Chen Chuan lowered his center of gravity and brought his saber up to parry the attack. The saber and axe clashed once more. As the two forces pushed against each other, their bodies trembled. Snow and dust rolled outward in waves.

Chang Kuanghai was excited and used the force from the clash to bring his axe up high again. With one hand, he grabbed the end of the axe, and with the other, he grabbed the rear section of the weapon, making him look like he was straining himself upward. After a brief pause, an explosive power burst out of his arms, and he swung the axe down.

Chen Chuan’s gaze was deep and penetrating. He had seen a similar attack from Wei Wusheng, but Wei Wusheng had used a hammer, while Chang Kuanghai used an axe.

He showed no intention of avoiding the attack. All his mutated tissue answered to his call, and after gathering some power, he spun on his feet and swung the saber. Two sharp flashes of light crashed into each other, and a large cloud of dust spread out in a roaring wave from around them.

***

Most of the people in the World Ring Defense System’s command center were paying attention to the fight, because the propagated offspring in the gap near them was the most important one right now. In a sense, it was far more important than the fight outside the city.

The powerful and heavy strikes as well as the head-on clashes made their hearts leap in fear, but also filled them with excitement.

This was especially so because they had seen the power contained in Chang Kuanghai’s swings when he attacked the response unit. With one swing, he had sent a whole car full of people flying, but Chen Chuan had managed to parry it without even budging. By the looks of it, they seemed to be fighting on equal grounds.

After parrying three attacks, Chen Chuan could tell that Chang Kuanghai’s strength was about the same as his before he merged with his second self, and when Chang Kuanghai used his weapon, the bit of disparity left was basically nonexistent. Chang Kuanghai’s mind was also strong and not easily affected.

This was the first time Chen Chuan had met such an opponent.

Without hesitation, he released the restraint over his mutated tissue to get a small edge in terms of strength.

Chang Kuanghai was the type to take the initiative in fights. When Chen Chuan once again parried his attack, he tensed his core, spun around, and delivered a diagonal slash.

Upon seeing this, Chen Chuan defaulted to how he parried the previous attacks. He positioned his saber sideways, but this time, he didn’t parry the axe fully. When the weapons touched, he suddenly retreated, dragging the force in the axe to the side and causing the axe to divert from its original attack trajectory.

Even though his technique had been horrible in the beginning, he had spent a long time in the university. Now, he was focusing on training his mind, but before, he had sparred practically every day with Hongfu. So, while he was not a master at technique yet, he was proficient with saber techniques. He had shown no signs of knowing this move, which could easily catch others unawares.

But Chang Kuanghai did not stumble. The moment he sensed the shift in energy, he pulled his own energy back. His ability to freely release and pull back such powerful energy showed just how great his control over his refined force was.

Even so, he was a tad too slow. Chen Chuan seized the chance and locked down the axe with his saber before deflecting it to the side. Even if he couldn’t make Chang Kuanghai lose his grip, he could make it veer off course.

Naturally, Chang Kuanghai wasn’t going to allow that to happen. He activated his refined force to pull it back. The two weapons moved, with one turning and the other angling to the side. Then, they pushed against each other, and their strength clashed again. This time, though, Chang Kuanghai noticed that the power Chen Chuan summoned was greater than before, which led to his axe tilting to the side a little, and he quickly tried to stabilize it.

Chen Chuan took a step forward and brought his saber up, as if he wanted to deflect the axe. If he was successful, he was bound to get into Chang Kuanghai’s space while his front was completely open.

Once he predicted Chen Chuan’s intentions, Chang Kuanghai let out a shout. An explosive power came from his arms as he brought the axe down to pin the saber while also defending his torso. Due to the strength Chen Chuan had displayed, Chang Kuanghai’s muscles bulged, and his own strength rose.

A sharp glare flashed in Chen Chuan’s eyes. He flipped his wrists and pulled his saber back from its original course of traveling upward. Then, he spun it around the axe. The moment his saber pressed against the back of the axe, he pushed down.

Boom!

As they fought, the ground cracked, and a pit appeared. Most of the axe was pushed into the ground.

Chen Chuan immediately moved forward. The saber moved as well while pushing against the axe’s hilt. In an instant, he closed in on Chang Kuanghai and swung his saber up.

While he had become stronger after releasing the restraints over his mutated tissue, he didn’t go for straightforward attacks. Instead, he launched a deliberate attack while holding back, using the principle of fighting with weaker moves before striking with force and using a feint before a straightforward attack. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

When Chang Kuanghai saw that he didn’t have the time to pull the axe back, he reacted decisively and released it so he could bring his arms up to block the attack. The saber cut into his flesh, but the muscle just caved a little. Chen Chuan didn’t even manage to break skin.

