Chen Chuan did not let up his offensive because of Skarson's retreat. The instant the latter drew back, he closed in tight, showering him with a torrential barrage of punches and kicks.
True to his reputation as a renowned martial artist, Skarson continuously worked to open up distance, utilizing space and tight pivots to buy himself slivers of breathing room.
Over the next half-minute, he endured a tempest of attacks, his body repeatedly struck by fierce, heavy blows. The concentrated layer of the fire of spirituality flickered erratically, appearing ready to collapse with every hit, yet miraculously held firm.
Chen Chuan could not help but admire his resilience.
Given how difficult it was to breach this highly condensed fire of spirituality, feints might normally have coaxed him into dispersing his strength, making a follow-up attack easier. Yet Chen Chuan instinctively sensed that doing so would be useless; the straightforward assault he was waging right now was the most effective approach.
His extraordinary combat instincts proved crucial here. The martial arts Skarson practiced excelled at manipulating the rhythm between real and feigned moves, fast and slow, and the man himself was a master of that craft. He could effortlessly discern whether an attack was real or a feint from his opponent's breathing rhythm, movement trajectory, and the distribution of their fire of spirituality. Conversely, this direct, relentless onslaught left him unable to utilize that ability; he could only dismantle and parry each blow as it came, struggling to hold on as he retreated, biding his time and searching for an opening.
All the while, Chaocai Lake detonated repeatedly outward under the speed and ferocity of their clash. Because the two moved so swiftly, a deep trench was carved into the water along their path.
Seen from above, the lake's surface along their wake seemed scooped out from thin air. The vacant chasm did not immediately refill; instead, compressed air drove it further outward, splitting into two white lines that rapidly flared to either side. Thundering rumbles mingled with rolling waves erupted outward, audible even faintly all the way over in Split Wave Canyon.
Chen Chuan knew his opponent was waiting for a chance. If his own rhythm faltered in the slightest and he failed to maintain the intensity of his offensive, it would be Skarson's turn to counterattack. But if he could overwhelm him in one fell swoop, the battle would be over. What they were contesting now was their underlying stamina and endurance.
On that front, he feared no one. He had broken through the limit on an unprecedented foundation. As the battle unfolded, inexhaustible power welled up from within him, transforming into the driving force behind his attacks. He maintained absolute control over the distance between him and Skarson, and the moment an opening presented itself, he slammed forward with a merciless strike.
Skarson could tell by now that the advantage had shifted entirely to Chen Chuan. Though he was still holding out, and even felt certain he could endure until his spiritual power was thoroughly blasted apart, keeping things as they were would inevitably end in defeat. He could not just watch it happen; he had to act proactively. Thus, rather than waiting for his defense to crumble completely, he abandoned all the fire of spirituality around his body, letting the force field of the Grand Firmament Forms bind him while retaining defensive power strictly in front.
Seeing this, Chen Chuan's eyes flickered, and he abruptly accelerated his flurry of strikes. Within moments, the spiritual power Skarson had gathered in front was worn down to near-exhaustion. Just as it looked like one more blow would shatter it entirely, thick mist suddenly erupted from Skarson's body alongside an outward-expanding force. Immediately following, a figure over ten meters tall, bearing nearly identical features to Skarson, manifested in his place.
A Spiritual Visage!
Skarson looked down at Chen Chuan from above. Under the young man's relentless pressure, he had lacked both time and surplus strength to summon his Spiritual Visage. Yet relying on seasoned experience and judgment, he had gambled on the risk of being defeated in a single hit and allocated what little strength he could spare to manifest it. With the Spiritual Visage summoned, it could resist the suppressive force field of the Grand Firmament Forms, freeing him from his disadvantaged state so he could enter the fray unburdened once more and contend with Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan gazed at the Spiritual Visage, which was almost solid, as though Skarson had transformed into a ten-meter-tall giant in an instant. When he had intensified his assault moments ago, he had already anticipated what his opponent might attempt. He could have wagered everything on an all-out breakthrough, betting he could shatter the defense before the transformation completed, but he had ultimately chosen to pull back slightly, knowing a man like Skarson might well harbor hidden reserves. Nor had he idled in the meantime; he had quietly gathered power in advance. Now, as the external visage emerged, he stomped downward. A ripple detonated through the air, and his flame-shimmering body surged forward in an instant. A brilliant gleam flashed in his fist as he punched viciously into the colossal external visage!
