Inside the White Rock Long Hall Building, the field screen before Ryan had already been flickering erratically. But as Chen Chuan unleashed a spiritual impact within the bamboo grove, the display abruptly washed out into a blinding sheet of white.
Ryan frowned. "Alura, what happened?"
"A high-intensity energy burst has been detected, exceeding the information-bearing threshold," Alura replied. "The field data is currently restabilizing. Due to the collision between two opposing energy currents, the originally projected calibration time of three minutes has been reduced to two minutes and twenty seconds."
Ryan looked at the screen, which showed next to nothing. So this was actually a good thing?
Within the bamboo grove, the moment Luo Xiao saw the spiritual fire erupt from Chen Chuan's blade, he vaulted sideways to evade.
Yet as soon as Chen Chuan swung his blade, he surged forward right behind the spiritual impact. It was remarkably similar to Luo Xiao's opening gambit, but something an ordinary opponent would never anticipate.
Ordinarily, unleashing a spiritual impact required a high degree of energy concentration. The mutated tissue had to go through a condensation process, drawing upon the majority of mutated tissue throughout the entire body. Consequently, such an instantaneous burst typically left a brief, temporary lull.
Even Chen Chuan could not entirely bypass that process. However, both the endurance and sheer resilience of his mutated tissue far exceeded those of ordinary fighters. Even without drawing upon his Second Self, he required no readjustment whatsoever and charged straight ahead.
As he pressed forward at breakneck speed, he saw Luo Xiao leap aside, and his eyes glinted faintly.
By all conventional logic, a spiritual impact should have caused a momentary pause. Luo Xiao certainly knew this. Had Chen Chuan been in his shoes, he would have mobilized his aberrant power to strike back at that very moment—with one figure if not two. Whatever it took, he would have seized the opening to close in and assault Chen Chuan, potentially ending the fight in a single stroke with a stroke of luck.
Yet Luo Xiao had chosen not to do so. That revealed a distinct possibility.
In the span of a single thought, Chen Chuan had already closed the distance. With a sweep of his arms, a wheel of blade-light flashed through the air.
Having just dodged the spiritual impact, Luo Xiao indeed had not anticipated that Chen Chuan would follow directly in its wake. It defied common sense entirely. Yet having fought his way through countless life-or-death battles over the decades, he possessed an instinctual sixth sense for danger. Without even perceiving Chen Chuan's movement, he instinctively deployed the cyan figure to shield himself.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan acknowledged inwardly that the man truly lived up to his status as a martial artist of the old era, relying on pure combat instinct to make the optimal decision on the spot. Without that move, the battle might have ended right then and there.
Even so, that choice merely prolonged the confrontation slightly. It would not change the ultimate outcome.
Chen Chuan lunged straight toward the cyan figure. The moment his blade descended, the blade held by the cyan figure rose to parry. In the instant of impact, Chen Chuan released his grip, letting the Xuejun Saber be knocked away. His hands, shimmering with platinum light, shot forward and seized the cyan figure with ferocious force.
Through multiple exchanges and careful observation, he had deduced that the figure was indeed corporeal. Moreover, judging from its reluctance to clash head-on with his spiritual impact earlier, it was susceptible to destruction by spiritual fire.
Luo Xiao finally registered what was happening. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the cyan figure captured. However, his dodge had been hurried, and Chen Chuan had closed the gap far too quickly. As Luo Xiao's momentum continued to carry him backward to create distance, he had no time to rush forward and break the hold. He was left with only one choice.
With a flick of his mind, the second cyan figure surged out from his body, thrusting its short spear straight toward Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan's gaze remained tranquil. The reaction was entirely within his calculations. In fact, from the moment he launched his assault, every move his opponent made had been anticipated—or rather, forced along the script Chen Chuan had dictated.
This sense of dominating an adversary's every action was far more satisfying than merely crushing them with overwhelming force.
Facing the charging cyan figure, Chen Chuan paid it no heed, letting the spear thrust straight at him. Yet just as the spearhead grazed his perimeter, it seemed to strike a slick, invisible barrier. The spear skidded off course, and the force imbued within the tip was swallowed whole in a single breath.
This was the work of the necklace relic he carried. Having acquired it, he intended to use it, and it was precisely because he possessed it that he had adopted this tactical approach.
At that moment, the spiritual brilliance radiating from Chen Chuan's hands surged dramatically. Accompanied by a blinding flash, the cyan figure was swallowed whole by spiritual fire.
Just as he had anticipated, the entity possessed formidable offensive power, yet it could not withstand a high-energy spiritual impact.
The instant the cyan figure disintegrated, Luo Xiao's body shuddered. Having his aberrant power destroyed clearly took a toll on him, leaving him momentarily frozen in place.
Chen Chuan was not about to let the opportunity slip by. Reaching out, he snatched the Xuejun Saber back into his grasp. He planted his feet and instantly materialized before Luo Xiao, delivering an unadorned, devastating cleave.
