After Takoda entered the water, the fire of spirituality on him merged with more water, drawing increasingly larger amounts of water toward him.
He had no intention of engaging Chen Chuan in direct combat right now. At the very least, he would not advance until he had worn down a portion of Chen Chuan's stamina.
He was confident he could carry out this tactical plan.
In battles between martial artists, many critical factors came into play, and the fire of spirituality was without question one of the most vital. It was indispensable in both offense and defense; as long as that protective layer of power clung to a combatant, they could keep fighting.
Yet the fire of spirituality was finite after all. If worn down by ceaseless collisions against boundless physical matter, it would deplete just the same. Takoda, on the other hand, could command the currents, using this natural element to obstruct, entangle, and grind his foe down. Once his enemy was trapped in fatigue and exhaustion, he could launch a decisive finishing strike.
This was his philosophy of combat: harnessing the power of nature. Man was utterly insignificant against nature; to struggle against it was to court certain defeat.
With Hongfu clearing the path before him, Chen Chuan strode forward. Catching sight of Takoda retreating into the water, Chen Chuan's eyes flashed, and a gleam suddenly flared in his hand.
At the sight, Takoda's heart gave a jolt. He swiftly swayed his body, immediately shrouding himself in blue fire of spirituality, and surged away into the distance along the current.
In an instant, a flash of light lit up the entire island. With a deafening detonation, the ground seemed to shudder violently several times. The gathered torrents of water and the colossal half-human, half-serpent visage were instantly wiped clean, vaporizing into billowing steam that drifted outward, while the fire of spirituality contained within was obliterated and dispersed all at once, without a single wisp remaining.
A scarlet shadow flashed as Hongfu leapt forward. In a mere split second, she caught up with Takoda's retreating form, her yanling saber bearing straight down upon his brow.
Takoda stared at Hongfu. Back in his tribe, he had heard of similar "spirits," entities possessing forms and combat prowess akin to practitioners of the Visage of the Divine. Fortunately, he had already observed that this spirit could not stray very far from Chen Chuan; she seemed to exist by relying on Chen Chuan's own energy. That meant the threat she posed to him would not be insurmountable.
As for the destroyed external visage, so long as he remained, he could gather it anew. Although the spiritual impact had destroyed a portion of his fire of spirituality as well, he welcomed his opponent doing so, as such an exchange favored him in the long run.
Lifting his battle axe, he raised his arm to block Hongfu's slash. At the same time, wisps of fire of spirituality fluttered outward from his body. Great masses of water converged and recollected, reshaping into a half-human water serpent that surged toward Chen Chuan. Whatever happened, he was determined to keep Chen Chuan confined to the outer perimeter, preventing him from closing in and launching an ambush.
Yet over the next few clashes of axe and saber, he felt he had underestimated Hongfu. The might imbued in her saber alone was enough to threaten him, and her skill was exquisite—the force and angle of every strike and form were beyond reproach, forcing him to bring every ounce of focus to bear.
Even so, submerged in the water, Takoda could use the currents to propel and assist himself while simultaneously pinning down his opponent. Thus, he felt no great strain and was even willing to let the stalemate drag on.
Ahead, Chen Chuan slashed apart the current surging toward him. Immense volumes of water rumbled past him; even when cleaved, the water did not break apart, seeming almost endowed with life.
Chen Chuan paid this no mind. Over these few exchanges of offense and defense, the other man's tactical intent was plain as day: to wear down his stamina through the power of the water.
Yet one could not simply ignore these attacks at will, for they contained fire of spirituality and possessed a certain offensive punch. There might even be hidden tricks he did not yet know. A moment's carelessness could put him at a disadvantage.
Watching Takoda withdraw further, engaging in a battle of attrition was actually one viable way to deal with someone who did nothing but evade, for the man did not realize that Chen Chuan's foundation was far deeper and more robust than he could ever imagine.
However, that method was both time-consuming and precarious. If Takoda saw that his objective could not be achieved, he might promptly retreat into the open sea. With this man's abilities, fighting him out there would be ten times more troublesome than on shore.
The other option was a direct frontal assault—unleashing his greatest power in the shortest possible time, giving the enemy no opportunity to break away or maneuver.
This seemed the most feasible path.
In that case...
He closed his eyes. With a turn of thought, his Second Self instantly overlapped with him. At the same time, he drew a deep breath, initiating the Heaven and Earth Furnace breathing technique.
In that instant, an overflowing surge of power erupted from within his body. Billowing white mist blended with a platinum radiance, spilling outward.
Takoda immediately noticed the change. He was not surprised that Chen Chuan chose an explosive offensive, for that was the choice most people would make in such a situation.
However, this was precisely what he hoped for; one could even say his opponent had stepped squarely into the trap he had laid.
