Book 4, Chapter 119: Cutting Into The Enemy
Book 4, Chapter 119: Cutting Into The Enemy
Despite the balcony shattering due to the thunderous impact that came from the clash of their weapons, Chen Chuan and Wilheim’s worlds were in slow motion. The wood chips from the barracks and the shrapnel from the spear flew outward at a snail’s pace, and the two martial artists felt as if they were frozen in the air.
Their gazes met while they were suspended.
At that moment, Wilheim saw his opponent clearly. He was dressed in the fashion of a Great Shun Republic soldier. His overcoats and scarf fluttered, and the weapon that shattered his spear’s tip was a long saber with a snow-white blade.
Chen Chuan’s gaze was on his target. His first attack had destroyed Wilheim’s weapon. If a martial artist wasn’t ready for this sort of loss, they wouldn’t be able to adjust to it in time. The next moment, Chen Chuan could press forward and go straight for the head, even if his opponent was about the same level of strength as he was.
This was the advantage of getting the initiative in a fight.
But Wilheim was prepared. Amid the shattered spear shards was a white spear core, which he was holding firmly. It was about the same length as the Frost King Saber, which had deviated slightly off course because of the impact.
The spear was designed in such a way that the body was made to neutralize refined force. If it shattered, it could neutralize much of the refined force sent into it.
The next moment, a faint light glowed at the tip of the spear core.
This was, without a doubt, spirit sense. In a fight between two martial artists at the same level, if one of them didn’t have a proper way to block spirit sense, the fight would end in an instant.
Chen Chuan’s eyes remained calm. There was no flicker of emotion inside them. The Frost King Saber had deviated slightly, which required him to adjust his grip and body to correct it. That time was enough for Wilheim’s spear to touch him.
Chen Chuan pulled his saber back and released a two-tier refined force as he, too, thrust forward.
The entire blade glowed faintly.
Clang!
The saber slammed into the side of the spear core. The lights from the spirit sense clashed into each other and faded for a moment. Even the air around them twisted a bit.
Spirit sense could only be countered with spirit sense. Once these two lights scattered, it would be time for the spear and saber to truly fight.
The Vangh Scripture created high unity between the mind and body. When Wilheim trained his body, he trained his mind as well, and vice versa. Hence, when he fought, both his mind and body were acting as one.
His attack contained both physical and mental strength. Both of them worked together to cause more damage.
Few martial artists could block his attacks, because if there was even the slightest disharmony between the mind and body, Wilheim would tear through the instability and kill them.
He could sense that his opponent’s mind and body hadn’t achieved perfect harmony. That made sense, because most training methods created an imbalance, which was a fact Wilheim had always exploited. What surprised him, though, was that his attack didn’t rattle his opponent, which could only mean one thing: His opponent’s body was far stronger than his. Even his mental energy was slightly stronger than Wilheim’s. Regardless of whether it was the body or the mind, the moment one was lacking, Wilheim would be able to detect it. Now, though, his opponent was better than him in both aspects, so he couldn’t find an opening and ended up being the one suffering from a backlash. He got overpowered.
A wave of refined force entered his body through the spear core. Even though most of it was absorbed by the mutated tissue in the spear, some of it slipped through and affected his mutated tissue’s ability to generate power. He could also predict that his spear would be deflected a bit, and he would reveal a slight opening.
In a highly intense fight, even a slight deviation could decide whether a person won or lost. An experienced martial artist would use it to maintain their advantage and slowly increase it until they won.
During a fight between two martial artists at the same level, it was practically impossible to turn such a situation around, unless the attacker made a mistake, but Wilheim wasn’t going to bet on Chen Chuan making a mistake. Martial artists at their level didn’t do that.
Since he had practically already lost, his eyes shone like stars, and his suppressed mutated tissue got a boost of energy, despite the refined force having charged into him. It not only remained unaffected, but even seemed to have become tougher than before.
This was because he had gone through a trial mentioned in the Vangh Scripture.
Because of it, when his mutated tissue sensed that he was going to get cornered, it got a boost of energy. This could not only make up for the depleted strength that came from him suffering a setback, it would even make him stronger.
Wilheim had gone through the trial three times, so he could get a boost a total of three times. Each time, his physical abilities would increase, and on the third time, his strength would become unparalleled.
