Chapter 1094: Spectral Elder

Suddenly, an extremely thin spike appeared behind Jian Chen. It stabbed at the back of Jian Chen’s head with lightning speed and utter silence, wanting to wipe out his soul in a single stroke.

The spike had appeared suddenly, without any prior signs. Even as it shot out, it was completely silent, not radiating with any energy. It was extremely fast, enough to rival Jian Chen’s sword.

Jian Chen’s eyes suddenly narrowed. Although he failed to notice the killing strike from behind him, he could sense everything since he had expanded his presence. Using the Illusory Flash, he left a blur where he was standing before and appeared three meters away. The Emperor Armament in his hand cut through space as it stabbed at the spike.

The black spike passed through Jian Chen’s afterimage before returning with unbelievable speed. It collided with the Emperor Armament.

With a boom, the Emperor Armament struck the tip of the spike. A terrifying energy erupted, wreaking havoc in the surroundings, causing the area to violently tremble.

Jian Chen took a few steps back from the great force. A silver-clothed figure could vaguely be seen that quickly retreated. The figure seemed to be fused with the surroundings, becoming extremely faint to the point where it was barely visible. The next moment, the figure suddenly vanished, disappearing completely.

Jian Chen finally became rather stern. He knew he had come across a true expert now. To be able to match his Emperor Armament, not only did his opponent reach the Seventh Heavenly Layer of Saint King, his opponent also possessed an extremely profound concealing technique. He could fuse with the surroundings, and even Jian Chen’s presence was not enough to sense where he was.

“What a great concealing technique!” Jian Chen could not help but praise. Many people knew techniques where they could hide themselves from others. Those were only small tricks, but these small tricks could not escape the senses of Jian Chen’s presence. However, the assassin’s concealing technique was able to hide from Jian Chen’s presence in such a way that Jian Chen could not find him.

“You must be the previous Yama of the Yama Hall,” Jian Chen emotionlessly said. He fully expanded his presence and paid attention to everything, keeping his guard against the life-threatening attack that the hidden assassin could deal at any moment.

“I am the Spectral Elder of the Yama Hall, not the former Yama. Captain Jian Chen, since you want to devastate the Yama Hall, I can only lay my hands on you,” an old voice rang out from the empty space, making it impossible to pinpoint where the speaker was.

Jian Chen slightly frowned. His presence had already enveloped the entire Dragon’s Domain, but he failed to find where the person was hiding.

“Jian Chen, this person’s concealing technique has already reached a state of absolute mastery while my grasp over the Dragon’s Domain has yet to reach perfection. It is unable to limit his movements, and I can’t find where he’s hiding,” Rui Jin said to Jian Chen through a communication technique.

Jian Chen chuckled at the sky, “Finally an opponent equal to me. Spectral Elder, so what if your concealing technique has reached a level of perfection? You still can’t make sneak attacks on me. Senior Rui Jin, senior Hei Yu, and senior Hong Lian, leave this person to me.”

“Hmph, you’re too confident, Jian Chen. You’ll die for sure today. Unless I am facing is a Ninth Heavenly Layer Saint King, no one can survive my assassination skills,” the Spectral Elder’s voice rang out once more, but it was still impossible to find where he was.

Suddenly, the black spike appeared behind Jian Chen again. It shot toward Jian Chen silently and by following the trajectory of the spike, an extremely vague figure could be seen. It seemed like a cloud of smoke.

A sharp gleam of light flickered through Jian Chen’s eyes. He wanted to stab the Emperor Armament back and engage in a battle with the Spectral Elder, but the Spectral Elder did not bother to tangle with him too much. He hid in the empty space once more where Jian Chen lost track of him.

With a cold face, Jian Chen constantly stabbed at the empty space before him. He created a dense net of blurs that enveloped the space in front of him as he tried to force the Spectral Elder out of hiding.

However, the black spike appeared once more at this moment on Jian Chen’s left side. The spike fused with the surrounding space, arriving near Jian Chen in an instance. It easily pierced through Jian Chen’s body, puncturing his left shoulder. It traveled all the way to his left shoulder bone.

Jian Chen roared as the Chaotic Force within him surged. All of it gathered in his left shoulder and by enduring the heart-stabbing pain, he used the bone to stop the spike from advancing as he swiftly attacked the Spectral Elder with the Emperor Armament, which was filled with an aura of destruction.

The Spectral Elder coldly snorted as Saint Force surged out of the spike, shattering Jian Chen’s left shoulder bone. He removed the spike and then quickly retreated, wanting to hide in empty space again.

Unfortunately, Jian Chen did not give him that chance. The instant the Spectral Elder hid in empty space again, the Emperor Armament passed under his arm, leaving behind a wound. A sliver of Chaotic Force entered the wound from the Emperor Armament, quickly destroying the Spectral Elder’s flesh and blood.

