章 343: The bane of time.
Liang Chen's eyes slowly swept through the blinding mist, looking for any sign of movement that may betray Lao Ye's current position. But the mist betrayed nothing, it quietly spun around Liang Chen like a tranquil stream trying to lull him to sleep. Lao Ye also wasn't making the first move, he was probably observing Liang Chen, waiting for the moment he got impatient and revealed an opening.
Neither side made a move for a moment, Liang Chen eventually taking the lead. He sent out a bit of his energy, a thin arc of lightning sinking into the mist and vanishing from sight. He was hoping to use it to map out his surroundings, or at least figure out how much area the mist covered. But it was a futile endeavour, he lost track of his lightning the second it got more than a handful of centimetres away from him.
"...It really is an annoying domain."
Liang Chen could only mutter a soft complaint, this may well be the first time he was this utterly blind to his surroundings. The control he was used to had been robbed from him, if things remained like this then he would be stuck in a reactive state. And there was no faster way to lose a battle than to be forced to stay on the defensive as you reacted to your opponent.
"Let's try a larger range, see if we can't flush you out."
Liang Chen's eyes gleamed with a dim light as he spoke, a large sphere of water gathering above his head. In the past, while water may have been used in his body cultivation, it wasn't actually one of his laws so he hadn't been able to use it. But now he was water, his blood, his organs, his soul, every part of him was composed of water so there was no way he would be unable to use it.
The sphere suddenly erupted violently, a gust of wind from within launching hundreds of droplets in every direction. One droplet became two and two became four, the hundreds of droplets becoming uncountable in just a split second as they cut into the mist. As he expected, he lost track of the droplets the moment they vanished from sight, but his goal hadn't been to track them so it was fine.
But he still ended up disappointed, not a single sound followed his attack. There was no grunt of pain from Lao Ye nor the sound of water hitting the wall, it seemed like not even an attack that should theoretically fill the entire mist was able to hit anything. But just as he felt like clicking his tongue, a slight blur of colours caught his attention.
The tip of Lao Ye's spear had pierced through the mist and appeared practically right at his side. The tip of the weapon was visible but Lao Ye wasn't, Liang Chen couldn't even see the hands holding the spear. His position was a bit awkward, a spear wasn't the ideal weapon to block an attack that was already so close. But to someone like Liang Chen, who specialized in speed, that awkwardness could easily be made up for.
His arm rose sharply and the weapon slid through his grasp until he was practically holding the spearhead. He swept his arm sideways to swat away the attack, but the spear bent unnaturally just as the two were about to make contact. The spearhead suddenly drooped down and dipped under Liang Chen's spear before it straightened up again and continued heading right for his chest.
He quickly reacted and reposition his own weapon, but the opposing spear simply bent again, the shaft acting more like a meandering river as it continued to evade his attempts to block it. Or perhaps saying it moved like an insidious snake was more apt as it crept a touch closer every time it evaded one of his attempts to block it.
Liang Chen knew that he was running out of time, the spear was getting so close that he soon wouldn't be able to attempt another block even with his speed. His eyes flashed with a dim light and his Qi erupted, a gust of wind so dense it was solid rising from his body to block the spear as he took a step back.
But he was suddenly assaulted by a headache as he tried to take a step back, his stomach churning slightly. His foot made contact with a stone behind him and he stumbled for a split second, it really was only a split second. But the spear seemed to have waited for that moment, the defensive wall of wind suddenly turning to stone and crumbling as the spear touched it.
The weapon shot forward at renewed speed, angling itself upwards so that it could sneak in beneath Liang Chen's ribs and get to his heart. It reached him at the exact same time as he stumbled, his feet losing touch with the ground as the force behind the attack pushed him into the air.
The spear ran him through, crackling blood splashing into the mist and dyeing the ground red. But the spear didn't stop at just running him through, he could feel the areas around the wound hardening and cracking, slowly turning to stone. But the hardening reached an impasse before long, it couldn't convert the void he had merged into his being so it was unable to make any proper progress.
Liang Chen snorted once, clutching the spear that pierced through him and stabbing out with his own. He traced Lao Ye's spear and aimed at the spot where it vanished into the mist, an unnaturally fast bolt of lightning leaving his spear. But as he attacked, another headache assaulted him and his stomach churned once more. His attack pierced into the mist, but he didn't hear a grunt from Lao Ye, nor was the spear that pierced him pulled back so it seemed like he had missed.
