Faced with the fierce, incoming flash of the blade, the man opposite narrowed his pupils abruptly. At this juncture, there was no time at all to pull back the sword in his hand to block.
In this critical moment, a faint gleam flickered between his brows. The spiritual fire cloaking his body condensed in front of him at an unimaginable speed before the edge reached his face.
Looking at the highly condensed purple-gold aura of flames, Chen Chuan could immediately sense that even if this slash managed to cleave through the outer defense, being obstructed by this barrier meant it might not inflict much damage on the man.
Furthermore, the opponent's timing was exquisite—it fell right when the blade's momentum was nearly spent. If Chen Chuan shifted stances now, the pause and transition would unnecessarily grant the other man time to react.
Nor was there any need to shift. At the very moment before impact, the exertion method of his mutated tissue twisted slightly. The blade was no longer chopping; instead, it slapped directly across the opponent's cheek!
Even if the spiritual fire could protect his surface from injury, the man's entire body was whipped into a spin and sent flying by the strike.
Yet even while tumbling, he did not forget to adjust his center of gravity, bringing himself into a posture better suited to weather any follow-up offensive.
From behind, the flash of the blade caught up in an instant. Here, the man displayed the high caliber of a true martial artist: not only had he properly adjusted his center of gravity, but his spiritual fire also blocked the edge in the nick of time once more. His timing was impeccable, flaring up virtually the exact split second the blade touched skin, giving no opening whatsoever to alter the direction of the strike.
Chen Chuan fixed his gaze upon him. Still eschewing any cutting or slashing, he swung his arms in another ferocious whip-like blow. The man spun through the air like a top, hurled straight toward the opposite rock wall.
Although the man had avoided serious injury across these successive impacts thanks to his timely defenses, the spiritual fire was already showing signs of crumbling under two violent collisions spaced so closely together.
Moreover, the shock and wrenching force delivered through the blade made further bodily adjustments extraordinarily difficult. In his current physical state, this was truly the absolute limit of what he could manage; if struck once more, his defenses would undoubtedly shatter.
Yet he was not without a trump card. Spurred by such intense stimulation, the Divine Visage lurking within his body began relentlessly channeling power into him.
In just this brief span, more spiritual fire erupted from all across his body, and his mutated tissue rapidly grew tougher and stronger. Although he remained on the defensive, these boosts were sufficient for him to withstand the incoming onslaught.
What was more, this surge would not stop; it would continue escalating until his body felt capable of overpowering his adversary.
Thus, though battered ruthlessly, a smile still lingered on his face. In his eyes, the low point he currently endured was merely a minor diversion in battle. Ultimate victory belonged unquestionably to him. The more unrestrained his opponent acted now, the more despairing he would be in the end; until then, he was willing to bestow upon him a scrap of shallow pleasure and pity.
Having batted his foe away once more, Chen Chuan closed in immediately. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he activated the Furnace Breathing Technique the moment his blade came crashing down!
His skin turned scalding hot in an instant, and wisps of billowing white vapor vented from his body.
The man had never expected Chen Chuan's offensive power to explode once again, striking with even greater ferocity than before. As a result, the edge granted by his own rising strength was not merely neutralized, but overtaken by an even wider margin.
Fortunately, utilizing the Heaven and Earth Furnace Breathing Technique caused Chen Chuan's rhythm to slow by a single beat, finally allowing the man to bring his longsword back around to guard his front.
The clash of saber and sword caused the spiritual fire to detonate in a flash that illuminated the cavern.
Yet even if he managed a hasty parry against the momentum, there was no way he could disperse the force flooding into him. Driven backward by the blade's sheer weight, he sought to muster his power and keep from being repelled again.
Yet he barely held on for an instant. As the subsequent, even more immense and brutal force bore down upon him, the strength throughout his body was drained almost completely dry in a single breath, shoving him straight toward the rock wall behind.
The angle and point of force Chen Chuan chose for this strike were nothing short of perfect; a hair off, and it never could have produced this result. Under such circumstances, had the defender shifted his muscles even slightly, the direction would have been deflected.
Yet his opponent had been unable to manage such a maneuver. Having committed every ounce of his power directly forward, he had none to spare for anything else, ultimately culminating in this very scene.
Locked tightly together, their two figures streaked across midair with a whoosh until, with a dull boom, Chen Chuan smashed the man into the mountain wall behind him with his blade.
Hard stone was cleaved open effortlessly by the force of the spiritual fire. Sheltered behind that protection, the impact caused him no real harm—yet that hardly meant he could breathe easy.
