What Ming used was the Tianji Sect's secret transmission, the "Yin-Yang Qi Lock."
This was a secret technique that could only be executed with the aid of an esoteric ritual. As long as the intended target had moved within the esoteric ritual under one's control, their respective qi mechanics could become intertwined.
Under the ritual's restraint, so long as he remained as still as possible and consistently maintained his hold over the ritual, the locked target would be confined within a limited space.
In his view, Chen Chuan had been able to contend with numerous opponents not only because of his skill and tactics, but primarily because of his agile, swift movement and his exploitation of the fissures.
Without those advantages, Drakholm alone could suppress him; there was no need for Ming to step forward and fight in person.
The moment he was tainted by that clear qi, Chen Chuan realized he had suddenly been confined to a narrow pocket of airspace.
This sensation was somewhat reminiscent of facing Guang Yong's Earth-Penetrating aberrant power. Looking with the heavenly eye between his brows, he saw invisible golden chains wrapped around his body, their other ends extending into and vanishing within the air.
In truth, he had already learned of this situation from the Tianji fish just moments ago. As long as he remained within the esoteric ritual's range, it was virtually inescapable.
He had already prepared himself mentally for this; the upcoming battle would simply be far from easy.
The three engaging him had just received Ming's message. The instant they saw the clear qi enter Chen Chuan's body, the spiritual fire on Drakholm's body drifted soundlessly, then abruptly surged into the high heavens. He swooped downward at blistering speed, his twin sabers slashing toward Chen Chuan!
Though Chen Chuan still had some room to maneuver, it had become exceedingly restricted. He brought his saber across to parry, blocking the two incoming blades, but the immense force transmitting from them drove him downward.
Like falling meteors, the two plummeted diagonally from high above Tianji Peak, finally crashing into the ground with a thunderous roar. A massive cloud of dust and smoke erupted, sending wave after wave of billowing debris surging outward.
When the smoke cleared slightly, a colossal crater resembling a meteorite strike was revealed.
Chen Chuan and Drakholm stood in the deepest part of the crater's center. The twin blades and the Xuejun Saber remained locked together, with spiritual fire flickering on both sides, surging and clashing against each other.
Around Chen Chuan, a faint spirit visage manifested, holding its saber across to block the shield and flail pressed down by Drakholm's spirit visage.
Due to the collision of their fields, dust and pulverized rubble floated upward, swirling incessantly around them.
Yet the Grand Firmament Forms produced an exceptionally potent force field upon contraction, allowing Chen Chuan to gradually overpower Drakholm, forcing him back several paces.
At that moment, however, Chen Chuan found he could advance no farther. Those invisible golden chains dragged heavily against his body.
Forced to alter his tactics, he focused all his strength into the saber, lifted both hands, and slashed horizontally with all his might!
Seeing this, Drakholm shifted his shield down just in time to block. Amidst bursting light and a tremendous crash, he borrowed the momentum to fly backward. Just as he was about to exit the crater, he neutralized the force, soared upward, and came to a stop at the crater's rim.
On the other side of the crater, Irose appeared, the six-winged messenger alighting beside him. Though it had just been blown apart by Chen Chuan, it had rapidly reformed under the replenishment of radiant light beaming from the fissure.
Merton now emerged from another direction, the obsidian weapon dangling from his hand, trailing a long chain behind it.
A figure descended swiftly from the sky—Ming's avatar appeared above as well.
The four looked down at him from their respective angles, each with a cold, detached gaze.
Earlier, Chen Chuan had used the fissures and spatial room to contend with them, removing several people from the battlefield one after another. Now, however, he had lost the advantages he relied upon. It would all soon be over.
This situation also fell into the eyes of Long Xian and Gao Xu. Their hearts sank; no matter how they looked at it, there seemed to be no way to win.
Anxiety gnawed at them, but with Ming blocking the way, they were completely powerless.
Chen Chuan looked up at the figures surrounding him and adjusted his breathing slightly. A faint phantom of his spirit visage manifested around him, shrouding his form, while an immense torrent of spiritual fire surged upward, resembling a brilliant torch standing tall upon the earth.
