Chapter 211: Spatial Sword Will, Chen Chu Gets Surrounded (I)

On the other side of the Yunwu Mountain Range, deep within the peaks...

At the edge of a cliff, where the winds howled fiercely and the gales raged, An Fuqing sat cross-legged in ordinary battle armor. Her eyes were as clear as jade as she gazed silently ahead.

In front of her, beyond the cliff, the space seemed to distort like a transparent sheet of paper, occasionally revealing dark rifts that blinked out of existence as the space repaired itself. Ranging from mere centimeters to over a meter long, these rifts sliced through all matter in their path, including the very air itself.

As An Fuqing watched the continual emergence and collapse of these spatial rifts, reflections of shattered and vanishing spaces began to flicker in her eyes.

When Chen Chu had broken through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm, Liu Feixu and Pang Long had mentioned how An Fuqing had comprehended sword will during the Kyrola trial. In the eyes of the higher-ups at the academy, that feat surpassed even her astonishing cultivation speed.

Even Chen Chu, who had achieved the theoretical limit of the Dragon Elephant Art and created True Martial Spirit at the Third Heavenly Realm, fell short in talent compared to her.

It wasn't until he became the first to break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm with only average talent that his potential finally became on par with An Fuqing's in the school's talent evaluations. Even then, though, it was only just equal.

This was the terrifying aspect of comprehension talent. As she observed the birth and demise of the spatial rifts, a terrifying sword will began to emanate from An Fuqing, causing her long hair to flutter without wind.

Within a radius of a meter around her, tiny cracks appeared out of nowhere on the sturdy rocks, weeds silently shattered, and even the air emitted faint popping sounds. When the gales from the mountain stream entered within that range around An Fuqing, they would abruptly vanish, torn apart and annihilated by that invisible sharp sword will, which was as awe-inspiring as the ephemeral spacial rifts.

Sword will was a form of willpower, stronger than ordinary will and unmatched in offense. Even a preliminary comprehension could enhance the power of sword qi several times over. Regardless of whether one cultivated sword arts or saber arts, comprehending sword will would greatly enhance their combat prowess.

Under normal circumstances, for a cultivator to comprehend sword will, the prerequisite would be to cultivate high-level combat skills to the advanced stage and then elevate them to the perfected stage of their martial realm in an instant with utmost belief.

It was easy to imagine how difficult this would be. As such, individuals like An Fuqing, who had comprehended Sword Will at the Third Heavenly Realm, were truly exceptional.

Of course, what was considered difficult was usually only so for ordinary people. Geniuses had always been exceptions; otherwise, there wouldn’t be any talk of genius at all.

An Fuqing had been quietly sitting there for several days. After her initial comprehension of Illusory Sword Will, she had found further insights while observing the spatial rifts.

Suddenly, An Fuqing extended two fingers on her right hand, and a meter-long white sword qi condensed at her fingertips, with sword will circulating within. With a casual wave of her hand...

Puff!

Wherever the sword qi passed, a dark trace appeared in the air, lingering under the remnants of her sharp sword will.

"No, not like this."

Frowning at the mere black void in front of her, An Fuqing dispelled the sharp sword qi from her hand, then continued to gaze ahead, her clear and bright eyes reflecting the black rifts that kept appearing and disappearing as she once again fell into silence.

Within her, the sharp will to sever everything became more apparent and powerful.

As An Fuqing entered a state of enlightenment, the true power within her body automatically circulated, absorbing and refining the surrounding transcendent energy at an astonishing rate, as her aura grew stronger and stronger.

***

Roar! Roar! Roar!

In the forest, several large mutated beasts had surrounded Chen Chu from a distance, roaring fiercely in attempts of intimidation.

These mutated beasts resembled rhinoceroses, with green-scaled bodies, a stout horn on their heads, claws on their four hooves, and mouths filled with densely packed fangs.

Most of them ranged in size from five to six meters, with the largest one measuring over eighteen meters in length, excluding its tail, and was at level 4. They were all greedily eyeing the Long-haired Rampage Ape’s corpse.

