The mace crashed down squarely upon Fantner's skull. With a loud crack, radiance erupted, and a burst of cyan flames exploded from his form. Crystalline sparks scattered outward like fireworks, causing his entire body to turn hazy and unstable.
Yet within his frame, faint wisps of divine qi could still be seen intertwining like twisted threads, binding together to maintain the cohesion of his form.
After that strike, Chen Chuan knew that something was lacking in the way he exerted his power. Though he had suppressed the eruption of his foe's spirituality, he had failed to truly bring forth the power meant to subdue demons and quell monsters.
This was only natural, after all. It was his first time applying it in real combat, and moreover, he had unleashed the strike through his spiritual visage, which differed slightly from channeling force through his true body—adding another layer of separation.
Nevertheless, landing this strike gave him immediate insight. Real combat was the finest crucible to test what he had learned, so he raised the long mace once more.
Just at that moment, smoke suddenly billowed around him. He found that he was no longer on the cloud islet, but standing inside a tribunal. Shackles bound both his hands and feet, while indifferent tribunal officers stood all around, staring down at him.
Above hung the flag of the Linakes Federation, the star-blossoms representing the federal states glittering continuously.
Standing before him, arms folded across his chest, was a man who was clearly a Mystic Profundity View martial artist, watching him with cold detachment. And not just him—in several other spots, a few similar forces watched him closely with palpable hostility.
These were obviously conjured phantasms. Typically, the mental intrusions of the Visage of the Divine did not merely project outer illusions; they also invaded the target's psyche. Only by combining both could they unbalance and bewilder an opponent's spirit.
Since Fantner's mind had never managed to pierce Chen Chuan's psyche, the effect was naturally diminished. Even so, the auras of those Mystic Profundity View martial artists felt startlingly real.
Under normal circumstances, even knowing full well it was fake, one would still experience an instinctual flicker of vigilance and caution—a martial artist's natural reflex.
Chen Chuan, however, paid it no mind. No matter how real the surrounding scene appeared, his strength remained within his own body, and so he had nothing to fear.
If several Mystic Profundity View martial artists truly appeared together, he might even feel more invigorated alongside his vigilance, for such foes could bring him sufficient pressure.
Furthermore, in his eyes, while these figures appeared imposing, a closer look revealed a faint trace of vagueness and unreality. It was merely an imitation, incapable of recreating the genuine article.
And naturally so—how could an incomplete Mystic Profundity View martial artist replicate the aura of peers of the same realm to perfection?
Though immersed in the illusion, the hand holding his weapon showed not the slightest hesitation as it swept down heavily. This blow carried even greater might than the last, refined and stripped of the slight flaw in its circulation.
Boom!
A tremendous muffled rumble shook the cloud islet. Fantner's massive frame could barely hold together. Huge quantities of divine qi bled away to the sides, leaving only the most tightly condensed portions struggling to coalesce into a mass.
He thrashed beneath, but held fast by Chen Chuan's Pure Spiritual Light and having sustained two consecutive devastating blows, he was grievously wounded. His form verged on dissolution, leaving him utterly powerless to flee.
By this point, his fate seemed sealed; one more blow would surely extinguish his life and spirit.
Yet just as the strike was about to fall, brilliant sparks of light suddenly flared within the drifting divine qi.
In an instant, they gathered into a cluster and abruptly split outward, discarding the vast majority of the divine qi outright.
Or rather, it was not discarded, but had "fled" directly from the main body.
As a member of the Convergence faction, Fantner had long since integrated a portion of the power belonging to the entities from the other side into his Visage of the Divine. Those powers had taken root and sprouted within him, coexisting as one with no distinction between self and other.
Yet in a life-or-death crisis, his survival instinct took precedence. Survival became paramount, forcing everything originally occupying the dominant role to yield—which compelled him to actively split apart.
First, a rift opened in his consciousness, leading to mutual repulsion and separation between the power and the original body. When that completed, the two naturally diverged.
This did not mean a new divine qi had been born. After all, both shared the same origin, drawing their needed energy from the other world. Thus, even if a portion was temporarily abandoned, once he escaped this place and regained safety, acquiring sufficient energy would allow him to restore his original state.
Just as he split, the mace came crashing down without mercy, instantly detonating the already precarious body. Wisps of flying light dispersed rapidly outward, disappearing completely within a single breath.
Chen Chuan turned around and looked at the cluster of divine qi flying toward the outer perimeter.
That thing no longer retained Fantner's rough humanoid silhouette. At its core, it had transformed into something else entirely—resembling the entities he had dealt with in the past.
