Layered Jin

Having sensed the advantage brought by the Xuejun Saber, Chen Chuan quickly realized he could adjust his tactics accordingly. Since the opponent's jin could not affect him, he could directly commit a portion of the mutated tissue originally dedicated to defense into his offensive efforts. Furthermore, without the need to dissipate force and readjust, his combat tempo could accelerate even further. Even as the thought crossed his mind, his battle instincts naturally executed the optimal move. Taking immediate advantage of his unhampered jin to seize the initiative, he pressed the Xuejun Saber against the opponent's blade and flicked it sideways, attempting to parry the weapon aside. Fan Mo's experience at this moment was entirely different. Although his own weapon could also withstand the impact of Mind Jin, it could not completely neutralize the force; a small fraction still had to be absorbed by his own body. However, as the initial aggressor, he had already mentally prepared himself, so he was not slow to adjust. With his rich combat experience, upon sensing that Chen Chuan's counterattack was coming so quickly, he immediately turned his wrist, parried with his blade, and fell into a defensive stance. As the jin entered his body, it was immediately dissipated by layers of mutated tissue. The jin he inherited was called "Turning Spiral Jin," a guardian jin technique passed down from the Old State Religion. Its hallmark was that offense and defense gave rise to one another, united as one: defense immediately transitioned into offense, and offense immediately flowed into defense, echoing each other in an unbroken chain. Once in contact with an enemy, neutralizing force was simultaneously gathering force, allowing for an immediate, rapid counterattack. An ordinary fighter might manage two or three exchanges against such a rock-solid rhythm, but over time, failing to break through, their spirit would be gradually worn down, leaving them weaker and weaker until their eventual defeat. Yet he soon detected something amiss. Just as he was about to launch a counterattack, he felt a second surge of jin rapidly penetrating into him from the opposite side. *A two-stage jin?* Fan Mo's expression grew subtle. As an elite operative sent by Lianwei Heavy Control Company, he had handled many enemies possessing diverse techniques, and he had encountered such variations in jin before. While a two-stage jin could indeed achieve a breakthrough or cause a momentary delay when applied at a crucial juncture—thus buying an opportunity for the next move—its essence lay in rhythmic disruption, catching the enemy off guard. To deploy it so head-on, however, was a blunder. The mutated tissue inside his body adjusted again, absorbing the force, and he prepared to seize the opening to strike. For after executing a two-stage jin, there was bound to be a momentary lag. This was an inevitable consequence of channeling such a high-technique jin, nearly impossible to avoid. Yet what followed caught him entirely by surprise. As if he had merely delivered an ordinary strike, Chen Chuan showed no hesitation or stiffness whatsoever. His saber technique was smooth and seamless as yet another slash cleaved down! This forced Fan Mo to abandon his counterattack once more and raise his blade to block. But no sooner had he absorbed that burst of jin than another surged forward, and immediately after that, yet another. For a time, the waves of jin seemed to crest endlessly like a surging tide. Fan Mo found himself completely unable to launch a counterattack. The seamless alternation between offense and defense inherent in his jin flow could not be brought to bear; all he could do was defend and dissipate the incoming force. Yet confronted with wave upon wave of jin crashing down, he was driven backward step after step. This time, Chen Chuan was employing the Danliu School's endlessly chained two-stage jin. It was just that Talu had used a long staff to link consecutive attacks, where the unique mechanics of the staff played a specialized role. Chen Chuan, on the other hand, relied on infusing his mental power into his jin to form Mind Jin, forcefully manifesting this technique through raw mastery. This variety of jin had a defining trait: rather than seeking an explosive burst, it maintained an unrelenting offensive pressure, giving the opponent neither the breathing room nor the respite needed to organize their intended assault. He knew full well that in terms of pure blade technique, a gap still remained between him and truly experienced fighters. But when it came to variations in jin, he dared say he could suppress the vast majority of adversaries. Driven back repeatedly, Fan Mo attempted several times to break through Chen Chuan's jin suppression, but all to no avail. The opposing force arrived too fast and too densely, leaving him no time to readjust his mutated tissue. Unless he risked severe injury to strike back, he might stand a chance of turning the tables. Yet once a force like Mind Jin invaded the body, the consequences were unpredictable. Unless pushed to the absolute brink or with all other avenues exhausted, one should avoid making such a choice. Continuing like this, however, would lead to certain defeat. Quick to make a decision, he entered a burst state without hesitation. Adjusting his breathing slightly as he activated a secret technique, the power throughout his body surged dramatically, and his speed accelerated in tandem. At the same time, wisps of faint black mist seeped across the surface of his skin, lingering and clinging there like a shroud of shadow. It instantly turned his countenance exceptionally vicious, bearing no resemblance to his prior dignified appearance. As the attacker controlling the primary tempo of the fight, Chen Chuan had been watching for any changes to maintain his suppression. The moment he sensed an anomaly in the man's aura, he reacted without the slightest hesitation. Almost the exact instant Fan Mo erupted, Chen Chuan channeled the Furnace Breathing Technique as well. Wisps of white vapor