Sensing Chen Chuan closing in on its flank, the Wanderer flashed with a brilliant light from deep within its body and responded with an equally swift movement.
Turning with a slap, it struck toward Chen Chuan's fist from the side, landing with pinpoint accuracy. The spiritual fires on both sides first dissolved and shattered against each other, torrential gusts of displaced air bursting outward as their respective jin surged into one another.
With merely a faint tremor running through the mutated tissue inside him, Chen Chuan neutralized the jin and swung another punch immediately.
The battle at this point tested not only strength and speed, but also technique, stamina, and coordination.
Because both were moving at blinding speeds, their attacks had to match and keep pace with each other's velocity.
If either lagged behind or pulled slightly ahead, they risked slipping past one another in an instant, causing strikes to miss and preventing jin from fully penetrating.
Yet as the fleeing party, the Wanderer naturally had fewer constraints in this regard; it could constantly shift directions, accelerating and decelerating unpredictably to evade Chen Chuan's offensive.
This exchange proved no different. As the jin struck, it twisted backward and tumbled outward, shedding the force while simultaneously dodging the follow-up assault.
Yet one factor had changed: although it had broken free of the ritual, it was also severed from the scattered crystalline mists that had previously enshrouded it. When confronting the Grand Radiant Light Forms and Grand Firmament Forms now, there was nothing left to absorb the damage or disperse the force fields. And as if to deflect that burden, other changes began to manifest across its body.
As it retreated, clusters of crystals burst from its form, igniting into bursts of pyrotechnic sparks. In its rapid flight, these trailing embers stretched into countless dazzling, vibrant arcs.
Chen Chuan could tell that these were fragments of the Wanderer's spiritual essence cast outward, condensing into new forms upon falling into the material world.
All of them originated from its body—in truth, they remained parts of itself.
Without replenishment from the other side, every release eroded the very foundation of its existence.
In theory, as long as he sustained an offensive of this intensity—denying it the chance to absorb energy from the other side or ensuring its consumption outstripped replenishment—he could obliterate it purely through relentless punches.
The Wanderer was even more keenly aware of this peril than he was, so throughout the subsequent clashes, it exhausted every maneuver in an effort to pull away.
Yet the purple mutated tissue within Chen Chuan bolstered him across every dimension. No matter how the creature altered its velocity or shifted its trajectory, Chen Chuan stayed perfectly in step, accurately reading every nuance of its movement.
Under these circumstances, the full might of his every punch and kick slammed cleanly into the opponent without leaking a single shred, forcing the Wanderer to endure every blow head-on.
Under this crushing offensive, the Wanderer was compelled to elevate itself in kind. It indeed possessed methods to adjust its own power according to its adversary's strength, yet paradoxically, this too came at the cost of consuming its own essence.
At this moment, it was like a pile of ignited firewood: the faster it burned and the fiercer the blaze, the closer it drew to its own end.
Yet faced with immediate destruction, it could not halt the process; on the contrary, it had to accelerate it.
Otherwise, without needing to wait for what lay ahead, it would be shattered and slain on the spot the very next instant.
Through their ongoing pursuit and clashes, Chen Chuan had also gained a deep understanding of this opponent. After all, the feedback from colliding jin never lied, and throughout the bout, he had steadily grasped its minute shifts and weaknesses.
Thus, he had no intention of granting the opponent even the slightest respite or opening, pressing right up against it in a barrage as dense as a downpour.
The Wanderer had no recourse other than to continue burning its own essence, yet no matter how it pushed its limits, it could not shake itself free of this predicament.
Under Chen Chuan's ceaseless bombardment, the crystal clusters across its form shattered and vanished at incredible speed. Within a few short seconds, its originally solid-looking frame grew faint and ethereal, while the dazzling radiance gleaming across its body visibly dimmed, showing no sign of recovery.
A few seconds later, having seemingly reached its absolute limit, it finally fell half a beat behind. Failing to fully disperse the impact, it was blown backward by a direct punch. It appeared to have broken away from the fray, but in truth, it had completely surrendered the initiative.
Chen Chuan closed the distance instantly, following up with punch after punch. The Wanderer struggled to defend itself as it tumbled through the air, but each blow sent violent tremors through its frame, shattering broad swathes of its radiance. Now, it looked half-real and half-phantom, as if only one or two more strikes would force it to disperse completely.
At this juncture, as if sensing the mortal peril before it, a furnace seemed to ignite within the Wanderer's body, like sparks flaring beneath ash. The instant it lit up, an intensely brilliant radiance erupted, illuminating the sky nearly as bright as day. The air behind it appeared to fracture as well, revealing glimmers of blinding light from within.
