The tips of the two weapons collided. The highly condensed spiritual fire upon their blades made contact first, before spilling and churning outward against each other.
Yet in the end, a sliver remained firmly clinging to each edge, preventing direct contact between the blades themselves.
If the condensation of spiritual fire was insufficient, then regardless of whose raw strength was superior, one would already have lost a beat the moment the weapons touched.
Now that they had slammed together, the spiritual power of both sides surged continuously toward the point of impact, replenishing the rapid depletion where the weapons met.
One could see that both the bayonet and the Xuejun Saber trembled faintly in the clash. Had the delivery of spiritual fire lagged even slightly, or had their grips wavered in the least, their centers of gravity would have shifted, or worse, been dragged off balance by the other's force, throwing them entirely onto the defensive.
Hence, this was by no means a simple collision of brute force, but an intense test of skill and mastery over one's own spiritual power.
As the two clashed head-on, waves of spiritual light and fire rose from both Chen Chuan and Xiang Boqing, surging like raging torrents toward the center, where they relentlessly collided and melted away.
Though both were suspended in midair, each held his original position, unmoving by even half an inch.
It was as though two miniature suns had risen in the sky, sending ripples of visible turbulence through the surrounding air.
At this moment, around them, combat organisms released from the island could not approach within their fields or the reach of their spirits. Any that drew near plummeted from the sky one after another. It was as if in this airspace, only the two of them were permitted to exist, and everything else was cast out.
Aboard the combat airships farther away, the crew members felt violent palpitations and dizziness simply from observing the glare. Some fainted on the spot; in fact, every single person at the perimeter observation posts had lost consciousness.
Terrified, the airship personnel were forced to take cover where the light could not reach.
Feeling the vibration humming through the Xuejun Saber, Chen Chuan could sense waves of jin transmitting through the weapon. Likewise, however, the jin circulating within his own body was transmitted right back.
At their level, there was no need to perform specific movements or forms to exert jin; simply through the operation of mutated tissues, it could be transmitted across the field.
However, because both were shielded by powerful spiritual fire, most of it dissipated halfway through, leaving only the portion transmitted through the point of contact to reach the opponent's body.
At this moment, this was a contest not only of strength, but also of jin. Jin allowed one to apply targeted variations to raw strength to seize an advantage, yet this kind of confrontation was far more subtle.
Xiang Boqing felt the jin transmitting across the blades shift in countless ways—utterly unpredictable and exceptionally forceful. Even though his own jin had been honed to immense purity, merely neutralizing and containing it demanded an immense amount of his focus.
*His control over jin is remarkably proficient as well—* he thought to himself.
Chen Chuan stared at his opponent. Without a doubt, this was the strongest foe he had faced to date. Having trained in the Sacred Tree airspace, he could clearly feel that his strength had risen significantly once more.
If he were to face Crossal now as he had back then, he could probably take him down in just a few moves. Yet Xiang Boqing truly lived up to being a martial artist of the complete Dongxuan View, still giving him an impression of fathomless depth.
Still, that was just fine. Since his advancement, he had not fought with all his might; he needed to use his opponent's power to draw out the latent strength residing within himself.
Their standoff lasted a full six or seven minutes in a single breath, yet neither side's spiritual fire showed the slightest sign of waning.
Xiang Boqing was genuinely astonished. Although a martial artist of the Longevity View suffered no regression in strength and theoretically possessed boundless energy, that depended on the intensity of the struggle. If one sustained maximum output throughout, the energy drawn in could never keep pace with the consumption.
In fact, throughout the clash, he had been steadily ramping up his own strength. Indeed, this was where the Dongxuan View excelled: if the opponent grew stronger, one would adjust in tandem to become stronger still, just like a boat lifted by rising waters.
Had Chen Chuan failed to keep up at any point, his strength faltering in the slightest, Xiang Boqing could have immediately pressed his advantage and settled the match in a single stroke.
Yet as matters stood, that seemed impossible.
He was still far from exhausting his power, but he did not wish to drag things out like this. Even if he ultimately proved his strength exceeded his opponent's, he would lack an overwhelming advantage. That went against his combat philosophy; only by striking at gaps and weaknesses could victory be achieved efficiently and with minimal effort.
Since no flaw could be found in a direct clash of strength for the time being, he would probe other areas to see if a breakthrough could be made.
With that thought, he twisted his wrists. First he withdrew his force, then parried in a circular deflection, shoving the Xuejun Saber outward. The moment the fulcrum shifted, the equilibrium both had maintained instantly collapsed.
The instant Chen Chuan felt the shift in force, he saw through Xiang Boqing's intention: he had no desire to prolong this stalemate.
He felt a slight tinge of regret, for he had neither plumbed the depths of his foe's true foundation nor reached his own limit.
Yet the fact that Xiang Boqing had broken the stalemate meant he had relinquished the offensive first—and that was clearly an opportunity!
