Confrontation

Chen Chuan was currently caught in the sway of his opponent's jin, his body pausing in place. Watching the spearhead thrust toward him, he seemed to have no way to dodge. At this moment, his gaze turned profoundly tranquil. The instant the spear tip was about to pierce his face, the Second Self behind him abruptly blurred into insubstantiality. Chen Chuan suddenly raised both hands. With a sharp clang, the Xuejun Saber parried the spear shaft upward. He stepped forward in a lunge, swinging his blade in a ferocious forward slash! The Iron Demon's spear had been jarred high, leaving his guard wide open. Yet at that very split second, a fluctuation stirred across his previously deadened biological field. His body pivoted inward with rapid agility, his rear hand wrenching the spear shaft back just in time to catch the incoming saber for a fraction of an instant. In that breath, he displayed astonishing spear mastery. Channeling that sheer momentum, he skipped back two swift paces, sank his waist and hips, and swept his arm outward; with a roll of the spear shaft, he parried the thrusting blade once more. Yet this was merely damage control after all, staving off defeat for a fleeting moment while keeping him firmly on the defensive. Chen Chuan seized the hard-won opening, pressing in relentlessly. Even if the Iron Demon repeatedly parried his cuts, so long as he could not open up distance, he was forced to endure a barrage of continuous strikes. Having used the Second Self to divert the incoming jin, Chen Chuan suffered none of the lag or recoil from their weapons clashing. Thus, he could unleash his full strength without restraint. Under Chen Chuan's blistering onslaught, the Iron Demon was pinned into pure defense, unable to spare attention for anything else. Even under such disadvantage, he maintained a tight, flawless defense without a single misstep—a testament to his consummate skill. Yet continuing like this would inevitably reveal a flaw. After blocking more than a dozen strikes in succession, a faint reddish gleam flared in his eyes. His biological field rippled violently, and abandoning all defense, he let the saber chop straight into his gorget. Though the armor plates there were heavy and reinforced by a protective suit beneath, driven by Chen Chuan's tremendous strength, the blade cleaved through them all the same, hacking into his neck! Yet Chen Chuan felt the edge bite only slightly into the flesh before grinding to a halt, unable to penetrate further. Capitalizing on the strike, the Iron Demon whipped his spear back, shifting the rear half behind him while gripping the middle, and flicked the spear point up to stab at Chen Chuan. Chen Chuan brought his saber up to parry, feeling a concussive burst of jin erupt from the spear. Knowing the prime opportunity had slipped away, he didn't force the contest, instead riding the force to leap backward. After Chen Chuan retreated, the Iron Demon didn't pursue. Keeping the spear level, he backed away, smoothly sliding his hands back to the mid-rear grip. With a snap and shake of the shaft, the white tassel trembled, and he steadily extended the spearhead once more, leveling it at Chen Chuan. Chen Chuan slowly brought his saber back from the side, gripping it with both hands along his center line, the blade tip angled slightly upward, his gaze locked on his foe. From that strike alone, he could tell that although the Iron Demon had not cultivated external conditioning, he was equally capable of marshaling mutated tissue through vital essence to achieve an unyielding defense. This was not an adversary who could be defeated by seizing a single minor opening. He might not fall until his vital essence and changeless mind were completely exhausted. However, Chen Chuan had also noticed something else: when resolving that dire situation earlier, the Iron Demon had undoubtedly used some explosive technique. That in itself was ordinary, yet every time he did so, his solid, seemingly impregnable field rippled slightly, as if revealing a hairline crack. From this, it was clear that the man was not as flawless as he appeared. When his spirit and flesh were both at their peak, he could indeed be considered seamless. But such a state required maintenance; a person's condition was never static, changing with physical exertion and mental fluctuations. Every cornerstone sustaining that perfection had to remain aligned. Once a problem arose anywhere and the balance was disrupted, the whole edifice would crumble. With these thoughts in mind, Chen Chuan already had a strategy. By now, both had recalibrated. Their feet inched forward once more before they launched themselves almost simultaneously. As their weapons collided again, a blast of concussive force exploded outward. This collision seemed to unloose all restraint. Rather than remaining locked in place, the two abruptly vanished from the spot. To be precise, they vanished from the sight and perception of their respective comrades. Moments later, the ringing clash of saber against spear echoed throughout the surrounding air. Moving in tacit accord, they shifted farther out, disengaging from the battlefield where their companions clashed. As they moved, mud blasted into the air and dust billowed, tracing an unbroken path into the distance propelled by surging blasts of jin. Their departure brought palpable relief to the remaining four. For both the Iron Demon and Chen Chuan radiated such explosive force and oppressive mental fields that the others had been forced to divert part of their focus to keep track of them—even the Iron Demon's two subordinates were no exception. As fighters, this was an instinctive response to mortal danger, something that could not be suppressed at will. Now that the two had shifted their battle elsewhere, the rest could finally let loose a bit. Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque in particular took advantage of their opponents' tendency toward solid defense over offense to steady their breathing and lower their activation index before rallying their spirits to fight on. Ahead, the two fast-moving figures initially held some distance, but rapidly closed in and collided. With a thunderous boom, they swept past each other. Using the momentum of their forward rush to bleed off the jin, both pivoted around to face each other once more, launching into the next clash. In their rapid motion, their footsteps gouged deep trenches through the terrain under immense power, sending billowing waves of dust churning into the air. In this exchange, both fighters harnessed the kinetic force generated by their high-speed charges to suppress the other. If their earlier clash had been a test of pure strength, speed was now thrown into the equation: whoever was faster and recovered quicker could pour out that much more overwhelming force. Yet while Chen Chuan relied on his Second Self to transfer the impact, the Iron Demon depended purely on his physical body. Consequently, with every violent collision, the Iron Demon's biological field underwent a turbulent ripple. Such explosive bursts could not last indefinitely. They were bound to take a toll on his vital essence and changeless mind; no matter what unnatural traits he possessed, he could not avoid this reality. Therefore, even if Chen Chuan did not deliberately hunt for an opening and merely maintained this tit-for-tat clash, the Iron Demon would not be able to sustain it forever. All Chen Chuan needed was patience. At this time, he also made an unexpected discovery. The opponent's weapon was evidently a mutated weapon as well, which was why it could endure the collision of their forces. Yet as Chen Chuan swung the Xuejun Saber with all his might, the mutated tissue inside the blade—and that certain thing—began to stir with increasing activity. Moreover, with each clash, it seemed to siphon a trace of something akin to vitality from the spear. Though minuscule, every single impact unfailingly drew away a sliver. Perhaps because it was so minute, the Iron Demon was completely oblivious. Chen Chuan didn't know what it was, but as long as it didn't hinder him, that was fine. After the two traded blows like this for some twenty minutes, their weapons met once more with savage force. With a loud snap, the spear suddenly fractured right at the point of impact! The Iron Demon seemed not to have expected this turn of events, but Chen Chuan had anticipated it. His eyes flashed. Driving his saber forward in a sudden surge, he swept across the man's neck—aiming precisely for the rent previously cut into the gorget. With grim, chilling eyes, the Iron Demon paid the incoming blade no heed. Grasping the two broken halves of his spear, he thrust both hands forward toward Chen Chuan's chest. Chen Chuan did not alter his forward swing in the slightest. His edge struck the Iron Demon first—faster and heavier than before. The blade cleaved through muscle and sinew, striking directly against the neck vertebra. Yet when he attempted to sever it in one fell swoop, a tough, fibrous mass enfolded the steel, halting its progress. Meanwhile, the two broken spear shafts slammed into his chest. They pierced straight through his stab-resistant suit and protective suit, leaving a shallow, insubstantial void in the chest of the Second Self. Chen Chuan ignored it completely. He lifted his saber and chopped down again. The Iron Demon likewise disregarded the strike, pulling back the broken spears slightly before stabbing at him once more. From there, both abandoned defense entirely. They attacked solely with their weapons, using their own bodies to take the brunt of the deadly onslaught. Even so, neither could inflict critical damage on the other. Every time the Iron Demon's flesh was hewn open, it regenerated at rapid speed. On Chen Chuan's side, various signs of blur and insubstantiality continually surfaced across the Second Self; his actual skin wasn't even broken, and whatever faint bruises formed swiftly faded away. In truth, this had become a contest of vital essence, changeless mind, and foundational stamina. Yet the depths of both men seemed bottomless. Meanwhile, their clothes and armor were slashed and punctured to tatters. After minutes of continuous mutual butchery, their weapons locked together. They grappled for a brief moment, then shoved off each other, using the recoil to leap apart and face off in the distance. The Iron Demon looked at him. This was the first time he had met an opponent on truly equal footing. He tossed the two broken weapon pieces to the ground and removed his helmet, revealing hair tied up in a neat bun underneath. Then he struck and wrenched at his chest. With several vigorous tugs, he unfastened his battered iron armor, letting the heavy, severely damaged plating clatter noisily to the earth. Next, he stripped off the protective suit underneath, baring a sturdy, heavily muscled torso. Only the iron mask and the armored skirt around his waist remained. Chen Chuan planted the Xuejun Saber into the muddy ground, reached up to undo his collar buttons, and shed his ruined stab-resistant suit and coat, tossing them aside. His face mask and peaked cap had already fallen off during the furious exchange. He rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt, took hold of the hilt once more, and raised both hands, steadily lifting the blade to the side of his head, the point leveled straight at his opponent. …… ……