Liang Chen continued to cry for several minutes, only stopping once his tears had dried up and his heart had released all the stored up sorrow and pain. And once the sorrow and pain was gone, all that remained was a determination so sharp that it could cleave the skies.
The area all around them was completely ruined, the stone outcropping reduced to only a small circle connected to the mountain thanks to a thin path. Sensing that his mood had improved, Yan Ling let go of Liang Chen and took a step back, stretching out her arms with a smirk.
"Have you cried it all out? Or do you want this senior sister to give you another hug? Come on now, don't be shy, let this senior sister comfort the vulnerable junior brother."
Liang Chen was halfway tempted to accept the offer, but seeing the insufferable smirk on Yan Ling's face, he knew that he would never hear the end of it if he said yes. Since that was the case, Liang Chen decided to simply repay in kind, taking a quick step back.
"Geh, who would want to be hugged by you? I bet it would feel like trying to hug a wooden board."
As he spoke, Liang Chen let his gaze roam over Yan Ling's body, stopping on her pitiful chest for a second longer, his meaning clear. Having her weak spot pointed out, how could Yan Ling not flare up?
"Humph, you dare tease your senior sister? Want me to tell the other disciples about this when we return to the clan and have them beat you up?"
With her popularity, it would not be hard for her to gather a few disciples and have them gang up on Liang Chen. But Liang Chen was confident, crossing his arms in front of his chest, his lips curling into a smirk.
"Go ahead, it'll just end like last time, with me carrying you by the neck."
Back when Liang Chen had first entered the sect, Yan Ling had ambushed him with about 20 other disciples, hoping to show just how many people were willing to follow her orders. Sadly, it ended less than favorably for her. Yan Ling let out a snort but didn't continue with the conversation, changing the topic.
"So what are you thinking now?"
They had finished the mission and also completed the task Liang Chen had actually come here for. The mission was a success, but finding the grave of his parents ended in a sorrowful failure, so she was wondering what Liang Chen was planning to do now. Liang Chen turned his head away, looking past the sea of trees that spread out around them. After a short moment of silence, he spoke up in a voice that was a mixture of reminiscence and determination.
"You know, a man once told me that as long as you believe that your dream is impossible to achieve, you will truly never achieve it. That the only reason you believe the dream to be impossible is that you are currently too weak to achieve it. I want to... No, I will revive my parents. Even if I have to become stronger than anyone else, even if I have to endure more pain than anyone else, even if I have to personally scour this entire planet for every grain of ash that is left of them. I will revive them."
The caravan guard Yi Huang was the one who had told Liang Chen these words, it was he who had spawned the hope that Liang Chen could revive his parents at some point. While Liang Chen continued to look into the surrounding forest, Yan Ling suddenly walked up to him and hit him on the head, drawing his attention.
"Don't you go leaving me out of this, not after you have already asked for my help. It's not 'I will revive my parents' it's WE will revive your parents! Of course, if you do ever reach that level of strength, to bring back the dead, then you have to help me bring back a few people too, that's only fair."
Yan Ling had her hands on her hips as she spoke, her expression not leaving any room for discussion. Liang Chen had already asked for her help back when they searched through the burnt ruins of his old home, so there was no way he was allowed to exclude her now. Yumao also chimed in, letting out a hiss and giving Liang Chen's neck a few headbutts. Liang Chen's lips curled into a bright smile as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Of course I won't leave you out. At this point, I don't think I'd be able to get rid of you even if I wanted to. But all that is talk for the distant future, for now, we'll have to focus on what's ahead of us, the Constellation King's Competition. We only have about six months until it starts, so I intend to break through in my body and soul cultivation before we return to the sect."
Both his body and soul cultivation were at the peak of their respective realms, just short of breaking through. If he could break through in both of them, he was confident that he could increase his strength by a decent bit. He could then use the next six months to try and further increase his cultivation, preparing for the Constellation King's Competition, the competition hosted by the six grand sects of this planet.
Not only could one find rare and powerful treasures in the location where the competition took place, but the winners would also receive great rewards. The stronger Liang Chen and Yan Ling were before the competition the better it was for them. Yan Ling found Liang Chen's plan to be very reasonable, so she nodded her head and scanned the surroundings.
"Sounds good, when and where are you planning on doing it? I'll guard you and make sure that no one gets close."
Every breakthrough required one's full concentration, there could be no interruptions. so if one could not set up a perfectly quiet and peaceful place beforehand, it was common to have others you trusted to protect you. Liang Chen cast his gaze down to the base of the mountain, at a spot where the forest was especially dense.
