Banish and Slay

The monstrous woman seemed to have learned her lesson from earlier. This time, a massive surge of spiritual perception power coalesced toward the tip of her staff. At this moment, her potent spirit appeared to forcibly reshape the mutated tissue within the staff, causing its radiance to blaze far brighter than before. Chen Chuan remained stationary, saber held horizontally. Watching overhead, he stood firm and waited. In the next instant, blade met staff. Their spiritual perception powers eroded and squeezed against each other, grinding down to nothing in a split second, followed immediately by a clash of raw jin. With a resounding clang, tremendous force surged through the saber. Ripples of compressed air exploded outward in every direction with the two of them at the center, accompanied by an endless barrage of booming crashes. Chen Chuan's stance instantly sank downward by a fraction as his Second Self blurred and turned the surrounding earth insubstantial, churning it outward until even the tops of his feet sank beneath the soil. Having landed that blow, the monstrous woman seemed to find newfound confidence. A ferocious, savage grin spread across her face as she raised the long staff high and brought it smashing down once more. Noticing that she didn't even change the trajectory of her swing, Chen Chuan's eyes flickered. He assumed the exact same stance as before, seemingly prepared to withstand her blow to the bitter end. The long staff came crashing down again with an explosive roar capable of pulverizing anything in its path. At the moment of contact, their spiritual perception powers canceled each other out once more, allowing the jin to surge forth unobstructed. This time, the monstrous woman abandoned all restraint to maximize her physical advantage, pouring virtually every ounce of power in her body into this single strike, clearly intent on smashing Chen Chuan down in one fell swoop. Yet this time, when the staff struck the blade, the jin pouring into it suddenly encountered emptiness—as if it hadn't hit a hard object at all, but something profoundly pliable. Chen Chuan had applied a yielding-blade technique, guiding her momentum inward. For a moment, the staff seemed glued to his saber. Twisting his blade, he swept the staff through several lightning-fast revolutions, then snapped his wrists outward with a tug. With a whoosh, the long staff was flung aside, dragging the surrounding airstreams along with it. The monstrous woman's grip was extraordinarily strong, so the staff didn't slip from her hand; yet because of that very grip, the momentum carried her stumbling forward a couple of steps. Chen Chuan was already fully prepared. Gripping the raised saber with both hands at his shoulder, he watched her stumble forward, spun his body abruptly, and slashed toward her neck. Having committed virtually all her strength, the monstrous woman had no time to dodge or readjust. But at the critical juncture, the muscle on the back of her neck squirmed unnaturally and collapsed inward, sinking her entire neck into her chest cavity. Consequently, the downward slash only struck her hardened skull and cheek. Because most of her spiritual perception power had surged outward, only a flimsy layer remained here, melting away effortlessly under his strike. The blade sliced into her flesh, cutting smoothly at first and cleaving open nearly half her face and skull. But soon, Chen Chuan encountered the same obstacle as before—just as the edge was about to cleave into the brain, it was halted by another barrier. Seeing this, Chen Chuan didn't stubbornly press the slash. Instead, he snapped the blade back and, while she had yet to regain full control of her power, unleashed several furious slashes at the same spot. He even sheared away large chunks of cranium, laying bare the brain underneath. From that opening, he could see the brain squirming as though endowed with an independent consciousness, enveloped in a faint shimmer of light. At this sight, Chen Chuan's eyes narrowed slightly. He immediately deduced that this was an activated brain. Though it appeared unified with the body, it simultaneously existed as an independent entity, shielded by its own layer of spiritual perception. No wonder he hadn't been able to destroy it in a single concerted effort on both occasions. If that were the case, he needed to adjust his tactics. By now, the monstrous woman had finally regained control of her long staff. Grasping the butt of the weapon, she pivoted her body and swung it horizontally toward Chen Chuan. This strike was just as heavy and fierce, yet Chen Chuan could tell she had struck without proper preparation; it was merely a retaliation born of rage and shame. She possessed a certain degree of a fighter's technique, but lacked the true temperament of a fighter. He seized upon this flaw immediately. Taking a step back, he lowered the saber's tip, focusing his entire spirit onto the weapon. The glow upon it flared noticeably brighter than before. Then, facing the sweeping staff, he slashed upward at an angle! This strike targeted the exact spot that had absorbed repeated impacts earlier. With a sharp rasp, the front section of the staff was sheared clean off! The remaining length of the staff swept through empty air right in front of him. Having anticipated this, Chen Chuan calmly adjusted his breathing, stepped forward, and brought the saber—which had already reached the apex of its upward swing—crashing downward in a vicious chop aimed straight at the exposed brain! Bang! The radiant blade slashed against the brain, sending sparks of light flying in all directions. The brain's protective glow dissolved by