Chapter 132
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Kong Luxi and Shi Longyu's lips curled into smiles when they saw that Liang Chen and Yan Ling weren't going to shy away despite the difference in cultivation, both of them bringing out their weapons. Shi Longyu's weapons were a pair of blue silk gloves on his upper set of arms and a pair of brass knuckles on his lower set of arms. Kong Luxi's weapon of choice was a pair of silver swords that were strangely curved at the base and seemed like they could be connected at the handle, forming large scissors. Yan Ling used her free hand to point at Shi Longyu, letting out a loud huff.
"Little Freak, you better beat him so much that he'll cry for mercy and forgiveness before you kill him. If you don't, you better be prepared to receive the silent treatment for the next month, at least."
No woman, especially not one as proud as Yan Ling, would enjoy being talked about in the manner that Shi Longyu had used. The moment he decided to use taunts like that against the two of them, he had doomed himself to a terrible end, no matter which of the two he ended up fighting. Liang Chen cast a sideways glance at Yan Ling, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated manner.
"What, silence? For at least a month? Oh noooo, how would I ever deal with that peace?"
The fact that the two of them were still joking around like this showed their confidence, the belief they had in each other and their own strength. The corner of Yan Ling's mouth raised slightly as she cast a sideways glance at Liang Chen, slowly moving her sword closer to him.
"Are those the words of someone looking for a beating? You think I won't beat you up first and then toss you out of the arena alongside those scrubs?"
Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi stood at the other side of the stage, looking at Liang Chen and Yan Ling's flirting with vigilant gazes. They were confident in their own strength, but they knew that Liang Chen and Yan Ling weren't easy prey, they were fine with taking their time and observing the situation. Liang Chen simply chuckled, tracing Yan Ling's neck with a finger.
"Beat me? Are you sure you won't just end up being carried around by the neck like usual? Maybe I'll just pick you up and slowly carry you back to the house, giving you a kiss every now and then so that everyone can know what I'm going to do to you when we're alone."
Liang Chen made his words as sickeningly sweet as he could, but Yan Ling barely showed a reaction. She didn't even swat his hand away, she simply let out a sigh and hung her head slightly.
"How did I ever end up together with a lecher like you?"
At this point, not only Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi but even others in the audience were starting to look at Liang Chen and Yan Ling with somewhat strange gazes. They had seen many different scenes in the arenas before, but this was the first time they had ever seen people flirt so openly and shamelessly. Liang Chen pulled back his hand, chuckling once more and sweeping Yan Ling with a gaze, almost as if he had completely forgotten about their opponents.
"Birds of a feather flock together, I'm certain that you are just as lecherous as me."
He expected Yan Ling to reject his statement as vehemently as she had in the past, but she actually gave a short nod of her head, sending Liang Chen her best seductive wink while pointing her sword at Shi Longyu.
"Aye, that might be true. Guess we'll have to find out when it's just the two of us. Who knows, I might even decide to give you a reward if you give him a good enough beating, so get to it already you slow bastard."
The Qi within her body started to seethe right after she spoke, strands of her hair turning crimson as she activated her secret technique. Clearly, it was time to focus on the battle ahead so that the two of them could continue to climb the tower while enjoying each others presence.
"Aye aye, ma'am. But I'll make it fair, if you give him a good enough beating, I'll be the one to give you a reward."
Liang Chen sent a wink at Yan Ling and then stepped forward, immediately activating his bloodline. Gray scales covered his arms, his fingers turning more claw-like as his gray hair turned a light cyan in color. In the past, his eyes would have turned a dull gray in color, but now they stayed in their heterochromia state, one golden and one cyan. They were wearing the Heaven Altering Masks to disguise themselves as people from the Undead race, so Liang Chen made sure that the fake third eye on his forehead was the same color as his golden eye, making it seem like his cyan eye was somehow special.
A thunderous sound rang out as Liang Chen shot forward and turned into a blur, faint trails of emerald lightning left in his wake. He arrived in front of Shi Longyu almost instantly, the tip of his spear stabbing towards the Fiendgods throat. Shi Longyu stretched out his upper set of arms and reached for the spear, aiming to clap his hands around the tip. At the same time, he also attacked with his lower set of arms, aiming one punch at Liang Chen's waist and forming the other hand into a spear and aiming it at his chest.
A somewhat strange scene appeared as Shi Longyu's clap approached the spear tip, the air and space around the spear tip seemed to be compressed and pushed onto the spear tip, almost as if it was trying to dig into it. As for Shi Longyu's second set of arms, the flow of energy around them seemed to become locked up, unable to move freely.
Liang Chen quickly reacted, tilting the spear so that the tip went upwards, missing Shi Longyu's throat by quite a bit but as a result also dodging his clap. Using the same tilting motion that raised the tip of his spear, he slammed the bottom of the spear handle into the ground and used it as a support, jumping up and using his grasp on the spear to hold himself sideways in the air, dodging the two punches and landing a kick on Shi Longyu's abdomen, forcing him to take several steps backward.
As he took several steps backward, Shi Longyu grabbed onto Liang Chen's outstretched leg and exerted all his physical force to turn his body around and swing Liang Chen over his head like a sack of potatoes, slamming him towards the ground. When Shi Longyu grabbed onto his leg, Liang Chen felt like his entire right leg became sealed, the Qi and blood within it left completely locked up. At the same time, it felt like all the flesh and bones within his leg were trying to move, gathering at the center of his knee. Had it not been for the fact that he had strengthened his body through body cultivation, his entire right leg might have instantly crippled itself.
Noticing this strange scene, Liang Chen came to the conclusion that Shi Longyu was likely cultivating in two rather strange and rare laws, the law of compression and the law of sealing. Finding Demonic beasts that could use these laws was very hard so it seemed like Shi Longyu had gotten quite lucky in the past. Liang Chen wouldn't just let himself get slammed into the ground, so he retaliated while Shi Longyu was in the middle of swinging him down.
He stored away his spear and took out the bow he had taken from the opponents they faced right after coming to this floor, drawing the string as far back as he could. The surrounding air gathered at his fingertips, forming a hollow arrow that rested on the bow. Crimson lightning gathered within the tip of the arrow while a violet poison filled the shaft of the arrow. Right now Liang Chen was only strong enough to use crimson lightning to fill the tip of the arrow, any more and he would start suffering wounds from the lightning. But he was confident that there would come a day where he could fill the entire sky with crimson lightning, even violet lightning or stronger types would have to follow his command.
He unleashed the arrow when he was about half a meter from the ground, a screeching sound ringing out as the arrow flew. Since he was so close, there was no way for Shi Longyu to dodge the arrow in time, he could only look on as the tip pierced into his shoulder and the entire arrow exploded with a thunderous roar, scattering arcs of crimson lightning and a cloud of sweet-smelling poison that affected one's vision, hearing, and balance.
Shi Longyu was forced to let go of Liang Chen's legs, but he was confident that it was too late for Liang Chen to avoid crashing into the ground. He felt strong vibrations in his feet as something hit the stage, but the cloud of poison obscured his vision and the poison in his body affected his hearing so he didn't know exactly what had hit the stage. He quickly compressed the cloud of poison into a single point, using his law of sealing to prevent the poison already within his body from spreading any further, quickly casting his gaze onto where Liang Chen should be.
Liang Chen had indeed crashed into the ground, but not head first as Shi Longyu had wanted. Liang Chen had stored away the bow and stretched out his right arm, his fingers digging into the stage as he held himself up in a handstand, preventing his head from hitting the stage.
His head hadn't crashed into the stage, but the leg that Shi Longyu had grabbed was aching, a deep imprint visible where Shi Longyu had grabbed on to him. The speed of the blood and Qi currently within his leg had also slowed down, still affected by the law of sealing. As it had been the center of Shi Longyu's law of compression, Liang Chen felt a great pain whenever he tried to move his knee, making it very painful to move his leg. Had he let Shi Longyu hold on to his leg for a bit longer, his leg might have ended up with severe injuries.
Liang Chen quickly bent his body, his feet touching the ground again but his fingers remaining buried in the stone stage. He gathered his strength in his right arm, pulling out a chunk of the stone stage and giving his body a quick twist, throwing the chunk so fast it broke the speed of sound as it headed for Shi Longyu's abdomen.
Shi Longyu quickly moved to dodge, taking half a step to the side so that the stone flew past his waist. But just as he moved, he saw that the corners of Liang Chen's mouth started curving up. He turned his head to the side just in time to see Yan Ling grabbing onto the chunk and slamming it sideways into the right side of Shi Longyu's abdomen, leaving a small crack on his hard exoskeleton in the process.
Shi Longyu could see Kong Luxi a short distance behind Yan Ling, his mouth wide opened as he seemed to be shouting. But Shi Longyu was unable to hear anything, the earlier arrow filled with poison still disturbing his hearing. Kong Luxi raised both his swords and crossed them, aiming a crossed slash at Yan Ling's unguarded back in retaliation.
