Liang Chen slowly let out the breath that felt like it was clogging his chest. From the very start, he had been the one with the lowest cultivation here. Both Tian Shenju and Li Zhao Xu were above him, probably already half a step into the Transcended Immortal realm. And now their strength took another step forward as they unleashed one of their hidden cards, the two opposing auras felt like mountains as they pressed against him.
But his mind was cold, his expression calm as he observed his opponents. He wasn't out of cards himself, and when had he ever actually fought against people who shared his cultivation level? The exhaled breath quietly rose into the sky, his Qi accompanying it as he moved to activate the Rain-Caller's Dance again.
But honestly, this wasn't the first time in this battle that he had tried to use that technique to summon a storm, he had quietly tried it twice already. And in this situation, the third time did not end up being the charm. He didn't know if it was their auras or if it was tied to Tian Shenju being known as the Sky's Wrath, but he couldn't properly launch the technique. Something was interfering with it, stopping the clouds from gathering and the wind from picking up.
It was a very reliable card to him, it provided him with a seemingly limitless reservoir of energy so that he could keep battling. But now it was sealed, it wasn't exactly a favourable turn of events. He could technically replicate the same thing by just opening a gate to the Void and drawing upon the energy pouring out from it, but he would be lying if he said that he was interested in just opening a random gate to the Void.
"It's your choice if you aren't going to activate your own strengthening technique, just don't tap out too quickly, alright?"
The voice of Zhao Xu cut through the momentary silence, her gaze directed at Liang Chen since he hadn't activated a bloodline or external power-up. Her knees bent slightly as she spoke, the stone pavement beneath her cracking just from that small movement, she was like a leopard ready to pounce.
And then she did just that.
Her legs straightened out and her entire being seemed to become nothing more than a blur. The spot where she had just been standing exploded, chunks of stone and earth tearing through the sky, melting as they flew. Tian Shenju also acted at the same time, rushing forward while brandishing his pole, its blunt head melting and turning into a twisted spearhead.
Both of them charged out, both of them heading for Liang Chen. Tian Shenju's goal was to kill him, and Zhao Xu had deemed him the one most likely to teach her the joys of battle, it was only obvious that they'd aim straight for him.
But even with both of them charging at him, Liang Chen was calm, his head tilting as he settled his gaze on Zhao Xu. She was much faster now, she had probably relied on a mixture of gravity, brute force, and possibly the momentum gained from an explosion. But if there was one thing Liang Chen was confident in then it was his speed.
Lightning and time flowed in his body, his very being was made up of these two laws. Well, almost all of his being at least. And now he dug it out, activated it and forced it to push his body into overdrive. The world in front of his eyes slowed down as every single cell in his body was forced to move at speeds several times faster than normal, his brain and nervous system flooded with so much power that they would be able to handle the increased strain.
And then he moved. His head turned away from Li Zhao Xu and settled completely on Tian Shenju, he was the only person among the two that Liang Chen was actually aiming to kill. His feet gave the ground a light kick and he practically vanished from sight.
He arrived directly in front of Tian Shenju, stepping lightly on the spear that he was now holding. Tian Shenju's pupils shrank fiercely in an instant, he felt the weight on his weapon before he even saw Liang Chen arrive. It was a dreadful level of speed, you would face only despair if you were unable to handle it.
But the Sky's Wrath wasn't some helpless prey, he wouldn't have gotten the honour of signifying one of the three great wraths if that was the case. He released all the energy in his left leg when he sensed the flow of energy moving through Liang Chen's body. He fell sideways as a result, it looked somewhat awkward, but it helped him dodge the foot Liang Chen pushed forward.
His hair stood on end and his skin crackled from the lightning that lingered in the air wherever the foot moved. Even worse was the somewhat sickly feeling on his skin when he felt that prickling, it was like a slimy hand was caressing him. His Qi quickly moved to dispel the energy that entered him, he couldn't quite discern if it was death or rot, or perhaps something else entirely.
