Book 3, Chapter 91: Feint

A ring of dust rolled outward from the broken wall. Then, the sound of nonstop clashes shifted to a new location, but they only stayed there for a moment before moving to another place.

Guo Xingzhi and Liang Xin did their best to tell what was going on, but even without the cloud of dust in front of them, they would have been unable to tell what Jiang Tian and Chen Chuan were doing. They could only guess the intensity of the fight based on the sounds they heard, and they were shocked. Was Chen Chuan really just a student like them?

For a moment, they wondered whether they had skipped a few lessons.

Through the contact just now, Chen Chuan realized that he couldn’t let Jiang Tian unleash his offense anymore. The lecturer seemed to be getting faster as he continued attacking.

After finally being able to interrupt his rhythm once through the stone wall, Chen Chuan wasn’t about to give up on the chance to fight back. He had to restrain Jiang Tian’s movements in a head-on clash, or at the very least, stop him from exercising his advantage.

This time, when he charged forward, Chen Chuan let go of the restraints over his mutated tissue. His speed and strength increased even further. In an instant, he blocked Jiang Tian’s thrust and launched a counterattack.

The ensuing clash was like two tidal waves crashing against each other. Dust clouds swirled around, holes were left all over the ground, and shattered stones flew everywhere. Since they were moving really quickly, the spectators could see gashes left behind in the dust clouds.

Upon noticing the change in Chen Chuan’s movements, Jiang Tian immediately knew that he had used some sort of power-boosting technique. With it, he could make use of the medicine’s effects even more efficiently.

He also noticed that Chen Chuan’s attacks were no longer as cautious and restrained as before. Instead, they were getting more extreme, and he was getting faster as well, as if he wanted to put a stop to Jiang Tian’s offense.

Oh? He noticed so soon? It’s no wonder his battle tactics are rated as outstanding…

Since his senses had almost reached the Third Limit, Chen Chuan noticed through Jiang Tian’s breathing rhythm and movement trajectory that when he moved, he wasn’t just doing it to make it hard for Chen Chuan to figure out where he was. It was also his way of generating power.

The rhythmic movements were required to activate his refined force and bring out his rapier’s full power.

When Jiang Tian attacked him before the fight had even officially started, he did it for a reason—to make Chen Chuan believe that even his random attack contained great power. But in truth, that attack contained accumulated power generated from the short distance he had covered while moving over. He had just masked it by making it seem like he was just strolling over to Chen Chuan.

This was a tactical deceit that forced him to fight defensively, and that was exactly what Jiang Tian wanted to see.

Mr. Zheng had once told Chen Chuan that he had to lead his opponent’s movements and control them instead of the other way around. Meanwhile, Jiang Tian had led his movements and controlled him from the beginning of their fight.

After realizing this, Chen Chuan needed to prevent Jiang Tian from accumulating power through his movements, so he seized the chance and attacked as a way to defend himself. He stuck close to Jiang Tian to disrupt his rhythm. This limited the amount of power Jiang Tian could use for his attacks.

Of course, that wasn’t to say that Jiang Tian became harmless after his movements were limited. They just became weaker. The turning of tides allowed Chen Chuan to continue building upon his advantage as he attacked and stack up his strength and speed.

The teaching assistant, who kept a close eye on the fight, was flabbergasted, since he hadn’t expected Chen Chuan to actually be able to fight against Jiang Tian. If that was not enough, he was also able to find the correct strategy to counterattack. But he believed that this was all Chen Chuan could do, because the medicine’s effects would run out eventually. At best, he could fight against Jiang Tian for another five minutes.

Any longer, and his body would collapse, since he was just a Second Limit martial artist. He was bound to be unable to win the fight. The teaching assistant was just worried that Chen Chuan would refuse to admit defeat and keep pushing himself, which would be dangerous.

Hence, he was ready to intervene and save Chen Chuan the moment he saw things going south.

Jiang Tian brandished his rapier as he easily blocked Chen Chuan’s attacks. The student had found the correct method to fight against him. He kept interrupting his movements and blocking him from moving where he wanted, causing him to be unable to increase the momentum of his attacks.

But this wasn’t enough.

Jiang Tian wasn’t able to accumulate power only by moving his feet. Swinging his weapon around also let him accumulate power. Even though Chen Chuan’s refined force gave him some trouble and made him unable to chain attacks and swiftly accumulate power, all it did was slow him down. The end result was not going to change.

As Chen Chuan continued with his offense, he got into the zone. His senses grew more sensitive, allowing him to notice Jiang Tian’s breath settling down and his strength becoming restrained and stable. It felt like he was a bowstring being strung.

This meant that even in this fast-paced fight, Chen Chuan was unable to stop Jiang Tian from accumulating power. Still, this wasn’t the end of Chen Chuan’s strategy.

He didn’t let Jiang Tian continue accumulating power. Suddenly, he activated the portion of mutated tissue he had set aside until now. The abrupt burst of power let him swing his saber down with a flash.

This attack was so much faster than those before it that it caught Jiang Tian off guard, since he had thought that he’d figured out the speed at which Chen Chuan switched between the two batches of mutated tissue.

With outstanding coordination, however, Jiang Tian twirled his rapier and blocked the attack. All the energy he had accumulated fell apart, though, since this parry wasn’t part of his rhythm.

