Walking an unknown path.

Yan Ling and Liang Chen stood shoulder to shoulder, their eyes glued to the deep blue clouds and the three tribulation elements that they had to endure. Liang Chen swept the three elements, wind, wood, and lightning, with a quick gaze, cocking his head slightly as he spoke to Yan Ling.

"I'll leave the wood tribulation to you, I'm no good with it. In turn, you can leave the lightning to me, as for the wind one, I'll try to handle it, but we might need to share the burden."

The wood element was a nearly perfect counter to Liang Chen. Not only did it completely subdue his lightning because of its sturdiness, but it was also so filled with vitality and even slight healing power that it almost completely negated his poison. Only his law of time would be able to properly attack the wood element, but he couldn't really use his law of time to attack the heavenly tribulation, it wouldn't really do anything.

Yan Ling placed her eyes on the azure tree that was floating beneath the clouds, giving a nod of her head. She had joked around just a second ago, but Liang Chen was relieved to see how solemn her eyes were, it seemed like she was taking this as seriously as she should.

The three elements started to move, so Liang Chen activated his bloodline, gray scales covering his arms and shoulders. Yan Ling also activated her secret technique, strands of crimson hair mixing with her usual cyan-hair. Liang Chen cast a glance at her, somewhat curious about the technique she was using.

"Are you sure you'll be fine, activating that secret technique again within such a short time period? It left you rather weak the last time you used it."

When she had used this secret technique during the mission the two had accepted in the Snow Mirror nation, she had ended up greatly weakened afterward. She had then used it again when she was resisting the tribulation as she attempted to awaken her bloodline, once again ending up rather weak. And now she had just recently already used this secret technique, using it to kill the targets of their mission. Liang Chen was a bit worried that her body wouldn't be able to handle it, but it seemed like it was unnecessary to worry, Yan Ling giving a confident not of her head.

"It'll be fine. It's a secret technique that stimulates my bloodline, the reason it left me so weak earlier was because my bloodline was completely dormant. I failed to awaken it fully, but I at least prodded it, so it's no longer fully dormant, meaning that the repercussions of using this technique aren't as great any longer."

Having a slightly awakened bloodline was far better than having a completely dormant one. Liang Chen was one such example, his bloodline had yet to fully awaken, but it was already providing him with great benefits, he could only imagine how much strength it would provide him once it finished fully awakening.

A short moment after the two finished talking, the heavenly tribulation had gathered up enough energy, the three elements descending in all their wrathful glory. The azure tree grew thick branches that gleamed with a terrifying sharpness, each one as thick as a grown man's thigh. The azure tornado turned faintly crimson, splitting in two and sending a tornado made from sharp blades of wind at Liang Chen and Yan Ling. And last came the lightning, turning fully crimson as it grew as thick as Liang Chen's arm, descending at them with a thundering roar.

Liang Chen took a step forward, emerald lightning dancing around his body and causing him to be covered in a beautiful glow. But that glow contained a terrifying might, one that was put on full display as he gave a heavy stomp and punched out, two thick bolts of lightning shooting out from his fist. One of the bolts clashed with the crimson bolt of lightning, the other one clashing with the faintly crimson tornado.

The tornado was fully dispersed under the might of the lightning, but the crimson bolt of lightning was only weakened, striking Liang Chen's fist. But this weakened bolt of lightning was unable to harm Liang Chen, harmlessly sinking into Liang Chen's flesh and quickly being absorbed and used as nourishment for his body.

While he was dealing with these two, Yan Ling dealt with the thick branches that aimed to impale the two of them. She gave a wave of her left arm, a small wave of water rushing forth and covering the branches, she then gave a wave of her right arm, causing a chilly gust of wind to blow over the wet branches, freezing the water and as a result the branches. Her wind wasn't cold enough to freeze other things, but as long as it was water she herself had created, she could lower the temperature of the water enough to allow her wind to freeze it.

After the branches froze, she jumped up and used her wind to launch herself higher, bringing her to the side of the branches. She then delivered an overhead smash to the branches, as if she was trying to spike a ball into the ground. Since they were frozen and weakened, the branches were unable to resist her attack, shattering into fine frozen dust and scattering to the winds.