The instinct of beasts was to desire strength, and one of the ways a beast could accelerate its own evolution was by consuming the flesh of one that was higher level than them. The bloody scent emanated by the carcass of a peak level 5 mutated beast like the Long-haired Rampage Ape was enough to drive living beasts somewhat crazy.

This was one reason why Chen Chu and his companions would be continuously attacked while dragging corpses back to base; the terrifying pressure they exuded and the gruesome state of the corpses weren’t enough to suppress the aggressiveness of their attackers.

Another reason was that most mutated creatures were of a mindset of size meaning everything. The bigger the size, the greater the strength, and the more terrifying the aura emitted.

Because of how small humans were, the energy fluctuations their true power emitted weren’t as ferocious or domineering as those of mutated beasts, which often led beasts with lower intelligence to believe that human cultivators were easy prey.

In regards to the first issue, at least, there was a solution. The logistics department had an item called the Grayrock Tree Powder, which cost 1 contribution point for a large bottle. Made from ground tree bark, the powder emitted a strong scent that covered the bloody odor of mutated beast corpses, preventing living beasts from being able to smell them.

Normally, cultivators returning from hunting expeditions would apply some of the powder to avoid unnecessary trouble on the way back. Xia Youhui and the others had been using it as well, only allowing the scent of mutated beast blood to spread when Chen Chu had been with them.

Chen Chu also knew about this item—he had a bottle of it in his storage space—but he never used it, as he wanted the scent to lure more mutated beasts to come directly to him. As his physical body became more terrifying, he had not only improved in strength and physique, but his agility, which was usually overlooked, had also grown more and more formidable.

With over 900 points in Agility, his movement speed reached a near supersonic speed of three hundred meters per second under normal circumstances, far surpassing cultivators of the same level by several times and even becoming comparable to Fifth Heavenly Realm cultivators who specialized in agility and speed-type arts.

On top of that, once he activated his true power, his muscle strength would explode, allowing him to instantly enter supersonic movement comparable to cultivators specializing in agility-type movement arts at the Sixth Heavenly Realm. In addition, because of his robust physique, he could last longer than them in sustaining that speed.

After all, once those cultivators ran out of true power and couldn't activate their arts anymore, their speed would plummet.

This was why Chen Chu was so confident. What should he do when encountering powerful mutated creatures that he couldn't defeat? Run, of course. At supersonic speed, he could cross twenty kilometers in just one minute.

Boom!

As the mutated beasts slowly approached, intending to surround Chen Chu, there was an explosion of soil, out of which a black and red light burst out.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under the supersonic swing of the two-ton Eight Desolations Purgatory Halberd, three level 2 Singled-horned Beasts instantly exploded, Chen Chu passing through the rain of blood like a flash of lightning.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With his supersonic movement, the level 2 and 3 beasts didn’t even have time to react before their bodies were blasted into pieces under the black and red true power.

Roar!

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The late stage level 4 Single-horned Beast, standing five meters high at its shoulders, emitted a furious roar. Gray light circulated around its body, and the surrounding soil surged as if alive.

In the blink of an eye, the beast became clad in thick rock armor that now made it seven meters tall, exuding a powerful aura of heavy and sturdy durability.

Meanwhile, Chen Chu had already appeared before the last Single-horned Beast, which measured nine meters in length and was at the late stage of level 3.

Boom!

Accompanied by the explosion of black and red true power, flesh and blood mixed with violent shockwaves burst out for over ten meters, forming a huge red fan-shaped pattern.

Roar!

Seeing its offspring being wiped out in the blink of an eye by that tiny figure, the level 4 beast's eyes were covered in a bloody hue, filled with ferocity and killing intent. Its massive body shattered the ground with every thunderous stomp, causing the earth to tremble and stirring up violent gusts of air... and then it turned and fled, causing Chen Chu to pause.

Well, it seemed this level 4 beast actually had some intelligence. After seeing Chen Chu instantly slaughter all of its offspring with terrifying speed, it had realized that this enemy was not to be trifled with.

Unfortunately, Chen Chu wasn’t going to let go of the contribution points that had been delivered to his doorstep. He shot out like a gale with a thunderous roar, a long white air wave emitting a piercing howl behind him.

In an instant, he caught up with the Single-horned Beast, which had already dashed hundreds of meters away.

Roar!