Chen Chuan had taken a moment to build up this spiritual impact. Its sheer might utterly exceeded the threshold of danger detectable by large field creatures.
Cities ringing the Treklan Great Inland Lake raised their alert levels in unison, and telegrams seeking information instantly flew in all directions.
Inside Center City, combat airships scrambled into the sky one after another. Every martial artist in the city braced for danger.
At this very moment, the Federation's capital, lying practically on their doorstep, reacted just as swiftly; the Executive Administration nearly declared a state of war on the spot.
Such an extreme reaction was hardly surprising. Although the former empire's exiled emperor had remained quiet of late, there was no telling when he might retaliate against them. While they showed no outward sign of alarm, they had long since prepared precautions behind the scenes.
However, this state of emergency was called off shortly after a report was brought up.
At that moment, Dongxuan View martial artists from across the globe, as well as locals, were gathered within the Federation's capital.
Possessing their own channels of information, they had all caught wind of what happened, and their curiosity was piqued. After all, daring to do something like this right by the Federation's capital was, in their eyes, an utter slap in the face to the Federation.
When they subsequently learned that this person was the very one who had humiliated Crossal last time, their interest grew even deeper.
What would the Federation do?
Within the Federation government, voices immediately called for granting authorization to dispatch capital Throne martial artists to handle the matter.
However, this proposal was rejected. The Executive Administration merely ordered the matter to enter committee deliberations and rapidly formed an ad hoc observation and response team to oversee it.
Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the Executive Administration was deliberately suppressing the issue. By the time their discussions reached a conclusion, everything on the other end would have been long over.
The sharper observers from various nations soon caught on as well. The Federation government had made this choice likely because they did not wish to escalate the situation and bring adverse consequences upon the current administration. That was understandable—the incident had taken place on the East Coast, and they had no desire to become an easy target for attacks from the West Coast.
More importantly, they certainly did not want their relations with Great Shun to sour, indicating that whatever the two nations were currently negotiating was likely far more significant than outsiders had imagined.
Meanwhile, on Big Conch Island, Chen Chuan maintained his posture with one hand extended. His strike had collapsed nearly half the hill.
Massive boulders, still retaining scorching residual heat, flew in every direction before crashing heavily at the foot of the slope.
Amid rolling clouds of smoke and dust, a vast, yawning cavern appeared in the mountain's core, its inner walls bearing scorched scars from the blast.
At a glance, it was obvious that the mountain belly had been manually excavated and hollowed out, but Chen Chuan's strike had blasted it wide open.
Faint echoes of collapses rumbled from the depths of the cavern. Because the interior had not fully stabilized, every aftershock brought down cascades of stone fragments, while the dying glow of the sunset reached inward, making it resemble a blood-red wound.
His gaze lowered as his figure, holding the Xuejun Saber, drifted down from midair and came to rest right before the cavern entrance.
In the blast just now, everyone—be they armed personnel, cult members, or ordinary fighters hiding inside—had been killed in an instant.
He could sense that protective rituals had originally been laid out here. Though they had reacted a moment ago, they had achieved little.
Above all, his strike had simply been too excessive. Being near the Federation's capital, the sect could not have set up an overly conspicuous ritual here.
His calculations told him that the strike ought to have pierced completely through the mountain and blown out the other side; yet when it reached the deepest point, it had been checked by a force.
Gazing into the depths of the cavern, his figure blurred, and in the next instant, he appeared inside the hollow mountain.
Glancing around, he saw a person sitting there, a lingering wisp of platinum light remaining in the palm of his hand.
The man wore a dark, impeccably tailored formal suit without a single wrinkle, the cloth faintly outlining the contours of his muscles.
Across his back hung a cruciform sword.
His expression was so tranquil that it bordered on perilous, his impassive grey eyes concealed behind a pair of tinted fashion glasses.
He did not even look up at Chen Chuan's arrival. Instead, he clenched his fingers, snuffing out the last plume of spiritual flame.
Then, hands in his trouser pockets, he rose slowly to his feet as purplish-gold spiritual flames flickered around him. Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and he kicked a pebble near his feet away, leaving behind a smooth platform pristine and completely devoid of debris.
In an indifferent tone, he murmured, "I didn't really want to come here. But who can help it when it's 'his' wish?
"I always feel he's like a child who never grows up, needing an adult to look after him. And not just him—the others too."
Chen Chuan could tell these words were not meant for his ears at all, but were spoken entirely to himself. It seemed this man valued only himself and cared for nobody else.
This person actually gave him a sense of deja vu.
Previously, he had fought against Gluttony of the Primordial Sect. Although this man looked different on the outside, inwardly he gave Chen Chuan the exact same impression.
