Yan Ling's left shoulder ached slightly, droplets of blood seeping out from the cracks that had appeared in her skin as Jin Chang's fist passed over her body. She luckily had a bloodline that could only be considered abnormally powerful, the small wounds rapidly healing and vanishing. Jin Chang's eyebrows couldn't help but twitch slightly when he saw the scene, he'd been told about her strong bloodline, but he didn't expect it to let her heal her wounds this quickly. Yan Ling didn't even glance at her wound, her somewhat narrowed eyes fully focused on Jin Chang.
"Here I come, don't you die on me."
Yan Ling kicked off the ground and shot forward, bringing with her a wind so strong that it uprooted the surrounding trees. Yan Ling's speed was often overshadowed by Liang Chen's, but that didn't mean that she was slow. Far from it, her law of piercing and her law of wind gave her excellent speed, coupled with the strength her bloodline gave her, she was so fast that it was hard for Jin Chang to properly respond before she reached his front.
Yan Ling heavily stomped the ground, cracks spreading throughout the surrounding earth as all the momentum from her dash was transferred up her body and into her right arm, aiming a heavy punch at Jin Chang's abdomen. Jin Chang looked at the incoming punch with a solemn expression, lowering his body slightly and placing both his arms in front of his stomach. He already knew that it would be highly unlikely for him to evade Yan Ling thanks to her speed, so he could only utilize his one advantage, his thick skin and strong defense.
Sadly, he continued to underestimate Yan Ling. Even the previous Lord of Justice for this universe, Qian Liao, was killed a few times by her. Had he not been able to use his law of death to suck up any surrounding lifeforce and use it to bring himself back, he might have actually died fully in her hands. And thanks to their short exchange earlier, Yan Ling was completely certain on one fact, this Jin Chang was no Qian Liao, she could kill him.
Just as her fist made contact with Jin Chang's forearms, a silver shimmer covered and then sank into her own arm, her fist phasing through Jin Chang's arms. But her fist had still made contact with him for a short second, something Jin Chang made sure to take advantage of by causing the bones in her fist to vibrate fiercely. Her middle and her index finger broke due to the vibrations, but her fist phased into Jin Chang's abdomen and then opened.
Jin Chang took half a step back on instinct when he saw her fist phase into his body, this simple act ensuring that her hand only managed to pull out one of his kidneys rather than his liver. He quickly took several more steps backward when he saw that she was now clutching one of his kidneys, a burning pain spreading in his abdomen as he looked at her arm in shock and realization.
"Space, you've comprehended space!? Not good, gotta warn the others."
The law of space was one of the supreme laws, only below the laws of creation and destruction, anyone who comprehended it would be easily accepted by any clan or sect. And with just a bit of care and time, anyone who comprehended this law would become an utter horror to deal with.
Jin Chang quickly swiped his interspatial ring and took out a grape-shaped bead of metal covered in engravings, channeling his Qi into it. But how could Yan Ling possibly give him the time to send out any sort of message, especially a message about one of her secret trump cards? The moisture in the air around Jin Chang gathered together into a small drop of water that then rapidly descended, the law of slicing and the law of piercing merging into it and allowing it to pierce directly through Jin Chang's wrist.
His hand involuntarily opened and dropped the bead before the engravings could fully light up, his expression dimming somewhat. The sheer multitude of laws that Yan Ling had comprehended made her a pain to deal with, especially with how many of her laws were offensive. Jin Chang's leg stretched out before the bead even touched the ground, he simply had to touch the bead and insert some Qi into it, he didn't actually have to hold it with his hand to send the message.
But once again, would Yan Ling really let him do as he pleased, especially now that her mind had calmed down somewhat after finding out that Liang Chen hadn't actually been captured? She flicked one of her unbroken fingers, a heavy gust of wind surrounding the bead and delivering it to her hand.
Yan Ling immediately put away the bead and decided to not give Jin Chang the slightest chance to mount any type of counter-attack. She stretched out both arms, her veins starting to bulge and writhe as she gathered all her energy in her arms. The wind in the area became uneasy as her veins writhed, moving in erratic ways and growing stronger each second.
She heavily clapped her hands together, the erratic wind gathering together into a large tornado that tore up the trees in the surrounding four kilometers. Jin Chang stood within the tornado, the wind tearing at him and trying to drag him into the depths of the tornado. His feet dug into the ground to resist the strong wind, root-like stones extending from his feet and digging deep into the earth to further steady him.
He did his best to resist the wind, but all it did was make him the perfect target for Yan Ling. She looked straight at him with a ferocious expression, cracking her knuckles as she once again started to gather up all her energy.