Luo Xiao knew he could no longer dodge. Yet with his wealth of combat experience, he twisted slightly in this critical moment, presenting the Visage of the Aberrant side of his body to meet the blade. Since that half was no longer human, its resilience was considerably greater.
Yet the Xuejun Saber was peerlessly sharp. It sheared through the searing spiritual fire coating Luo Xiao's body, bit deep into his shoulder, and carved straight down through his chest and abdomen. But just as it was about to split him cleanly in two, it met a layer of resistance.
Visible within his body were layer upon layer of spiritual fire!
When Longevity View martial artists reached an advanced stage of cultivation, their mutated tissue became increasingly active, often forming multiple layers of spiritual fire to protect their internal organs, achieving defense both inside and out. Aside from that, there was only one other circumstance where this occurred: yaogui!
A sufficiently high degree of aberration also granted mutated tissue this multi-layered defensive mantle.
And the condition of Luo Xiao's half-body was plainly the latter.
Even though grievously wounded, Luo Xiao had no intention of waiting for death. The saber in his left hand slashed horizontally toward Chen Chuan, clearly aiming to disrupt his follow-through.
Protected by the necklace, Chen Chuan could easily have tanked the blow and finished him off on the spot. But when he met Luo Xiao's eyes, he saw sheer madness and malice, along with a latent force that seemed on the verge of detonating from within.
Chen Chuan made an instant judgment: pressing the slash might not yield the desired result. Instead of pressing the attack, he exerted a shoving force, sending Luo Xiao flying backward.
Even as he pushed, Chen Chuan did not look back. He reached out to his side and seized the second cyan figure, which had just circled around from behind and was attempting to re-enter Luo Xiao's body. In that very instant, a spiritual impact erupted from his hand.
Amid a violently flashing radiance, the second cyan figure shattered into countless wisps of luminous vapor.
Chen Chuan could sense that, jarred by this destruction, the volatile power brewing inside Luo Xiao's body abruptly receded.
He did not know what that power had been, nor why it had dissipated, but he had no need to investigate. It was enough to know that an opening had presented itself.
He lunged forward. In a flash of light, he stood before Luo Xiao and clamped a hand onto the cleaved half of the man's shoulder. Seeming to realize what Chen Chuan intended, Luo Xiao's eyes widened in horror. "You—"
Expressionless, Chen Chuan gripped the shoulder and ripped downward with savage force. With a wet, tearing screech, he tore the severed, aberrant half of the man's body completely away!
The remaining half of Luo Xiao's body, bearing his head, staggered backward.
Chen Chuan could now see a fragment resembling broken jade exposed to the air near the heart of the open wound, pulsing with a faint glow.
Carrying the Xuejun Saber, Chen Chuan walked forward at an even pace. Stopping before Luo Xiao, he turned slightly and delivered an outward slash. Luo Xiao's head, along with a small portion of his shoulder, flew into the air and landed on the distant ground.
The remaining torso swayed twice and collapsed. The ring-pommel saber slipped from his fingers and clattered to the dirt.
Chen Chuan walked up, his gaze settling on the severed head below. A low, hoarse chuckle issued from Luo Xiao's throat.
"No wonder Great Shun sent you. I concede this defeat completely. Listen to me... don't leave my body behind. Don't let those Federation mongrels profit from it."
Chen Chuan said mildly, "You're overthinking it. Nothing of yours will remain."
Hearing that, Luo Xiao burst into hearty, unrestrained laughter. It was an explosive release, as though venting a lifetime of grievances or finding some long-sought liberation. Woven into that laughter was a touch of wildness and satisfaction, as if declaring that his life had been well worth the ride.
After his laughter subsided, he said, "Young man, there is something beneath my bamboo hut. Take it with you."
Chen Chuan spoke no further. He leveled an open palm at the head. A heartbeat later, a brilliant radiance engulfed the head and swept over the fallen body beside it.
When the light finally subsided, only a massive impact crater remained in the ground, leaving behind nothing but the ring-pommel saber and a short spear.
Chen Chuan slowly lowered his hand. The battle might have seemed drawn out, but setting aside the words exchanged and the moments of standoff, the actual clash had lasted only a matter of seconds.
At this echelon of martial artists, unless their strengths were exceptionally evenly matched, combat rarely dragged on.
What was more, he had faced the opponent's Visage of the Aberrant purely in his physical form. Had he deployed his spiritual visage as well, the fight would undoubtedly have concluded even faster. However, the entire perimeter of Center City fell under Alura's field. Revealing his external visage risked having his combat data collected.
He had deliberately refrained from manifesting his external visage during his match against Cui Xuanhui's construct in the Star Academy's information hall, and he had refrained here as well. The outcome proved that even when relying solely on his physical body, dispatching his opponent was hardly an ordeal.
Casting a backward glance toward the bamboo hut, he began walking toward it.
Chapter 1112