Because of it, Jiang Tian increased the mark for this particular attack. Also, after Chen Chuan increased his speed, his subsequent attacks were all at the new speed. At this point, Jiang Tian couldn’t let Chen Chuan continue running wild. So, with a slight adjustment, he seized a gap in his attacks and thrust forward at his shoulder to stop his offense.

But Chen Chuan ignored it and swung his saber at Jiang Tian again. This slash seemed completely unreasonable. After all, Chen Chuan had the upper hand in terms of the momentum, and even if he blocked the thrust, it wouldn’t disrupt his rhythm too much. If he didn’t, though, they might both end up injured, and Chen Chuan would lose his advantage.

Yet Chen Chuan didn’t think so, because Jiang Tian hadn’t accumulated any power. If he didn’t overlap with his second self and they ended up hitting each other, Chen Chuan was going to get hurt, sure, but Jiang Tian would get injured worse.

While Third Limit martial artists were tenacious and Jiang Tian would recover in no time, getting cut by a student and ending the fight with both parties wounded was something no lecturer would be able to accept.

Chen Chuan was right. Jiang Tian was absolutely not going to let that happen. This wasn’t a joke. He was an examiner here. If an examinee injured him, he would end up humiliated.

Even if he ended up unscathed but hurt an examinee, the other lecturers would still laugh at him until kingdom come, so he was forced to pull his rapier back and parry the attack instead.

This switch not only interrupted his accumulation of power again, but also further limited the range at which he could use his weapon.

At this point, Jiang Tian was forced into defense. Even though Chen Chuan seemed to have taken advantage of his weaknesses, Jiang Tian didn’t feel annoyed by it. Instead, he was even more impressed.

After all, martial artists should make use of everything beneficial to them. Since Chen Chuan had noticed that something was holding him back, it was only right for him to attack this weakness of his repeatedly and fiercely.

Jiang Tian would do the same in his shoes.

Still, being impressed was one thing. There was no point in continuing the fight like this.

It wasn’t as if Jiang Tian didn’t have his own power-boosting technique, but if he had to use it against an examinee, it would be embarrassing. Of course, he could wait until the medicine’s effects wore out, but that, too, would be embarrassing if word about it got out. Everyone would then say that Jiang Tian would have lost if the medicine’s effects didn’t run out.

That wouldn’t do.

He began shifting around the area and changing the direction of his movements while using the stone pillars to interrupt Chen Chuan’s offense, but the youth stuck to him like glue and kept up with his actions.

Wherever they passed, large stone pillars collapsed, and the stone forest became a steaming pot as dust kept shooting up. Chaotic noise filled the area.

After around ten breaths, they arrived at a tilted pillar. When Jiang Tian slid down beneath it, he swung his arm up.

Chen Chuan was about to follow him when a section of the broken pillar collapsed.

Jiang Tian had prepared for this beforehand. He wasn’t hoping to stop Chen Chuan with this, but if it could slow him down for even a moment, that would be enough. The moment he shook Chen Chuan off, he would have a chance to counterattack. Then, he could announce the end of the fight while retaining his dignity and pride.

Chen Chuan also realized this, but he didn’t want to give up. With his eyes fixed on the pillar that was about to become an obstacle, he ordered his second self to overlap with him, and with a loud bang, he crashed through the shattered stones. At the same time, he thrust his saber at Jiang Tian’s chest.

Upon seeing Chen Chuan becoming even faster, Jiang Tian was shocked. His skin turned red for a brief second as he sped up his retreat and moved his wrist slightly. His rapier charged forward like a snake and wound around the Frost King Saber. When Jiang Tian was dozens of meters away from the broken pillar, the two of them finally stopped.

Jiang Tian chuckled and said, “That’s the end of the exam. Not bad. I’ll give you a high mark.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jiang,” Chen Chuan said while watching him. Gradually, he let his refined force fade away. The rapier around the Frost King Saber also unwound itself before returning to its original straight shape.

Finally, the teaching assistant’s heart settled down. The final exchange had looked incredibly dangerous, and he had almost been unable to resist the urge to step in and stop the fight. Fortunately, the two knew how to restrain themselves. Still, he glared at Jiang Tian. As a lecturer, he had absolutely no moderation. Why was he fooling around with a student?!

“You can end the hologram now,” Jiang Tian declared.

The scenery around them immediately vanished. The collapsed stone pillars and dust covering every inch of the stone forest disappeared. All that remained was the empty examination hall. The custom-made floorboards were so clean and shiny that they could see their reflections on them.

Chen Chuan walked over and picked up his sheath and returned the saber into it. Then, he said to Jiang Tian and the teaching assistant, “I’ll be taking my leave now, Sirs.”

He then gave Liang Xin and Guo Xingzhi a nod before leaving.

Mr. Jiang touched his lapel while watching him leave. There was a barely noticeable tear the size of a needle hole in it. The saber tip had actually touched his skin, so if they were in a real fight, Chen Chuan could have delivered a wave of refined force into him. If that had happened, things might have ended up completely different.

Still, Jiang Tian had a Hold Breaking Force that could do more than just disarm his opponent. If he put enough explosive power into the attack, he could even break his opponent’s weapon. It would also interrupt the transfer of refined force, but if he had done that, he would have ended up as a laughingstock.

The students are getting better and better, he thought.

The next moment, the teaching assistant said, “Why are you two standing there daydreaming? Liang Xin, it’s time for your retry.”

And I take back my words, Jiang Tian thought.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep