's head and back, showering sparks and light as shockwaves ripped out in every direction.
He instantly felt the body beneath the hammer go limp, accompanied by the distinct sensation of shattering bone. Yet he did not stop; instead, he raised his hammer and brought it down again, relentlessly pummeling.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
He hammered downward more than a dozen times, driving the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary's entire body deep into the earth. Only when he felt that all signs of life were entirely extinguished did he pull his weapon back.
A massive crater had caved in beneath his feet, surrounded by churning clouds of smoke and dust mingled with scorching air. He exhaled a long breath and waved his hand to clear the haze, revealing pulped flesh and blood thoroughly ground into the dirt below.
Yet even at this point, he was not entirely at ease. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth, and a brilliant light began flashing within. The next instant, accompanied by what sounded like a titanic roar, a surging blast of spiritual impact slammed straight into the crater below. A massive, bottomless pit was blasted open at that spot, obliterating every last trace of what had remained.
Once the billowing smoke drifted away, he smacked his lips, spat, and gradually shrank his body back to its normal stature. Looking over at Xu Chan, who had stepped back into the distance, he asked, "Hey, brother, you all right?"
"I'm fine," Xu Chan said.
He drew out a medicinal pill and swallowed it, then focused his mind to purge the fire of spirituality the Embroidered-Uniform Emissary had driven into him. As it was steadily cleansed away, his wounds and the gaping holes in his torso began closing and knitting together at an astonishing speed.
Fourth Limit martial artists possessed extraordinarily tenacious vitality. Even for someone like him who had only recently achieved this realm, as long as his head was not pulverized or he did not suffer near-total destruction all at once, he was exceedingly difficult to kill.
Though his wounds looked severe, recovering from them was not difficult.
"Good on you, brother!" Hu Kan gave him a hearty thumbs-up.
He held genuine admiration for the man. The sheer resolve and courage Xu Chan had shown by acting as a flesh shield were exceptionally rare. Thinking it through, Xu Chan must have decided long beforehand to serve as bait to draw the enemy's attack—a gamble that could easily have cost him his life with the slightest misstep.
What mattered most was that decisive will and execution. Strength could be built over time, but qualities like that were purely innate, entirely divorced from one's raw power.
Still, there was one more issue. Pointing a finger toward Xu Chan's wounds, Hu Kan cautioned, "Brother, keep an eye out for anything she might have left behind in your body."
He added seriously, "Things like that aren't easily dealt with. It might look clean right now, but who knows what's lurking in some dark corner plotting trouble. You have to purge it thoroughly."
"I know," Xu Chan replied.
Martial artists of the former imperial house could barely be considered human anymore, formed almost entirely of mutated tissue. Even minuscule traces of that mutated tissue could cause severe corruption.
However, he would seek out Chen Chuan or Mr. Zhuan once he returned. Under the Grand Radiant Light Forms, such foul impurities would find no place to hide.
"As long as you know, brother." Hu Kan reached out, retrieving the hammer he had thrown earlier. He then said, "That's one taken care of. Don't know if the other one's been dealt with yet. Let's head back first and see if there's anywhere else we can lend a hand."
Chapter 1034