Meeting the Wyrm King.
A bright silver light flashed in front of Liang Chen's eyes and blinded him, space all around him turning viscous and distorted. His body felt like it was being tossed around by waves of mud, but he knew that it simply felt like this because they were currently moving through space thanks to a spatial array prepared by the Storm Wolf sect.
When the silver light vanished from his vision, the disciples and elders from the sect found themselves standing on a piece of arid earth, the ground beneath their feet yellow and dusty. The area was entirely barren, with not even the smallest plant in sight. In the distance stood a small city, the place where they would meet up with the other clans before the start of the competition.
If one looked past the city, one would see a strange area, a wall of distorted space that was impossible to see through, countless colors flashing over the wall. This wall was the edge of the Myriad Convergence, beyond this wall was an unstable space that would open countless spatial rifts that either sucked in things and sent them off or delivered items from faraway planets.
At the time the array had activated, Liang Chen and Yan Ling were in the middle of their playful act. so they were still in the same positions. Liang Chen was lying on his back, Yan Ling straddling his waist with her arms raised high, ready to unleash even more pokes so fast that they looked like blurs. Seeing that they had arrived at their destination, and that everyone was looking at the two of them, Yan Ling stood up and stepped back as she brushed off the dust that had gotten on her robe, letting out a light cough.
"I'll consider that to be punishment enough for now. But if you try to be cheeky with me again, I'll show you all 1000 of my terrifying torture techniques."
With Yan Ling no longer straddling and poking him, Liang Chen could finally catch his breath and stand up. He brushed off the dust that had gotten on his robe, looking at Yan Ling with a raised eyebrow.
"1000 techniques? Knowing you, I'd be amazed if you could come up with even five techniques, much less 1000."
Yan Ling's eyebrow ticked up when she heard Liang Chen's teasing manner, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly. Her lips curled up slightly as she started to crack her knuckles and walk closer to Liang Chen.
"That's it, you're getting beat."
Liang Chen simply raised one of his arms, making a beckoning gesture with his hand, his lips raising into a challenging smile. Even if he had realized his emotions for her, he had no intentions of treating her too differently, he liked how the two interacted with each other. Just as the two were about to go at it again, a clap sounded out, the chuckling voice of Yan Wuhan sounding out.
"Alright you two, that's enough. You'll make everyone else jealous, so save it for later."
Both Liang Chen and Yan Ling stiffened up slightly upon hearing the voice of Yan Wuhan, having completely forgotten that the sect master, and Yan Ling's father, had joined them here. They both raised their arms in defeat, no longer playing around as they turned to face Yan Wuhan.
The silver-eyed and cyan-haired Yan Wuhan nodded his head when he saw that the two of them followed his orders. He swept his eyes over the other disciples and the two other elders, one from the Storm Hall and one from the Wolf Hall, making sure that everyone had arrived safely. Once he was certain that everyone had arrived, he nodded his head once again and took the lead in heading towards the distant city.
"Good, everyone is here. We'll first head to Gate's End city and show those other old fogies that we've arrived, then the lot of you will enter the Myriad Convergence tomorrow morning. Once you are in there, not even I will be able to see what is happening, so you must all make sure to take great care of your lives. Giving up a few treasures to survive is not a bad deal, only by coming back alive will you ever have the chance to become stronger."
The Myriad Convergence was not a part of this planet, it was a piece of a different planet that was torn apart and crashed into this one. Space around it was so unstable that not even someone like Yan Wuhan could see past it, the only way for him to know what was going on inside was to head in there on his own. And because of this, even if one killed other disciples inside the Myriad Convergence, as long as there were no witnesses, no one would ever know what you did.
Yan Wuhan said that they should give up treasures if it meant they would get to survive, but just how many of these disciples would do that? Even though this was called a competition, it was truly just a massive treasure hunt. The better the items you came back with, the higher your rank would be. Of course, to acquire these treasures, you had to possess sufficient strength. So even though it was a treasure hunt type competition, the top five that ended up receiving titles were still the strongest of the disciples that entered the Myriad Convergence.
The 1000 disciples and the three elders swiftly arrived at the city, which was built by all six of the great sects that ruled this planet. Each sect had sent over quite a few members to build and keep an eye on the city, picking up any items that might stray out from the Myriad Convergence. Since there were six different sects that had built this city, the architecture varied greatly in different places, some buildings so extravagant they resembled palaces and some so simple they barely looked like houses.
Yan Wuhan led the group to the center of the city, occasionally greeting some of the Storm Wolf disciples that were living in this city. Most of the disciples that lived here were those who felt like they were unable to advance their cultivation further, so they had decided to accept the offer to move here in an attempt to drain less of the sect's resources.
When they reached the center of the city, a large circular area that was completely devoid of any other buildings, there were already five other groups of people waiting for them. Liang Chen recognized the robes that four of the groups wore, they were the black robes of the Nightshield sect, the gray robes of the Ghost Soul sect, the silver robes of the Moon Dragon sect, and the black robes of the Fiendgod sect. Each of the robes were engraved with the respective emblems of the sects that they came from, so they were easy to distinguish.
