Gluttony's facial fat twitched involuntarily as he stared at the virtually unscathed figure.
Because he had prioritized striking quickly, he hadn't charged the attack to its maximum power. Even so, the fact that Chen Chuan had completely withstood the force of the spiritual impact brought a flicker of shock to Gluttony's eyes.
Still, even if a single blow couldn't severely injure Chen Chuan, it at least served to hinder him and buy a fleeting moment of breathing room for the other two.
Right now, if any one of them fell, things would turn exceedingly grim for the survivors.
The wounds on Iron Raven's chest and head were knitting together rapidly. Spreading his two cruciform swords apart, he held them ready at his sides.
Though he had nearly been killed just now, their coordinated three-way attack had indeed offered a real chance at suppressing their opponent. That meant they weren't entirely helpless—they could find an opening.
In truth, as an operative, he had no desire to engage in a life-or-death frontal duel against such a monstrous adversary. Yet Chen Chuan had clearly come for them. If he fled, the remaining two might not survive even a move or two against Chen Chuan's onslaught.
With the speed the man had just exhibited, Chen Chuan would likely run him down before long. Running was utter folly; with no other choice before him, he had to fight to the bitter end.
But they needed an opening. One person had to step up and draw his attention so the others could strike in unison.
If they didn't seize the initiative, they would have no say once Chen Chuan launched his attack.
Iron Raven recognized this, and the other two naturally understood it as well. Gluttony unleashed two more spiritual impacts in quick succession, hurling them straight toward Chen Chuan purely to hold him in check. Spiritual impacts consumed an immense amount of energy; even for a Longevity View martial artist, using them back-to-back like this was exorbitant. As a result, the layers of fat on his body visibly melted away.
Yet one had to admit it was the most effective method, for it was fast and tremendously powerful—impossible to ignore.
Meanwhile, Saqiya, realizing she could not match her opponent in raw strength, stopped trying to contest him head-on. At that moment, she abruptly let go of the war club in her hands.
With the opposing force gone, the giant hand of the spiritual visage naturally pressed down. Then, with a deafening boom, she actually braced against it with her head!
In that instant, her entire body seemed like a single, flawless block of steel-stone, halting the crushing downward pressure!
While deflecting the two spiritual impacts, Chen Chuan noticed this as well. He felt a faint flicker of surprise. *Oh? Firm body external conditioning?*
Of course, in the Federation and the West Continent, such techniques were known as "Rigid Body."
At the level of a martial artist, this kind of jin was rarely seen. Its application was generally narrow, and without other complementary methods, it could easily be countered. But if someone did bring it out, they were bound to have an entire tactical system developed around it.
Almost the moment she braced against the palm, Saqiya's freed hands snapped out to seize the arm of the spiritual visage.
At virtually the same time, dense clouds of bluish vapor billowed from her body, surging rapidly along the points of contact onto the spiritual visage.
This was her aberrant power: she could transform her fire of spirituality and mutated tissue into a corrosive glow-fire. Once an opponent's fire of spirituality was subjected to sustained contact with it, it would immediately be converted into the same substance. Their resistance would steadily weaken until, fully engulfed, they lost all capacity to fight.
Her Rigid Body served precisely this purpose, ensuring she could deliver this aberrant power to her foe with maximum effect. And as an aberrant power, so long as its conditions and mechanisms were fulfilled, it was virtually unstoppable.
Iron Raven saw this and did not stand idly by. Before the aftershocks of the two spiritual impacts had even faded, he activated an explosive esoteric art and absorbed every last reserve of Operations Directorate medicine stored within his body.
Fueled by a surge of medicinal potency that threatened to burst his frame, he charged forward. Spinning the two cruciform short swords in his hands, the surrounding scenery blurred backward as he flashed onto Chen Chuan's flank in a split second of pure speed.
As he swept past, the feathers shed earlier from his external implant swirled up into the air behind him, creating an immense, howling wake.
Yet he dared not attack Chen Chuan from the front. Having maneuvered to the side, he thrust his swords out one after the other. Just as he struck, he suddenly felt a shoving force bolster his body, boosting his speed even further. He immediately recognized it as an assist from Gluttony.
Chen Chuan's gaze tracked his trajectory with absolute clarity. With a casual flick of his long saber, he parried one of the short swords with pinpoint precision. Iron Raven knew that even with his secret technique and drugs, matching Chen Chuan in strength was impossible. He relied entirely on deflection techniques, tapping the long blade in quick succession with both short swords before twisting his body away to shift to the side.
At that very instant, Gluttony found an opening to fire off another two spiritual impacts to cover him. To unleash them repeatedly in such a short window was practically suicidal exertion.
