บท 139: Ascending the tower.
When Liang Chen and Yan Ling headed from the city to the forest, they had pushed the flying chariot to fly as fast as it could, meaning that they could make the trip in only a little over two days. But now that they were heading back to the city they took it a bit slower, they would have to start from the bottom anyway, there was no point in rushing.
Yumao flew at the side of the chariot, occasionally flying away to check out a place he found interesting or to kill a Demonic beast he felt would be able to somewhat increase his strength. As for Liang Chen and Yan Ling, they were engrossed in their own cultivation. Half of the time Liang Chen would use his spear to help Yan Ling deepen her insight into the laws of piercing and slicing, at the same time teaching her what he knew about the law of lightning.
The other half of the time, Yan Ling would aid Liang Chen in his body cultivation, providing as much wind and water as she could. By the time they got close to the city and Yumao was forced to return to Liang Chen's dantian, all the bones in Liang Chen's right arm, as well as the fingers on his left hand, had been altered using his body cultivation technique.
The two didn't waste any time in the city, heading directly for the tower at the center. Liang Chen wanted to be the one to register them this time but Yan Ling rushed ahead before he could even bring up the topic, quickly registering them under the same names as last time, Scourge King and Wolf Queen. She had clearly already figured out what he had been planning but was too fond of their titles to let him change them. Liang Chen couldn't even say anything against it when he saw her cheeky grin, he could only shake his head with a sigh and head towards the closest arena, it seemed like he would have to live with people here referring to him with that title.
Despite Yan Ling having already reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, the two of them still had to go through the same entrance test as last time. 100 people entered the arena, but only two remained in the end, Yan Ling easily sweeping everyone away. She wanted to get used to her increased strength and her new bloodline so she had asked Liang Chen to leave most battles to her, he was only to take part if the enemy was too strong.
Liang Chen had nothing against this proposition, Yan Ling did indeed need to get accustomed to her increased strength. There was also the fact that she needed to get more accustomed to using her new laws, lightning, metal, and earth, in combat. The more battles she fought the easier it would be for her to come up with her own ways of utilizing those laws, allowing her to better utilize her strength.
Yan Ling didn't let the bodies of the 98 other people go to waste, quickly snatching them and storing them into her interspatial ring, leaving the task of sorting them for later. The two then checked out the various market on this first floor, using the funds of the people they just killed to buy any resources that would be suitable for their cultivation. They then found an empty house and settled down for a few days to use up the resources and the corpses, the cultivations of the two steadily rising.
Both of them cultivated in the three different cultivation systems so the sheer amount of resources they required was enough to make some cultivators turn pale at just the thought. Because of this, they quickly used up all the resources and corpses, entering the arena and completing the 10 battles required to head up to the second floor.
They checked the markets one last time, picking up any new items that might be useful for them and then headed up to the second floor. Just like on the first floor, none of the people here were able to stand against Yan Ling. There were quite a few people willing to test their strength and luck against Yan Ling so they didn't lack for opponents, making it nice and simple for them to rack up the 10 required victories. They checked out the markets and spent all their money buying resources, holing up in an empty house for a few days to cultivate before they ascended to the third floor.
Their speed slowed down a little on the third floor, the standard for strength here was between the late stage of the Heaven's Gate and the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm after all. The enemies becoming stronger suited Yan Ling just fine, it meant that the battles would last longer and give her more time to get fully accustomed to her strength. Stronger enemies also meant that they would have better resources and that their bodies would be better suited to be used by the Chaos King technique, allowing the two to increase the effectivity of their cultivation.
A month and a half after they entered the tower again, the 11th day after entering the third floor, Liang Chen and Yan Ling were holed up in an empty house and focusing on their cultivation, they only had one last battle left before they could head to the fourth floor. If things on this floor followed the same pattern as the second floor, the next enemies they faced would be stronger than the previous ones, likely strong enough to live stably on the fourth floor. At this point in time, the bones in both of Liang Chen's arms had been fully altered thanks to the resources they had been able to buy, they had already started on his right leg.
Liang Chen was currently sitting on a couch in the rater spacy yet sparsely decorated living room, engrossed in his cultivation, dividing his attention between his soul and his Qi cultivation to make sure that they didn't lag behind. He hadn't battled anything since they killed the Rot Dragons and the tigers, he had only watched as Yan Ling took care of the enemies they faced here in the tower.
