Book 3, Chapter 166: Cut Down The Immaterial

Chen Chuan’s footsteps were clear in the underground passage. Every time he took a step, the sound echoed off the walls. His gait was steady and rhythmic.

However, once he drew closer to Meng Huang, his second self started blurring out badly, and his condition grew worse with every step.

Aunt Yu followed Chen Chuan. At this point, she put on sharp finger armor. A few paces later, she sensed something and brought her wrist up. The edges of the bracelet she wore were turning black, and she touched her earring as well, only to find it hot.

At most five minutes… she concluded.

She then looked at the jade bracelet Chen Chuan wore, along with the accessory hanging at his waist. The Resolution Department had given him much better accessories than she had. Even so, their uses were limited and wouldn’t last more than seven minutes.

Sternly, she gave Chen Chuan a warning. “Officer Chen, be careful of corruption.”

Chen Chuan took a look at his bracelet and nodded.

The Resolution Department had mentioned that the longer they were exposed to existences from the other world, the more likely they were to be affected. Aside from mind being assaulted, their mutated tissue might also change in ways they couldn’t control. That was the corruption Aunt Yu mentioned.

The bracelet and accessory could keep his mutated tissue safe for a period of time. Once they lost their effects, he would need to use his blood essence to suppress the corruption and use the mental foundation he had built up to fend off the pressure on his mind.

That was why only Third Limit martial artists could fight against these existences. Normal martial artists were not even able to get close to them.

Chen Chuan tapped on his Realm Pass and tried to contact the people outside, but it was difficult, even if he had a boosted signal. Judging by the situation, he would need at least a few minutes to finish sending his message.

But he couldn’t wait. He didn’t know why Meng Huang was here, but it might have to do with his continued existence and perseverance of strength, so Chen Chuan couldn’t let him get what he wanted.

With his eyes fixed on the squirming body at the door, Chen Chuan continued moving forward, then lowered the center of his gravity and lunged forward. He lifted the saber and swung it down once he was close.

It should have been impossible for him to miss such a huge being, but Chen Chuan felt as if his saber had hit the air. The otherworldly existence spread out like smoke where his blade passed. He didn’t feel like he had cut into anything or dealt any damage to Meng Huang.

With a light tap, he landed. Meng Huang’s shadow moved, and the shadowy limb on the ceiling came charging down at Chen Chuan.

He jumped to the side and avoided it, but the limb kept chasing after him. Chen Chuan swung his saber against it, only to encounter the same thing as before. Once more he cut into smoke.

Even so, that didn’t mean that Chen Chuan wanted to be struck by the shadowy limb. He retreated some distance away, and the shadowy limb returned to Meng Huang.

Chen Chuan looked up. Meng Huang had been bound by the ritual in the study, which had prevented him from bringing out his true strength. Now that he had broken free, he was able to transform his body to the immaterial state. It allowed him to phase through the floor and negate Chen Chuan’s attacks.

Based on the information the Resolution Department had provided, the existences from the other world were all different. Once they came to their world, though, martial artists with a sufficient amount of mutated tissue were usually able to touch them with physical attacks.

However, some of the existences were special cases, and they could only be hurt after a mental connection was formed between the martial artist and the existence. While they might not be stronger than the other existences, taking them down was significantly more troublesome and difficult.

Meng Huang might be one of those special existences.

If that’s the case…

Chen Chuan shut his eyes, and the center of his brow twitched. The next moment, a red mark appeared at the center of his brow.

After shutting out his normal senses and using solely his mental perception to get a read of Meng Huang, he found an indescribably large creature in front of him. Its body, along with the shadows on the ground and walls, covered the entire space. Some of the shadows were even squirming and slithering not too far from Chen Chuan.

The shadows spread outward were like tentacles moving about the space. They surrounded Chen Chuan, and some of them even brushed past his cheeks.

Whenever they drew close and touched him, the bracelet turned duller.

Chen Chuan shut his eyes and brought the saber up. Then, he spun around on his feet, and this time, his saber cut through plenty of sturdy objects.

All the tentacles within a radius of almost three meters around him fell like harvested wheat before dissolving like smoke.

At the same time, Chen Chuan sensed something and cast a glance at the Frost King Saber.

He seemed to have dragged out something from the existence that had attached itself to Meng Huang, and his saber had absorbed it.

The thing that had been lying dormant in the Frost King Saber was really excited about it, and it was screaming that it wanted more.

Chen Chuan ignored what it was for the time being. As long as it could help him cut down the tentacles, it was all good. He repositioned the saber and cut down a large amount of tentacles trying to surround him again. As he did, he took steady steps forward and cut down the tentacles like they were nothing. Slowly, he drew closer to Meng Huang.

