This strike was not a simple straight chop. After being intercepted by the yanling saber, under the control of its master, Kazama Kagetora, the force upon it immediately shifted. Given the peculiar nature of his jin, the blade seemed to turn elusive and erratic.
Yet in the very next moment, the yanling saber opposing it altered along with it. Every fluctuation of jin was matched precisely, adhering to it as though glued fast. But because both moved so swiftly, only a phantom afterimage swayed in midair while their general positions barely shifted.
Chen Chuan paid no heed to this clash. His gaze remained locked on his target ahead, and he drove a fist forward without impediment!
Ian barely clung to a wisp of the fire of spirituality, but that tiny spark was utterly incapable of shielding him now. Light suddenly engulfed his entire field of vision as the fist smashed squarely into his head. A blinding flash tore through the night. The jin displaced the air, blasting diagonally rearward and tearing a visible ripple across midair, followed immediately by a dull boom like rolling thunder.
Under the watchful eyes of Takoda and Kazama Kagetora, Ian's head vanished, and his headless corpse was flung backward.
Kazama Kagetora vaulted backward in an explosive retreat, holding his long saber directly before him in total vigilance.
With a heavy thud, Ian's body crashed to the ground. Platinum radiance poured forth in rolling waves from the severed neck. The headless frame seemed to struggle to stand, but could only manage to haul itself half-upright. After several attempts, it finally collapsed back down, convulsing uncontrollably.
This bizarre spectacle was the result of him mobilizing the mutated tissue inside his body to resist at the final moment. Even with the head gone, the mutated tissue faithfully executed the command—only to be suppressed by the fire of spirituality that had infiltrated the body.
Kazama Kagetora's eyelid twitched. Even now, he found it hard to believe that Ian, a branch head of the New Light Cult and a master of the New Twining Style, had been slain in a single exchange.
He had hardly used any of his techniques, and what was more—
He looked at the veiled, red-robed figure standing beside Chen Chuan with saber in hand. Was that... a Visage of the Divine? It did not seem quite like one, either.
Chen Chuan slowly drew back his fist, though its surface still emanated platinum luminescence and billowing vapor.
Killing his opponent with a single punch struck him as entirely ordinary. Battles between martial artists were this ruthless. A single misjudgment led to defeat, and sometimes the price paid was one's life.
Their battle, when stripped down to its core, was a contest of strength, speed, explosive jin, and even the fire of spirituality. In every one of these aspects, he completely surpassed his opponent. To put it concretely, he had crushed Ian through raw power in a direct clash. Ian's choice to wage this kind of contest without understanding the gulf between them had ultimately brought about this result.
He cast a glance at Takoda. At the critical moment just now, Takoda had not moved to intervene like Kazama Kagetora, nor had he even made a threatening gesture; he had simply stood there in silence.
He did not know what the man was thinking, but he had already planned to use his second self to block any attack from him. Even if Takoda had struck, the outcome would not have changed—saving Ian would still have been impossible.
His gaze shifted toward Kazama Kagetora. He had experienced plenty of the Fenglin school's secret techniques from Nagahide Miyahide, but those had only been moves of the third limit. He wondered what surprises this man could offer.
Noticing his gaze, Kazama Kagetora hesitated for a moment. Then he suddenly threw down the long saber in his hand, dismissed his external visage, crossed his hands over his shoulders, and slashed downward. With a swish, both of his arms fell off.
Paying no heed to the blood gushing from his shoulders, he looked earnestly at Chen Chuan. "Your Excellency, I promise never again to involve myself in tonight's battle, nor will I sabotage your Skyline. In exchange, can Your Excellency let me leave?"
He knew of Xiaoyuezhai's and Fenghe Shou's prior defeats. Now that he had witnessed Chen Chuan's strength firsthand, he admitted he was no match. Furthermore, Takoda had shown no intention of intervening just now—an unreliable teammate. If he wanted to live, this was the only path left.
Chen Chuan stood there without offering any clear response, his figure little more than a dark, somber silhouette in the night.
Kazama Kagetora stared at him. After waiting for a moment, the scene before him abruptly shattered. He was standing right where he had been, whole and sound. His external visage was not dismissed, and his arms remained intact upon his body.
This was an esoteric technique belonging to the Visage of the Aberrant. His Sutenki could illuminate potential glimpses of the future. These visions were derived from certain information and cues exhibited by his opponent; though not necessarily an exact match for the true future, they were accurate most of the time.
He had genuinely intended to do so, but to his dismay, Chen Chuan had given no reply. That proved Chen Chuan intended to wipe them out completely.