Magnificent as it looked, this was an act of necessity. Bound as he was, he could no longer reach the high heavens, and his room for movement was exceedingly limited.
Facing attacks from multiple directions, defending every angle simultaneously was out of the question; he could only establish a buffer first, then rapidly channel his spiritual fire to deflect incoming blows.
As for the second self, in order to use this ordeal to break through his boundaries, he had secretly vowed before the battle never to use it until he surpassed his limit.
The Xuejun Saber vibrated softly in his hand, as if responding to his resolve. He stroked the spine of the blade, and the red ribbon fluttered without wind.
On his left, the giant face of the six-winged messenger opened its mouth, and with a roar, a blinding spiritual impact crashed down.
Chen Chuan thrust out a single hand to intercept it. With an explosive boom, the impact was snuffed out directly in his grip.
Right then, light flashed beneath Merton's mantle, and another beam of light lanced down from the flank.
The spiritual fire around Chen Chuan's spirit visage swiftly converged to one side. Amid a resounding blast, half of the spirit visage's torso shattered completely, while the remaining half flickered into insubstantiality, kicking up a dense cloud of dust.
The tip of the scepter in Irose's hand flared, sending another spiritual impact plunging into the billowing dust. Now that Chen Chuan could not move across wide spaces, he was left to endure their unrestrained barrage of spiritual impacts.
From the front, Drakholm released his twin sabers, allowing them to levitate at his sides. Raising both hands high with palms brought together, a brilliance sparked between his hands, coalescing into a massive orb of light. An instant later, he hurled it forward with force, sending the spinning sphere of spiritual light hurtling downward.
Seeing this, Merton, Irose, and the others anticipated its devastating power and took a step back, bracing for the shockwave.
The next moment, an earth-shattering explosion erupted within the crater. Its brilliance illuminated the distant mass of Tianji Peak, blazing on for several seconds.
Is he dead?
Faced with such an onslaught, they knew that without dodging, they could never have withstood it.
When their vision cleared, their expressions shifted drastically.
The ground there had vitrified into a glassy glaze, trailing thin wisps of vapor scorched by intense heat. Chen Chuan stood in the center. An ephemeral spirit visage floated about him, but around the surface of his body, golden talismans shimmered and circled endlessly.
The ground within the radius of their glow remained completely untouched; it seemed the prior spiritual impact had been entirely deflected by them.
This was none other than the golden book Chen Chuan had brought with him.
He had not used it earlier. When he activated it just now, his only intent had been to add a layer of defense, yet its effectiveness against spiritual impacts exceeded his expectations.
He sensed that the golden book was drawing upon the esoteric ritual's power as well. Glancing at the Tianji fish circling nearby, he knew its bridging efforts had played a role.
Witnessing this, Long Xian could not help rising to his feet, saying with distinct excitement, "A Golden Seal-Script Book? It can interface with the esoteric ritual! From the looks of it, it was penned by a senior of our sect. This honored guest truly shares a deep bond with our Tianji Sect!"
Gao Xu's worries were not dispelled at the sight. With a grim expression, he said, "Even so, I fear this alone is not enough."
Daoist Ming's gaze darkened. He recognized the object, discerning it was something left behind by a predecessor of the Tianji Sect.
"Did they divine heavenly secrets so long ago and leave this behind...?"
With this golden book's protection and the Tianji fish facilitating communication, the surrounding esoteric ritual would recognize Chen Chuan as one of its own, thereby blunting the force of spiritual impacts to a certain degree.
He immediately informed everyone of this via mental link, ordering them to close in and finish him off.
While whittling Chen Chuan down with spiritual impacts might eventually kill him, it would take far too much time. Ming could not afford that patience, for dragging out the fight increased the likelihood of the Celestial Master's return.
The first to move was once again Drakholm. In a flash, he collided with Chen Chuan, driving him toward the side until Chen Chuan planted his feet against the opposite slope of the crater.
No sooner had Chen Chuan blocked him than the six-winged messenger appeared behind him wielding a mace, its chest splitting open to reveal rows of densely packed teeth snapping toward him.
Chen Chuan's eyes flashed. A flicker of Mystic Void Fire flared along his blade; the moment Drakholm's spiritual fire touched it, it melted under the searing blaze. Startled, Drakholm hastily pulled back to evade.
Gaining an opening, Chen Chuan spun around and casually drew a cluster of crystalline mist from the field, instantly condensing a long mace to lash mercilessly against the six-winged messenger. A strike from this life-bound weapon possessed immense suddenness, nearly impossible to defend against. The blow struck, causing the creature to freeze mid-air, while the spirit visage above seized its leg and slammed it brutally into the ground with a thunderous crash.
Seeing an opening, Merton lashed out with his chained obsidian blade. The outer phantom of Chen Chuan's spirit visage burst with a spray of golden light, tearing open a sizable gap.
Having retreated, Drakholm saw his chance and charged back in. His flail lashed upward with a resounding crack, instantly blowing apart that section of the spirit visage before striking Chen Chuan's shoulder. The force knocked him two paces back. Though the spiritual fire beneath his shoulder absorbed the impact, a patch of his outer protective mantle shattered.
Though pinned to the ground, the six-winged messenger whipped its mace around, striking Chen Chuan across the hip. Amid splattering bursts of spiritual fire, Chen Chuan was knocked slightly off balance.
Yet after a single step, he regained his footing. Braving the blades and maces crashing from every direction, he reached out and snatched up the six-winged messenger horizontally, hurling it straight toward Drakholm. The latter tried to dodge backward, but hindered by the Grand Firmament Forms, he could not pull back in time and was forced to raise his shield. The heavy impact of the messenger's hurtling body sent him flying sideways.
The moment Chen Chuan finished this movement, he felt a crushing force shove hard against his back, stumbling a step forward. It was Merton, who had lunged in and slashed his back, nearly extinguishing the spiritual fire there.
Yet before Merton could retreat, the reconverging spirit visage above struck down. Merton hastily raised a block, but his whole body sank under the weight; then a giant blade slashed diagonally downward. With a deafening crash, he was slammed brutally into the earth!
Before Chen Chuan could even catch his breath, Drakholm, enveloped in raging spiritual fire, charged once more, this time lifting Chen Chuan off his feet.
The six-winged messenger soared into the air, about to join the pincer attack, but a phantom long mace swept across from above, forcing it back, followed by a mid-air saber slash that sent it flying.
However, dividing his power in that split second created an opening. Drakholm seized the opportunity decisively, his flail whipping downward toward Chen Chuan's head. Chen Chuan tilted his head just in time; with a crisp crack, the blow struck his shoulder, forcing him downward and blasting a huge cloud of dust from beneath his feet.
Chen Chuan fixed his unblinking gaze upon him. One hand, shimmering with radiance, slammed violently against the shield before Drakholm. A spiritual impact tore horizontally across the entire crater, blasting Drakholm straight into the far wall.
Chen Chuan ducked sharply, evading the chained blade Merton whipped toward him. Spinning in place, he raised his unwithdrawn hand and, with three consecutive flashes from his palm, unleashed a barrage of three spiritual impacts toward Merton's position!
In an instant, billowing clouds of dust, erupting radiant vapors, and churning earth rose from that direction.
Having repelled them in a single breath, the surroundings fell momentarily silent.
Chen Chuan's breathing had grown slightly ragged. The golden talismans orbiting him had been depleted at an alarming rate during the exchanges, dimming noticeably to the point that they could not hold out much longer.
Without question, this was the most grueling battle he had fought to date.
His greatest disadvantage was his inability to relocate freely; with no space to maneuver, he was forced to stand his ground and clash head-on. His spiritual fire had to be redirected to every impacted point instantaneously—any hesitation, however slight, could lead to complete collapse. Every second was balanced on the knife-edge of life and death.
This forced his mind and the mutated tissue throughout his body to operate at full throttle every moment, squeezing strength from deep within again and again.
Under such extreme pressure, his exhaustion was tremendous.
Yet it was precisely amid this relentless blending and tempering of internal and external forces that the barrier blocking his advancement had grown exceptionally fragile. Now, it felt as though a gentle push would break it open.
And at the same time, perhaps unbeknownst even to himself, or simply because he had no leisure to notice, a transformation unprecedented in history had already quietly begun within his body.
Chapter 1316