Yan Ling didn't move to dodge, leaning forward and aiming a downward punch at Shi Longyu's right foot to somewhat cripple his movement. Kong Luxi was a bit suspicious about why she wasn't dodging, but he quickly received his answer. A thunderous roar rang out, a golden spear flying through the air and clashing with his crossed swords, blocking the attack. Liang Chen followed the spear like a blur, grabbing onto it with his left hand and stepping on Yan Ling's back.
He exerted a bit of force into his foot, jumping forward while also increasing the speed at which Yan Ling leaned forward, causing Shi Longyu to misjudge the time needed to dodge the attack. Yan Ling's palm smashed into Shi Longyu's foot, a crushing pressure unleashing from it and causing several cracks to appear on his foot.
While she was doing this, Liang Chen had jumped into Kong Luxi's bosom. He tilted his spear upwards with a quick motion, the bottom of the spear heading for Kong Luxi's left knee. At the same time, he was reaching for Kong Luxi's right shoulder with the claw-like fingers on his right hand.
Kong Luxi had been in the middle of his attack when Liang Chen blocked him and jumped into his bosom, so he wasn't in the best of position to dodge. He slid his crossed blades against each other to uncross them, the sword in his left hand moving to slice open Liang Chen's right hand while the sword in his right hand moved to parry the incoming spear handle.
The sword in his right hand was the first to meet its target, allowing Kong Luxi to realize that Liang Chen possessed greater physical power than he first gave him credit for. He wanted to quickly put more force into his left hand to better block Liang Chen's right hand, but it was already too late for that.
Liang Chen grabbed onto Kong Luxi's sword, the clash of the blade and the scales on his hand creating sparks as the scales on his hand shattered, blood pouring forth from his hand. Liang Chen clenched with all his might, the blade bending slightly because Liang Chen was grabbing onto it with the hand that had already gotten its bones altered. He drew back his arm with all his might, the sword leaving Kong Luxi's arm and soaring through the air, landing only a few meters away from the audience seats, stained in the blood from Liang Chen's hand.
Kong Luxi's brows furred as his expression sank, he specialized in fighting with both swords at once, losing one meant losing a bit of his strength. He clenched his now free left hand, ten transparent howling faces screeching out from his body and heading for Liang Chen, the air around them distorting as they screamed.
Kong Luxi had reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, or the Ten-Souls Spirit Lord if they were to use the terms of the Undead race. This meant that he could create and control ten extra souls, which was what he was using to attack right now, aiming an attack directly at Liang Chen's soul. Liang Chen had a strong soul, but he couldn't ignore the attack of a soul cultivator at the Soaring Immortal realm.
He placed his right hand in front of him, his Anima Essence, poison, and lightning gathering in front of his hand, forming a shield with three layers to hold back the attack. Kong Luxi took this chance to grab onto Liang Chen's spear with his left hand and pull at it with all his might, taking it out of his grasp before he had the chance to store it into his interspatial ring. He threw the spear as far away as he could, chuckling lightly.
"You had quite a nice idea, I hope you'll forgive me for copying you."
Liang Chen finished blocking the ten wailing souls and then cast a quick glance past Kong Luxi, memorizing where the spear landed so that he could pick it up later. Leaving the stage meant losing, so he couldn't go and pick it up now. Kong Luxi didn't want to give Liang Chen any time to come up with anything, stabbing out with his remaining sword as quickly as he could, aiming for Liang Chen's throat.
Liang Chen quickly bent his knees and leaned backward, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out his bow again, creating another hollow arrow using wind. He filled this arrow with a gray gas, poison mixed with his Anima Essence and law of time. He aimed the arrow at Kong Luxi's chest and unleashed it, causing it to turn into a gray blur.
Kong Luxi copied Liang Chen's movements, bending his knees and leaning backward to dodge the arrow. He unleashed the ten wailing souls at the same time, sending all of them at the arrow to swallow it up and neutralize the attack. The arrow suddenly exploded, turning into several smaller arrows, each containing a portion of the gray poison. The smaller arrows didn't avoid the howling souls, heading directly into their maws and allowing themselves to be swallowed.
The poison within them was unleashed, the ten souls immediately starting to howl even more as the poison started to corrode them. With his poison, lightning, and law of time, Liang Chen could be considered the nemesis of all souls, sending them out to face him was one of Kong Luxi's greatest mistakes. The souls were part of Kong Luxi, so he too started screeching in pain, feeling all the pain that his ten souls were feeling.
Liang Chen stored away his bow, twisting his body and placing his left arm on the ground, his fingers digging into the ground. He used his left arm as support and exerted all his force, stretching out both his legs and performing a sideways sweep that knocked the already unsteady Kong Luxi down. Once Kong Luxi fell on his back, Liang Chen pushed off from the ground with his left arm, throwing himself into the air and landing on his feet right next to Kong Luxi.
As he landed on the ground, Liang Chen dipped into a kneeling position and clenched his right hand, his fist crashing into the screeching Kong Luxi's chest. A crunching sound rang out as Kong Luxi's chest caved in, Liang Chen's right hand sinking deep into his chest and crushing his heart. Kong Luxi was from the Undead race, so his heart mattered little to him, one had to destroy all his souls to kill him.
Poison flooded out of Liang Chen's right hand, quickly spreading through all of Kong Luxi's body and causing his flesh to dissolve and turn to mist, leaving only his ten screeching souls. Liang Chen gathered up more poison in his hand, sending out ten more arrows of concentrated poison, one into each soul.
The screeching of the souls turned into gurgling as the corroding process was sped up, all ten souls quickly vanishing and signifying the death of Kong Luxi. Before he came to this planet, Liang Chen would not have been able to defeat someone at the early stage of the Soaring Immortal stage like this, but he had gotten far stronger with time. Liang Chen quickly turned his head to check how Yan Ling was doing against Shi Longyu, confident in her strength yet still worried about her safety.
Yan Ling was currently embroiled in a violent battle with Shi Longyu, blood seeping out of her pores thanks to her secret technique. She was using quick and flexible movements to exchange blows with Shi Longyu, not giving him the chance to grab onto her and use his law of compression as he had done to Liang Chen's leg. Cracks had spread over his exoskeleton, blood dripping forth from the cracks.
He had a thin hole in his chest, right where his heart was, vast amounts of blood pouring forth. Yan Ling had clearly stabbed him through the heart at least once already, forcing him to spend a lot of his energy to regenerate it. He wasn't the only one who could regenerate his wounds, Yan Ling also had some proficiency in it. She could mix her law of water with her Fiendgod Essence to drastically increase the speed at which her own wounds healed, allowing her to adopt a fighting style similar to Liang Chen's, one that could only be called self-destructive.
By taking the law of water as her secondary law, she had given up a lot of early attacking power, but what she had gained in turn was a healing ability that would allow her to fight with increased ferocity for longer periods than other people. And when Liang Chen remembered the attack Yan Ling had launched against Shi Longyu's foot earlier, one which produced a crushing pressure that didn't belong to the law of wind, he could also guess that she seemed to have come up with something rather interesting for her attacks.
Right now, Shi Longyu was clearly going all out, the Demonic beast parts he used to cultivate appearing on his body. His two right arms had grown some brown fur, his fingers turning into curved claws. His two left arms took on a more metallic sheen, his hands growing thicker and rounder as his fingers almost merged together, almost resembling hooves. Spines had grown out of his back, completely covering it and almost making him resemble a large porcupine. One of the spines would occasionally vanish from his back, sinking into his back and then quickly flying out from a different part of his body as a type of sneak attack.
Liang Chen once again pulled out his bow, gathering the surrounding wind to form an arrow, this one quite a bit thicker than the previous ones. He filled the tip of the arrow with emerald lightning and the shaft with his white poison, drawing the string and unleashing the arrow. The arrow split up the moment it left the bow, turning into countless tiny arrows that shot at Shi Longyu from all angles. Yan Ling turned her head slightly, locking eyes with Liang Chen, both of them nodding their heads. Yan Ling quickly jumped back, most of the arrows hitting Shi Longyu and exploding with a thunderous roar, spreading long arcs of lightning and a thick cloud of poison.
The moment the arrows exploded, Liang Chen ran forward, dashing past Yan Ling and into the cloud of poison. Shi Longyu seemed to have noticed his approach thanks to the vibrations he created in the stone stage as he ran, one of his left fists coming directly for Liang Chen's head. The three other arms were currently busy fending off several of the smaller arrows that had yet to strike Shi Longyu, leaving him with only this arm to defend against the oncoming Liang Chen.
Liang Chen's lips curled up slightly, his right arm shooting forward and grabbing onto Shi Longyu's hand, grasping it like a vice. Shi Longyu felt like his hand had crashed into a metal wall, unable to move a single inch further. The cloud of poison was compressed into a single small orb by Shi Longyu, allowing him to properly see Liang Chen and sneer at him.
