Liang Chen's mind quickly sank into a version of Green Rivers city that was completely flooded with blood, the houses halfway submerged in it. Compared to the last time he was here, the number of corpses had also increased.
Not only could he see the corpses of the Blue-scaled Leeches that he killed, but there were constantly new bodies appearing in the blood, allowing him to guess that his body was likely engaging in a rather gruesome slaughter right now.
Liang Chen quickly landed in the city, but strangely enough, he didn't sink into the blood, standing on top of it. He felt strangely light, completely filled with energy. The city was still split in half by that massive black crack, which seemed to be growing slightly as he looked at it. But as he looked at that crack, he felt a slight connection with it, a faint stream of energy flowing out from the crack and connecting with him, making his body feel even lighter.
His eyes eventually landed on the now several meters taller blood-haired Liang Chen, who stood submerged in the blood, a wide and victorious grin on his face. Looking at the grin, Liang Chen couldn't help but chuckle lightly.
"Is that what I look like with a shit-eating grin? Doesn't really suit me."
The eyebrow of the blood-haired Liang Chen twitched slightly when he saw how casual Liang Chen was acting. But before he got the chance to even open his mouth, Liang Chen started to walk towards him, a calm smile on his face as he gazed up at the blood-haired Liang Chen.
"Yo, you've grown quite a bit larger since I last saw you. It seems like you've gorged yourself on all that aggressive energy."
Last time Liang Chen had been here, this blood-haired Liang Chen had been the same height as him, but he was no at least around 7 meters tall. The blood-haired Liang Chen was once again caught off guard by Liang Chen's casual gait and his words, raising an eyebrow as he responded, his voice deep and gravely.
"You realized?"
He thought that it would at least take Liang Chen a bit more time to figure out what he really was, but now it seemed like he had already realized it. Liang Chen gave a light shrug of his shoulders, only giving a vague response.
"Not immediately, I wasn't completely certain until I saw you just now. I'm quite surprised that you chose to take my own appearance."
The first time Liang Chen had seen this blood-haired version of him, he had been rather confused at just who he was, but now there was no doubt in his mind. This blood-haired Liang Chen was the form of his bestial and savage instincts, the aggressive energy that had invaded his body after he bathed in the blood of Demonic beasts. Otherwise, he wouldn't have grown so much after Liang Chen drenched himself in the blood of that white spider.
The blood-haired Liang Chen responded with a similar shrug of his shoulders, not too bothered by the fact that Liang Chen had realized what he was.
"Wasn't my idea. Since I'm a part of you, I just ended up taking your form."
It was just an amalgamation of aggressive energy and the instincts of several different Demonic beasts, it was completely formless. So once it became a part of Liang Chen's mind, it would, of course, take a form that was very similar to his. After shrugging his shoulders, the blood-haired Liang Chen rubbed his chin slightly, looking Liang Chen up and down.
"I must say, you are far calmer than I expected you to be. I thought you would be fighting me tooth and nail so that you could retain yourself."
The fact that he was now so much larger than Liang Chen meant that he was far stronger than Liang Chen, taking over his mind would be a cinch. He had been with Liang Chen since he first started cultivating, so he knew that Liang Chen wouldn't just let him take him over as he pleased, he would fight even if it seemed pointless. Because of that, he was slightly wary of Liang Chen's current calm and nonchalance.
He should also look far weaker than he did now, his body sinking into the blood and barely being able to stay afloat. But here he was, walking on the blood as if it was solid ground. How did he do it? Now it was Liang Chen's turn to give a shrug of his shoulders, his lips curling up slightly.
"That was my intention at first, but things changed. If I had to fight you alone, I would indeed have fought with everything I had."
Right after Liang Chen shrugged his shoulders, the blood beneath his feet started to wriggle and rise, turning into thick vines that shot forward and coiled around the blood-haired Liang Chen, quickly tying him down.
"This?!"
