Before that ray of blinding light even reached him, Chen Chuan felt a piercing sting in his spirit. He had no doubt that without sufficient fire of spirituality to shield him, this intensely concentrated force would pierce clean through him.
At that moment, he was horizontally extended mid-kick. Facing the incoming strike, he suddenly leaned backward, shifting out of the piercing beam's trajectory while thrusting his outstretched leg fiercely forward. A burst of glittering light erupted beneath his sole as well, blasting straight toward Crossal's chest and abdomen!
While the move appeared to be a desperate counter launched in the midst of evasion, it was actually a three-stage build-up of jin. Both of his prior strikes had been setups for this single blow, and the timing of its final release was seized to perfection—unleashed at the exact split second his opponent attacked.
Caught right in the middle of executing his lethal technique, Crossal had no way to evade. The highly concentrated fire of spirituality over his chest detonated in an instant. A pulverized crater caved in where the strike landed, while fissure-like fractures spiderwebbed across his backward-arching back. Propelled by the kick, he flew backward at a speed even greater than that of his initial charge.
Yet his face showed no expression. As he hurtled back, the fractures across his chest, abdomen, and back knit closed strand by strand, while his aura surged higher and higher.
Clearly, under Chen Chuan's stimulation, more of his spirit was pouring into his physical vessel, and the dormant potential of his mutated tissue was steadily awakening.
After flying back a considerable distance, his feet planted firmly in midair with a crisp crack as his fire of spirituality forcefully arrested his momentum. Readjusting his center of gravity for just a fraction of a second, light flared around him, and he charged forward once again.
Having launched Crossal back with that kick, Chen Chuan used the recoil to flip backward through the air, landing hundreds of meters away. The moment his toes touched down, the ground shook and collapsed into rubble with a violent shudder, and he lunged straight back toward his opponent.
The surrounding scenery blurred rapidly past as viscous air was torn to shreds. Crossal reappeared directly in front of Chen Chuan, his leg snapping up in a kick glowing with an intensely flashing deep purple brilliance.
Chen Chuan noticed the shift in his opponent and knew Crossal was rapidly adapting and elevating his form. Far from being troubled, his fighting spirit only burned hotter.
With both sides charging headlong at each other, flinching or retreating would almost certainly put him on the defensive. He charged straight in, the Xuejun Saber in his grip cleaving violently forward!
From a short distance apart, two masses of fire of spirituality clashed first, sparking and eating away at each other. Finally, the blade met the incoming leg. Yet the instant they made contact, Chen Chuan felt the force behind his blade sink into sheer emptiness.
His eyes flickered. He realized at once that this was an exquisitely subtle technique of jin diversion; his opponent had never intended to meet him head-on at all—it was a tactical trap!
At that very instant, Crossal pulled in his abdominal muscles, instantaneously shifting his center of gravity in midair. Thrusting both palms forward, he shot forward with a whoosh, razor-sharp radiance gleaming from his fingertips.
Watching the figure rapidly expand in his vision, Chen Chuan flicked the blade that had already swung past, sweeping it upward in an uppercut slash!
By all logic, changing techniques mid-motion should have been impossible in time. Yet this slash was unfathomably swift. Although Crossal had seized the initiative in this exchange, the saber's pivoting speed meant it would indisputably cleave into him before his thrust could hit Chen Chuan!
This strike was not fueled by his own strength alone. Mutated weapons were inherently designed to augment and empower their wielders. Following this recent awakening, the mutated tissue within the Xuejun Saber had become extraordinarily active; not only could it inject fresh power after his own force was spent, but it also lent him swifter swings and devastating cutting force.
In high-intensity combat, even the slightest edge could determine victory or defeat, let alone such an immense boost. Continued along its trajectory, this single stroke would be enough to slice Crossal in two!
At this critical juncture, Crossal abandoned his offensive altogether. He simply shifted his shoulders and back—a microscopic adjustment, yet aided by his fire of spirituality, he zipped sideways with a swish, evading the slash.
However, yielding ground meant conceding the initiative.
Chen Chuan turned his wrist, driving the long blade with his waist in a horizontal cleave. Aware of his disadvantage, Crossal continued to retreat outward.
Chen Chuan then drove his blade down the centerline, pursuing Crossal's silhouette before sweeping outward in a slice. He barely had to exert himself now; once he set the blade in motion, the Xuejun Saber naturally generated a wellspring of momentum to sustain the sword flow.
Under Chen Chuan's relentless advance, Crossal found no opportunity to retaliate. Stamping hard against the air, he sought to disengage from the perimeter of the blade arc. Under this desperate evasion, the fire of spirituality clinging to his body was stretched out into thin filaments of light.