"Do you really think this is enough to hold me down? Don't think that this is the full extent of my transformation."
Shi Longyu's left arms started growing even thicker, his fingers fully merging together to form metallic hooves. He sneered at Liang Chen, waiting to see him lose his grip on Shi Longyu's hand because it had grown so much larger. But the scene he expected never appeared. Instead, the arm that Liang Chen was holding onto was flooded with intense pain as it grew thicker.
Shi Longyu's hand grew much thicker, but Liang Chen's hand didn't budge in the slightest. Rather than Liang Chen's grip budging, it was Shi Longyu's hand that started to budge first, Liang Chen's fingers shattering and piercing into Shi Longyu's exoskeleton. Shi Longyu looked at Liang Chen's immovable right arm with an expression filled with shock, unable to contain his voice.
"What the fuck is that hand?!"
Shi Longyu had no idea how Liang Chen's hand could be that strong, to not only remain unmoved as he fully unleashed his transformation, but to even pierce through his exoskeleton and wound him. How could he know that Liang Chen had already altered the bones in his right hand using a technique as supreme as the Ocean God's Physique? And he had even done it using an element as strong and unique as the fused element created by him and Yan Ling.
Liang Chen's right hand was wounded when he grabbed onto Kong Luxi's sword, but it wasn't to the point where it would weaken so much that Shi Longyu could escape his grasp. Shi Longyu suddenly picked up some vibrations coming from the ground behind him, quickly turning his head and spotting Yan Ling. She had managed to sneak up directly behind him, reaching for his back with both her palms.
Shi Longyu instantly felt a foreboding feeling from her palms so he wanted to dodge, but with Liang Chen's arrows occupying three of his arms and Liang Chen holding onto his last arm, there was nothing Shi Longyu could do. He shot out all his spines in a last desperate attack, but just as the spines left his body, a mighty wind blew down vertically from above Shi Longyu, all the spines force down into the ground by Liang Chen, not allowing them to harm or disturb Yan Ling. Shi Longyu turned his head onto Liang Chen again, fear finally visible in his eyes as he quickly called out.
"Please don't! My brother is friends with Qian Liao of God Piercing Fang tower!"
He thought that Liang Chen and Yan Ling would at least hesitate upon hearing who his brother was friends with, but Liang Chen didn't even bat an eye. He knew that God Piercing Fang tower was the name given to the tower in Ten Thousand Leaves city, but he had no idea who this Qian Liao was. It was easy to guess that he was someone strong within that tower, but Liang Chen and Yan Ling didn't care. No matter how strong this Qian Liao was, their actual ambitions were placed far higher, their fangs were being sharpened to sink into the throats of people far stronger.
Yan Ling's palms landed on Shi Longyu's back in a seemingly soft and gentle manner, as light as the spring breeze. But shortly after her palms touched his back, cracks spread over Shi Longyu's entire body as blood poured forth and his eyes exploded. Blood and crushed organs leaked out of Shi Longyu's mouth and the hole in his chest, splattering the stone stage beneath him as he collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Yan Ling had used her strongest technique, the Storm King's Fist, an attack that fused the strengths of water and wind to form a crushing attack that ruined an opponent from the inside. This Storm King's Fist had not only grown stronger since she was now also cultivating her body, but she had also added her own comprehension of the water and the wind element to it, making the attack even stronger.
Shi Longyu had a tremendously strong lifeforce, but faced with this attack that Yan Ling had put all her focus on and charged up, his only end upon receiving it was to die. Liang Chen let go of Shi Longyu's hand and bent over, picking up his interspatial ring and storing his corpse into his interspatial ring, after which he stretched his body and spoke up in a content voice.
"You know, that felt really fucking good."
He wasn't just talking about the fact that they got to beat the two of them down, he was mostly talking about the clear proof that the two of them had gotten stronger since arriving here. If they continued to improve like this, how long would it be before they could kill Huang Dong, Qing Lan Yong, and Yan Ling's mother? Yan Ling undid her own secret technique and looked at her two palms, a smile appearing on her face.
"Yup, that felt really damn good. But just so you know, I was the one who beat him so you don't get your reward."
The one she was talking about was Shi Longyu, who had already been stored into Liang Chen's interspatial ring. She said she would give him a reward if he made sure to beat Shi Longyu properly, but it had been Yan Ling who ended up fighting him. Liang Chen couldn't refute her, as they were technically true, so he simply pointed at the only remaining thing of Kong Luxi, one of his swords and his interspatial ring.
"If that's how you wanna play, then I was technically the one who beat him so you don't get your reward either."
Liang Chen walked over to the sword, picking up the interspatial ring that was lying next to it and tossing it to Yan Ling. She caught the interspatial ring, her lips curling into a smirk as she put on what Liang Chen could only describe as the cutest yet smuggest smile he had ever seen.
"Not true. I pointed at Shi Longyu, but you never specified who I had to beat, you only said that I had to give him a good beating. Hence, I still get to receive a reward of my choosing."
Liang Chen was about to refute her words, but his words caught in his throat. He thought back to what he had done and said before the battle started, and realized that although he had implied that she had to beat Kong Luxi, he had never specified it. Since that was the case, he could only do his best to salvage what he could.
"Well shit. But I never said the reward could be anything of your choosing, I just said a reward."
Yan Ling did not care for Liang Chen's thoughts, nor would she allow him to salvage anything. She stored the contents of the interspatial ring into her own, giggling as she walked over to Liang Chen.
"Nihihi. Well, that's what the reward is now, you don't have the right to overrule it."
Liang Chen once again felt like refuting her words, or at least complaining, but thinking about how she might sulk if he were to actually do that, he could only let out a sigh and shake his head.
"Ai, what a shameless person we have here."
He could only consider himself utterly defeated right now, not in the body but in the spirit, crushed by superior shamelessness. Yan Ling grabbed onto his right hand and used her law of water to heal the wounds he had received during the battle, the two of them leaving the arena and heading for the spatial array that would send them to the third floor, Yan Ling's giggle echoing through the area.
"Nihihi, yup, but you're stuck with me, so suck it up."
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Kong Luxi and Shi Longyu's lips curled into smiles when they saw that Liang Chen and Yan Ling weren't going to shy away despite the difference in cultivation, both of them bringing out their weapons. Shi Longyu's weapons were a pair of blue silk gloves on his upper set of arms and a pair of brass knuckles on his lower set of arms. Kong Luxi's weapon of choice was a pair of silver swords that were strangely curved at the base and seemed like they could be connected at the handle, forming large scissors. Yan Ling used her free hand to point at Shi Longyu, letting out a loud huff.
"Little Freak, you better beat him so much that he'll cry for mercy and forgiveness before you kill him. If you don't, you better be prepared to receive the silent treatment for the next month, at least."
No woman, especially not one as proud as Yan Ling, would enjoy being talked about in the manner that Shi Longyu had used. The moment he decided to use taunts like that against the two of them, he had doomed himself to a terrible end, no matter which of the two he ended up fighting. Liang Chen cast a sideways glance at Yan Ling, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated manner.
"What, silence? For at least a month? Oh noooo, how would I ever deal with that peace?"
The fact that the two of them were still joking around like this showed their confidence, the belief they had in each other and their own strength. The corner of Yan Ling's mouth raised slightly as she cast a sideways glance at Liang Chen, slowly moving her sword closer to him.
"Are those the words of someone looking for a beating? You think I won't beat you up first and then toss you out of the arena alongside those scrubs?"
Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi stood at the other side of the stage, looking at Liang Chen and Yan Ling's flirting with vigilant gazes. They were confident in their own strength, but they knew that Liang Chen and Yan Ling weren't easy prey, they were fine with taking their time and observing the situation. Liang Chen simply chuckled, tracing Yan Ling's neck with a finger.
"Beat me? Are you sure you won't just end up being carried around by the neck like usual? Maybe I'll just pick you up and slowly carry you back to the house, giving you a kiss every now and then so that everyone can know what I'm going to do to you when we're alone."
Liang Chen made his words as sickeningly sweet as he could, but Yan Ling barely showed a reaction. She didn't even swat his hand away, she simply let out a sigh and hung her head slightly.
"How did I ever end up together with a lecher like you?"
At this point, not only Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi but even others in the audience were starting to look at Liang Chen and Yan Ling with somewhat strange gazes. They had seen many different scenes in the arenas before, but this was the first time they had ever seen people flirt so openly and shamelessly. Liang Chen pulled back his hand, chuckling once more and sweeping Yan Ling with a gaze, almost as if he had completely forgotten about their opponents.
"Birds of a feather flock together, I'm certain that you are just as lecherous as me."
He expected Yan Ling to reject his statement as vehemently as she had in the past, but she actually gave a short nod of her head, sending Liang Chen her best seductive wink while pointing her sword at Shi Longyu.
"Aye, that might be true. Guess we'll have to find out when it's just the two of us. Who knows, I might even decide to give you a reward if you give him a good enough beating, so get to it already you slow bastard."