Although he was powerful, his body was nowhere near as tough as Jian Chen’s body. He was unable to withstand the Chaotic Force as the intense pain from the Chaotic Force caused him to involuntarily grunt. Afterward, his body completely disappeared in empty space without leaving behind a single drop of blood.

Jian Chen snickered. He had a wondrous connection with Chaotic Force. Even though the Spectral Elder had hidden in empty space, Jian Chen could find where he was through the sliver of Chaotic Force that had entered his body.

“Spectral Elder, I’d like to see where you run off to now!” Jian Chen took a single step and traversed thousands of meters. The Emperor Armament stabbed at empty air.

Ding!

The Spectral Elder blocked Jian Chen’s Emperor Armament with the Saint Weapon in his hand. He could no longer remain hidden in space, finally appearing before Jian Chen.

He was a bald, old man, skinning and small. He wore a silver robe made out of some unknown material, which was tightly wrapped around him.

The area below his arm had already become red with blood. The residual Chaotic Force was forcefully being suppressed by the old man’s powerful Saint Force, preventing it from expanding.

“How is this possible? How did you find where I was?” The Spectral Elder stared at Jian Chen in shock.

“Your hiding techniques are useless before me. Let’s have a solid battle with our own strengths,” sneered Jian Chen. He attacked the Spectral Elder once more with the Emperor Armament.

The Spectral Elder did not buy it. With a flash, he disappeared into empty space once again, but he was immediately discovered by Jian Chen, forcing him out of hiding.

“Hmph, my Void-movement technique may be ineffective against you, but I can still kill you.” The Spectral Elder no longer hid in empty space. A vast surging energy leaked from him as the black spike in his hand began to glow with dark light. He began engaging in an intense battle with Jian Chen.

Every assassin of the Yama Hall rarely engaged in open battles. They were more used to assassinations, often using the easiest method to catch the opponent off-guard and deal a fatal blow. Now that the Spectral Elder’s assassination techniques were useless against Jian Chen, he could only fight him head-on.

The Spectral Elder was an assassin, but he was still a Seventh Heavenly Layer Saint King. He had gone through countless battles on the edge of life and death, so he was extremely powerful even without his assassination techniques. He possessed extremely rich experience in combat.

Violent booms filled the surroundings. The Emperor Armament in Jian Chen’s hand had already turned into a vicious black dragon, moving so fast that space shattered. His Emperor Armament stabbed out continuously in the form of blurs, moving extremely quickly. Each strike was sharp and fast and filled with viciousness, only aiming to harm the Spectral Elder.

The spike in the Spectral Elder’s hand stabbed out quickly as a terrifying energy wrapped around it. It was no slower than Jian Chen’s attack speed, but the only difference was that every attack from Jian Chen was extremely fluid, flowing from one to another like water. It seemed to possess some other profoundness at the same time. On the other hand, the Spectral Elder focused more on power. Each strike possessed an earth-shaking might, wanting to suppress Jian Chen with supreme strength.

It was an intense clash, a battle between power, a collision of strength. More importantly, it was a fierce fight of life and death.

Jian Chen matched the Spectral Elder with his Emperor Armament, fighting to the point where the surroundings fell into chaos. Even Rui Jin’s Dragon’s Domain violently trembled.

The two of them clashed over a thousand times very soon. They both were dyed with blood and wounds littered their bodies. No one gained an advantage.

“Ancient secret technique, Devouring the World!” The Spectral Elder suddenly bellowed out. He exhaled after opening his mouth. Immediately, a huge ghost’s face appeared, opening its pitch-black mouth toward Jian Chen before sucking violently.

Faced with the sudden suction, Jian Chen immediately flew toward the ghost’s mouth. Jian Chen saw the glimmering of stars within the pitch-black mouth—the boundless cosmos.

This was an extremely powerful ancient secret technique. Jian Chen knew that once he was sucked into it, he would probably be released in that region of outer space, without any hopes of returning.

Jian Chen drew closer and closer to the mouth. The suction was extremely powerful and had already locked onto him. He could not escape.

Jian Chen roared at the sky as Chaotic Force wildly ran through his body like wild horses. The Emperor Armament glowed with a blinding, dark light as a presence of destruction filled the domain. He then sliced as hard as he could at the ghost face, causing it to violently tremble.

Jian Chen struck out over ten times in that short instance. Each attack utilized all he had, causing the ghost face to continuously tremble. In the end, it ripped apart into several pieces.

Spurt! With the ancient secret technique shattered, the Spectral Elder also suffered a backlash. He vomited a mouthful of blood and paled. The injury this time was bad, much more severe than all the wounds he had received earlier.