From the crater wall opposite, a burst of fire detonated, spraying sand, dust, and earth outward.
Inside the pit hammered by the spiritual impact, Drakholm shook his massive frame, tossing off the thick coating of dust.
Dark gray spiritual fire spilled outward across his body, propelling him as he flew out from the opposite crater wall.
Where Merton stood, energy flowing from the fissures rapidly repaired his damaged form, and fragments of conjured flesh and tissue seamlessly knit back onto his body.
The six-winged messenger flew back from the distant sky, once more alighting beside Irose.
Chen Chuan exhaled a breath, raising his long saber with both hands and setting it before him again.
In the very next instant, all four swooped down from on high, launching another wave of coordinated attacks against him.
Violent bursts of flame and thunderous booms erupted incessantly across the crater. Flashes of dazzling light exploded along its edges, and before long, towering clouds of smoke and ash swallowed everything.
Long Xian and Real Man Gaoxu looked on with grim expressions. Although Chen Chuan managed to force his foes back each time, Dongxuan View martial artists possessed astounding existential resilience. No matter the damage sustained, so long as their bodies were not pulverized in a single blow and their flesh wiped out completely, they could regenerate in the blink of an eye.
Having lost the room to maneuver and hemmed in by their relentless assault, Chen Chuan had no hope of finding the kind of opening he had seized before.
Even though he could briefly hold them at bay through sheer strength and tenacity, his recovery speed lagged far behind his opponents'. There was simply no way he could win this battle.
In the pit, Chen Chuan continued to trade blows with them relentlessly. In a fight of such fierce intensity, he burned through colossal amounts of stamina every passing second. The replenishment he absorbed could not keep up with his exhaustion, and a long-forgotten weariness crept through his muscles.
Yet he seemed not to care in the slightest. Before reaching that place—before ascending above that realm—he would never stop.
After several minutes of frantic combat, Chen Chuan drove the encircling foes back once more.
He had lost count of how many rounds they had clashed. By now, his mask was shattered, the protective coat over his body hung in tatters, and beads of blood floated outward from his skin.
At the same time, the spiritual fire within him began spreading outward beyond his body. This was a clear sign of pushed limits, an indication that his physical form had reached its breaking point.
Anyone could see that after just a few more clashes, he would be unable to hold on.
Ming glanced down at the situation below, then looked toward the rift overhead. Once this man was removed, no one would be left to aid the Tianji Sect. The Celestial Master would be sealed outside, never able to return.
Drakholm and the others also transmitted news of the situation through their communication channels to Durant and his group in the distance.
At the same time, the bridge of the airship received the update.
Cassian, Olin, and the other advisors finally let out a sigh of relief. As things stood, events were developing favorably, and they could finally deliver good news to the Executive Government.
Even so, uneasy, they asked, "How much longer will it take?"
Drakholm looked down at Chen Chuan in the crater, paused briefly, and then gave a definitive answer:
"Within three minutes."
Hearing this reply, Cassian and the others felt even more reassured.
Still, they could not help but admire Chen Chuan. To hold them off alone for so long and come so close to derailing the Federation's entire plan was incredible. Had this dragged on any longer, the outcome might have been unpredictable—fortunately, that was no longer a concern.
Cassian checked his watch, hesitated for a second, then turned around and spread his arms. "Gentlemen, word from the front: in three minutes, victory will be ours."
In the previously somber command bridge, hearing this declaration brought a spark of energy back to the room.
Seeing this, Cassian tapped his watch and joked, "I remember on my very first date, the young lady kept me waiting for an extra hour. Now it's just three minutes. I believe I can muster that much patience."
The room erupted in chuckles, and the atmosphere noticeably brightened.
Drakholm ended the transmission, lifted his twin blades, and had his spirit visage raise its shield and flail before charging downward again.
This clash dragged on for nearly a full minute before Chen Chuan managed to drive them back.
Yet every single attacker could clearly sense that Chen Chuan's strength had diminished significantly compared to before. Even pushing them away had been a desperate struggle.
Seeing the sheer volume of blood beads drifting from Chen Chuan's body and the spiritual fire blazing uncontrollably around him, they knew he had resorted to burning himself up heedlessly.
At this rate, even if they left him alone, merely standing there would exhaust him to death. Pressing the attack would only accelerate the process; Drakholm's three-minute estimate was actually on the conservative side.
What they failed to see, however, was that in stark contrast to his failing appearance, Chen Chuan's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and his heartbeat pounded with ever greater vigor.
He could distinctly feel his blood draining away, yet new blood rushed in to replenish it. He could feel more mutated tissue dying amid the brutality of the fight, only to be swiftly replaced by newly generated cells. The process unfolded at an astonishing, unnatural pace—dozens of times faster than usual.
In particular, the purple qi xenotissue sprang to life, communing with the purple qi above the heavens and continuously drawing down massive reserves of energy from above.
Yet this energy was not squandered on the combat. Instead, it was funneled entirely into fueling this metamorphosis.