A metal pole rose from the earth behind him and pushed him forward in a violent and abrupt manner, adding to the awkward appearance he had thanks to his sudden fall. But he didn't pay it any mind, raising his shoulder to defend his neck from the weapon that was descending towards him.
He had slipped past the spearhead thanks to the metal pole, but dodging the shaft of the spear was almost out of the question. The shaft collided with his raised shoulder, the metal layer of defence cracking and shattering almost instantly as lightning ravaged it. The dense layer of bark beneath the metal fared a bit better, he was able to replenish it almost instantly whenever the law of rot made it slide down his arm.
Granted, the force of the attack still entered his body, rattling his bones, but it was far from a level that he couldn't handle. At the very least, it wasn't on the same level as Zhao Xu's brute force, that was something that had reached a level as dreadful as Liang Chen's speed.
As he endured the rattling of his bones, he had his weapon grow several anchor-shaped spikes. Two of them ran right through the foot that Liang Chen still had on his weapon, nailing him down to cut off his speed. Tian Shenju took this chance to twist his body and smash his fist upwards, another metal pole rising up from the earth and colliding with his elbow to give his punch that much more force.
At the same time, he allowed himself the freedom of mind to check up on Zhao Xu's state, getting attacked by her while in this awkward posture would be horrible. But he seemed to be a bit lucky today, her legs had sunken into a strange blotch of darkness and thorn-covered vines were entwining her in an attempt to shred her.
She was halted momentarily, but judging from the way that even the darkness seemed to freeze, it would not be something that could last for long. But before he could worry about how long she would be occupied like this, he had to handle the problem that was a bit closer at hand, the opponent nailed to his spear.
Liang Chen looked down at the incoming punch, it felt more like a sword than a hand as it approached him. It had yet to reach him but he could feel the energy radiating from it cut open his skin, blood dripping down from his leg. He pulled back the leg he had just kicked out with and brought it down upon the fist, the wind turning violent as he pushed it downwards.
He could feel gashes opening on his foot, but Tian shenju was not so weak that he could accomplish what he wanted if he kept his distance. The sole of his foot collided with the clenched fist, the wind gathered by his stomp unleashed all at once. He didn't try to push down Tian Shenju's fist, trying to counter all that force, supported by a metal pole, would be too hard.
No, what he did was similar to how he supported the Fifth Step. He had the wind slip into the small openings of Tian Shenju's fist, the gaps between his fingers. The wind then settled in his palm, packing in and condensing as Liang Chen poured more and more power into it. And then he just detonated all that power, unleashed all the wind in a violent expansion.
The closed fist was forced open, his wrist tilting back from the abrupt movement. He was going to take this chance to stomp down on Tian Shenju's open wrist, trapping his arm between his descending foot and his own metal pole. But before he could realize that, gravity around him changed abruptly.
He suddenly rose into the air, as if there was a hole in the sky doing its best to draw him in. The force of the pull was so violent that not even the spikes going through his foot could hold him in place, they dug deep holes in his foot as he was drawn away from them and into the sky.
"It'll take more than just that to stop me!"
Li Zhao Xu appeared above him with a roar, icy mist trailing behind her as she charged. A quick glance told Liang Chen that Yumao's darkness hadn't been able to hold Zhao Xu, she had been able to freeze even the darkness and escape. Yumao and Sheng Lian didn't chase after her as she charged at Liang Chen, they instead switched target to Tian Shenju so that he couldn't assault Liang Chen from beneath. They weren't as strong as Liang Chen, he was a true monster after all. But if it was just preventing the other opponent from attacking him then they would be able to handle it somewhat decently.
Gravity around Liang Chen changed again as Zhao Xu descended upon him, it no longer pulled him upwards but instead started to spin around him. It seemed like she had judged that he would be somewhat skilled in aerial combat thanks to his law of wind so she wanted to disorient him to the point where he couldn't fight.
