After cleaving Merton in two with a single slash, Chen Chuan knew that the other's Visage of the Divine had no fear of simple fatal strikes.
Just as he intended to infuse more spiritual fire—or even Mystic Void Fire—into him, he sensed something amiss. His eyes flickered, and he held back.
At that exact moment, another beam of light shot toward him from Irose's direction, piercing right through him in an instant. Yet it struck only an afterimage; his entire being had already slipped into the fissure once more.
The bisected Merton collapsed, crumbling straight into a roiling mass of black smoke wrapped in wisps of platinum spiritual fire that refused to go out.
Yet only a moment later, the worm-like entity from the other side not far from Merton suddenly wriggled and contorted, transforming into Merton's likeness.
Meanwhile, under the continuous influx of power channeled from the other side of the fissure, the scattered mist on the ground soon gathered together again, reforming into that multi-legged worm.
This was an esoteric art of the Isutar people, capable of using a summoned entity to bear all wounds on one's behalf. And so long as the fissure remained open, barring special means, the summoned entity was practically impossible to kill. Relying on this method, he had no fear of any fatal strike.
In truth, Merton had wanted to lure Chen Chuan into unleashing Mystic Void Fire just now. Logically speaking, the greater the might of an esoteric art, the greater the restrictions upon it. Mystic Void Fire surely belonged to this category; using it would inevitably demand a tremendous price from the user, just as a spiritual impact left one briefly paralyzed.
If Chen Chuan experienced even the slightest pause, it would be child's play for the other three to seize the opportunity and rain their respective techniques upon him, bringing an immediate end to the battle.
Yet Chen Chuan was evidently extraordinarily cautious and had denied them their wish. They could only wait for the next opportunity—which should come very soon.
After ducking into the fissure once more, streams of data flashed across Chen Chuan's white-jade mask.
Hongfu was analyzing the battle situation, combining the memories Chonghua had transmitted to him with the data stored in the database. This provided additional options and points of reference for his judgment.
Battling multiple opponents came down to the rational execution of tactics and the precise seizing of openings. Every strike had to be crisp, decisive, and fierce, without the slightest margin for error. Thus, he made use of every available advantage under normal circumstances.
After a brief pause inside the fissure, he leaped out. This time, he set his sights on Irose.
This choice was not arbitrary. Among the four, Irose was the only one who had not clashed with him head-on. He needed a collision to gauge the man's fundamentals while gathering further data on him.
However, just as he was about to emerge from the fissure this time, something felt wrong.
The spirit and fields of all four converged on the exit all at once, as if they had known in advance where he would emerge and were lying in wait.
He instantly sensed danger. Fortunately, the fissures here were extremely loose and unstable. The moment his figure slipped out, he immediately deployed the Flying Dragon Fist Jin again. Stretching his body, he plunged into another fissure in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, his thoughts raced, quickly searching for the root of the problem.
Under normal circumstances, some omen or herald would indeed appear right before emerging from a fissure; Xiang Boqing had once used that against him. But after discovering that flaw, he had specifically trained in the Sacred Tree airspace. Now, his leap through a fissure was nearly synchronized with its emergence; there was no way it could be detected and anticipated beforehand.
Eliminating that possibility meant the opponents were not tracking him by the fissures at all, but rather sensing him directly.
His eyes flickered. He suspected he had been afflicted by some technique during their earlier clash, most likely originating from Merton or Irose.
Certain esoteric arts of the Visage of the Divine were insidious and near impossible to guard against, certainly capable of such a feat. Of them, Merton was the most likely culprit, as their contact had been the most intimate.
His judgment was spot on. Merton and the others had prepared their tactics against him from the very beginning. Their mental forces were interconnected; if any single one of them was attacked, the others could respond and support instantly.
Moreover, Merton's divine qi possessed strong invasive and mnemonic properties. Once it made deep contact with an opponent, it would firmly remember them. As long as Chen Chuan remained in the world, Merton could sense his location—sharing some traits with purple qi in a certain sense.
Thus, the instant before Chen Chuan emerged from the fissure, Merton had immediately sensed and pinpointed him.
Seeing that Chen Chuan did not linger after emerging and instead dodged back into a fissure, the four knew he had caught on.
They swiftly exchanged thoughts and refined their tactics.
Although Chen Chuan appeared formidable and troublesome to deal with, they were in no hurry. If they could not dispatch him in one go, they would take their time. There were four of them, giving them a much higher margin for error.
Whatever combat techniques or methods Chen Chuan displayed, through coordinated teamwork they could find the weaknesses and target them. If once wasn't enough, they would try twice. As long as Chen Chuan made even a single mistake, they could seize the opportunity to finish him off.