After driving his attackers back once more, the sheer exhaustion forced Chen Chuan to drop one hand to the earth, the other gripping the hilt of the Xuejun Saber plunged into the ground to prop himself up. In that moment, he could barely stand.
Yet his eyes shimmered with light that threatened to overflow. It was the sign that the xenotissue, having evolved to a certain threshold, was shifting from pure consumption to actively nourishing his body.
Just then, he heard a crisp snap as the golden seal-scripts encircling him shattered completely, falling away piece by piece.
Chen Chuan only spared it a fleeting glance and paid it no further mind. Nearby, the Tianji fish circled rapidly, transmitting stream after stream of information to him.
Most of it consisted of secret Xuan Sect methods for refining and fusing essence and qi, as well as preserving and channeling spirit. Clearly, the Tianji fish, being closest to him, understood his current state.
He did not study them thoroughly, merely scanning through them. Yet even without his conscious direction, the mutated tissue in his body naturally absorbed and utilized the elements that benefited its transformation.
At this moment, the outer layer of skin on his body cracked and fell away, dissolving into drifting ash. Beneath it, brand-new skin was revealed, pristine and lustrous as white jade.
Simultaneously, a potent aura began radiating uncontrollably outward from him.
*Something is wrong!*
Ming's gaze suddenly froze. As a True Man of the Tianji Sect, he was the first to detect this abnormal aura. A chill ran down his spine, and abandoning mental transmission, he couldn't help but roar out loud:
"Quick! Stop him!"
Drakholm charged forward the instant the shout rang out. Watching the massive ball of flame hurtling toward him, Chen Chuan merely braced against the ground, pivoted his torso, and slid aside to evade it.
Paying it no further attention, he simply raised his arm. The faint, nearly invisible golden chains binding his form snapped taut, creaking and groaning as though on the verge of fracturing entirely.
After charging forward a short distance, Drakholm whipped around, turning his head just in time to meet Chen Chuan's gaze. As their eyes locked, Drakholm felt a jolt of shock, an inexplicable sense of dread rising unbidden from the depths of his soul.
With a feral roar, Drakholm released his grip on his twin blades, thrust both palms toward Chen Chuan, and unleashed a thick, roaring spiritual impact.
Chen Chuan lifted a single hand. With a dull thud, his palm intercepted the blast, and amidst the flickering glare, he slowly rose to his feet.
Everyone present, including Drakholm, saw it clear as day: using only the seemingly faint spiritual fire coating his palm, he had stopped such a ferocious spiritual impact cold. It was unthinkable, prompting disbelief at whether the blast had possessed any real force at all.
Yet the trembling earth all around and the cascade of stones and gravel tumbling from the crater walls proved beyond doubt the immense power behind that strike.
Chen Chuan did not look back at him. Standing tall, the mutated tissue within him continued its relentless metamorphosis, while his spirit surged upward, piercing through the layers of heaven.
The vast purple qi at the very apex of the heavens seemed to catch fire, igniting a matching resonance in the purple qi within his flesh. The two forces pulled at each other, funneling a boundless torrent of energy directly into his body.
With every passing moment, he could feel himself growing exponentially stronger than before.
Under this continuously ascending power, at a certain threshold, it felt as though some lingering barrier gave way, and in that fleeting instant, the surrounding world seemed to shatter.
It was as if he stood alone in a magnificent, boundless cosmos, his tiny self standing in counterpoint to yet harmonizing with the infinite expanse.
In that single moment, he seemed to behold countless wonders. Bizarre, indescribable entities lurked along the edges of the vaulted firmament, and countless fragments of information surged toward him in a frantic rush.
Much of it was incomprehensible, reminiscent of the sheer overwhelm he had experienced the very first time he put on a boundary credential and suddenly perceived the true world.
Just then, a shimmering gleam ignited across the cosmos, illuminating his entire person. He turned his head and saw another spiritual impact hurtling straight toward him.
Such a strike should have been far too swift to dodge, yet in his eyes now, its incoming trajectory was remarkably distinct and slow.
He watched the approaching radiance with utter calm, making no attempt to shield himself or evade.
The next instant, the fiery impact crashed violently into his body.
Yet after a brief flash of light, everyone saw that he stood entirely unharmed, having not even summoned spiritual fire to defend himself.
Witnessing this, their scalps went numb with dread.
Chen Chuan raised his gaze. Driven by an invisible force, countless drifting flecks of dark ash converged and settled onto his frame. These were the discarded blood and shredded skin tissues he had cast off; now, piece by piece, they knit back together, mending and restoring his tattered coat until it was completely brand-new.
At that moment, a Golden Seal-Script Book flew out from his person, drifting slowly down to float before him.
The scroll unrolled smoothly, quickly reaching its final section. His eyes fell upon it, and as ancient, archaic characters gradually surfaced on the slips, he read them aloud:
"Spirit reaches the vaulted empyrean to meet purple flames,
Heaven's machination borrows qi to dissolve calamitous mystery.
Bright light of vast sky tempers the Dharma visage,
Subduing fiends and battling monsters, an immortal among mortals!"
Chapter 1317