Flying Dragon Jin allowed one to traverse back and forth wherever fissures existed, and Chen Chuan made full use of the fissures present here.
Yet doing so was not as simple as imagined. It was no longer like his days in the third limit, when crossing fissures had not been particularly difficult. Now that he was already a fourth-limit martial artist, ordinary force was simply insufficient to propel him through a fissure.
Fortunately, after breaking through his limit, he had lit the purple lamp. The purple qi within his body held an extraordinarily profound connection with the world on the other side, which was more than enough to carry him through and allow him to weave within it.
Now, as his saber came slashing down, it coincided precisely with the moment Xiang Boqing's strike missed. Unable to dodge in time, the latter had no choice but to bring his spear horizontal with both arms and brace for a direct frontal block.
Chen Chuan had gathered the full force of his jin into this chop. As the saber crashed onto the spear's shaft, the point of impact seemed to tear the airspace apart, unleashing clusters of blinding lightning-like brilliance that shot outward.
The spiritual fire Xiang Boqing had distributed across the spear shaft scattered. Although he channeled replenishment from his body as quickly as possible, it still failed to keep pace with the depletion. As the blade light cleaved down, fine hairline fractures surfaced upon the shaft.
Fortunately, the momentum of the strike crested and began to recede at this point. His spiritual fire rapidly filled the gaps, and with a shudder of his arms, he unleashed an even greater surge of strength to shove the saber away.
Just as he prepared to counterattack, the saber light vanished abruptly, the silhouette flickered, and Chen Chuan disappeared once again. Detecting a faint disturbance, Xiang Boqing thought to himself, *Fissures...?*
He knew he could not linger in place. As his spiritual fire flared, he pulled upward into the high sky. He had not traveled far when a sudden premonition struck him. Turning and whipping his spear around, he blocked a blade slashing at his flank. Yet no sooner had he blocked this side than the blade cleaved in from the other side, forcing him to bring his spear back around to block again.
However, he discovered that every one of Chen Chuan's strikes was directed squarely at the fractures on the spear. His spear was originally a mutated weapon; even if it suffered damage, it could quickly regenerate. But under this relentless pounding, it was granted no chance at all.
If this continued, the damaged section's capacity to bear and condense spiritual fire would grow increasingly fragile, likely becoming a fatal breakthrough point.
Thus, after blocking several exchanges in succession, the radiant flames around him collapsed inward, and he vanished from the spot.
After a horizontal sweep of Chen Chuan's saber found empty air, he vanished into the sky before the move even ran its course.
A breath later, Xiang Boqing reappeared elsewhere, but almost in the very next instant, that conical projectile shot piercingly toward him. No sooner had he deflected it with a parrying flick of his spear than Chen Chuan caught up in relentless pursuit, his saber light cleaving down like lightning.
After fending off several consecutive chops, he vanished once more, subsequently reappearing elsewhere.
Yet just like before, the conical object arrived first, followed immediately by Chen Chuan. After trading a few parries, Xiang Boqing had no choice but to conceal himself again.
Over the ensuing moments, the two flickered continuously across all directions, but this time, the offensive and defensive roles were reversed. Chen Chuan had become the aggressor pressing the attack, while Xiang Boqing was left scrambling to evade and parry.
This was because Chen Chuan had detected a certain pattern in Xiang Boqing's concealment. He seemed to require a brief pause out in the open before he could enter that state again, and the state itself could not last long, persisting only for a fleeting moment.
Such a condition was likely the effect of a relic; an esoteric transmission would never be so rigid. While deliberate feigning could not be entirely ruled out, the likelihood was minuscule and would have been utterly redundant. And the ongoing battle proved his assessment correct.
Traversing the fissures had granted him complete control of the initiative. He thoroughly appreciated the advantage Xiang Boqing had enjoyed moments ago—he could practically ignore his opponent's counterattacks, including the darts and sweeps of the flying blade, and unleash his assault without the slightest reservation.
Were it not for the fact that he could not predict which direction Xiang Boqing would take after vanishing—there being no discernible pattern to it whatsoever—his offensive efficiency could have risen another level.
Although Xiang Boqing was dodging repeatedly, he was far from idle. He knew the other man was circling around him, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Moreover, he had roughly deduced that Chen Chuan was utilizing the fissures to traverse. Though he did not know precisely how it was done, there was always a faint sign right before Chen Chuan emerged from a fissure.
This allowed him to anticipate the direction Chen Chuan would emerge from. Thus, after defending for another spell, he had familiarized himself with Chen Chuan's attack patterns. Sensing a faint tremor in the fissures, he immediately drove the flying blade forward with his mind.
Just as Chen Chuan emerged from the fissure and saw the flying blade descending upon him, he raised his saber and parried it away. Seizing the opening, Xiang Boqing lunged forward and thrust his spear. Having built up momentum beforehand, his speed was astonishing, leaving the conical object meant to harass him completely in his dust.
Chen Chuan blocked with his saber. The forces on both sides clashed, and as his body recoiled, he vanished swiftly into the fissure. But in the next instant, Xiang Boqing sensed something and snapped his head up—a shadowy rift of a fissure had appeared right there. Because of the extremely close distance,
he did not use the flying blade this time. Instead, the moment Chen Chuan's figure materialized, he thrust his spear directly at the spot.