But while he couldn’t cut Chang Kuanghai, he could release his refined force. In an instant, a powerful wave charged into Chang Kuanghai. His muscles pulsed, and the refined force that entered his body was all neutralized without leaving much of an impact.

Chen Chuan anticipated this. He seized the initiative and instantly delivered three consecutive slashes at Chang Kuanghai. Each slash contained a different type of refined force that was chained seamlessly together.

Chang Kuanghai blocked all three slashes with his arms. Every time, he smoothly negated the refined forces that entered his body. His feet also never budged, as if they were rooted to the ground.

Suddenly, the gap beside them flashed. Then, they heard the sound of thousands of wings flapping. A large flock of birds flew out.

The birds had bloodshot eyes and sharp beaks and talons. The moment they came out, they flew outward in a frenzy, straight at Chen Chuan and Chang Kuanghai, who were in their way.

But neither man seemed concerned about it. They continued fighting, and the shockwaves as well as refined forces coming from them killed the birds that came close. They fell like rain.

Chang Kuanghai suddenly struck outward, and the birds coming at them from both sides exploded. A large amount of blood came flying at Chen Chuan.

This did not affect him. When the blood landed on his skin, it bounced off. He refused to miss this chance. He swung his saber up, then thrust it forward and stabbed it near Chang Kuanghai’s collarbone. Finally, the saber pierced flesh.

Chen Chuan had used the Piercing Drill Force for this attack. Even if Chang Kuanghai was a body hardening expert, Chen Chuan could still stab him. After the saber sank into flesh, he found that his weapon could continue digging in further with relative ease, but after a moment, he ran into an unyielding resistance, and he had a hard time pushing the saber further in. Since this was due to some secret of Chang Kuanghai’s body hardening technique, Chen Chuan pulled his saber back and retreated.

Chang Kuanghai suddenly clenched his fists. Ripples spread up from his feet before gathering at the tips of his fists. Then, he threw a punch forward.

After taking two steps back, Chen Chuan’s breath turned scorching hot, and he thrust forward again. The tip of the blade instantly slammed against the fist, and their bodies trembled once more before they backed away from each other to neutralize the refined force from the other.

Chang Kuanghai cast a glance at his fist. There was a deep gash on it, and he could see his firm finger bones under his overturned skin and flesh, but the gash only stayed for an instant before it closed. By the time he lowered his fist, the wound had completely healed.

The exchange of blows might have appeared complicated, but it happened within a short few seconds, causing the video shown back in the command center to be blurry. The only thing they could tell was that neither fighter had gained the upper hand from this exchange.

Chen Chuan brandished his saber as he stared at Chang Kuanghai. He could tell that his opponent didn’t have any fancy technique, but he did have extraordinary strength, speed, and a sturdy body. The last one in particular had practically been honed to perfection.

His mind was also restrained but formidable. Pure, even. While he never bothered to attack with his mental energy, his mind was a fortress, just like his hardened body. When Chen Chuan attacked with his saber just now, he had also attacked with the Mind Shattering Hammer, but Chang Kuanghai hadn’t wavered in the slightest and just endured it.

How should he describe this fighting style? A regular martial artist would have a hard time winning against Chang Kuanghai, because if they couldn’t take him down, that was that. No matter how hard they tried, it would be useless.

That didn’t mean that there truly was no weakness for Chen Chuan to find and exploit.

He had noticed that while Chang Kuanghai had blocked his saber barehanded, he paid great attention to protecting his face. He also did his best not to touch the saber using certain joints.

He could block attacks from other people using those parts, but Chen Chuan’s strength was about the same as his, and that forced him to protect those areas. These were all weaknesses Chen Chuan could exploit.

As they watched each other, something strange happened to the gap. Another flock of birds flew out. Then, with a loud bang, the gap grew bigger. It could now let larger creatures pass through.

While neither Chen Chuan nor Chang Kuanghai looked over, they were on guard. A moment later, their expressions changed a little. Their minds had become a lot more active than before.

Chen Chuan could sense it much more clearly. With the help from Awakening Clarity, the amount of quintessence he absorbed and the speed at which he absorbed it was much greater than the average person.

Then, he figured it out.

It was because the gap was becoming more stable, thus naturally becoming the main point of transfer between the physical and mental worlds. Since quintessence was part of the other world, it was only natural that a large amount of it could seep through the gap.

Since Chen Chuan and Chang Kuanghai were so close, they could be said to be the first to benefit from it.

Even though there were a lot of other gaps in Oceanway District, they were at the edge of Central City, and most of them led to the merged space. That place was the intersection between the two worlds and not the other world itself. That was why this particular gap was the closest to the other world out of the other gaps.

This was good, but instead of both of them sharing this benefit, it would be better if only one got to do it. Hence, they looked up slowly and met each other’s eyes.