Liang Chen and Yi Ze Ruan stood opposite of each other, one hoisting her large axe while the other prepared his spear. Blurry outlines started to shimmer into existence throughout the city, rising from the ground and the desiccated corpses like hazy mist. Yi Ze had pulled out all her own trump cards right from the get-go so there was no way that Liang Chen would keep too many of his own cards hidden.
He once again found himself unable to use the Rain-Caller's Dance, Yi Ze was radiating so much energy that it was interfering with the surrounding Qi. But he was confident. He could win, he would win. Confidence born from bloodshed, confidence born from striding through battlefield after battlefield, the confidence of the strong.
"The souls of the deceased? If I recall correctly then this should be the speciality of the Arbiter of Death, and even then he can only do it due to mixing in his law of life in a specific manner... are you drawing out the deathly energy lingering in the land?"
Yi Ze's gaze swam across the land around her, inspecting the hazy figures that now dotted the city as they shimmered in and out of existence. She didn't know Liang Chen's laws, but the fact that an outline rose from each of the sect members she had killed gave her enough information to produce a guess. But the figures looked a bit different from the recording she had seen in the past so she couldn't honestly say that she was confident in her original guess.
"They're angry, Yi Ze, angrier than I would have thought. You, this sect, this land, the duty you gave them, they hate all of it, they want it all to burn. It seems like you were the only one who truly believed in that 'duty' of yours."
Liang Chen didn't answer her question, his sombre gaze drifting from outline to outline. The vestiges he had dredged up were filled with far more anger and hatred than he had expected after looking at the vestiges he pulled out in the Sky's Wrath sect. Was their hatred that much greater or was it just because they had died far more recently?
If he had to compare their hatred to anything then he would have to compare it to the one he showed in the past. The fury he burned with after his parents were executed, the fury that burned him as he jumped into a pool of Demonic beast blood. He craved death, vengeance no matter the cost. Reckless, dangerous, sad.
"You ca...!?"
Yi Ze's words were forcibly cut off as she suddenly recoiled, her free hand clutching the side of her head. The anger of the dead, the memories that birthed them, it all became poison that seeped into her body, the sheer magnitude of the anger amplifying the poison that tugged at her sense of self. Some of the discordant energy coursing through her flickered, escaping her grasp as it faded into the surroundings and vanished.
"...I see, you weren't joking. The grudges of the dead, is it? But this won't be enough, I won't let the grudges of some people who couldn't accept their duty stop me here."
Yi Ze's voice was a bit rough as she removed her hand from her head, the veins on her temples pulsating as they bulged. Unseen energy started to flow within her head and chest, the familiar aura of Anima Essence surfacing from within her.
Contrary to her muscular appearance it seemed like she actually dual-cultivated Qi and soul. But whether or not this would end up being a blessing or a curse remained to be seen, if her Anima Essence wasn't strong enough to utterly crush Liang Chen's then she would still end up slowly getting invaded by the laws that he used to alter his soul. But she had no way of knowing that so she grasped her weapon with both her hands and readied it.
"Here I come, Liang Chen, let death breed retribution."
Yi Ze stomped the ground heavily as she finished her words, the earth crumbling and tearing apart the vines that were just about to burst out from beneath her. She shot forward like a cannonball, her every step leaving deep marks in the earth. Her discordant energy was rapidly depleted as she charged, but the surge of energy that came from the water all around them constantly flowed into her to keep her topped up.
She moved far faster than Liang Chen had first anticipated, her large axe swinging down upon him a mere instant after she first stomped the ground. Liang Chen took half a step back to gain the appropriate distance and then swept his spear upwards, aiming to bisect Yi Ze with a quick slash before her axe could reach him.
But perhaps as expected, there was no way their battle would be that easy. Yi Ze mimicked his actions, taking a step back with surprising nimbleness and ensuring that her descending axe was now heading straight for his spear. The two weapons collided with a loud ringing sound, Liang Chen's eyes quickly narrowing.
His attack was rapidly losing strength in the face of Yi Ze's axe, he could feel his arm slowly sinking downwards. His spear was bending violently beneath the axehead, it looked like it would snap in half, and that was even with his arm slowly sinking downwards due to the loss of strength.
