The moment Ming set the esoteric ritual into motion, Gao Xu and Long Xian, who were within the fissure, sensed it immediately.
Long Xian then caught sight of the Divine Visage avatar flying out from Tianji Peak. Feeling an aura emanating from it that was scarcely inferior to the original body, he was startled and blurted out, "Disaster! Ming must have gotten his hands on the Tianji Plate!"
Gao Xu nodded silently. There was nothing they could have done; this outcome had been sealed the moment they took refuge inside, and they had lacked the power to prevent it.
He said in a heavy voice, "Junior Brother, do not panic. Remember what I said—trust your Senior Brother's choice. We are not without recourse; it comes down to doing our utmost to contend with him."
Long Xian calmed down. He had thought it through as well: while the Tianji Plate could indeed command the esoteric rituals below, without the three of them, Ming would find it difficult to wield its full power and could at best mobilize only certain areas.
From this, it could be deduced that he would inevitably restrict his field of control to the area around Chen Chuan.
He immediately said, "Senior Brother, let us commune with the Tianji fish, clear away as many obstacles as we can for our honored guest, and find a way to warn him."
"Indeed, Junior Brother."
No sooner said than done, Long Xian sat down at once to commune with the Tianji fish.
Gao Xu glanced up at the Pufang Mirror above. No word had come from the Celestial Master yet, so all they could do for now was wait. Silently chanting the titles of the Mystic Ancestors, he likewise reached out with his spiritual power to commune with the Tianji fish.
As long as it could receive the ritual power they channeled across via the golden rainbow, then as long as the Tianji fish remained active by Chen Chuan's side, it could still offer some degree of resistance against the esoteric ritual.
Outside the fissure, Chen Chuan fixed his gaze upon the three opponents. The preceding offensive and defensive exchanges showed that once they shifted to a conservative defense, finding a breakthrough point became considerably more difficult.
Moreover, Irose and Merton were vastly different from before and could no longer be viewed through the same lens.
Fortunately, Field had been temporarily eliminated, allowing the fissures to be utilized once more, which opened up numerous viable tactics.
Furthermore, when the Tianji fish had communed with him earlier, it had transmitted a substantial amount of information—much of it being secret techniques of the Tianji Sect mastered by Chonghua. Among them were a few of lower difficulty that even Chen Chuan could employ directly, which might well prove useful in the battle ahead.
Having now adjusted his condition, he was just about to strike when the Tianji fish beside him suddenly seemed to grow agitated. It circled rapidly around him, transmitting a strand of information to his mind.
He lifted his head slightly and saw a figure flying toward him.
He glanced over.
Ming?
Earlier, he had learned the full story from the Tianji fish: Ming was likely one of the conspirators orchestrating the Federation's assault on the Tianji Sect behind the scenes.
Without Ming, relying solely on the Tianji Sect's defensive power, these Federation fighters before him would never have breached this place.
The Tianji fish paused, and further messages came through it—this time transmitted by Gao Xu and Long Xian via the golden rainbow.
Chen Chuan swiftly took in the information, immediately grasping Ming's current situation.
The Tianji Plate?
Yet that was not the crucial point. What Long Xian and Gao Xu truly wished to warn him about was that once Ming arrived on the scene, beyond restricting his movements through the fissures, there was another move Chen Chuan had to guard against—one that could place him at an extreme disadvantage.
Upon quickly understanding this, Chen Chuan's eyes narrowed. If Ming deployed that move, it would be virtually insurmountable here.
Could he attack Ming directly instead, attempting to eliminate him quickly from the field?
Yet after a brief consideration, he realized that was nearly impossible, and pointless besides.
Leaving aside that Ming, as a zhenren of the Tianji Sect, commanded numerous secret techniques and measures, the figure approaching was merely a Divine Visage avatar. Even if Chen Chuan truly managed to destroy it, with the endless energy supplied by the Tianji Plate, Ming could rapidly manifest another one.
In that case, he had to prepare for the worst.
For now, perhaps he could attempt to take down one more person before Ming brought his techniques to bear.
With that thought, he did not hesitate in the slightest. The radiance around him flashed, and he plunged into the fissure in an instant.
At the sight, Merton and the other two instantly went on high alert, bracing their defenses. They had also noticed Ming approaching, and at that moment, Ming transmitted a strand of information to them via mental link.
Learning of the methods Ming possessed, the three felt their chances of victory surge. They had no need to rush into an attack now; as long as they held their ground until his arrival, victory in the battle ahead was practically assured.
A flash of fissure light gleamed in the atmosphere, and Chen Chuan leapt out. This time, an identical figure appeared alongside him, each rushing toward Merton and Irose respectively.
One of them was naturally a decoy created using a relic. Done on its own, this would hardly qualify as a tactic, since any contact would immediately distinguish the fake from the real.
This time, however, he employed a technique transmitted to him by the Tianji fish: using the fish's influence over the surrounding esoteric ritual to disrupt the mental communications between the three foes, and even send simulated false messages to each of them.