One second he was pulled to the right, then downwards, then to the left, then upwards, spinning all the while thanks to the changing gravity. It was as if she was trying to spin him until he threw up his lunch. But how unfortunate it was for her that Liang Chen's thoughts currently moved so fast that spinning of this level was far from enough to disorient him.
He could clearly tell where Zhao Xu's fist was aiming, the path it would take and when it would reach him. The wind moved according to his wishes, gathering into a spinning orb crackling with violet lightning. Wind became lightning and lightning became wind, the moment you tried to block the lightning it would turn to wind and slip past your defence before turning back to lightning.
He directed the orb with his mind, but a strange scene took place when he tried to block her fist with it. He missed. Or rather, he was too late. Zhao Xu's fist wasn't in the place it should have been when he directed the spinning orb there, it had somehow slipped through that area already and arrived right by his side.
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The clenched hand crashed into his side, a bit below his armpit, bringing with it the full force of Li Zhao Xu and her gravity. Liang Chen felt his ribs practically disintegrate the second her fist touched him, his flesh rippled like waves as the force tore through him and ripped open his veins. He felt like a mortal that had been swatted by a tiger, his body plummeting down as he was pummeled into the ground.
He formed a small crater, the bottom of the crater crackling and flashing violently due to the blood that was leaving his body. Zhao Xu landed on the ground beside the crater, smashing her fist down to shatter the gnarled branch that suddenly rose from beneath her. The branch cracked and turned to splinters, but each of those splinters clung to her, pierced into her skin and dug through her flesh like maggots.
A burst of tremendous heat erupted from her arm, blood mixed with ash leaving the wounds as they healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. She spun around and crossed her arms in front of her chest before her wounds even healed, Tian Shenju's twisted spear caught between her arms just as she crossed them.
He exerted his force to spin the spear like a drill, but Zhao Xu suddenly vanished from her spot, appearing half a step away from Tian Shenju's side just as he twisted the weapon. Her fist crashed into his waist and blew him away but he managed to barely stabilize himself before he hit the ground, his feet carving deep grooves into the earth.
"Do you see? This is why fights are boring, when it comes down to it, it's just crushing or getting crushed."
The corners of Li Zhao Xu's lips were still turned up, but Liang Chen couldn't see a speck of amusement in her eyes, just despairing disinterest.
"It's not your fault. You guys can probably counter it, you won't be as helpless as the other people, but it'll drain so much energy that you can't fight properly. I'll hope for the best, please bring out something that stops it from being a matter of crushing or getting crushed."
Zhao Xu spoke as she stood there, her gaze moving between Liang Chen and Tian Shenju. In a normal fight, she had her tremendously strong body, and once things got serious she had her supreme technique, the only option she ever had in a fight was to crush the opponent.
The temperature dropped tremendously after Zhao Xu finished speaking, an unearthly chill arising all around them. The earth froze over, the spilt blood froze, the buildings froze, everything became white as the chill swallowed everything. But as Zhao Xu had demonstrated earlier, her cold had reached a level where it wasn't limited to freezing physical things.
The wind slowed and halted, chunks of ice appearing and falling to the ground as it froze. Sound came to an end, the Qi in the air stopped flowing, and finally, time itself ground to a halt, frozen by an unearthly chill.
"And? Will you be able to resist?"
All sound had frozen, but Zhao Xu's voice still reached Tian Shenju and Liang Chen, ringing inside their heads. A world where even time itself was frozen, how could people hope to resist something like that? They would just freeze along with the world and perish, that was Zhao Xu's greatest strength, a supreme technique created and taught to her by her father himself.
She hadn't even needed to use this technique against the two previous sects, they had crumbled to her brute force alone. But she had used this technique against a fair few people in the past so she was able to approximate how strong you had to be to counter it. As such, she knew that Liang Chen and Tian Shenju wouldn't be brought down by it, but it would weaken them so drastically that it wouldn't be a fight any longer.