After she returned to the ground, the second wave of attacks was swiftly launched by the tribulation. Even more branches stretched towards them, another faintly crimson tornado was sent at them, and two even thicker bolts of crimson lightning roared out as they thundered towards them, aiming to strike them down.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling exchanged a quick glance, wordlessly conveying their thoughts. Liang Chen once again took a step forward, punching out twice in quick succession, once with each fist. The first punch sent out a bolt of emerald lightning as thick as Liang Chen's arm, while the other punch sent out a cloud of white powder.

The bolt of emerald lightning crashed into one of the crimson bolts of lightning, weakening it to a point where it could not harm Liang Chen. As for the cloud of white powder, it headed for the other bolt of lightning completely coating it. After the entire bolt of lightning was coated, it started to quickly burn away the white powder, but even though it was being burnt away, the white powder still corroded the bolt of lightning, causing it to shrink as it continued to head for Liang Chen.

By the time it reached him alongside the other bolt of lightning, it had grown so small that it was no longer capable of damaging Liang Chen, allowing him to absorb both bolts of lightning. Normally his poison would not be suitable for dealing with lightning, as it would just be burnt away by the sheer heat. But this cloud of poison was amplified by the law of time, causing it to corrode the lightning at a pace far faster than normal.

The reason Liang Chen had to use both poison and lightning to deal with these two bolts of lightning, rather than just use two bolts of emerald lightning, was the simple fact that the crimson lightning was too thick. If he wanted to produce two bolts of lightning that were strong enough to weaken both crimson bolts at the same time, he would need at least two seconds of time, which he didn't have right now.

Since Liang Chen was dealing with the lightning, Yan Ling was dealing with the wind and the branches. She dealt with the branches the same way she had done previously, freezing them and then shattering them with a strong punch. Ice was one of the better elements to use against the wood element, second only to the fire element.

At the same time as she dealt with the branches, she also neutralized the tornado. The way she neutralized it was by sending out a tornado of her own, one focused entirely on spinning speed. She had this tornado spin in the opposite direction of the faintly crimson one, causing the two to cancel each out other out when they collided. Thanks to the myriad of elements between the two of them, they were a perfect pair for dealing with this particular heavenly tribulation.

After dealing with this second barrage of attacks, the tribulation clouds above them stopped for a short moment. Both Liang Chen and Yan Ling knew what this meant, the tribulation was gathering up more strength for the final attack of this tribulation.

After about 30 seconds, the tribulation had gathered up enough energy, launching the final attack. The azure tree descended to the ground, turning faintly crimson as its branches and roots stretched out. The tornado also descended, turning fully crimson as it caused the wind in the entire area to become ferocious. The lightning also changed, turning faintly violet as it descended, a single bolt of lightning as thick as Liang Chen's thigh.

Liang Chen glanced at Yan Ling, using a movement of his head to tell her what he wanted her to do. Yan Ling nodded her head, cupping her hands together and crouching slightly. Liang Chen ran at her, stepping on her cupped hands and allowing Yan Ling to throw him into the air, using her wind to launch him even further into the air.

The direction she launched him was right past the tornado and the tree, directly at the faintly violet bolt of lightning. As he soared towards it, Liang Chen swiped his interspatial ring and withdrew his golden spear, grasping it tightly and flooding it with his emerald lightning. Just as he and the bolt of lightning were about to collide, he stabbed out with his spear, launching the first step of Dragon Lord's Three Steps, First step shatters the body.

An emerald bolt of lightning as thick as his finger shot out from the tip of the spear as it clashed with the bolt of lightning, piercing directly through the faintly violet bolt. The tribulation lightning had more power than Liang Chen's lightning, but Liang Chen's lightning was better controlled and more focused, allowing it to pierce clean through it.

As the emerald lightning pierced through the faintly violet bolt, the emerald lightning also exploded outward, turning into several smaller bolts of lightning that dug their way through the faintly violet bolt, weakening it further. But even with this, it was still a tribulation bolt that was approaching the violet level, so this was not enough to weaken it enough.