Yet right at that moment, he felt something was amiss. Fissure ripples actually pulsed from the side as well, and another Chen Chuan appeared from the flank, swinging his saber horizontally toward him!
His heart skipped a beat. Faced with two Chen Chuans, his reflexes were swift. Relying on his experience, he made an instant judgment: turning the flying blade, he shot it toward the Chen Chuan above, while pulling his radiance inward to vanish into thin air against the Chen Chuan attacking from the side.
Chen Chuan did not alter his slash in the least, cleaving straight into the empty space where Xiang Boqing had disappeared. He knew that the man's concealment merely hid his presence and form; he had not truly vanished, nor had he slipped into a fissure as Chen Chuan did.
The man was still right there!
As the blade chopped down, the vibration of weapon clashing against weapon traveled through. Though his opponent remained invisible, he could feel that the strike had been parried away.
Yet Chen Chuan also had to admit that Xiang Boqing concealing himself was not some panicked, careless maneuver, but a thoroughly sound choice. Chen Chuan had aimed to strike the exact damaged point on Xiang Boqing's weapon, but with the man vanishing and his posture obscured, Chen Chuan lost the precise point of impact.
Meanwhile, the figure above him was pierced through by the flying blade and dispersed instantly.
That was merely a facsimile—the effect of the black card relic gifted to him by Gao Xinjian.
He had tested it before: even martial artists at the Dongxuan View level would hardly detect anything amiss with it, let alone in the midst of a fierce battle.
At this moment, his silhouette flickered and vanished once more.
A breath later, Xiang Boqing reappeared. He sensed the omen of the fissure, but due to the facsimile, he had no way of knowing whether the one emerging was Chen Chuan himself. Consequently, he had to probe first with his flying blade.
Yet doing so made his tactics far more conservative and deepened the complexity of the battle, quickly dragging him back into Chen Chuan's rhythm.
Such was the advantage of having an extra auxiliary tool. He had used a relic to gain the upper hand, and Chen Chuan had likewise relied on a relic to turn the tables.
Chen Chuan's current tactics were highly pragmatic. He did not seek to achieve victory in a single stroke; he simply seized upon the flaw that had emerged on the weapon, relentlessly targeting that single point.
His goal was to destroy that weapon. At this level, even if such a weapon shattered, it could be restored afterward anyway.
As Xiang Boqing weathered his fierce assault, he could clearly feel that the spear was taking increasingly severe damage from the repeated collisions. This made him grow ever more cautious, fighting with a degree of hesitation.
Fighting with a weapon versus without one were two entirely different matters. The latter would force him to expend far more spiritual power to fend off his opponent, instantly dropping his combat effectiveness by an entire tier.
He knew that unless he devised a countermeasure or Chen Chuan made a blunder, continuing like this would very likely result in the weapon being destroyed.
Expecting Chen Chuan to make a mistake was practically impossible, which meant he had to change his tactics once again.
Through their prior exchanges, he discovered that Chen Chuan seemed to possess no weaknesses in any aspect; he truly could be treated as an opponent at the Dongxuan View level.
Still, he believed it impossible for Chen Chuan to truly equal him. Even if they could trade blows evenly in conventional combat, entering a higher-level, higher-intensity tier of combat would be an entirely different story. Once they entered that rhythm, any minor flaw would be magnified.
Therefore, he decided to escalate the combat to a higher level.
When Chen Chuan's attack arrived again, Xiang Boqing stood motionless. As Chen Chuan's saber cleaved down, he suddenly sensed something strange: the blade slashed through a phantom silhouette.
Yet this phantom slowly solidified, turning out to be a massive horizontal spear tens of meters long. Chen Chuan withdrew backward, retreating into the distance.
At this moment, the two were positioned above the beach. Waves surged below as an immense figure holding that long spear slowly rose from beneath, as if emerging from the sea. It shifted from illusion to reality, sending seawater churning and rolling in all directions.
Chen Chuan looked up. The giant figure bore a striking resemblance to Xiang Boqing, towering over fifty meters tall. Fastened over its head was a beak-shaped helmet that left only a slit for the eyes, topped with fluttering cyan-blue crest feathers.
Floating in midair, it was enveloped in a West Continent-style robe bearing the insignia of the Gao-Etoile family. With both feet resting in the seawater, the immense figure exerted an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Meanwhile, Xiang Boqing held his spear behind his back with one hand, hovering in front of it and looking down at him.
Chen Chuan raised his head to meet his gaze. His figure floated motionless in midair, appearing as a lone man wielding a saber against this colossal behemoth.
Yet at this moment, Xiang Boqing's eyes narrowed slightly. He saw that behind Chen Chuan, amidst the whirling dust, billowing clouds of misty vapor surged, and a colossal phantom was slowly emerging from within.
As it fully materialized, one could see that this immense figure wore a feathered helmet and a face visor, clad in the Great Awe Radiant Armor. In one hand it held a mace and in the other a saber. Drifting, swirling jade cloud sashes wound around its shoulders and arms, while a crimson Tianwu General cloak fluttered in the wind behind its back.
At this moment, sunlight poured down from above, striking the armor plates of this figure and instantly reflecting radiant rays of golden light.
Light shimmered around Chen Chuan as his body floated upward, stopping only when he reached the center of the spiritual visage's brow. Then, slowly raising the Xuejun Saber in his hand, he pointed it from afar at the colossal figure before him.
Chapter 1254