"Down there, and I'll do it right now, no point in waiting."
The reason he chose to do his breakthroughs right now was a mixture of confidence and impatience, a desire to increase his strength as fast as possible. Yan Ling found it to be a bit hasty, but she still nodded her head, a sign of the trust she had in Liang Chen.
The two swiftly descended the mountain and reached the spot that Liang Chen had pointed out, the trees there so dense that it was nearly impossible to see that there was a small clearing among them. Liang Chen walked to the center of this clearing and sat down with crossed legs, closing his eyes to focus his mind. While he was doing so, Yan Ling sat down a short distance away, Yumao coiling up on her shoulder as the two kept a vigilant watch.
As Liang Chen closed his eyes, he sank his mind into his own body. His breakthrough in body cultivation was easy, he just had to turn the bone marrow in his skull into liquid lightning, it was his soul cultivation and his various ideas that were a bit more troublesome. One of the ideas he had was that he wanted to see if he could use the principle of the Lightning God Physique, turning one's body into a certain element, to cultivate his soul.
He didn't know whether or not this was possible, but the moment this idea had struck him, it had stuck to him like a maggot, refusing to leave his mind. Originally he planned on using his poison to transform his soul, turning it into the purest of poison. His body would be lightning and his soul would be poison, that was the plan he had come up with. But after awakening his bloodline and acquiring the law of time, his thoughts started to change, spawning his second idea.
He knew that he could use his poison to cultivate his soul and lightning to cultivate his body, he had already discovered this back in the Mystic's Hidden Realm, when he had first discovered the three streams that were his elements. But now he was wondering, rather than simply using lightning for his body and poison for his soul, couldn't he infuse both with his law of time as well?
If he could, his body would be timeless lightning and his soul would be timeless poison. It would likely be harder than just using one element, but if he succeeded, he guessed that his strength would increase drastically. And since he was searching for the strength to kill Qing Lan Yong and revive his parents, he had decided to try out these ideas of his.
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Thanks to the fact that his soul had already materialized, Liang Chen was able to try out both ideas at the same time. He drew out his law of time from the gray Dragon Lotus that controlled his law of time, leading it into the bone of his pinky, delivering it to his bone marrow. Liang Chen had already changed the bone marrow in his body after acquiring his new lightning, so it was a brilliant emerald in color.
Liang Chen tried to fuse his law of time with his new bone marrow, turning them into one. But once the law of time came in contact with the bone marrow, a burst of lightning thundered forth, fiercely pushing back the law of time before retreating. Liang Chen tried again and again, but his new bone marrow rejected the law of time, refusing to fuse with it.
Liang Chen's eyebrows couldn't help but furrow when he saw this, wondering if his idea would end up being fruitless. Liang Chen decided to change his method, asking for help from the thing in his body that was far better than him at using the law of time, his bloodline. His law of time came from his bloodline, the Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline, it was far better than him at using the various laws that the bloodline contained.
He drew as much strength as he could from his bloodline, surrounding his law of time with it and once again trying to fuse his law of time with his blood marrow. Another burst of lightning thundered forth, trying to push back the law of time.
But as the lightning made contact with the law of time, the might of the Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline burst forth, a loud roar ringing out within Liang Chen's body. The bloodline reacted to being challenged, unleashing all its might to force back the one that dared challenge it, the lightning. Faced with the might of the Heaven Devouring Dragon, Liang Chen's lightning could only return to his bone marrow with a whimper, no longer daring to show itself.
His law of time started to slowly fuse with his bone marrow, mixing together with the emerald lightning that was his bone marrow. Liang Chen's bloodline made the fusion process very simple, as it was thanks to this bloodline that he had been able to acquire the elements he had. Whenever the lightning tried to revolt, the Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline would release another earth-shaking roar and force the lightning back, allowing the fusing process to continue.
After an unknown amount of time passed, the bone marrow in Liang Chen's finger had changed, turning into liquid lightning that was ghastly gray in color. Sometimes it moved so fast it was impossible to see, sometimes so slow it seemed to be completely frozen, sometimes it seemed to be corporeal while at other times it seemed to turn incorporeal, it was an exceedingly strange sight.
But Liang Chen didn't care how strange it looked, the corners of his lips curving into a wide grin. His idea had worked, he had been able to fuse lightning and time together for his Lightning God Physique. He quickly started working on turning the rest of his bone marrow into the same gray lightning, using the experience of having done it once to increase his speed.