The Qi within her body started to seethe right after she spoke, strands of her hair turning crimson as she activated her secret technique. Clearly, it was time to focus on the battle ahead so that the two of them could continue to climb the tower while enjoying each others presence.
"Aye aye, ma'am. But I'll make it fair, if you give him a good enough beating, I'll be the one to give you a reward."
Liang Chen sent a wink at Yan Ling and then stepped forward, immediately activating his bloodline. Gray scales covered his arms, his fingers turning more claw-like as his gray hair turned a light cyan in color. In the past, his eyes would have turned a dull gray in color, but now they stayed in their heterochromia state, one golden and one cyan. They were wearing the Heaven Altering Masks to disguise themselves as people from the Undead race, so Liang Chen made sure that the fake third eye on his forehead was the same color as his golden eye, making it seem like his cyan eye was somehow special.
A thunderous sound rang out as Liang Chen shot forward and turned into a blur, faint trails of emerald lightning left in his wake. He arrived in front of Shi Longyu almost instantly, the tip of his spear stabbing towards the Fiendgods throat. Shi Longyu stretched out his upper set of arms and reached for the spear, aiming to clap his hands around the tip. At the same time, he also attacked with his lower set of arms, aiming one punch at Liang Chen's waist and forming the other hand into a spear and aiming it at his chest.
A somewhat strange scene appeared as Shi Longyu's clap approached the spear tip, the air and space around the spear tip seemed to be compressed and pushed onto the spear tip, almost as if it was trying to dig into it. As for Shi Longyu's second set of arms, the flow of energy around them seemed to become locked up, unable to move freely.
Liang Chen quickly reacted, tilting the spear so that the tip went upwards, missing Shi Longyu's throat by quite a bit but as a result also dodging his clap. Using the same tilting motion that raised the tip of his spear, he slammed the bottom of the spear handle into the ground and used it as a support, jumping up and using his grasp on the spear to hold himself sideways in the air, dodging the two punches and landing a kick on Shi Longyu's abdomen, forcing him to take several steps backward.
As he took several steps backward, Shi Longyu grabbed onto Liang Chen's outstretched leg and exerted all his physical force to turn his body around and swing Liang Chen over his head like a sack of potatoes, slamming him towards the ground. When Shi Longyu grabbed onto his leg, Liang Chen felt like his entire right leg became sealed, the Qi and blood within it left completely locked up. At the same time, it felt like all the flesh and bones within his leg were trying to move, gathering at the center of his knee. Had it not been for the fact that he had strengthened his body through body cultivation, his entire right leg might have instantly crippled itself.
Noticing this strange scene, Liang Chen came to the conclusion that Shi Longyu was likely cultivating in two rather strange and rare laws, the law of compression and the law of sealing. Finding Demonic beasts that could use these laws was very hard so it seemed like Shi Longyu had gotten quite lucky in the past. Liang Chen wouldn't just let himself get slammed into the ground, so he retaliated while Shi Longyu was in the middle of swinging him down.
He stored away his spear and took out the bow he had taken from the opponents they faced right after coming to this floor, drawing the string as far back as he could. The surrounding air gathered at his fingertips, forming a hollow arrow that rested on the bow. Crimson lightning gathered within the tip of the arrow while a violet poison filled the shaft of the arrow. Right now Liang Chen was only strong enough to use crimson lightning to fill the tip of the arrow, any more and he would start suffering wounds from the lightning. But he was confident that there would come a day where he could fill the entire sky with crimson lightning, even violet lightning or stronger types would have to follow his command.
He unleashed the arrow when he was about half a meter from the ground, a screeching sound ringing out as the arrow flew. Since he was so close, there was no way for Shi Longyu to dodge the arrow in time, he could only look on as the tip pierced into his shoulder and the entire arrow exploded with a thunderous roar, scattering arcs of crimson lightning and a cloud of sweet-smelling poison that affected one's vision, hearing, and balance.
Shi Longyu was forced to let go of Liang Chen's legs, but he was confident that it was too late for Liang Chen to avoid crashing into the ground. He felt strong vibrations in his feet as something hit the stage, but the cloud of poison obscured his vision and the poison in his body affected his hearing so he didn't know exactly what had hit the stage. He quickly compressed the cloud of poison into a single point, using his law of sealing to prevent the poison already within his body from spreading any further, quickly casting his gaze onto where Liang Chen should be.
Liang Chen had indeed crashed into the ground, but not head first as Shi Longyu had wanted. Liang Chen had stored away the bow and stretched out his right arm, his fingers digging into the stage as he held himself up in a handstand, preventing his head from hitting the stage.
His head hadn't crashed into the stage, but the leg that Shi Longyu had grabbed was aching, a deep imprint visible where Shi Longyu had grabbed on to him. The speed of the blood and Qi currently within his leg had also slowed down, still affected by the law of sealing. As it had been the center of Shi Longyu's law of compression, Liang Chen felt a great pain whenever he tried to move his knee, making it very painful to move his leg. Had he let Shi Longyu hold on to his leg for a bit longer, his leg might have ended up with severe injuries.
Liang Chen quickly bent his body, his feet touching the ground again but his fingers remaining buried in the stone stage. He gathered his strength in his right arm, pulling out a chunk of the stone stage and giving his body a quick twist, throwing the chunk so fast it broke the speed of sound as it headed for Shi Longyu's abdomen.
Shi Longyu quickly moved to dodge, taking half a step to the side so that the stone flew past his waist. But just as he moved, he saw that the corners of Liang Chen's mouth started curving up. He turned his head to the side just in time to see Yan Ling grabbing onto the chunk and slamming it sideways into the right side of Shi Longyu's abdomen, leaving a small crack on his hard exoskeleton in the process.
Shi Longyu could see Kong Luxi a short distance behind Yan Ling, his mouth wide opened as he seemed to be shouting. But Shi Longyu was unable to hear anything, the earlier arrow filled with poison still disturbing his hearing. Kong Luxi raised both his swords and crossed them, aiming a crossed slash at Yan Ling's unguarded back in retaliation.
Yan Ling didn't move to dodge, leaning forward and aiming a downward punch at Shi Longyu's right foot to somewhat cripple his movement. Kong Luxi was a bit suspicious about why she wasn't dodging, but he quickly received his answer. A thunderous roar rang out, a golden spear flying through the air and clashing with his crossed swords, blocking the attack. Liang Chen followed the spear like a blur, grabbing onto it with his left hand and stepping on Yan Ling's back.
He exerted a bit of force into his foot, jumping forward while also increasing the speed at which Yan Ling leaned forward, causing Shi Longyu to misjudge the time needed to dodge the attack. Yan Ling's palm smashed into Shi Longyu's foot, a crushing pressure unleashing from it and causing several cracks to appear on his foot.
While she was doing this, Liang Chen had jumped into Kong Luxi's bosom. He tilted his spear upwards with a quick motion, the bottom of the spear heading for Kong Luxi's left knee. At the same time, he was reaching for Kong Luxi's right shoulder with the claw-like fingers on his right hand.
Kong Luxi had been in the middle of his attack when Liang Chen blocked him and jumped into his bosom, so he wasn't in the best of position to dodge. He slid his crossed blades against each other to uncross them, the sword in his left hand moving to slice open Liang Chen's right hand while the sword in his right hand moved to parry the incoming spear handle.
The sword in his right hand was the first to meet its target, allowing Kong Luxi to realize that Liang Chen possessed greater physical power than he first gave him credit for. He wanted to quickly put more force into his left hand to better block Liang Chen's right hand, but it was already too late for that.
Liang Chen grabbed onto Kong Luxi's sword, the clash of the blade and the scales on his hand creating sparks as the scales on his hand shattered, blood pouring forth from his hand. Liang Chen clenched with all his might, the blade bending slightly because Liang Chen was grabbing onto it with the hand that had already gotten its bones altered. He drew back his arm with all his might, the sword leaving Kong Luxi's arm and soaring through the air, landing only a few meters away from the audience seats, stained in the blood from Liang Chen's hand.
Kong Luxi's brows furred as his expression sank, he specialized in fighting with both swords at once, losing one meant losing a bit of his strength. He clenched his now free left hand, ten transparent howling faces screeching out from his body and heading for Liang Chen, the air around them distorting as they screamed.
Kong Luxi had reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, or the Ten-Souls Spirit Lord if they were to use the terms of the Undead race. This meant that he could create and control ten extra souls, which was what he was using to attack right now, aiming an attack directly at Liang Chen's soul. Liang Chen had a strong soul, but he couldn't ignore the attack of a soul cultivator at the Soaring Immortal realm.
He placed his right hand in front of him, his Anima Essence, poison, and lightning gathering in front of his hand, forming a shield with three layers to hold back the attack. Kong Luxi took this chance to grab onto Liang Chen's spear with his left hand and pull at it with all his might, taking it out of his grasp before he had the chance to store it into his interspatial ring. He threw the spear as far away as he could, chuckling lightly.
