Xing Dong finished his final spasms on Huang Ying's speartip, the entirety of Huang Ying's shadow turning into a large lamprey-like maw that swallowed the corpse. 23 lives had just vanished down Huang Ying's gullet, his entire body bursting with newfound energy that made him feel as if his veins flowed with liquid fire.
He was at the 7th Mortal Step when he entered the forest but the feast provided by Xing Dong made him jump up to the 8th Mortal Step. He had devoured 18 people at the 9th Mortal Step and 5 people at the 1st Stair of Ascension so the fact that he only reached the 8th Mortal Step after devouring them showed him just how much energy he needed to increase his own cultivation.
He felt like the amount of energy he needed to increase his cultivation was quite a bit higher than normal people, but he assumed that it likely had something to do with not just his special body, but also with the strength of his main law. The law of devouring was the law belonging to one of the nine Ancestor Gods, if it could be cultivated as easily as other laws then it really would be a bit too strange.
Xing Dong's corpse vanished, the 23 people not leaving behind even a single drop of blood within the clearing that Huang Ying had created. Huang Ying took a few casual steps back and moved away from the crimson-eyed and black-haired Ying Fexu, using his left hand to usher a challenging gesture when there were a few metres of distance between them.
"Alright, that's all for the theoretical lessons, the real one will start now. Come at me and show me all your laws, try to use the ones you have the least control over. But maintain all your laws at once, keep them all at about the same size, finetune your control over them."
Making sure that she could use all her laws with equal strength, that would be the first step towards increasing Ying Feixu's strength. Ying Feixu nodded her head seriously in response to Huang Ying's words, he might be the man she wanted to kill more than anything, but he was also the person best suited to training her. Not only did he have the law of devouring himself, but he had definitely devoured plenty of memories over time. He looked young, but if someone tried to use that as a way to measure how much he knew then they would be downright foolish.
Ying Feixu let out a slow breath and unleashed her Qi, the energy gathering into orbs that floated behind her while forming a circle. Huang Ying couldn't help but let out a short whistle upon seeing the number of orbs appearing behind Ying Feixu, he had clearly underestimated the number of elements she had yet to properly master.
A total of nine orbs formed behind Ying Feixu, one of fire, one of lightning, one of metal, one of earth, one of wind, one of water, one of ice, one formed of transparent crystal, and the final one was pitch black and was filled with eyes that constantly changed colour, her law of devouring. The fire orb was the largest and stablest one by far, the lightning and metal following it.
The remaining six orbs were the smallest, Ying Feixu's brows furrowing while a few beads of sweat appeared on her forehead as she tried to make it so that all the orbs were the same size. Huang Ying started to casually walk over while Ying Feixu struggled to control each orb equally, her pupils shrinking slightly when she noticed Huang Ying's actions.
She hurriedly took a step back, but doing so caused the water orb to fall apart and drop to the ground as droplets. Huang Ying's arm lashed out the moment the orb fell apart, his hand sliding down to the very end of his spear, actually grasping onto the spearhead closest to him. The other end of the spear reached Ying Feixu at the same time, Huang Ying twisting the spear slightly so that the flat end of the speartip smacked her temple.
"Too slow. And don't try to blame it on your bloodline or anything, you've already had a fair bit of time to test out and get used to all your laws. Or could it be that you plan on staying true to your name and ruining me by using excuses? Will you give an excuse next time I beat you? Will you give an excuse when someone else beats you? Is that how you plan on staying alive? Are you that pathetic?"
Huang Ying kept smacking her with the flat end of his spearhead while hounding her, a thin layer of earth covering his own hand so that he didn't cut himself while grasping the other spearhead. Ying Feixu grit her teeth and could only endure the hounding and the hits, doing her utmost to retain her focus and control over the nine orbs behind her.
She couldn't say anything against the rather rough style of training, after all, she was training so that she could eventually kill Huang Ying. She also knew that training like this was one of the more effective ways for someone like her who had so many different elements, focusing on just one or two would create imbalances in her control.
At the start, one or two orbs would fall apart each time Huang Ying hit her with his spear, but as time moved on she started to display the immense talent her bloodline provided her. The fire orb shrank slightly while the other orbs increased in size, each one becoming increasingly stable as the hours started to pass.
After the 11th hour passed and night had already arrived, she even became able to launch a few attacks in retaliation to Huang Ying's constant smacks. But she still had to focus so much on maintaining the orbs that her attacks were simply too obvious, Huang Ying only needing to lean his head to the side to dodge several droplets of water that seemed far heavier than they looked. He then raised his foot and gave the ground a heavy stomp, shattering a crystalline spike just as it started to rise from the earth.
"Better but not quite good enough. You have innate control over nine different laws, do you have any idea what sort of advantage that is? You are practically bound to have a counter to any sort of attack your enemies might try to launch at you, you will have something to target anyone's weakness. But if you attack this slowly, even the weakest mortal will dodge you. Come on, attack with all your elements at once, don't bother just launching them one by one."
Ying Feixu's expression was slightly dark as she looked at Huang Ying, who continued to effortlessly deal with her hasty attacks. She did her best to launch three attacks at the same time, but a slight whistling sound immediately caught her attention. She hastily stepped back to dodge the blade of wind Huang Ying had stealthily launched at her, but the earth right behind her foot rose up at the same time, sending her stumbling back.
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And Huang Ying reached her the moment she started stumbling back, the sole of his foot smashing into her abdomen and knocking all the wind out of her lungs. The nine orbs fell apart and dissipated, Ying Feixu flying back and crashing into a tree at the edge of the clearing, the taste of blood spreading throughout her entire mouth. Huang Ying continued to casually walk towards her as if he hadn't just kicked her so hard that she flew back.