He didn't like admitting it, but he had gotten so used to fighting and bloody battles that his body was starting to feel stiff and itchy now that it had been a while since the last time. It almost felt like battles had already become a vital part to him, something that his body craved and desired. He let out a light chuckle and returned his thoughts to his cultivation, but before he could get too engrossed in it, he heard a light shout and the sound of feet skipping over the wooden floor.
"Little Freak, look at what I found!"
Yan Ling came jogging from the bedroom, clad in a rather loose blue robe that she liked to use when she slept. Her hair was unkempt and untied, hanging loosely down behind her as she moved. She was carrying a scroll made out of a strangely yellow paper in her hand, unfurling it in front of Liang Chen while taking in an excited voice.
"Do you remember what that Shi Longyian or whatever said before you killed him? He said that his brother was friends with someone named Qian Liao of the God Piercing Fang tower. His name popped up in this scroll I found in the ring of that White Orchid race man that faced us a few days ago, it seems like Qian Liao is a rather big deal in the God Piercing Tower, he is one of the strongest people on the seventh floor there, only a step away from entering the eighth floor."
Liang Chen didn't bother correcting Yan Ling by telling her that the name had been Shi Longyu, there wasn't really a need to. He accepted the scroll and gave it a few quick reads, memorizing the information. The scroll actually contained a bit of information about some of the stronger people in each of the three towers, every single person mentioned in this scroll was at least among the strongest of the people on the seventh floor, it even mentioned quite a few people living on the ninth floor. After he finished reading over the scroll, he rolled it up and handed it back to Yan Ling, standing up and stretching his body.
"Huh, no wonder he seemed so confident I would stop when he shouted out that name. The scroll doesn't say when it was made, it might be a bit old at this point, Qian Liao might have already reached the eighth floor. But if it was just this, I don't think you would be this excited, so what is it that you're hiding so that you can use it to surprise me?"
Liang Chen knew Yan Ling well, she would indeed be a bit excited finding out that they might have made a strong enemy they could use to sharpen their fangs. But it would not be enough to get her this excited, her eyes were practically sparkling with excitement. Yan Ling let out a light giggle upon realizing that she had already been seen through, fishing out another scroll from her interspatial ring.
"Nihihi, you got me! Look at this, it's the continuation of that scroll, it mentions more about the cultivation paths and various techniques of the people listed in the scroll. Look at what sort of Demonic beasts parts and blood Qian Liao has used to cultivate, don't they sound perfect for you?"
Liang Chen raised an eyebrow as he accepted the scroll, quickly locating Qian Liao's name. After reading over the information, his eyebrow couldn't help but rise higher, his own eyes starting to shine slightly.
'Qian Liao, a member of the Fiendgod race, used the corpse of a mutated Nethersky Wyrm Emperor to cultivate, absorbing the bloodline in the process. The mutation of this Nethersky Wyrm Emperor upgraded his law of darkness to the law of death, acquiring the bloodline and corpse has allowed Qian Liao to utilize the law of death in his attacks, one must take great precautions when facing him, making sure to dodge his attacks rather than block them.'
Liang Chen had heard about the Nethersky Wyrm Emperor before, it was the evolved version of the Nethersky Wyrm Queen that had lived in the Mystic's Hidden Realm. A Nethersky Wyrm Emperor was a Demonic beast with the strength of someone at the Primordial Immortal realm, but it was normally impossible for it to evolve further and grow stronger. It could, however, circumvent this inability to evolve further in two ways, it could either acquire a stronger bloodline and fuse it with its own, or it might be lucky and have mutated in a manner that would allow it to get stronger. This Nethersky Wyrm Emperor corpse that Qian Liao had found clearly belonged to the latter category when it was still alive. Liang Chen read the information several times, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Aye, they truly do sound perfect, I might even be able to give some of the bloodline to Yumao, it should help him quite a bit. Seems like we might have to make a trip to that tower after we've increased out strength more. Well, we first have to reach the fourth floor to pick up some more resources."
The law of death was actually rather similar to Liang Chen's own law of time and the law of rot. Rot was, after all, the decay and decomposition of matter, something that most often took place after death, while the law of time would eventually bring all things to their promised end and turn them to dust. If he could acquire this mutated bloodline and fuse it into his own, he could merge this law of death into his soul cultivation technique and further strengthen himself.
