The moment Field plunged into the fissure, he caused a violent disturbance within it. Even though he was merely pursuing Chen Chuan's trail, his passing exerted a profound effect on every fissure he traversed.
Outside the fissures, matching the speed of a Human Visage martial artist like Chen Chuan would have been completely out of the question for him. Inside, however, things were entirely different.
Traversing this realm was an instinct innate to his Visage of the Aberrant. Not only was he astonishingly swift here, but fighting in this space elevated his prowess to more than double what it was outside.
The instant Field drew near at high speed, Chen Chuan sensed an intensely perilous field bearing down on him. Concurrently, the fissures around him underwent a violent upheaval.
It was as if a smooth current had suddenly turned into a churning whirlpool, subjecting him to waves of heavy resistance. That previous effortless sensation—where a mere flick of thought allowed him to come and go at will—vanished completely.
At the same time, the Tianji fish relayed a flurry of warnings to him. Disrupted by the interference, it could no longer ferry him with ease to the fissure locations he had previously visited.
Chen Chuan recognized at once that the tide had turned against him. Decisive as always, he immediately chose to pull out of the fissure.
Yet an exit that had once been seamless now felt as though he were forcing his way through a thick, viscous mire.
The moment he broke through, he saw a stag-headed, human-bodied creature closing in, two eyes on its head glaring at him with naked malice.
As Chen Chuan dropped into the open air outside, the monstrosity emerged right behind him. The bramble-like antlers atop its head shot out at alarming speed, coiling toward him, surrounded by blackish-purple spiritual fire like some grotesque entity born of a nightmare.
Chen Chuan's spirit clearly registered the distinct danger clinging to those pliable tendrils. He did not underestimate them in the slightest; with a sweep of his blade, he sheared through the incoming antler branches.
Yet severed as they were, they regrew almost instantaneously, and he noticed that a tiny portion of the spiritual fire bleeding off his saber had vanished.
This was an ability innate to the Demon Stag: upon contact, it could siphon away a fraction of its prey's spiritual fire.
Furthermore, this method could synergize with one of Field's aberrant powers. Once triggered, so long as he made direct contact with an opponent's body, for a set period, the opponent's stamina and internal energy consumption would multiply exponentially.
Theoretically, once martial artists attained the Longevity View, the energy in their bodies was nearly inexhaustible. In reality, however, that was merely the result of a delicate balance between expenditure and replenishment.
If energy expenditure grew excessive and broke that equilibrium, one could not hold out for long in high-intensity combat.
At that moment, Field darted forward, appearing intent on closing in for melee combat. Yet just as he reached Chen Chuan's immediate front, his figure vanished into thin air—he had plunged into a fissure.
When he reemerged, he was behind Chen Chuan. Brandishing a long whip-staff, he gave it a flick, sending the aquatic-weed-like lash tendrils at the tip whipping toward Chen Chuan.
Rather than swinging his saber, Chen Chuan raised an arm to block. A burst of spiritual light-fire erupted, melting away the spiritual fire coating the tendrils while blasting them outward.
Meanwhile, a prismatic projectile gleaming with platinum spiritual light darted forth, passing straight through Field in the blink of an eye. Yet Field's figure merely flickered.
He had ducked into a fissure a split second early, leaving behind an indistinguishable afterimage where he had stood.
Field had witnessed Igor's fate earlier and knew he held no advantage outside the fissures. Thus, after every strike, he immediately slipped into the fissure to deny Chen Chuan any chance of closing in. Regardless, his duty of pinning Chen Chuan down was already fulfilled.
Should Chen Chuan enter the fissures as well, Field certainly wouldn't back down; on the contrary, he would gladly entertain him there.
Taking in the situation, Chen Chuan's thoughts churned. This man was likewise exceptionally adept at using the fissures, and appeared capable of disrupting them. Had he joined the fray from the start, Chen Chuan might not have even been able to employ his Flying Dragon Fist Jin.
With Field entering the battle, the slight edge Chen Chuan had just carved out using the fissures vanished without a trace, flipping instead into the enemy's advantage. The speed at which the tide turned was truly unanticipated.
Even so...
His eyes narrowed into a focused gaze. Even if this avenue was closed to him, it didn't mean he was out of options.
Right then, a fierce, crushing pressure surged in from the flank. Drakholm's spiritual visage raised its shield before him and barreled forward like a falling meteor.
Earlier, despite Drakholm's overwhelming strength, he had struggled to sustain an engagement with Chen Chuan, who vanished into the fissures after every strike, leaving Drakholm unable to bring his power to bear.
Now, unencumbered by such obstacles, he could unleash his strengths to the fullest.
Seeing Drakholm bearing down at blistering speed with momentum fully built, Chen Chuan knew dodging was no longer the optimal choice. Making a swift adjustment, he thrust a hand forward. The phantom image of a colossal hand manifested and pressed squarely against the shield.
