In the depths of the seabed, Prince Yi had arranged more than one escape route.
Originally, there was one by the cavern where he lived, but his opponents were bound to keep a close watch there. He had no chance of returning, so he could only head toward the other.
He had already reached an agreement with certain ancient deities on the other side, agreeing to a few conditions; as long as he crossed into the other world, he would gain their protection.
Moreover, all those Great Shun people could not possibly stay here forever. Once they retreated, he could emerge once more. He refused to believe that everyone was as formidable as that Chen Xuanji.
Facing the rest of them alone would hardly be difficult. Of course, Great Shun might lay waste to his domain, but that did not matter. In his eyes, Emperor Wenguang was dead, and the myriad soldiers and subjects of the former dynasty could all be counted as his people.
What did a mere overseas territory amount to?
When the External Calamity arrived and he returned, he would only need to repel Great Shun's forces within the convergence zone, and would it not fall right into his grasp all the same?
Above at this moment, Mingchengzi still maintained the smoky topographical map with both hands.
When Chen Chuan's punch pulverized Prince Yi, the figure formed in the smoke abruptly vanished, but Mingchengzi did not let his focus slacken. He kept staring straight at it, not believing Prince Yi had been slain so easily.
It was not that he had an intimate understanding of Prince Yi's capabilities, but rather he knew Prince Yi was no mere reckless brute; anyone daring to stand alone against so many of them had to have a backup plan.
Sure enough, the smoky human figure reappeared in an instant and began moving rapidly in a certain direction.
He immediately sent a mental transmission to Chen Chuan: "Xuanji, the false prince still lives!"
Chen Chuan had already seen it. He noticed that Prince Yi was heading straight in one specific direction with clear intent.
He also remembered that Prince Yi had previously been moving back and forth between two locations; one was the place he had just destroyed, and the other seemed to be precisely where the man was heading now.
And as his gaze turned there, his figure vanished from where he stood.
When he reappeared the next instant, he was already deep beneath the sea, materializing right above Prince Yi and bringing a fist crashing down with a thunderous roar.
Prince Yi had no time to react at all before detonating into fragments amidst a burst of blinding light.
With this punch, Mystic Void Fire also flowed out over Chen Chuan's knuckles, instantaneously dissolving the surrounding seawater and mangled flesh into nothingness.
Yet he knew Prince Yi was not dead. The Mystic Void Fire he released had not extended into the spiritual plane; at the instant the man was blasted apart, his spirit had vanished simultaneously.
His gaze remained deep and calm, guessing this was likely the effect of some aberrant power.
In the next instant, Prince Yi's figure coalesced in the distance, a lingering dread still churning in his heart from moments ago.
Indeed, he had escaped with his life thanks to an aberrant power. His "One Engenders Myriad Transformations" could only be used once a day; his current escape relied primarily on another aberrant power called "Imperial Mandate."
The Earl of the Eastern Sea was an orthodox sea-quelling deity of legend; the Heavenly Emperor had granted him immunity from execution, but should he commit a transgression, severe punishment was inevitable.
Correspondingly, with the "Imperial Mandate" aberrant power, he could sacrifice one of his own aberrant powers as the price for an opportunity to redeem his life.
However, when the aberrant power activated, he would normally reappear in the same spot, leaving him unable to escape if cornered. To prevent this, he had prepared in advance by placing wisps of spiritual imprints along the escape route, concealed and protected by rituals, so that when peril struck, he could quickly revive by anchoring himself to one of these wisps.
Yet this wisp could not be too far from his body, or it would fail to work. Thus, the moment he revived, he fled outward without hesitation, not caring in the least whether it stirred up massive disturbances.
Now he was certain the enemy had a means of tracking him. If that was the case, he might as well flee with everything he had; as long as he reached the other fissure, he could escape this calamity.
Yet he had not gone far when darkness washed over his vision once more. When he regained awareness again, he realized that Chen Chuan had slain him yet another time.
Suppressing the terror in his heart, he buried his head and charged forward.
He had five aberrant powers in total, which meant he possessed five chances. Two had already been spent, so he had to plunge into the fissure on the other side before his powers ran out.
Yet before he had traveled far, his consciousness vanished briefly once more. By now, his heart was completely engulfed in panic.
Fortunately, he was a little closer to the other side, and he could already see the fissure gleaming with brilliant light through the seawater ahead. As long as he crossed over, he would be safe.
Although it seemed close, to his eyes he would never make it in time. In just a fleeting span, he was destroyed twice more in succession.
When his final aberrant power was exhausted, he was still some distance from the fissure; slipping inside was entirely out of reach.
Chen Chuan could clearly sense a tangle of despair and fury radiating from Prince Yi.
Thus, it was not hard to deduce that this man could hold out no longer. Now, a single punch would suffice to finish him off once and for all.
Yet right at that moment, an alarm flared in his mind. He cast his gaze ahead to see a surge of radiance gushing violently from the fissure, followed by a figure clad in ancient garments stepping forward to block his path.
