Liang Chen altered his position a little, making it so that Yan Ling's head was resting on his lap rather than on his chest. He gave her dirty hair a few gentle strokes, closing his eyes and sinking his mind into his own body. He had given it a quick check earlier, but now he was preparing to get a closer look at his current state.

He first examined his dantian, checking out Yumao's current state. Yumao was still wrapped in a cocoon of darkness, but a few hair-thin cracks had started to spread on it, so it seemed like he would wake up sooner rather than later. Liang Chen was growing more and more curious about just what kind of Demonic beast Yumao was, it was not normal for it to take this long for a Demonic beast to mature and grow stronger.

Liang Chen then examined the area beneath his heart, the spot where his three Dragon Lotuses resided. All three of them had lost two leaves as a result of him pulling them out to activate the Mad King's Rage, the energy they radiated having shrunk as a result. They had also moved slightly since he last saw them, creating just enough space for another lotus.

Seeing this open spot, Liang Chen came up with a guess that he was almost fully certain was correct. When he first bathed in Demonic beast blood and was baptized by lightning, his Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline had activated, absorbing the poison in the blood and the lightning that struck him, using them to forever alter his body.

As a result, his body became forever unable to hold any Qi that didn't contain the poison or lightning element. He could still use Qi with the element of time because of his bloodline, but all other types of Qi were detrimental to him, causing him harm. Now that the Star God bloodline had fused with his Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline, it seemed like he would also be able to use the law of wind much like he used the law of time.

Seeing how the surrounding air had gathered towards his hand earlier, he also guessed that he didn't have to create a Dragon Lotus for the law of wind to control it. But he still intended on creating a Dragon Lotus for the law of wind, as it would only enhance his control over the wind, allowing him to unleash even greater power.

After he finished checking his Dragon Lotuses, Liang Chen proceeded to check out his soul and his body. His soul had changed slightly after the fusion of the two bloodlines, its left eye becoming light cyan. Its right eye was still a ghastly gray and its hair was still blood-red, the left eye being the only thing to change. His soul had grown slightly stronger, but as neither the Star God nor the Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline focused on the soul, the increase in strength wasn't all that much.

His body, on the other hand, had grown quite a bit stronger after the fusion of the two grand bloodlines and his wounds being healed by the new bloodline. His Qi cultivation had dropped to the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm and his soul was still in the early stage of the Ascended Soul realm, but he guessed that his body had grown so strong that it had already reached the middle stage of the Body Ascension realm, equal to the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm.

And with the increased strength of his body came another pleasant surprise. Liang Chen opened his eyes and raised his left arm, pointing up with his finger. A tiny arc of crimson lightning flashed out from his fingertip and started to dance around his arm, distorting the air around it. It was only a small piece, but he could now use a little of the crimson lightning and not have it tear apart his insides. When he went over everything, even though his Qi cultivation had decreased, his overall strength had actually increased.

Of course, he didn't for one second thing that this increase of strength was due to his efforts. This increase in strength was all thanks to Yan Ling, thanks to the sacrifice she had made for him. The part of her bloodline that she had given him would be incredibly hard for her to get back. Even if she managed to fully awaken her bloodline, she would at best only make up for the lost portion.

Liang Chen knew this, so he swore that he would not only help her fully awaken her bloodline, he would do everything in his power to increase the strength of her bloodline to previously unheard of proportions. If his new Heaven Devouring Wolf bloodline was a bloodline worthy of a king, he would give her a bloodline worthy of a goddess.

After checking his entire body, Liang Chen proceeded to wait for Yan Ling to wake up. He used his right hand to gently brush her hair and his left hand to play around with the wind in the cave. He got the wind to gather around his outstretched hand, he even managed to make it form a ball of concentrated wind, but that was it. He was unable to have it form sharp blades, deadly needles, he could just barely form a small tornado. Compared to Yan Ling, who had been trained in the law of wind since she was a child, Liang Chen still had much to learn when it came to the law of wind.

Two days after Liang Chen woke up and Yan Ling fell asleep, she started to stir and wake up, her movements groggy and slow. She raised her head from Liang Chen's thigh, looking around the cave with nearly closed eyes, mumbling forth a nearly incoherent sentence.

"Fast...Freak Lil'...break."

She had slept for two days and should have gotten rid of all her tiredness, but she was still absolutely terrible when it came to mornings. But Liang Chen was already used to this, so he understood what she was trying to say and got to work. He swiped his interspatial ring and took out some of the soup he had made before the Constellation King's competition started, using his lightning to heat up some for Yan Ling before he handed her a bowl.

Yan Ling accepted the bowl and took out a wooden spoon from her own interspatial ring, quickly starting to devour the soup. Only now did Liang Chen notice that he too was hungry, so he heated up more of the soup and joined Yan Ling in eating breakfast. Both of them were clearly rather hungry, as they finished up all the soup that Liang Chen had stored away, almost 20 liters in total. Yan Ling was finally fully awake after waking up, and the first thing she said to Liang Chen was a simple order.

"Turn around."

As she spoke, she looked down at her own dirty body, clearly a bit ashamed at her filthy state. Liang Chen did as he was ordered, turning around so that he couldn't see her, even going as far as to cut his connection with the surrounding wind, muttering quietly to himself.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Not like I haven't seen it all before..."

He thought he was being quiet, but he once again forgot that words were just vibrations moving through the wind, which meant that Yan Ling was easily able to pick them up. And so, his quiet stating of the truth earned him a quick bath, Yan Ling waving her hand and causing a large orb of icy cold water to appear above Liang Chen and fall down on him.