The blood-haired Liang Chen was completely caught off guard. He was also shocked when he realized that he couldn't do anything to these bloody vines that were seemingly draining his energy, forcing him to shrink. He couldn't understand it. This place was inside Liang Chen's mind, so it wasn't strange that he could do something like this, but how did he have the energy to do so right now? He should be wounded and exhausted, his mind on the brink of collapse. The rapidly blood-haired Liang Chen could only look on as Liang Chen slowly walked over, placing one hand on his forehead.
"But I'm not fighting you alone. There is someone out there who is willing to put herself on the line just to save me, so I'm feeling pretty energetic right about now, good enough to take on several of you at once."
Liang Chen's left hand was on the forehead of the blood-haired Liang Chen, and his right hand touched the air in front of his own throat. He could feel a weight on his back, arms wrapped around his neck, a faint voice in his ear. He couldn't see it, but he guessed that Yan Ling had grabbed onto him when he started the massacre, probably shouting at him to get him to retain his mind.
He had promised her that he would get them out of this mess so that they could chat freely in the future. And to honor that promise, there was no way he could allow himself to lose to something as pathetic as his own savage instincts.
Other than that, there was also that strange stream of energy coming from the black crack, which was only growing faster and faster. The blood-haired Liang Chen seemed to be scared of whatever was inside of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be looking to help Liang Chen, fuelling him with energy. The expression of the blood-haired Liang Chen quickly turned sour, a defeated laugh escaping his lips.
"Hahaha, so I still ended up losing at the final step. What a shame, if only you had given in to your instincts once or twice, my influence would have already been ingrained in your very soul."
If Liang Chen had only listened to his instincts once or twice outside of battle, killing some people that hadn't tried to kill him, or eating Sun Xia, then the savage instincts would have been able to seep into his actual mind, properly infecting him. But what a shame, Liang Chen had always pushed those instincts down, not allowing himself to be swallowed by them.
After letting out a defeated laugh, the now only half a meter high blood-haired Liang Chen glanced at the black crack that had grown much larger, a vicious laughter escaping his lips before he vanished.
"Fine, you get to be the king, but whether or not you get to have the last laugh is still unknown! You've opened that crack all the way now, so it's only a matter of time until it comes flooding out, all it needs is one last push!"
His laughter continued to echo out, but his body had already vanished. In the battle between Liang Chen and his savage instincts, Liang Chen had won. Never again would his bestial instincts tell him to avoid cities or eat people. All that would remain were the instincts he himself chose to keep, the sharpened ones that let him detect danger and which Demonic beasts he could eat.
After dealing with the blood-haired Liang Chen, the blood and corpses in the city around him didn't vanish, so it seemed like they were connected to it, but to something else. Liang Chen slowly walked over to the crack, which was still fuelling him with energy, and peered into the dark depths, muttering to himself.
"I really do wonder what exactly is located down there."
Why was this crack located in his mind, why did it provide him with energy, why was the blood-haired Liang Chen scared of it, and just what was located at the bottom? All these questions floated in his mind, but he still couldn't get an answer to them.
Since he couldn't get an answer, Liang Chen decided to put the questions aside, for now, focusing on the situation at hand. He closed his eyes, allowing his mind to fuse back into his body, giving him full control over it again.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in the Demon's Graveyard. His entire body screamed in pain, but at the same time, he felt filled with more energy than he had ever had before. The land around him was completely razed, torn apart corpses spread all around him. He could see a large number of people all around him, looking at him with a myriad of gazes. Some looked at him with fear, some with anger, others with shock. While he was sweeping his gaze around the area, he heard a weak voice in his ear.
"...Took you long enough..."
He turned his head slightly and saw that Yan Ling had indeed grabbed onto him, hanging onto his neck with all her might. Since he had stopped his slaughter, she guessed that he had managed to regain control over himself. When his mind regained control over his body, the memories of what he had done after drenching himself in Demonic beast blood also flowed into him.
