A rolling ring of gray dust erupted from the shattered wall, followed by a rapid burst of clashing impacts that abruptly shifted elsewhere, only to leap to the opposite side an instant later.
Trainees Guo and Liang strained their eyes to follow the fight. Even without the billowing clouds of dust in the way, they still could not see the two combatants' movements clearly, left only to gauge the bout's ferocity through the sound of the collisions. An involuntary shock stirred in their hearts. Was that classmate Chen really a student like them?
For a moment, they wondered if they had somehow missed a class.
Through their initial clashes, Chen Chuan knew he could not allow Instructor Jiang to build up his momentum, as the man's speed appeared to accelerate with every attack.
Having managed with difficulty to interrupt it once using the stone wall as cover, he would not give Jiang another opening. He had to suppress him from the front—or at the very least tie him down—to limit him from playing to his strengths.
As he charged forward this time, he fully released the suppression on his mutated tissue. With a sudden surge in speed and strength, he met Instructor Jiang's slashes and thrusts head-on and launched into a counteroffensive.
It was like two opposing tidal waves crashing into each other. Layers of dust churned wildly, craters burst open everywhere, and shattered stone chips flew in all directions. Because the two moved so fast, lingering slash marks seemed etched into the billowing clouds of smoke and dust.
Instructor Jiang sensed the change in Chen Chuan, realizing the youth had likely used some explosive technique to channel the effects of the medicine more efficiently.
Moreover, he noticed that Chen Chuan's attacks were no longer cautious and restrained as before. Instead, they grew increasingly aggressive and rapid, as if trying to force his offensive momentum right back.
*Oh? Figured it out so quickly?*
*No wonder his combat decision-making was rated top tier...*
Relying on senses that were steadily approaching the third limit, Chen Chuan deduced from Instructor Jiang's breathing rhythm and movement trajectory that the man's flickering repositioning with every strike was not just to keep his opponent guessing his location—it was also his method of generating force.
Jiang needed rhythmic footwork to drive his jin so the power behind his blade could achieve its maximum effect.
That casual whip of the blade before the formal bout had begun was not without purpose either. It had been meant to make Chen Chuan believe a casual strike from Jiang carried tremendous power. In reality, that strike had also involved brief movement and a buildup of power, all concealed behind what had appeared to be a relaxed, loose gait.
It was a tactical deception intended to force Chen Chuan into a conservative strategy, which was precisely what Jiang wanted.
Instructor Zheng often told him that in combat, one had to guide and control the opponent rather than be controlled by them. And from the very start, Instructor Jiang had been attempting to guide and control him.
Having realized this, Chen Chuan knew he had to prevent Instructor Jiang from building up momentum through movement. Seizing this chance, he closed the distance and substituted offense for defense, sticking close to Jiang and disrupting his rhythm so the force the instructor could channel remained relatively limited.
Of course, this did not mean those strikes lacked lethality; they were simply diminished in comparison. As one waxed and the other waned, Chen Chuan could amass an advantage through relentless offense, thereby unleashing even greater power and speed.
The assistant instructor stared fixedly at the arena, thoroughly astonished. He had not expected Chen Chuan to actually trade blows with Instructor Jiang, let alone discover a counter-strategy so quickly. Yet that was as far as it went. Medicine had a time limit—perhaps three minutes? Five?
Any longer, and a Second Limit body could not hold out regardless. There was no way Chen Chuan could win this fight. The assistant's only worry was that the youth might stubbornly refuse to concede and push himself past the breaking point, which would end badly.
He prepared himself to intervene and rescue the student at the first sign of trouble.
Swinging his rapier, Instructor Jiang calmly parried Chen Chuan's offensive. Chen Chuan had indeed found the correct approach: constantly breaking and disrupting his direction of movement, preventing him from elevating his sword momentum.
However, that was probably not enough.
Jiang was not limited to building power through movement alone; the mere swinging of his weapon could accomplish the same thing. Although the shifts of jin in Chen Chuan's saber gave him some trouble and prevented a smooth, rapid buildup, it merely dragged out the process slightly without changing the eventual outcome.
Under his continuous offense, Chen Chuan found his groove. His sharpening senses alerted him that Instructor Jiang's presence was sinking inward again; his power was growing restrained and solid, tightening bit by bit like a drawn bowstring.
This showed that even in such a high-tempo bout, it was difficult to fully curb the man's power accumulation. But Chen Chuan's strategy did not end there.
Without waiting for Instructor Jiang to proceed, Chen Chuan abruptly mobilized the mutated tissue he had held in reserve. In an explosive burst, his blade flashed with sudden speed in a direct downward cleave.
This strike completely broke the previous rhythm. While Instructor Jiang was well aware of Chen Chuan's method of alternating two sets of mutated tissue, he genuinely had not anticipated it coming at this exact moment.
Relying on his superb coordination, Jiang twisted his rapier and parried just in time. Yet this abrupt pivot fell outside his rhythm, immediately dispersing the power he had gathered.
In his heart, he awarded high marks to Chen Chuan for this move. What impressed him even more was that after Chen Chuan's speed spiked, his subsequent attacks managed to maintain that blistering pace. Jiang could not let Chen Chuan run wild any longer. Adjusting his stance, he found an opening and thrust his sword straight toward Chen Chuan's shoulder to arrest his momentum.
