Chen Chuan looked at the flickering light in his palm. Currently, he had several trains of thought, and among them, the best approach was naturally spiritual impact.
This means of attack—swift to unleash and carrying tremendous destructive power—was the most likely to produce the effect he wanted.
The difficulty lay in the fact that many martial artists possessed keen danger instincts, and unleashing a spiritual impact typically required a brief moment to build up power, which often gave an opponent time to react.
Yet if he could solve the issue of buildup while ensuring the impact's power remained undiminished, it would become an extraordinarily lethal trump card.
This was by no means impossible.
Gazing at the light in his hand, the flickering glow actually began to dim slowly under his focused gaze, until finally, as he clenched his fingers, it vanished completely.
If any other martial artist had been present to witness this scene, they would undoubtedly have been utterly shocked.
For he had not dispelled the spiritual impact after discharging it; rather, he had drawn it back in just moments before it was about to erupt. The former was already difficult, but the latter was countless times harder.
Executing a spiritual impact was a complex and delicate process. The mutated tissues throughout the entire body required high levels of coordination: first, gathering and gradually condensing spiritual energy while guiding and stabilizing it through controlled breathing, followed by the unified coordination of mutated tissues, culminating in an outward eruption.
In truth, this was an intricate multi-step process demanding exceptional skill, where not the slightest oversight could be afforded at any stage.
More crucially, once this process was initiated, the energy would pour forth like a mountain torrent, nearly impossible to halt. This was why many martial artists, despite having ample energy, remained extremely cautious about employing this technique and typically chose to release it from a greater distance.
Channeling this move meant exposing their intentions and relinquishing the initiative. If an enemy had sharp senses and launched a preemptive interception, the user would be utterly defenseless during that interval.
Furthermore, due to the intense burst of power, a brief recovery period followed, creating another vulnerable window ripe for attack. Thus, if a spiritual impact failed to hit the opponent, the user would be the one taking a beating next.
Yet forcibly dispersing it as Chen Chuan did meant seizing full control of power on the verge of erupting in the blink of an eye, pulling it back, and forcefully crushing it into dissipation. To say nothing of the sheer complexity, the strain borne by the mutated tissues throughout this process was unimaginable.
To make an analogy, it was like someone sprinting at full tilt suddenly and without warning reversing into a backwards sprint at even greater speed, right after starting off. The jarring incongruity of it was almost sickening just to imagine.
Yet he had truly pulled it off. This was owed not only to his mutated tissues being capable of bearing greater power, but also to the purple gaseous mutated tissues. These tissues essentially functioned as another independent system, not just sharing the strain but also assisting him in executing subsequent actions with greater efficiency.
However, this was only the beginning. He did not rely entirely on them. Once he consciously regulated and suppressed the energies, gradually adapting to and mastering the nuances involved, his body would grow new auxiliary mutated tissues tailored to his needs.
Such a choice was something many martial artists experienced. Once they reached a certain level, they would choose to reinforce specific mutated tissues or foster the growth of tissues dedicated to coordinating with specialized techniques.
However, these tissues could consume extra energy and might not even be useful on regular occasions, becoming a burden. As a result, many martial artists were exceedingly circumspect when making this choice, sometimes even seeking ways to dissolve them during certain periods and only stimulating their growth before they were needed.
Yet to him, this was of little concern. His spirit had anchored deeply enough into the world across; such consumption was utterly negligible.
His current goal was to achieve seamless mastery over releasing and restraining it at will. Of course, this was currently limited to a small amount of spiritual fire; beyond a certain threshold, even he could not maintain control, for every additional bit of condensed spiritual fire required exponentially more strength to suppress. This required gradual conditioning through sustained practice.
Once the newly formed mutated tissues grew robust, he should be able to realize his vision, though if necessary, he would incorporate the purple mist as well.
In fact, even before full mastery, he could already employ this as a tactical measure to confuse and disrupt an enemy's anticipation, thereby creating combat opportunities.
Looking back across the long river of history, exceptional individuals were beyond count, and others had surely thought of this method. But he was confident that those capable of achieving what he just had were few and far between, because their mutated tissues simply lacked the capacity to endure it—forcing the issue would only break their own bodies first.
Beyond spiritual impact, his other consideration was jin force.
The Zhouyuan Jin technique granted him complete mutated tissues unprecedented in scope, and their robustness and density were unmatched by anyone of his level. This meant that, setting aside spiritual impact, the explosive force of his mutated tissues far surpassed that of most martial artists.
In theory, as long as he coordinated this power as a cohesive whole, he could unleash an unprecedentedly powerful burst of explosive jin.