The shadows cast by her slightly raised arms suddenly wiggled, turning inwards as they became spears that tried to dig into her body. But the attack only managed to scratch her skin before it was stopped, it was as if Yumao's attack lacked over half the strength it usually had.
Liang Chen didn't know if this weapon of his, forged by the Bloodwind Code, could actually break, but he wasn't interested in keeping this temporary stalemate going to find out. He moved his arm sideways and used his other hand to give the shaft of the spear a light hit, flicking the spear out from underneath Yi Ze's axe and immediately pushing it forward.
The axe crashed into the ground since it lost what was holding it back, large chunks of dirt getting tossed around as the ground was gouged out. The tip of Liang Chen's spear quickly approached Yi Ze, but he quickly experienced the same sensation of losing strength again. As a result, while his spear managed to dig into her chest, it didn't even retain enough strength to reach her ribs.
He thought about unleashing some lightning, but Yi Ze was already moving forward again, twisting her torso so that the spearhead would slide out of her chest. He gave up on using lightning and instead unleashed a bit of poison before he hopped to the side, the large axe tearing through the air right beside him.
But Yi Ze had evidently expected this, her foot already stomping down by the time Liang Chen stepped aside. The ground around them had been all torn up so she was practically just stomping empty air and loose chunks that were still in the process of flying away. But the stomp still unleashed a great deal of energy, space cracking as her foot stomped it and she stepped forward.
One of her hands let go of the weapon and swept out sideways, smashing into the spear shaft that Liang Chen raised in defence. The spear bent once again thanks to the immense strength in Yi Ze's arm, the power he put into his defence melted away like snow beneath the sun and the spear smashed into him as a result.
His feet lost contact with the ground and the bones in his arm shattered as he was flung away with such force that he crashed through two buildings that stood at the edge of the destruction that Yi Ze had caused before he came here. He stabilized himself right after he passed through the second building, pushing out his unbroken arm and giving his wrist a light twist.
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The wind responded to his actions, pushing against the incoming Yi Ze and spinning slightly to redirect her. She was pushed aside enough that she wouldn't smash directly into him, but she was able to stomp the ground heavily and sharply alter her direction shortly after, now coming at him from the side with her axe raised.
Liang Chen frowned slightly at the sheer speed with which she was able to change her direction, the power of the wind also hadn't been satisfactory so she wasn't pushed as much off-course as he wanted. But he too was quick to react, the poison he had injected her with earlier kicking into action, a trace amount of the law of time helping it act even quicker.
Yi Ze suddenly found herself extremely light-headed, her vision blurred for a second as she found herself unable to properly control her body. Her legs stumbled and she tripped, a glittering lotus rising from beneath her just as she lost her footing. The lotus exploded right before it touched her, multicoloured lightning and hazy black fog scattering through the area with a thunderous sound.
She was launched into the air by the explosion, her expression twisting as the poison dug up from the surrounding vestiges started to really affect her again thanks to the opening. But Yumao appeared above her before she could properly gather herself again. He smashed his tail downwards, seemingly not trusting that the darkness he could attack with would be able to retain enough strength.
He put all his weight into the tail and slammed it into Yi Ze's back, sending her crashing down with such force that she created a crater as she landed. The crater was deep enough that some of the water from beneath the island managed to leak through, slowly filling it as she laid at the bottom, gazing up at Liang Chen.
"That poison, it was a blood-thinning one, wasn't it? If I remember correctly, doesn't the Thousand Flowers Valley sect use a poison like that? Who was the leader again, Dao Shui? Meng Bao? They used lightning and poison and used that very same poison."
Yi Ze had an excellent grasp of her own body so she was able to instantly figure out why she suddenly got so light-headed. Something had entered her body and thinned her blood, depriving her brain of the oxygen it needed to properly control her body. It didn't necessarily have to be poison, but the way it worked was a bit familiar to her since she had once made a journey similar to Liang Chen's.
"It was Meng Bao."
Liang Chen gave half an answer to her question, but that alone honestly served as a proper answer. Liang Chen had the law of poison himself but had also been troubled a bit by Meng Bao's blood thinning and coagulating poisons, it was probably even worse for Yi Ze. But even so, she laughed somewhat quietly after he answered.