Yet Chen Chuan paid the thrust no heed. His slash toward Instructor Jiang did not waver in the slightest. The choice seemed unreasonable on its face—he already held the momentum, and even blocking the thrust would not hinder him much, whereas letting the thrust land risked a mutually destructive exchange and threw away his advantage.
Chen Chuan thought differently. Instructor Jiang had yet to build up his power; even without using the Second Self, a mutual hit might injure Chen Chuan, but Jiang would only suffer worse.
Granted, a third limit fighter possessed tremendous vitality and might come away relatively unscathed in the end, but being struck by a student—or worse, ending in mutual injury—was something Jiang could never accept under any circumstances.
Instructor Jiang indeed would not allow that to happen. What a joke! He was the assessing instructor; if he got injured by an examinee, where would his dignity go?
And even if he remained unhurt, being forced to injure a student during an assessment would make him the laughingstock of the other faculty. Helpless, he withdrew his thrust to parry once again.
This adjustment not only interrupted his power buildup yet again, but also further constricted the operating space for his weapon.
Instructor Jiang was now forced entirely onto the defensive. Although Chen Chuan had seemingly exploited his psychological hesitations, rather than feeling annoyed, Jiang grew even more appreciative.
A fighter ought to exploit every factor in their favor. Once you sensed that your opponent was constrained by something, you naturally targeted that vulnerability relentlessly, hammering away at it without pause.
He would have done the exact same thing in Chen Chuan's shoes.
Appreciation was one thing, but if this continued, there would be no contest left.
It was not that he lacked explosive techniques, but using them against a student would be beneath him. Of course, he could wait until the effects of Chen Chuan's medicine wore off, but word getting out would be just as disgraceful. Wouldn't people say he only won because the student's medicine had run out?
That simply would not do.
He began constantly shifting around the area, altering his positions and using the stone pillars to disrupt Chen Chuan's advance. Yet Chen Chuan seemed glued to him, tracking him relentlessly from beginning to end.
Wherever the two passed, massive stone pillars collapsed one after another. The entire forest of pillars seemed like a boiling steamer, billowing with dust and resounding with turbulent crashes.
After a dozen breaths of maneuvering, the two reached a broken pillar that had already been damaged and leaned at an angle. As Instructor Jiang passed underneath, his hand lightly brushed past it.
Just as Chen Chuan moved to pursue, the fractured upper section crashed down in a clattering cascade of rubble.
Instructor Jiang had calculated this in advance. He did not expect it to cut Chen Chuan off completely; a momentary hindrance was all he needed. Once he broke free of the entanglement, he would have the chance to launch a counterstrike, after which he could smoothly declare the battle over. That way, he saved face and preserved his dignity as an instructor.
Chen Chuan realized this as well, but he had no intention of giving up. Staring at the falling pillar about to obstruct him, he sent a mental command, and his Second Self instantly merged with him. With a resounding boom, he smashed right through the falling debris, and an unimaginably swift flash of saber light stabbed straight toward Instructor Jiang's chest!
Seeing Chen Chuan's speed spike once more, Instructor Jiang felt a jolt of alarm. In that split second, his skin seemed to flush red, and his backward speed abruptly surged. Simultaneously, his wrist trembled slightly, and with a flick of his rapier, the thin blade coiled around the Xuejun Saber like a serpent, winding around it layer by layer. After skidding back dozens of meters, both came to an abrupt halt.
He chuckled with an amused grunt. "Trainee Chen, the assessment is over. Not bad. I'll give you a high score."
Chen Chuan looked at him and said, "Thank you, Instructor." He slowly withdrew his jin, and the rapier wound around the Xuejun Saber sprang free segment by segment, snapping back to its original straight blade.
The assistant instructor finally let out the breath he had been holding. Truth be told, that final moment had looked genuinely perilous; he had almost rushed in to stop it. Fortunately, both of them knew when to pull back. He shot a thoroughly dissatisfied glance at Instructor Jiang. As an instructor, the man had shown no sense of restraint whatsoever. If a student lacked judgment, did an instructor have to lack it too?
Instructor Jiang then called out, "End simulation."
The surrounding scenery vanished instantly. The collapsed pillars and the dust covering the ground were gone, leaving only the empty arena before them. The specially made floor was pristine and gleaming, clear enough to reflect silhouettes.
Chen Chuan walked over, picked up his scabbard, and sheathed the Xuejun Saber. He then bowed slightly to the two instructors. "Instructors, this student will take his leave then." After saying his farewells, he nodded to classmates Liang and Guo and exited the venue.
Instructor Jiang watched him leave, raising a hand to touch his chest. There was a barely perceptible puncture in his clothes, no larger than a pinprick, where the tip of the saber had touched his skin. In real combat, if jin had been unleashed through that point, the outcome truly would have been hard to predict.
Granted, he still had the Severing Snap jin at his disposal in reserve—something far beyond simple disarming. If unleashed, it could snap an opponent's weapon in two or, at the very least, sever the transmission of their jin. But doing so would undoubtedly make him the laughingstock of the other instructors.
He mused inwardly, *Students these days are getting more formidable by the day...*
Just then, the assistant instructor's voice rang out: "What are you two standing there dazed for? Trainee Liang, step forward for your retest."
Jiang pondered for a moment. *Well, take back what I just thought...*
Chapter 320