บท 151: Faint thumping.
Liang Chen was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed and his eyes closed, the entire world practically completely silent to him, only a single wooshing sound occasionally reaching his ears. He took another deep breath and opened his eyes, a faint smile creeping up on his lips when his gaze landed on the source of the wooshing sound.
Yan Ling was standing a few meters away from him, all her movements so slow that it seemed like she was barely moving. There was only one exception, the very tip of her white sword. Looking at the tip of her sword, Liang Chen couldn't help but mutter to himself, lightly rubbing his chin.
"Really, just what is it that you've gained insight into?"
No matter how hard he tried to, he couldn't properly see the tip of Yan Ling's blade. The tip of the sword looked shrouded and blurry, even in this state where it seemed like time had slowed to a crawl in front of his eyes. Liang Chen had read many books, but even he had no idea just what it was that Yan Ling had touched upon in her attempts to fuse her four offensive laws. He let out a light chuckle and shook his head, extracting the law of time he had injected into his brain to slow down time in front of his eyes.
"Oh well, not like it matters too much what it is, what matters is that she has gotten stronger."
After undoing his sped up perception of time, Liang Chen continued to just watch Yan Ling swing her sword around, sweat running down her face as her eyes darted all over the place. This continued for a bit before the top half of her sword suddenly vanished, revealing a small black line in the air. A victorious smile quickly spread on Yan Ling's face as she stretched out her empty left hand, holding it in front of the line.
"I win, Little Yuma, so you better prepare yourself."
Yumao in his miniature form came flying out from the black line, his teeth chomping down on Yan Ling's sword with an unsatisfied expression, letting out low growls as he pouted and grumbled in complaint. Yan Ling was training with Yumao, using his ability to jump into a separate shadow dimension to slowly get a better grasp of her fused law. The rules of their matches were simple, if Yumao managed to avoid her for an hour, she would make as much food as she could for him.
But conversely, if she managed to stab into the separate dimension and find him, he would have to be her teddy bear for an entire day, forbidden from skulking away. No Demonic beast wanted to be treated like a little teddy bear, so Yumao made sure to give it his all to dodge during their duels. This was their 23rd match in the month that had passed since the two completed their first battle, and it was also Yan Ling's third victory. She hadn't even been able to properly activate her new law the first 20 times, complaining that it 'didn't feel quite right'. But on the 21st try, she seemed to at least somewhat get the hang of it, able to just barely utilize the new law to win the 21st match and the two subsequent ones.
Yumao cast a sideways glance at Liang Chen, a pleading look in his eyes as he begged for help from the only person who might be able to save him. But just like the last two times, Liang Chen shrugged his shoulders with a faint smile, leaving Yumao to his fate. Yumao slumped his entire body, flying over to Yan Ling and quickly serving as a teddy bear, quietly praying for the egg within her dantian to hatch soon so that he wouldn't have to be treated like this any longer.
Yan Ling walked over to Liang Chen and sat down on the couch, patting Yumao on the head with a satisfied smile. Liang Chen stood up from his seated position on the floor and sat down on the couch opposite of Yan Ling, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out some tea as well as a towel from his interspatial ring, handing both to Yan Ling.
"You seem to be getting better at utilizing that new law, you managed to keep it active for almost half a minute today. Decided on a name yet?"
Yan Ling accepted the towel and the tea, placing the cup on the table and using the towel to wipe her face, a stream of water appearing around her and giving her body a quick wash to rid herself of the sweat. She then took a sip of the sickeningly sweet tea to wet her throat, letting out a satisfied sight after emptying the cup.
"Haah, this is bliss. And yeah, I feel like it has been getting a bit easier to grasp a hold of the law and use it to alter the surrounding Qi, but I'm still unable to use it for anything other than coating my sword. And no, I haven't chosen a name for it yet. I feel like there's still more to the law, so I wanna hold off on naming it until I know what it truly is."
Yan Ling held the cup in front of her, looking at Liang Chen with upturned eyes that conveyed her meaning. He swiped his interspatial ring and took out a pot of chilled tea, placing it on the table in front of Yan Ling, who quickly snatched it and poured herself a cup, emptying it in a single gulp. Liang Chen had no idea how she could drink such sickeningly sweet tea with such a happy expression, but she wondered the same about him and his spicy food and drink. After emptying another cup, Yan Ling seemed to remember something, bringing out her sword and placing it on the table.