Iron Raven didn't dwell on it. Every one of them was fighting for their lives right now; if a single rhythm broke or anyone slipped up, all three of them were dead.
Though he pulled back, he remained circling Chen Chuan, steadily building up speed and amassing power.
Over by Saqiya, the corrupting glow-fire had already spread along the spiritual visage's arm onto its main body. The fire of spirituality clinging to it was rapidly corroded into the same substance, flaking away and raining down from above. Even Chen Chuan's physical form seemed to catch a trace of it.
That single spark began spreading swiftly upward, and the fire of spirituality enveloping him appeared to ebb at an alarming rate.
Saqiya let out a fierce roar through their mental link—a signal to tell the other two that she was ready to counterattack.
Having circled around, Iron Raven felt the full effect of the medicine kick in, his speed peaking at that very second. Sensing Saqiya's signal, he too saw this as their chance. Without hesitation, he shot straight at Chen Chuan!
Seeing him charge, Chen Chuan seemed to pay no mind to the substance clinging to him, simply raising the Xuejun Saber and slashing down at him.
This time, Iron Raven did not dodge, for he saw clearly that the fire of spirituality Chen Chuan could muster was sparse—only a faint layer remained along the saber's blade.
Even if the man possessed immense physical strength, insufficient fire of spirituality meant Chen Chuan would still be countered. To ensure this strike succeeded, Iron Raven poured all of his fire of spirituality into his short swords—a total gamble, knowing full well that another opportunity might never come.
An instant later, saber met short swords once more. At the clash, their fires of spirituality collided first. Yet the imagined collapse did not occur. Instead, an intense burst of platinum spiritual flame erupted with a roar, instantly shattering the bluish gaseous layer coating it. Rather than turning into the bluish glow-fire, the corrupting mist was held at bay by a brilliant, crystalline light emanating from within.
Pure Spiritual Light!
Almost simultaneously, the bluish glow-fire clinging to the spiritual visage sloughed off like shed filth, purged outward by the Pure Spiritual Light radiating from within to reveal the colossal body wrapped in radiant platinum light.
Saqiya had already snatched up the war club from the ground, aiming to smash apart the blocking visage in one swoop. She never expected this turn of events. The spiritual visage raised one hand, snatching the incoming war club out of the air, while its other elbow slammed down squarely onto her crown. Light scattered violently as she sank into the earth under the impact.
Chen Chuan had essentially struck out in both directions at once. This was not something he had contrived, but rather the natural culmination of the flow of battle. He had let both opponents believe this was their golden opportunity, baiting them into lunging forward so he wouldn't have to pick them off one by one.
And just moments ago, that opening had seemed too perfect to be anything else. Neither of them could have afforded to let it pass. Even if it had been bait, they would have had no choice but to bite, because waiting any longer would only mean worse odds.
On Iron Raven's side, because this attack had concentrated virtually all his power, he had no leeway left to adjust his stance.
He could only watch helplessly as the incoming blade light shattered his sword hands, sending both short swords flying one after the other. Then, like dry weeds before a gale, that sweep of saber light ripped through his fire of spirituality and sliced clean across his throat.
Over at Saqiya's position, after being driven deep into the ground by the visage, most of her outer fire of spirituality was also blasted away. The visage's massive palm dropped naturally over her head, then twisted violently outward!
That enormous hand actually exerted a supple jin, wringing her head and upper torso around several times like a twisted towel! Spine-chilling crunches of splintering bone echoed from within Saqiya's frame as her tough hide and muscular tissues tore wide open, spewing torrential gouts of blood into the air like a sudden crimson downpour.
The spiritual visage clasped its fists together and brought them crashing down onto her body!
A colossal boom tore through the cavern, shaking the entire cave until the waters of the nearby Lake of Gems roiled and leaped. When the spiritual visage drew back its fists, nothing remained below but a pulverized pulp of flesh and bone.
Only then did Iron Raven's severed head hit the ground with a wet slap. His headless corpse, upon touching the ground, still stumbled forward over a dozen paces in a desperate effort to balance itself. Its hands clawed wildly through the air as the intensely resilient mutated tissues refused to perish, frantically groping around in search of the head to stitch itself back together.
Yet wisps of Pure Spiritual Light leaked from the stump of his severed neck, rapidly dissolving the mutated tissues within.
Before long, wisps of vapor rose across the entire headless body as it rapidly desiccated. It dropped to its knees where it stood, then toppled lightly onto its side.
Chen Chuan dispatched the two in a single breath. Yet before his momentum could fully subside, the ritual array Gluttony had drawn behind him suddenly flared with light. A beam struck Chen Chuan squarely—and not just him, but his entire spiritual visage as well.
Gluttony chuckled, a strange glint in his eyes and a grin spreading across his mouth. "It worked—"
Chapter 1087