However, martial artists were shielded on the exterior by spiritual fire, and past a certain level, they even possessed a second layer of spiritual defense within. Just as in his own current cultivation, he could feel that with the transformation of his mutated tissues, more spiritual fire was generated inside his body, forming a second or even multiple layers of protection. This meant that even if an attack breached the outer layer, the inner barriers would still absorb the shock, drastically weakening the transmission of jin force.
Yet here the role of the purple gaseous mutated tissues had to be highlighted once more. Hovering between the insubstantial and the corporeal, they served not only as an energy reservoir but could also act as carriers for jin force, infecting and permeating the interior of an enemy.
Previously, he had only used this function to track an enemy's position. But since they could be transferred directly into an opponent's body, then in theory, jin force could also erupt through these purple gaseous tissues from within.
Naturally, this was merely a preliminary concept at present; its practical application still required deeper exploration.
Aside from those two considerations, he had recently conceived another idea.
That was to use the Xuejun Saber to achieve his goal.
After absorbing something from the Wanderer, the Xuejun Saber had become sharper than ever before. When facing Crossal, even the latter had not dared to confront its edge directly, mostly resorting to parries and glancing deflections to avoid the blade's strikes. In their final exchange, Chen Chuan could actually have chosen to cleave the man in two with a single slash.
With the weapon already this sharp, if it were paired with a harmonized burst of explosive jin force, the resulting damage would be terrifyingly potent. Perhaps the vision he had conceived could be realized ahead of schedule.
Still, his hypothetical adversaries were Dongxuan View martial artists. Against such figures, the best one could hope for was to dismantle their immediate combat capability on the field; outright killing them would likely prove exceedingly difficult. Fortunately, he had not set his sights so unreasonably high for now—merely achieving that first step would be sufficient.
As for the spirit visage—
He had tried looking into this on the Wansong platform, but in battles among the Longevity View, there was no notion of a spirit visage failing to keep pace with combat. Thus, no one else had encountered a dilemma like his, for nobody would ever contemplate challenging the Dongxuan View while at this stage. And so, what was normally a non-issue had become a problem for him.
However, the Wansong platform did offer one recommendation:
Relics.
Certain relics with specific effects could achieve the results he desired.
If he could find one, it would actually be the least demanding route.
While he believed it was always best to master abilities on his own, he would not reject external aids either. Implants, weapons, and relics—in his eyes, there was no fundamental difference between them. Besides, if you didn't use them, others surely would.
After sorting through his ideas, he practiced releasing and restraining his spiritual impact in the training hall for a time. Only then did he open the case, take his medicines, and begin his daily cultivation. The only difference from his usual routine was that the dosage used this time far exceeded previous amounts.
After continuing through the night, he concluded his cultivation at dawn. After washing up, he tapped his boundary credential to check for any messages.
Nothing notable had happened within the delegation yesterday. Since they had just arrived, the delegation had given everyone two days to get their bearings, so there was essentially nothing to attend to for now.
However, a letter had arrived last night from Xin Wulang, master of the Non-Body style dojo in the Federation's capital.
Having heard that the new inheritor of the Non-Body style dojo had arrived, the master wanted to invite him to a meal and report some important matters.
Chen Chuan considered it and felt he might as well pay a visit first; after all, he was now the nominal master of the dojo.
When Delegation Leader Xie learned of this, he attached great importance to it as well. Even if used merely as a foothold, the Non-Body style dojo held immense value, and the capital branch possessed an irreplaceable role. Therefore, he specially arranged for several management professionals to accompany Chen Chuan.
Shortly past ten in the morning, Chen Chuan's private car pulled up in front of the Non-Body style dojo. Having received advance notice, Master Xin Wulang was already waiting outside with a cadre of elite disciples.
They all wore matching training uniforms, exuding the distinct vigor and disciplined spirit characteristic of Eastern Continent martial arts.
After stepping out of the vehicle, Chen Chuan took a look around. The dojo was situated in the northwest corner of Center City, sprawling across an expansive plot of land with an unobstructed view of the Cuiklan Great Inner Lake. The prime location was virtually worth its weight in gold.
It was only because the dojo had been established early on, right during the Federation's founding era, and because its nominal owner was a national hero of the Federation, that it had ever secured such prime real estate.
The value of this land alone was enough to match the combined construction costs of every Non-Body style dojo across the entire Federation. No wonder corporations back in Veia State Center City had wanted to seize the school's properties. Conversely, without a sufficiently formidable figure holding down the fort, defending such prime property was impossible.
One could imagine that even now, plenty of covetous eyes remained fixed on the dojo. Was this the trouble mentioned in the letter?
Master Xin Wulang was a rugged, burly man with an extraordinarily imposing physique that made the disciples around him look like children. Yet both his attitude and tone of voice were exceptionally humble.
Approaching in accordance with old traditions, he respectfully bowed in greeting to Chen Chuan, then solemnly invited him into the dojo.
Chapter 1176