The gate that Liang Chen tore into reality didn't just bring him directly to Purgatory's Cradle, it connected with the gate he had opened there previously so that he could arrive right above the place he had previously cultivated. It was to be expected, but there was practically no trace of him left there, not even any scraps of cloth.
There was however a slight glimmer of light coming from the dusty ground, a single item to represent the man that once sat there. A deep crimson ring untainted by the dust around it, the wavy pattern covering it seeming to ripple with the wind. Right now, that ring contained his daughter and most recent disciples, patiently awaiting his return.
He dropped down to the ground without a sound and bent down to pick up the ring, but it was futile. His fingers slid right through it, dissipated like smoke whenever he tried to touch it. He could only sigh softly at the scene, straightening his body as he raised his head.
"...I guess that's to be expected."
He took in his surroundings with a sweeping gaze as he muttered, checking up on the others. Yumao and Sheng Lian were still desperately pouring out their energy to sustain the dark domain, Shen Fei and Li Zhao Xu also seemed to contribute. But Liang Chen couldn't hear them, it seemed as if all sound had simply ceased to exist.
For that matter, it didn't seem like they could see him either, they weren't even turned in his direction. But it really couldn't be helped, right now he was just a mass of energy, a clump of raw Void energy. The shape he currently had was only something he pictured in his own mind, he probably didn't even have a form right now.
But he didn't need to have a form to feel things, and right now he felt a myriad of things. The first thing he sensed, surprisingly enough, wasn't his other parts or laws. No, the thing he sensed first was a cry, a subdued sob that echoed in the back of his head, calling to him, guiding him. The problem was the distance, he could feel that the cry was extremely far away, further away than any journey he had ever made, even crossing universes wouldn't be enough to meaningfully shorten the distance. But it called to him all the same, crying all the while.
The second thing he sensed was desperation. Yumao and Sheng Lian, they were both desperate, they poured out their own lifeforce to support the domain. They were praying, hoping, begging for someone, anyone, to help them. They wanted to do it themselves, but they couldn't, didn't know how. So they begged, prayed.
And the final thing Liang Chen sensed was himself. A little piece within the lightning, a piece within the wind, a piece within the moisture in the air, a piece within the endless river of time, fragments of himself, the man he used to be, scattered as they returned to where they belonged. And then, the one thing that tied them together, his soul.
It was floating not far away, a replica of him that faced him silently. Once they were tied together, body and soul, but now only the soul remained. But there was something that still tied the two together, the laws fused into them. His body and soul may have followed different paths, but both had incorporated time and Void, and it was the existence of those two laws in his soul that allowed it to retain a sliver of connection with the current him.
He only exchanged a short glance with his soul before he turned away again, his soul was him and he was his soul, there was no need for the two to confirm each other's thoughts. His gaze landed on the desperate Yumao and Sheng Lian, what he envisioned to be his arm reaching out and stroking their heads.
"Thank you, things wouldn't have worked out if it wasn't for you."
Nether God's Grasp, the dark domain Yumao had forcibly erected to cover this entire area. Had it not been for that domain sealing this place up and pouring in vast amounts of energy then the parts of Liang Chen that had merged into their respective elements would have already faded. The consciousness in them would vanish and they would become nothing more than another part of the natural elements, lost forever. But for now, they were still here, for now, there was still hope.
"Well then, what do you say we get started?"
Yumao and Sheng Lian didn't seem to notice his caress so he pulled back and turned his attention back onto his soul. Right now he was nothing more than a conglomeration of energy, and since he had left the Void he could feel himself slowly slide apart. There was nothing holding him together, that was why the different parts of him were falling apart.
His soul was a bit different, it hadn't reached the same stage as his body, but he'd prefer not to have to rely on body possession to acquire a new body. He'd also end up losing his law of lightning and wind, and that was before he even considered the idea that the new body may reject his soul. And since that was the case, there really was only one option he was considering at the moment.
Create a new core.
If there was nothing to hold him together then he would create something to hold him together. Even if that something was just immense pressure that crushed him into a single seamless whole.
"And for that...you."
There was, however, one thing he had to do before he could really start. His soul had yet to reach the same stage as his body, but once it did then it would undoubtedly experience the same dissipation. And if that was the case then he may as well get it out of the way now and include his soul into that seamless whole. His body would be his soul and his soul would be his body, and all of it would be his laws.
His soul simply nodded its head, they were of one mind so whatever he could think of, it could too. And compared to his body, his soul was far easier to cultivate. Its strength was already far above its actual level thanks to the Sebettu's innate technique, and the elements merged into it were things that were far easier to find. As such, there was no reason for Liang Chen to hesitate.
"Go, drink to your heart's content."
Liang Chen gave a light wave of his hand, ripping open the gate to the Void a bit more. A flood of energy poured out from the wound, raining down upon the soul as it tried to engulf it. The surrounding time was all drawn in at the same time, the small portion of him stuck in the river of time doing its best to direct the energy.
There was nothing these two parts could do about the remaining three laws, but they were luckily abundant in this land so they didn't have to do much. Rot was omnipresent, wherever there were living beings there would be rot so it was easy to find that law. Death was more than abundant in this land, it had seeped into the land and air long before Liang Chen had ever set foot here, it was part of it as much as life was.
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And finally, there was poison, which he could luckily find twofold here. The first source of poison was the great ocean of it he had just created in his previous battle, it contained an unimaginable amount of it. But that wasn't the only source, there was also the vestiges he had started to dig up with his embryonic Prime Law.
They screamed at their deaths, roared in anger at the injustice they suffered. Hatred, desperation, wrath, it was all entrenched in the vestiges, poison that tied them to the land, poison that kept them here. And Liang Chen dug out all that poison for himself, drew out and extracted grudges that had long turned to dust.
