Book 4, Chapter 75: Layered Refined Force

Upon noticing the Frost King Saber’s new abilities, Chen Chuan realized that he could adjust his strategy.

Since Fan Mo’s refined force couldn’t affect him, he could push the mutated tissue he had gotten ready for defense into offense. Without needing to negate any refined force, he could speed up the rhythm of the fight.

His instincts allowed him to move in the most logical way to execute his plan. With his advantage of not being held back by hostile refined forces, he seized the initiative and dragged Fan Mo’s saber away in an attempt to shove it out of sight.

Fan Mo wasn’t sensing the same thing as Chen Chuan did. While his weapon could withstand attacks from Heartborn Forces, it couldn’t completely negate them, so he had to withstand the rest on his own.

However, he was the one who launched the first strike and was mentally prepared to a certain degree. His adjustments were quite fast. Besides, he had ample fighting experience. When he noticed that Chen Chuan was counterattacking really quickly, he flipped his wrists around to bring his saber back into a defensive position.

When Chen Chuan’s Heartborn Force entered his body, his mutated tissue immediately started negating it.

The refined force he inherited was known as the Rotating Spiral Force. It was a defensive refined force taught by the former national religion. It was unique in the sense that its offense and defense reinforced each other. After defending, he could switch to attacking and vice versa, which seamlessly chained his attacks.

Once he clashed weapons with an enemy, he could negate his enemy’s refined force while accumulating power. This meant that he could immediately launch a counterattack. Usually, in the face of this fast but steady rhythm, martial artists could exchange blows with him for around three rounds before their fighting spirit was whittled away, and they started getting exhausted. Eventually, all of them lost.

But soon, he noticed something different. Just as he was about to counterattack, a second wave of refined force charged into him.

A two-tier refined force?

Fan Mo’s expression turned indescribable. As an elite sent by United Might, he had fought against many enemies with different techniques before and witnessed such a thing.

Two-tier refined forces could help a martial artist reach a breakthrough and cause a brief lag in the enemy’s attacks during crucial moments in order to help the martial artist get a chance to launch their next attack. The essence of refined force lay in rhythm, and its goal was to attack the target at his weakest.

It was stupid to use it in such a straightforward manner.

Fan Mo adjusted his mutated tissue and withstood the attack. Then, he got ready to attack during the inevitable lag in Chen Chuan’s movements.

This was something that was bound to happen when using advanced refined forces.

But what happened next surprised him: Chen Chuan delivered another normal attack. There was no lag in his movements. The saber’s movement was smooth as it turned around to deliver another slash.

Fan Mo gave up on attacking again and brought his saber up once more to parry the attack. After dealing with a wave of refined force, he felt yet another wave of refined force, and after that, one more wave. Refined force charged into him again and again.

Fan Mo was unable to counterattack and switch between offensive and defensive refined forces. All he could do was defend and negate the refined force. However, as he faced one wave after another, he was forced to keep retreating.

Chen Chuan was using Single Flow School’s endless two-tier refined forces.

Talu was only able to chain her two-tier refined forces perpetually because she used a staff, which was its unique nature.

Meanwhile, Chen Chuan injected mental energy into his refined force, which turned it into a Heartborn Force and allowed him to chain them.

There was a special characteristic to Single Flow School’s two-tier refined force: It did not go for explosive attacks, but aimed to put pressure on the enemy through endless attacks so that they would have neither the time nor the energy to set up an offense.

Chen Chuan knew that when it came to pure saber techniques, he was weaker than truly experienced martial artists, but when it came to refined force variations, he could proudly say that he could overpower most opponents.

After being forced back repeatedly while trying to fight back, Fan Mo found himself unable to break free of Chen Chuan’s offense. His attacks were coming at him fast and in a dense wave, which gave him no time to adjust his mutated tissue.

The only way for him to get out of this passive situation was to counterattack while risking injury.

But once Heartborn Force got into the body, there was no telling what was going to happen. Unless absolutely necessary, he would rather not make that choice.

However, if things continued like this, he was bound to lose. Hence, Fan Mo made his decision. Without any hesitation, he adjusted his breathing, activated his secret technique, and got an explosive boost in power. His speed, too, increased incrementally. Wisps of faint black smoke oozed out of his skin and filled the area around him, as if he was shrouded in shadow. It made his face become fearsome, and he no longer looked as dignified as he did a moment ago.

As the attacker, Chen Chuan controlled the rhythm of the fight, and he had been paying attention to all the changes in Fan Mo’s refined force so that he could continue overpowering him. Once he noticed the change in Fan Mo’s breathing, he adapted to it without hesitation.

Almost at the same time Fan Mo gained that explosive burst in power, Chen Chuan activated the Furnace Breathing Technique. Wisps of white smoke rose from his body, and his speed as well as strength shot up so that he could continue overpowering Fan Mo.

The situation returned to what it was before.