The bolt moved through Liang Chen's spear and swiftly reached his arm, the scales on his right arm shattering under the remaining force of the lightning, resulting in blood spurting out from his arm. The lightning then coursed through his body, doing its best to wreak havoc on his organs and veins. Luckily, Liang Chen had weakened it enough, allowing him to subdue it before it managed to wound his more important organs.

While he dealt with the bolt of lightning, Yan Ling jumped up to deal with the descending tree, using her law of wind to keep herself in the air. She didn't hold back anything, hardening the air beneath her so that she could run through the air and approach the tree. A few of the branches stabbed at her, piercing into her shoulders and legs, but she ignored them so that she could get close enough to launch her attack.

A root stretched out and stabbed at her head, so she ducked down to dodge it, taking the last step forward and stretching out both her arms. Wind coiled around her right hand while water coiled around her left, her palms making contact with the tree as she launched her strongest attack, Storm King's Fist. The two opposing pressures made contact inside the tree, causing the entire thing to suddenly implode and distort into a twisted mess of broken wood.

Both Yan Ling and Liang Chen then descended to the ground, Yan Ling using her law of wind to ensure that neither of them were falling too quickly. Both had suffered some wounds, but they had dealt with two of the three elements, only leaving the still descending tornado to deal with.

By the time the both of them reached the ground, the tornado was right above them, sharp blades of wind slicing open their skin and staining their robes in blood. Thanks to their wounds, neither of them would be able to deal with the tornado on their own, so they pooled their strength to resist it.

Liang Chen raised his left arm, using his law of time to somewhat slow the descending tornado, buying them a few more seconds of time. He then raised his right arm, unleashing a cloud of white poison that mixed into the tornado, eating away at the Qi that the tornado was made up of. He sped up the speed of the poison using his law of time, so he was not only slowing down the time of the tornado but also unleashing and controlling poison, as well as speeding up the effect of the poison. Not only did this rapidly drain his Qi, but it was also a large strain on his mind, especially having to control the law of time in two different ways at once.

Luckily he didn't have to resist the tornado on his own, Yan Ling aiding him in his efforts. She stretched out both arms, wind gathering in front of her palms and turning into two orbs, both rapidly spinning in the opposite direction of the tornado. She launched the two orbs into the tornado, snapping her finger and causing both orbs to rapidly expand, each orb covering one half of the tornado. With the combined effort of her wind and Liang Chen's poison and time, the tornado slowly started to shrink and dissipate, finally vanishing once it was only two meters away from them.

With the tornado vanishing, the deep blue clouds above them also started to drift apart and vanish, the heavenly tribulation ending. As the tribulation ended, Liang Chen felt all the bone marrow in his body and soul complete their transformation, both his body and soul simultaneously entering the Body Ascension and the Ascended Soul realm.

When they entered this realm, Liang Chen could feel both his body and soul spawn a new type of energy that quickly spread through him. His soul spawned a pale gray energy that released the faint smell of apples and felt both real and unreal at the same time, his Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi. His body spawned a grayish-green energy that crackled with electricity and felt incredibly heavy, this was his Fiendgod Essence, the body equivalent of Qi.

The normal cultivation paths on this planet required a cultivator to either connect their Ascended Tower, their body, or their soul to the heavens, drawing power from them before finally transcending them. But Liang Chen was completely different, walking a completely different path that was previously unknown. For Qi cultivation he had his Dragon Lotuses, which only relied upon absorbing and compressing energy and laws. For body cultivation he had his Lightning God Physique, turning his own body into lightning and time, not requiring him to connect to the heavens. And for soul cultivation he also had the Lightning God Physique, or in this case, the Poison God Soul, turning his soul into poison and time, once again circumventing the need to connect to the heavens.

He was somewhat curious how his body and soul spawned Fiendgod Essence and Anima Essence without connecting to the heavens, but he currently had no way of getting an answer to that question, so he could only drop it for now. With this increase in body and soul cultivation, Liang Chen was certain that not only had he grown stronger, but he had also gained a new way of attacking, aiming directly for the enemy's soul using his poisonous Anima Essence.

Having dealt with the heavenly tribulation, both Liang Chen and Yan Ling sat down on the ground, leaning against each other's backs as they took deep breaths. The first two attacks had been easy enough to deal with, only costing them quite a bit of energy. But the last attack was more troublesome to deal with, both of them ending up with some rather nasty wounds and having to use a great deal of their remaining energy to deal with the attacks. While they were both resting and catching their breaths, Liang Chen couldn't help but click his tongue.

