Above Anbo Lake, the young Xuanist holding the black jade talisman stood within the fissure.
Upon discovering the situation in the sky above, his reaction was extremely swift. Turning in midair, he swung his sleeve. The fissure, which had not yet opened to its limit, suddenly snapped shut. A streak of blue light carried his entire person away in an instant, evidently taking refuge across to the other side of the fissure.
Yet he did not notice that just before the fissure closed, a wisp of purple light flew in from afar, following right in behind him.
Chen Chuan merely glanced at this and did not stop it.
There was no rush to deal with the fissure. With the purple qi trailing along, he would know where the other party had gone. Even without the core artifact used to open it, he could just as easily tear the fissure open with the Xuejun Saber.
He turned his gaze toward Prince Yong. From his earlier observations, he believed Prince Yong was likely a possessor of the secret diagram bloodline.
He did not know in advance what kind of abilities Prince Yong possessed, nor did he know which path he followed. If it were the Visage of the Aberrant, due to the presence of aberrant power, many offensive measures might not necessarily yield an advantage even if they struck, and could even backfire.
Therefore, he had led with a probing move, attacking with a spiritual impact. If successful, he could drive Prince Yong away and prevent him from entering the fissure. At the same time, he was prepared for the strike to fail; regardless of the outcome, he could choose his next step based on the man's specific reaction.
Judging solely from the way Prince Yong had defended just now, the condensed density of his fire of spirituality, and most crucially, the faint silhouette phantom emerging behind him, Chen Chuan could already be certain:
Like himself, his opponent walked the Visage of Man.
That made things much simpler.
In a clash between martial artists of the Visage of Man, setting aside various relics and ritual fields, fighting was actually the most straightforward.
Still, looking at Prince Yong's defensive showing just now, how should one put it...
He was a bit weak.
By now, Prince Yong had also recognized that the one who had repelled him was Chen Chuan, and his heart thumped wildly.
He had no idea how this person had appeared here. Had intelligence of their departure leaked? Or had a traitor emerged from within their ranks? Could it be Prince Lin? Would Imperial Father blame him for this?
In this instant, countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and his expression shifted erratically.
Yet he knew well enough that he could not just stand here staring. This was Great Shun territory, which meant the enemy could receive reinforcements from Great Shun, and more forces might already be converging on this location. He had to repel Chen Chuan or find a way to lure him away so that the entire imperial family could escape through the fissure.
His expression turned vicious at last. A bluish-green spiritual flame surged around his body, and with a thunderous boom, he blasted through the atmosphere, hurtling across the open sky in an instant. As he drew near Chen Chuan, he pressed his fingers together, twisted his torso, and made ready to cleave.
The immense external visage phantom on his body instantly solidified into substance. A colossal saber materialized at its front, slashing toward Chen Chuan in sync with the shift in his posture.
Chen Chuan's gaze shifted slightly. He acutely sensed the other party's fear of him.
For a Visage of Man martial artist, especially one at their level, attacking purely with an external visage was effectively fighting with half their power missing.
If facing an entirely unfamiliar opponent, doing so might barely pass as a probe. But Chen Chuan believed Prince Yong must have long possessed intelligence on him—not to mention Prince Yong was a Visage of Man practitioner himself. In that case, he should have gone all out right from the start, unleashing his most potent aspects to force an opening.
Seen from this angle, Prince Yong likely suspected his own strength could not match Chen Chuan's, so he instinctively adopted this method to ensure his own safety first.
Mm, this also revealed that the man was sorely lacking in combat experience. Perhaps he had only fought large- or medium-sized aberrant organisms and never clashed with martial artists of the same tier, which was why he had chosen such an attack approach right off the bat.
Chen Chuan watched the colossal saber shadow descend with radiant flames that seemed capable of tearing the sky. Standing motionless in midair, he merely raised a single hand. In the next instant, the saber beam bore down with a roar. The fire of spirituality on his arm abruptly coalesced, blocking the blow solidly without his body swaying even a fraction.
At this moment, he assessed that purely in terms of external visage power, it was not much different from Yuan Congye with his Visage of the Aberrant fully unleashed. If stacked with the physical body, then strictly on the level of raw offensive power, among everyone he had encountered, this man was the strongest aside from himself.
Yet in an actual fight, Chen Chuan did not think this man could beat Yuan Congye. This single strike revealed that he had virtually no combat technique—or rather, no experience fighting martial artists of the same level. Likely, this prince had not been at the Cave Mystery View tier for very long.
Prince Yong had no idea that Chen Chuan had deduced so much from just a single exchange. Seeing Chen Chuan effortlessly deflect his attack, his pupils contracted sharply.
In the past, whenever he unleashed such an offensive, any aberrant creature facing him would submit, after which he needed only to press the attack relentlessly.
