Chapter 1695 (Raw 1707):
With a saber in hand, Xiao Chen's offensive immediately became fiercer.
Holding the saber upraised, Xiao Chen did not try to dodge or hide. He directly chopped down at the opening at the left ribs of the Profound Light Temple's Yan Feng.
There was nothing special with this move. It just brought out the limits of his speed. It was so fast that the crowd only saw a mottled afterimage, as fast as lightning. First, there was a flash of electric light. Then, there was thunder.
This made everyone ponder what Xiao Chen just said. First, there was the saber god; then, the godly saber. The important thing was not a godly saber but the person holding the saber. The analogy of the saber god initially made them scoff. However, now, they no longer dared to underestimate Xiao Chen.
This was just an ordinary move, but it widened everyone's horizons, causing them to exclaim in startlement.
When Yan Feng faced Xiao Chen's casual saber strike, hesitation appeared in his heart.
Yan Feng had shown these openings on purpose. His defense was riddled with them. However, he did not care before now.
Indestructible Iron Body made Yan Feng's physical body incredibly strong, suppressing Xiao Chen's physical body. Yan Feng did not feel any pressure when clashing head-on with Xiao Chen's fist lights. It was as he said: they did not pose a problem for him.
However, right now, Yan Feng did not feel confident at all when facing this saber strike.
"Open!" Yan Feng shouted explosively, and resplendent golden scriptures surged out from every inch of his skin. His Buddhist Might strengthened tremendously, and his Indestructible Iron Body improved further. Now, it looked like it truly was the Iron Arhat Body.
Xiao Chen smiled coldly. Everything went exactly as he expected. Suddenly, he pulled up his saber, swinging it at lightning-speed and interrupting the downward chop abruptly.
The saber move changed unexpectedly yet very smoothly, an extremely skillful execution.
As Xiao Chen's saber rose, it turned into an endless surge of rolling water. The saber light spread in all directions, looking like a wild surf on a river with whitecaps breaking over waves.
Xiao Chen perfectly merged firmness and ferocity into an uninterrupted chain. The might of this saber strike appeared boundlessly tyrannical.
Even those unfamiliar with the saber could make out how extraordinary this strike was, completely indescribable.
"Excellent!" many people cried out in unison. There was practically no one that could send out such a saber strike here.
Yan Feng's face immediately sank. As the target of Xiao Chen's saber move, he felt its excellence even more deeply. It was like suddenly meeting lightning in a desolate plain, then having the scene suddenly change to that of the vast sea, facing countless towering waves layered over each other for thousands of kilometers, all moving towards him.
Yan Feng became like a small boat; as he looked around, he found nothing that could help him.
Retreat!
In the time it took for a spark to fly, Yan Feng decisively chose to retreat. His instincts told him that despite activating the Buddhist scriptures on his skin, he could not let this saber strike land on him. The result would be unpredictable.
Yan Feng took only one step back. With this one step, he formed hand seals with both hands, and Buddhist sect holy flowers started blooming at his fingers. An iridescent glow appeared in the air, giving off a warm Buddhist light.
This light turned supple, tough, and viscous, trying to move Xiao Chen's saber, attempting to change the trajectory slightly to deflect it away from Yan Feng's openings. With that, he was confident of blocking Xiao Chen's saber and turning the situation around in an instant.
Change!
Xiao Chen laughed out loud, and his saber move changed again. The endless surging waves that he materialized receded quickly, without even a single drop of water leaking out.
It was another perfect change in moves. The shift even made the people watching forget to praise it. It was indescribably wondrous.
"Breaking Vast Armies!"
Suddenly, heavy thuds resounded, making everyone's heart beat faster as if their heart would leap out of their chest. They felt like they were in a bloody desert with thousands of soldiers there as Xiao Chen swung his saber down.
It was like Xiao Chen wanted to hack apart the vast army with one saber strike, sweeping away the boundless dust.
"Breaking Stars!"
Xiao Chen changed the saber move again. Just as the saber light was about to strike, he withdrew the tip of the saber, and all of the momentum from Breaking Vast Armies accumulated at the tip of the saber.
Now, starlight fell from the sky, and the tip of the saber turned boundlessly resplendent, radiating a light that was even more dazzling than the stars, and flashing like a bright star in the universe.
When Xiao Chen withdrew the saber, it was like he could shake up the clouds for five thousand kilometers around and destroy the stars in the universe.
This greatly startled Yan Feng. Due to Xiao Chen changing moves, he suddenly could no longer keep up. In other words, Xiao Chen used his astonishing talent for the Saber Dao to seize the initiative in one move.
"Breaking the World!"
Breaking Vast Armies, Breaking Stars, and Breaking the World!
After layering two moves and not launching them, Xiao Chen used the time when Yan Feng was startled to shift to Breaking the World as he chopped down.