From this point on, movement in any direction would be blocked by the stone wall. Without an adversary before him, that might have meant nothing, but against a formidable foe, this slight hindrance was magnified into a fatal flaw.
He had virtually lost all room to dodge and maneuver.
His only choice was to trade blow for blow head-on.
Chen Chuan continued driving his force forward, pressing him deeper into the rock face. Spurred by this pressure, the internal power within the man seemed to awaken further. In mere moments, the spiritual fire covering him condensed into near-solid form, encasing him like a layer of grease as his power mounted steadily higher.
A trace of disdain touched the corners of his mouth. In his eyes, no matter how much his foe's power increased, it could never surpass his own. Yet no sooner had that sneer surfaced than he noticed the opposing blade gradually glowing with light, illuminating him brightly in an instant.
At such close quarters, he could feel a terrifying power radiating from it, sending a chill through even him.
His gaze involuntarily lifted, meeting a pair of profoundly tranquil eyes.
Unable even to dodge, he seemed left with no choice but to take this strike head-on. Yet right then, an unvarnished glint of mockery surfaced in his eyes.
At that very instant, the severed arm lying on the ground in the distance suddenly twitched, rocketing straight toward Chen Chuan's back!
Right now, the strength of both men was practically intertwined. With Chen Chuan exerting his full might, even the slightest extraneous interference could disrupt the momentum he was gathering.
Such an offensive relied on an unbroken, all-out surge; once disrupted, the rhythm would snap. Not only would the momentum reverse, but it would also provide an opening for his opponent to seize, turn the tables, and completely flip the situation!
Just as that arm was about to slam into Chen Chuan's back, the long red sash on his saber's hilt fluttered. A veiled woman in red manifested in midair. Whirling like a swallow spreading its wings, she swept her yanling saber upward in a reverse stroke, striking squarely at the crook of the arm.
The impact set layer upon layer of muscle trembling, knocking its trajectory slightly askew.
Yet it did not stop the arm completely. The tremendous momentum imparted sent the woman in red spinning backward through the air. But twisting mid-flight like a swan skimming feather-light, the tip of her blade tapped against the exact same spot, deflecting it even further.
Leaning back in a graceful arc, she tapped empty air with her toes like a crane treading on snow, flipped over, and used the momentum to chop down with her blade. Striking that same spot once more, she forced the arm to snap into a bend, instantly shattering its spear-straight trajectory!
Although her raw strength still fell short of that severed arm, these three exquisite strikes had borrowed its force and turned it against itself. By redirecting strength with finesse, she knocked it entirely off course before it could reach Chen Chuan.
From beginning to end, Chen Chuan never once looked back. His power flowed continuously into the blade, not bursting forward in a spiritual discharge, but holding firm right there, while the purple qi within his body began surging with power.
This forced the man to unlock even greater potential just to protect himself. Under such immense pressure, fine fractures began creeping across his body.
Against this level of tyrannical force, his vessel, capped only at the Longevity View, was already unable to endure.
At this rate, his defeat was absolute and certain. Yet right at this moment, the golden veil behind dissolved away completely. An aura originating from the world on the other side spilled into this realm, and the fissure seemed to be torn progressively wider by that force.
Chen Chuan sensed the movement behind him immediately. If he did not rush over to stop it now, that thing seemed poised to crawl out.
The corners of the man's mouth split into a grin. He had long since released the ritual bindings on the fissure. Even if the entity on the other side crossed over, he was confident he could control it; those who truly had reason to fear such horrors were merely fragile mortals.
He sneered at Chen Chuan, his gaze seemingly mocking: *You came for that fissure, didn't you? So are you going to stop it, or aren't you?*
His grin widened further. In his eyes, both the man before him and the monstrosity beyond the fissure were nothing more than pawns to be manipulated, playthings dancing in the palm of his hand.
Yet Chen Chuan paid the commotion behind him no heed at all. Bearing down with his blade, a colossal force cascaded downward. The man's strength finally reached its breaking point; his mutated tissue tore apart in an instant, and blood shot out from rupturing muscle and skin. Under the impact, countless craters gouged into the surrounding rock wall before a massive section came crashing down with a roar, and the strike forced him straight onto his knees against the ground.
Humiliation and furious rage instantly engulfed him. His pride and arrogance could never permit him to kneel before another. The Divine Visage within him surged like boiling steam, desperate to tear free from this mortal shell. Yet the moment a wisp emerged, a hand clad in sunlight-like radiance reached down from above, forcefully shoving it right back into the body before clamping onto his skull with a sharp crack.
Forced to tilt his vision upward, the man's eyes met Chen Chuan's calm gaze—a gaze that seemed to command him:
*Stay on your knees!*
Chapter 1196