The crew of the airship fleet witnessed a breathtaking spectacle.
Countless birds swarmed in from the distant sky, sweeping past above and around the airships.
The flock was so dense that it obstructed everyone's vision. Tens of thousands of wings flapped in the air, producing an unbroken humming roar that enveloped the airships like torrential rain. Under the turbulent air currents, the airships began to sway slightly.
A cacophony of bird cries mingled together, some of which were so piercingly shrill that people could not help covering their ears.
By all rights, the airship fleet was equipped with bird-repelling devices and specialized scents designed to drive off birds and insects, yet these creatures seemed completely unaffected.
This forced the fleet to dispatch combat aerial bio-constructs to disperse the flocks, shielding the airships from disruption and damage.
Standing out on the terrace, Lily and Briggs had a direct view of this magnificent scene. Lily held up her camera, snapping photo after photo toward the sky.
Just then, one of the birds flying overhead seemed to notice the camera in Lily's hands. It was a Great Blue Heron of Ying Prefecture, endowed with a slender neck and an elegant posture.
It suddenly folded its wings, fluttering down in front of Lily, and spoke: "Ah, beautiful young lady, could you take a picture of me?"
"Derrick Walch?"
Briggs's expression tightened as he stared at the great bird. This man was a felony fugitive wanted by the Federation—why had he appeared here?
Yet on second thought, considering the man's temperament, his presence seemed entirely reasonable.
Seeing the talking bird, Lily's eyes sparkled, and she began taking one shot after another.
She had heard of this wanted criminal back at the Martial Artists Council, but she wasn't frightened in the least. She knew full well that this fugitive loved nothing more than having fun and showing off, and she had never heard of him killing civilians without cause.
The Great Blue Heron was remarkably cooperative, spreading its wings and shifting its posture with every press of the shutter. By the time a dozen shutter clicks sounded, it had spun in a full circle on the spot.
Briggs said nothing at her side. Just as Lily thought, although this man was painted as an irredeemable villain in Federation propaganda, the intelligence Briggs had gathered indicated that ever since turning into a performance artist, he had virtually no record of harming civilians. Moreover, he always dared to speak truths that the common folk had never heard or never dared utter, making him rather popular among the lower classes.
Besides, even if Briggs wanted to stop him, he likely couldn't. Eccentric though the man was, he was a Throne martial artist after all.
Meanwhile, up in the sky, Durant and his companions frowned deeply, sensing trouble.
Walch's arrival complicated the situation considerably. The man had always acted bizarrely and erratically; no one could ever figure out what he truly wanted.
He had once done dirty work specifically for the Federation and was widely renowned across the Yono continent. Later, after attaining the Throne realm, he had harassed the Federation Capital day in and day out, yet even so, they could do nothing against him.
For one thing, the damage he caused was never substantial; for another, he possessed a natural aptitude for mental abilities. After ascending to the Throne realm, those talents became even more formidable, particularly his manifestation-dividing ability within the Visage of the Divine, which ranked in the absolute top tier. At the same level, there were likely very few people in the entire world who could rival him in that regard.
In truth, it was hard to tell friend from foe with this man, as he could switch sides at a moment's notice. He was a pure thrill-seeker, a disrupter.
And with a Throne martial artist capable of wreaking havoc at any second lingering beside them, how could they possibly ignore him?
They had to guard against him.
Given his manifestation-dividing prowess, assigning one person to keep an eye on him was definitely not enough; they would need at least two. Emperor Capa clearly stood opposed to them as well, and he could not be disregarded either.
In that case, they would have very little manpower left to attend to other matters. In particular, they had not forgotten that two people from the Tianji Sect remained inside the fissure, and there was no telling whether they might seize the opportunity to burst forth.
Durant immediately abandoned his intention of clashing with Capa, as that would make the situation far too uncontrollable.
Capa's apparent objective was to stop more people from joining the siege against Chen Chuan. Durant did not know what the former emperor was thinking, but Capa had never stooped to deceit. Therefore, as long as they brought down Chen Chuan and freed up more combatants, all their problems would cease to exist.
Of course, all of this was predicated on events unfolding as he anticipated, but he did not believe a siege by four experts could possibly go awry.
Capa maintained an appropriate, elegant smile throughout. Seeing that Durant's side had chosen not to engage, he would abide by the rules he had just proposed and would not take the initiative to break them.
On Chen Chuan's side, he found that the scene had suddenly become remarkably lively. The present turn of events was indeed something he had not foreseen when he arrived.
He could sense a sliver of goodwill radiating from Capa. With a turn of thought, he realized that the latter's arrival today might be because Chen Chuan had ignored his escape back on the Weiya Continent.
In truth, Chen Chuan had prepared himself today to face a siege by the majority of the foes. Since circumstances had shifted, he would first deal with the enemies right in front of him.
Seeing that the newcomer was being handled, Irose, Merton, Igor, and Drakholm hesitated no longer, each closing in on Chen Chuan.