Liang Chen didn't recognize the robes of the last group, golden robes engraved with a sword stabbed into a shining sun, but he could easily guess that they were the group from the Dawn's Blade Alliance. Standing at the front of each group was a person who gave Liang Chen the same feeling that Yan Wuhan gave him, as if they were about to melt into the surrounding space. The gazes of the people gathered in the city center landed on Yan Wuhan and the people behind him, a slightly chubby woman with puffy cheeks and flowing blonde hair nodding her head and speaking up.
"Good, now everyone is here. The competition starts tomorrow, none of us are allowed to interfere in the competition or steal the items that the disciples bring out, the rewards for the top five rankers will be handed out directly after they leave the Myriad Convergence and their positions have been decided."
Looking at where the woman was standing, Liang Chen could guess that she was the sect master of the Fiendgod sect, one of the sects that was a bit closer to the Storm Wolf sect. These were the standard rules for the competition, meant to keep the sect masters and sect elders in check. The various elders and sect masters nodded their heads to show their agreement, the six groups splitting up and heading in separate directions.
The sect masters would send the disciples into the Myriad Convergence once morning rolled around, this meeting was just to make sure that everyone had arrived. Should one of the sect masters send in a person who had entered or passed the Primordial Immortal realm, or try to send in the disciples earlier than the others, the other sect masters would instantly notice and retaliate in the same manner. Because of this, none of the sect masters were worried that the others would break the rules, they were, in fact, hoping that someone would break the rules, giving them an excuse to send in even stronger disciples to snag even more treasures.
The moment the six groups split up, Yan Ling grabbed a hold of Liang Chen's wrist and dragged him away from the group. He knew that he had no say in this matter, he could only obediently follow her as she went sight-seeing in the city.
As this was a city for the disciples to live in as they kept an eye on the Myriad Convergence, it contained quite a few places where one could have fun, making sure that none of the disciples got bored. Liang Chen and Yan Ling even walked past a brothel that was disguised as a souvenir shop, with only a few well-hidden signs showing that they were actually a brothel. Yan Ling wanted to enter it and see what they were selling, so it fell upon Liang Chen to explain to her that a city like this didn't need a souvenir shop. She didn't quite understand the underlying meaning of his words, so he could only be blunt and tell her exactly what the shop was truly selling.
Liang Chen didn't tell her, but he found the sight of Yan Ling blushing up to her ears extremely adorable. Yan Ling swiftly pulled Liang Chen away from the shop, all the while sending him a slight glare that made it seem like she was a tad bit angry at him for knowing about such shops.
The two continued to pass the time by walking through the city, checking out the various places that the disciples had built to enjoy themselves. There were places one could play games, places where they could buy food, places where they could cultivate, even places where they could swim in a man-made lake. After they spent a few hours walking through the city, someone suddenly called out for them from behind.
"Ling'er, so this is where you were!"
Liang Chen could see Yan Ling's expression sink the moment she heard this voice, so it was clear that she wasn't very fond of the person who had found them. The two turned around to face the person who had called out to them, coming face to face with someone wearing the silver robes of the Moon Dragon sect.
The man standing only a short distance away was almost two meters tall and had handsome features that looked like they were carved with a knife. He had silver hair that hung down to his shoulders and deep black eyes, a faint smile visible at the corners of his lips. The man took a step closer, but Yan Ling responded by taking a step backward with Liang Chen, sneering at the man.
"Huang Dong, so even a disgusting salamander like you has arrived here? Shouldn't you be hiding under some rock and waiting for someone to throw some waste your way? And what the fuck did I say about you calling me that?"
Liang Chen's eyes narrowed faintly when he heard Yan Ling mention the name of the man in front of them. Wyrm King Huang Dong, the one who ranked fifth in the last Constellation King competition. Looking at the aura he was radiating, Liang Chen guessed that he had reached the very peak of the Soaring Immortal realm, probably only half a step away from the Primordial Immortal realm.
Huang Dong tried to take several more steps closer, but each time he moved Yan Ling would react by taking two extra steps back, clearly trying to avoid him. Huang Dong raised his arms in defeat after his tenth attempt at getting closer, looking at Yan Ling with an aggrieved expression.
"Ling'er, why must you act like that to me, do you really wish to avoid marrying me that much?"
The words of Huang Dong instantly caused Liang Chen's eyebrows to tick up, his eyes narrowing faintly. But before Liang Chen even got the time to think about asking Yan Ling what Huang Dong meant, Yan Ling exploded with fury, shouting at Huang Dong, the wind around her starting to turn sharp.
"Shut the fuck up, I will never marry you! The one who proposed that idea was that bitch who has nothing to do with me, so I have no idea why the fuck you think I would ever marry you! Now fuck off, I am enjoying myself here, and you are spoiling the mood."