Rapid clashes of sabers rang out in the tunnel, and echoes filled the place while spreading outward. The entire tunnel trembled, and debris fell down from the walls. Even when they landed on the ground, they kept bouncing up.

The fight lacked the usual explosive clashes between Third Limit martial artists, because most of their strength was absorbed by the other’s weapon or negated.

But Fan Mo was the one who had to bear the most pressure. He was forced back repeatedly, and with each step he took, he left behind pits that were all about the same in size. The debris at the edges of the pits flew away.

In just a few breaths, Fan Mo was forced to the very end of the long tunnel, and he left behind a long, straight trail of pits on the way.

He didn’t dare to retreat abruptly or avoid the attacks, because when he parried Chen Chuan’s attacks, he also absorbed and negated some of his strength. If he suddenly retreated, Chen Chuan would undoubtedly bring forth all his power like a torrential wave to press in, since Fan Mo’s retreat would mean that he was no longer pushing back. There was a high chance that Chen Chuan could kill him in that instant.

Fan Mo was about to be forced out of the tunnel and into a T-junction. They were maintaining a strange sort of balance at the moment, but even the slightest bit of outside disturbance could be fatal to Fan Mo.

If his back touched the wall of the T-junction, it could lead to his loss. The only way for him to get out of the situation was to gain even greater strength and speed.

Upon realizing this, Fan Mo didn’t stay idle. With great resolution, he squeezed out more power from his mutated tissue and drained his life force as well as potential.

His face turned red from his blood surging up. The muscles on his upper body swelled up, and he grabbed his saber with both hands before swinging it up at Chen Chuan.

That attack had great momentum. A shockwave exploded from the contact point between the two weapons.

Chen Chuan could sense a wave of Heartborn Force rushing into his body. This was the first time Fan Mo’s refined force bypassed the Frost King Saber to attack him.

Even so, since the Frost King Saber had an incredibly high tolerance for refined force, it was able to negate most of the attack. The Heartborn Force wasn’t strong, so it didn’t leave behind much of an effect. With barely any effort from his mutated tissue in guiding the Heartborn Force’s path, he managed to negate it.

From this exchange, Chen Chuan figured out the characteristics of Fan Mo’s Heartborn Force. It was a highly destructive, impact-type refined force that could directly penetrate a person’s tendons and bones. If the target was unable to tolerate it or was exposed to it long-term, Chen Chuan had a feeling that the target’s bones would shatter.

However, for that to happen, Fan Mo would have to fight against his opponent head-on or send most of his Heartborn Force to do its magic in his opponent’s body. If only a trace entered his opponent, the effects would be insignificant, like now. Whatever damage it did was completely undone by Chen Chuan’s recovery abilities.

Fan Mo’s explosive attack might have let him stop retreating, but he didn’t manage to counterattack. Immediately, he knew that things weren’t going according to plan and figured out that he didn’t manage to put enough pressure on Chen Chuan. Hence, while he still had this power coursing through his veins, he did something else. Bright light shone in his eyes.

He used a mental attack.

Regardless of whether he was winning or losing, the one who used a mental attack first had an upper hand. If Chen Chuan took even a millisecond too long, he wouldn’t be able to perfectly execute those smooth, endless refined force attacks anymore.

Then, Fan Mo would be able to find a breakthrough and counterattack.

Bright light shot out of Chen Chuan’s eyes as well, a sign that he was getting ready to defend against Fan Mo’s mental attack.

Even though he often used mental energy to intimidate his enemies, he seldom used it to fight against martial artists, because those who had mental energy usually paid great attention to mental defenses, and their mental gemstones wouldn’t be easily shaken. Besides, Chen Chuan would much rather use his opponents to polish his martial arts.

Of course, there was another reason for it: Some martial artists had defensive items, such as the three United Might martial artists from before. After that, Chen Chuan had brought the pig dragon Zhuan Liang had given him for this fight, since it had great defensive abilities.

Hence, when the mental attack came at him, the pig dragon blocked most of it. Only a bit of it struck Chen Chuan’s mental gemstone, so it didn’t even manage to scratch it. Chen Chuan didn’t even bother to use the Hollowed Heart Mark, which would have affected his use of refined force. Until he perfected his mind, direct attacks remained the most effective form of attack.

When Fan Mo saw that the mental attack didn’t do anything, his surging aura turned weaker, as if he had been reduced to his previous state. He was forced back again, even though he had finally been able to plant his feet firmly on the ground just a moment ago.

The pits he left behind were larger and deeper than before, which meant that his resistance toward Chen Chuan’s refined force was dropping.

Knowing that this was a consequence from using his secret technique to increase his strength, his heart sank.

He was only around ten meters away from the wall of the T-junction. If this continued, the end of the fight would soon come, and in order to avoid losing, he had to use his other secret technique. His chest puffed out, and he opened his mouth wide. As his mutated tissue trembled, he let out a thunderous shout at Chen Chuan.

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