The fissure was actually being torn open toward the outside at this very moment!
The Wanderer fixed its two flickering eyes upon him.
Chen Chuan realized acutely that seeing no hope of escaping his fists, the creature was staking everything on one final, desperate struggle, burning through all that remained. From the searing heat emanating from the other side and that incandescent glow, he could feel its power spike to an absolute zenith in this instant, forcibly borrowing a surge of energy from the other side as well.
Then let a single punch decide the victor!
Air boomed beneath his feet as Chen Chuan clenched his fist and surged forward, meeting it with a punch of his own. Driven fully by the purple mutated tissue, his presence surged another level higher! A blazing, platinum-white flame gathered at the tip of his fist.
This strike carried no finesse, no intricate jin—only pure, overwhelming power!
In the next instant, the two fists collided. It was as though two massive mountains had smashed into each other rather than two fists. At the point of contact, spiritual fire detonated into a brilliant halo across the sky, rippling outward in ring after expanding ring.
With their fists braced against one another, both remained locked in midair in that clash.
After a brief stillness, a faint fracturing sound broke out. Fine cracks spread along the Wanderer's arm, and tiny fragments began peeling and flaking away. Soon, the same fractures appeared across every part of its body.
The fracturing worsened rapidly. Larger and more numerous shards drifted off its body until, moments later, nothing remained but a shattered, ragged silhouette barely maintaining a humanoid shape. Only the intact fist remained braced at the front.
With a slight jolt of his fist, Chen Chuan toppled the final pillar. Under that tremor, the Wanderer collapsed completely, its entire body dissolving into a sky full of scintillating stardust and ash.
Amidst the scattering dust of light, he caught sight of a faint, flickering glow. That object was resonating strangely with the fissure that had not yet fully sealed.
Having battled beings from the other side many times, he knew such entities usually possessed a core; only by destroying it could they be truly eliminated.
And so he reached out, placing his hand upon the hilt of the Xuejun Saber hovering beside him.
This ends here.
In the next instant, a brilliant, cold gleam cleaved the night sky and struck the object. With a crisp ping, something shattered, and as the blade swept past, the fissure behind it was wiped completely out of existence!
At that moment, he felt a vibration pulse through the Xuejun Saber, as if it had absorbed something. He did not linger to inspect it, turning smoothly to sheath the blade with a crisp clack.
The long red sash on the hilt fluttered gracefully with the breeze.
He slowly released his grip on the hilt, watching the remaining embers scatter and fade into the wind.
Turning around slowly, he glanced in the direction of Center City. From the moment he had first engaged Covington to the Wanderer's destruction just now, barely five minutes had elapsed in total.
Reason dictated that an emperor of the old era over there was also attempting a breakthrough.
Yet that had nothing to do with him. He had slain Covington and this Wanderer solely because both entities were linked to the world on the other side; so long as they persisted, their next step would inevitably be tearing open a fissure.
As a member of the Purist Faction, it was only natural for him to step forward and eradicate such threats. Anyone else fell outside his concern.
Meanwhile, before Chen Chuan and the Wanderer had flown out of Center City, that former emperor had walked swiftly into the Ancient Museum. Because the ritual had been breached by the two combatants, even more mutated tissue had migrated over to him.
Judging by the quantity, nearly half of it was here now, but continuing down this path would make him easy to detect.
Before bringing his plan to fruition, he could not afford that.
Due to Covington's earlier siphoning of aberrant power, all the guards and combat organisms around the museum had collapsed. Even the combat dolls sat with heads slumped, devoid of all vitality.
Although the dolls utilized artificial mutated tissue, they also incorporated biological materials, which counted as living organisms before Covington's aberrant power. They too had found no escape. One could say that not even an insect remained alive nearby now. Anyone at the same tier whom Covington had not intentionally spared would inevitably succumb.
Even certain bio-based exhibits inside the museum had suffered effects, with the worse cases ruined completely. Practically nowhere had been spared, yet this made his search for his items all the easier.
Upon stepping inside, his expression shifted slightly, and he walked toward an exhibition hall. Soon, in an illuminated display case, he saw a jewel-encrusted cruciform longsword, a magnificent robe in gold and red patterned with roses and lilies, an octagonal crown set with pearls and gemstones, a golden spiral cross scepter, along with chains, ribbons, gloves, and other regalia.
All of these were what he had worn before his capture.
As he drew near, these items seemed to cheer in welcome, beckoning him to set them free.
A faint smile curled at the corners of his mouth. "So here you are."
Chapter 1156