Her words easily explained it for Liang Chen, Yan Ling's mother seemed to have proposed that Yan Ling marry Huang Dong. Huang Dong was a member of the Moon Dragon sect, and Yan Ling's mother was an elder of the Nightshield sect, two sects which had an alliance. The proposal was likely put in place in an attempt to have the Storm Wolf sect become a part of their alliance. However, Liang Chen had no idea why the Moon Dragon sect would believe that Yan Ling would ever listen to any idea proposed by her mother, the one who had tried to kill her father and had been responsible for the death of Yan Ling's two siblings.
For the first time since speaking up, Huang Dong's eyes landed on Liang Chen, who was looking at Huang Dong with a calm yet measuring gaze. After sweeping Liang Chen with a quick gaze, Huang Dong cupped his hands and politely introduced himself.
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself, please forgive me. I am Wyrm King Huang Dong, I ranked fifth in the last competition, but I should be able to reach the third or second spot this time. Who are you?"
His words sounded like a polite introduction, but what they really were was an attempt to scare Liang Chen, using his title and rank as a deterrent. But how could he possibly know that Liang Chen's goal was far above someone like Huang Dong? Liang Chen's spear was aimed at a core disciple of the Nightshield sect, and elder of the Nightshield sect, and even at death itself. Someone like Huang Dong would never be enough to scare him, so he simply nodded his head and gave a simple greeting in return.
"Scourge King Liang Chen, the one currently having fun with Yan Ling."
As he spoke, he flipped his hand slightly, shifting the grip Yan Ling had on his wrist into one where she held his hand. He then raised their hands up, showing it off to Huang Dong, a faint smile on his face as he did so. Yan Ling's face contained a mixture of embarrasment, amusement, and a well-hidden joy, not doing anything to release the grip she now had on Liang Chen's hand. Huang Dong's lips and eyebrows twitched slightly when he saw this blatant provocation, but he still managed to appear calm, tilting his head slightly.
"Liang Chen? I don't think I've ever heard that name before."
Since Liang Chen was trying to provoke him by using how close he was to Yan Ling, Huang Dong decided to provoke him using the difference in status between the two. One was a practically unknown cultivator while the other was one of the top disciples of their sect. But once again Liang Chen acted in the opposite way of what Huang Dong wanted, chuckling lightly.
"Neither had any of the other people that I killed, but they still died in my hands."
His eyes narrowed faintly as he chuckled, his pupils turning into thin slits that seemed to stare directly into Huang Dong's soul. Huang Dong was about to fire back with another retort, but as he looked at Liang Chen, he caught a glimpse of the same illusion that Fan Jiahao had seen, the gray dragon with one gold and one emerald eye, so large that it could crush a planet by coiling around it. For a split second, Huang Dong felt a faint sense of danger sprout in his heart, but he quickly squashed it, giving Liang Chen a deep look.
"Heh, is that so? Well then, Liang Chen, I hope that I will have the chance to meet you inside the Myriad Convergence, I would love to see what killed those people."
After speaking, Huang Dong cast one last look at Yan Ling before he turned around and walked away, vanishing around a corner. After Huang Dong left, Yan Ling let out a light chuckle, using her free hand to poke Liang Chen's waist.
"It's rather rare to see you get heated like that, you should do it more in the future, it shows others that you aren't always aloof and cold."
She knew that Liang Chen had a habit of being a bit distant when he was with anyone other than her, Yan Ying, or Lei Qiang. This attitude made it a bit hard for him to make actual friends, pushing away plenty of people. If he could show others the side of him that he showed her, she was certain that he would be able to gain a large number of friends. Of course, even though she said this, there was one thing she neglected to mention, she actually enjoyed being the only one who got to see his more casual side.
The two proceeded to continue their sight-seeing of the city, coincidentally forgetting to let go of each other's hand as they walked. Liang Chen cast a sideways glance at Yan Ling, thinking back to his meeting with Fan Jiahao and then the meeting they just had with Huang Dong. He couldn't help but let out a light breathe, muttering to himself in a voice so quiet he was certain only he could hear it.
"Really, first the Tiger King and now the Wyrm King. Are you gathering them up one by one to cause trouble for me?"
Tiger King Fan Jiahao and Wyrm King Huang Dong, both were in love with Yan Ling, the one that Liang Chen had set his eyes on. Fan Jiahao wasn't that big of a problem, as he didn't seem to plan on doing anything to Liang Chen in hopes of acquiring Yan Ling. Huang Dong, however, he seemed like he would become a problem, he seemed less reasonable than Fan Jiahao.
Liang Chen thought he had been so quiet that no one could hear him, but he hadn't accounted for the fact that words were just vibrations moving through the air. So as someone who could control the law of wind, even his exceedingly quiet muttering had been picked up by Yan Ling. Yan Ling didn't show any signs that she had heard his words, her the corners of her lips faintly rising as she let out a quiet mutter of her own.
"I don't need any of those kings, I only need the one king."
Liang Chen couldn't control the law of wind, so the only one who heard Yan Ling's mutter was herself, the only one understanding the meaning of her words being herself.