The figure possessed four eyes and four lotus-root-like arms extending from its back. Its two front hands each gripped a golden melon hammer, and bound to its robes by silk cords were bells of various sizes, chiming with strange, discordant tinkling as they swayed.
The figure's features were so distinct that Chen Chuan recognized it at a single glance: this was the "Golden Bell Demon" mentioned in the records of the Tianji Sect.
It was not an ancient deity, but rather one of the gods worshipped by foreign barbarians in the remote southwestern borderlands during the Middle Antiquity, reverently called the "Bell Immortal" by locals.
Though never canonized by the Xuan Sect, its influence along the southwestern frontier had been substantial, so records of it existed.
What stood before him was likely its avatar. The instant it manifested, a ray of light enveloped Prince Yi, dragging him toward the fissure.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan drove a fist straight into its body.
The newcomer could be considered a divine-demon avatar, yet under his fist, it was no different from Prince Yi, shattering instantly amidst a burst of radiance.
At that moment, he raised an eyebrow. He felt the aberrant tissue in his body suddenly experience a pang of hunger toward that dispersing divine energy, while the relic he carried grew scorching hot.
A precious material?
He looked up toward the fissure. In that brief delay, Prince Yi had already been swept inside.
This time, he had brought along a relic provided by the government.
Once thrown, this relic could completely seal non-permanent fissures.
So having reached this stage, he truly only needed to seal off this place. Without the fissure, it would not be easy for his foe to return.
However, without eliminating Prince Yi, this mission would not be complete. Furthermore, he had always been in pursuit of precious materials; now that one could be found on the foe, how could he let it slip?
Because aberrant erosion on the other side of the fissure was exceptionally severe, he stripped the red-cloth-wrapped scabbard from the blade, followed without hesitation, and with a flash of his figure, passed right through the fissure.
There, he saw a colossal divine demon sitting upright, rings of light haloing its back. Prince Yi had been summoned upward and rested in its palm.
This was the true projection avatar of the "Golden Bell Demon"; what had appeared earlier was merely a wisp of worldly divine presence.
Looking at its towering form, not a trace of fear showed in his eyes.
Although this was indeed the other world, it was still close to the Ring of the World. As a result, entities from the other side stationed here could generally never possess higher-tier strength without an invocation from his home world; otherwise, he would not have pursued it directly.
For that very reason, he did not pause for a second. Having passed through the fissure, he charged straight at his true target.
The Golden Bell Demon clearly had not expected Chen Chuan to chase it down either. Its four eyes snapped open, and the bells on its body jingled.
Chen Chuan could feel wave upon wave of erosion washing over him. Faint fissures and aberrant mutations appeared on his external implant armor. Having no intention of getting bogged down in a drawn-out brawl, his spiritual visage fused instantly with his physical body.
Fixing his gaze on the figure shrouded in radiance, he gripped the Xuejun Saber, forcibly woke it, and surged forward as a streak of platinum light.
In an instant, he tore through the outer curtain of light and arrived right before the Golden Bell Demon's glabella.
Compared to that colossal frame, his figure was truly minuscule. At such close range, the blazes of light surrounding the creature and the incandescent brilliance of its body buffeted his fire of spirituality, sending it trailing outward.
Right at this moment, the creature's two pairs of enormous eyes swivelled to stare toward him.
Chen Chuan was not fazed in the least. He knew that with his speed, the creature only had time to move its eyeballs.
Gathering all his power into one point, he gripped the hilt with both hands and slashed downward. Simultaneously, Mystic Void Fire drifted up along the blade edge.
As the blade cleaved down, a streak of light traced straight downward, starting from the center of the Golden Bell Demon's forehead.
After delivering the slash, Chen Chuan exchanged a single glance with the Golden Bell Demon through the calm, deep eyes behind his mask. With a twirl of the Xuejun Saber, he stowed it behind his back, drew his life-bound weapon with his other hand, and with a flick of his wrist, a wisp of crystalline mist instantly transformed into a long whip that lashed out, blasting Prince Yi apart in midair.
Reaching out, he snatched Prince Yi's flying severed head. The fire of spirituality surged from his palm, sealing its facial orifices and neck in an instant, and hung it casually at his waist.
At that very moment, a violent flare of light flashed, and the Golden Bell Demon instantly burst into countless fragments, every single piece enveloped in Mystic Void Fire that burned ablaze across the sky.
Expanding the field around him, Chen Chuan gathered the fragmented wisps of divine energy into his field.
Although the entity itself held a lofty level and its massive frame looked intimidating, under the suppression of the Ring of the World, any avatar arriving here stood at the Dongxuan View tier at most. Without various aberrant powers and secret techniques, it was truly not much harder to deal with than Prince Yi.
After gathering all the divine energy, he withdrew from the fissure, took out that relic, and cast it forward. A daylight-bright brilliance flared behind him in an instant.
Picking up the scabbard lodged in the seabed, he sheathed his saber, leaped forward, parted the seawater, and flew upward. Behind him, the fissure's light flickered several times before snapping shut in an instant, vanishing without a trace.
……
……
Chapter 1457