Yuexi exhaled a great plume of mist from his mouth, shrouding his immense silhouette in haze. Suddenly dipping his head, he leaned forward and lunged, aiming the solitary horn atop his head directly at Chen Chuan as he charged straight ahead. The moment he closed the distance, he swept the single-handed golden melon hammer toward him.
Chen Chuan took a step back. Mid-swing, Yuexi saw that the blow would miss, checked its momentum in time, advanced, and shoved the hammerhead outward. The step was swift and steady, thrusting the hammer directly before Chen Chuan in an instant.
Yuexi's frame had grown larger than before, yet his command of his power seemed even smoother and more fluid than earlier. His speed had risen along with it, lending his attacks an even deadlier menace.
Chen Chuan could tell that although three consciousnesses coexisted within his foe's body right now, the other two clearly exerted no interference over how to fight; they purely provided an extra boost to the primary consciousness.
Yet after dodging these two blows, he had already grasped the man's general condition. Yuexi's capabilities had improved somewhat, but that was all.
Chen Chuan raised his long saber in a backhand block, parrying the golden melon hammer just as it was about to thrust into him, and twisted along the motion. Their Flames of Spirituality sparked, clashed, and flickered in the friction, forcing the hammer to spin half a circle in Yuexi's grip.
Yuexi was quick to react. Knowing that if Chen Chuan kept up this twisting motion, a single tug would disarm his bronze hammer, he did not wait for that to happen. Lowering his head, he immediately drove the solitary horn down at Chen Chuan.
At that exact instant, the red scarf wrapped around Chen Chuan fluttered upward. A red-robed woman wearing a veil, her lively eyes exposed, suddenly materialized on Yuexi's other side. The yanling saber in her hand slashed straight toward his neck, a leaping crimson flame flickering along the blade.
Yuexi had not anticipated such a turn of events at all, yet it was not hard for him to tell that the figure was no mere illusion, but an existence akin to a Visage of the Divine.
He dared not let the strike land cleanly and promptly raised his armored arm to block. However, the red-robed woman's saber technique was exquisite beyond measure. What appeared to be a swift, ferocious slash turned extraordinarily light the moment it touched the arm guard; pressing down along the surface as their spiritual lights met, she pinned him in place for an instant.
Chen Chuan dashed forward in that split second, slipping past the descending horn and piercing into Yuexi's inner perimeter. Saber resting at his shoulder, he spun his body, sweeping out a whirling arc of blade light!
Yuexi had already begun retreating the moment he sensed danger, but it was too late. Under the cleaving strike, the three layers of spiritual radiance enveloping him tore apart like thin paper. A sudden chill swept his waist—the saber had sliced through more than half his midsection!
To a martial artist, an injury of this degree was not necessarily fatal; given a little time, he could rely on his formidable regenerative powers to recover. But in the heat of fierce combat, even the slightest flaw proved deadly.
Gathering his momentum, Chen Chuan stepped forward the instant he saw Yuexi reeling back. Gripping his saber with both hands, he swept upward in a backhand slash. The arc of blade light tore from Yuexi's crotch all the way to his face. Once the cut finished, Chen Chuan held the ending stance of the upward sweep, the platinum spiritual radiance around him billowing and wavering.
Yuexi jolted violently, freezing on the spot. Right through the center of his spiritual flames, a hairline fissure emerged. Moments later, the light ebbed away like a receding tide, revealing a vertical line of blood that widened rapidly. With a final shudder, his bisected body toppled to either side.
Chen Chuan's expression remained tranquil. Battles between martial artists were just like this: the moment an opening was exposed or a reaction lagged by a hair, victory and defeat were decided in an instant.
Hongfu had barely needed to exert herself at his side; a brief distraction was enough to force out a flaw, after which a single strike ended him, cutting away many needless steps.
At that moment, from the severed corpse, two flickering, indistinct silhouettes drifted out, each darting toward a different direction.
Chen Chuan had anticipated this. With a thought, the sunlight-like radiance around him expanded outward. In an instant, the two divine visage silhouettes were revealed to his left and right, their fleeing speed visibly faltering under the illumination.
He threw a punch to the left, striking one of them dead-on. Under the impact of spiritual radiance, the shadowy silhouette shattered instantly.
The other silhouette attempted to seize the chance to flee, but with a flash of crimson, Hongfu intercepted him. The next moment, a gleam of blade light swept across, cleanly cleaving through him. Like bursting luminous mist, the figure exploded into wisps of tattered remnants.
Chen Chuan twirled his drawn saber and returned it to position, settling back into a steady stance. In the distance, Hongfu twirled her body, transforming back into a red scarf that settled around his neck once more, fluttering in the incoming sea breeze.
He turned his gaze toward the woods behind the beach. He remembered that two of his assailants practiced the Visage of the Divine; one had already brought out a second shell, so perhaps the other had one as well.
In that case...