"You had quite a nice idea, I hope you'll forgive me for copying you."
Liang Chen finished blocking the ten wailing souls and then cast a quick glance past Kong Luxi, memorizing where the spear landed so that he could pick it up later. Leaving the stage meant losing, so he couldn't go and pick it up now. Kong Luxi didn't want to give Liang Chen any time to come up with anything, stabbing out with his remaining sword as quickly as he could, aiming for Liang Chen's throat.
Liang Chen quickly bent his knees and leaned backward, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out his bow again, creating another hollow arrow using wind. He filled this arrow with a gray gas, poison mixed with his Anima Essence and law of time. He aimed the arrow at Kong Luxi's chest and unleashed it, causing it to turn into a gray blur.
Kong Luxi copied Liang Chen's movements, bending his knees and leaning backward to dodge the arrow. He unleashed the ten wailing souls at the same time, sending all of them at the arrow to swallow it up and neutralize the attack. The arrow suddenly exploded, turning into several smaller arrows, each containing a portion of the gray poison. The smaller arrows didn't avoid the howling souls, heading directly into their maws and allowing themselves to be swallowed.
The poison within them was unleashed, the ten souls immediately starting to howl even more as the poison started to corrode them. With his poison, lightning, and law of time, Liang Chen could be considered the nemesis of all souls, sending them out to face him was one of Kong Luxi's greatest mistakes. The souls were part of Kong Luxi, so he too started screeching in pain, feeling all the pain that his ten souls were feeling.
Liang Chen stored away his bow, twisting his body and placing his left arm on the ground, his fingers digging into the ground. He used his left arm as support and exerted all his force, stretching out both his legs and performing a sideways sweep that knocked the already unsteady Kong Luxi down. Once Kong Luxi fell on his back, Liang Chen pushed off from the ground with his left arm, throwing himself into the air and landing on his feet right next to Kong Luxi.
As he landed on the ground, Liang Chen dipped into a kneeling position and clenched his right hand, his fist crashing into the screeching Kong Luxi's chest. A crunching sound rang out as Kong Luxi's chest caved in, Liang Chen's right hand sinking deep into his chest and crushing his heart. Kong Luxi was from the Undead race, so his heart mattered little to him, one had to destroy all his souls to kill him.
Poison flooded out of Liang Chen's right hand, quickly spreading through all of Kong Luxi's body and causing his flesh to dissolve and turn to mist, leaving only his ten screeching souls. Liang Chen gathered up more poison in his hand, sending out ten more arrows of concentrated poison, one into each soul.
The screeching of the souls turned into gurgling as the corroding process was sped up, all ten souls quickly vanishing and signifying the death of Kong Luxi. Before he came to this planet, Liang Chen would not have been able to defeat someone at the early stage of the Soaring Immortal stage like this, but he had gotten far stronger with time. Liang Chen quickly turned his head to check how Yan Ling was doing against Shi Longyu, confident in her strength yet still worried about her safety.
Yan Ling was currently embroiled in a violent battle with Shi Longyu, blood seeping out of her pores thanks to her secret technique. She was using quick and flexible movements to exchange blows with Shi Longyu, not giving him the chance to grab onto her and use his law of compression as he had done to Liang Chen's leg. Cracks had spread over his exoskeleton, blood dripping forth from the cracks.
He had a thin hole in his chest, right where his heart was, vast amounts of blood pouring forth. Yan Ling had clearly stabbed him through the heart at least once already, forcing him to spend a lot of his energy to regenerate it. He wasn't the only one who could regenerate his wounds, Yan Ling also had some proficiency in it. She could mix her law of water with her Fiendgod Essence to drastically increase the speed at which her own wounds healed, allowing her to adopt a fighting style similar to Liang Chen's, one that could only be called self-destructive.
By taking the law of water as her secondary law, she had given up a lot of early attacking power, but what she had gained in turn was a healing ability that would allow her to fight with increased ferocity for longer periods than other people. And when Liang Chen remembered the attack Yan Ling had launched against Shi Longyu's foot earlier, one which produced a crushing pressure that didn't belong to the law of wind, he could also guess that she seemed to have come up with something rather interesting for her attacks.
Right now, Shi Longyu was clearly going all out, the Demonic beast parts he used to cultivate appearing on his body. His two right arms had grown some brown fur, his fingers turning into curved claws. His two left arms took on a more metallic sheen, his hands growing thicker and rounder as his fingers almost merged together, almost resembling hooves. Spines had grown out of his back, completely covering it and almost making him resemble a large porcupine. One of the spines would occasionally vanish from his back, sinking into his back and then quickly flying out from a different part of his body as a type of sneak attack.
Liang Chen once again pulled out his bow, gathering the surrounding wind to form an arrow, this one quite a bit thicker than the previous ones. He filled the tip of the arrow with emerald lightning and the shaft with his white poison, drawing the string and unleashing the arrow. The arrow split up the moment it left the bow, turning into countless tiny arrows that shot at Shi Longyu from all angles. Yan Ling turned her head slightly, locking eyes with Liang Chen, both of them nodding their heads. Yan Ling quickly jumped back, most of the arrows hitting Shi Longyu and exploding with a thunderous roar, spreading long arcs of lightning and a thick cloud of poison.
The moment the arrows exploded, Liang Chen ran forward, dashing past Yan Ling and into the cloud of poison. Shi Longyu seemed to have noticed his approach thanks to the vibrations he created in the stone stage as he ran, one of his left fists coming directly for Liang Chen's head. The three other arms were currently busy fending off several of the smaller arrows that had yet to strike Shi Longyu, leaving him with only this arm to defend against the oncoming Liang Chen.
Liang Chen's lips curled up slightly, his right arm shooting forward and grabbing onto Shi Longyu's hand, grasping it like a vice. Shi Longyu felt like his hand had crashed into a metal wall, unable to move a single inch further. The cloud of poison was compressed into a single small orb by Shi Longyu, allowing him to properly see Liang Chen and sneer at him.
"Do you really think this is enough to hold me down? Don't think that this is the full extent of my transformation."
Shi Longyu's left arms started growing even thicker, his fingers fully merging together to form metallic hooves. He sneered at Liang Chen, waiting to see him lose his grip on Shi Longyu's hand because it had grown so much larger. But the scene he expected never appeared. Instead, the arm that Liang Chen was holding onto was flooded with intense pain as it grew thicker.
Shi Longyu's hand grew much thicker, but Liang Chen's hand didn't budge in the slightest. Rather than Liang Chen's grip budging, it was Shi Longyu's hand that started to budge first, Liang Chen's fingers shattering and piercing into Shi Longyu's exoskeleton. Shi Longyu looked at Liang Chen's immovable right arm with an expression filled with shock, unable to contain his voice.
"What the fuck is that hand?!"
Shi Longyu had no idea how Liang Chen's hand could be that strong, to not only remain unmoved as he fully unleashed his transformation, but to even pierce through his exoskeleton and wound him. How could he know that Liang Chen had already altered the bones in his right hand using a technique as supreme as the Ocean God's Physique? And he had even done it using an element as strong and unique as the fused element created by him and Yan Ling.
Liang Chen's right hand was wounded when he grabbed onto Kong Luxi's sword, but it wasn't to the point where it would weaken so much that Shi Longyu could escape his grasp. Shi Longyu suddenly picked up some vibrations coming from the ground behind him, quickly turning his head and spotting Yan Ling. She had managed to sneak up directly behind him, reaching for his back with both her palms.
Shi Longyu instantly felt a foreboding feeling from her palms so he wanted to dodge, but with Liang Chen's arrows occupying three of his arms and Liang Chen holding onto his last arm, there was nothing Shi Longyu could do. He shot out all his spines in a last desperate attack, but just as the spines left his body, a mighty wind blew down vertically from above Shi Longyu, all the spines force down into the ground by Liang Chen, not allowing them to harm or disturb Yan Ling. Shi Longyu turned his head onto Liang Chen again, fear finally visible in his eyes as he quickly called out.
"Please don't! My brother is friends with Qian Liao of God Piercing Fang tower!"
He thought that Liang Chen and Yan Ling would at least hesitate upon hearing who his brother was friends with, but Liang Chen didn't even bat an eye. He knew that God Piercing Fang tower was the name given to the tower in Ten Thousand Leaves city, but he had no idea who this Qian Liao was. It was easy to guess that he was someone strong within that tower, but Liang Chen and Yan Ling didn't care. No matter how strong this Qian Liao was, their actual ambitions were placed far higher, their fangs were being sharpened to sink into the throats of people far stronger.
