Liang Chen sat on his knees, his right arm stretching toward the scaffolding dripping with blood. His mouth was hanging open and his throat was moving, but no sound managed to leave his lips, his agonized wail only audible to him. His eyes were wide open and bloodshot, but no tears ran down his face, it was as if his body was refusing to cry even now.
He stood up from his crouched position, none of the surrounding audience or the people around Yi Jiang entering his vision. His entire being was focused on the headless body of Tian Chun, slumped down on top of the scaffolding like a sack of potatoes. Liang Chen took a step forward, his body almost looking like it acted on pure instinct. Yu Jiang's brows furrowed slightly as he looked at Liang Chen, a nagging sense of unease nibbling at the back of his mind. He looked at his four Junior Disciples, gesturing towards Liang Chen with his chin.
"Go, deal with him, I need to restore some energy."
Maintaining such a large scale illusion was no easy feat, especially since Yu Jiang had to inject some life force into it to make sure that there was no chance that Liang Chen saw through it. The four people, three young women and one young man, nodded their heads and charged directly at Liang Chen, who still didn't even seem to notice their existence.
The four of them swiftly reached him and launched their attacks, two of them aiming for his head while the other two aimed for his abdomen. Two of the four were at the peak of the Soaring Immortal realm while the other two had already entered the Primordial Immortal realm, the combined might of their attacks was definitely something to be feared.
Liang Chen's body suddenly leaned forward, a gust of wind blowing his legs out from underneath him so that he was hanging horizontally in the air for a short second. And before the four of them had the chance to react, his feet kicked against the air, which hardened beneath them and gave him a platform to utilize his power.
His body shot forward and through the small opening between the four people, flying past them so fast that their robes were rustled by a sonic boom. Yi Jiang's eyebrows ticked up slightly and he quickly took a step back, cursing quietly.
"Tch, fucking figures."
He raised both daggers and crossed them in front of his chest just as Liang Chen set foot on the scaffolding, his spear already sweeping out. Liang Chen's spear slammed into Yu Jiang's raised defense and sent him flying back through two houses before he managed to dispel the remainder of the force and stop himself. But while he was flying back, there was no one on the scaffolding to stop Liang Chen.
He took a step forward and arrived in front of Tian Chun almost instantly, once again dropping to his knees. The executioners, who were frozen in fear the moment Liang Chen started to move, were suddenly blasted back by a powerful gust of wind, their chests caving in somewhat as they flew back and fell down from the scaffolding, temporarily still breathing.
Liang Chen stretched out his left arm and placed it on Tian Chun's back, all the energy he could muster pouring forth like a violent flood. Time around Tian Chun's corpse quickly started to slow down, the flow of wind becoming so slow that Liang Chen felt like he was kneeling in water. With more and more of Liang Chen's energy draining, time around Tian Chun slowed down further and further, Liang Chen starting to grow as pale as a sheet of paper. And eventually, time around Tian Chun ground to a halt, the air becoming a thick and nearly impenetrable wall.
But it wasn't enough for Liang Chen, he wanted to go even further, to go beyond any limit he knew of, he wanted to turn back time itself to undo his loss. But when he tried to have time move in reverse, all the veins in his left arm exploded, tearing through his skin and splattering blood with such force that it spread out over several meters. His blood sizzled as it touched the scaffolding, most of his blood was practically concentrated lightning at this point.
The frozen time started to move once more, blood gushing forth from Tian Chun's neck to serve as a cruel reminder of reality. Time would not turn back for Liang Chen, the current him did not have that right. Liang Chen's expression contorted in agony, the pain from his left arm not even registering in his mind as he looked at the corpse of Tian Chun, who was still covering a specific spot on her abdomen. Liang Chen pushed the slumped over corpse onto her back and moved her hands away, a sorrowful mutter escaping his lips as he took out an unripe plum from his interspatial ring.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"You dummy, we didn't have apples in my garden, we had plums, the sweetest and softest of plums. The tree has yet to fully grow, so this is the best I can give you, but one day I'll let you eat the proper once again, I promise."
