In terms of close-quarters combat, Jiang Chen was not truly afraid of this mad old freak.
It was simply that Jiang Chen had mastered far too many combat techniques, and close-quarters fighting was, without question, the least technically demanding of them all.
The problem was that the mad old freak happened to be most fond of precisely this mode of battle. However, Jiang Chen's Golden Bell kept him pinned down, preventing him from fully unleashing his advantage in hand-to-hand combat.
The result was a stalemate.
The mad old freak could not break through the Golden Bell's barrier, and Jiang Chen's Sacred Dragon Bow could find no opening to loose an arrow. The fight had settled into a deadlock.
This Golden Bell was a genuinely remarkable artifact in its own right, and under Jiang Chen's refinement, its grade had reached an exceptionally high level.
Even the mad old freak's golden staff was completely unable to crack the Golden Bell's defense.
This drove the mad old freak to the brink of fury: "Boy, can we even have a decent fight or not? Hiding behind some broken bell — what kind of nonsense is that?"
Jiang Chen smiled. "In the world of martial arts, everyone showcases their own Divine Abilities. I have a great many ways of dealing with you — do I really need to pick whichever one you prefer?"
The mad old freak bellowed with rage: "Don't you forget — I am the guardian of the Fourth Palace. Whether you pass through it or not is my call!"
Jiang Chen chuckled softly. "I'll find a way through one way or another."
"Hmph — keep dreaming!" The mad old freak brandished his staff. "Unless you conquer me head-on, don't even think about leaving the Fourth Palace!"
The mad old freak clearly did not feel he had vented enough. Naturally, he wanted Jiang Chen to clash with him directly, to give him the exhilarating close-combat battle he craved.
In truth, Jiang Chen did not object to close-quarters fighting as a matter of principle. He could see, however, that the old freak's staff was far from ordinary.
Jiang Chen possessed no shortage of divine weapons himself, but not a single one had reached the level of that golden staff.
That was precisely why he was unwilling to engage in hand-to-hand combat — in a head-on confrontation, he simply had nothing that could match the golden staff on equal terms.
In fact, Jiang Chen had recently killed a great number of Heavenly realm experts and acquired several semi-divine artifacts of considerable quality.
Yet not a single one among them had truly caught his eye or resonated with him.
Those semi-divine weapons, those Heavenly-realm-grade armaments — he had either given them away or locked them away in storage. He had never once bonded with any of them.
The reason was that Jiang Chen had never experienced that feeling of instant affinity. In the world of martial arts, whether selecting a weapon or choosing a cultivation technique, one placed great stock in fate and resonance.
Without that connection, if the weapon did not appeal to one's sensibilities, no amount of forcing would produce a bond.
Among the treasures he had acquired, only this Golden Bell truly suited his taste. The rest of the weapons he had obtained held essentially no appeal for him as personal armaments.
And so, beyond the weapons he had used previously, his arsenal had received no upgrades whatsoever.
He was still wielding the same weapons from his days in the Emperor realm and Sovereign realm — the Five-Colored Divine Light Sword, for instance.
The Five-Colored Divine Light Sword had been gifted to him by the Great Emperor Peacock. During his time in the Sovereign realm, it had been among the finest weapons one could ask for.
Even at the Heavenly realm level, it remained marginally serviceable. But once one reached the mid-stage or high-stage of the Heavenly realm, the sword simply could not keep up.
Jiang Chen also owned a set of swords, specially forged to complement the Celestial Golden Dipper Formation. The quality of those swords was quite decent, but their true strength lay in working within the formation's framework. For single-target attacks, they still fell a touch short.