But first, they had to increase their strength some more. If Shi Longyu's words were correct, then there was a chance that Qian Liao, or at least Shi Longyu's brother, would try to seek revenge for Shi Longyu. They would have to increase their strength to resist their attacks before they even thought about acquiring that bloodline. Yan Ling's lips curled into a grin as she snatched back the scroll, giggling lightly.
"I know, I'm not so stupid as to say we should head over there immediately. We should first get so strong that they can't even get the chance to retaliate, only then should we head to that tower. As for heading to the fourth floor, I was thinking we could head to the arena and do the last battle now, I imagine that those poor bullies who are surely waiting for us must be getting rather bored by now, we best put them out of their misery."
She didn't say it, but Yan Ling had actually spent quite a bit of time going through the various interspatial rings they had picked up, looking for any information that would be useful to Liang Chen's cultivation. She knew that she wouldn't be who she was not if it wasn't for Liang Chen.
Without him, she might not even have gotten out of the Mystic's Hidden Realm alive, much less fully awaken and even strengthen her bloodline. He had done so much for her, but she had barely done anything for him, so she desperately searched for information that could help him. And in the end, she had luckily found something.
Liang Chen nodded his head, the two leaving the house and heading to the closest arena. They took up positions at the side of the stage and waited for the ongoing battle to end, stepping onto the stage after a winner was declared. Just like they thought, the judge didn't even have to announce them, two people among the audience immediately stood up when Yan Ling and Liang Chen entered the stage.
One of the two was a rather muscular man from the Undead race, his third eye glowing with a faint rainbow-colored light, the second person was a man from the Fiendgod race, his lower set of arms actually having small pincers instead of hands. The two entered the stage, the man from the Undead race looking Yan Ling up and down before talking.
"Wolf Queen right? I am Shentu Ningyu and this is my friend, Ping Gang. We've studied the battles you've participated in, you are very strong. But sadly, this is where your winning streak will come to an end."
Shentu Ningyu stretched out his left arm, Ping Gang stretching out his upper right arm, their palms making contact. A strange scene occurred after their palms met, their bodies actually melted, the puddles gathering together and quickly forming a single person. This new person had the body of Ping Gang but the head of Shentu Ningyu, the rainbow-colored light in his third eye now far more pronounced. Shentu Ningyu spoke out, his voice now sounding quite a bit stranger, raspier and deeper.
"This is one of the secret techniques my clan has come up with over the years, it allows me and Ping Gang to pool our strengths together and patch up our weaknesses. We might not be together for long, but please call me Shentu Gang."
Neither Liang Chen nor Yan Ling had ever heard about a technique like this before so they couldn't help but marvel at it slightly, completely forgetting to comment on Shentu Gang's apparent fondness for talking. The two couldn't even begin to fathom how one would go about experimenting to create a technique like this, who would be the main consciousness and how would the bodies undo the merge later?
They had quite a lot of questions, but it seemed unlikely that this Shentu Gang would answer them. Shentu Gang swiped his interspatial ring, four puppets appearing in front of him. The puppets were humanoid in shape, but their faces had been shaven clean of any defining traits, they were nearly completely flat, only having a few ridges where the eyes and mouth used to be.
Both Yan Ling and Liang Chen looked at the puppets with wary gazes, they didn't have much experience with fighting people who used puppets. But as they looked at the puppets, their eyes grew somewhat distant, even longing, neither of them noticing that the rainbow-colored glow in Shentu Gang's third eye had grown even stronger and was currently pulsating. Yan Ling stretched out her left arm, reaching towards the puppets as she spoke up.
"Xieren, Xuefeng, you shouldn't play around here, Father and Mother will yell at you again."
The puppets were completely devoid of features, but when Yan Ling looked at them, she saw her deceased siblings as well as her father and mother. She didn't just see them, she felt like she was living with them, the five of them living a normal and content life in the Storm Wolf sect.
When Shentu Ningyu fused with Ping Gang, they acquired the strong body of Ping Gang and Shentu Ningyu's mastery over the soul, making up for the weakness of the Undead race and the Fiendgod race. Since they were fused now, they could, of course, use the specialties of each other, like Shentu Ningyu's illusion techniques. The puppets were weapons he had made himself, they helped focus and increase the strength of his illusion techniques, making them feel more realistic.
