章 128: Restoring his cultivation.
There was a market very close to the arena Liang Chen and Yan Ling had just been in, an attempt to get the people who just finished their fights to sell what their opponents had on them. This market was a bit different from the market Liang Chen had entered on the first floor, this market was quite a bit more open, and instead of there being several small houses serving as shops there were numerous small stalls placed around the area.
The reason this market was a bit different was that the market he had visited on the first floor was filled with stores mostly owned by the Tripartite Slayer and the tower. The stalls in this market, however, were mostly run by competitors who were looking to earn resources by selling the items they had taken from their dead opponents. There was a chance one could get scammed or that the items might be of lower quality, but there was also the chance that one could find a hidden gem amongst the numerous items. Yan Ling stopped Liang Chen before the two of them could enter the market, holding out her hand in front of him.
"Alright, hand em' over."
She made a beckoning gesture with her fingers as she spoke, her expression stating that she would not accept no for an answer. Liang Chen raised an eyebrow, looking at her hand for a short second before looking her up and down, a slight smirk on the corners of his lips.
"Hand em' over?"
It wasn't hard to guess at what she wanted him to hand over, but since she felt like being unspecific, he felt like making her say it again a needless amount of times. Yan Ling beckoned even harder with her fingers, pointing at Liang Chen's interspatial ring.
"The funds, the money, the dineros that'll buy us what we want. You're too bland, too much of a cheapskate while shopping. If I let you do the shopping we'll never pick up anything fun. Besides, you could stand to get at least one piece of jewelry, we could even get a matching pair!"
Yan Ling swept her finger all over Liang Chen while speaking, pointing out that he wasn't wearing any decorations other than his interspatial ring. Liang Chen decided that it was in his best interest to not point out that Yan Ling wore just as many decorations as he did, instead simply raising his right hand and pointing at his interspatial ring, taking out all the funds he was carrying while he was at it.
"Ah, striking right where it hurts, your specialty. Besides, we already have a matching pair of jewelry, did you forget about our rings?"
Both of them had received nearly identical interspatial rings in the Mystic's Hidden Realm, ones engraved with a long vine covered in leaves. The only difference between their rings was that his was crimson while her's was violet. Yan Ling clicked her tongue, snatching the funds from Liang Chen and putting them into her own interspatial ring.
"I meant more like something we bought and chose ourselves, it'll have more meaning. And no, you don't have a choice in this matter."
She gave the funds a quick counting while putting them away, taking stock of how much she could spend. Once she finished counting all the money she grabbed onto Liang Chen's hand and dragged him into the market, giving him no choice but raise his free arm in surrender.
"Right right, whatever you say, boss."
Liang Chen didn't see a reason to have any matching jewelry, not when they already had their rings. But since it was what Yan Ling wanted, he could only oblige her and follow along. Liang Chen moved his arm a little while she was dragging him into the market, loosening the grasp she had on his hand and allowing him to link his right arm around her left and pull her a bit closer.
Holding his hand was one thing, but this action was quite a bit more affectionate and intimate so Yan Ling couldn't help but blush slightly and cast a sideways glare at Liang Chen. Liang Chen knew that she wasn't good with being too intimate in public, but he simply ignored her glare and smirked slightly.
"Would you prefer I give you a kiss once every minute? Cause I don't think I would mind that too much."
His statement was clear, let us walk like this or I'll keep kissing you in public. Yan Ling realized she was beaten, so now it was her time to raise her free arm in surrender, throwing out a quick threat with a click of her tongue.
"Tch, should have known a lecher like you would pull a trick like that. Just you wait until Big Brother and father learns that you have blackmailed me, I'll have them beat you up so much that you won't even be able to sit straight."
She knew that even though she had started properly cultivating her soul and body, her odds of beating Liang Chen weren't terribly good. He was simply too freakish, his strength utterly abnormal when he decided to go all out. Liang Chen completely ignored her threat, chuckling lightly.
"That's fine, I'll just lie down and rest on your lap again."
Yan Ling's blush grew a bit richer but she didn't retort, letting out a light snort and proceeding to drag Liang Chen through the market. Had Liang Chen been the one in charge of the shopping they would have just checked out a few promising shops, but with Yan Ling in the lead, it would never be that simple.
