Book 3, Chapter 236: Seeing The Mind Through The Blade

Chen Chuan’s attack contained his full power and speed. No matter how good Jiancheng Sheng’s technique was, there was a limit to how much power he could withstand. As long as enough pressure was put on him, his defenses would break.

Almost at the same time the road cracked, Chen Chuan appeared in front of Jiancheng Sheng and swung his saber.

Jiancheng Sheng moved at the same time Chen Chuan did. Before Chen Chuan could generate his full momentum, he stepped forward, brought his saber up, and parried the Frost King Saber.

As waves of refined force crashed into Jiancheng Sheng’s body, his mutated tissue began negating it, and veins started bulging on his skin.

It wasn’t the end of the attack, though.

Once Jiancheng Sheng blocked the first strike, Chen Chuan swung his saber a second time.

After the first slash, he also released the restraints on his mutated tissue, which made his strength and speed increase.

Jiancheng Sheng sensed it and turned his body. With the power from it, he swung his saber up with both hands to block the attack.

Immediately after, Chen Chuan’s third slash came forth. This time, he used the Furnace Breathing Technique. As his scorching breath came out, his saber’s momentum became even more powerful than before.

Jiancheng Sheng’s expression was grim, and his eyes sparkled. This was a sign that his mind was focused to its utmost limit. It guided his body into subconsciously activating Fierce Wave School’s secret breathing technique that could draw out his potential.

Blood essence filled every inch of his body, and with a shout, he parried the third attack. A loud crack came from under his feet, and he sank a full foot into the sturdy road.

Chen Chuan’s offense was still not over. He drew his hands back a little, and the rituals on his skin activated. The color of the arrays faded away swiftly, and his saber swung with even more strength. It rushed forth like a tidal wave, and Chen Chuan drew on that momentum to spin on his feet and deliver a horizontal slash.

The power and speed of that attack defied all limits, and the sound of a blizzard howling tore through the air.

Jiancheng Sheng didn’t back away. His gaze became even calmer with unwavering resolve shining in its depths. As his mind squeezed out and mobilized every drop of his mutated tissue’s power, his blood and breath merged together, leading to cracking sounds resembling roaring waves coming from his body.

At that moment, it was as if time had slowed down. As he watched the Frost King Saber getting closer to him, he started pushing his saber forward slowly, inch by inch, as if there was a heavy burden on his shoulders.

Then, their weapons touched.

Boom!

It didn’t look like their weapons had clashed. Instead, it was as if two shockwaves had rammed into each other.

Jiancheng Sheng’s sleeves tore open, and he stumbled backward. The impact was so strong that his blade, along with his arms, flew up. His saber trembled nonstop, and blood flowed down his arms. Various other parts of his body also started bleeding, which was a sign that the power his mutated tissue had to bear had surpassed its limit.

Even so, he remained stubborn and tried to gather his scattered power.

Fierce Wave School’s saber technique placed an emphasis on accumulating power. When they attacked, their attacks were like neverending waves. When they defended, they gathered power for their next attack like a hidden current.

They had different tactics for different opponents. Right now, Jiancheng Sheng was using the Void Stacking Form, which only defended and didn’t attack. Its goal was to gather power until there was a chance to counterattack, then deliver a single slash to gain victory.

However, the condition for this was not letting his accumulation of power be interrupted, which meant that this technique had a high requirement for not just physical tenacity, but also for mental fortitude.

As long as Chen Chuan didn’t kill him, Jiancheng Sheng could continue fighting.

Despite missing his chance to kill Jiancheng Sheng, Chen Chuan wasn’t affected by it.

During the first three slashes, Jiancheng Sheng had been able to send waves of refined force back and even guide Chen Chuan’s own refined force through his body to negate it, but at the fourth slash, all he could do was parry it without putting any pressure on Chen Chuan. That was why he no longer hesitated. When he bounced off the other’s weapon again, which left Jiancheng Sheng’s face wide open, he closed in and delivered an upward slash.

Jiancheng Sheng wasn’t able to mobilize his mutated tissue this fast, so he couldn’t gather enough power to do anything, not even twist his body to dodge the attack.

He was about to die under Chen Chuan’s saber.

The stress from his impending doom made his saber shine faintly, and a refined wave of energy flowed from the saber into his body. He gained energy seemingly out of nowhere.

He tightened his hold over the saber hilt and swung it down so it clashed against Chen Chuan’s Frost King Saber, and another thunderous boom came from their weapons. A visible shockwave spread out from where they stood, and rings of dust were pushed out of the area.

As they struggled against each other, their bodies froze.

Something strange happened to Jiancheng Sheng at that moment. His topknot had come loose during the fight, and his hair seemed to have grown longer due to some sort of stimulus. Even his muscles grew larger. More impressively, he grew taller. His originally loose martial arts uniform now fitted him perfectly.