He couldn't choose completely what to show them, he simply chose to either show them something happy or something sad, his Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi, would then dredge through the target's memories and use them to create a fitting scene. When his opponents were trapped in the illusion he showed them, they would be unable to defend themselves and be easy to kill. Shentu Gang looked at the puppets, his head tilting slightly as he furrowed his brows.
"Strange, strange, why are the two of them seeing humans?"
As it was his Anima Essence that was in charge of producing the illusion, Shentu Gang was able to see what Liang Chen and Yan Ling were seeing, allowing him to see that both were actually seeing humans. He made Yan Ling see a happy illusion, mainly because he saw her as the main threat and it would be easier to keep her in check with a happy illusion.
Liang Chen, on the other hand, was shown a more grim illusion in an attempt to break his mind. After all, Liang Chen had always been standing behind Yan Ling when the two entered the arena, simply observing the battle with a casual gaze, Shentu Gang considered him less of a threat. As to what he was seeing, he was forced to watch those closest to him get killed, tortured, and violated time and time again. His parents, Qing Chun, Yan Ling, Yan Ying, he was forced to watch every imaginable horrible thing happening to them.
Shentu Gang shook his head, throwing the questions to the back of his mind, none of it would matter after he killed the two of them. He raised his foot to step forward, but the moment he placed his foot down again, he felt an unearthly chill run down his spine. His gaze quickly landed on Liang Chen, whose expression could only be described as terrifyingly volatile, it was like looking at a volcano seconds before an eruption.
Gray scales suddenly grew up his entire arm and started to cover part of his chest, the scales were even expanding as Shentu Gang was looking at them, growing to cover parts of Liang Chen's face, a horrifying energy starting to radiate from Liang Chen's body. But worse than this horrifying energy was the chilling bloodlust that was radiating from his body. The bloodlust was so intense that even the judge and the audience were starting to turn somewhat pale, cold sweat dripping down their back.
Yan Ling also noticed the bloodlust, using it to drag herself out of the illusion, her face pale when she realized what had just happened. Had it not been for the bloodlust, she would likely have stayed trapped within the illusion for a bit longer before she was able to dispel it.
Liang Chen was different from Yan Ling, he infused his very soul with the laws of poison, time, and rot. The moment Shentu Gang's Anima Essence came in contact with Liang Chen's soul and dragged him into the illusion, his soul started to eat away at the Anima Essence, allowing him to break free much faster.
But the damage was already done, he had seen all sorts of horrid things happening to those close to him. Seeing such things, and knowing that Shentu Gang had been responsible for it, how could Liang Chen not be furious. The fury mixed together with the discomfort that had gathered up in his body after having to continuously wound Yan Ling so that she could cultivate the laws of piercing and slicing, forming a truly explosive rage, a rage so great that it resonated with his bloodline and speeding up the awakening process. Liang Chen cast a sideways glance at Yan Ling, emerald and crimson lightning starting to coil around his body while his pupils turned into slits, the heat of the lightning melting the stone stage beneath his feet.
"Ling'er, don't hold me back."
Right now, Liang Chen was furious. He was filled with such fury that it felt like it would burn up his body if he didn't give vent to it, he wanted to brutally ruin this Shentu Gang for showing him such things. He didn't want Yan Ling to stop him from acting on his anger, right now he simply wanted to unleash it all and rampage. Yan Ling had no idea what Liang Chen had seen, but how could she not understand that it had been absolutely horrible for him? She cast a sideways glance at Shentu Gang and then took a step back, sending Liang Chen a sweet smile.
"No worries, go wild. Don't bother with any consequences or anything like that, we'll deal with them when they come, just like always."
Just like Liang Chen knew Yan Ling, Yan Ling knew Liang Chen. He might not have noticed it before his body turned stiff and itchy, but she had known for quite a while that battle and bloodshed had already become a part of who he was, he needed it. It was also when he was in the midst of battle, when his face carried that confident smile that seemed like not even the heavens themselves would be able to contain him, that she found herself falling for him all over again.
Liang Chen turned his gaze back onto Shentu Gang, all the bloodlust he was releasing focusing directly onto Shentu Gang. Emerald and crimson lightning coiled around his body and burned in his eyes, a purple mist with a rotting scent starting to slowly seep out of his skin. The energy he currently unleashed wildly was so strong that the mask he used to conceal his appearance was starting to loosen slightly, but in his rage, he failed to notice it.
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