And indeed, Tian Shenju was able to counter the technique through sheer force. A dense shield of Qi covered his body and repelled the chill, but the problem was that he needed about 60% of his Qi to hold back the cold. He wasn't entirely confident that all his energy would be enough to beat Zhao Xu, much less had to be said about only 40% of his energy. And that didn't even account for how quickly his energy drained as he held back the chill, a minute or two would probably be the best he could manage before he met his end.
Liang Chen sat up in the crater he had formed as he crashed to the ground, his expression somewhat dim. He had the law of time so he could counter this frozen world far more easily. He just had to make the law of time move again, forcing it if he had to, and that was far easier than repelling the chill. But that didn't mean he could do it as he pleased.
His cultivation was lower than his opponents, and while he had three different types of energy to draw on, he would eventually run out. Using his law of time to force time to move, using his law of time on himself to forcibly maintain his hyper-speed state, using energy to heal himself and to attack, he was losing energy at a disgustingly rapid rate.
"Haah, nothing to it but to do it..."
His slight mutter rang out with a soft sigh, more of his blood spilling to the ground as he stood up. Zhao Xu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when she saw the ease with which he stood up, but her connection with the chill quickly allowed her to discover the truth.
"Time, is it? Now that's a law you don't see often. Time, lightning, wind, rot, and I think I saw some poison earlier? You're a bit spread out, aren't you? But yeah, that'll make it easier for you than for him, but are you confident that it'll be enough?"
The more laws you had, the more you would have to spread out your attention, otherwise, your other laws would just fall behind and become useless in combat. And when it came to unique laws there was also the need to keep all your laws balanced to properly cultivate, it was a situation where an excess of laws was a detriment, no matter how flexible it made you.
Liang Chen felt like clicking his tongue, he hadn't expected her to notice the bit of poison he mixed with his lightning as he attacked Tian Shenju. A terrifyingly strong body, annoying laws that she used expertly, and a supreme technique that could arouse despair in her enemies, she truly was an annoying opponent. But he didn't click his tongue, he simply shook his head lightly.
"Yeah, I tried to use one aspect of the poison on him, but it didn't have much effect."
Saying it didn't have much effect wasn't quite right, it had zero effect. He had managed to drive it out instantly even though Liang Chen had tried to sneak it in and have it nest in his body. But it couldn't be helped, Tian Shenju wasn't your everyday fodder, he was stronger and more sensitive than most other cultivators in the same realm.
"Meaning that you're gonna show us another aspect now, I assume? Well, do you have a poison capable of persisting in a world so cold that even time freezes?"
Li Zhao Xu caught onto the hidden meaning in Liang Chen's words, arousing her interest. The poison hadn't even worked on Tian Shenju back then so what hope could it have to work in this frozen world? Liang Chen didn't immediately answer, his gaze drifting about aimlessly, observing the city around him as the slight rushing sound in his ears, one of the reasons he had come to this city to begin with, got louder.
His senses spread out, his poison-tinged soul spread throughout the surroundings. The rushing sound got louder and louder, but Zhao Xu and the others didn't seem to hear it at all. The rushing, oh so similar to the sound of a running river, became more indistinct as it got louder, twisting as it moved away from a mere rushing sound.
"Tell me, have you ever heard this saying before? Hatred is the poison of the soul, it ruins both body and mind. "
The rushing sound became indistinct and split apart as Liang Chen's soul spread out further, dug deeper. Indistinct sounds became a jumble of voices, growing louder and louder with each passing moment. Shapes started to accompany these jumbled voices, blurry outlines seemingly appearing out of thin air wherever Liang Chen looked.
He dug deeper still, to the source of his poison, reaching for that image he had made of this law of his, the law that had accompanied him since he first became familiar with this emotion of his.
And the world responded, the jumbled voices responded. But their response was clarity, an order to the jumbling and indistinction. There wasn't a single word mixed in with all the voices, it was just screams, an uncountable number of screams. Souls crying out in pain, a chorus of death and agony, a symphony of hatred and wrath, a poison of the soul.
"And hatred...Hatred outlives the hateful."