All of it was forced directly into his soul, merged into what should be the brain and heart of his soul, quickly altering them. Yumao and the others may not have been able to notice Liang Chen's arrival, but there was no way for them to miss this flood of incoming energy. They couldn't tell what it was doing, but Yumao was more than familiar with these particular laws.
He seemed to say something, gleams of hope emerging in his eyes, but Liang Chen couldn't hear him so he had no idea what he was saying. He focused on his soul, on the energy that was altering it. Soon it would reach a breaching point, soon it would overflow.
And indeed, before long, much faster than when he did his body since he had some experience now, it overflowed. The energy poured into his soul, drawn in by its meridians as they greedily absorbed it. Parts that should have been left for later were altered one by one, the soul quickly becoming a mass of elemental energy. And then, just like his core-less body, it slid apart.
One part to the wrathful poison, one part to the uncaring death, one part to the recycling rot, a part to the peaceful void, and a part to the endless river of time. Normally, this would be the end of it, just another unlucky fellow who stumbled on his path. But Yumao's domain was still in effect, it still poured in energy that maintained his consciousness.
And just like that, there were suddenly ten different parts of his consciousness floating around, four occupied the same elements but the remaining six occupied their own elements. And all of them were of one mind, all of them had the same idea.
One by one they gathered, squeezing themselves to the utmost limit to gather themselves around the ring that marked his previous location. Lightning, Wind, Water, Poison, Rot, Death, Time, and Void, every single one of Liang Chen's laws had gathered themselves. Water was the one odd out since it was the only law he couldn't actually control, but it was still an integral part to his body cultivation.
"...You know, looking at it now, it's almost a bit funny, no? Lightning, wind, and water to form the storm, to form the heaves. Poison, death, and rot to form the abyss, to form wrath. And then there's time and void to tie it all together, the bridge that connects the heavens and their wrath."
Liang Chen couldn't help but mutter somewhat humorously as he looked at the parts that had gathered and were quietly looking at each other. From the start he had moved forward with the goal of taking over the role of the heavens, he'd administer the wrath they refused to dispense. And now, before he knew it, he had picked up and become something that could form a close representation of those very things.
"But this... This is too many. One. That's all that's needed, a single Liang Chen, the world really doesn't need more, don't you agree?"
If each of these were to become a new body, a new Liang Chen, then it really would be too much. No, the world only needed a single him, any more than that and it would just be too sad. The various parts of him agreed on this part, the sole evil in the world didn't need multiple parts, all it needed was a single seamless whole.
The two parts representing time stretched out their arms, connecting and merging into each other. The two parts representing the Void did the same, 10 becoming 8. Next up was wind, water, and lightning, the laws that once formed his body merging into a single one. He had already merged all of these laws before so he was very familiar with the process, it only took an instant to do it.
But they didn't want to stay together, there was no core tying them together so they wanted to slide apart the moment they merged. But that was fine, in the end they'd stay together whether they wanted to or not, he just had to keep them together for a bit.
8 parts had shrunk down to 6, but it was still not enough. Poison, death, and rot were the next to fuse, vanishing into each other one by one to reduce the number to 4. Void Storm, Void's Abyss, and Void's Wrath, Liang Chen's three unique laws. One for the body, one for the soul, and one for it all together. In the past, they were separated, but now it was time to let them all become one.
The four figures reached out to connect with the others, clasping their hands to form a circle. And then they faded, melting away into energy that merged into a single gathering of laws. Powerful but unstable, constantly at risk of dissipating and returning to nature. This was the final step, all Liang Chen had to do now was gather enough pressure to force this unstable gathering to compress. It was like when he reconstructed his bones, he just had to compress the energy until it took on physical form. That would be him, a pressurized gathering of elements, a walking representation of the heavens and wrath, a monstrosity in human form.
But where was he to gather this type of pressure? Yumao and the others were barely aware of him at the moment, they could at best sense the mass of energy, whether or not they recognized it as him was unknown. And would they be able to output enough strength to exert enough pressure? He didn't know, personally, he didn't think so.
But luckily, he knew a way to get hold of the pressure he needed. He had experienced it once before, a pressure unlike any other, a rejection by the Sphere itself. He had avoided it ever since, but now it was time to call it down once again, this time he would face it head-on.
The void part that formed this mass of energy expanded outwards, it stretched along the ground and into the sky. The earth lost all colour as the ground turned a pale white, the air becoming heavy and dry. Soft strands of grey grass started to sprout from the changed earth, small black worms struggling to reach the surface as trees started to rise.
Domain, the ability all cultivators of a certain level could use. The ability to alter the world to a state more suited for your elements, the ability Liang Chen rarely used due to the Void that was merged into his laws. He called it forth once more, and the world changed in response. Pale white earth, grey grass, black worms, light brown trees with bright red leaves that bore a striking resemblance to maple trees. This was the Void born of his law, a Void he had never seen before, and now he imposed it upon the world.
But there was one who could not accept this, one who would not allow the Void to alter the world in a manner like this. And it rose to respond to this threat. The sky darkened with deep crimson clouds, a horrifying pressure bearing down on the land and flattening the newly formed trees. The clouds rumbled with the familiar sound of thunder, incandescent arcs of pure white lightning flashing across the clouds. Each one was as thick and long as a dragon, each one commanded enough power to shatter worlds.
Liang Chen had called down the Void to alter the world, and the Sphere of Existence could not, would not allow this. So it brought its punishment, its wrath. But Liang Chen simply smiled, if a mass of energy could even do that.
"I don't accept you. I didn't back then and I don't now. But thank you for the pressure, I'll make sure to put it to good use."