An external visage merely granted the power to counter the force field; it did not elevate one's inherent strength. One still needed ample fire of spirituality to unleash potent combat power—without it, the visage was nothing more than an oversized target. Skarson was just as aware of the pros and cons of a Spiritual Visage. He never intended to turn the tables with it, only to use it as a brief buffer. Regardless of what Chen Chuan did next—even if he shattered the visage—Skarson could use this window to catch his breath and escape his previous predicament.
With a thunderous boom, a silhouette forcefully crashed through the outer boundary of the Spiritual Visage. Shattered radiance dissolved back into wisps of mist, yet the attacker had indeed been momentarily slowed. Everything unfolded just as Skarson anticipated. His own earlier burst had inevitably caused a slight pause, but the brief stall Chen Chuan suffered would grant him enough time to reset. Only a fraction of a second remained; judging by their speed, by the time Chen Chuan reached him, he would be fully recovered—a perfect grasp of the combat tempo.
Yet at that very moment, his expression warped when he saw the light flaring around the figure's hand. An attack launching a spiritual impact mid-offensive?!
Such an attack required an exceptionally abundant fire of spirituality as well as prior buildup, making it exceedingly rare in high-tempo combat. This meant Chen Chuan had already begun preparing it before being held back by the external visage—he had predicted Skarson's next move in advance.
A spiritual impact was faster and covered a wider area, landing just a fraction quicker than his recovery. Striking precisely at that critical juncture, it rendered all his prior efforts useless at the final moment. Such brilliant tactical prowess commanded even greater awe than a simple display of brute force. Skarson could not dodge in time. The only thing he could do was desperately muster every scrap of spiritual power he could mobilize to the front, shielding against the path of the impact.
The instant he did so, a blinding flash burst through the air, followed a heartbeat later by another colossal roar across the lake. Enormous invisible ripples radiated outward in rings from the pair, accompanied by a deafening boom. Massive amounts of lake water vaporized the instant the flash erupted, leaving a sunken void in the center. Dense plumes of steam rose and dispersed in every direction, catching the sunlight to form brilliant seven-colored rainbow halos. The air at the epicenter quivered and warped, blurring the entire scenery beneath the haze of vapor and refracted light.
Skarson had expended nearly all his fire of spirituality to withstand the impact, yet the residual momentum drove him skidding backward several hundred meters. His body trembled faintly, the inevitable consequence of overtaxing his flesh before he had even recovered. He seized the moment to regulate his breathing. Under normal circumstances, a spiritual impact drained immense energy, causing a brief pause for both sides after it was blocked. He might yet manage to restore his condition before his opponent attacked again.
Yet from within the dense shroud of mist, a flash of light suddenly broke through. A fist glowing with platinum-white brilliance parted the swirling vapor and crashed toward him. Skarson's heart sank. Judging from the speed and tempo, Chen Chuan had surged forward without a pause the moment the spiritual impact concluded, leaving him zero respite. Forced to wring every drop of energy from his body, Skarson pumped his heart furiously to accelerate blood flow, straining with all his might to move limbs that felt heavier than lead.
Chen Chuan sped forward, wrapped in the force field of the Grand Firmament Forms. The field served not only to hinder foes but also to propel himself. Parting vast swathes of mist in his wake, he closed in on Skarson's towering frame. The martial artist from Huansuo Island still possessed resolute eyes. His deep-cyan aura had dwindled to almost nothing under Chen Chuan's relentless assault, yet he still managed, stubbornly and with difficulty, to assume a defensive stance of the Kagg technique.
Chen Chuan slammed in sideways, his fist crashing into Skarson's guard with tremendous impact. The frail sheen of spiritual light over Skarson's arms shattered effortlessly, his guard forcefully broken. For the first time, Skarson lost his balance, stumbling backward on buckling knees.
Before he could retreat even a few paces, Chen Chuan's second punch followed instantly. Facing an entirely undefended opponent, the light over his knuckles receded, but the jin behind the blow remained intact as he drove it forward without mercy!
With a thunderous crack, Skarson's face warped and contorted. Broken teeth sprayed outward in a mist of blood and flesh, and his body was sent flying far across the lake by the sheer force. Skimming and skipping across the water over a dozen times, he finally crashed in, erupting a colossal pillar of water high into the sky.
Chen Chuan held his midair punching stance for a moment before lightly tapping his feet, coming to rest atop the water once more as a delicate ripple blossomed beneath his soles.
After a moment, the water column collapsed back down, and the churning surface of the lake gradually settled into calm. Skarson floated on his back with limbs splayed wide, bobbing gently with the swell. He stared up at the glaring sky for a long time before letting out a weary, low rumble:
"Section Chief Chen... you win."
Chapter 945