more than half in an instant. Without giving it any time to recover, Chen Chuan shifted his breath, the light on his saber flared once more, and he delivered another downward slash. This time, only a paper-thin layer of light remained over the organ. At this juncture, had the monstrous woman turned to parry, she could have prevented him from landing a third strike; Chen Chuan had even prepared his next countermeasure. Unexpectedly, a look of sheer terror crossed her face. Letting out a bizarre shriek, she turned around and bolted. This caught him off guard, but on second thought, it made complete sense. In every aspect, this body clearly didn't belong to a true fighter, possessing none of a fighter's unyielding willpower. Furthermore, it seemed the brain was calling the shots. Stripped of its protective layer and facing imminent destruction, its natural instinct was to flee immediately rather than fight to the death. Yet this was the worst possible choice. Fleeing in the middle of battle without any preparation or cover was an absolute blunder. Especially when she held no advantage in speed, doing so was practically serving herself up on a platter. Seeing his opponent turn her back on him, Chen Chuan showed no mercy. He stepped forward and slashed across her back. As her spiritual perception power rushed to protect her spine, he flicked the blade downward, slicing across the back of her knee. The strike severed tendon and muscle, sending her stumbling. With another blindingly swift slash, he cleanly sheared off her unprotected lower leg. Deprived of support on one side, the monstrous woman collapsed and rolled violently across the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. She rolled halfway onto her side, trying to scramble up, but before she could crawl away, a silhouetted figure flashed from the distance. A swift arc of blade-light tore through the dust-filled air, slicing through her already mangled lower jaw. The upper half of her head, along with the brain, flew high into the sky. It landed with a wet slap on the ground some distance away, while the massive body lost all vitality and collapsed in a limp heap. Saber in hand, Chen Chuan walked over slowly and stopped before the halved skull. Looking down, he saw the brain convulsing violently in contraction; he could actually perceive a distinct sense of terror emanating from it. It also seemed to be transmitting something toward him, as he felt his Second Self turning globally insubstantial—evidently some form of mental intrusion. Calm and composed, he slowly raised his saber. But at that exact moment, the brain suddenly bounced upward from the cranial cavity, seemingly attempting to seize the chance to attack him. Yet barely had it leaped when Chen Chuan stomped it back down with one foot, the spiritual perception power over it steadily dissolving under the pressure of the faint light beneath his sole. Grasping the hilt with both hands, he aimed the tip directly downward and drove it home! This time, the blade pierced through the brain without resistance. The thing beneath let out a shrill, ear-splitting shriek and thrashed violently, but Chen Chuan remained unmoved, his grip rock-steady on the hilt as he twisted it back and forth half a turn. After a moment, the thing beneath ceased moving altogether. Wisps of light suddenly emerged from the Xuejun Saber, wrapping around the brain before seemingly absorbing something from it, conveying a sense of satisfaction back to him. Moments later, the brain seemed drained of all moisture, turning entirely desiccated. As he lifted the blade, a crisp crack sounded, and it shattered into brittle fragments, scattering across the ground. Turning to look into the distance, he saw that the body on the ground had suffered the same fate, becoming just as brittle. A gust of wind stirred up a shower of debris from it, and before long, the remains were swept away into the breeze, leaving only a scorched black outline on the ground. However, he noticed that the half of the upper jaw had not decayed away, remaining as the sole surviving remnant. Bending down, he picked it up, intending to take it back with him. As a member of the Purist Faction, whenever one slew or expelled an entity from the other side, one was required to bring something back—even if only leftover ashes. Delivering it to the Purist Faction served as proof of one's actions, showing that one was fulfilling one's duties. At this moment, he seemed to faintly hear a sound of fury from the bone, presumably issued by the entity behind it. He had destroyed its host vessel, so the entity might harbor resentment against him, but that mattered little. As a Purist, he would have plenty of opportunities to clash with such entities in the future; hunting them down one day was far from impossible. He had no reason to worry. He took a few steps, picked up the scabbard from the ground, and sheathed the Xuejun Saber. Then he walked around the perimeter. Since these rituals might still take effect, he took the opportunity to destroy several crucial nodes. Once he confirmed that it could no longer be restored, he turned back and began searching for Supervisor Wen's remains. Evidently, the camp had not sustained much collateral damage, leaving most of the belongings undamaged. After a careful inspection, he easily located the tent that belonged to the Skinner. There were only a few tents belonging to powerful fighters in the first place, and hanging outside this one were several disassembled and reassembled wing-like skeletons—a distinctive identifying feature. Stepping inside, it did not take long before he found the chest containing Supervisor Wen's remains. ... ...