The nine puppets spread out the moment they appeared on the stage, taking up positions at the very edges of the stage and forming a nonagon around Liang Chen, Yan Ling, and Qin Nuan. All nine puppets stretched out their arms, thick streams of energy rolling forth and connecting the nine. The Fiendgod puppets released Fiendgod Essence, the White Orchid puppets released Qi, and the Undead puppets released Anima Essence, all of which flooded directly into Qin Nuan's body, causing her exoskeleton-like skin to bulge, the white veins wriggling like earthworms.
Both Liang Chen and Yan Ling looked at Qin Nuan, their expressions slowly growing more and more serious. Her cultivation had reached the very peak of the Soaring Immortal realm, both of them had guessed that she was about as strong as Huang Dong had been when they fought him. That alone was plenty strong, but now she was getting even stronger after receiving the energy of the nine puppets, this would not be an easy fight. Qin Nuan clenched her six fists, trembling slightly as she did her best to contain the overflowing energy.
"These puppets were given to me by the one who ordered me to kill you, they can form a special array that gathers all their energy and transfers it to me. For the next 12 hours, all of me will be drastically strengthened and all my weaknesses will have been mended. Consider me telling you this my final respects for you and the efforts you must have gone through to acquire your strength."
Four weapons appeared in Qin Nuan's grasp after she finished talking, two long halberds and two shortswords. Her four lower arms grasped the halberds, which ended in a tip that had an axe-like blade on one side and a hammer-like cudgel on the other, and her remaining upper arms each grasped one shortsword which were light green in color and covered in what seemed to be tiny barbs.
Liang Chen and Yan Ling both brought out their own weapons, giving them a quick glance. They were already in a bad state after having been forced to endure such excessive energy for so long, but they should still be able to get them through this fight. The judge raised his arm, the bodies of the three combatants tensing up slightly as they readied themselves, the air above the stage trembling slightly from the pressure they all unleashed.
The judge lowered his arm, and the stage immediately shattered as all three people charged forth. Liang Chen and Yan Ling both activated their bloodlines, Liang Chen charging directly at Qin Nuan while Yan Ling aimed for one of the Fiendgod puppets at the edge of the stage. Qin Nuan glanced at Yan Ling but didn't move to pursue her, facing Liang Chen and slashing out with both of her halberds, one high and one low.
Liang Chen kicked off the ground and dove forward in a horizontal position, the halberds missing him by just a few inches. Qin Nuan had clearly expected, or even planned, for this to happen, slashing out in a downwards cross with both her shortswords. But just as she had expected his move, Liang Chen had expected her counter, swiftly reacting.
His spear was pulled back into his interspatial ring and he gave his body a slight spin to the right, grabbing onto both the halberds and finishing his spin. A strong gust of wind blew down on his legs, returning him to a standing, if somewhat forward bent, position He exerted all his power and forced the handles of the halberds to cross just above his head, blocking the two shortswords. His plan was to see if he could either break the halberds using Qin Nuan's strength or if he could block the shortswords with the halberds and then twist them in a manner that forced her to let go of at least one of her weapons.
But for the first time in quite a while, Liang Chen made a mistake, one he had never really done before in his life, he underestimated his opponent. She slammed her shortswords down onto the halberds with all her might, making sure to not put any force in the arms used to grasp the halberds, forcing Liang Chen to bear the entirety of it. And the moment her shortswords hit the halberds, they were forced downward, the handles crashing into the top of Liang Chen's head and slamming him down onto the stage with such force that the stones shattered.
Liang Chen could hear a ringing in his ears as he crashed into the stone stage, the taste of blood appearing in his mouth. It had been a while since he had been overpowered this horribly, it reminded him of the time he put his own life on the line and fought against Huang Dong. But even with his ears ringing and his face smashed into the ground, Liang Chen did not let his concentration slip for even a single instant.
He quickly pushed off the ground with his arms, raising his upper body and then quickly crossing his arms in front of his abdomen. Qin Nuan's foot smashed into his crossed arms just as he raised his torso, him raising his body made it so that her kick missed his head. Liang Chen could hear a creaking from his arms when the kick connected, Qin Nuan's body felt like it was made from the hardest of metals.
Liang Chen's body was raised into the air and flung backward from the kick, a light sizzling sound barely audible from Qin Nuan's foot. Liang Chen did a backflip while flying backward, quickly landing on his feet in a somewhat crouched position, a thin line of blood leaking out from the corner of his mouth. Yan Ling suddenly arrived next to him, placing her hand on his back and flooding his body with her law of water, swiftly taking care of his wounds.
"What happened?"
Yan Ling's voice was tinged with a mixture of worry and curiosity, it was quite rare for her to see Liang Chen beaten like that. Liang Chen clicked his tongue in annoyance, mostly at himself and his arrogance, casting a quick glance at Qin Nuan and her foot before responding.
"I got cocky cause of our recent success, won't happen again. She has us beat in physical strength, her soul is so strong that my poison was unable to harm it, and her Qi is probably just as strong. What about the puppets?"
When she kicked him, he had made sure to insert some of his poisonous Anima Essence into her body, hoping for it to eat away at her soul. But the Anima Essence had been crushed by an overwhelming force the moment it got into contact with her soul, it was barely able to nibble away at it. Even the normally weak soul of a Fiendgod had been strengthened to such a degree, this was clearly a very powerful array. Yan Ling shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, pointing at one of the puppets using her thumb.
"No good, they are all surrounded by a defensive wall of Qi that not even my fused law was able to get through. Seems like we'll have to smash her down in a standard battle. But hey, if we're able to beat her, we'll know that we've become strong enough to kill Huang Dong, that'll at least be something."
