Roadmap to the Boundless Sky-Chapter 78Book 3, : Cut The Toad

Zhao Qian turned to the man, but since he was suspended in the air, he no longer had the strength to talk. He moved his mouth, but only hoarse whimpers came out, along with blood.

The person waved his hand. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I know what you want. Don’t worry, since I’m here, regardless of whether you die or not, I’ll complete your request. Worse comes to worst, I’ll bring your corpse back.”

Chen Chuan cast the man a glance. The newcomer didn’t seem to want to stop him, and it was clear that he held no respect for his client.

Chen Chuan didn’t know what the man was planning, but since he had clearly shown his intention to fight, he wasn’t going to ignore him.

He pulled his saber back so Zhao Qian would crash on the ground, then grabbed Zhao Qian’s collar and dragged him to the car.

The person continued standing on the railing and watching with interest. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Chen Chuan tucked a foot under the double-handed longsword that had fallen on the ground and flicked it up so he could grab it. Then, he threw Zhao Qian on the trunk and drove the longsword into his chest, pinning him against it with a wet squelch.

Zhao Qian jolted, then went still.

He was far too heavily injured at this point and had lost all mobility. It was impossible for him to pull the sword out on his own, but Third Limit martial artists were so tenacious that he was still alive.

Chen Chuan returned to where he originally stood and looked at the man.

“Oh ho.” The man observed Chen Chuan as he clashed his bladed arms together. “Now that there’s no one bothering us, we can have fun. I hope you won’t disappoint me after I finally got the chance to come out. You know what I’m saying, right? It’s hard to find suitable people to fight and kill at our level.”

“How should I refer to you?” Chen Chuan trained his eyes on the man.

“Bladed Toad,” the man said. Clearly, it was just a code name, just like Phantom Form, but it obviously had more value on the platform.

Chen Chuan brought his saber up and positioned it in front of his eyes before turning his body sideways. Light reflected off the saber as he said, “Well met.”

Zhao Qian did his best to turn his head to the side to watch him. He was sure that Chen Chuan had taken medicine before the fight. While that was effective against him, who was essentially crippled, he was now facing a proper Third Limit martial artist. Once the medicine’s effects ran out, his true strength would be revealed.

Zhao Qian was sure that he could survive and make it back!

Bladed Toad spread his bladed arms and crouched down. His thigh muscles tensed and bulged, as if they wanted to rip his trousers. When they tensed to the fullest, he jumped off the railing and went for Chen Chuan even though he was more than twenty meters away.

Chen Chuan spun on his feet and swung his saber up. Bladed Toad crossed his arms, brought them down, and bent his back, forming a beautiful arc.

Clang!

His bladed arms blocked the saber, and a wave of refined force charged into the saber, along with the power from his weight and the force from the jump.

Chen Chuan immediately realized that if his saber was pinned down, Bladed Toad could push forward. Since he had his back bent, he seemed to be gathering power as well. If he succeeded, he would unleash a powerful and swift attack.

Because of this, Chen Chuan didn’t pull his saber back or even change his attack. Instead, with his powerful tendons and bones, he blocked the attack. Then, with a stomp, he tensed his core and used the power from there to help him bring his saber up.

When Bladed Toad sensed that he couldn’t channel his power forward, he used the power from Chen Chuan’s push to spring up. With a flip, he jumped over Chen Chuan’s head with a grin.

Then, he landed on the ground beside Chen Chuan on light feet. But he didn’t stand still. The moment his feet landed, he started running around Chen Chuan while dragging the bladed arms against the ground, which caused sparks to fly.

Chen Chuan had been training with Mr. Zheng and now had a general understanding of certain fighting styles, so he instantly knew that Bladed Toad was trying to find his rhythm. If Chen Chuan went along with the flow, he would end up being dragged into Bladed Toad’s rhythm.

Even though Bladed Toad would end up spending more energy than Chen Chuan by doing this, to Third Limit martial artists, this bit of expenditure was insignificant.

Mr. Zheng had told him to ignore other people’s rhythm and just fight according to his own rhythm and thoughts.

That was why he didn’t end up going along with Bladed Toad’s rhythm but stood still with his saber held with both hands above his head while he followed the changes in Bladed Toad’s breathing.

When Bladed Toad saw that Chen Chuan wasn’t moving, he focused and stopped after two more circles. Then, he charged at Chen Chuan from his rear flank.

Chen Chuan spun around to deliver a slash, only to realize something was off. He changed the trajectory of his swing to position it horizontally in front of him.

Clang!

Bladed Toad had stuck out a long, mutated tongue from his mouth. Chen Chuan blocked it less than a palm’s length away from his face.

Seizing the chance, Bladed Toad moved into the Frost King Saber’s range. Then, he crossed his bladed arms and tried to cut into Chen Chuan like they were a pair of scissors.

Chen Chuan pushed one hand up, grabbed the end section of the saber’s blade, and moved it left, then right, which allowed him to block the bladed arms in time. At the same time, he moved back.

At this point, Bladed Toad had seized the initiative. He sped up his attack rhythm while his body remained tilted forward. He stomped down on the ground twice while moving his bladed arms in front of him to continue cutting at Chen Chuan, each strike shifting at a subtle angle.

The advantage of fighting with two weapons was the ability to attack in a seamless, relentless flow but also to attack and defend at the same time. Once Bladed Toad got into Chen Chuan’s range, he attacked swiftly, fiercely, and without any pauses.