The first thing he had done was tear apart the corpse of the spider, further drenching himself in blood and guts. He then charged into the people around them, using his body as a weapon and tearing them apart with his bare hands. While doing so, he had moved so fast that Yan Ling almost fell off, the speed causing her to become nauseous. He quickly sent her an apologetic smile, giving a slight nod of his head.
"Sorry, It's all good now."
Liang Chen dashed back to the corpse of the spider, moving so fast that he crossed the distance in the blink of an eye. The vast energy in the blood of the spider was not only fuelling his body, but it was also speeding up the already fast natural healing of his wounds. He put down Yan Ling, leaning her against the spider.
Considering what he was going to do now, she could not keep hitching a ride on his back. She realized what he was going to do, so she sent him a light smile and a short nod, giving him a thumbs-up. Liang Chen turned to look at the people that were still surrounding them. He had killed quite a few of them in his mindless state, but their greed still prevented them from fleeing, each of them desperate for the chance of maybe becoming an honorary disciple. Liang Chen took a deep breath, sinking part of his mind into his own body, muttering to himself.
"For now, let's focus on creating that Poison Seed, it'll let me control all this poison."
You are reading story Monarch of Heaven’s Wrath at novel35.com
The blood of the spider was filled with the energy of poison and lightning but in his mindless state, Liang Chen had not been able to use any of it, using brute force to battle. Now that he had gained control over his body, his first course of action was to put the lightning and poison to proper use. He thought about using the energy in the blood to rebuild his Ascended Tower, but for some reason, it felt more correct to him to focus on the two seeds he had created, as if they were more useful to him.
Half his mind sank into his own body, while the other half was used to control his body, azure lightning crackling around him as he charged at the rest of the people that were surrounding them. They wanted to kill him and Yan Ling, so he saw no problem with killing all of them.
The white poison energy within the blood of the spider started to gather beneath Liang Chen's heart, carving a new opening right next to his Lightning Seed. The poison energy was so potent that a small seed quickly formed, just as white as the carapace of the spider. Once the seed was formed, the speed at which the poison gathered there quickly increased.
The poison element that had already been in his body quickly flooded towards the seed, violet and emerald colored poison mixing with the pure white poison as the seed rapidly grew. The Poison Seed quickly grew roots that dug into Liang Chen's body, spreading through his veins, flesh, and bones, just like the roots of the Lightning Seed.
The moment the Poison Seed was created, Liang Chen regained his ability to control poison, and he became a true scourge, a walking disaster. A faint white mist spread from his body, the very land around him dying under the poison, the air becoming unbreathable to everyone he deemed an enemy. Those unlucky enough to be touched by the mist found their organs starting to melt, their bones and flesh quickly following as they turned into puddles of tainted blood. These were all enemies, so there was no need for Liang Chen to use any sedative poison or the like, he was free to use the full might of his poison.
Coupled with the azure lightning that was crackling around him, increasing his speed as he dashed around and either tore people apart or roasted them with his lightning, the remaining people all started to lose heart, some choosing to immediately flee.
But the blood of the spider was filled with not only poison energy but also lightning energy, something that his Lightning Seed greedily devoured. The two seeds started to quickly grow, the roots growing thicker and larger, spreading through all of Liang Chen's body. This continued for a short while until a change that surprised Liang Chen happened.
"Oh? They're both cracking, are they going to sprout?"
The two seeds started to tremble and crack, the speed at which they were devouring energy once again increasing. Their roots continued to spread through Liang Chen's body, even piercing through the shell of the egg that was located in his dantian, invading the egg. But strangely enough, they weren't devouring the energy in the egg, but rather pouring their energy into whatever was growing within the egg.
And as the seeds continued to crack, a tremendous pressure suddenly appeared above Liang Chen and the other people. Liang Chen quickly raised his head and saw that deep blue clouds had gathered above him, azure bolts of lightning flashing within them and unleashing a horrifying pressure. Looking at the clouds, not only Liang Chen, but everyone else in the Demon's Graveyard was utterly shocked.