"Like that, you see? If you launch multiple attacks at once then you have a higher chance of landing your hits since people tend to focus on just one attack at a time."
Ying Feixu grit her teeth, a bit of blood seeping out and dripping down her chin. She waved her hand, a wave of fire roaring forth and washing over Huang Ying, lighting up the dark clearing as the flames reached for the sky. Ying Feixu came back to her senses and clicked her tongue, Huang Ying's constant hounding and casualness made her so annoyed that she had temporarily lost herself and attacked.
If her attack wounded Huang Ying he might end up denying her any more training, an act that could potentially slow down her training quite a bit. After all, how many other people could she show her full power to, how many could she show her law of devouring to? But that very faint worry of hers was completely unfounded, Huang Ying's still casual voice sounding out from amidst the flames.
"A surprise attack is a good idea in a battle to the death, but if this is all the power you can pack into it then you might as well just present your neck. Get up and form the orbs again, if you can unleash an attack like this with all nine of your laws at once, then you might have some success."
A soft wind blew through the clearing, the raging flames getting swept up by the wind and starting to spin like a tornado. And standing at the centre of the tornado was Huang Ying, his shadow rising up around him like a muddy mass that stretched out murky tentacles covered in maws and eyes. Ying Feixu's pupils shrank slightly as she looked at the tentacles that attached themselves to her flames.
They were greedily devouring the Qi she had poured into the flames, rendering the fire so weak that it couldn't harm Huang Ying. He couldn't devour her flames since he didn't have the law of fire, but devouring the Qi within her attack was perfectly possible. Of course, the sheer control needed to devour the Qi raging around within the flames was not something just anyone could have.
This wasn't something Huang Ying could do while fighting others, there were always too many eyes watching for him to properly unleash his law of devouring. But Ying Feixu was the only one present here, and as she herself had the law of devouring it didn't matter what Huang Ying showed her. In front of her, against her, he could freely unleash every last drop of his strength to beat her down.
The fiery tornado vanished after all the Qi within it was devoured, Ying Feixu clicking her tongue once more before standing up. The first time she clicked her tongue it was because she was annoyed with herself for losing her cool so quickly but this time it was because she was annoyed that he had dealt with her attack so easily.
She might not have wanted to hurt him, she still needed him to train her so that she could kill him after all, but having him deal with it so easily was still annoying, it showed her just what sort of difference there was between them. She formed the nine orbs again, the process much smoother this time than it was the first time around.
But even with the initial process being much smoother, it still took a lot out of her to constantly control the nine different laws. This was especially so with Huang Ying constantly hounding her and attacking her, one orb after another fell apart as he increased the ferocity of his attacks. He stopped hitting with the flat side of his spear, cutting open Ying Feixu's skin and flesh if she didn't make sure to dodge his constant barrage of attacks.
She also had to watch out for his sneak attacks that could come from all sides, by the time the sun rose she had already lost count of the times she had ended up spitting blood due to him. He luckily gave her a bit of time to rest from time to time, heading into the forest for a bit before coming back with a dead animal or Demonic beast for her to devour to restore her wounds. Of course, the moment she finished healing her wounds he would just attack her with even more ferocity to make up for the time lost.
Huang Ying didn't bother much with the passage of time, he kept Ying Feixu in the small clearing for an entire three days before he decided to halt the training. The only reason he decided to halt it here was that he felt that it was about time he returned to Hong Yi and Hei Ya, he couldn't exactly leave them alone within the academy for too long.
He tossed Ying Feixu two more beasts to heal the cuts that covered practically her entire body, ruining her robe once more. The robe was formed when she took human form and was actually her feathers from beast form, she could easily fix it with a bit of Qi. The cuts that covered her were mostly shallow, she had become much better at controlling all her laws while also dodging and attacking, Huang Ying's vicious training methods showing their results.
Huang Ying put away his double-headed spear and casually stretched his body, only two small cuts visible on his robe. It wasn't just Ying Feixu that benefited from this training, it also served as good exercise for Huang Ying, it forced him to constantly stay on his toes while dodging multiple attacks from different elements.
It was also a good opportunity to fully absorb and integrate the combat memories he had just devoured from Xing Dong and the others, sharpening his movements even further. He finished stretching his body and looked at Ying Feixu, using his thumb to beckon down the path they had used to enter the forest.
"It's about time we return. There's a place in the city I wanna go, it'll serve as a good place to test whether or not you can actually use what you learned in combat. If you fail, it'll show me that you don't really bother taking the training to heart so I won't bother training you further, no point in training you if you can't even give me the good fight you promised me."
Ying Feixu finished devouring the two corpses, looking slightly serious thanks to Huang Ying's statement. These three days of training showed her that she had made the right choice in having the target of her revenge train her, she had learned more about control in these three days than she had in the entire month and a half she had spent training after leaving her egg. But at the same time, she couldn't help but narrow her eyes slightly.
"A place you want to go in the city? I don't recall there being any arena in the city, and I doubt you would want me to fight there anyway, is there someone there you're looking to kill?"
He couldn't kill anyone in the academy so it was unlikely that he wanted her to fight there, she couldn't show off her full power there after all. The same was true for any underground fighting ring or arena, meaning that it was likely that there was someone else in the city he planned on killing. And just like she thought, the corners of Huang Ying's mouth were slightly curved up, his eyes so calm and natural that it sent a shiver down Ying Feixu's spine.
"Beasts of everlasting hunger, that is what I called us, didn't I? When I feast on something, I make sure to swallow it whole, flesh, blood, bone, organs, everything. I have Xing Dong's flesh, blood, and bones, but he still has plenty of 'organs' running around."