"...I was expecting something like that to kill you, or at least hurt you a bit. Do you not have a heart?"
The startled voice of Lao Ye drifted through the mist, his spear had run clean through Liang Chen's heart without eliciting much of a reaction. Even the petrification he was a little proud of had proven ineffective, he really wasn't sure what to think of that. Liang Chen didn't bother answering that question, stepping on empty air and dashing backwards.
He cut through the mist at the speed of lightning, it was such a mind-boggling speed that he should have left the mist in less than a second and reached the wall of the mausoleum. But he didn't. No matter where he looked there was only mist, no matter where he moved, there was only mist.
"It's no use. I told you, this is the lamentation of weakness, true helplessness. It is everywhere you go, it haunts you to the end of time, that's the sort of curse weakness and powerlessness is."
Lao Ye did nothing to stop Liang Chen's attempts to flee, his voice simply swam through the mist to remind Liang Chen of where he was. Misery filled the world, it would be with you wherever you went, especially if you were too weak to do anything. There was no way for mankind to escape it, that was why the world was so cruel.
Another headache suddenly attacked Liang Chen, his stomach churning the second he decided to halt his dash. And it was at that exact second that Lao Ye's spear cut through the mist again, as if it had been waiting for him. By the time his feet stopped, the tip of the spear was already piercing his skin, using his own speed against him.
"I told you, Storm Lord, once you know where the lightning will go, it is far too easy to dodge it, and even easier to counter it."
Lao Ye's voice reached him as the spear tore through his waist, the spearhead suddenly expanding violently and tearing out a large chunk of his waist. He had evidently judged that just piercing Liang Chen would do little so it was better to whittle him down to nothing.
Crackling blood once again danced through the air, the droplets dancing like the wind as they fell to the ground. The spear was pulled back right after it gouged out his side, vanishing into the mist so that it could prepare for its next attack.
Liang Chen's eyes narrowed sharply, his spear rushing forward and turning into a thick pillar of lightning that charged into the mist. But the attack once again proved fruitless, Lao Ye was taking full advantage of the fact that they were fighting in his home ground.
The wound in his waist quickly restored itself, he was surrounded by plenty of wind and water so a wound like that could be healed in less than a second. He spat out a light breath and tapped into his energy, since Lao Ye was using his domain to suppress him he would have to use his own domain to counteract it.
A low droning sound suddenly spread through the mist, the world around them seeming to creak and groan in pain. The earth beneath Liang Chen's feet turned white as grey strands of grass superimposed themselves on the grass that was already present. A tree appeared at his side, the fluttering crimson leaves barely visible through the mist.
This was Liang Chen's domain, his little slice of the void superimposed on the real world. But whatever was fueling Lao Ye's domain was clearly not a slouch, the mist wasn't actually fully pushed back by Liang Chen's domain. He could now everything within a metre around him, but that was it, he still couldn't see the end of the mist, nor Lao Ye for that matter.
He could however feel the energy leaking out from his domain, the Qi that should have been concentrated fully inside the domain was seeping out and vanishing back to the void. This was his first time actually using the domain properly, he was far from as used to it as Lao Ye was to his own domain. So he leaked energy, he failed to control it properly and the end result was that it lost out to Lao Ye's domain, despite his domain having the void fused into it.
But at the same time, at the back of his head, he could feel something odd about his domain. It was something he hadn't felt when he first summoned it, it was groaning. It felt as if something was pressing down on it, exerting itself to force the domain to either crumble or shrink. Was it just because Lao Ye's domain was covering it or was there something else? He couldn't tell at the moment, and this wasn't exactly the best time to try to figure it out.
He got a bit more control of his surroundings thanks to this so he let out another breath, a sharp light flashing in his eyes. He took a step forward and charged into the mist again to follow the spear, slashing out with his own weapon periodically to test the waters.
Just as his weapon reached its highest point and had expended all the energy he had poured into it, a headache assaulted him, his stomach churning again. And just as he expected, this was the moment where Lao Ye's spear appeared again, rushing to cross the one-metre wide space that Liang Chen's domain had created for him. All the energy in his weapon had just been expended, he could have chosen to save a little but he used it all, giving Lao Ye the perfect chance. But this time Liang Chen was ready, this was the exact moment he had been waiting for.