At that moment, Chen Chuan let the long saber sweep wide with the opponent's momentum before guiding it overhead. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he brought it chopping down straight at Xiang Boqing's head!
Carrying the forward momentum built up from before, this strike drove both his spirit and physical power to their absolute zenith in an instant. Combined with the Xuejun Saber's own enhancement, it felt as if anything before him could be cleaved in two!
This turn of events was Xiang Boqing's own choice, so he naturally was not unprepared. Facing the descending blade, a deep blue luminescence erupted in his eyes. The muscles across his body rippled, and the blood beneath his skin seemed to turn scalding and crimson in an instant.
An explosive surge of power welled within him as he flipped his wrists and raised the bayonet to parry upward.
*Boom!*
A dazzling burst of flame and light detonated across the point of contact, dimming the sky for a fleeting split second. The spiritual fire upon the bayonet seemed to scatter and disperse by more than half, and under the sheer weight of the blow, Xiang Boqing's body plummeted abruptly toward the ground.
Although Chen Chuan's strike was blocked, he held the offensive while Xiang Boqing was on the defensive, requiring a brief interval to reset. Propelled by his spiritual fire, Chen Chuan pursued him downward.
Both were moving at blistering speed, dropping close to the ground in near-instantaneous fashion. If neither took evasive action, they were bound to crash into the island.
Just before hitting the ground, Xiang Boqing pulled back in a sharp retreat, traveling a short distance before swiftly pulling up into an ascent. Viewed from afar, he seemed to trace a downward arc across the sky.
Chen Chuan stayed glued to him from start to finish without falling behind in the least. Yet right then, he discerned the man's purpose.
*Speed?*
From the very beginning, Xiang Boqing had been probing and searching for his weaknesses—first strength, and now speed.
Though his opponent appeared pressed down at the moment, it was merely a tactical retreat. In truth, Xiang Boqing was operating from a higher strategic vantage point: the moment he found a deficiency, he would ruthlessly tear open the weakness to decide the outcome in a single blow.
Chen Chuan's eyes flickered faintly. *If you want to probe, I'll give you something to probe.*
In mid-pursuit, he activated the Furnace Breathing Technique without hesitation. The near-solidified spiritual radiance cloaking his body erupted into a fierce gale of light, and his figure accelerated violently, closing in on Xiang Boqing almost instantaneously as his upward-sweeping blade slashed toward the man's midsection.
Xiang Boqing twisted the bayonet with both hands to parry the long saber, sending a shower of sparks and flames flying. Chen Chuan shifted the blade, sweeping in with a slash from another angle, the brilliance of the edge pressing right into his brows. With a turn of his elbow, Xiang Boqing raised the spear tip and deflected the saber away to the side, yet another flash of blade light arrived instantly, forcing him to parry once again.
The surrounding scenery blurred past like streaming ribbons of light from their immense velocity. In a flash, the two traded over a hundred blows, with Xiang Boqing mostly on the defensive.
Xiang Boqing knew full well that this was because he had voluntarily yielded ground earlier, allowing Chen Chuan to seize the initiative and dictate the rhythm of combat. He had originally intended to use speed to pull open the distance between them, which would naturally break his opponent's offensive, but now it was clear he could not shake him.
What astonished him even more was that Chen Chuan's speed was steadily increasing while his power continued to rise—this was not merely a continuation of their previous clash, but one now layered with a contest of speed.
*It seems there is no deficiency in speed either—*
*What about technique, then?—*
He observed that Chen Chuan's saber technique was not exceptionally elaborate, yet his fundamentals were extraordinarily solid. His grasp of opportunities and his intuitive sense of danger were superb. As long as his physical faculties suffered no major fluctuation, no significant vulnerability would emerge.
Furthermore...
He glanced at Chen Chuan's expressionless external implant visor. He was certain that Chen Chuan was actively collecting his combat data, conducting targeted analysis based on his speed, strength, and attack habits.
An external implant on its own posed little threat. But when combined with a martial artist and their combat instincts, it became formidable; often, a single flash of inspiration from the martial artist could catch an opponent completely off guard.
Thus, the longer this situation persisted, the more disadvantaged he became.
*Boom!* At that moment, the two swept low across the island like a tearing storm, sending shattered stones and foliage whipping into the air. In the next instant, they slammed into a cliff face, bursting clean through to the other side almost instantaneously. A colossal hole was smashed straight through the solid rock from front to back as a shower of crushed stone, dust, and burning debris thundered down.
Xiang Boqing paid it no mind; such surroundings could hardly be called an obstacle to him. Yet he knew the current state of affairs had to change. His eyes narrowed slightly. Perhaps it was time to dial up the intensity.
With that thought, his gaze turned considerably more dangerous. At the same moment, a ray of light spun and shot out from his body!
Chapter 1252