"There is one problem, my sword. It was perfectly capable of keeping up with me when I only had the law of water and the law of wind, it even managed to just barely withstand the laws of piercing, slicing, pressure, and crushing. But now that I've started trying out the new law, it has become unable to keep up with me."
Liang Chen picked up the sword, holding it close to his face and studying the blade. Not just the sharp edge, the entire sword was starting to become covered in minute cracks, the tip was especially bad, chipped and practically broken. Liang Chen put the sword down and took out his own spear, nodding his head.
"Yeah, it might be about time for us to get some new weapons, mine is starting to have troubles too."
He was a bit reluctant to get rid of this spear, it was a gift that Yan Ling had bought for him after all. But there was nothing he could do, this spear was made from Lightning Quartz, aimed towards people who focused on the law of lightning. With his continued usage of poison and rot, the spear tip had started to corrode, the very tip already completely gone. The handle wasn't faring much better, faint cracks starting to appear in it after having to endure both excessive force as well as the occasional use of his law of time. Yan Ling looked at the spear, her lips curling up ever so slightly as she looked at Liang Chen.
"My my, you've already turned my gift into such a state. Did you already forget what I told you when I gave you this spear?"
Yan Ling picked up the spear, poking Liang Chen's chest with the handle for a bit before handing it back to him. Liang Chen put the spear back into his interspatial ring, his eyes sweeping over Yan Ling's entire body before his lips curved into a slightly teasing smile.
"How could I possibly forget? You said that it cost quite a bit, so if I ended up breaking it, you would be forced to bite me, even harder than you did back then. Well, I'm right here, so come at me, I am prepared to receive my punishment."
Liang Chen stretched out both arms as if he was inviting Yan Ling in for a hug, the teasing smile on his lips turning into a grinning smirk. It was uncertain whether or not he was bluffing with his words, but Yan Ling did not even give it a second. She appeared in front of Liang Chen in less than a second, sitting down on his lap and placing her mouth on his right shoulder, right where it met his neck. Just like she said she would, she bit down on him, giving him a strong, yet gentle chomp and causing him to let out an involuntary yelp of surprise.
"Yikes! Alright, if that's how you wanna play!"
Liang Chen lowered his own head and placed his lips on Yan Ling's exposed neck, nibbling at it slightly in retaliation. Yumao, who had been abandoned on the other couch, quickly took this chance to slink away before Yan Ling remembered about him. But just as Liang Chen felt like things were going to get good between the two of them, a bell-like sound echoed throughout the house and forced the two of them to stop. Liang Chen turned his head to look at the glowing watermelon-sized orb of green jade that stood in the corner of the room, grumbling slightly.
"Alright, I'm gonna beat up whoever sent that challenge."
They couldn't have waited a few minutes longer, or at best a few hours or days, before sending that challenge? Yan Ling giggled lightly and jumped down from Liang Chen's lap, standing up and grabbing onto his arm, giving it a few tugs to pull him up from the couch.
"Alright alright, no need to pout like that. Come, let's check if someone fun has sent a challenge."
The two headed over to the orb, placing their hands on it and causing it to display the information about the people who had sent them a challenge. The first person was a man from the Fiendgod race who had a name that seemed familiar to Liang Chen, Shi Tengriu.
Shi Tengriu's head was actually covered in fine spines that gleamed slightly, he was also missing his lower left arm, the stump remaining showing that he had likely lost it in battle. But compared to Shi Tengriu, whose name now sounded extremely familiar to Liang Chen, his gaze was drawn to the second man.
Ren Ooyung, a man from the White Orchid race whose head was covered in white hair, his two eyes a deep crimson in color. The man actually held an amiable smile, but it wasn't this smile or the strange message attached to the challenge 'I wish for a nonlethal sparring math', that caused Liang Chen's gaze to land on this man. No, what caused Liang Chen's gaze to land on the image of this man was the fact that the moment he saw him, he felt a faint thumping coming from within his body, slowly moving through his veins.
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