"If you only have this level of strength, you shouldn't even joke about your people having captured Little Freak. You people wouldn't even last two moves if he was actually in front of you."
Yan Ling kicked off the ground and dashed forward the moment her words finished, the wind from the surrounding tornado supporting her speed. She reached Jin Chang almost immediately, clenching her right fist and smashing it into Jin Chang's jaw from below. The uppercut not only shattered Yan Ling's right hand, but also Jin Chang's lower jaw as well as the roots of stone he had extended into the ground.
He was sent flying into the air, the wind picking up his body and dragging him into the very depths of the tornado, where he was flung around and torn at by not only the wind, but also Yan Ling's law of piercing, law of pressure, and her law of slicing. This tornado was the grandest move she had come up with, her counterpart to Liang Chen's Dragon Lord's Three Steps. Right now it was still a bit weak for her liking, but once she managed to merge in the rest of her laws into it, it would rise in power to an unprecedented level.
But what she didn't know was that the tornado was already plenty strong for her level, it gave Jin Chang no chance to escape, his body felt like it was being thrown around on the bottom of the ocean. The sharp and crushing winds cared not for how much he tried to raise his defense, they simple broke right through them and tore open his body, cutting him to ribbons and breaking his bones.
The tornado suddenly vanished just as Jin Chang was certain he was going to die, his body crashing into the ground as a mangled mess. Yan Ling walked up to him and crouched down at his side, her face somewhat pale from the exertion as she placed her hand on her neck.
"I'm not like Little Freak, who can just touch people and have them spill all their secrets. So you'd best be ready for even more pain if you don't answer my questions."
Yan Ling's eyes showed no hint of mercy as she looked at the torn-up Jin Chang and put a bit more power into her hand, his neck creaking slightly. She would get the answers she was looking for, no matter how much more pain she had to inflict on Jin Chang.
--
A blonde-haired and green-eyed male youth walked out from the mansion that the Qing clan used in the Green Rivers city. The youth, Liang Chen in his disguise, was fiddling with the Nightshield sect robe that he was wearing, somewhat unused to wearing this type of robe that you had to wrap around your body. Liang Chen had gotten the youth, Zhong San, to not only tell him everything he needed to know, he even had him transfer all his memories over to Liang Chen, making certain that he would be able to perfectly impersonate him.
Liang Chen calmly made his way through the city, his gaze sweeping around the area as he moved. There were no signs of life in the city anymore, no guards, no merchants, no citizens, all had fled to escape Liang Chen. When he reached the city center again, Liang Chen saw that the places that were touched by the gray rain and had become bone-like in appearance were spreading slowly, eating away at any scrap of energy they could find.
Liang Chen's brows furrowed slightly and walked over to the affected areas, crouching down beside them and placing his hand on them. He could feel a faint trace of energy within the affected areas, but the energy was growing slowly as the areas extended further. Even if he hadn't seen what created these areas, just feeling how similar the energy within them was to the energy within the blood he had swallowed earlier would be enough for him to know that he was the cause of this.
Liang Chen closed his eyes and focused on the energy, emulating what he usually did when he extracted his poison from something. The energy within the corrupted areas was quickly drawn out and into his body, sinking into the pulsating Dragon Lotus within his chest. He inspected the corrupted areas for a bit longer, only leaving when he was certain that they weren't growing any longer.
Liang Chen walked through the gates of the city that he had killed, but he didn't cast any looks back as he left. The him that used to live in that city had already died, everything he cherished within that city had already died. Just as the city had died, so too had his emotions for it, so he continued to move forward to fulfill his dreams, never looking back.
Liang Chen didn't stop moving after leaving the city, he followed the route he had seen in Zhong San's memories and walked for four days before he reached his goal, a rather large city that was built into the side of a mountain and called Earthen Embrace.
Liang Chen didn't waste any time in the city, now that he was alone he was not in the mood to wander around and experience the city as he would usually do with Yan Ling. He headed directly to the castle at the center of the city and showed off the disciple token he had taken from Zhong San. He hadn't killed Zhong San, he knew that Zhong San hadn't done anything deserving of death after seeing his memories, so the token was still filled with Zhong San's Qi and thus gave off a faint light.
The five guards in front of the castle nodded their heads and made way for Liang Chen, allowing him to enter the castle and enter the sole room inside the castle, a massive empty hall covered in glittering runes. He nodded his head at the guard standing by in the room, stepping into the center of the room while the guard activated the massive array.
A flash of light enveloped Liang Chen and drowned out everything else, space around him constricting around him as the array teleported him away. Once the bright light vanished, Liang Chen found himself standing on the outskirts of a large circular island, five smaller islands hovering in the air about 10 kilometers above him. This was his target, the headquarters of the Nightshield sect.