Once he recovered from the impact, Wilheim stabilized the slightly trembling spear core. He even dragged it back to swing at the incoming Frost King Saber at the correct angle.
Since his mental energy had increased along with his strength, he became slightly stronger than his opponent. This slight difference was enough for him to make use of his refined force. Next, all he needed to do was to make the saber deviate from its course slightly, and he would be able to seize the initiative.
Both weapons were shining with a faint glow, and Heartborn Forces were spilling out of them, so they were already engaged in another contest of strength before the weapons even clashed.
Chen Chuan immediately sensed that Wilheim’s overall strength had increased, and he guessed that he had used some kind of secret technique.
At this point, he could just overlap with his second self and overcome all the obstacles before him, but he didn’t do it.
When his saber slammed into the spear again, he changed his refined force and neutralized Wilheim’s refined force, which allowed him to be completely unaffected as he delivered a horizontal slash.
It was Fan Mo’s Rotating Spiral Force.
While he could simulate the refined force of the former national religion, he couldn’t use it as seamlessly and smoothly as Fan Mo did, but he didn’t need to do it. He just had to make sure that he could get back into offense after neutralizing Wilheim’s refined force.
Right now, he was still stronger than Wilheim in terms of physical strength, so as long as he maintained his offense, he would keep his advantage.
Their Heartborn Forces clashed again. Despite getting stronger, Wilheim was unable to completely negate the impact from the Heartborn Force charging into him. His sturdy foundation, though, meant that Wilheim simply got even more excited, and his body went through a second transformation.
That wasn’t all. Since he could sense an intimidating pressure from his opponent, after going through his second metamorphosis, Wilheim instantly moved into his third metamorphosis.
His strength, speed, and mind reached a level he had never experienced before during his life as a martial artist. He flipped the spear like he wasn’t affected by the clash at all and sent it straight for the Frost King Saber.
Chen Chuan’s gaze turned unreadable, like a bottomless swamp. He flipped the Frost King Saber too and swung it at the spear.
The two weapons clashed, but didn’t bounce off each other, like they did during the first two exchanges.
Wilheim’s Heartborn Force seemed to have entered a void. At the same time, a Heartborn Force far greater than his gushed into the spear.
It was Ling Jianxing’s Illusion Piercing Force.
Chen Chuan was in the air and couldn’t direct Wilheim’s Heartborn Force into the ground, but he could send it into Hongfu. He also couldn’t gather power several times of what was sent into him before concentrating it at one point and sending it back out, but being able to send twice the amount of power back was already enough.
The saber bounced the spear off, and he immediately swung it again at Wilheim’s neck.
Wilheim’s eyes flew wide open. Even though his head had been cut off, it didn’t fall off his body.
The great shock of being at Death’s door made him see the threshold of the fourth trial that he had never been able to cross.
This trial required him to go through a complete metamorphosis while near dead. Now, he was able to truly sense it.
While his body had died, his mind remained alive.
His great desire to live was reflected back into his body, and he was able to move his spear, even though he could no longer sense it. In his mind, he was sure that Chen Chuan had run out of strength after that attack and entered a state of depletion.
As long as he could bring the spear into position, he would be able to kill his opponent. Then, the stimulation from winning would let him pass through this trial. After that, not only would he be able to reconnect his head, but would also grow stronger than before.
Before he could bring the spear into position, though, Chen Chuan pulled the saber back. The movement was no weaker than before. He lifted the saber up with both hands.
At this moment, he used the Flying Dragon Force!
It was meant for fists, but its logic was basic—to attack nonstop while suspended. The first attack should transition smoothly into the next and use the enemy’s momentum to make sure that he never ran out of energy.
Chen Chuan supposed that he could call it the Flying Dragon Slash.
He swung the saber down.
Shirk.
It cut Wilheim down from the middle, and the air as well as dust seemed to have been split in half in a semi-circle.
Even though they had exchanged several attacks in the air, everything happened in but a second. It was only at this moment that they started falling.
Thud!
Chen Chuan’s feet landed on the ground. Wilheim, too, fell at the same time.
Dust and stone clattered around them.
Chen Chuan stared at his opponent while tightly holding his saber. Wilheim also held onto his spear. After a moment, though, the light in his eyes faded, and the spear fell on the ground before his head rolled off. Then, his headless corpse split into two and fell apart. When they landed, dust rose up.