Liang Chen closed his eyes and started focusing on his cultivation, doubling the flow of time around him. His reservoir of energy had increased quite a bit since he came to this planet, if he so wished, he could double the speed of time around him for an entire day before he had to restore his energy. If he had an array supporting him, or was in a location with particularly rich Qi, he could increase the speed even more and keep it going for longer.
Liang Chen didn't immediately start carving the new channels for the Chaos King technique, he started by cultivating the auxiliary skill described in the second part of the technique. This skill required him to twist his own veins to form the array, the process was exceedingly painful and delicate. Thanks to the fact that he had a bit of experience with delicate procedures like this, mainly thanks to his body cultivation technique, he only failed twice before finally succeeding, spending a total of 6 days, or 12 for him, creating the array within his body.
Thanks to all the corpses they had on hand they had a steady supply of pills they could use, so Liang Chen could just swallow a few pills whenever his Qi was running low, saving him the trouble of having to rest to restore his energy.
The array automatically started to absorb the surrounding Qi, sucking it in at a speed faster than if he were to consciously try to draw it in. The reason Liang Chen did this first was to get this effect of the array, as it would allow him to increase the speed of time around him even further, now increasing it to three times the normal speed.
After finishing the array and increasing the flow of time, Liang Chen started cultivating the Chaos King technique, carving the channel that would let him devour the Qi of the corpses. Thanks to the increased flow of time, his familiarity with the technique, as well as the plentiful resources they now had on hand, it only took Liang Chen a total of three days, nine for him, to carve the channel.
Liang Chen opened his eyes after carving the channel, rubbing and stretching his neck for a bit. He cast a glance over at Yan Ling, who was seemingly working on forming the array within her own body. He stood up and quietly walked over to her, sliding her interspatial ring off her finger and taking out quite a few of the corpses they had just acquired, bringing them over to his own interspatial ring. He then slid the ring back onto her finger and returned to his seat.
Since Yan Ling had already managed to materialize her soul, she was, of course, able to keep an eye on her surroundings and notice Liang Chen's actions. But she had expected him to do something like this eventually, they had forgotten to divide up the various corpses earlier on, so he had no choice but to fetch them from her interspatial ring.
Liang Chen sank his mind into the interspatial ring and looked at the corpses he had picked out, spending a quiet minute to look over the faces of every single one of them. Each person he killed, each corpse he carried, they all meant something to Liang Chen. They were the stones he used to build his path, the bones that built the mountain that would ascend him into the sky. They were a symbol of his determination and will, just like the lake of blood that resided within his mind.
After looking over all the corpses, Liang Chen started to devour them using the Chaos King technique, focusing all his efforts on raising his Qi cultivation. More and more Qi flooded his four Dragon Lotuses, his own understanding of the various laws also flooding into them as more and more leaves started to bloom. As each new leaf bloomed, more and more roots would spread out from the Dragon Lotuses, digging into every inch of his body and nourishing it.
In the Soaring Immortal realm, one would use their laws to slowly change their body in an act often considered the shedding of the mortal coil. One's lifespan would drastically increase and one would gain a heightened affinity for the laws used to change the body. Liang Chen followed a different path from the normal Qi cultivation so he didn't have to change his body using his laws, these roots would do that for him. Once these roots had truly pervaded every inch of his body, he would have reached the peak of the Soaring Immortal realm.
After spending a month, three for him, devouring corpse after corpse, all four of Liang Chen's Dragon Lotuses finally grew their 12th leaf, meaning that he had officially entered the Soaring Immortal realm. The moment the 12th leaf was born, Liang Chen's Qi started to change, becoming as thick as mud as it flowed through his body. At the same time as his Qi grew as thick as mud, blue clouds started to gather inside the house, fire and lightning roaring within them.
Liang Chen opened his eyes and cast a disdainful glance at the clouds, the mark of a heavenly tribulation. He stood up from his seated position and headed to the other side of the house, not wanting to disturb Yan Ling too much, she was currently in the process of carving the new channels. Yumao, who was currently chewing on a Fiendgod corpse, leisurely followed Liang Chen, calmly keeping an eye on him. Yumao had eaten his fair share of corpses while Liang Chen and Yan Ling were cultivating, growing a little as a result, now a little over three meters long.