It was a body composed of dozens of twisted, earthworm-like strands tangled together, writhing smoothly and fluidly.
Yet these strands appeared crystalline. Though horrifying to behold, their exterior was remarkably magnificent and translucent, gleaming with radiant light and bristling with needle-sharp rays.
Moreover, the thing expanded and contracted as if breathing. To his field perception, it seemed like a fish in water; after all, this was within the fissure. Even inside the sacred tree's field, it could absorb immense amounts of energy unattainable in the physical world.
Although it merely hovered there, a field imbued with intense invasive properties had already enveloped him.
Chen Chuan's expression did not change in the slightest. Not only was his mental defense rock-solid, but with his second self present, such invasive fields could not shake him at all.
Besides, he was actually far more familiar with dealing with things of this sort.
Reaching out, the Xuejun Saber that had been hovering nearby flew into his hand. Gripping the hilt, he drew the blade smoothly. As it unsheathed, white-gold fire of spirituality flowed swiftly along the edge.
Sensing this, the creature was just preparing to attack when a prismatic projectile suddenly shot out from Chen Chuan's direction. Cloaked in white-gold spiritual light, it traversed the space at immense speed and slammed into the creature's body with a boom. Jolted as if struck by a massive fist, it recoiled amid bursting flares of light.
Chen Chuan slashed forward, unleashing a spiritual impact in an instant, followed immediately by another. Several consecutive blade-shaped spiritual impacts flew toward the entity.
By now, he had gauged the creature's combat strength. Having discarded most of its power, it was far weaker than before, relying only on its invasive force—precisely what he did not fear. Thus, he held nothing back and went all out.
The creature dodged two spiritual impacts, but could not evade the third. However, a tentacle-like arm drew a hiltless short sword from the void to parry. It was undeniably a realm-melded weapon, one Fantner had not brought out earlier.
At the final moment before the spiritual impact struck, spiritual radiance flared upon the weapon as well. When the two clashed, a burst of flames expanding across half the cloud islet erupted, scattering sparks like streaks of lightning.
Weakened and forced into a hasty defense, the creature was blasted backward despite barely blocking the force. The divine qi maintaining its form flickered violently, teetering on collapse.
Before the blinding stream of light could clear, a figure burst through, brandishing a saber that cleaved straight down toward its head!
It tried to raise its sword to block, but halfway through the movement, the razor-sharp beam had already sliced across its body.
The burst of white-gold fire of spirituality crashed right through it, slamming into the distant ground with a loud roar.
The creature's writhing body of countless worms froze, attempting to seal the gaping hole gouged through its center.
Yet the wisps of light could not recombine. Instead, lights flared erratically across its form, and its field grew chaotic. A few breaths later, the divine qi seemed to lose all containment, erupting into a brilliance that obscured even the sacred tree.
With a thunderous explosion that shook the cloud islet, light spilled in all directions. Crystalline motes drifted down, small sparkling grains bouncing upon the ground before rapidly turning to black powder.
Chen Chuan stood with saber in hand, observing the transformation as the radiance around his body gradually subsided.
With this, the thing was truly eradicated. In truth, Fantner had already been obliterated when his third blow landed; what remained had merely been a dying, struggling merged consciousness.
While the sacred tree bolstered him, combat here offered zero retreat and no other vessels to inhabit. If one could not defeat their opponent, escape was impossible.
For a martial artist of the Visage of the Divine, this was hardly advantageous. In truth, this was Chen Chuan's home turf, not his opponent's.
Twirling the saber, he drew its sheath over and sheathed the blade. In the distance, his spiritual visage slowly faded until it vanished without a trace.
Walking forward, he reached out, and the realm-melded weapon lying on the ground floated up into his grip.
He inspected it with an appreciative nod.
With this gain, today's excursion had not been in vain.
Battling martial artists of the Visage of the Aberrant or Visage of Man was a straightforward, thrilling exchange of blows.
Facing a martial artist of the Visage of the Divine, however, involved endless evasions and trickery, with the foe avoiding direct clashes whenever possible. Worse, finishing them off in a single breath was notoriously difficult, leaving one feeling that the victory was incomplete. Because of this, many martial artists disliked fighting those of the Divine path.
Chen Chuan cared little for such grievances. Whether he completely destroyed his opponent was secondary; validating his own cultivation and driving his advancement was what he truly sought.
He admired the jade-mirror blade of the short dagger in his hand. It was only a pity that today's opponent had been unable to unleash his full strength. He hoped that the next time they crossed paths, his wish would be fulfilled.
Chapter 1234