The Third Limit martial artist watching from behind had a fervent look in his eyes, and he took a subconscious step forward as he gasped. “That’s it! Seeing the mind through the blade!”

The Ferris Wheel employees also saw the change in Jiancheng Sheng, and delight showed on their faces, as if they could finally sigh in relief.

They had hired Jiancheng Sheng because Fierce Wave School had a famous secret technique.

The older generation of Fierce Wave School could put their mutated tissue and blood essence into their disciples’ sabers. When they were in a life-and-death situation, they could continue fighting much longer than usual, but only the truly valued disciples received such a gift.

Fenghe Shou had claimed that Jiancheng Sheng was his favorite disciple of his generation, which was another way of telling them that he also had this secret technique.

When the disciples were in the state where only their minds knew what their hearts truly wanted, they could stop all attacks that could kill them without even activating this secret technique. Once they did, their power would increase even more.

The Third Limit martial artist was practically vibrating with excitement, because Jiancheng Sheng’s physique and aura reminded him of Fenghe Shou.

“Now that Mr. Jiancheng has gained Master Fenghe’s power, he can definitely win!”

Chen Chuan, too, had noticed that Jiancheng Sheng’s body had changed. That wasn’t all. His biofield was also no longer restrained like before. It was as if he had received some form of stimulus and let loose, which made him grow so strong that he practically had no flaws left.

This reminded Chen Chuan of the Iron Monster. Not his biofield, but how similar they both were when they reached the peak of their mental and physical states.

Even so, Chen Chuan’s gaze remained calm. Despite this sudden turn of events, he wasn’t affected. He had expected this. If the enemy didn’t have some form of trump card, he wouldn’t have shown up in front of Chen Chuan.

He pushed forward, and Jiancheng Sheng used his power to move back. When he was a distance away, he straightened his body and slowly repositioned his saber. Meanwhile, Chen Chuan swung his saber to the side and regulated his breathing.

Suddenly, he sensed something and turned to his saber. There was a strong desire coming from the blade. It was screaming that it

wanted

Jiancheng Sheng’s saber.

Chen Chuan raised an eyebrow at that. During their fight just now, their weapons had clashed multiple times, but the thing inside the Frost King Saber was dormant. It didn’t absorb anything, unlike the previous times. Why did it suddenly wake up?

Realization struck. Jiancheng Sheng’s transformation came from his saber.

But that thought disappeared as soon as it appeared. Delving into it was meaningless. No matter how Jiancheng Sheng changed, all Chen Chuan had to do was maintain his rhythm.

Jiancheng Sheng kept his eyes trained on Chen Chuan. He had thought that he could use his own strength to win, but reality delivered a hard slap in his face and made him realize that he couldn’t do it on his own. If that were the case, he could only make use of the power Fenghe Shou had placed in his saber.

There was nothing shameful about this. He was still fighting according to his own principles: Martial artists could use whatever benefitted them to win.

Only the victors had the right to confront praise and criticism alike. The losers had nothing.

Fierce Wave School believed that the mind was more important than the body, and Jiancheng Sheng had always walked down the path of mental training. Meanwhile, his body hadn’t reached its pinnacle due to the limits of his age and beliefs. However, the stimulus from the blood essence could make up for its weaknesses.

With the additional boost from the Skyhigh Jade’s core, his mind could easily control his stronger body. He wouldn’t fail to act however he wanted. His physical body and mind were as close to perfection as possible at that moment.

Even so, he didn’t take the initiative to attack. The Void Stacking Form required him to never attack, because when he did, he had to win.

He recollected his thoughts and spread his feet a little as he kept his gaze trained on Chen Chuan. He was ready for the next wave of attacks.

***

The leader of Ferris Wheel’s assault team turned to the person who had brought Jiancheng Sheng. “Sir, should we make our move now?”

The person pondered over it before saying, “Yeah.”

They hadn’t been sure whether Jiancheng Sheng could hold Chen Chuan back. If he couldn’t and they made their move, Chen Chuan could just turn around and kill the people they sent to attack Lei Guangcheng, which would be just throwing their martial artists’ lives away.

Jiancheng Sheng had proven himself capable, though, so they didn’t have to worry anymore and could attack the rear. They should swiftly kill their target and possibly even distract Chen Chuan a little.

With the man’s consent, the leader immediately sent a signal. Once the Third Limit martial artist standing in the front saw it, he charged forward. He wasn’t the only one. Another Third Limit martial artist who had been hiding in the back also rushed to the motorcade.

It was impossible for Chen Chuan to not have noticed this, but he turned his attention back to his own fight.

While there were two of them, Mr. Yao was no easy target. Third Limit martial artists were tenacious beings, so unless there was a huge disparity in strength, Mr. Yao shouldn’t find it difficult to last for a while as long as he didn’t mind using his blood essence and mental foundation. Chen Chuan was also planning to end this fight as soon as possible.

He tightened his grip over the saber’s hilt and trained his eyes on Jiancheng Sheng.