Yan Ling's palms landed on Shi Longyu's back in a seemingly soft and gentle manner, as light as the spring breeze. But shortly after her palms touched his back, cracks spread over Shi Longyu's entire body as blood poured forth and his eyes exploded. Blood and crushed organs leaked out of Shi Longyu's mouth and the hole in his chest, splattering the stone stage beneath him as he collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Yan Ling had used her strongest technique, the Storm King's Fist, an attack that fused the strengths of water and wind to form a crushing attack that ruined an opponent from the inside. This Storm King's Fist had not only grown stronger since she was now also cultivating her body, but she had also added her own comprehension of the water and the wind element to it, making the attack even stronger.
Shi Longyu had a tremendously strong lifeforce, but faced with this attack that Yan Ling had put all her focus on and charged up, his only end upon receiving it was to die. Liang Chen let go of Shi Longyu's hand and bent over, picking up his interspatial ring and storing his corpse into his interspatial ring, after which he stretched his body and spoke up in a content voice.
"You know, that felt really fucking good."
He wasn't just talking about the fact that they got to beat the two of them down, he was mostly talking about the clear proof that the two of them had gotten stronger since arriving here. If they continued to improve like this, how long would it be before they could kill Huang Dong, Qing Lan Yong, and Yan Ling's mother? Yan Ling undid her own secret technique and looked at her two palms, a smile appearing on her face.
"Yup, that felt really damn good. But just so you know, I was the one who beat him so you don't get your reward."
The one she was talking about was Shi Longyu, who had already been stored into Liang Chen's interspatial ring. She said she would give him a reward if he made sure to beat Shi Longyu properly, but it had been Yan Ling who ended up fighting him. Liang Chen couldn't refute her, as they were technically true, so he simply pointed at the only remaining thing of Kong Luxi, one of his swords and his interspatial ring.
"If that's how you wanna play, then I was technically the one who beat him so you don't get your reward either."
Liang Chen walked over to the sword, picking up the interspatial ring that was lying next to it and tossing it to Yan Ling. She caught the interspatial ring, her lips curling into a smirk as she put on what Liang Chen could only describe as the cutest yet smuggest smile he had ever seen.
"Not true. I pointed at Shi Longyu, but you never specified who I had to beat, you only said that I had to give him a good beating. Hence, I still get to receive a reward of my choosing."
Liang Chen was about to refute her words, but his words caught in his throat. He thought back to what he had done and said before the battle started, and realized that although he had implied that she had to beat Kong Luxi, he had never specified it. Since that was the case, he could only do his best to salvage what he could.
"Well shit. But I never said the reward could be anything of your choosing, I just said a reward."
Yan Ling did not care for Liang Chen's thoughts, nor would she allow him to salvage anything. She stored the contents of the interspatial ring into her own, giggling as she walked over to Liang Chen.
"Nihihi. Well, that's what the reward is now, you don't have the right to overrule it."
Liang Chen once again felt like refuting her words, or at least complaining, but thinking about how she might sulk if he were to actually do that, he could only let out a sigh and shake his head.
"Ai, what a shameless person we have here."
He could only consider himself utterly defeated right now, not in the body but in the spirit, crushed by superior shamelessness. Yan Ling grabbed onto his right hand and used her law of water to heal the wounds he had received during the battle, the two of them leaving the arena and heading for the spatial array that would send them to the third floor, Yan Ling's giggle echoing through the area.
"Nihihi, yup, but you're stuck with me, so suck it up."
Kong Luxi and Shi Longyu's lips curled into smiles when they saw that Liang Chen and Yan Ling weren't going to shy away despite the difference in cultivation, both of them bringing out their weapons. Shi Longyu's weapons were a pair of blue silk gloves on his upper set of arms and a pair of brass knuckles on his lower set of arms. Kong Luxi's weapon of choice was a pair of silver swords that were strangely curved at the base and seemed like they could be connected at the handle, forming large scissors. Yan Ling used her free hand to point at Shi Longyu, letting out a loud huff."Little Freak, you better beat him so much that he'll cry for mercy and forgiveness before you kill him. If you don't, you better be prepared to receive the silent treatment for the next month, at least."No woman, especially not one as proud as Yan Ling, would enjoy being talked about in the manner that Shi Longyu had used. The moment he decided to use taunts like that against the two of them, he had doomed himself to a terrible end, no matter which of the two he ended up fighting. Liang Chen cast a sideways glance at Yan Ling, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated manner."What, silence? For at least a month? Oh noooo, how would I ever deal with that peace?"The fact that the two of them were still joking around like this showed their confidence, the belief they had in each other and their own strength. The corner of Yan Ling's mouth raised slightly as she cast a sideways glance at Liang Chen, slowly moving her sword closer to him."Are those the words of someone looking for a beating? You think I won't beat you up first and then toss you out of the arena alongside those scrubs?"Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi stood at the other side of the stage, looking at Liang Chen and Yan Ling's flirting with vigilant gazes. They were confident in their own strength, but they knew that Liang Chen and Yan Ling weren't easy prey, they were fine with taking their time and observing the situation. Liang Chen simply chuckled, tracing Yan Ling's neck with a finger."Beat me? Are you sure you won't just end up being carried around by the neck like usual? Maybe I'll just pick you up and slowly carry you back to the house, giving you a kiss every now and then so that everyone can know what I'm going to do to you when we're alone."Liang Chen made his words as sickeningly sweet as he could, but Yan Ling barely showed a reaction. She didn't even swat his hand away, she simply let out a sigh and hung her head slightly."How did I ever end up together with a lecher like you?"At this point, not only Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi but even others in the audience were starting to look at Liang Chen and Yan Ling with somewhat strange gazes. They had seen many different scenes in the arenas before, but this was the first time they had ever seen people flirt so openly and shamelessly. Liang Chen pulled back his hand, chuckling once more and sweeping Yan Ling with a gaze, almost as if he had completely forgotten about their opponents."Birds of a feather flock together, I'm certain that you are just as lecherous as me."He expected Yan Ling to reject his statement as vehemently as she had in the past, but she actually gave a short nod of her head, sending Liang Chen her best seductive wink while pointing her sword at Shi Longyu."Aye, that might be true. Guess we'll have to find out when it's just the two of us. Who knows, I might even decide to give you a reward if you give him a good enough beating, so get to it already you slow bastard."The Qi within her body started to seethe right after she spoke, strands of her hair turning crimson as she activated her secret technique. Clearly, it was time to focus on the battle ahead so that the two of them could continue to climb the tower while enjoying each others presence."Aye aye, ma'am. But I'll make it fair, if you give him a good enough beating, I'll be the one to give you a reward."Liang Chen sent a wink at Yan Ling and then stepped forward, immediately activating his bloodline. Gray scales covered his arms, his fingers turning more claw-like as his gray hair turned a light cyan in color. In the past, his eyes would have turned a dull gray in color, but now they stayed in their heterochromia state, one golden and one cyan. They were wearing the Heaven Altering Masks to disguise themselves as people from the Undead race, so Liang Chen made sure that the fake third eye on his forehead was the same color as his golden eye, making it seem like his cyan eye was somehow special.A thunderous sound rang out as Liang Chen shot forward and turned into a blur, faint trails of emerald lightning left in his wake. He arrived in front of Shi Longyu almost instantly, the tip of his spear stabbing towards the Fiendgods throat. Shi Longyu stretched out his upper set of arms and reached for the spear, aiming to clap his hands around the tip. At the same time, he also attacked with his lower set of arms, aiming one punch at Liang Chen's waist and forming the other hand into a spear and aiming it at his chest.A somewhat strange scene appeared as Shi Longyu's clap approached the spear tip, the air and space around the spear tip seemed to be compressed and pushed onto the spear tip, almost as if it was trying to dig into it. As for Shi Longyu's second set of arms, the flow of energy around them seemed to become locked up, unable to move freely.Liang Chen quickly reacted, tilting the spear so that the tip went upwards, missing Shi Longyu's throat by quite a bit but as a result also dodging his clap. Using the same tilting motion that raised the tip of his spear, he slammed the bottom of the spear handle into the ground and used it as a support, jumping up and using his grasp on the spear to hold himself sideways in the air, dodging the two punches and landing a kick on Shi Longyu's abdomen, forcing him to take several steps backward.As he took several steps backward, Shi Longyu grabbed onto Liang Chen's outstretched leg and exerted all his physical force to turn his body around and swing Liang Chen over his head like a sack of potatoes, slamming him towards the ground. When Shi Longyu grabbed onto his leg, Liang Chen felt like his entire right leg became sealed, the Qi and blood within it left completely locked up. At the same time, it felt like all the flesh and bones within his leg were trying to move, gathering at the center of his knee. Had it not been for the fact that he had strengthened his body through body cultivation, his entire right leg might have instantly crippled itself.Noticing this strange