His eyes settled into a dead, tranquil calm. Since the other party was unwilling, his only option was to kindle a resolve for death, burn through everything, and fight with his very life.
Chen Chuan glanced over. Just a moment ago, he had noticed a subtle trace of blurriness appear across his second self. Perhaps the opponent had used some kind of move, though it hardly looked like one, as the degree of taint was far too faint.
So none of that mattered.
He could sense the man's suicidal resolve, which suited him just fine. What he had been concerned about was the man turning and fleeing heedlessly; with one more enemy present on the field, that might have required a great deal more trouble.
The faint, elusive glow around Kazama Kagetora flared as if set ablaze, its pale cyan shifting into a ghastly white that illuminated the night sky.
Sensing his resolve to die, Sutenki's aura soared upward. The mutated tissue within his body rapidly depleted, channeling all its energy directly into his frame.
This could not elevate his boundary, but it could push his physical foundation to its absolute peak. He concentrated all his power, yet this strength would only sustain three to five strikes.
Once his saber momentum was spent, even if the enemy did not perish, he would succumb to exhaustion and die all the same.
Yet he no longer cared. Only by abandoning everything and embracing death could he shatter all manifestations and bring low the enemy before him.
Chen Chuan planted the scabbard of the Xuejun Saber into the hard ground and slowly drew the blade from its sheath.
Kazama Kagetora raised his saber and lunged forward, taking advantage of his height and reach to bring an overhead chop straight down at Chen Chuan. He also spared a sliver of attention for Hongfu standing to the side, but unexpectedly, she made no move, seemingly keeping watch on Takoda in the distance.
This put him slightly at ease. As his edge was about to descend, he saw Chen Chuan raise his saber to block. Their forces clashed in an instant. Predictably, an astonishing power traveled through the blade, and his saber was parried aside just as expected.
Having witnessed Ian's fate, he was fully prepared. Dropping one shoulder, he raised the saber hilt high with both hands in a posture resembling carrying the blade behind his back; the tip dipped downward at blinding speed, angling straight for Chen Chuan's head and face.
This move was called the "Counter Form," exploiting the saber's curve and the unique anatomical structure of a Visage of the Aberrant's arms to execute a sudden deadly thrust.
No matter how swift the opponent was, he could not simply evade it and deliver his blade straight to his face. If Chen Chuan attempted to dodge or parry, a third strike would follow, each faster than the last, until all was ended by the fifth.
Yet at that very moment, Chen Chuan made an unexpected move. Far from attempting to dodge or parry, he leaned his torso forward, actively slamming himself toward the tip of the blade.
Because Kazama Kagetora's force was in the middle of being driven outward, an opposing pressure surged between them. It was another clash of raw strength, yet he failed to overpower Chen Chuan. His frame shuddered to a brief halt, preventing the third strike from flowing forth. In combat, such a stall was fatal. A flash of blade light flickered, and his arm flew into the air, followed by another burst of radiance—
The scene shattered before his eyes. Kazama Kagetora still gripped the long saber with both hands, held in the posture of delivering that overhead chop toward Chen Chuan.
Yet now that he knew how Chen Chuan might respond, he would naturally be on guard during this strike. But this "foresight" was not without flaws—it introduced a fracture into what should have been a seamless, unified momentum and stroke.
Against an opponent of comparable strength, even if they noticed, it likely would not have posed much threat.
In Chen Chuan's hands, however, the moment he keenly caught the ripple disrupting that seamless momentum, his eyes flashed. He raised his blade proactively, knocking aside the descending long saber. At the same time, he stomped the ground and drove his saber forward with blinding speed, his feet leaving the ground in an instant as his whole body shot out like an arrow!
This parry and lunge flowed together as one. Unadorned and direct, it was nonetheless a flawless union of power and speed, creating and seizing combat opportunity through superhuman physical conditioning.
The moves Kazama Kagetora had planned were utterly useless now. Chen Chuan had penetrated his inner perimeter almost instantaneously, leaving him no room to bring his long saber around.
Watching the blade tip tilt slightly upward and aim straight for his throat, he managed only to twist his torso aside to protect his most vital spot. At that moment, his peripheral vision caught Hongfu making a slight shift toward him. Her hand rested on her yanling saber, and her lively gaze above her veil settled right upon the opening he had exposed.
Though he knew Hongfu might not actually strike, he could not ignore the threat. His body made an instinctive evasive twitch, which cost him his final chance to dodge. The blade sheared clean through the surface flame of spirituality. The tip plunged into one side of his thick neck and burst out the other side in an instant.
Chapter 979