Aunt Yu had rushed forward to help as well. She also noticed that she couldn’t attack Meng Huang’s visible body, but while she didn’t have Chen Chuan’s unique mental perception, she was able to do something similar to Chen Chuan by draining the foundation of her mind to reach a mental transcendence.

But she wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, so she was careful. She avoided the blurry tentacles whenever she could. When she couldn’t, she shoved them off or cut them down with her finger armor. It wasn’t very efficient, but she still helped lessen some of Chen Chuan’s burden.

Both of them swiftly approached their target. Meng Huang seemed to have sensed danger, and the thick limb he had retracted to his side came flying at them.

Aunt Yu lunged forward, formed a circle with her arms, and flung her arms outward.

Bam!

She managed to block the attack and created space for Chen Chuan to continue onward.

Chen Chuan didn’t miss it and rushed forward. A limb came charging down from above, but it only managed to strike the space behind him.

A saber flash cut through more than ten meters and struck Meng Huang’s gigantic body.

A long, deep gash appeared on him, and from it, plumes of black fog and crumbled bits of things drifted out.

Meng Huang, or rather, the existence in him, spasmed.

In the beginning, it had focused solely on breaking down the door. It likely believed that it could withstand quite a lot of damage, which was why it had only tried to chase Chen Chuan and Aunt Yu away.

But Chen Chuan’s attack seemed to have severely injured it, so it could no longer tolerate Chen Chuan.

Bulges appeared on its body. After they exploded, more limbs shot out. They swung wildly in the air for a moment before charging at Chen Chuan and Aunt Yu.

Aunt Yu immediately fell back with nimble footsteps. As she did, she smacked off two limbs that tried to attack her from the sides.

When she touched them, the impact was so strong that her arms went numb. The limbs had become much stronger than before. Her bracelet had also become much darker, which shocked her.

She took a moment to check on Chen Chuan, but she wasn’t able to see anything. The moving limbs obscured her vision.

Chen Chuan kept his eyes trained above. Some limbs were coming at him from the ceiling. When one of them was about to touch him, he quickly turned to the side and avoided it. Then, he leapt back and avoided the limb coming at him from the side. With a tap against the ground, he charged forward and swiftly moved through the gap between the limbs.

At the same time, he swung his saber, leaving behind deep gashes on the limbs. Black smoke came from the cuts, and thin, long tentacles were left on the ground.

Another limb tried to sneakily creep up on him, but with a flash of the saber, Chen Chuan cut it down. He didn’t stop moving and quickly left the spot. The next moment, several limbs struck the spot where he once stood, and a huge pit was left there.

Chen Chuan moved through the gaps between the entwining limbs. Sometimes, he used his saber to cut them down and clear out a path. He kept moving constantly, but he wasn’t just avoiding them. He was also calmly observing the situation.

He noticed that while the limbs had increased in number, size, and strength, they had slowed down.

According to the information, while Meng Huang might have gained some unbelievable power by forming a symbiotic relationship with an existence from the other world, as long as he remained in the physical world, he was bound by its limits. Some of the limits were also imposed by Meng Huang’s physical body.

If Meng Huang was just a normal person without any special items giving him a boost in power, he could, at most, bring out power equivalent to Third Limit martial artists, which was the limit that all mortal beings could reach.

He could gain more power, but only if the existence from the other world didn’t care about the body it had attached itself to. But once it did that, the physical body would collapse, and it wouldn’t be able to continue existing here.

Of course, even if Meng Huang only had the power of a Third Limit martial artist right now, the difference in size between him and Chen Chuan led to a huge disparity in strength. Meng Huang currently stood at around seven meters tall and displayed incredible strength.

But Chen Chuan had his second self, which could withstand a certain degree of damage. He also had an advantage over Meng Huang in terms of speed. As long as Meng Huang’s attacks weren’t outside the realm of logic, Chen Chuan could cut him down and kill him.

Just then, he heard a beep from his Realm Pass. He had finally sent the message he wrote some time ago. If everything went smoothly, the Resolution Department officers would arrive soon.

But since Meng Huang had chosen to come, he might have set up some traps, so Chen Chuan didn’t put all his hope on backup.

He cast a glance at his bracelet. Half of it had turned black. The limbs and tentacles had also almost filled up the entire space. Chen Chuan tightened his grip around the saber, just as his skin started heating up. Wisps of white smoke rose from him.

It wasn’t as if he couldn’t take care of the current situation on his own, anyway.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep