Even as Cui Xuanhui lay sprawled on the ground, his spiritual visage coalesced in a mere instant. As Chen Chuan walked forward, a semi-corporeal fist smashed down toward him!
Chen Chuan raised his arm and swept his hand to the side. The motion was exceedingly swift, yet his upright posture and advancing footsteps did not falter in the least. Only a high-speed streak of platinum brilliance flared from the front of his hand.
Upon colliding with it, the spiritual fire coating the visage's fist offered no protection whatsoever. The entire forearm instantly dissolved into a dispersing mist, and its body turned faint and erratic along with it.
The spectating academy officials felt their hearts leap in unison. Although the previous collision had produced a more violent visual impact, the sheer effortlessness displayed in this strike undoubtedly demonstrated far greater martial caliber.
Such a sight could only occur when the strength of one's physical body and fire of spirituality reached a tier high enough to utterly overpower the opponent. Though both were Secret Palace martial artists, the disparity between them was like an entire realm apart.
It seemed the prior rumors were not unfounded after all...
Though Chen Chuan did not walk quickly, he had already arrived behind Cui Xuanhui in that brief span. Yet in just that little bit of time, the shattered spine on Cui Xuanhui's back had knit together rapidly. While not fully healed, it no longer hindered his movement.
Spreading the fingers of both hands, he touched the ground merely with the pads of his fingertips, springing his lower body up from the earth. His legs lashed out in rapid succession, kicking back toward Chen Chuan, while the gray spiritual fire on his feet erupted with a boom, virtually engulfing Chen Chuan's entire field of view.
Facing this ferocious onslaught, Chen Chuan took a step to the side, his body gliding laterally across the distance.
Cui Xuanhui's spine was not yet fully mended, leaving his cadence half a beat slower than before. Thus, while Chen Chuan maintained his original moving speed, a single step easily bypassed the brunt of the offensive and brought him straight to the weak point. Stepping inward once more, a fist gleaming with platinum radiance slammed violently into Cui Xuanhui's abdomen. Not only was the spiritual fire there instantly shattered, but his internal organs were pummeled to a pulp.
The blow doubled Cui Xuanhui over like a prawn, his eyes bulging outward. As the fist pulled away, he collapsed to the ground with a thud. Then, opening his mouth with a retch, he spewed blood mingled with fragments of internal organs, wisps of spiritual fire seeping from his facial features.
Chen Chuan did not press the attack. Instead, he paced slowly beside him, as if wishing to observe his wretched state a little longer.
Cui Xuanhui's recovery rate was exceptionally fast. After struggling a few times, he attempted to clamber up again. Yet the moment his four limbs propped up his body, the fist descended once more from above, this time striking his cheek. It pulverized his jaw and shattered a mouth full of teeth, snapping his head violently to the side before slamming him back down.
A moment later, he recovered again. This time, however, he did not try to push himself up. Instead, he abruptly rolled to the side several times, then scrambled outward on all fours for a few quick steps.
Yet immediately afterward, a kick struck his waist, sending him flying like an artillery shell before crashing into the lake ahead.
Even reaching this point, no one moved to deactivate the simulation field. The senior leadership of the Stars Academy watched with rapt attention.
Among the academy executives, some were not Longevity View martial artists, and a few were not even martial artists at all. Consequently, they could never follow a battle of this caliber in real time, relying on the slowed-down footage on the field screen. They were far more comfortable with this kind of "slow-paced" exchange before their eyes.
Furthermore, perfecting the simulation's recorded data required collecting more information, so the longer the fight lasted, the better.
As for the apparent lack of respect shown to this "legendary hero"—well, the man had long been dead anyway. Since he was a Federation hero, contributing a little more was only proper.
Chen Chuan had kicked Cui Xuanhui into the water, yet he did not pursue. Instead, he waited on the spot. After quite a while, ripples and bubbles broke the lake's surface.
Cui Xuanhui resurfaced from the water, the gray spiritual fire rapidly vaporizing the moisture on his skin and sending up billowing plumes of steam. At this moment, his face was contorted like a vicious ghost as he glared venomously at Chen Chuan, his eyes brimming with wary dread as well as shock and fury.
Taking a deep breath, the spiritual visage hovering above him suddenly dissolved into an indistinct mist, gradually drawing inward toward his body.
The Non-Body Style possessed a unique technique that allowed one's spiritual visage to cling to the physical form, generating an overlapping force between the visage and the self. Furthermore, because the size was reduced, speed increased accordingly. However, in this method, because the spiritual visage could not fully materialize, its power could not reach its absolute peak. Even so, even the slightest amplification was a tremendous boost.
At this moment, he appeared cloaked in a layer of swirling vapor. Once prepared, he let out a loud roar, drove his feet into the ground, and thrust a punch forward.
While Cui Xuanhui had been adjusting earlier, Chen Chuan had merely observed in silence without the slightest intent to interfere. Now, that rapidly expanding fist was mirrored in his deep, quiet eyes.