It seemed he had run into an old rival.
Back then, he had suspected that the one he faced might not have been a pure Longevity View martial artist. Now it appeared the man before him was merely a Longevity View vessel, but one possessed by the divine visage power of a Dongxuan View martial artist within. The situation last time must have been identical.
However, the one he faced last time held very little Visage of the Divine power within his body—most likely just a faint trace of divine visage power—whereas today was different. That meant the man could not simply be treated as a Longevity View martial artist.
Yet far from making Chen Chuan hesitate or shrink back, this caused a surge of fighting spirit to well up within him.
He had known that once the Primordial Sect learned of his application for an operation targeting the fissure, even if they did not believe he would take real action, they would not sit idly by. They would certainly find a way to bolster the defenses here.
An opponent like this was precisely what he needed.
Still, he had not forgotten his real objective here today.
Looking past the man, his eyes traveled toward the rear. Near the cliff wall hung a golden curtain. Even though it was draped shut, he could still sense waves of aura leaking from the other world behind it.
Just then, he saw the man standing ahead with his head tilted slightly upward, hands thrust in his pockets, showing not the slightest intention of drawing the cruciform sword on his back. He looked as if he were waiting for Chen Chuan to make the first move.
Chen Chuan did not stand on ceremony. He raised a finger toward the man, and light suddenly flickered at its tip.
A brilliant white gleam reflected instantly across the man's fashion glasses. Opening a battle directly with a spiritual impact was exceedingly rare.
Relying on experience, he dodged to the side at once. Having tasted the force of Chen Chuan's strike earlier, he knew even its fading remnants were immensely powerful. But he did not believe he was incapable of taking it; rather, he felt that clashing head-on failed to display his true level of skill.
If a battle ended in a single moment, how boring would that be?
His pupils contracted behind the lenses the next instant, however, because the light on the fingertip merely flashed without being unleashed. Immediately following, a dazzling arc of saber light flashed out, instantly illuminating the entire cavern and appearing right before him.
He had intended to sidestep the impact and lunge forward, launching an attack in the brief interval following Chen Chuan's spiritual impact. But this sudden shift threw his calculations into disarray, forcing him to adjust his movement on the fly.
His reflexes were swift, and because of his arrogance, he had held back some margin before attacking, deeming his foe unworthy of full effort. This ironically allowed him to check himself in time and recover his tempo. Yet as fast as he moved, his opponent was not a whit slower—in fact, he came on even faster!
He had barely sidestepped when the razor-sharp saber light grazed past him, sending an arm flying through the air.
Having struck home with one slash, Chen Chuan reversed his blade into a horizontal sweep. Yet because severing the arm met resistance from the spiritual fire coating it, the blade's momentum lagged for a fraction of an instant, allowing the cruciform sword to block it with a loud clang.
Inevitably, their gazes met. Chen Chuan caught a sense of lofty superiority in the man's eyes, giving the impression that he cared nothing for his severed arm; rather, to his mind, losing an arm was the only thing that made this fight somewhat fair.
At that exact moment, an obscure glimmer flashed in the man's eyes.
Chen Chuan tilted his head at once. Almost in the same breath, two deep craters appeared in the cliff wall behind him, yet he saw no trace of any spiritual impact. This had to be a specialized mental power technique.
Having dodged, Chen Chuan's offensive tempo was inevitably disrupted. Yet with a flick of his wrist, the blade slashed outward, the Xuejun Saber pulling his body along to forcibly bridge the gap in his assault.
Having failed to land his blow, the man found himself at a greater disadvantage. Yet his strength and speed inexplicably shot upward in that split second, and fast as the saber light was, he dodged it repeatedly.
A few times, he could have parried with his cruciform sword to ease his predicament, but doing so would inevitably lead to a direct clash of strength. Unsure of how their power compared, an ordinary fighter would have chosen to evade just as he did.
Yet his evasion seemed born of disdain, as though parrying were beneath him and dodging was an act of charity toward his opponent.
Chen Chuan could sense that the man held an absolute sense of superiority regarding his own power. Under ordinary circumstances, Chen Chuan would gladly have let his opponent adjust and ramp up his strength, taking the opportunity to experience the might of a Throne-level Visage of the Divine.
Right now, however, this was an ambush at its core, and he did not have much time. He had to prove the fissure's existence before anyone arrived, so he had no intention of giving him room to power up.
Therefore, after several consecutive slashes, the mutated tissue throughout Chen Chuan's body suddenly erupted into full release. This sudden burst drove the already lightning-swift Xuejun Saber even faster, its flaming edge pressing right up against the man's cheek in an instant!
Chapter 1195