While he was trying to change the bone marrow in his body, he was also working on infusing his soul with the two elements. He was standing in the bloody city that was his mind, the blood-haired and gray-eyed Liang Chen that was his soul standing in front of him. He was pondering over how he should try to infuse his soul with the two elements, an idea slowly forming in his mind.
The soul in front of him started to slowly change, its skin turning transparent. The soul was an almost perfect copy of him, so even though it wasn't a real body, it still had what appeared to be flesh and bones, even something that looked just like blood flowing through its veins. The 'flesh' and 'bones' of the soul also started to turn transparent, revealing the 'bone marrow' of the soul.
Liang Chen's plan was to simply use the exact same idea of the Lightning God Physique. He would start by turning the bone marrow of his soul into poison and time, allowing him to make the process a bit easier since he had some experience with it from changing his own body.
His poison and time started to flood into his soul, a strong pain filling Liang Chen's mind. The pain was almost mind-rending, but it didn't feel wrong, it felt like the normal pain one felt when they underwent extreme training. Liang Chen continued to push on, enduring the pain as his poison and time flooded into the soul.
At first, the poison and time refused to fuse and change his bone marrow, but once he discovered that he could use the power of his bloodline, the process became simpler. The pain slowly started to lessen as the bone marrow inside his soul started to change, turning into a light gray powder that released the faint fragrance of apples.
Seeing this powder, Liang Chen knew that he was on the right track, the desire to let out a loud laugh almost overwhelming him. Not just one of his ideas had worked, both had worked, thanks to his Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline, he could fuse his law of time with his two other laws.
The bone marrow in both his body and his soul started to rapidly change, Liang Chen's power slowly increasing as time passed. Before long, only his own skull and the head of his soul remained, and even they were slowly changing. But just as the bone marrow in both his body and soul was about to be fully changed, a heavy pressure descended down onto Liang Chen.
Liang Chen had felt this pressure before, so he knew what it meant. He opened his eyes and stood up, leaving it up to his soul to keep the cultivation process going. He cast his gaze into the sky, onto the deep blue clouds that were gathering above him, onto the heavenly tribulation that was once again about to descend on him.
More and more blue clouds swiftly gathered, covering the sky over the area of the forest where Liang Chen and Yan Ling were. While Liang Chen was watching the clouds, three things started to gather beneath the clouds, charging up their energy. One of the things was an azure bolt of lightning, the second was a blue tornado, and the third was a blue tree.
Each element had a heavenly equivalent, not just fire and lightning. The more of the heavens might that the element contained, the stronger and more terrifying it would be. Looking at the scene, it seemed like Liang Chen would have to endure the assault of not only heavenly lightning, but also heavenly wind and heavenly wood if he wished to break through in his body and soul cultivation.
Liang Chen felt like sneering at the scene in front of him, wondering why it was so much greater than the time he had broken through to the Heaven's Gate realm. But as he was sneering at the clouds that were gathering energy, he heard a cheerful voice coming from his side.
"Alright, now watch me swoosh right in!"
Liang Chen turned his head just in time to see Yan Ling slide right at him, having used her water and wind element to create a small path of ice that she could slide on. She did her best to put on a graceful display as she slid, but she quickly realized a fault in her plan, she had no idea how to stop herself.
And because of this, while she was trying her best to come up with a graceful way to stop herself, she crashed into Liang Chen, completely breaking the tension that had descended on the area. Luckily, Liang Chen was able to keep his balance and hold onto Yan Ling, preventing the two of them from falling to the ground, Yumao also took this chance to slither onto Liang Chen's head. Looking at Yan Ling, who had entered the range of the heavenly tribulation, the corners of Liang Chen's mouth couldn't help but twitch.
"Yan Ling, why must I keep asking you this question, are you an idiot?"
With her entering the range of the heavenly tribulation, it would only increase in might, just like it had when Liang Chen jumped in and helped her during her tribulation. Facing a heavenly tribulation with three elements was hard enough, but now it would only grow stronger. Yan Ling altered her position slightly so that she stood shoulder to shoulder with Liang Chen, letting out a confident giggle.
"Nihihi. You helped me during mine, so I'll, of course, help you during yours. What, are you scared of one widdle tribulation? Want this senior sister to protect? You can cower behind me you know?"
Liang Chen felt a tinge of warmth when he saw how willing she was to jump into a heavenly tribulation with him. But he didn't show his thoughts, his lips curling into a challenging smirk.
"Heh, we'll see who has to end up protecting who. By the end of this, I'll have you calling me senior brother and begging for my protection."