The clouds followed Liang Chen as he moved, settling above him when he arrived at the other end of the house. Liang Chen had Yumao surround Yan Ling in his darkness, isolating her just in case the sound of the tribulation ended up being too loud. Shortly after he reached the other side of the house, the tribulation officially began.
First came a bolt of lightning and a pillar of fire, both such a deep blue that they looked like the depths of the ocean. Both were so weak that Liang Chen didn't even have to resist, he could simply take it head-on with his body, absorbing the lightning and negating the fire. The second wave was a blue bolt of lignting tinged with a faint shade of red and a blue pillar of fire tinged with a shade of violet.
Liang Chen absorbed the lightning once more, but the pillar of fire had to be blocked by a punch that contained his emerald lightning, a bit of his white poison, and some concentrated wind. After the second wave was blocked, the clouds gathered up their remaining energy into a final bolt of lightning and a final pillar of fire, one deep crimson and the other a brilliant violet.
Only now did Liang Chen's eyes turn a bit more serious, gray scales growing on his body and covering everything except his legs and face. His bloodline had awakened quite a bit more during the previous massacre, resonating with the rage he had directed at Shentu Gang.
The clouds launched their final attack, the crimson bolt of lightning arriving in front of Liang Chen almost instantly. Liang Chen slowed it down somewhat with his law of time, his golden spear appearing in his grasp as he stabbed out, gathering all his energy at the tip of the spear. The weapon collided with the lightning, a thunderous explosion sounding out as an emerald bolt of lightning tinged with a faint shade of red, as well as a faint shade of white, tore through the crimson lightning bolt and pierced through the ceiling of the house. Liang Chen quickly had a strong gust of wind put out the flames that sprouted where the lightning pierced through the wooden ceiling, preventing the entire house from catching fire.
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The pillar of violet flames arrived shortly after the bolt of lightning, the furniture within the entire room turning to ash, leaving what was once a bedroom completely empty, even the floor and walls were now gone. Liang Chen swiped out in a sideways slash with his spear, wind and a faint rotting smell gathering around the speartip as it collided with the flames.
The flames turned violent as the wind started surrounding them, compressing them together in an attempt to smother them. The flames started to release sizzling sounds at the same time, the rotting energy causing the flames to grow weaker and weaker as they started to die out. After only a short while, the violet flames completely dissipated, silence returning to the house.
Liang Chen put away his spear, the gray scales sinking back into his skin. He cast a glance at the hole in the ceiling and the missing walls and floor, letting out a sigh. The fire had luckily not turned all the walls of the house to ash, only the ones in this room. He left the room and fetched some wood that was about the right size, nailing it to the ceiling to cover up the hole before returning to the room where Yan Ling was still cultivating.
She slightly opened her left eye and cast a glance at Liang Chen, winking at him. From the looks of it, Yumao's darkness had been unable to fully isolate her. Liang Chen shrugged his shoulder casually, showing her that he was perfectly fine, and then sat down on the couch to return to his own cultivation.
The reason he first increased his cultivation to the Soaring Immortal realm was simple, he wanted the qualitative change it would bring about in his Qi. With the internal array supporting him, as well as his now much stronger and more potent Qi, he could increase the speed of his own time by four and keep it active for an entire day, allowing him to be far more effective with his cultivation.
Yan Ling looked on as Liang Chen returned to his seat and focused on his own cultivation. She closed her eye again and focused on her own cultivation, a serious expression appearing on her face. This was why she was so desperate to awaken and strengthen her bloodline as much as she could, so desperate to acquire any advantage possible. Liang Chen was only in the Soaring Immortal realm but could already quadruple the speed of time around him without relying on any external aid. Just how much stronger would that get in the future? If things had stayed as they were in the past, he would only continue to move ahead, widening the distance between them to a point where she might never catch up.
With the speed of time around him quadrupled, Liang Chen started carving the two last channels for the second part of the Chaos King technique, finishing both of them after four and a half days, 18 for him. Once the last two channels were carved, Liang Chen started devouring the remaining corpses he had on hand. He saved half of all the corpses for Yan Ling, who started working on devouring them a few days after Liang Chen did.
