Behind the iron mask, the Iron Demon's crimson eyes glared at Chen Chuan. Gripping the broken halves of his spear in either hand, he seemed to undergo some internal and external respiration.
Within moments, wisps of crimson vapor seeped from the surface of his skin, and the scent of blood and rust about him grew heavier still.
His aura surged even stronger than before, the oppressive weight of his field pressing down with greater intensity.
Across from him, Chen Chuan's skin grew scalding hot. Strands of white vapor rose from his body, swirling incessantly about him.
At first, this white vapor was merely heat and moisture, but now it was more than that—it was also the strange breath steamed out by the full exertion of his mutated tissue.
Yet without sufficient coverage of mutated tissue, a sturdy enough foundation, and a unique breathing technique, such a phenomenon would never have appeared.
The two stood facing each other, one white and one red plume of vapor rising into the air above.
After a brief standoff, their figures blurred slightly as they charged forward, followed immediately by the clash of weapons.
Amid their flickering, crisscrossing silhouettes, the white vapor and red mist collided violently. Yet no matter how savage the fighting grew, they never blended together. Instead, they maintained a sharp divide, churning briefly before dispersing into the swirling air, only to crash into each other again an instant later.
This time, however, Chen Chuan's Furnace Breathing Technique clearly brought forth greater power. His increase in strength noticeably edged out his opponent's. Though there was still little difference in speed, he was indeed slightly faster than the Iron Demon.
For two combatants who had originally been evenly matched, even that slight edge was enough to tip the scales.
The Iron Demon showed clear signs of struggle. Previously, he had always been the one to overpower others through strength or speed; now, he found himself suppressed on both fronts.
Faced with Chen Chuan's overpowering strength and worried his spear shafts might be severed once more, the Iron Demon was forced to use refined technique to neutralize every incoming blow.
Yet even with fine skill, the impact of Chen Chuan's jin still had to be diffused by his mutated tissue, all while maintaining intense mental focus. As a result, his changeless mind and vital essence drained away at a rapid, continuous pace.
After trading blows and hacking at each other for more than ten minutes, Chen Chuan could clearly sense that the Iron Demon was no longer as dominant as he had been at the start.
Although the Iron Demon had boosted his condition using a skill akin to a breathing technique, the prolonged clash forced him to constantly heal wounds and squeeze out power. The sheer toll was enormous. He appeared to have passed his peak and was now in decline.
Chen Chuan, on the other hand, had his Second Self to shoulder part of the damage. His vital essence and changeless mind had suffered little drain, allowing him to maintain the peak state granted by his Furnace Breathing Technique.
As one waxed and the other waned, the outcome became increasingly obvious. From an almost even contest of offense and defense, the fight gradually shifted until the Iron Demon was defending far more than attacking, his counterstrikes growing fewer and farther between.
It was not just a matter of physical condition; his weaponry also played a significant role. The two halves of the broken spear looked like dual weapons, but he was unaccustomed to wielding them this way, leaving him unable to unleash the true power of many techniques.
Several more minutes passed. The Iron Demon managed to parry another strike from Chen Chuan, but lacking sufficient force behind his block, he failed to arrest the saber's momentum completely. The blade rode the deflected path and slashed right into his shoulder.
He let out a muffled grunt. The mutated tissue on his shoulder swiftly coalesced to arrest the blade. With one hand, he knocked the saber aside using a broken shaft, while his other hand stabbed back toward Chen Chuan.
Yet Chen Chuan's saber advanced and retreated with blistering speed. With a twist and a sweep, he batted away the thrusting spear, followed instantly by a horizontal slash. These transitions were swift and fierce, utterly relying on speed and power to overwhelm the foe.
The Iron Demon's pupils contracted, and he scrambled backward. But a sudden chill washed over his chest and abdomen. Before the gash on his shoulder could finish closing, another long, deep wound was torn across his torso.
Chen Chuan did not let up, continuing his relentless pressure. The Iron Demon retreated repeatedly, parrying and shielding himself, yet fresh wounds were continually carved into his flesh. Even though his injuries kept regenerating, anyone could see that he had no hope of turning the tables like this.
Realizing things were going awry, the Iron Demon's eyes hardened. A ferocious burst of power erupted from his body, and with two loud clangs, he knocked the saber away.
Without waiting for him to countercharge, Chen Chuan chose to spring back of his own accord. He was already familiar with this sudden surge—every time the Iron Demon prepared to unleash it, his biological field inevitably flared.
Chen Chuan watched the Iron Demon with saber in hand. Whether the entity before him was truly human or something else, it possessed the fundamental discipline of a fighter. Through the preceding clash, the Iron Demon had to know that without a drastic change, he posed no threat. If he held any hidden cards, he would certainly play them now.
In that case, Chen Chuan would wait and see.
Having forced Chen Chuan back, a muffled rumble sounded from deep within the Iron Demon's chest. His body swelled and snapped inward in a sudden heave. Immediately following that came a chilling sight: slender fleshy sprouts and tendrils pushed out from beneath his skin, writhing as they spread outward.
