Book 3, Chapter 237: A Drained Mind

Chen Chuan brought a hand up and unbuttoned his overcoat. The rituals had given him a boost of power, but they had other uses as well, though the rituals affecting the mind were not going to be very effective against Jiancheng Sheng.

Since they were going to be useless, Chen Chuan wasn’t going to use them. Hence, after unbuttoning the overcoat, he tossed it aside and let it fly away in the wind.

Jiancheng Sheng remained still, so Chen Chuan decided to take the offered chance. Ignoring the gunshots and sounds of fighting that had appeared once again behind him, he positioned his saber by his waist, tilted his body forward slightly, shifted his center of gravity forward, stomped on the ground, and charged.

As he rushed forward, the white steam rising from him left a trail behind him. He looked incredibly imposing and terrifying.

But Jiancheng Sheng’s expression remained stern. He didn’t underestimate Chen Chuan just because he had gained a boost of power. In truth, he still felt threatened.

This time, he did not stand in place waiting. Instead, he turned to the side and used his movements to parry Chen Chuan’s attacks.

When he didn’t have enough power, he could only step forward to cancel Chen Chuan’s attacks by relying on his technique. But now, he had enough power and could use normal methods to parry Chen Chuan’s attacks. After the blood essence from his saber entered his body, he had grown about as tall as Chen Chuan and could fight in a more relaxed manner.

They exchanged a few rounds of attacks and parries, and Chen Chuan could sense that Jiancheng Sheng had improved in all aspects. Even though his own strength didn’t dwindle in the slightest, Jiancheng Sheng could now block his attacks with just one hand. Of course, he wasn’t relying purely on his strength. Technique was involved in this as well.

Unlike the Iron Monster, Jiancheng Sheng showed no signs of being unable to adapt to his increased strength. He was able to use it well and no longer had any weaknesses.

After more than ten slashes, Jiancheng Sheng’s confidence grew as he got a clearer sense of his body’s power. This was something he had never possessed before, or rather, this was a power he was going to have in the future. Since he was using an advanced mental technique to guide his body, there was no part of his body that he couldn’t control.

This was what he could obtain in the future.

After another one of Chen Chuan’s attacks, the two found themselves unable to bring forth any other momentum due to being in such close proximity. So, with a slight push, they moved back again.

Jiancheng Sheng could sense his mind getting more in sync with his body. Even though he couldn’t stay in this condition permanently, he was sure that once he won, he would improve quickly after what he experienced and reach an unprecedented state.

He could not absorb the blood essence in the saber whenever he felt like it, because his mutated tissue would reject its great power. It was only when he faced a truly worthy opponent and his mutated tissue was under the threat of death that it would set aside its resistance.

Ever since he turned fourteen, he had never met an enemy who gave him this feeling. Chen Chuan was the only one to have nearly killed him, which let him merge with the blood essence.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“Thank you, Mr. Chen,” he said seriously.

After winning this fight and killing Chen Chuan, he was going to pay him the respect worthy of a martial artist.

“You don’t have to thank me. I should be the one thanking you,” Chen Chuan answered in a relaxed tone.

Those words took Jiancheng Sheng by surprise. He suddenly felt a wave of unease in his heart, but he couldn’t pinpoint its source.

At some point, the white steam coming from Chen Chuan’s body had grown thicker and he now looked like a pillar of smoke. Despite the howling wind, it refused to be blown apart, and Chen Chuan could no longer be seen clearly.

After leaving Central City and going back to Yangzhi City, Chen Chuan still took medicine and trained regularly. All the energy he gained from the medicine had gathered within him without truly merging with him, because he hadn’t run into a strong opponent.

More accurately speaking, he hadn’t met an opponent who could force him to draw out his full power.

While he was in the main campus, he could spar every day with Hongfu, but when in Yangzhi City, he didn’t have such a perfect sparring partner. Jiancheng Sheng had shown up, though, and helped all the energy gathered in his mutated tissue to stir awake so that he could get used to it and claim it as his own.

He brought his saber up and pointed it at Jiancheng Sheng.

His opponent’s insistence on only defending and not attacking reminded him of a drawn bow. As long as the string didn’t snap, it was bound to release a powerful shock once the bow was drawn to its maximum limit.

The one who reached his limit first would lose.

Upon noticing Chen Chuan’s biofield spreading outward without any signs of being reined in, Jiancheng Sheng focused. Chen Chuan’s aura was also increasing, but he couldn’t find any weaknesses in it.

But that didn’t matter. The Chen Chuan he envisioned while he was in the training room was just a shadow. Through his fight against the real Chen Chuan, he was creating a profile of the real thing in his mind and was sure that once the time was right, he could kill him with one slash.