Once Chen Chuan deduced the root of the problem, he chose not to break out of the four's encirclement, as doing so would mean surrendering the initiative and handing the choices to his opponents.
He had to resolutely maintain an offensive posture.
As for the possible sensory marker on him, it might have been difficult to guard against had he remained ignorant, but now that he knew of it, he might even be able to exploit it.
Before emerging from the other side, he extended his other hand and rapidly unleashed wave after wave of spiritual impacts.
Facing such an assault, the four were also very cautious. They had no intention of taking it head-on. Even if their shattered forms could reconstitute, it would temporarily leave them incapacitated, so they all pulled back.
Taking advantage of their evasion and using the spiritual impacts outside as cover, Chen Chuan slipped into a fissure once more. After a flash of light, he reappeared on Irose's flank. Yet upon emerging this time, his eyes narrowed.
He found that where Irose had originally stood, there was no sign of the man. In his place hovered an enormous, blinding sphere of light radiant as a sun, surrounded by countless minute tentacles formed of condensed radiance, wafting and dancing in the air.
This was an esoteric art of the New Light Cult, capable of partially manifesting a conceptual entity worshipped by the cult.
Anyone who entered within a certain range of Irose would see this thing first.
If one failed to resist mentally, once caught within it, one's spirit would first be assimilated, and then one's entire body would truly be incinerated to nothingness by this light.
The moment Chen Chuan beheld this radiance, the Pure Spiritual Light within his body circulated spontaneously, and wisps of impurity were expelled from the surface of his spiritual fire.
As a member of the Purist Faction, this kind of mental and spiritual corruption was what he feared least. With a sweep of his blade, he cleaved an opening straight through the radiant phantom before him. As the blade flashed past, the illusory sphere of light vanished in an instant, replaced by Irose stumbling backward.
Half of Irose's already broken mask was sheared off into the sky, leaving a deep gash down his face. This slash had cleaved right through that half of his head, yet bright threads of luminous light poured from within, seemingly knitting the wound back together.
As a bishop of the New Light Cult, Irose apparently had not completely abandoned his physical body.
Following that slash, Chen Chuan immediately sensed Drakholm charging toward him. Knowing he could not press his advantage, his figure flickered, and he slipped back into the fissures.
Yet at that exact instant, the worm-like entity beside Merton abruptly shrank in size and, with a single leap, actually leaped into the fissure alongside him!
This creature was originally an entity from the other side, so it possessed the ability to traverse fissures as well. Although the Ring of the World exerted a degree of restraint on such alien entities, following him into a fissure was an easy matter.
Chen Chuan immediately felt something was amiss. If he had previously been operating unburdened, the addition of this presence felt like a heavy weight.
Leaving aside whether the creature could attack him inside the fissure, simply having it cling to his side meant that every time he entered or exited this space, his movements would be a beat slower, creating a severe disadvantage for the battle ahead.
Seeing the creature successfully cling to Chen Chuan, Merton and the others knew their plan had achieved its first step. The four quickly shifted positions, waiting for Chen Chuan to emerge so they could strike in unison.
Though Chen Chuan could not see the situation outside, he could anticipate that they were waiting for him.
He couldn't help weighing his options: should he unleash the Mystic Void Fire prematurely this time? After all, this fire could also smash through enemy defenses head-on.
However, when facing Throne martial artists, unless the Mystic Void Fire was deployed after their momentum was fully exhausted, the opponent could escape by severing limbs.
He had originally hoped to use it at a more opportune moment to achieve greater results, but none of his opponents were simple, and they possessed coordinated tactics. There were variables he could not foresee, making that ideal scenario difficult to realize.
Just as he was about to make up his mind, he suddenly noticed another anomaly: with a flash of golden light, the Tianji fish actually leaped in as well!
At the same time, he felt a thread of information transmitted from the Tianji fish—it could actually lead him to leap out of a fissure he had previously traversed!
His heart stirred. He first moved toward the fissure he had originally intended to exit. An instant before leaping out, a figure identical to himself materialized from his body, slashing with a blade at Drakholm, who appeared ahead.
This figure was an illusory shadow created using the relic gifted to him by Gao Xinjian. Even a Throne martial artist would find it difficult to distinguish immediately without careful inspection, let alone in the midst of fierce combat.
Meanwhile, with a thought communicated to the Tianji fish, he vanished from that spot. In the next instant, his figure appeared at the very position where he had earlier attacked Merton!
Chapter 1310