He could tell this strike interwove the ethereal and the substantial, accompanied by the shifting transformations of the spiritual visage. Yet facing such a highly technical blow, his response was likewise a straightforward, unadorned punch.
There was nothing extraordinary about this punch, save for the fact that it was unleashed at the precise moment the opponent was about to strike his body, cutting directly across the trajectory of the oncoming knuckles. Because Cui Xuanhui's power had already reached its limit, he could no longer evade; no matter what transformations or follow-up moves he held in reserve, he was forced into a direct, bone-jarring collision.
The moment their fists met, the air detonated with a thunderous roar. The spiritual fire across Cui Xuanhui's fist instantly shattered, and with it, his spiritual visage dispersed once again into a haze of mist.
Leaning forward, Cui Xuanhui broke free from the collapsing spiritual visage, lunging ahead with an explosive knee strike aimed directly at Chen Chuan.
Yet as if waiting for him to deliver himself, two hands reached out in perfect timing. One gripped his chest, sending a numbing seizing jin penetrating through his entire frame, while the other hand scooped up from below. Cui Xuanhui's vision flipped upside down, and with a resounding crash, he was slammed headfirst into the ground.
The entire simulation fell silent for a heartbeat, followed by a violent, booming shockwave. The ground shuddered incessantly as billowing rings of dust rolled outward, accompanied by deafening rumbles.
When the dust cleared, Cui Xuanhui's bones and muscles could be seen mashed together like limp mud. Yet the simulation was remarkably authentic; between a Secret Palace martial artist's tenacious vitality and Chen Chuan's deliberate restraint, he was still not dead.
Not only was he alive, but his sinews, bones, and muscles were piecing themselves together bit by bit, propping his crumpled body back into shape.
Yet this seemed to be no blessing, but rather the inception of a nightmare. The moment he had nearly recovered, Chen Chuan struck without mercy, reducing him once again to a mass of soft pulp.
Over the course of the next hour or more, each time Chen Chuan dealt him catastrophic injuries, he would pause to let him regenerate, only to knock him down once more, repeating the process over and over.
This simulated avatar of Cui Xuanhui was an exquisite recreation of his true self, possessing personality traits nearly identical to the original. This was because it retained his mental strength, supported behind the scenes by his preserved mutated tissue. To call it a remnant of him lingering in this world was no exaggeration.
Yet subjected to this unending battering, he suffered immense psychological trauma. Had his living self faced such an ordeal, he could have conceded, fled, or, in an extreme scenario, taken his own life.
Because this was a simulated environment, however, he was bound to obey its programming. He had no choice but to charge forward time and again to endure humiliation and brutal beatings, unable even to utter a plea for mercy as he withstood the relentless torment.
Moreover, the jin Chen Chuan applied was not aimed solely at destruction, but rather at maximizing pain. Thus, with every agonizing blow, Cui Xuanhui unleashed bloodcurdling shrieks, tasting torment he had never experienced in life.
Under this inescapable, repeated stimulation, the piece of mutated tissue stored beneath the Information Hall began to tremble as though influenced by resonance. The tempo quickened, and soon it engorged like a congested mass. Upon reaching its breaking point, it burst with a wet pop into countless viscous shreds of flesh and blood.
Cui Xuanhui's simulated figure flickered erratically before fading away into mist, his gaze hollowed out and drained of all soul.
This turn of events took the administrators of Stars Academy by surprise. Just then, an urgent notification reached their cochlear worms.
One administrator asked in astonishment, "It's gone?"
Since virtually no one ever chose to interact with Cui Xuanhui, his data had been stored almost entirely via the mutated tissue and mental imprint. Now the report indicated the mutated tissue had decomposed and the mental anchor was lost. This meant he had vanished from the world once and for all, beyond any hope of true recreation.
Naturally, because certain field data remained, a facsimile could still be approximated without requiring complete fidelity. Yet it would ultimately lack a soul. What was more, if anyone wished to study him in the future, the most direct footage available would be this spectacle of him being brutally beaten by Chen Chuan. Anyone researching Chen Chuan's combat data would likewise be unable to avoid this scene, forced to watch it again and again.
The expressions among the crowd grew nuanced. Could this have been intentional?
At this moment, the academy's active conscious entity prompted them, suggesting that given Cui Xuanhui's presence was detrimental to the academy's public image, the institution should revoke his title and honorific, replacing him with someone more suitable.
The administrators conferred briefly and agreed that since the man was now useless, replacing him was the proper course. A legendary hero ought to be a native of the Federation; how could an outlander from the Fuluo Peninsula deserve to stand alongside their own?
Truth be told, had it not been for particular historical reasons and a lack of any specific pretext, they would have removed him long ago. This served as the perfect opportunity.
The active conscious entity executed the procedural changes immediately, completing them in just a few seconds, and then inquired how the statue should be handled.
A board member shrugged. "It seems Chen quite enjoyed exchanging pointers with him. Why not ask if he wants it? If he likes, he can take it home as a souvenir."
Chapter 1105