He closed his eyes and sank his senses inwards, ignoring the weapon that came for his throat. He was going to find out how Lao Ye hit him with that headache and churning stomach, both were things he technically shouldn't be able to feel anymore. And then, as he delved deep into his own body and scoured the elements that formed him, he found it.
He wasn't actually getting a headache or a churning stomach, the truth behind the sensations was the law of time. Something was making the law of time within his body act up, it was tossing and turning violently in protest. None of Lao Ye's energy had entered his body, his law of time was reacting to something from the outside, something from the source.
So Liang Chen traced it, he recalled the moments he had spent as a being of pure time, of the time he melted into the river of time. The world in front of him changed, his insides giving way to the endless river of time and its countless branching paths. He gazed forward, his eyes pricking with pain as he took in the millions upon millions of possible paths the future could take.
And then he saw it, a dull stream of energy interfering with the flow of the river. A nearly invisible hand was pushing the river, guiding it down one of the smaller branching paths that normally would have a hard time becoming the actual future. And that branch was the one where Liang Chen expended all the energy of his attack as his spear reached its highest point, the future where he would leave a small gap in his defences.
As with all the other paths, this one spread out into millions of other paths as countless various futures became available. And the invisible hand was guiding the river towards the branch where Lao Ye's spear ran through Liang Chen's throat, removing his head from his neck.
Now Liang Chen realized what the source of the sensation was, why Lao Ye's attacks reached him at the perfect time. Because he was making it happen, he used his law of time to push the river of time down the path he desired. The river of time wanted to revolt, but it was a mindless being so it ended up losing to Lao Ye's strength and was forced to obey. But Liang Chen also had the law of time so he sensed this revolting, the protest, that was the source of the sensations.
The question was, how was he to counteract this? Could he compete with Lao Ye in pushing the river? He wasn't sure. Part of him may be made up of time, but there was still a difference in strength between him and Lao Ye so he wasn't sure if his quality could make up for the quantity. But then it struck him, did he really have to compete with Lao Ye in pushing the river towards the desired future?
"In the end, it all returns to nothingness."
Liang Chen stretched out his hand, or at least visualized himself doing so, and aimed at the branching path that Lao Ye was aiming for. His energy poured out and sank into the river, flowing towards the branch in a quiet manner. Lao Ye seemed to sense his approach strengthening his efforts to reach the branch so that Liang Chen couldn't compete with him.
But Liang Chen had no intention to compete. That branching path only had one end, all he was going to do was help it reach that end ahead of schedule. His energy reached the branch and then bloomed, the law of void contained within it tainting the branch, tainting the possible future.
The void was the end of all things, it was the future everything marched towards, whether they wanted to or not. And now that end had reached the branch, and as the end reached the branch, so too did the branch reach the end. It marched towards the void and now it had found the void, what need was there for it to keep marching?
Silently, peacefully, painlessly, the branch vanished. The possible future had reached its end before it could even start. You could say that it had reached its end and vanished, or you could say that it had been rejected and destroyed, neither could be considered wrong. Whatever way you saw it, the branching path, and by extension all the branches that stretched out from it, vanished into nothingness. The desired future Lao Ye had aimed for vanished in front of him, the energy that formed the nearly invisible hand quivering and dissipating.
Liang Chen opened his eyes again and left the river of time, his hand flashing forward and grasping the incoming spear before it reached him. It didn't dodge him this time, the mist around him trembling slightly as a pained gasp came from within. Liang Chen felt pain when Lao Ye interfered with the river of time, especially the part of the river that concerned him.
But Lao Ye had only interfered and pushed the river of time so the discomfort was relatively minor compared to everything else. But Liang Chen? He erased the entire possible future that Lao Ye was aiming for, something like that definitely had to be more painful than just a headache.
"That was a very, very good trick, Lao Ye, thank you for showing it to me."
Now it was time for Liang Chen's voice to drift through the mist. It had been incidental, but Lao Ye had shown him an entirely new way of using the law of time, what a shame it was for Lao Ye that this way just so happened to be the bane of all who used the law of time.
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