Liang Chen placed the plum on top of Tian Chun's chest and then placed his right hand against her abdomen. It was strange how she got such a fact wrong, it was also strange how she covered her abdomen like that, even in death. It was so strange that Liang Chen could only guess that it was a message, one only he would understand. The nagging sense of unease at the back of Yu Jiang's mind got even worse, hurriedly shouting out before he even stood up from the rubble of the last house he crashed into.
"Kill him! Kill him right now!"
Two of the four people that had attacked Liang Chen locked eyes and nodded their heads, dashing forward so fast that they were hard to see. They were the fastest amongst the four, it would be faster for the two of them to leave the others behind and finish it themselves. They appeared directly behind Liang Chen and launched their attacks, even accounting for any way that Liang Chen might dodge.
But to their surprise, Liang Chen didn't even twitch, much less attempt to dodge. The thick and wide saber of the green-haired and brown-eyed woman pierced directly through Liang Chen's chest while the hook-tipped sword of the black-haired and brown-eyed man pierced directly through his abdomen.
Blood poured out from the corner of Liang Chen's mouth, but his eyes were still firmly locked on Tian Chun's abdomen, a silent prayer for forgiveness flashing through his mind. His fingers dug into her flesh and tore through her abdomen, stopping when they came in contact with something that felt like crystal. He grabbed onto the item and tore it out of Tian Chun's abdomen, revealing two crystal bottles that she seemed to have forced down her throat and hidden within her stomach.
Liang Chen looked at the two bottles with eyes so bloodshot that they seemed to have turned entirely red, his pupils already having turned into slits so thin that they looked like the edge of a knife. One of the bottles was made from green crystal and seemed to contain an emerald wind, the other bottle was made from a strange blue jade that didn't allow Liang Chen to see what was inside it.
The green bottle had the words Yan Ying carved into it with crude and thick lines, they might actually have been carved into the bottle using either fingernails or a rock. The blue bottle had the words Little Chen carved into it, but it caught Liang Chen's attention even without these words. He could tell what was inside the bottle even without opening it, his blood and soul were calling out to the liquid inside it, craving the poison and blood sealed away inside the bottle.
Liang Chen didn't even bother opening the bottle, he simply placed it in his mouth and bit down on it, crushing it into tiny little shards that mixed with the blood pouring out of his mouth. The drops of ocean-blue liquid within the bottle slid down Liang Chen's throat, some of it spilling out of the corners of his mouth. But the liquid used the myriad of cuts littering the inside and outside of Liang Chen's body to seep into him, spreading through his entire body and tainting him.
The sweet whispers of death once again started tickling at Liang Chen's mind, lulling him to sleep as they called him to her side. But before the whispers could drag away his mind, his bloodline unleashed a horrifying devouring force, gathering up all the ocean-blue blood.
A strange scene took place once the blood was gathered up, it started to compete with Liang Chen's bloodline, seemingly battling it for supremacy. Only once had Liang Chen ever encountered a bloodline that could evenly battle his, and that was Yan Ying's Star God bloodline, all other bloodlines had been forced to falter and surrender.
The strange scene felt like it went on for an eternity, pain wracking every inch of Liang Chen's body. And then the strange scene simply stopped, the blue blood ceasing its battle with Liang Chen's bloodline. The blue blood started to darken in color, turning almost pitch black and starting to willingly merge with Liang Chen's bloodline, resembling countless worms that started to slither into his own blood, it was almost as if the blood was pleased with the performance up until now.
And as the bloodlines started to merge, changes started happening in the outside world, where only a single second had passed. Liang Chen's back suddenly exploded with two geysers of blood, the two people behind him quickly backing off to stay safe. But the blood stopped before it could fly too far, hardening into a metallic crystal, forming something that resembled two bloody and jagged wings.
Liang Chen suddenly leaned back slightly and raised his head, the wounds on his body starting to close up in a strange fashion, as if they were stitching themselves back together. The gray clouds covering the sky started to darken, the loud roar of thunder audible to everyone in the city as bolts of various colors flashed within them.
And then, a white and gray rain started to fall from the clouds, at first landing only on Liang Chen, running down his face like the tears he himself couldn't shed right now. More and more rain started to fall and spread out, as if the sky itself was weeping for Liang Chen. The king grieved for his loss, but the world wept for its fate.