For this strike, Chen Chuan brought the full measure of his strength and speed to bear. No matter how formidable a technique was, it had its threshold of endurance; so long as the pressure was sufficient, anything could be broken.
Almost the instant the ground cracked, he appeared directly in front of Mashiba Masaru, bringing his blade slashing down.
Mashiba moved the moment Chen Chuan initiated his attack. Without waiting for the incoming blade's momentum to reach its zenith, he darted forward, sweeping his own weapon upward. With a resounding clang, he parried the Xuejun Saber.
Yet waves of force surged from the Xuejun Saber one after another. Inside Mashiba's body, his mutated tissue began dispersing the impact, taut blue veins bulging visibly beneath his skin.
Yet that first slash was far from the end.
As the first blow was intercepted, a second slash swept across with a sharp hiss.
As this strike launched, Chen Chuan simultaneously released the constraints on his mutated tissue, elevating both his strength and speed by another tier in an instant.
Mashiba sensed it mentally at once. Snapping his body around and channeling the full power of his frame, he raised his blade with both hands to block. Clang! Once more, he turned the blow aside.
Immediately following, however, Chen Chuan unleashed his third strike. For this blow, he engaged the Furnace Breathing Technique. As a scorching heat radiated outward, the momentum of his blade escalated once more.
Mashiba's expression grew exceedingly solemn, a faint glimmer rising in his eyes—a manifestation of his spirit concentrating to its absolute limit. Guided by his inner spirit, it passively triggered Waves Hall's secret breathing technique for unleashing potential.
The vital essence stored within his heart surged instantly through every limb and vessel, flooding every corner of his body. With a sharp shout, he brought his blade up with a ringing clang, catching this third strike as well. But with a sharp crack beneath his feet, the solid roadway fractured, and his entire frame sank downward into the fissure.
Yet Chen Chuan's onslaught did not stop there. Shifting his hands along the hilt, the esoteric ritual affixed to his skin flared to life. As its colors swiftly faded, it imbued the blade with even greater power, erupting in an instant. Borrowing that momentum, he spun on his heel and swung his blade in a sweeping horizontal cleave.
In both strength and speed, this blow broke past a critical threshold, producing an instant roar like wind and thunder.
Mashiba did not retreat an inch. Instead, his eyes turned exceptionally serene, imbued with an unyielding tenacity. Guided by his intensely focused spirit, he wrung out and mobilized every shred of power from his mutated tissue. The mingling of blood and breath within him gave rise to a rushing sound, like surging ocean waves.
In that instant, time seemed to slow. Watching the Xuejun Saber creep steadily closer, he moved as if bearing an immense burden, pushing his own blade forward inch by inch.
The next moment, the two weapons collided.
With a thunderous crash, this impact felt less like the clashing of blades and more like two opposing shockwaves slamming head-on into each other.
Mashiba's sleeves exploded into shreds as he staggered backward. The blade in his grip was knocked high overhead, its steel shivering violently. Blood seeped from both of his arms and began weeping from other parts of his body—the inevitable result of his mutated tissue absorbing force beyond its breaking point.
Yet even at this point, his eyes remained brimming with stubborn defiance as he fought, bit by bit, to gather his scattered strength.
Waves Hall's swordsmanship emphasized building momentum: in offense, it surged like rolling waves; in defense, it gathered like an undercurrent, condensed and unreleased.
Different adversaries demanded different approaches. Right now, he was employing the Overlapping Emptiness Stance—pure defense without attack, enduring wave after wave of blows to accumulate power before delivering a counter-surging strike to secure victory in a single blow.
The prerequisite was that it could not be broken midway. It placed extreme demands on resilience, requiring not just physical conditioning, but supreme spiritual fortitude.
So long as a blow failed to cut him down outright, he could endure.
After landing this blow, Chen Chuan was hardly affected.
If Mashiba had managed to feed back tremors and redirecting forces during the first three strikes, by the fourth strike, it was mere desperation blocking that exerted almost no pressure against Chen Chuan. Without a second's hesitation, taking advantage of the other man's weapon being knocked aside and his front thrown wide open, Chen Chuan stepped forward and slashed upward in a backhanded sweep.
Mashiba's mutated tissue had not yet recovered, leaving him unable to muster sufficient force. He could not even twist away to evade, seemingly poised to be cleaved in two beneath the blade in the very next instant.
Yet under this life-or-death stimulus, a faint gleam seemed to blossom from the blade knocked high overhead. A stream of refined essence poured back into his body from the weapon, causing a fresh surge of power to well up out of nowhere.
Gripping the hilt with both hands, he brought the blade crashing downward, meeting Chen Chuan's upward-slashing Xuejun Saber. At that moment, a thunderous boom erupted once more at the point of contact, a visible shockwave rippling outward from the pair and blowing back concentric rings of dust.
As their opposing forces locked together, both fighters momentarily froze in place.
At this juncture, an anomaly emerged from Mashiba. His topknot had already been shaken loose in the clash, yet his hair seemed to grow longer under some stimulus, the muscles across his body swelling a full ring thicker. More remarkably, even his frame shot up visibly taller, until the loose, billowing training robes suddenly seemed to fit him snugly.