scene, Liang Chen came to the conclusion that Shi Longyu was likely cultivating in two rather strange and rare laws, the law of compression and the law of sealing. Finding Demonic beasts that could use these laws was very hard so it seemed like Shi Longyu had gotten quite lucky in the past. Liang Chen wouldn't just let himself get slammed into the ground, so he retaliated while Shi Longyu was in the middle of swinging him down.He stored away his spear and took out the bow he had taken from the opponents they faced right after coming to this floor, drawing the string as far back as he could. The surrounding air gathered at his fingertips, forming a hollow arrow that rested on the bow. Crimson lightning gathered within the tip of the arrow while a violet poison filled the shaft of the arrow. Right now Liang Chen was only strong enough to use crimson lightning to fill the tip of the arrow, any more and he would start suffering wounds from the lightning. But he was confident that there would come a day where he could fill the entire sky with crimson lightning, even violet lightning or stronger types would have to follow his command.He unleashed the arrow when he was about half a meter from the ground, a screeching sound ringing out as the arrow flew. Since he was so close, there was no way for Shi Longyu to dodge the arrow in time, he could only look on as the tip pierced into his shoulder and the entire arrow exploded with a thunderous roar, scattering arcs of crimson lightning and a cloud of sweet-smelling poison that affected one's vision, hearing, and balance.Shi Longyu was forced to let go of Liang Chen's legs, but he was confident that it was too late for Liang Chen to avoid crashing into the ground. He felt strong vibrations in his feet as something hit the stage, but the cloud of poison obscured his vision and the poison in his body affected his hearing so he didn't know exactly what had hit the stage. He quickly compressed the cloud of poison into a single point, using his law of sealing to prevent the poison already within his body from spreading any further, quickly casting his gaze onto where Liang Chen should be.Liang Chen had indeed crashed into the ground, but not head first as Shi Longyu had wanted. Liang Chen had stored away the bow and stretched out his right arm, his fingers digging into the stage as he held himself up in a handstand, preventing his head from hitting the stage.His head hadn't crashed into the stage, but the leg that Shi Longyu had grabbed was aching, a deep imprint visible where Shi Longyu had grabbed on to him. The speed of the blood and Qi currently within his leg had also slowed down, still affected by the law of sealing. As it had been the center of Shi Longyu's law of compression, Liang Chen felt a great pain whenever he tried to move his knee, making it very painful to move his leg. Had he let Shi Longyu hold on to his leg for a bit longer, his leg might have ended up with severe injuries.Liang Chen quickly bent his body, his feet touching the ground again but his fingers remaining buried in the stone stage. He gathered his strength in his right arm, pulling out a chunk of the stone stage and giving his body a quick twist, throwing the chunk so fast it broke the speed of sound as it headed for Shi Longyu's abdomen.Shi Longyu quickly moved to dodge, taking half a step to the side so that the stone flew past his waist. But just as he moved, he saw that the corners of Liang Chen's mouth started curving up. He turned his head to the side just in time to see Yan Ling grabbing onto the chunk and slamming it sideways into the right side of Shi Longyu's abdomen, leaving a small crack on his hard exoskeleton in the process.Shi Longyu could see Kong Luxi a short distance behind Yan Ling, his mouth wide opened as he seemed to be shouting. But Shi Longyu was unable to hear anything, the earlier arrow filled with poison still disturbing his hearing. Kong Luxi raised both his swords and crossed them, aiming a crossed slash at Yan Ling's unguarded back in retaliation.Yan Ling didn't move to dodge, leaning forward and aiming a downward punch at Shi Longyu's right foot to somewhat cripple his movement. Kong Luxi was a bit suspicious about why she wasn't dodging, but he quickly received his answer. A thunderous roar rang out, a golden spear flying through the air and clashing with his crossed swords, blocking the attack. Liang Chen followed the spear like a blur, grabbing onto it with his left hand and stepping on Yan Ling's back.He exerted a bit of force into his foot, jumping forward while also increasing the speed at which Yan Ling leaned forward, causing Shi Longyu to misjudge the time needed to dodge the attack. Yan Ling's palm smashed into Shi Longyu's foot, a crushing pressure unleashing from it and causing several cracks to appear on his foot.While she was doing this, Liang Chen had jumped into Kong Luxi's bosom. He tilted his spear upwards with a quick motion, the bottom of the spear heading for Kong Luxi's left knee. At the same time, he was reaching for Kong Luxi's right shoulder with the claw-like fingers on his right hand.Kong Luxi had been in the middle of his attack when Liang Chen blocked him and jumped into his bosom, so he wasn't in the best of position to dodge. He slid his crossed blades against each other to uncross them, the sword in his left hand moving to slice open Liang Chen's right hand while the sword in his right hand moved to parry the incoming spear handle.The sword in his right hand was the first to meet its target, allowing Kong Luxi to realize that Liang Chen possessed greater physical power than he first gave him credit for. He wanted to quickly put more force into his left hand to better block Liang Chen's right hand, but it was already too late for that.Liang Chen grabbed onto Kong Luxi's sword, the clash of the blade and the scales on his hand creating sparks as the scales on his hand shattered, blood pouring forth from his hand. Liang Chen clenched with all his might, the blade bending slightly because Liang Chen was grabbing onto it with the hand that had already gotten its bones altered. He drew back his arm with all his might, the sword leaving Kong Luxi's arm and soaring through the air, landing only a few meters away from the audience seats, stained in the blood from Liang Chen's hand.Kong Luxi's brows furred as his expression sank, he specialized in fighting with both swords at once, losing one meant losing a bit of his strength. He clenched his now free left hand, ten transparent howling faces screeching out from his body and heading for Liang Chen, the air around them distorting as they screamed.Kong Luxi had reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, or the Ten-Souls Spirit Lord if they were to use the terms of the Undead race. This meant that he could create and control ten extra souls, which was what he was using to attack right now, aiming an attack directly at Liang Chen's soul. Liang Chen had a strong soul, but he couldn't ignore the attack of a soul cultivator at the Soaring Immortal realm.He placed his right hand in front of him, his Anima Essence, poison, and lightning gathering in front of his hand, forming a shield with three layers to hold back the attack. Kong Luxi took this chance to grab onto Liang Chen's spear with his left hand and pull at it with all his might, taking it out of his grasp before he had the chance to store it into his interspatial ring. He threw the spear as far away as he could, chuckling lightly."You had quite a nice idea, I hope you'll forgive me for copying you."Liang Chen finished blocking the ten wailing souls and then cast a quick glance past Kong Luxi, memorizing where the spear landed so that he could pick it up later. Leaving the stage meant losing, so he couldn't go and pick it up now. Kong Luxi didn't want to give Liang Chen any time to come up with anything, stabbing out with his remaining sword as quickly as he could, aiming for Liang Chen's throat.Liang Chen quickly bent his knees and leaned backward, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out his bow again, creating another hollow arrow using wind. He filled this arrow with a gray gas, poison mixed with his Anima Essence and law of time. He aimed the arrow at Kong Luxi's chest and unleashed it, causing it to turn into a gray blur.Kong Luxi copied Liang Chen's movements, bending his knees and leaning backward to dodge the arrow. He unleashed the ten wailing souls at the same time, sending all of them at the arrow to swallow it up and neutralize the attack. The arrow suddenly exploded, turning into several smaller arrows, each containing a portion of the gray poison. The smaller arrows didn't avoid the howling souls, heading directly into their maws and allowing themselves to be swallowed.The poison within them was unleashed, the ten souls immediately starting to howl even more as the poison started to corrode them. With his poison, lightning, and law of time, Liang Chen could be considered the nemesis of all souls, sending them out to face him was one of Kong Luxi's greatest mistakes. The souls were part of Kong Luxi, so he too started screeching in pain, feeling all the pain that his ten souls were feeling.Liang Chen stored away his bow, twisting his body and placing his left arm on the ground, his fingers digging into the ground. He used his left arm as support and exerted all his force, stretching out both his legs and performing a sideways sweep that knocked the already unsteady Kong Luxi down. Once Kong Luxi fell on his back, Liang Chen pushed off from the ground with his left arm, throwing himself into the air and landing on his feet right next to Kong Luxi.As he landed on the ground, Liang Chen dipped into a kneeling position and clenched his right hand, his fist crashing into the screeching Kong Luxi's chest. A crunching sound rang out as Kong Luxi's chest caved in, Liang Chen's right hand sinking deep into his chest and crushing his heart. Kong Luxi was from the Undead race, so his heart mattered little to him, one had to destroy all his souls to kill him.Poison flooded out of Liang Chen's right hand, quickly spreading through all of Kong Luxi's body and causing his flesh to dissolve and turn to mist, leaving only his ten screeching souls. Liang Chen gathered up more poison in his hand, sending out ten more arrows of concentrated poison, one into each soul.The screeching of the souls turned into gurgling as the corroding process was sped up, all ten souls quickly vanishing and signifying the death of Kong Luxi. Before he came to this planet, Liang Chen would not have been able to defeat someone at the early stage of the Soaring Immortal stage like this, but he had gotten far stronger with time. Liang Chen quickly turned his head to check how Yan Ling was