As the saber descended, it was like a lone knight riding a horse and couching a lance. As the horse galloped, it brought along a huge momentum that could sweep up the world.
This move pointed straight at Yan Feng's initial opening.
"I admit defeat!" Yan Feng yelled suddenly as he gave up on resistance in shock.
"Buzz!"
When the saber that was sweeping through the world was only two centimeters away from Yan Feng's opening, it stopped. The saber buzzed endlessly, and the saber intent that Xiao Chen gave off spread out in all directions.
"I…" Yan Feng tried to say something as his heart pounded heavily.
"Pa!"
Xiao Chen raised his saber and struck Yan Feng's face with the flat of the blade, sending him flying. When Yan Feng landed, he bounced off into the distance.
On the path ascending Buddha Seeking Mountain, countless people—both in the open and hidden—saw this scene.
Who could have expected that a Profound Light Temple true inheritor would end up like that after facing Xiao Chen?
Everyone saw the battle very clearly. After witnessing Yan Feng admit defeat, anyone with just the slightest bit of intelligence understood what had happened.
Yan Feng could survive only by admitting defeat.
After Xiao Chen attacked with the saber and kept changing moves, he had turned the opening that Yan Feng had disregarded into a fatal one.
This was a fatal opening that Xiao Chen had forcibly opened using his consummate and excellent skills with the saber. If this attack landed, Yan Feng would definitely have been crippled at the least.
Although everyone could tell that Yan Feng left so many openings due to his carelessness, they knew that even if he had not been careless, losing to Xiao Chen would have been just a matter of time.
The reason was none other than Xiao Chen's skills with the saber, which were simply too incredible, reaching perfection.
"Damn! Could he be that person?!"
"Which person?!"
"That mysterious expert that the rumors, which reached every sect, spoke of. It was said that a bladesman defeated the strongest core disciple of the Black Cave Mountain's Divine Firmament Sect in one move right before Shangguan Lei!"
"Then, it really is possible. He happens to come from the Purple Flame Sect, his skills with the saber are astonishing, and everyone is not familiar with him, either. With so many coincidences, this must be true."
Immediately, startled cries rang out. This was the person who had angered Shangguan Lei to the point of trembling but not daring to attack, the idol in everyone's hearts.
Unexpectedly, they met this person in such a place.
"It's you…"
When Yan Feng heard what everyone said as he lay on the ground, he revealed an expression of understanding.
Yan Feng had also heard about the mysterious bladesman of the Black Cave Mountain. However, he had not given the rumor credence. He was very clear on what Shangguan Lei was like. Hence, he did not believe that Shangguan Lei would not dare to make a move on a nameless nobody.
There had to have been some other hidden reasons. However, having fought with Xiao Chen, Yan Feng now somewhat believed it.
The white-clad bladesman before Yan Feng might have some trump cards that could make Shangguan Lei afraid.
"It is not that I was soft and benevolent with that saber strike. The Venerable Xuan Bei once saved me. So, I will not kill the people of the Profound Light Temple. However, if you provoke me over and over again, don't blame me for being merciless."
Xiao Chen snorted coldly as he looked at Yan Feng. He did not say too much. He had always been decisive in killing, and this Yan Feng already touched his bottom line.
If it were another person, even if that person begged for mercy, Xiao Chen would have completed that saber strike.
However, since this was a person from the Profound Light Temple and he had chosen to admit defeat, Xiao Chen spared his life.
Even so, Xiao Chen would give this person only one chance. If there was a second time, he would not be so lenient.
After a while, Yang Qing looked at Xiao Chen with a strange expression. No matter what, she had not expected him to be the one who had attacked the Divine Firmament Sect disciples, becoming a legend to the many inner sect disciples in the Purple Flame Sect.
Originally, she thought that Xiao Chen had become the servant of a true inheritor.
As Yang Qing was not that familiar with Xiao Chen, she had not thought that he was the mysterious bladesman who had faced Shangguan Lei.
Yang Qing looked at Xiao Chen and said in a low voice, "Young Master Xiao, you really hid yourself deeply."
Xiao Chen smiled helplessly. "I have never hidden anything from you. I already said from the start that I was there to find my senior brother. However, you did not believe me. Nevertheless, my senior brother is indeed Senior Ye Zifeng. He has the authority to get a spot for me."
After saying that, Xiao Chen paused for a moment before continuing, "You, on the other hand, have been hiding yourself very deeply. Even until now, I still have not completely seen through you."
Yang Qing showed a slightly startled expression, somewhat surprised at his rejoinder.
Xiao Chen smiled and said, "While we were on the ship, I was already paying attention to you. At that time, I thought that I had already seen through your strength. Only now did I discover that I had not, not ever.
"However, what does it matter? I only need to recall that you acted righteously without care for the consequences of trying to shield me. That is enough."