immediately drifted off his body as his speed and power rose to match, sustaining his relentless pressure over Fan Mo. And so, the situation instantly returned to what it had been. Inside the tunnel, a relentless flurry of blistering weapon clashes rang out one after another, so dense and ferocious that the echoes resonated incessantly, reverberating and rippling outward along the corridor. Countless grains of sand and gravel rustled down from the ceiling and walls, skittering and bouncing across the ground. Between the two, there was none of the explosive collisions typical of clashes between third limit fighters; most of the sheer force they unleashed was absorbed by their weapons or dissipated by their own bodies. Yet the one bearing the brunt of the pressure was Fan Mo. He retreated step by step, each footfall leaving behind a crater of crushed stone of roughly the same size, splintered rock fragments spraying outward around its rim. In merely a few breaths, he had been pushed from the far front of the long tunnel toward the rear, carving a long, straight trail into the ground. He dared not abruptly leap back or dodge. In parrying Chen Chuan's blade strikes, he was simultaneously absorbing and counteracting a portion of the incoming force. If he dared dodge backward all of a sudden, the unhindered force would crash over him like a monstrous tidal wave, very likely blasting him into oblivion on the spot. Right then, he realized he was about to reach the end of the tunnel. A delicate balance hung between them; the slightest external disruption would prove fatal to him. The moment his back struck the tunnel wall, that minuscule impediment could shatter the equilibrium, resulting in his immediate defeat—unless he could erupt with even greater strength and speed. Realizing this, he did not sit waiting for death. Decisively overtaxing his mutated tissue, he forced another explosive surge at the cost of damaging his vitality and future potential. In an instant, blood surged into his face, the muscles across his entire upper body swelling a full circle. Gripping his blade in both hands, he violently heaved upward against Chen Chuan's saber. The sheer momentum of the clash was thunderous, sending a concentric shockwave of displaced air blasting outward from where the weapons met. Chen Chuan could feel a wisp of the man's Mind Jin seeping into his body. For the first time since the battle began, the enemy's force had breached past the Xuejun Saber. Even so, because the Xuejun Saber's tolerance threshold was high enough, it had still absorbed the lion's share. That wisp of Mind Jin was not particularly fierce and barely affected him; with a slight redirection from his mutated tissue, he easily dissipated the force. Through this clash, however, he gleaned the defining quality of the opponent's Mind Jin. It was a highly destructive vibrating jin, capable of penetrating straight into a person's muscles and bones. If one could not withstand it, or endured prolonged contact with it, Chen Chuan sensed it could very likely shatter and fracture a person's entire skeletal structure. Yet that required a direct hit or the delivery of the overwhelming majority of the force; the residual sliver that slipped through was negligible, lagging far behind his body's natural self-healing. Although Fan Mo's sudden burst successfully halted his backward retreat, he had failed to mount a counterattack. He immediately recognized the danger, knowing he had not exerted enough pressure on his opponent. Thus, while still in the midst of his burst, he took another gamble: a sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he abruptly unleashed a mental shockwave toward Chen Chuan. In a clash of spirits, regardless of victory or defeat, the initiator always held the initiative. As long as Chen Chuan suffered even the slightest hesitation, his seamless flow of jin would fail to function flawlessly. Then, Fan Mo would find his opening, find his chance to strike back. A brilliant gleam also erupted in Chen Chuan's eyes—a telltale sign of countering a mental assault. Although he frequently used mental power to deter or intimidate foes, he rarely relied on mental power alone to attack a fellow fighter. Fighters possessing mental strength were typically vigilant in their defenses, making their heart jade impossible to rattle in a single blow. Furthermore, he preferred to use enemies as whetstones to hone his combat techniques. There was, of course, another reason: some fighters carried protective talismans. The three Lianwei Heavy Control Company fighters he had encountered earlier possessed such items, and this time, he had specifically worn the jade pig dragon given to him by Mr. Zhuan, which also served as an excellent mental ward. Thus, when that wave of mental power struck, the lion's share was blocked by the talisman. The meager fraction that collided with his heart jade failed to shake it in the slightest. He did not even bother activating the mental technique of the Empty Heart Seal, lest it interfere with the delivery of his jin. After all, until his spirit reached complete perfection, straightforward physical offense and defense remained the most efficient path for him. Seeing that his mental assault had produced no effect at all, Fan Mo's soaring aura instantly plunged from its peak into decline. It was as though he had been knocked back to square one, and his feet, which had momentarily held firm, were forced to retreat once again. This time, each pit gouged out by his feet was deeper and wider than before, signifying that his resistance against the oncoming jin had diminished. His heart sank, knowing this was the inevitable backlash of his forced eruption. Barely a dozen meters remained before the tunnel's end. Seeing that the outcome would be decided any second now, he had no choice but to unleash another secret technique to stave off defeat. His chest swelled abruptly, and his mouth fell wide open. As the mutated tissue across his entire body trembled violently in unison, he let out a thunderous roar straight at Chen Chuan! …… ……