In this situation, despite having some mental preparation, an instinctive friction still arose within him, inevitably causing a slight hitch in chaining his techniques.
Fortunately, his foundation and physical constitution were exceptionally strong. With his strike bearing no fruit, he instinctively mobilized his most powerful offensive measure.
His colossal external visage fully revealed itself at this moment—a hundred-meter-tall figure manifested in midair.
Yet before he could launch his next attack, an even more colossal mace in the sky swept outward, easily parrying the saber aside. Then it swung downward with immense force, striking dead center on his true body. Amid a thunderous burst of radiant flame, he plummeted from the sky like a meteor, smashing deep into the snow below.
Immediately afterward, a shockwave of swirling snow mist and churned earth rippled outward. The ground trembled incessantly, followed moments later by a dull, booming rumble. As if influenced by the impact, avalanches roared down distant snow-capped mountains, crashing onto the earth and throwing up billowing clouds of snow dust.
Chen Chuan watched below. Every move this man made was riddled with openings; he had not utilized his speed properly at all. On the other hand, the hallmark formidable resilience of the Visage of Man was well preserved.
If an ordinary martial artist took that blow without defenses like aberrant power, their body would likely have been pulverized on the spot. This man, clearly, had sustained no major injury.
After swatting the man away, the external visage behind Chen Chuan ran a blade through Prince Yong's external visage lingering in the sky, completely dispersing it in a massive torrent of radiant flame.
Then he noticed that after crashing down, Prince Yong remained motionless for quite a while, as if waiting for something. Chen Chuan did not swoop down to press him, for he was in no hurry.
Not only was this Great Shun territory, but aside from himself, Mingchengzi and the other two had arrived. Although Emperor Wenguang's strength remained unknown, he was certain that apart from them, no other martial artists of the same tier existed here.
Both advantage and time were on their side.
The ground below erupted with a roar, and Prince Yong shot upward, wrapped in a blaze of light.
He had now merged into one with his external visage. After the clash just now, he had figured it out: Chen Chuan was nothing like the aberrant beasts he had faced before. His past experience was utterly useless; only by committing all his strength to the fight did he have any hope of victory.
With his true body and external visage merged, his power instantly doubled. Even the spiritual luminescence cloaking him swelled significantly. The momentum of his upward charge gave even Jiang Linghuai and the other two behind pause.
Chen Chuan watched the figure growing larger in his vision, his expression unruffled.
Having tested the performance of Prince Yong's external visage earlier, he had roughly deduced where the man's limits lay.
He remained hovering motionless in midair. As Prince Yong charged near, a gigantic arm suddenly materialized from the sky behind Chen Chuan, reaching out with a simple push that halted his momentum dead in its tracks.
Such a linear, uncompromising charge—like a reckless outburst born of rising fury—was far too easy to read.
Raising his hand toward Prince Yong, light flared from Chen Chuan's palm. As the giant phantom hand before him abruptly dissolved, a spiritual impact bloomed across Prince Yong in an instant, sending his figure hurtling backward involuntarily.
Before he could steady himself, the external visage swung the massive mace in a wide arc, slamming it violently against his body with a deafening boom and sending him flying into the distance once more.
And at that moment, Chen Chuan sensed something different.
As Prince Yong was knocked back, seemingly having suffered damage far exceeding before, his external visage began undergoing a certain transformation.
First, two additional arms sprouted from beneath his armpits. At the same time, scales grew across his entire body, and his face twisted, transforming into the ghostly visage of a fanged, blue-faced monster. Seen like this, it rather resembled the Visage of the Aberrant.
Chen Chuan took in these changes, though he did not immediately connect them to the secret diagram bloodline.
Because the Visage of Man was an acknowledgment of one's true self, and a person's starting point did not necessarily require being "human."
If so, it meant this current appearance might very well be what he was originally.
His deduction was spot-on. What the external visage displayed at this moment was indeed Prince Yong's true form—or rather, the true form of the imperial family's direct line. They merely maintained a human appearance ordinarily, having grown accustomed to it.
Yet after enduring intense external stimulus and injury, the power lurking within their flesh and blood was forcibly awakened. Thus, the external visage changed ahead of time. If the battle continued, his own physical appearance would gradually align with it as well.
At the same time, a shimmering, crystalline mist welled up inside his body, one that even he himself did not understand.
The moment this mist appeared, every aspect of his physical attributes surged dramatically. Even the fire of spirituality enveloping him seemed to undergo a transformation, the bluish-green radiant flame turning denser and more profound.
Chen Chuan immediately sensed the difference in his aura.
This feeling was akin to his own purple qi aberrant tissue, elevating aberrant tissue toward a higher dimension.
His gaze fixed intently on him. Could this be what the secret diagram bloodline brought?
Chapter 1428