doing against Shi Longyu, confident in her strength yet still worried about her safety.Yan Ling was currently embroiled in a violent battle with Shi Longyu, blood seeping out of her pores thanks to her secret technique. She was using quick and flexible movements to exchange blows with Shi Longyu, not giving him the chance to grab onto her and use his law of compression as he had done to Liang Chen's leg. Cracks had spread over his exoskeleton, blood dripping forth from the cracks.He had a thin hole in his chest, right where his heart was, vast amounts of blood pouring forth. Yan Ling had clearly stabbed him through the heart at least once already, forcing him to spend a lot of his energy to regenerate it. He wasn't the only one who could regenerate his wounds, Yan Ling also had some proficiency in it. She could mix her law of water with her Fiendgod Essence to drastically increase the speed at which her own wounds healed, allowing her to adopt a fighting style similar to Liang Chen's, one that could only be called self-destructive.By taking the law of water as her secondary law, she had given up a lot of early attacking power, but what she had gained in turn was a healing ability that would allow her to fight with increased ferocity for longer periods than other people. And when Liang Chen remembered the attack Yan Ling had launched against Shi Longyu's foot earlier, one which produced a crushing pressure that didn't belong to the law of wind, he could also guess that she seemed to have come up with something rather interesting for her attacks.Right now, Shi Longyu was clearly going all out, the Demonic beast parts he used to cultivate appearing on his body. His two right arms had grown some brown fur, his fingers turning into curved claws. His two left arms took on a more metallic sheen, his hands growing thicker and rounder as his fingers almost merged together, almost resembling hooves. Spines had grown out of his back, completely covering it and almost making him resemble a large porcupine. One of the spines would occasionally vanish from his back, sinking into his back and then quickly flying out from a different part of his body as a type of sneak attack.Liang Chen once again pulled out his bow, gathering the surrounding wind to form an arrow, this one quite a bit thicker than the previous ones. He filled the tip of the arrow with emerald lightning and the shaft with his white poison, drawing the string and unleashing the arrow. The arrow split up the moment it left the bow, turning into countless tiny arrows that shot at Shi Longyu from all angles. Yan Ling turned her head slightly, locking eyes with Liang Chen, both of them nodding their heads. Yan Ling quickly jumped back, most of the arrows hitting Shi Longyu and exploding with a thunderous roar, spreading long arcs of lightning and a thick cloud of poison.The moment the arrows exploded, Liang Chen ran forward, dashing past Yan Ling and into the cloud of poison. Shi Longyu seemed to have noticed his approach thanks to the vibrations he created in the stone stage as he ran, one of his left fists coming directly for Liang Chen's head. The three other arms were currently busy fending off several of the smaller arrows that had yet to strike Shi Longyu, leaving him with only this arm to defend against the oncoming Liang Chen.Liang Chen's lips curled up slightly, his right arm shooting forward and grabbing onto Shi Longyu's hand, grasping it like a vice. Shi Longyu felt like his hand had crashed into a metal wall, unable to move a single inch further. The cloud of poison was compressed into a single small orb by Shi Longyu, allowing him to properly see Liang Chen and sneer at him."Do you really think this is enough to hold me down? Don't think that this is the full extent of my transformation."Shi Longyu's left arms started growing even thicker, his fingers fully merging together to form metallic hooves. He sneered at Liang Chen, waiting to see him lose his grip on Shi Longyu's hand because it had grown so much larger. But the scene he expected never appeared. Instead, the arm that Liang Chen was holding onto was flooded with intense pain as it grew thicker.Shi Longyu's hand grew much thicker, but Liang Chen's hand didn't budge in the slightest. Rather than Liang Chen's grip budging, it was Shi Longyu's hand that started to budge first, Liang Chen's fingers shattering and piercing into Shi Longyu's exoskeleton. Shi Longyu looked at Liang Chen's immovable right arm with an expression filled with shock, unable to contain his voice."What the fuck is that hand?!"Shi Longyu had no idea how Liang Chen's hand could be that strong, to not only remain unmoved as he fully unleashed his transformation, but to even pierce through his exoskeleton and wound him. How could he know that Liang Chen had already altered the bones in his right hand using a technique as supreme as the Ocean God's Physique? And he had even done it using an element as strong and unique as the fused element created by him and Yan Ling.Liang Chen's right hand was wounded when he grabbed onto Kong Luxi's sword, but it wasn't to the point where it would weaken so much that Shi Longyu could escape his grasp. Shi Longyu suddenly picked up some vibrations coming from the ground behind him, quickly turning his head and spotting Yan Ling. She had managed to sneak up directly behind him, reaching for his back with both her palms.Shi Longyu instantly felt a foreboding feeling from her palms so he wanted to dodge, but with Liang Chen's arrows occupying three of his arms and Liang Chen holding onto his last arm, there was nothing Shi Longyu could do. He shot out all his spines in a last desperate attack, but just as the spines left his body, a mighty wind blew down vertically from above Shi Longyu, all the spines force down into the ground by Liang Chen, not allowing them to harm or disturb Yan Ling. Shi Longyu turned his head onto Liang Chen again, fear finally visible in his eyes as he quickly called out."Please don't! My brother is friends with Qian Liao of God Piercing Fang tower!"He thought that Liang Chen and Yan Ling would at least hesitate upon hearing who his brother was friends with, but Liang Chen didn't even bat an eye. He knew that God Piercing Fang tower was the name given to the tower in Ten Thousand Leaves city, but he had no idea who this Qian Liao was. It was easy to guess that he was someone strong within that tower, but Liang Chen and Yan Ling didn't care. No matter how strong this Qian Liao was, their actual ambitions were placed far higher, their fangs were being sharpened to sink into the throats of people far stronger.Yan Ling's palms landed on Shi Longyu's back in a seemingly soft and gentle manner, as light as the spring breeze. But shortly after her palms touched his back, cracks spread over Shi Longyu's entire body as blood poured forth and his eyes exploded. Blood and crushed organs leaked out of Shi Longyu's mouth and the hole in his chest, splattering the stone stage beneath him as he collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.Yan Ling had used her strongest technique, the Storm King's Fist, an attack that fused the strengths of water and wind to form a crushing attack that ruined an opponent from the inside. This Storm King's Fist had not only grown stronger since she was now also cultivating her body, but she had also added her own comprehension of the water and the wind element to it, making the attack even stronger.Shi Longyu had a tremendously strong lifeforce, but faced with this attack that Yan Ling had put all her focus on and charged up, his only end upon receiving it was to die. Liang Chen let go of Shi Longyu's hand and bent over, picking up his interspatial ring and storing his corpse into his interspatial ring, after which he stretched his body and spoke up in a content voice."You know, that felt really fucking good."He wasn't just talking about the fact that they got to beat the two of them down, he was mostly talking about the clear proof that the two of them had gotten stronger since arriving here. If they continued to improve like this, how long would it be before they could kill Huang Dong, Qing Lan Yong, and Yan Ling's mother? Yan Ling undid her own secret technique and looked at her two palms, a smile appearing on her face."Yup, that felt really damn good. But just so you know, I was the one who beat him so you don't get your reward."The one she was talking about was Shi Longyu, who had already been stored into Liang Chen's interspatial ring. She said she would give him a reward if he made sure to beat Shi Longyu properly, but it had been Yan Ling who ended up fighting him. Liang Chen couldn't refute her, as they were technically true, so he simply pointed at the only remaining thing of Kong Luxi, one of his swords and his interspatial ring."If that's how you wanna play, then I was technically the one who beat him so you don't get your reward either."Liang Chen walked over to the sword, picking up the interspatial ring that was lying next to it and tossing it to Yan Ling. She caught the interspatial ring, her lips curling into a smirk as she put on what Liang Chen could only describe as the cutest yet smuggest smile he had ever seen."Not true. I pointed at Shi Longyu, but you never specified who I had to beat, you only said that I had to give him a good beating. Hence, I still get to receive a reward of my choosing."Liang Chen was about to refute her words, but his words caught in his throat. He thought back to what he had done and said before the battle started, and realized that although he had implied that she had to beat Kong Luxi, he had never specified it. Since that was the case, he could only do his best to salvage what he could."Well shit. But I never said the reward could be anything of your choosing, I just said a reward."Yan Ling did not care for Liang Chen's thoughts, nor would she allow him to salvage anything. She stored the contents of the interspatial ring into her own, giggling as she walked over to Liang Chen."Nihihi. Well, that's what the reward is now, you don't have the right to overrule it."Liang Chen once again felt like refuting her words, or at least complaining, but thinking about how she might sulk if he were to actually do that, he could only let out a sigh and shake his head."Ai, what a shameless person we have here."He could only consider himself utterly defeated right now, not in the body but in the spirit, crushed by superior shamelessness. Yan Ling grabbed onto his right hand and used her law of water to heal the wounds he had received during the battle, the two of them leaving the arena and heading for the spatial array that would send them to the third floor, Yan Ling's giggle echoing through the area."Nihihi, yup, but you're stuck with me, so suck it up."