After spending another month, four for him, devouring the corpses, Liang Chen had emptied all the resources he had on hand, decreasing the speed of time around him to only twice the normal speed while he quietly cultivate and waited for Yan Ling to finish her own corpses. Yan Ling finished devouring all her corpses a little over a month after Liang Chen finished, once again showing Liang Chen just how much of a difference something like talent had when it came to cultivation like this.
The two didn't stop cultivating just yet, both of them putting their focus on Liang Chen's body cultivation, which required both of them to work together. Liang Chen used his law of time to increase the speed of time around them but the strength was decreased since he wanted to affect something other than him, only doubling the speed of time around them.
A month after Yan Ling finished devouring all her corpses, the two finished up Liang Chen's body cultivation, all the bones in his body had become crystallized storm. With this, his Qi cultivation had reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm and his body and soul cultivation had reached the peak of the Heaven's Gate realm.
The reason they stopped his soul and body cultivation at that step was simple, Liang Chen had no idea what the next step would be. According to the description he had of the Ocean God Physique, the next step would be to transform his organs, but he had yet to figure out how to best alter them based on the principle of the technique. But even so, with his strong bloodline and repeated use of the Chaos King technique, his body was already as strong as someone at the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, maybe even the middle stage.
Yan Ling had it a bit simpler than him, so after using all the corpses and resources on hand, her soul, Qi, and body cultivation had all officially reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, her Qi cultivation only half a step away from the middle stage.
Before either of them knew it, about five months had passed after the grand massacre they engaged in, Yan Ling able to squeeze an entire year's worth of cultivation into those five months. They had used up a vast amount of resources, but both their strengths had increased by quite a bit, both of them were confident that they could easily sweep through the entire fourth floor and head directly for the fifth.
It seemed like Yan Ling didn't intend to head for the fourth floor immediately, lying down on the couch next to Liang Chen and stretching her body while resting her legs on Liang Chen's lap the moment the two finished their cultivation.
"Ahhh, it feels good to finally be done. Little Freak, I'm all stiff after having to sit still for that long, I have no idea how you can do it without complaining. Can you massage me, please? My legs feel like they are going to try fighting me if they don't get some comfort. I'll give you a nice reward if you do a good job."
Yan Ling raised her legs and kicked in the air while talking, causing Liang Chen to let out an involuntary snort. Having been absorbed in his cultivation for so long, it was comforting to see that Yan Ling was still the same as usual. He grabbed onto her left leg and started to softly massage it, doing his best to remember how Qing Chun had done for him when he was younger.
Yumao saw Liang Chen's actions but failed to understand the purpose behind them, but since Liang Chen was doing it, he too had to do it. He shrunk himself somewhat and then coiled around Yan Ling's arm, wriggling his body and doing his best to emulate Liang Chen's movements, resulting in both of them letting out a burst of laughter and giving Yumao a few pats on the head. After Liang Chen spent around an hour massaging Yan Ling's legs, she seemed to be content, turning her body so that her shoulders and head were resting on Liang Chen's lap, raising her arms.
"Now do my arms and shoulder, please?"
Liang Chen rolled his eyes, choosing to not comment on how hard it would be to massage her shoulders in that position. He grabbed onto her left arm and was just about to start the massage when Yan Ling grabbed hold of his arms and pulled him down, planting a kiss on his lips. Their position was a bit awkward, but since Yan Ling was rarely the one who initiated things like this, Liang Chen elected to not say anything. The two ended the kiss after a few minutes, Yan Ling giggling lightly.
"Nihihi, I'm just fucking with you, my turn to massage you, I did promise you a nice reward after all."
Yan Ling sat up after giggling, pushing Liang Chen down so that he was face down on the couch. She then sat down on his lower body and tore off the upper part of his robe, revealing his bare back. She then started to slowly massage him, revealing that she was actually rather skilled at it.
Liang Chen took a deep breath and closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation. After this, they would head up to the fourth floor and engage in more bloody battles, but that didn't matter right now. All that mattered now was the peace he felt and the soft touch of Yan Ling. To Liang Chen, moments like these validated all the pain and hardship he went through in his cultivation, all the blood that he had to shed. Had he been weaker, he would have already lost these peaceful moments, this soft touch. No matter how many people he had to kill, no matter how much blood he had to shed, even if the whole world ended up calling him a demon, he would not allow anyone to steal these things from him.