He took a single step in that direction, vanishing from the spot in an instant.
***
Over in the dense woods by the beach, Noche drew a long, deep breath and shoved himself upright from where he had been half-sitting.
His eyes flickered with shock and uncertainty. He had no idea what had just occurred, but instinct told him the mission was almost certainly a failure. Enduring the throbbing headache caused by the shattering of most of his divine visage, he barely forced his body upright. Bringing nothing except the weapon at his side, he sprinted back along the path he had come at his fastest speed.
Although this body was also his original flesh, he lacked methods like Tuner's. The latter had used a secret art of the Refinement School, a technique Noche did not possess; otherwise, he could have quickly restored a fraction of his divine visage, cast off his mortal frame, and fled.
Yet after only a few paces, he noticed a dazzling radiance shining from behind. Though he did not know what this light was, a shudder of terror ran down his spine. He knew the enemy had caught up—and it was almost certainly their target.
Such an outcome meant Tuner and Yuexi were both finished.
He pivoted sharply, dodging to the side while hurling out a short sword he had long prepared. Guessing their target had an extreme obsession with weapons, he had gone out of his way to bring along this blade, which had taken considerable effort to find. If it could cause even a slight distraction, perhaps it would aid his escape.
Immediately afterward, he saw the pursuer merely cast it a glance without paying it the slightest heed. He knew at once that he had miscalculated; either the intelligence he received was flawed, or his reasoning was off. He cursed inwardly.
There was no time to overthink. He hastily employed a concealment technique; the spiritual fire on his body flickered, and his entire person abruptly vanished into thin air.
Yet in the very next heartbeat, the encroaching light washed over him, forcing him out of hiding. Seizing that momentary disappearance, rather than fleeing, he had turned and closed in on Chen Chuan, driving the thrusting dagger in his hand straight toward him. The light illuminated his ferocious snarl.
Yet before his motion could fully unfold, Chen Chuan flicked his hand out, parrying the thrusting dagger, and slammed a fist into his chest.
An overwhelmingly dominant Flame of Spirituality snuffed out the light across Noche's body in an instant. The jin drove straight through, detonating half of his torso with a resounding boom.
Noche's head and half a shoulder flew through the air, smacking onto the ground with a wet splat. Watching the footsteps approaching him, he blurted out as fast as he could, "I can tell you things... I can testify against the mastermind behind this—"
Chen Chuan stopped before him and said calmly, "My apologies. I don't have time to listen."
With that, he lifted a foot and brought it down. With a wet crunch, he crushed Noche's entire head into paste.
Looking down at the mangled mess of implants and bodily tissue beneath his sole, Chen Chuan pondered. The mastermind behind this was either the Municipal Council or the Yuanren Company. All he needed to do was bring back these corpses, along with their mutated tissue and implants, and an investigation would readily reveal their origins.
Besides, a man like this who fought to the bitter end was merely spinning words to save his life. There was no chance he would give a full, honest account; keeping him alive would only invite more trouble.
Having disposed of him, Chen Chuan glanced around, confirming there were no other enemies in the vicinity. He turned back, picked up Noche's thrusting dagger, wiped it clean, and slid it into a sheath on the outside of his coat. Extending a hand, the short sword Noche had thrown earlier lifted from the ground and drifted into his grasp.
He examined it for a few moments. It appeared to be an ancient sword of considerable age, its blade etched with handsome wave patterns. The hilt was crafted from ironflower wood of the Confluence, displaying an equally intricate and elegant natural grain. It was the sort of piece that looked striking at first glance and grew even finer upon closer inspection—a weapon thoroughly worthy of a collection, especially since it was an unused mutated weapon.
He was unsure what purpose the man had in throwing it out earlier. Perhaps he knew Chen Chuan had a fondness for weapons and hoped to buy his life with it?
If so, it was truly a pity.
Stowing the blade away, he walked over to where the three had stashed their belongings to inspect them.
Each carried a piece of luggage. Opening them one by one, he found that the bulk of the contents consisted of foodstuffs and nutrients they had brought along, enough to sustain all three for two months.
The ingredients were of high quality and exceedingly fresh, capable of lasting more than half a year without issue. Among them were rare medicines meant for emergency energy replenishment, as well as mutated tissues and organs taken from various creatures—likely valuable game they had hunted along their journey.
He considered it; this was certainly not to be wasted. Even if he did not lack provisions here, they would come in handy once he returned to Center City.
In addition, he discovered soil packed with microorganisms that had been preserved with great care, categorized and labeled in an obscure, unfamiliar script.
Considering that most of this had been found among the belongings of the man heavily fitted with implants, it was likely related to culturing implants, though it might also have been collected for analysis.
Regardless of the reason, it was best to take it all.
Although the three had delayed him for a short while, in light of the valuable gifts they had delivered, he decided to forgive their rudeness.
Tidying and packing up the goods, he carried them back toward the beach.
Chapter 905