"Yan Ling, I swear, you are going to be the death of me."

Had she not jumped in just before the tribulation began, it would have been far easier to deal with it. It might have cost him quite a bit of energy and even caused a few wounds, but Liang Chen guessed that it would be nowhere near their current state. Yan Ling responded letting out a light snort, giving the back of Liang Chen's head a backward headbutt.

"Humph, I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you and you know it, just look at how easy I made this tribulation!"

She touted her own greatness, but of course chose to not include the part where she had made the tribulation harder than it had to be. Liang Chen knew that even if he tried to retort, he would only be met with another headbutt, so he chose to utilize his right to remain silent. After another short moment of silence, Yan Ling prodded the back of Liang Chen's head with her own, drawing his attention.

"Little freak, I'm starving, make me some food."

As if it was to underline her point, Yan Ling's stomach released a low growl after she finished talking. Liang Chen couldn't help but turn his head slightly, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Yan Ling.

"You're hungry? We just left a party where there was so much food that one could get sick from just looking at it."

It hadn't been long since they left the party that the Qing clan had hosted. There had been several tables filled with food and drinks, enough to feed a small village. How could she already be hungry again? Yan Ling swiftly delivered her reply, somewhat stunning Liang Chen.

"Eh, I didn't bother eating any of that food, gotta make sure I only eat the food that I know you have tried hard to make, you know what I mean?"

Liang Chen couldn't help but place his head in his hands after hearing her words. She basically wanted to make sure that whenever she ate his food that he had made sure to do his very best on the food, nothing but the best was good enough. Now it was Liang Chen's turn to give Yan Ling's head a quick backward headbutt.

"Really, how spoiled can you get. I can't make any food, but I hid some of the better food in my interspatial ring, you can have that."

Working around so much good food, how could Liang Chen not get hungry? Shortly before the party started, he had snagged some of the better food he had made and stored it in the interspatial ring that could somewhat control the flow of time, slowing it down as much as possible. This ensured that the food was still perfectly fresh, so Yan Ling swiftly nodded her head.

Liang Chen took out a few plates of food and some cutlery from his interspatial ring, handing one pair to Yan Ling and taking the other for himself. While they were eating, Yan Ling tilted her head slightly and broke the silence that had descended on them.

"We've finished the mission and you've completed your breakthrough, you wanna head directly back to the sect? Or do you have any detours in mind?"

Yan Ling didn't leave the sect that often, so whenever she left it she would make sure to drag it out for as long as possible. Of course, with Liang Chen arriving at the Storm Wolf sect, she also found that it could be fun to just stay in the sect, as long as she had the right company. Liang Chen chewed the food he had in his mouth for a bit as he thought it over, swallowing the food and answering.

"There is one place I wanna go, Eternal Stream city. I want to visit a friend there and then pick up some wine. If you have any place you wanna visit, just let me know."

The friend he had in Eternal Stream city was Lei Qiang, the man he had teamed up with for a short moment in the Mystic's Hidden Realm. To Liang Chen, it had been a while since the two last met, so he wanted to check up on him, drink a bit more wine together. Hearing his plans, Yan Ling put on an intentionally overly-dramatic shocked face and turned around, placing a hand on Liang Chen's shoulder.

"Little Freak, you have friends?"

She wore an overly-dramatic shocked face, but Liang Chen could clearly see the teasing light flashing in her eyes. Liang Chen simply responded by clicking his tongue and raising his fist, waving it in front of her face.

"You looking for a beating? Want me to carry you around by the neck again? Or maybe I should use a bit of that pink poison again, what do you say?"

Since Yan Ling was looking to tease him for the somewhat distant and guarded personality he had around others, Liang Chen decided to reply in kind. Yan Ling blushed slightly when he brought up the pink poison he used during the Hall competition, but she refused to lose out, waving both of her fists in front of his face.

"Bring it, I'll trash you any day of the week."

The two continued to bicker and banter, allowing their wounds to slowly heal as they simply enjoyed each others presence.