Liang Chen had tossed his errant thoughts to the back of his mind, but his eyes still narrowed slightly as he observed Lao Ye. Liang Chen had fought and killed many people in his life, but Lao Ye would only be the second one who held the law of time. It was a powerful and rare law, one with so many different usages that Liang Chen had no real way of knowing what to expect. And thus he had to exercise more caution than normal, especially if he also considered how strong Lao Ye was.
"Well then, Storm Lord, show me ho!?"
Lao Ye's words were cut off before he could finish his sentence, a fist embedding itself in his face. His nose crumbled beneath Liang Chen's punch, his feet losing touch with the ground as he was launched back. Liang Chen expected him to fly quite far, but he actually stopped when he crashed into the walls of the mausoleum so it seemed like it was far sturdier than just normal stone.
A flower of blood bloomed from Lao Ye's broken nose, scattering through the air as he tried to suck in the air that had been knocked out of his lungs. Liang Chen frowned slightly, that attack had reached a level where it could splatter someone's head and end the fight instantly. But it had only broken Lao Ye's nose, it was even regenerating as Liang Chen watched.
His brows furrowed at just how tough Lao Ye was, but he wasn't planning on giving him any time at all. He vanished from sight with the slight crackling of electricity, appearing directly in front of Lao Ye again and driving his fist into his face again. The white marble cracked as Lao Ye's head was smashed against it, each crack extending slowly as Liang Chen stacked punch upon punch.
He pulled his fist back when Lao Ye's head had been fully entrenched in the wall, driving his fist into his stomach. He lurched forward reflexively, only to find Liang Chen's fist smashing into his chin and sending him into the air. He flew through the air, blood painting the air as it sputtered out of his wounds. But Liang Chen was intent on ending things as quickly as he could, if he allowed Lao Ye to pull out his own cards then things could become very dangerous.
His left hand rose and his right sank, one palm pointing at Lao Ye while the other pointed at the ground beneath his feet. The law of lightning flooded out from Liang Chen's body, the very energy that formed his being swarmed the air around him and the land beneath him, a soft mutter sounding out within his heart.
Fifth Step Shatters the Sky.
As he was now, a mass of energy, he could support the Fifth Step far more easily. He only had to spread out the energy a bit, meaning that he could focus the resulting attack far more sharply than in the past. And Lao Ye was the poor man who had to be the first to suffer the results of that.
The law of lightning flooded his body and hijacked his nerves, forcing them to ignore any safety reflexes as they ran haywire. His arms and legs bent themselves into unnatural positions, bones snapping as he seemingly tried to twist his limbs around his own body. Liang Chen tried to have his brain and heart stop themselves but he seemed to have protected them so he had to give up on that idea. Naturally, where one idea failed another rose to take its place.
The earth trembled violently, a subdued roar rising from deep below the surface. It was as if a dragon was waking up below them, barreling towards the surface. But no, what arose from below was far worse than a dragon, it was the lifeblood of a planet.
Purgatory's Cradle may be a hidden realm, a location placed in a separate dimension of space. But this land still had to rest on a planet, even if it was a gargantuan one formed as two universes died. And as such, it needed to have a core, something to control the magnetic field that surrounded it.
The planet technically had two cores, an inner and an outer, but the sheer temperature of the inner core made it impossible for Liang Chen to use it for what he was attempting right now, at least at his current level of strength. But the outer core would do just fine, it alone should be enough to end this.
The earth continued to tremble violently, brightly growing cracks spreading across it. And then it erupted, bright red liquid as thick as mud sputtering up from the cracks as it launched itself at Lao Ye. It enveloped him with a vicious hissing sound, a glowing tomb to erase all trace of him.
The Dragon King's Six Steps, Liang Chen usually used the technique to launch devastating bolts of lightning, but was that all it was capable of? No, it could do so much more. It was a technique that exponentially increased the power of his attacks, he only used it with his lightning most of the time since it was the easiest, especially when it came to things like controlling and visualization.
But Liang Chen had changed on a fundamental level, right down to his very core. How would lightning ever have trouble controlling itself, how would lightning ever fail to do what it itself said it would do? So rather than amplifying the strength of his lightning, he amplified the magnetic field it created as he pummeled Lao Ye. And then he tethered it to the larges mass of metal he could find at the moment, the molten outer core of the planet. Then he just had to let the magnetic field do its thing and attract the metal.
The heat was excruciating, the outer core was usually between 4500 and 5500 degrees celsius, it was not a temperature that normal humans could ever bear to be near. But Liang Chen was made up of a multitude of elements, and his water and lightning parts were especially effective at alleviating the heat so he could bear it far better than most.
His eyes were narrowed slightly as he gazed upon the hovering molten tomb, he couldn't feel Lao Ye, but he wasn't sure if that was because he was dead or because he had hidden. But he didn't need to wait long to get an answer to that question, the hissing of the molten metal growing rapidly.
It turned deafening for a second, the crimson liquid dimming and hardening as it solidified. In practically an instant, the molten cocoon had turned into solid metal covered in cracks, hissing steam escaping through the cracks. It exploded violently, shrapnel cutting through the earth and embedding itself deep into the earth.
Lao Ye appeared from the broken cocoon, the wounds on his face and his broken bones already fully healed. His blue eyes had turned an even deeper colour, a faint glow emanating from them as he dropped to the ground, droplets of water dancing in the air around him.
Liang Chen could feel it. The elemental blood flowing through his veins thrummed, either out of warning or desire. Lao Ye had activated his bloodline, and it was a bloodline that couldn't be described with just the word exceptional, it was probably on the level of a Major Origin Beast. Had he ever fought someone with an Origin Beast bloodline, much less a Major Origin Beast? Liang Chen couldn't remember, but he didn't think so, he wasn't even sure if he had ever heard of someone else with something like that. Yan Ling was a possibility with her awakened bloodline, but Liang Chen didn't actually know if Star God Sirius was an Origin Beast or just a being of a similar level.