"Those clouds... A heavenly tribulation?! But those aren't supposed to show up until you reach the Soaring Immortal realm!"
The arrival of deep blue clouds filled with azure lightning meant that the universe had sent a heavenly lightning tribulation in an attempt to destroy something that aimed to go against the heavens. There was azure, crimson, even violet heavenly lightning in this hidden realm, but all that lightning was kept within normal black clouds, none of them came in tribulation clouds. Liang Chen's brows furrowed slightly as he looked at the clouds, which were gathering energy.
"Is it because of the sprouting seeds? I can't think of anything else that it might be."
Other than the two seeds in his chest that were now sprouting, he could think of nothing else that had changed, so it was likely that the tribulation was coming for him. His thoughts were quickly proven correct when an azure bolt of lightning flashed down from the cloud, heading directly for his head. The universe had decided that he was trying to go against the heavens, so they had decided to try and crush him.
Liang Chen looked at the bolt of lightning, his eyes cold. He channeled as much of his own lightning as he could, forming a shield in front of the oncoming bolt of lightning. The tribulation bolt sank into his own lightning, flowing into his body in an attempt to wreak havoc.
But when the lightning sank into his body, a strange scene took place. Rather than being ruined by it, his body greedily absorbed the lightning, pushing it towards the Lightning Seed. Looking at the scene, Liang Chen let out a light sigh of relief.
"Seems like my body has already gotten completely accustomed to this azure lightning, so there shouldn't be a problem."
But what he failed to realize was that his body had already been baptized by both crimson and violet lightning, so how could this weaker azure lightning possibly pose even the slightest threat? Two more bolts flashed down from the tribulation cloud, sinking into Liang Chen's body just like the earlier one.
After sending out three bolts of lightning, the tribulation cloud started to disperse. The heavens would always leave a way out, very rarely would they actually send out a tribulation that one was considered to not have a chance of surviving. Liang Chen continued to keep an eye on the three bolts of tribulation lightning that had sunk into his body, carefully examining how they moved.
After the tribulation ended, his two seeds quickly continued to sprout, each one growing a single tiny bud. The poison bud was pure white in color, while the lightning bud was a deep violet. Liang Chen continued to observe them, waiting to see what they would bloom into.
But just as he thought they were going to grow and bloom, the two buds suddenly stopped growing, seemingly unable to bloom. Right after they stopped growing, Liang Chen felt the two buds release a strong longing feeling that stretched out into the distance, as if there was something in the distance that they needed to fully bloom.
Liang Chen's brows furrowed as he connected with the two buds, tracing the longing feeling. He followed that longing feeling, but it stretched out for so far that he was unable to follow it all the way, he could only follow it later.
Even while he was doing all this, Liang Chen's body was still running around, killing anyone who had surrounded him and Yan Ling. He was actually quite dumbfounded to realize that there were still people coming towards them, their eyes blazing with greed and killing intent. Were they all really so reckless that they would continue to try and attack him and Yan Ling in a situation like this, where he was killing people left and right?
But how could Liang Chen possibly fathom the depths of human greed and ambition? Even if their odds were next to nill, they were still willing to risk their lives and do whatever it took, that was how the cultivation world was. Only the strong had a right to decide, so how could people not be willing to do whatever it took to become strong?
After he stopped tracing the longing feeling, he continued to look at the three bolts of tribulation lightning that had sunk into his body. Most of the lightning entered his Lightning Seed, but parts of it continued to aimlessly flow through his body, occasionally sinking into his bones. Looking at the scene of the lightning sinking into his bones, Liang Chen's brows furrowed slightly.
"Hmm, this? It's similar to when I first tried to send my lightning element into my flesh. But this time it seems to be working much better, I wonder why?"