Liang Chen knew that he had been busted, so he could only raise his arms in surrender and use the cold water to quickly clean himself. He stood up and dried himself using the heat from his lightning, switching to a dry robe. He wasn't sure if Yan Ling was watching him change, but he didn't really care even if she was, it was only the two of them here after all. Shortly after he put on his fresh robe, Yan Ling gave him the clear signal.

"Alright, I'm done. It's about time we start investigating just where we have ended up."

Liang Chen turned around and saw that Yan Ling was walking towards the other end of the cave, to the sealed up entrance. He took a step forward and grabbed onto her shoulder, stopping her before she managed to unseal the entrance.

"Wait a bit, there's something I wanna do first."

He turned her around and leaned forward, catching her off-guard and planting a kiss on her lips. She had initiated the last one, so now it was his time to take the lead. The kiss lasted for a few seconds before Liang Chen pulled back, leaving Yan Ling with an expression that was a mixture of shock and confusion. She locked eyes with him, voicing her confusion.

"Little Freak, this is..."

She didn't finish her sentence, seemingly not certain which words would be best suited to describe what he had just done. Liang Chen gave a nod of his head, shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant manner.

"It's only the first part, I myself haven't gotten to study the second or third part yet but I'll hand those to you when I manage to learn them. If Elder Chaotic wants to complain when we return, I can only apologize and explain our situation. Hopefully, he'll listen."

The kiss hadn't been just a simple kiss, he had infused all his knowledge of the Chaos King technique into a small orb of Qi and transferred it to Yan Ling with the kiss, giving her the entire first part of the technique. There was no telling what they might face here, so it was better for both of them to have as many ways of getting stronger as possible.

When he had first learned this technique, Elder Guanyu and everyone else present had been strictly warned that Liang Chen was not only forbidden from teaching what he learned to others, but they were also forbidden from scouring his memories for information on the technique. Should they do either, Elder Chaotic would forever leave the Storm Wolf sect, likely also taking back all the information about the technique that he had given to Liang Chen and whoever else might have learned it.

Yan Ling nodded her head, understanding Liang Chen's thoughts. She memorized the first part of the Chaos King technique and sat down on the ground, starting to carve the three channels. The two of them had plenty of resources on their hand, most of it taken from people they had killed while out on their missions, so carving the channels was no problem for Yan Ling. She also had a body stronger than normal thanks to her Star God bloodline, so except for a bit of pain and strain while carving the channels there were no other problems.

It still took some time to carve the three channels, so it was only after another week that the two of them got to leave the cave and explore the unknown world where they had ended up. Yan Ling unsealed the entrance of the cave slightly, using her scouting technique to make sure that there was no one around them. Only when she was certain that there was no one in the area did she fully unseal the cave, she and Liang Chen leaving the cave.

This was Liang Chen's first time seeing their surrounding area, so he thoroughly examined it. There were no buildings or living beings as far as the eye could see, there were barely even trees on the plain. He spotted a few pillar-shaped mountains stretching up in the distance, so tall that they pierced the clouds. The grass reached up to his ankles and was a withered yellow in color, its texture rather reminiscent of leather. Liang Chen and Yan Ling locked gazes, both of them coming to the same conclusion.

"Mountains?"

"Mountains."

Both of them realized that going to the mountains would be their best option, as they would be able to climb them and get a better view of their surroundings. With both of them in agreement, they started walking towards the mountains, keeping a close watch on their surroundings.

They didn't move at full speed, but their speed was still considered very fast, the mountains quickly getting closer. But even before they got to reach the mountains, they discovered their first living beings. Yan Ling was the one who discovered them thanks to her scouting technique, a group of six beings traveling towards them at a somewhat slow pace.

The six beings were covered in a thick layer of gray metal armor but looked humanoid, but three of them had four arms instead of just two, so she called them beings rather than people. She was able to somewhat detect their strength, five with strength equal to someone at the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm and one with strength equal to someone at the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm.

Looking at the way they moved, slow steps accompanied by sweeping glances that examined the area around them, they seemed to searching for something. Liang Chen and Yan Ling hid themselves, digging another cave into the ground and only leaving a small opening so that they could listen to any words or sounds that the six beings might make.

The six beings quickly got closer to the area where the two of them were hiding, one of the beings with only two arms suddenly stopping. It started to carefully sweep the area, seemingly having noticed that something was wrong. After a short moment, Liang Chen felt an ethereal type of energy enter their cave, spotting the two of them.

Liang Chen recognized this energy as Anima Essence, the soul cultivation equivalent of Qi. He clicked his tongue, realizing that they had likely been discovered by the six beings. Just like he thought, the being that had stopped pointed at the entrance to their cave, speaking up in a somewhat hoarse voice.

"There are two cattle hiding over there, but I don't know how they managed to escape their pen."

Liang Chen didn't have to say anything, Yan Ling also realizing that they had been discovered. She blew away the entrance of the cave, both of them jumping up and leaving the cave. The moment the two of them left the cave, the six beings drew the weapons that were slung over their shoulders, the energy within their bodies starting to move. They were clearly intending to attack before even checking who Liang Chen and Yan Ling were.

Yan Ling swiped her interspatial ring and took out Liang Chen's spear, handing it to him. Since he had fallen unconscious after launching his final attack against Huang Dong, he had of course not been able to put it into his interspatial ring. Luckily, Yan Ling had picked it up as she grabbed him and fled. She then pulled out her own weapon, pointing it at the strongest of the six beings, one of the four-armed ones.

This one was a little over three meters tall and carried two large double-headed axes, the helmet covering his head had two large horns sticking out from the front, a crimson mohawk running down the middle of the helmet. As she pointed her sword at him, she cast a sideways glance at Liang Chen and spoke up.

"Try to keep that one alive, it should be the one with the most knowledge. I'm really quite curious just what they meant when they said cattle."