Chen Chuan's eyes narrowed slightly. He recognized them as extensions of the mutated tissue inside the creature's body.
Once exposed, some of these tendrils coiled tightly over his torso and limbs. Others knit together into several remarkably tough appendages, sprouting from one arm and trailing all the way to the ground like a whip.
Another portion crept over the broken spearhead, wrapping around it like a sheath, with wisps of red mist rising from within.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan could not help but recall the entity that had possessed Meng Huang. There were certain resemblances between the two, yet they felt somewhat different—that previous entity leaned toward the spiritual, whereas the one before him was far more anchored in the physical.
At this moment, the creature's biological field was no longer the steady, ripple-free barrier it had been.
It might still be called a solid bulwark, but countless fractures had appeared across it. Seeping through those cracks were frenzy and savagery, as if something was desperately clawing to tear free of the shroud.
Two entirely different auras coexisting within a single field produced a jarring sense of contradiction.
Furthermore...
A faint throb pulsed between Chen Chuan's brows. For a fleeting instant, he seemed to glimpse something squirming behind the Iron Demon, clinging to his back, though it appeared exceptionally faint and indistinct.
Just then, the Xuejun Saber in his hand vibrated slightly. He glanced down to see the bloodline along the spine glowing a dripping, vivid crimson, with tenuous wisps of luminous mist wafting off the blade.
He looked back ahead at the nearly mutated form. At this point, he held nothing back either. With a thought, his Second Self instantly overlapped with his body.
Though it still fell short of doubling his strength as before, it still granted him a noticeable boost in power.
He gave the long saber a slight shift. As the blade cut through the air, it naturally drew forth a swirl of white vapor. Then, he paced forward with measured steps.
The Iron Demon also leveled his broken spear and whip-arm, marching toward him.
As the distance closed, the Iron Demon made the first move. With a sharp crack, his whip-arm lashed out. Chen Chuan glanced at the blurred trail of the whip and took a sidestep mid-stride. The tendril struck the ground with a resounding snap, blasting the mud beneath it into fragments, before snapping back around to sweep at him once more.
Chen Chuan pushed off his foot, dodging aside. Unwilling to let him slip out of reach, the Iron Demon planted both feet and gave chase, displaying a burst of speed that seemed even slightly faster than Chen Chuan's current pace.
Yet right at that moment, Chen Chuan pivoted sharply, making an abrupt change in direction. The Iron Demon had been tracking him intently and tried to pivot as well, but for some reason, he failed to adjust in time, leaving his body half a beat behind.
Chen Chuan's eyes flashed. Pivoting once more, he lunged straight forward. With a flick of his blade, he parried the broken spear aside, plunged forward, and slammed a fist into the Iron Demon's chest and abdomen. A sharp detonation rang out from the point of impact.
Struck by the concussive blow, the Iron Demon's back arched involuntarily.
Having landed the strike, Chen Chuan did not press the attack. Instead, he leaped backward, disengaging swiftly.
Almost in that exact split second, the whip-arm swept directly beneath where his feet had been. He could feel the skin-scouring gale ripping through the air as the sand and gravel on the ground were pulverized into dust. The entire area before him was engulfed in a swirling storm of grit, accompanied by the distinct crack of a sonic boom. The strike's sheer destructive force was readily apparent.
Yet no matter how powerful an attack was, it was useless if it failed to hit. The moment Chen Chuan's feet touched down, he dropped his center of gravity, paused for a fraction of an instant, and lunged forward with explosive force. Crashing through the sandstorm, his long saber slammed into the incoming spear.
A powerful surge of jin instantly traveled down the shaft. Yet Chen Chuan noticed that while the raw strength was greater than before, the jin was not nearly as condensed, feeling somewhat scattered instead.
Consequently, the mutated tissue within his body dissipated it in an instant without needing his Second Self to shoulder the load. At the same time, he thrust his saber outward with the momentum, unleashing wave upon wave of jin. That single push actually forced the Iron Demon back several steps.
Chen Chuan leaned low and followed through with a horizontal slash. The blade struck the Iron Demon's ribs, where it was arrested by the dense musculature before it could bite too deeply, yet the momentum continued to shove the creature backward.
After stumbling back seven or eight paces, the Iron Demon planted his rear foot into the ground, halting his retreat. Just as he went to deflect the blade and counterattack, Chen Chuan pulled back. As the Iron Demon advanced, Chen Chuan swiftly drifted to his flank and dragged the edge across his skirt armor, slicing a wide gap from which blood instantly poured.
The Iron Demon wheeled around to follow, but Chen Chuan thrust the saber forward, planting the point directly against the creature's shoulder along the path of his exertion. The counter-force tilted the Iron Demon's balance, robbing his prepared strike of its power and forcing him to pause and reset.
Before he could recover, another flash of blade light arrived. In a single sweep, it carved into his chest and shoulder. The sinewy tendrils bound over the surface sheared apart, and the bones beneath cracked with a sharp crunch.
Chapter 438