The air was cold, and it wasn't because of Zhao Xu's domain. A soft whooshing sound filled the area despite the fact that even time had ground to a halt under Li Zhao Xu's chill. Tian Shenju's expression was dim as he stood there, first he had to deal with this time-freezing domain and now he also had to deal with whatever Liang Chen was pulling out, things were turning bleaker by the second.
Li Zhao Xu's expression was a bit different, almost cramped. Her eyes were swimming about somewhat aimlessly while the corners of her mouth twitched irregularly. She, just like Tian Shenju, could hear it. Shrieking, subdued screams gnawing at her soul, tugging at her consciousness. A knife plunging into her chest, a hammer crashing into the side of her skull, twisted pleasure and powerless hatred. Emotions that weren't hers, pain that wasn't hers, memories that weren't hers, they flooded her soul and mind like corruption.
"This... You call this poison...?"
Li Zhao Xu had more experience than most, she could confidently say that in this universe, only those with direct ties to the Nine Star Demon God would be able to match her knowledge. So she was qualified to question this, she had the right to say that this display, this act, this was so far removed from poison that it was ludicrous.
"Poison can affect emotions, souls, and material things, this isn't that different from those."
Liang Chen's voice cut through the frozen time, mixing with the screams he had dredged up. He was poison, his soul was poison. By using his soul, he could turn even other peoples souls into stone, compared to that, this act wasn't all that strange.
Every time he killed someone, a small bit of their soul was absorbed by his bloodline, but how could this happen? Simple, after death, a small part of you remained, a tiny fraction of your soul that lingered. If enough such fractions were gathered they could even form Demonic beasts that were closely tied to the emotions shared by the fragments.
All Liang Chen had to do was use his soul to interact with these fragments, dredge out the hatred and anger they felt as they died. Their souls lingered after death, and the anger they felt became the poison that corrupted them, and in the end, it all became the poison he used. The more death there was the more poison he would have, the more poison he had the more death he would sow.
"Not that different... if Uncle Mu heard that you compared an embryonic Prime law with normal poison then he'd probably have an aneurism..."
Li Zhao Xu couldn't help but mutter quietly, practically complaining as her eyes kept sweeping about. She could see the faint outlines that now covered almost the entire land, fragmented souls he had dredged up, unified by anger and poison. This wasn't something poison could do, at least not any poison that followed the normal rules of the universe. But she quickly shook her head, not allowing the thoughts to occupy her mind.
"Alright then... Let's see if it's time to learn."
She could feel it, her frozen world was slowly being pushed back from Liang Chen. The negative emotions he turned into poison were clearly not only being used to hamper her and Tian Shenju's minds, he was absorbing it to empower himself, feeding on the poison like a sponge. One drew in power from the sky, one drew out power from within, and one drew in power from the vengeful souls dotting the land. The trump cards had been dredged out, all that remained was to finish it.
Zhao Xu decided to make the first move, her eyes gleaming sharply as she shrank the frozen world. She focused it entirely on Tian Shenju, drastically increasing its strength as she charged at him. Her instincts were telling her that she needed to finish off one of the opponents, she had no idea what might happen if both got to stick around.
Liang Chen did not stay still as Zhao Xu charged out, he shot forward as well, aiming for the same target. Tian Shenju felt his feet sink into the ground, his thoughts almost grinding to a halt as the weight of the frozen world descended upon him. Zhao Xu may not kill him, she hadn't killed anyone else so far at the very least. But Liang Chen would definitely not show that kind of mercy, his life would be forfeit the second he was even one beat too slow.
He burst out with as much energy as he could, his eyes blazing as he slashed upwards with his metal pole, its head twisting into a sharp glaive. The weapon erupted with sharp energy, energy so sharp that it was able to even temporarily cut through gravity and the frozen world.
He stomped the ground and shot back to dodge the incoming attackers, a tree swiftly rising where he had just been standing. The land around the tree rapidly dried up and died as the plant grew, sucking in the nutrients and lifeforce of the land to fuel its own growth. The roots and branches of the tree twisted unnaturally as they pierced towards the two opponents, one seeking to entangle while the other sought to pierce.
He stretched out his hand and pointed it at the tree, but his chest suddenly clogged painfully, a hoarse cough escaping him. A few drops of blood burst out from his mouth with each cough, the veins on his temples pulsating violently as the strange poison Liang Chen had dredged up got to him. The pain felt like his own, he felt like he saw his own death a thousand times over. He could even see himself in some of those foreign memories, it was his spear that sank them into darkness.