Behind him, the third limit fighter who had been closely watching the battle revealed a fervent look, taking an involuntary step forward as he murmured under his breath, "That's it! Seeing the Spirit in the Blade!"
The people from the Ferris Wheel Company likewise noticed the abnormal change in Mashiba, their faces brightening with relief, as though only now able to breathe easily.
The reason they had been able to recruit Mashiba Masaru was because Waves Hall possessed a renowned secret technique.
Seniors of Waves Hall could infuse their own mutated tissue and vital essence into a blade, allowing disciples facing mortal peril to borrow that strength to wield the weapon. However, this could only be passed down to disciples who were truly held in high esteem.
And Waves Hall's master, Fenghe Shou, had personally acknowledged that Mashiba Masaru was his proudest disciple of this generation—which was his way of telling them that this disciple had likewise mastered that secret technique.
Once a disciple wielding the blade was driven to unleash this technique, their strength would surge accordingly. Furthermore, the state of "the spirit knows, I know not" eliminated the possibility of an enemy killing them before that power could manifest.
The third limit fighter felt exceptionally thrilled, because Mashiba's current appearance and aura reminded him of the Waves Hall master, Fenghe Shou, whom he had once seen.
"If Mr. Mashiba has Master Fenghe's power, he can definitely win!"
On the field, Chen Chuan likewise witnessed the change in Mashiba's appearance. But beyond that, Mashiba's field seemed stimulated; no longer consciously constrained as before, it suddenly burst open, rising to an unbroken, seamless intensity with virtually no gaps.
It felt reminiscent of facing Iron Demon back then—not that their fields were the same, but that the state of both spirit and flesh reaching their absolute peak bore a distinct resemblance.
His eyes remained deep and calm. Even in the face of this anomaly, he was not thrown off balance; in fact, he had anticipated something like this. If the opponent lacked any trump cards, he would hardly have presented himself so boldly before Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan pushed outward with his strength. Borrowing that force, Mashiba backed away. Once he reached a distance, he stretched his frame and slowly brought his blade level once more, while Chen Chuan also flicked his blade to reset his breathing.
Just then, Chen Chuan felt a sudden sensation and glanced down at his saber. A wave of impulses pulsed from it, seemingly filled with an urgent hunger for the opponent's blade.
He raised an eyebrow slightly. During their clashes earlier, the blades had struck each other multiple times, yet the entity inside the Xuejun Saber had remained utterly dormant, nor had it absorbed anything as it did last time. Why had it suddenly surfaced now?
Could all the changes happening to his opponent be originating from the saber itself?
The thought flitted through his mind for only an instant. Probing deeper into it was pointless right now; no matter how his opponent changed, he only needed to maintain his own rhythm.
Mashiba focused his gaze intently on Chen Chuan ahead. He had originally thought he could overcome this opponent using his own strength alone, but reality had proven that he could not. Thus, he had no choice but to rely on the power his master, Fenghe Shou, had sealed within the blade.
There was nothing shameful about it. Just as he had thought before, in a battle between fighters, one could make full use of every favorable condition solely to secure victory.
Only the victor earned the right to face praise or blame; the defeated had nothing at all.
Waves Hall emphasized "the spirit precedes the body." In the past, he had walked the path of spiritual cultivation, while his physical body had not yet reached its limit due to constraints of doctrine and age. Under the stimulation of the vital essence, however, his physical shortcomings had been compensated for.
Furthermore, with the enhancement of the Gaotian jade core, his spirit was strong enough to command this power without any dissonance. Thus, both his body and spirit had now reached a near-ultimate state.
Even so, he made no move to strike. The Overlapping Emptiness method dictated that one either stayed one's hand or drew the blade to decide the duel once and for all.
Settling his mind, he parted his feet slightly, watching the figure ahead as he awaited the next round of attacks.
In the rear, the leader of the Ferris Wheel assault team had watched up to this point. He turned to the man who had escorted Mashiba and asked, "Sir, should we make our move now?"
The man pondered for a moment before answering in a deep voice, "You may."
Previously, they had not been certain whether Mashiba Masaru could truly hold Chen Chuan back. If he couldn't, and they moved, Chen Chuan could simply turn around and eliminate the operatives they sent, wasting their men for nothing.
Now, however, Mashiba had proven he possessed the capability. They no longer had such reservations and could proceed to raid the convoy's rear. Not only could they eliminate the other target as quickly as possible, but they might also distract Chen Chuan.
With that nod, the team leader immediately issued a signal. Upon receiving it, the third limit fighter standing in front dashed forward without hesitation. Nor was he the only one—another third limit fighter who had remained hidden in the rear without acting also sprinted toward the convoy where Bureau Director Lei and the others were located.
It was impossible for Chen Chuan to miss such a commotion, but he merely cast a sidelong glance before drawing his focus right back.
Though the enemy had two fighters, Advisor Yao would not be easy to take down. Third limit fighters possessed tenacious vitality; unless there was a vast gulf in power, burning through vital essence and changeless mind made holding out for a short while far from impossible. Chen Chuan intended to end things here as quickly as he could. Tightening his fingers around the hilt, he looked once more toward his opponent.
Chapter 465