His comprehension of the Raging River lineage was exceptional. Right now, he was only a hair's breadth away from communing with the spirits of the ancestors and completing the first stage of merging with nature. What he had displayed earlier was not his full strength; he had merely let his foe see a glimmer of hope. In reality—
At this moment, invisible war markings flickered and surfaced beneath his skin. This was a secret art combining ritual with personal power, capable of stimulating the potential of mutated tissue. As this power was awakened, a portion of it even emerged from within his body, forming tiny threads nearly imperceptible to the naked eye. With their emergence, even more moisture seemed to merge into him.
Chen Chuan looked up toward where Takoda was and took a step forward. At that exact moment, the operation of the entire world seemed to slow to a crawl.
Double the strength and speed pushed his external performance beyond a certain threshold, reaching a caliber possessed only in the realm of the Longevity View. When such speed was brought to bear, everything outside appeared frozen in place.
The waves of water obstructing his path hung suspended and still in midair. As he strode past, collisions were inevitable; the instant he touched them, they fractured and shattered, disintegrating into slowly shifting, deformed water droplets drifting sluggishly outward.
In his eyes, Hongfu's red robes fluttered ahead as she cleaved the water with a saber stroke, slashing toward Takoda. Takoda was raising his battle axe to parry, his expression confident yet wary, both weapons slowly drawing closer together.
As Chen Chuan advanced step by step, the ground quivered and cracked, and the air displaced by his passage surged outward, forming faintly visible ripples of airflow.
Takoda could not see Chen Chuan at this moment. Yet because the surrounding water was saturated with his spiritual power—functioning in a sense as an extension of his own body—his spirit sounded frantic alarms.
His consciousness responded almost instinctively. The mental stimulation caused his mutated tissue to recklessly unleash its potential, drawing forth and squeezing out even more power from within his body, while the fire of spirituality on the outside began retreating inward.
Because all of this had to be accomplished in a single split second, bloodshot veins spiderwebbed across his eyes, and blood began to seep faintly from the surface of his skin.
The waves wrapped around him underwent an unexpected transformation, turning thicker and more viscous in that instant. Even Hongfu's thrusting saber seemed restrained, as though trapped within the mire.
Chen Chuan paid no heed to this. His eyes stayed locked onto Takoda. His body leaned forward, his low center of gravity forming an acute angle with the ground, while his overcoat clung tightly to his frame as if an invisible pair of hands were hauling him from behind.
Once he reached the proper distance, the Xuejun Saber in his hand slashed diagonally upward toward the figure above!
Guided by his sense of danger, Takoda barely managed to shift his battle axe toward the trajectory of the incoming blade. Veins bulged along the back of his hand, and individual droplets of blood could be seen drifting outward into the air.
In the next moment, saber and axe clashed. The fire of spirituality instantly dissolved and scattered. Though Takoda successfully brought the axe into the saber's path, he could not withstand the force behind it in the slightest. The arm wielding the axe deformed instantly, the bones within snapping inch by inch as it whipped outward like a limp noodle.
At that moment, Chen Chuan reached out with his other hand to grip the raised Xuejun Saber, bringing the blade slashing down toward Takoda's torso once more!
Just as the blade fell, an anomaly surged through the outer waters. A flash of spiritual light erupted, instantly forming a powerful vortex that dragged Takoda backward a short distance. This allowed the greater part of his body to evade the slash, but one leg was sheared clean off in the sweep of the blade.
Chen Chuan's eyes flashed. Holding the saber horizontally before him, he pressed on in pursuit.
Takoda was not truly conscious of everything happening right now; his survival was entirely driven by the desperate instincts of his spirit and mutated tissue. To avert mortal peril, every technique and contingency available to him was brought forth without reservation.
In this instant, the ground beneath their feet shattered with a roar, and an immense jet of water erupted from deep underground.
One could easily imagine that in normal combat, whether it was that vortex with its tremendous suction or the explosive surging geyser from below, either could create vital openings and drastically disrupt an opponent.
Yet under the present circumstances, none of it was of any use. Chen Chuan surged resolutely forward, instantly smashing the obstructing currents into countless scattered droplets. The moment he closed in on his target again, his arms snapped forward. The blade flashed upward from below once more, cleaving water droplets one after another through the air before sweeping across Takoda's chest. A sharp burst of saber qi lanced out from his back, carving an ever-widening fissure across the frozen water currents behind him.
Chen Chuan planted his feet firmly, holding his follow-through swing while exhaling a breath of scorching air.
In that instant, the world returned to normal.
Rumble!
Waves of thunderous roars reverberated outward, and the entire island seemed to tremble. The suspended water collapsed into expanding ripples, and amid the shattering spray, Takoda's body was flung far into the distance, crashing limply onto the cracked, shattered ground.
Chapter 981