"They still remember you, Tian Shenju, they still scream for you. You thought you silenced them, but I can hear them, those screams that have long since faded."
Liang Chen's voice was low, so low that it mixed with the horrible screams and shrieks. His voice and their screams, they were one and the same. He was the voice of the screams, the voice of the poison dredged up from among the angry and the hateful. Tian Shenju grit his teeth and swallowed down the next cough, the blood that ran down his throat almost felt like gravel as he raised his head.
He luckily saw that he would get a second of reprieve, Zhao Xu had decided to change her target to Liang Chen since they were now closer to each other than they were to him. The veins on her neck were bulging slightly so she also seemed to be struggling with the insidious poison Liang Chen had unleashed upon the world.
Liang Chen smashed his spear down onto Zhao Xu's fist, the frozen world around him suddenly shrinking until it was focused solely on her hand and the spear. Time ground to a halt so violently and strongly that Liang Chen had to hastily supply his weapon with more power to make time flow properly again, But that one moment was still enough for Zhao Xu's fist to slip into his bosom, practically right in front of his chest.
He stopped dead in his tracks and leaned back slightly, his Qi bursting out as he froze time in front of him. Or to be more specific, he froze the time of his robe, the small patch of cloth that had fluttered in front of Zhao Xu's hand. Her fist smashed into the cloth, and while she was able to smash through the frozen time through sheer force, he could hear the sound of the bones in her hand shattering.
The momentum of her fist was lowered drastically, but it still felt like a sledgehammer as it crashed into Liang Chen's chest. His ribs, which had only just started to heal thanks to the abundant energy he created and drew in, shattered all over again. But he wasn't pushed back or flung away, he was able to maintain his stance and launch a counterattack.
The spear that had swished past Zhao Xu's hand had its trajectory forcibly altered, the descending smash turning into a diagonal descent. He smashed the spear into the side of her leg, smashing it aside so that she lost her footing and stumbled. His knee then rose to greet her head as she fell, but she wasn't planning on getting caught that easily.
She spat out a heavy breath and pushed out her free hand, her palm coming into contact with Liang Chen's rising knee. The frozen world she had set up vanished in an instant, a horrid heat rising from her palm to replace it. Flames lashed out from the spot where her hand touched Liang Chen's body, the air distorting due to the heat and power that were unleashed by her response.
It was also at this time that Tian Shenju decided to add his own attack. The two weren't far from the tree he had created as he dodged, the branches and roots were unable to get close to them thanks to the power they radiated, but that was fine. His heel lightly touched the ground, the tree suddenly exploding violently. All the lifeforce and nutrients it had absorbed from the ground were unleashed all at once, an uncountable number of wooden and metal splinters cutting through the air.
Even the wooden splinters were able to cut through the buildings like they were butter, and Liang Chen and Zhao Xu were smack dab in the middle of where most of the shrapnel was heading. But dodging was extremely awkward for them since it was at this moment that the energy in Zhao Xu's palm was unleashed, a rumbling sound blotting out everything else as a blinding explosion of heat and fire was birthed between her palm and Liang Chen's leg.
The two were flung away from each other, one spewing crackling blood from his severed leg while the other had blood shooting out from the palm that was torn open by the rebounding force. Zhao Xu grit her teeth and gathered as much of her energy as she could, but the screaming poison in her soul and the myriad of memories that took this chance to invade her prevented her from gathering even half as much energy as she normally would be able to.
The gravity she gathered up wasn't enough to completely redirect the incoming shrapnel so she had to bear it with her body. Some of it just bounced off of her strong body, but some of the stronger ones managed to pierce her flesh and carve bloody gashes into her.
Liang Chen had a much easier time dealing with the shrapnel, he didn't even have to do anything. Sheng Lian appeared at his side, her crimson robe fluttering slightly as thorned vines burst through the ground. Each thorn crackled with multicoloured lightning, each vine moved like tentacles as they swatted aside the shrapnel. When one vine failed to do the trick she simply brought out more, practically filling the land with deep green vines.
She also helped Liang Chen at the same time, placing her hand against his severed leg and pouring lightning into it so that he could use his body cultivation to replace it. And naturally, Yumao wasn't just standing around as this happened, he took advantage of the situation to attack Tian Shenju.