The spiritual light-flames of both combatants collided head-on without evasive compromise. A colossal cloud of fire erupted across the sky, blasting outward in concentric rings of light and surging shockwaves.
This time, Drakholm was the aggressor, his momentum fully gathered and aided by the broad shield, shoving Chen Chuan into a rapid backward slide under the crushing force.
Before that kinetic rush had fully dissipated, Field materialized once again behind and above him. This time, grasping the shaft end of his whip-staff, he brought it down toward Chen Chuan's head and back.
Chen Chuan sensed the attack immediately. In front of him, Drakholm was bound to follow up; having merged with his visage body, Drakholm's frontal power was immense, to the point where matching him required dedicated technique.
Without the option of slipping into a fissure, Chen Chuan had to reserve sufficient power to deal with him.
Moreover, he had to account for Merton and Irose, who had yet to make their moves. They were surely watching for him to reveal a flaw.
With that in mind, the spiritual fire draped over Chen Chuan shifted in a fluid wave, surging toward his rear. This was a technique he rarely employed; usually, his spiritual fire was so bountiful that he never ran low, but now he had to calculate its distribution with care.
With a resounding boom, Field struck Chen Chuan's back with his staff. The spiritual fire there erupted in blinding flashes as the opposing forces clashed and eroded each other.
Yet Chen Chuan's heavily concentrated barrier of spiritual fire held firm, stopping the long staff dead in its tracks.
Even amidst his surprise, Field cursed inwardly at the missed chance. Without direct physical contact, his aberrant power could not take effect; at most, he could only siphon off a layer of spiritual fire, which inflicted negligible harm.
Though Chen Chuan had successfully weathered the blow, an unexpected complication arose: that omnipresent, blinding radiance somehow seeped into his body unnoticed.
Because he had concentrated his spiritual fire elsewhere, he could not maintain all-around protection across his entire body, inevitably leaving some areas thinly shielded. Yet the instant that light penetrated his flesh, the Pure Spiritual Light inside him stirred into motion, banishing every trace of light trying to invade his mutated tissue and expelling it through his skin in wisps of dark smoke.
In that split second, an exploding burst of spiritual fire flared up ahead as Drakholm bore down once more, slashing his dual sabers toward Chen Chuan in a relentless flurry.
The spiritual fire around Chen Chuan swiftly surged to the front again as he brought his blade up in a series of parries.
Meanwhile, Merton and Irose stood off to the side. They merely watched the battle without stepping in—not out of reluctance to assist, but because they were busy preparing something far more potent.
The moment Field entered the fray, Durant's transmission reached everyone's comms channel, instructing them to hold nothing back and conclude the mission with maximum dispatch.
As for methods that might breach Federation regulations, they were granted provisional authorization to employ them.
This gave them free rein to unleash weapons and techniques normally kept under wraps.
Irose had brought along an active conscious entity of the New Light Cult, customized specifically for his use and currently housed in an airship behind the lines. With this construct as a vessel, he would be able to enter the fight directly.
Merton, meanwhile, was communing with the fissure, channeling more power across. Even if doing so might draw the attention of more entities from the other side, with Federation clearance granted, he had no further qualms.
Field, seeing Chen Chuan locked in ferocious combat with Drakholm, intervened repeatedly. He harbored no illusions of defeating Chen Chuan single-handedly; his goal was merely to prevent Chen Chuan from committing his full might against Drakholm.
After weathering the pincer attacks several times in succession, Chen Chuan realized that maintaining this passive stance would only lead to defeat. As Field launched yet another strike, Chen Chuan's eyes flashed. The Tianji fish circling him darted forward, carrying him as he leaped into the fissure in a flash.
He had discerned the pattern: although Field's presence threw the fissures into chaos, the moment Field exited, the Tianji Sect's esoteric ritual swiftly restored them to their normal state.
This meant the fissures were not entirely unusable—only that the conditions for exploiting them had become much stricter.
Seeing him vanish into the fissure, Field's body flared with light as he plunged right in after him.
Knowing Field would follow, Chen Chuan lingered inside for only a fraction of a heartbeat before breaking out from the other side.
Yet in that fleeting span, he had already made a brief adjustment.
He reemerged directly above everyone, his back to the blazing sun suspended overhead. The very instant he broke through, an invisible field radiated outward from his body, enveloping all beneath him in an instant.
Grand Firmament Forms!
Though he hadn't employed either of the Two Great Forms until now, he knew these people were not necessarily ignorant of his abilities. However, the Two Great Forms could be practiced and refined indefinitely; the power they wielded now was vastly different from before. If anyone judged them by past records, they would arrive at a fatally flawed conclusion.
Under the influence of this field, everyone in the vicinity felt an overwhelming suppression. Even Drakholm, charging up at him, felt an immense weight bear down, and his rushing figure sank involuntarily under the sudden gravity.
Chapter 1313