Chen Chuan pursued him like a shadow, cleaving in relentless succession. Yet he also noticed that each time Crossal dodged a strike, his strength and speed increased by a fraction. After dodging several consecutive slashes, not only had the man evaded them all, but the aura radiating from him had climbed to an astonishing height.
When yet another blade slashed toward him, Crossal did not retreat this time. The spiritual light and fire on his body flowed rapidly into a hyper-condensed state as he drove a fist down, smashing hard against the flat of the blade. With a single strike, he knocked the saber aside and plunged straight into Chen Chuan's center!
Seeing this, Chen Chuan knew his prior state was no longer enough to counter him. Without hesitation, he released the power of the mutated tissue across his body.
Having reached his current realm of cultivation, drawing upon and modulating such power was a matter of a single thought. The instant the thought arose, a surging swell of might welled up from within, and he raised his hand to press forward.
Crossal was blasting forward with his raised fist, but before it could reach him, Chen Chuan's palm pressed firmly against the fist's face, completely halting his forward charge. This abrupt stop, however, inevitably sparked another violent collision between them.
Both of their bodies stiffened simultaneously.
The tempestuous flurry of their preceding maneuvers had violently churned the surrounding atmosphere, whipping up a colossal hurricane that expelled fierce currents in all directions, howling wildly and detonating with piercing concussions.
Yet their pause lasted only an instant before they moved again. This time, both appeared closely matched in outward prowess. After exchanging several rounds of mutual assaults, another unavoidable clash sent them hurtling apart. Wheeling and drifting through the air as their gazes locked, they charged once more. After bursts of glittering light and deafening roars, they parted once again, only to clash anew!
Because Chen Chuan could draw power from the Xuejun Saber with every exchange, he was able to reserve far more physical stamina to adjust his condition and execute his tactics.
This was undoubtedly a tremendous advantage. Under such pressure, he could sense that Crossal was growing stronger still, but the pace of that improvement was nowhere near as rapid as before. This showed that the higher he climbed, the slower the growth became—though this likely had not yet reached the man's absolute ceiling.
If that was the case, it was time to turn up the intensity. The moment their forces collided and repelled each other outward, Chen Chuan pointed his saber to the side and drew a deep breath. At that very instant, billowing white steam surged from his body and limbs, spiraling upward toward the sky.
In virtually the span of a thought, spiritual force propelled him toward his opponent, and the saber in his hands cleaved down toward that silhouette!
This elevation multiplied his prior power, standing in a completely different realm. Crossal had not anticipated such an explosive leap in speed either. Through their earlier clashes, he had already tasted the Xuejun Saber's terrifying sharpness; if this blow landed cleanly, there was zero chance of blocking it. Spurred by that threat, the mutated tissue in his body writhed violently, unleashing immense power in a flash as he transformed into a streak of light to retreat outward.
Even so, he could not evade entirely. That peerlessly sharp edge swept across him, cleaving through the air with a faint mist of light.
Crossal retreated violently into the distance. Now, a split fissure could be seen across the middle of his torso, revealing mutated tissue and trickling blood within, wrapped in faint strands of platinum fire of spirituality. Yet that radiance was quickly expelled, and the wound knit tightly together immediately after.
By rights, Chen Chuan should have pressed his advantage to widen the outcome of the battle, but he did not. Hovering motionless in midair, he held the blade horizontally before him. Pressing the fingers of his other hand against the blade, he slowly drew them toward the tip before flicking outward with a brush—swish, wiping away a stubbornly adhesive droplet of blood.
The droplet of blood flew far away, striking the ground with a thump that cratered the earth, yet it subsequently floated up from the crater and swiftly flew back to Crossal's body.
Chen Chuan watched Crossal. The latter had likely realized back then that he could not fully escape the strike, so he had deliberately left a faint trace of blood qi wafting over the blade. Even though the fire of spirituality continually dissolved it, the ceaselessly sprouting vitality characteristic of the Cave Mystery View allowed it to persist for a fleeting moment.
Subtle tricks of this sort could serve a crucial purpose at a decisive juncture, such as launching a surprise attack or disrupting him, so it had to be dealt with.
Setting up a contingency out of a disadvantageous situation during a moment of crisis—such improvisation and tactical foresight truly befitted a martial artist of this caliber. Too bad for Crossal, any foreign substance was laid bare to Chen Chuan's spirit.
Crossal now hovered in the air, the deep purple halo around him growing denser and more solid. The power that surged when he retreated had not receded; rather, it had stabilized.
Viewing this through the long blade raised before him, Chen Chuan felt his fighting spirit blaze even brighter.
Yes, just like this. This was exactly what he hoped for.
Let us see, then, just where this man's limits truly lie.
Sensing that his opponent's power was once again nearly on par with his own, Chen Chuan had no intention of holding back either. With a shift of intent, he immediately stirred the strands of purple qi within his body!
Chapter 1166