Chen Chuan focused on blocking the attacks while trying to widen the distance between them to get away from Bladed Toad and change the tides of his disadvantageous position. Their weapons clashed rapidly, and the sounds rang nonstop in the area.

Even though Bladed Toad’s offense was swift and fierce, Chen Chuan’s defense was steady and unbreakable. The results from his training with Mr. Zheng showed. No matter how troublesome Bladed Toad’s refined force was or how quickly he changed his attacks, Chen Chuan could withstand and neutralize it by switching between the two sets of mutated tissue. He was able to catch up to the changes in time.

As long as his mutated tissue were strong enough, he could make adjustments and make up for the flaws in his defense after realizing them even if he couldn’t notice certain aspects of Bladed Toad’s attacks immediately.

That wasn’t all. Since his mutated tissue covered enough of him, Chen Chuan still had some mutated tissue that was lying in wait. He kept it on standby while waiting for a suitable chance to counterattack.

For the moment, he was calmly getting a sense of Bladed Toad’s power and the way he generated his refined force. Even Third Limit martial artists had gaps between their breaths, which happened when they adjusted their mutated tissue. That transitional process was the flaw in Bladed Toad’s defense and offense.

Despite Bladed Toad’s torrent of attacks, he was unable to break through Chen Chuan’s solid defense. There were a few times when he thought that his attacks would land, but then Chen Chuan blocked them at the last second. While they continued fighting, Chen Chuan was also widening the distance between them bit by bit.

While Bladed Toad was surprised by how resilient Chen Chuan was, he also became more excited. After forcing Chen Chuan to use his full strength to parry his fierce offense, Bladed Toad sucked in a deep breath. His heart pumped fiercely to send blood all over his body to give him even more power and speed.

Chen Chuan immediately sensed that he was gathering power.

Now’s my chance!

He activated the mutated tissue that he had kept on standby. Once he parried a bladed arm, he performed a diagonal slash that swiftly cut into the gap between Bladed Toad’s bladed arms.

One of Bladed Toad’s bladed arms was knocked aside. Even though his other bladed arm was swinging toward Chen Chuan, the saber moved faster to cut Bladed Toad before the man could stab Chen Chuan’s torso.

Bladed Toad was shocked. Chen Chuan’s sudden fierce offense disrupted his rhythm, because Chen Chuan had launched his attack at the moment he was adjusting his mutated tissue and gathering power.

He had thought that he had figured out Chen Chuan’s strength during the swift offense just now, so nothing could go wrong, but lo and behold, it did.

This was no different from someone being told to retrieve all the water he had just thrown out when the water was already about to hit the ground. It made him really upset, but he could only force his mutated tissue to shift to defense. Yet aside from hurting him, that move also disrupted his originally smooth movements.

Chen Chuan saw his body and limbs twisting in an unnatural manner, which was all too familiar to him. After all, he had done this before, since he hadn’t been worried about getting hurt due to his solid foundation and his second self. During crucial moments, he would spare no effort.

But Bladed Toad didn’t have a second self, which led to his breathing and the activation of his mutated tissue to be thrown into chaos.

Chen Chuan quickly delivered his second slash, though it wasn’t with the goal of hurting Bladed Toad, but to reinforce his advantage. At the same time, he adjusted his breathing and mutated tissue.

When he delivered his third slash, Chen Chuan activated all his mutated tissue and set his own rhythm, but that wasn’t enough. He had to kill Bladed Toad in one shot and not give him the time to recover, or they would end up in another stalemate.

A stalemate was bad for Chen Chuan, because at the end of the day, Bladed Toad had more experience and was more skilled than he was. He had to win with this offense.

Hence, Chen Chuan removed all restraints on his mutated tissue, letting all sorts of emotions surge through him while he kept them under control and turned all that energy into greater power and speed.

At this point, Bladed Toad finally realized that something was going wrong, because Chen Chuan’s attack rhythm and strength had just shot to a whole other level.

Chen Chuan didn’t need any additional shifts in his refined force for his swift and powerful offense. With just a few simple slashes, he forced Bladed Toad into using all his power to block, and in just eight slashes, Bladed Toad could sense that his mutated tissue was unable to keep up and couldn’t neutralize Chen Chuan’s attacks in time.

If this continued, Bladed Toad would die, so he immediately moved to save himself. While his upper body remained in place, he manipulated the mutated tissue in his legs to curl his toes up while pushing his heels down. With a blast of power, he jumped back to leave Chen Chuan’s attack range.

The moment he was outside, he could launch his offense again.

The moment he jumped, Chen Chuan’s breathing turned hot. He took a step forward and turned into a blur as he performed a downward slash.

The saber flashed as it cut through Bladed Toad.

The man stopped fighting.

Since he was wearing indigo goggles, Chen Chuan couldn’t see his eyes clearly, only his own reflection. A moment passed, and a crack appeared on the goggles. The shattered glasses fell down and landed on the ground.

Starting from the center of the brow, a red, bloody line stretched down to the man’s torso, and crimson blood started spilling out of his body, making the line wider. Even though he didn’t look as if he was terribly injured, his brain had been cut in half.

Bladed Toad fell to one knee before toppling forward and crashing so hard on the ground that a cloud of dust rose.

Chen Chuan flipped his wrist around and flung his saber. As he looked at Bladed Toad, he apologized to him, “Sorry, you were too strong, so I couldn’t hold back.”

After a twitch, Bladed Toad stopped moving.