"I see, so their legacy got to live on even after their fall. What a joyous thing, their deaths held meaning for Purgatory and their lives held meaning for you. Their existence was not in vain, what a blessed fate."
Her quiet laugh was punctuated with an equally quiet sigh, its meaning known only to her. She sat up in the water, the dim clear blue liquid pouring strength into her body as she pushed her arm forward. Her fist collided with a bolt of dim violet lightning, the impact so strong that it caused the air to ripple as the lightning scattered.
But there was no way she could take the violet lightning on with just her body like that and get out unscathed, some of the arcs had burned themselves into her arm and sent waves of distracting pain racing through her body. She could only bear the pain as she hopped up into a standing position and stomped down once more, crushing the gleaming lotus that was trying to grow.
She managed to crush it before it fully grew, but one of the thorns still lodged itself into her leg, the flow of blood around it becoming chaotic and making it harder for her to control her leg. Sheng Lian and Yumao were acutely aware of the fact that getting involved in a fight like this was dangerous, that was why they held themselves back and focused on ranged support unless they had a good chance.
Yi Ze rose into the sky as the power of her stomp was unleashed, expanding the crater and revealing the waters beneath. She stomped the empty air to change the direction of her ascent, shifting it into a forwards charge aiming directly for Liang Chen. She didn't know when or how, but the arm that she had broken had repaired itself, pushing forwards the spear he was grasping.
The spear met the axe she sent out in an upwards slash, her foot stomping the ground once more as she unleashed another great burst of energy. Liang Chen's eyes narrowed again as the spear and axe collided, his weapon losing strength and trembling fiercely as it was pushed aside. Yi Ze didn't let go of this chance, she didn't even lower her weapon and instead just pushed out her shoulder as she continued her charge.
Another burst of energy accelerated her so much that she didn't give Liang Chen the time to react, barreling into him with all her might. She could feel his chest caving in under her shoulder, his ribs practically disintegrated as he was pushed back. A good bit of blood rushed out from his mouth as he flew back, his eyes flashing with a violent light as he brought his spear down again.
Time coiled around his spearhead, flowing in opposite directions as it came crashing down upon Yi Ze. She instinctively sensed danger from the attack so she hurriedly dodged to the side. But the attack was aimed at the extended shoulder so it was a bit hard for her to get it out of the way in time.
The weapon came down upon the edge of her shoulder, cleaving through her flesh and shearing away a portion of it. The attack reached the bone this time, laying it bare as her flesh was flayed away by the spear and more of the discordant energy coursing through her escaped her grasp and faded away. A grunt of pain escaped her as her expression darkened, her foot stomping the ground again as she rushed forward. Dragging things out was no longer a viable option since Liang Chen had found a way to penetrate her defence.
She stepped almost into Liang Chen's bosom, keeping pace with him as he was flying back. She swept her axe out sideways and aimed at his hips, heavily stomping the ground and expending her energy with each step she took. Liang Chen gathered his law of time again and infused it into a blast of wind that he pushed down upon the incoming axe to push it away.
But another mouthful of blood escaped him at that moment, loosening his control over the laws and rendering the blast of wind too unstable to have much effect. He was forced to hastily dodge, sending a gust of wind smashing into his legs to push himself into a horizontal position that would make the axe sweep beneath him.
Yi Ze quickly reacted, stomping once again as she put all her force into her arms and brought the axe upwards. The sharp edges were still pointed sideways so Liang Chen didn't end up getting sliced in twain, but the flat side of the head still smashed into his waist. His bones crumbled under the force and he was sent high into the air, his blood crackling as it scattered through the air.
Yi Ze stomped the ground and sent herself shooting towards Liang Chen, her flayed arm was burning with pain, as was the arm that had lightning burned into it. The pangs of pain made her lose control of the discordant energy, the poison dug out by the vestiges creeping ever closer to her soul. She wasn't a body cultivator so she would have to rely on pills to heal her wounds, but there just wasn't enough time to do that during a battle like this so she could only push her offence to the extreme.