Liang Chen remembered his state after he killed Liu Daning. He had seen three streams flow in his body, one for his lightning element, one for his poison element, and one unknown one. The poison stream tried to enter his soul, while the lightning stream tried to enter his flesh. But both had filled him with an immense pain, as well as a feeling that made it feel like he was doing it wrong. Yet now there was lightning entering his bones, but there was no such feeling, why was that?
He followed the lightning into his bones, getting a closer look at what was going on. The azure tribulation sank into the depths of his bones, entering his marrow and seemingly slowly strengthening it. Liang Chen's eyes landed on a tiny part of his marrow that suddenly changed, turning azure in color. And as he looked at that scene of his bone marrow transforming thanks to the lightning, the light of enlightenment flashed in his eyes. His body suddenly let out a loud laugh, shocking the people around him.
"This?! Hahaha, so that's what the problem back then was! This is what that jade fragment was trying to say all along! An ocean starts from a single drop of water, grasp its might and let it transform you!"
He still remembered the piece of jade he had gotten after clearing the first trial, he also remembered what it said; Lord of the ocean, grasp its might and let it transform you. A drop, a puddle, a lake, a river, an ocean, a peerless ruler.
He instantly understood why it felt wrong when he tried to have his lightning stream enter his flesh to temper it, he also instantly understood what the technique in the jade was. The moment the flash of enlightenment struck him, the jade fragment that was stored in his bracelet lit up with an ocean-blue light, the strange energy in the words flooding into his mind, filling it with information about the technique, as well as its name, Ocean God Physique.
It felt wrong because he had started in the wrong place! Before he could truly start to temper his flesh, he had to temper his bones and his bone marrow, which had to support his flesh. If they weren't strong enough when he started to temper his flesh, they would be crushed under the might of his flesh.
As for the technique, it was surprisingly simple, fully based around the starting sentence, Lord of the ocean, grasp its might and let it transform you. It meant just that, you had to grasp the might of your element and allow it to transform your very body. You started with a drop, your bone marrow, then moved onto a puddle, your bones, all the way until you reached the end, the ocean, your entire body.
Once you could turn your entire body into your element, you would have mastered the Ocean God Physique and have acquired a nearly unkillable body that could reform from any single drop of water. Of course, Liang Chen was going to use this technique with his lightning element, so it would be more suited to call it Lightning God Physique.
But despite his mind filling with information about the technique, it was just a fragment of the jade, after all, it barely contained enough information to finish the first step. If he wanted to fully master the technique, he would have to either search out the other fragments or alter the technique as he moved along. But it was good enough for now, it gave him a place to start his body cultivation. His lips curled into a bright smile, a curious mutter escaping his lips.
"Later on, I'll have to see if I can do the same with my soul. That's two out of three, now I just have to figure out what that third element is."
If he could do something similar to the Lightning God Physique to his soul using his stream of poison element, he would be able to train his soul just like he would his body. At that point, he would have the Lightning God Physique for his body, a Poison God Soul, and the two strange seeds, he would have three different strengths.
He quickly took a deep breath to calm himself, returning his focus to the situation around him. He could tell that more and more people were attracted to this area, so he quickly stopped using part of his mind to keep an eye on the inside of his body, putting all his focus on his surroundings as he muttered to himself.
"But before that, I better deal with the people outside, I also have to follow that longing feeling."
A plan started to quickly form in his mind. His body was still being fuelled by the blood of the spider Demonic beast, but it wouldn't last forever, the energy would eventually run out and he would return to his normal level of strength. So he had to quickly deal with all the people around them, find a way for him and Yan Ling to escape, and then he would have to find out what exactly it was that his two seeds were longing for, what it was that they needed to finish their growth.
Once the very barebones plan finished forming, Liang Chen's lips curled into a bloody smile, his spear appearing in his grasp. Step one, kill everyone who wanted to take the life of him and Yan Ling.