As they were getting a sense of each other, Chen Chuan moved. With a loud shout, Jiancheng Sheng met him. Their fight was no longer limited to the same area. As they exchanged rapid blows, they slowly left the public road. Every time their weapons clashed, thunderous booms tore through the air, and a shockwave exploded.

The cars nearby swayed, and their cracked windows shattered.

In Jiancheng Sheng’s eyes, as they continued exchanging blows at full power, Chen Chuan’s shadow continued overlapping with the real Chen Chuan, but it had yet to completely merge with him.

Meanwhile, he had accumulated almost enough power for his counterattack.

After parrying dozens of slashes, he felt a sudden wave of power in his body, as if it had come out of nowhere, but in truth, it was a rebound from his mutated tissue after it had been suppressed to its utter limit.

The shadow merged with the real Chen Chuan, and he knew that the time was right. He perked up and delivered his first and only attack in the fight.

Chen Chuan had been paying attention to Jiancheng Sheng and noticed his biofield suddenly disappearing. A flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes, and he instantly overlapped with his second self. When he saw the slash coming at him, he delivered a slash of his own.

Their weapons clashed, and Jiancheng Sheng’s blade snapped, but his gaze didn’t change. His saber continued going for Chen Chuan’s neck according to the trajectory he had set.

He didn’t rely entirely on his saber for this attack, but on his now entirely focused mind.

If he managed to cut Chen Chuan’s mind, he could cut Chen Chuan’s body.

Jiancheng Sheng’s mind wasn’t the only thing that needed to reach the peak of its focus for him to be able to deliver this attack. Chen Chuan’s mind needed to be entirely focused as well. It was only when he struck down the strongest point of Chen Chuan’s entire being that he could kill him.

Once Jiancheng Sheng fully unleashed his attack, even though his broken saber didn’t manage to touch Chen Chuan, a powerful saber will charged into his biofield and mind.

At that moment, a faint line appeared on his second self’s forehead and reached his torso. He even blurred out for an instant.

After Chen Chuan broke Jiancheng Sheng’s saber, he adjusted the Frost King Saber and negated the refined force coming from it. Then, he generated power in his arms and thrust the saber forward.

Both of them went still at the same time, and the dust under their feet blasted outward.

The snapped blade spun more than ten times in the air before plunging into the ground with a whistle.

Jiancheng Sheng remained in the same posture after he delivered his attack. After meeting Chen Chuan’s calm gaze, he slowly lowered his head and saw that the Frost King Saber had pierced his heart. Half of the blade came out of his body.

Blood trickled out of his mouth and oozed out of his skin. It turned his white martial arts uniform red.

The attack had drained his mind entirely. If he couldn’t kill Chen Chuan, his mind would scatter, and that’s what happened. At that moment, he was merely an empty shell.

“I’m sorry, Master. This is the end of my path,” he whispered. With a hint of regret, he slowly closed his eyes and no longer moved.

Chen Chuan pulled his saber out. The inertia caused Jiancheng Sheng to fall forward. Soon, the blood spilling out of his body dyed the ground red.

Chen Chuan brought his arm up to look at the Frost King Saber as it conveyed its excitement to him. Then, he turned to Jiancheng Sheng. His body had started shrinking until he returned to his original size.

Jiancheng Sheng’s attack had been truly powerful. Setting aside the refined force within it, Chen Chuan was sure that it was an attack that could destroy the mind, but Jiancheng Sheng didn’t seem to have truly mastered it. After his saber snapped, he lost more than half of his power, and based on the injuries his second self sustained, Chen Chuan was pretty sure that he could have endured it with his mental foundation.

Just then, he looked over and saw that Mr. Yao was fighting against the other two Third Limit martial artists. Judging by his appearance, he had sustained quite a lot of injuries. He looked rather disheveled and pathetic, but kept the situation under control.

Since he was wearing the Cult Investigation Bureau’s overcoat and there were rituals in the area, the others faced sensory confusion. Even though the two Third Limit martial artists could resist the effects somewhat, they were still affected to a certain degree.

That slight error in their perception made them lose a number of chances to kill Mr. Yao. He was able to avoid the fatal attacks by a hair’s breadth.

When Chen Chuan looked over, the three sensed his gaze and looked back. Delight immediately showed up on Mr. Yao’s face while the pupils of the other two shrank in shock. No longer having the will to continue fighting, they threw a few more attacks at Mr. Yao to force him back before retreating and running in different directions.

One of them even flung his arm while he was five hundred meters away to throw a dagger at Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan brushed it off with his saber and ignored him in favor of chasing the other one. With a stomp on the ground, he ran after the person.

When the martial artist who threw the dagger saw that Chen Chuan wasn’t going after him, glee rose in his heart, and he continued running at full speed, but after a few steps, he cradled his stomach and stumbled forward before falling to his knees and vomiting blood.