Drakholm led the charge. After advancing a short distance, a glint appeared between his brows, and a colossal spiritual visage surged up around his body, only to rapidly shrink and merge seamlessly with him.
He had witnessed Chen Chuan's battle with Crossal just now. By his own estimation, his prowess was roughly on par with Crossal's. If Crossal couldn't win in a normal state, then Drakholm might very well lose in his normal state as well. Thus, he chose to merge with his spiritual visage right from the start, intending to give Chen Chuan no opening whatsoever.
Drawing two two-handed blades bearing distinct South Yono characteristics, while his spiritual visage behind him brandished a flail and a shield, he surged with an immense torrent of deep gray fire of spirituality, pressing forward in a frontal assault.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan reached out and snatched his weapon. The Xuejun Saber cleared its sheath in an instant, flashing with a streak of snow-bright radiance in midair.
At that moment, a glimmer of light flickered to his left—Igor was circling toward his flank and rear.
Meanwhile, Irose and Merton kept their distance. In close combat, they could not directly match a martial artist walking the Visage of Man; only by remaining on the periphery could they unleash the advantages of the Visage of the Divine.
Drakholm raised his two-handed blades high and brought them slashing down toward Chen Chuan's head.
Chen Chuan did not evade in the slightest. With a sweep of the Xuejun Saber, he raised his blade horizontally to meet the blow. The moment the blade lifted, an ethereal silhouette wielding a long saber manifested outside his body, completely sealing off the space before him.
The weapons collided without the slightest pretense. The clash ended in a dead heat, neither able to overwhelm the other. Amid the explosive flashes of spiritual light and blazing auras, both men were knocked backward by the immense force rebounding from the impact.
Chen Chuan had once estimated in secret that the power he could unleash in an instant through partial merging was enough to match Xiang Boqing after the latter merged with his spiritual visage. The drawback, however, was that this was an explosive burst of technique, incapable of executing continuous moves.
The present outcome matched his expectations.
After being forced back, Drakholm's spiritual visage thrust its shield forward. This weapon could be used for defense as well as offense. Once he steadied his footing and built up momentum, he would charge forward with the shield raised, unleashing a devastatingly destructive ramming attack.
Noticing his movements, Chen Chuan knew he had to either advance to disrupt the man's power buildup or execute a timely retreat shortly thereafter.
Clearly, he could not stop his opponent while being repelled backward, so he turned his blade and assumed a defensive stance.
Right then, a dazzling beam of light shone over from the side, stimulating the fire of spirituality around his body to melt rapidly away. A portion of it even attempted to seep into his flesh, but failed to penetrate.
Irose was astonished. So long as an opponent showed the slightest hint of weakness, this light of his could invade their body. Even Chonghua hadn't been able to resist it just now, yet it failed to produce any effect on Chen Chuan.
This was simply inconceivable. Chen Chuan had clearly just fought a battle against Crossal. Setting aside Secret Palace martial artists, even Throne martial artists could rarely maintain peak condition after such an ordeal.
Yet the light was not entirely without effect; it caused the defensive mantle of Chen Chuan's fire of spirituality to flicker with a slight instability. At that very instant, a flash of light surged ahead as Drakholm's massive frame burst right before him.
Meanwhile, Igor had already circled to his flank and rear, seemingly waiting for him to evade before launching an ambush.
The instant the shield slammed forward, Chen Chuan's figure vanished from the spot with a whoosh. The massive shield crashed through nothing more than a lingering blur of light.
Across this battlefield riddled with multiple fissures, Chen Chuan directly deployed his Flying Dragon Fist Jin, leaping into a fissure to vanish.
In the next instant, he abruptly reappeared at Igor's flank, bringing his blade slashing down upon him!
After several enhancements, the Xuejun Saber provided a noticeable boost to his speed, rendering this slash peerlessly ferocious.
Having learned from his previous mistake, Igor had long since unfurled his external visage—a monster four to five meters tall, resembling a hybrid of bear and wolf, shrouded in a hazy layer of crystalline mist.
This was Veluhor, a legendary spirit beast of the Noros Theocracy.
Seeing Chen Chuan slashing toward him, Igor did not dodge. Instead, he let out a roar and charged forward to meet the blow head-on. Yet beneath that seemingly savage exterior, a glint of cunning flickered in his eyes.
He possessed three extraordinary abilities in total: the first two were dedicated to offense and self-preservation, while the last was designed to bind others. Anyone who made contact with the spiritual mist surrounding his spiritual visage would be ensnared by it, unable to break free for several breaths. Under a concerted siege by multiple experts, being bound for that long meant almost certain death.
Just as Chen Chuan's blade was about to land on him, he sensed a looming crisis from his opponent's reaction. At the final split second, his entire figure vanished from midair once again.
Only a brief flash of light flickered before his eyes while the saber in his hands continued its downward cleave. When the shimmering radiance faded, he had materialized directly behind Merton. The arc of his blade swept across Merton's body in a flash—and before the archbishop could even react, he was cleaved clean in two!
Chapter 1309