"Moving at the speed of lightning...That's a very scary ability."
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Again, Lao Ye had managed to figure out exactly what Liang Chen had done. And indeed, now that his entire body was composed of his elements he could ride lightning whenever he wanted, it was a speed that birthed despair in most men.
"And yet you don't look too worried. Is that how strong your death wish is?"
Liang Chen's eyes were a bit narrowed as he spoke, the sheer calm of Lao Ye made him wary. It could be as he said, just a death wish, he actually hoped that was the answer, but he wasn't completely confident in it. Lao Ye simply smiled at Liang Chen's question, the same calm smile and almost indescribable smile he had worn all along.
"All who have experienced adequate suffering feel the same, they just temporarily push through it with anger. You'll understand eventually, Storm Lord, once you experience more of this world's suffering."
To suffer was to be miserable, to be miserable was to seek an escape. More often than not, this escape was death, only those who were exceptionally angry could temporarily push away their desire for this escape. At least what was how Lao Ye saw the world, how suffering had formed his mind. But to Liang Chen, his statements were nothing more than a glaring insult, a mockery of his life.
"I watched my parents lose their heads as a crowd cheered. I had my entire sect wiped out. My friend and his family were buried beneath the rubble of their own house thanks to me, all I could do was dig them out and give his wife a painless end. My only sister lost her life for me, hiding her final gift for me inside her stomach, forcing me to dig it out with my own hands. I know suffering, Lao Ye, don't you ever dare imply otherwise."
Liang Chen's life was short compared to most others at his level of strength, but that didn't mean that he hadn't experienced his fair share of suffering. It was perhaps a bit childish of him to speak of it, but that suffering was one thing he would never allow anyone else to deny. He had been beaten and crushed, pushed down into the mud and beaten some more. He had lost things time and time again, it seemed like he lost something every time he tried to reach out and secure something else. But he never wished for death, he'd only ever cursed the heavens and hardened his own resolve.
Surprisingly enough, Lao Ye gave a small nod of his head in response, lowering his head slightly as he offered his apologies, eventually readying his stance.
"Very well, please forgive me. Knowing the pain of oneself is easy, but knowing the pain of others is hard. I retract my statement, Storm Lord. But I'll still fight with my all, so let's see if my death wish or your determination is stronger."
As he finished his stance, a dim red light flashed in his palm as his weapon appeared in his hands. A long blue spear pointed at Liang Chen, a dim light swimming across the cloudy grey spearhead. Liang Chen's eyes narrowed further as he gazed upon the weapon, he recognized the soft aura it radiated.
Bloodwind Code. Yes, this weapon radiated the same aura as a Bloodwind Code, it was more than likely formed using one. He didn't know if Lao Ye had a title on the Multiverse List, but given his strength, it would be prudent to assume as much. And if he had a title on that list then it also meant that his weapon had access to some of the special techniques that would be imbued into it upon reaching certain ranks, giving him an additional thing to be wary about.
He didn't bother responding to Lao Ye's challenge, his determination had come out on top time and time again, things wouldn't be any different now. He held out his arm, his energy pouring into his palm and gathering together into a gleaming grey spear thrumming with power.
This wasn't his Bloodwind weapon, it was just a spear he formed using his condensed energy. The reason behind it was simple, he no longer had his Bloodwind Code. His entire body had disappeared, scattered between his various elements, only to then be reformed at the end. The problem was that one of the elements he used to rebuild his body was the Void, an element the Bloodwind Code wasn't created to handle. So it vanished, erased from existence as it tried to become part of Liang Chen again.
So, until he got his hands on a new weapon, he would have to rely on the things he had plundered or weapons he created on his own. For now, it would be enough, it had to be enough, so he readied his stance and pointed the tip at Lao Ye's head.
The two looked at each other for a short moment, sizing each other up as they took in even the smallest movements that the other may make. And then, Liang Chen made the first move. He gave the ground a light tap, vanishing from sight as he shot forward, only leaving behind a deafening sonic boom as he broke past the speed of sound.
His arm pushed out and the spear pierced through the air, superheating the air wherever it went. But despite the mindboggling speed at which he moved, his attack actually missed. Lao Ye had taken half a step to the side the second Liang Chen made his move, perfectly dodging the spear and even turning his head to lock eyes with Liang Chen.
"The thing about lightning is that it's easy to dodge once you know where it's going to appear, you should keep that in mind in the future. But before you can go to that future, let's see how you'll fare in my world."
The water droplets dancing around Lao Ye evaporated as he spoke, turning into a mist that rapidly expanded and covered the entire tomb. The mist instantly grew so dense that Liang Chen couldn't even see his own hands, he couldn't even see his waist as he looked down, it was as if he had suddenly turned blind.
But the mist was far worse than just visually obscuring, it seemed to blot out all his other senses as well. He couldn't connect with the electricity in Lao Ye's body to track his location, he couldn't connect with the air, couldn't connect with the poison he spread out, it was as if he was completely cut off from the surrounding world.
"This is my world, Storm Lord, it is the lamentation of weakness, the powerlessness and helplessness you feel when you lose everything. This is how insignificant the world can make people feel."
Only the voice of Lao Ye seemed to carry through the dense mist, slinking into Liang Chen's ears and carrying with it a sombre tinge that spoke of Lao Ye's heavy expression. He spat out a heavy breath and bent his knees slightly, readying himself. He had failed to take out Lao Ye in one go, now he had no choice but to give it his all in the prolonged battle.