Tian Shenju had just let out another cough, a few more drops of blood sputtering out from between his lips after he finished his attack. He didn't quite understand how Liang Chen's poison was affecting him like this, poison born from emotions should have tainted his soul, but it was somehow eating away at his body as well. But he didn't get to ponder that question for long, his instincts suddenly hopping into overdrive as a horrible sensation of danger overwhelmed him.
That was when he noticed it, the small shadow cast on his chest by the drops of blood he had just spat out. They had grown darker than they had any right to be, darker than the blackest night. He hurriedly threw himself to the side while unleashing as much energy as he could muster under the effect of the poison, but he was a beat too late.
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The darkness had already touched him, connected with him. Several small holes suddenly appeared on his body, the flesh and blood that used to occupy those small sections sucked directly into the dark shadows to feed the being lurking in them. More blood poured out from his mouth, but the voice of Liang Chen echoed across the area just as Tian Shenju moved to raise a defence against the shadow cast by the new drops.
"Let's just finish this."
The rumbling of thunder followed those words, arcs of lightning crackling through the air. But not a single one of the bolts headed directly for Tian Shenju, not a single one aimed to pierce him. No, all of the bolts flashed through the air around him, dancing almost malevolently as they bathed him in their dull violet light.
One light birthed a hundred shadows, and right now there were almost several hundred new light sources shining down on him. Tiny shadows were born all over him, from his hair, his nose, his eyelashes, his fingers, new shadows he didn't have the chance to raise a defence against.
The screams reached a crescendo in his ears, so many memories flowing into his disturbed and chaotic mind that he started to lose sight of who he was. He had only panicked for a second under that dull violet light, but that one second gave the poison all the time it needed to invade him. And the poison gave the predator all the time it needed to finish the job.
Hole after hole appeared in Tian Shenju's body, the shadows practically coming alive as they drew in that which they covered. It was as if an unseen maw had sunk its teeth into Tian Shenju, his final expression one of confusion as he sank into the memories, the poison of the dead and the angry.
Liang Chen didn't even spare Tian Shenju's final fate a single glance, he had full trust in Yumao. All he had to do was ramp up the strength of the poison and provide the light, Yumao would be able to handle the rest. As such, he was free to place his attention on the remaining enemy, Li Zhao Xu, whose expression was cramped once more.
"All right, one last move to finish it all, is that it? All right, come then, Storm Lord, let's see whose move is stronger."
Zhao Xu's expression wasn't amused as she spoke, but it wasn't the disappointed and bored expression she had shown when he first saw her either. She was serious, solemn even. She had failed to learn the joy of battles this time as well, but she had found the seriousness of them. Her instincts were screaming, her heart was thumping and her blood felt like ice. She hadn't learned to find joy, but she had found another middle-ground between crushing and getting crushed, fear.
Liang Chen didn't say anything, he simply gathered his strength as he drew back his spear, the tip leaving a line in the land. Zhao Xu spat out a somewhat heavy breath, her chest felt clogged up thanks to the poison, her head was thumping due to the unfamiliar memories and emotions the poison forced upon her.
The temperature around her rapidly dropped, the land turned brittle and cracked as it froze. The chill rapidly expanded, but this time it didn't get so bad that it froze time. No, this time it just froze the land wherever it went, the entire city, and even the area around it, rapidly becoming white with frost.
She drew back her right arm and bent her knees, sliding back her left leg to stabilize her position as she prepared what looked like a punch. Liang Chen had a slight idea as to what she might do, as well as to what the true nature of her cold law was. But his response wouldn't change, power gathering in his arm and spear as multicoloured lightning danced around him.
Zhao Xu's muscles twitched slightly, Liang Chen's eyes flashing dangerously as his arm shot forward. The gathered energy spread out with the wind, invisible pillar after pillar forming to support the power he was producing. It wasn't the first time he was trying to launch the Fifth Step, the step that shattered the sky, but this time ended up being a bit different compared to the previous times.
Normally, the pillars he formed from wind would be what supported him, they'd bear the power so that it didn't crush him. But now the souls he had dredged up and extracted poison from also joined in, each fragment bearing a part of the power. The number of pillars increased drastically thanks to the souls, who all became pillars in their own right, the stability of the attack rising as a result.
But the souls were still reservoirs of poison, sources Liang Chen drew his strength from, tiny pockets of energy in their own right. And all that energy was added onto the power he had already gathered up, all of it fueled into him as he unleashed the attack with more might than ever before.
But now the attack was far more stable than ever before, the energy was far more controlled and condensed thanks to the sheer number of pillars. As a result, there was no gargantuan explosion as the entire city was buried, the energy was all condensed neatly into the devastating bolts of multicoloured lightning that roared out from the tip of his spear.
Golden, blue, green, red, brown, violet, the colours all danced around each other as the bolts twined around each other, the pressure of the attack forcing them all against each other, into each other. One by one they were forced to become one, one by one the colours all became one, the strength of the attack rising violently as the bolts became a single golden line that tore through the city, tore through the land.
Zhao Xu unleashed her own attack, and it was indeed exactly what Liang Chen had expected. The frost that covered the land came about because Zhao Xu had extracted the heat that existed there, the warmth in the air and the heat of the land. And all that heat had been gathered by her, gathered in her, all of it in that one small fist that was now pushed forward.
Stone melted, earth melted, the resulting lava evaporated, a blast of heat so warm it shone a blinding white rushed out from Zhao Xu's fist like a ray of light. Nothing was able to stand in the path of that fist-width ray, everything simply melted and evaporated as the ray passed by. And then, the blinding white met the blinding gold, an ear-piercing screeching sound ringing out as space was torn open, black cracks ripping through the sky as they extended out from the point of contact.
Liang Chen was connected to his attack so he could feel it getting shorn away by the blinding light. If things continued at this pace then the end result would be him winning by a bit, but not enough to actually incapacitate Zhao Xu.
"Lend me a bit of your power."
Liang Chen spoke without turning to look at Sheng Lian, his knees had already bent as he shot forward. He had put his everything into that attack, he simply didn't have it in him to launch a second attack to ensure victory. But unlike Zhao Xu, he had a multitude of ways to replenish his energy.
The energy he requested found him as he charged forward, towards that patch of cracked space where gold met white. Lightning and death from Sheng Lian and death from Yumao, both his companions shared at least one law with Liang Chen. And right now he took full advantage of that, taking the energy into himself to refill his drained reservoirs.
He didn't need to launch a devastating attack, he just needed to launch a well-placed one. He took in all the energy they gave, converting it to Qi he could use for himself. And using that Qi, he tapped into his law of time and launched his spear towards the ray of blinding white, it unleashed such a level of heat that he couldn't hope to jump in there with his actual body.
The law of time gathered within the tip of his spear as it flew, but it wasn't a uniform flow. One edge of the blade flowed with time that was faster than normal while the other flowed with time that was slower than normal, just looking at it was unpleasant on the eyes, like getting poked with small needles.
The spear passed through the lightning and sank into the ray of heat, the gathered law of time bursting forth, the ray of light forced to endure the same discordant flow of time as the spearhead. Parts of the ray sped up drastically while other parts slowed to a crawl, the balance of the attack instantly crumbling as Zhao Xu failed to stabilize it.
This was the difference between having the law of time and being able to influence the flow of time, trying to counter the first by using the second was incredibly difficult, you were simply too linear in how you could influence time. The ray of heat became unstable, leaking energy in the form of super-heated rays that shot away from the main attack.
And that was enough for Liang Chen's attack to finish the job, the golden bolt tearing through the white ray and shooting straight for Zhao Xu. Liang Chen was hit by one of the errant super-heated rays, the attack passing through his waist like a hot knife through butter. But he still had enough presence of mind to alter the trajectory of his attack slightly.
The golden bolt that was originally slated to tear directly through Zhao Xu curved away, passing by her so that only a few errant crackles lashed her body. In the end, she wasn't actually an enemy he had to kill, she had never even come at him with the actual intent to kill. Liang Chen wasn't so depraved that he'd just kill anyone who tried to fight him.
So he redirected his attack, the result of the battle was already painfully clear. And if Zhao Xu still failed to give up and decided to keep fighting despite everything then Liang Chen would simply have to use one of the talismans his birth parents had given him when they last met. But it luckily seemed like things wouldn't reach that end, Zhao Xu glancing sideways at the scar Liang Chen's attack had torn into the land. She looked a bit unwilling, despondent even, but she still forced the words through her dry lips.
"It's... my loss."