She didn't even hesitate for one second in her choice, making a beeline for the stands that sold food and drinks. She dragged Liang Chen to every single stand that sold food or drink, buying a little from each so that they could taste everything. Only after satisfying her ravenous hunger and curiosity did they start checking out the other stands and their wares.
But even then, she still didn't head for the stands that sold resources or Demonic beast parts, instead choosing to go for the stands that had some jewelry for sale. Most of the jewelry were pendants or armbands that carried the same function as an interspatial ring but there were a few somewhat unusual ones also mixed in. After spending a little over three hours going from stand to stand, Yan Ling finally pointed at the items she had settled on, turning to Liang Chen.
"These two, I want these two pairs. What do you think?"
The items she pointed at were a pair of piercings for the ear and a pair of necklaces, both a set of two. The piercings were shaped like small pink lotuses while the necklaces were shaped like an amber dragon's eye that had been split in half, each necklace making up one half. Liang Chen looked at the items, tilting his head slightly at Yan Ling.
"Even if I said anything, would it matter?"
If he said that he disliked them, saying it in a truly sincere manner, then she would likely drop the matter and try to find something new. But he didn't have anything against these decorations so he didn't see a reason to say anything like that. Yan Ling giggled lightly after hearing his response, handing the seller a few Gibbings, this planet's currency.
"Nihihi, not in the slightest, but I gotta at least pretend like you have a choice, no?"
The man from the White Orchid race that was selling the items handed them to Yan Ling, who took one of the earrings and one of the necklaces to for herself and handed the rest to Liang Chen, who shook his head in an overly dramatic fashion.
"Ai, what a cruel mistress."
Both the necklace and the earring could be used like an interspatial storage treasure, but as they were of a lower level than Liang Chen's ring, they didn't need to be bound using blood. They both put on the necklaces and then the earrings, Yan Ling piercing her's into the earlobe on her left ear and Liang Chen into the earlobe of his right ear. The earrings were a bit small so one could only see their actual shapes if one got a bit closer.
Liang Chen and Yan Ling didn't have to worry too much about the items breaking in combat, since they were supposed to serve as interspatial storage treasures they were far sturdier than normal necklaces and earrings. Yan Ling inspected the jewelry after the two of them put them on, and seemingly satisfied with how it turned out, proceeded to finally look for cultivation resources.
They had already spent nearly five hours in the market, two hours eating and three hours looking for jewelry. But upon seeing the bright smile on Yan Ling's face, Liang Chen found himself unable to say anything about it. Since the two had already checked out just about every single stand, it didn't take them long to find the resources they were looking for, picking out what would be useful for them.
After picking up everything they could afford, draining the rest of their funds, the two returned to the house they had picked out and started separating what they had bought. Most of the resources were to use immediately, but Yan Ling had also bought a few water element resources she planned on giving to the strange tree they had stolen from the Flood Dragon in the Myriad Convergence.
The fruits on the tree were starting to grow larger so Yan Ling guessed that if she gave it a bit more energy the fruits would be ready to harvest. While they were busy separating the resources in the lightning, poison, water, and wind categories, Yan Ling suddenly opened her eyes wide, slapping her forehead.
"I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier. Little Freak, you and I are the perfect disciples for the Storm Wolf sect!"
Liang Chen wasn't sure to expect when he saw Yan Ling slap her own forehead, but it certainly wasn't this. He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, looking at her with utter confusion while waiting for her to explain herself.
"Don't you realize it? A storm is made up of strong winds, fierce rain, and thundering lightning. I have the wind and the water, and you have the lightning. You'll also gain wind soon enough, but let's file that under not important for now. Adding on to that, I have the Star God bloodline held by the founder of the sect, and you have the Heaven Devouring Wolf bloodline. We are both the storm part and the wolf part, we are the perfect disciples for the sect!"
After hearing her excited exclamation, Liang Chen couldn't help but lower his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation as he let out a breath.
"You know, I'm not sure why I expected anything else from you. And here I thought you had realized something important we had forgotten."
He had even gotten worried for a short second, but her exclamation had completely deflated him, to the point where he simply felt like letting out a mindless laughter. Yan Ling swiftly stretched out her arm, pointing directly at Liang Chen's face and puffing out her cheeks.