This technique was by no means easy to pull off; even with the Tianji fish's cooperation, it demanded exceptionally subtle and delicate mental manipulation, something martial artists outside the Visage of the Divine could rarely accomplish amidst fierce combat.
Fortunately, besides himself, he had Hongfu at his side, who could carry out the task on his behalf.
Seeing one of the Chen Chuans rushing toward him, Merton raised a hand. Radiance began flaring in his palm before blasting out in a thunderous spiritual impact toward the incoming figure.
Whether real or fake, it would inevitably be exposed under a spiritual impact; furthermore, he now possessed a degree of close-combat capability, so he had no fear even if Chen Chuan closed the distance.
After the blinding blast of light, the figure vanished completely, indicating it was indeed a fake. Yet at that moment, a message suddenly arrived, informing him that the one encountered on the other side was the decoy.
The message instantly put him on guard. If the other side was fake, could the one here have been real? Given the array of tricks Chen Chuan had displayed earlier, Merton became intensely vigilant, temporarily unable to attend to anything else.
Facing the Chen Chuan charging at him, Irose likewise dealt with it using a spiritual impact, and that figure vanished abruptly as well. Just then, he received Merton's transmission through the mental link claiming that the one on his side was the real one.
Just as Irose was about to turn, light and shadow flickered, and Chen Chuan, blade in hand, leapt out of a fissure, abruptly appearing right in front of him!
This time, Chen Chuan had leapt into the fissure before the spiritual impact could even arrive, reappearing mere inches away from him. Irose's pupils constricted, and he immediately ordered the six-winged messenger beside him to move up and block.
Chen Chuan slashed down!
Thanks to his astonishing speed, the extreme suddenness of the strike, and the binding grip of the Grand Firmament Forms, the active conscious entity was cleaved clean down the middle into two halves. The spiritual fire cloaking its body offered no resistance at all, torn open by the edge like paper.
Having cleaved through the creature with a single stroke, Chen Chuan maintained his forward charge, heading straight for Irose and smashing straight through the shattered remnants along the way.
Over on the other side, Drakholm noticed the situation and rushed over at breakneck speed, seemingly attempting to intercept him.
Chen Chuan paid him no heed at all, keeping his eyes locked onto Irose ahead, the radiance enveloping his body blazing so intensely that it was almost impossible to look at directly.
By this time, Ming had arrived in the sky above. Seeing this, his gaze flickered, and he raised two fingers in an incantation hand-seal. In an instant, the esoteric rituals surrounding the entire combat zone were stirred into motion.
At that exact moment, both the remains of the six-winged messenger and Irose vanished from Chen Chuan's sight. Meanwhile, Drakholm crossed an enormous distance in an instant, abruptly materializing not far in front of Chen Chuan and hurtling toward him in a direct collision.
Ming's gaze was profound. With the Tianji Plate in hand, he naturally possessed the ability to wield the fissures; not only could he restrict Chen Chuan's traversal through them, but he could also grant Merton and the other two the capacity to move through the fissures as well. In an instant, their mutual advantages were completely reversed.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan's expression tightened slightly. Fortunately, the Tianji fish had warned him in advance, allowing him to be prepared mentally; otherwise, such a sudden shift at a critical juncture could easily have thrown off his rhythm and plunged him into grave danger.
Watching Drakholm charge toward him, he instantly contracted the two great forms around his body.
While unleashing the two great forms covered a vast area, doing so diluted their power. Once drawn in, however, their strength could be concentrated, unleashing a far more formidable effect.
The moment Drakholm rushed before him, he naturally entered the force field of the Grand Firmament Forms. Having exchanged blows with Chen Chuan multiple times, Drakholm's power had already been elevated to its peak, incapable of advancing any further.
At this moment, he was inevitably severely hindered, as if an immense burden had suddenly been placed upon his back. Whether attacking or maneuvering, his movements lagged by a beat, and he could not even exert his full might.
The crux lay in speed. Once he slowed down, he could not keep pace with Chen Chuan's rhythm of strikes at all. After a few rapid exchanges, he was driven into a state of one-sided suppression by Chen Chuan.
Just then, light flashed to their side, and Merton's colossal frame abruptly appeared. Chen Chuan turned his blade horizontally, blocking the obsidian blade slashing toward him, but the tremendous force behind the blow propelled him flying off into the distance.
He had not traveled far when another flash of fissure light gleamed, and Drakholm abruptly appeared behind him, his flail and twin blades descending toward Chen Chuan's body.
With a shift of thought, propelled by his spiritual fire and the Grand Firmament Forms, Chen Chuan pivoted swiftly to evade the attack, rapidly retreating into the distance in an attempt to open up space between them.
Yet the two crossed the fissures directly, closing in before him in the blink of an eye to alternate their strikes. Under these circumstances, he could only continuously use the Grand Firmament Forms to hinder their speed while constantly altering his direction, striving to engage only one opponent at any given moment and avoid being pincered by their combined assault.
In the sky above the melee, Ming did not join the battle. Instead, he stood motionless, as if brewing something. After a long while, an obscure glint flashed through his eyes, and a strand of clear qi descended from his body, swiftly settling upon Chen Chuan!
Chapter 1315