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Yan Ling's gaze landed on Qin Nuan, curiously inspecting her. Qin Nuan was doing the same to them, not in a rush to charge at them, she was quite wary of whatever strength they might still have hidden away. Liang Chen's lips curved up slightly as he straightened out his body, his spear appearing in his hands again.
"Ever the optimist, I love it."
Yan Ling let out a sweet giggle as her only response, her eyes firmly locked on Qin Nuan. A short second of silence followed before Yan Ling suddenly shot forward, arriving in front of Qin Nuan almost instantly and slashing out with her sword. Qin Nuan quickly placed one of her halberds vertically at the side of her body and blocking the sword, a slight tremble running through the arms holding it. She retaliated by stabbing out with her other halberd and slashing downwards with both her swords, forcing Yan Ling to focus her attention on either the swords or the halberd.
Yan Ling let go of her sword and bent forward, punching down on the handle of the incoming halberd with all her might, diverting its course downward and causing it to pierce into the stone stage. Liang Chen arrived behind her just as she bent forward, stepping on her back and jumping up into the air. He grabbed his spear with both hands and twirled it slightly, leaving faint trails of crimson lightning and white poison in the air.
The handle of his spear arrived beneath one of the shortswords and the tip of his spear pushed at the side of the other shortsword, pushing it aside. The shortsword that was blocked by the handle of his spear heavily pushed it down, sliding along the handle and ending up going past Yan Ling's side. But as the sword pushed the back of the handle down it also pushed the tip of the spear upwards, Liang Chen utilizing the force, as well as mixing in some of his own, to turn the tip of his spear into a blurry slash that cut directly through Qin Nuan's throat. Her body might be as tough as iron, but even the most divine of irons would have to bow before the might of his crimson lightning and white poison.
But the wound healed itself before the cut even had time to properly bleed, perfectly showcasing the strong body of someone from the Fiendgod race. Qin Nuan's expression sank slightly when her throat was cut, it showed that Liang Chen and Yan Ling were still capable of killing her even after she received such a strong boost to her power.
Qin Nuan let out a heavy breath, the air in front of her mouth heating up so much that flames started to appear. Her crimson eyes suddenly changed, turning into thin amber slits that had small flames dancing in them. Four backward bent obsidian horns grew out from her head, the tips shimmering with a sharp light. Her skin bulged even further, murky crimson scales quickly appearing over her entire body, her defenses growing even stronger. Two large leathery wings sprouted from her back, the tips of the wings ending in sharp spikes that resembled fangs.
Liang Chen could guess that Qin Nuan had drawn out all her power, utilizing the Demonic beast parts she used for cultivation. And looking at the changes, and how the pressure radiating from her had gotten even stronger, it seemed like the parts used came from a very strong Demonic beast.
Qin Nuan raised her right knee, crimson flames sparking into existence all around it as she aimed to crush Yan Ling's head skull in one swift move. Liang Chen quickly reacted and flooded his own body with his law of time to speed him up as much as possible, a gust of wind pushing Yan Ling up from the ground and directly towards him. His spear vanished back into his interspatial ring and he placed both his arms onto Qin Nuan's shoulders, wrapping his legs around Yan Ling's waist at the same time.
He instantly exerted all his force, vaulting both himself and Yan Ling over Qin Nuan's head and horns, her knee ending up only hitting empty air. As Liang Chen was about to finish his vault, he loosened the grip his legs had around Yan Ling's waist, throwing her a bit away from him and Qin Nuan. Yan Ling quickly corrected her position with a flip, landing on her feet and tensing her entire body, gathering her might in her right fist.
Liang Chen let go of Qin Nuan's shoulder and finished vaulting over her, grabbing onto her long hair as he started to approach the ground. The moment his feet touched the ground, he slid his right leg backward and kicked Qin Nuan's right leg out from underneath her. The kick destabilized her enough for Liang Chen to gather all his might in the arms that were still holding onto her hair, throwing her over his shoulders and slamming her down towards Yan Ling.
Yan Ling didn't have her sword on hand right now, having let go of it to block Qin Nuan's halberd, so she could only meet the incoming Qin Nuan with her right fist, which she had gathered all her energy in. She even used her fused law on her right hand, using it in the manner that Liang Chen had taught her. This fused law wasn't inborn to her like Liang Chen's law of time, so she was unable to use it on her entire body as of yet, she could only focus it in her right hand.
She had experimented with this manner of using the law several times, but she had never actually launched an attack like this, spending the last month getting herself perfectly accustomed to how it should feel and how to maintain it for as long as possible. As this was the first time she would test out this way of using the law in combat, she was very curious to see what sort of power it would have.
Qin Nuan couldn't stop herself from being slammed towards Yan Ling, but she was still able to position her four weapons in front of herself to block Yan Ling's fist. Yan Ling punched out, a blurry silver light gathering around her right hand as it approached Qin Nuan. But just as her hand was about to collide with Qin Nuan's weapons, a strange scene took place.
Yan Ling's right hand vanished before it could touch Qin Nuan's weapons, suddenly appearing behind Qin Nuan, a hazy silver light covering her wrist. Yan Ling was shocked at the result, but quickly reacted and stepped back, Qin Nuan crashing into the stage where Yan Ling had just been standing. Yan Ling turned her head towards Liang Chen, a shocked expression on her face as she cast a sideways glance at her right hand, which was still separated from her body by that hazy silver light.
Yan Ling moved her Qi slightly, the hazy light suddenly swallowing her entire right hand and causing it to appear on her right arm again. Both she and Liang Chen looked at her right arm, which looked as normal as ever, with rather shocked expressions. They were both smart people who actually had quite a bit of knowledge about the various laws, so they knew exactly what had just happened, they finally realized just what sort of law Yan Ling acquired by fusing her four offensive laws. It might just be a rudimentary and currently imperfect version, but that was, without a doubt, the law of space.