"Oy, it's important to me! This means we are perfect for taking over the sect in the future! Sect Mistress Ling and Sect Master Freak, it sounds perfect, no?"
Liang Chen was simply too deflated after being caught off guard by her strange exclamation, to the point where he couldn't even retort about how she thought the sect disciples would use his Little Freak nickname. He simply picked up the resources that were bought for him, placing them in the small array that Yan Ling had prepared for him and then sitting down in it while letting out a breath.
"Aye aye, whatever you say Sect Mistress Ling."
Yan Ling snickered lightly upon being referred to as Sect Mistress so it seemed like she truly wanted to take over as the leader of the Storm Wolf sect in the future, a fact that Liang Chen made sure to quickly memorize. He then closed his eyes and activated the array, which only had the function of drawing in the surrounding Qi so that he could better use his law of time. Since he was using it on himself this time he could double the speed of time without using Spirit Stones to supplement the array.
Liang Chen started to absorb the energy of the resources he had placed around him, sending all the energy to his Dragon Lotuses. His plan now was to have his Qi cultivation return to the stage it had been before he used the Mad King's Rage, creating his wind Dragon Lotus at the same time.
He started with his three original Dragon Lotuses, the ones for his lightning, poison, and law of time. Since he had already sprouted the prerequisite number of leaves once in the past, the process of sprouting the new ones went smoothly, two leaves sprouting on each of the three Dragon Lotuses. He couldn't buy any resources that contained the element of time so he could only use the slower method, mixing his understanding of the law of time with a vast amount of Qi.
A week after the two of them finished their previous battle, Liang Chen finally returned to the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, his three Dragon Lotuses once again bearing three leaves. With this process done, he started to focus on creating his new Dragon Lotus, absorbing vast amounts of energy that contained the wind element. Yan Ling had taught him a little about what she knew of the law of wind already, so he fused that together with the Qi while he was creating the Dragon Lotus.
A seed slowly took form beneath his heart, roots quickly starting to spread out as he fed the seed more and more Qi. The roots dug into his body, following his veins and muscles, connecting together with the roots of the three other Dragon Lotuses to form a convoluted chain of roots that spread throughout his entire body.
Now that he was focusing all his efforts on just the one Dragon Lotus, it grew faster than when he focused on his other three all at once. Two days after he started creating it, the seed cracked and started to bud into a leafless lotus, a cyan-colored leaf slowly sprouting from the lotus.
The wind in the room grew violent and frantic for a short moment before it started getting sucked into Liang Chen's chest, all of it entering the budding lotus. As the lotus started budding, blue clouds started to gather within the house, azure lightning crackling within the clouds. Just like the last time he had his Dragon Lotuses bud, a heavenly tribulation had arrived.
Liang Chen didn't even halt his cultivation, absorbing more and more of the surrounding wind and Qi into his chest. A tribulation of this level was unable to harm him even if he didn't do anything, he didn't even need to pay it any attention.
Three azure bolts were unleashed in quick succession by the blue clouds, but they simply sank into Liang Chen's body and were devoured as nourishment, some of the lightning heading to his Dragon Lotus and some of it sinking into his bones. The blue clouds dissipated after unleashing the three bolts of lightning, the heavenly tribulation ending without Liang Chen even opening his eyes to look at it.
The first cyan leaf fully appeared after the tribulation ended, Liang Chen suddenly able to clearly feel all the wind flowing in the surrounding one-kilometer area. He didn't stop after the first leaf bloomed, continuing to absorb more Qi and wind element resources until two more cyan leaves bloomed. The time it took for the last two leaves to bloom was five days, meaning that thanks to the increased flow of time, he had spent about a month cultivating.
Liang Chen ended his cultivation and opened his eyes, his gaze landing on the still cultivating Yan Ling. She was fully focused on her cultivating, holding a blue pear-shaped fruit that had drops of water oozing out from its skin. The energy within the fruit was nearly completely drained, meaning that she was likely almost done with her cultivation as well. Liang Chen quietly stood up and left the room, heading to the kitchen to prepare some fresh food that they could eat when Yan Ling finished her cultivation. After that, it was time to rush up to the third floor.
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