The King of the Jar. (1)

Liang Chen's entire body burned and crackled, it felt like every inch of his being was groaning in pain. When was the last time he had felt pain like this? Had it been back when the Sky-Piercing Sparrow had cut him with the weapon forged using a major Origin Beast? That was at least the most recent one he could remember at least, it was pain that had already left the realm of just pain.

Even if he lost all his senses, this pain would continue to burn him, even if he numbed all his nerves, this was a pain he would never be able to get rid of. Had he not experienced so much pain in his life then he would have probably collapsed into a sobbing mess, crying and screaming uncontrollably as he writhed in agony.

Was this the power of Purgatory? Was this the heat with which his own sins burned? Parts of him were constantly flaking away, skin and flesh vanishing before quickly being replaced by a fresh batch. It looked to be in a stalemate, the power of Purgatory and his regeneration, but he knew that he would sooner or later end up on the losing side.

Everything he wanted to regenerate required energy, he had to gather in the elements and add them to his compressed form after all. Eventually, he would run out of energy, and at that point he may truly fade from existence as the parts that composed him drifted apart.

And on top of that, he knew that the thing he was currently grasping with his right hand wasn't making things better. A twisted weapon, a crooked and dull scar on reality that made his arms ache. The Sixth Step, this was technically his second time unleashing it.

The first time had been on his home planet and the end result had been a web of lightning that still scarred the sky to this day, a timeless mark on the world. But back then he had used the Chaos King technique on a myriad of corpses to constantly replenish his energy and restore himself, yet he had still lost one of his arms. And that was with him being far weaker than he was now, meaning that the burden he had to bear was technically lower.

And now he unleashed it again, and while it took a different form, the power was many magnitudes greater. A rift in the fabric of reality, a gate to the all-encompassing Void, what would happen if he tried to grasp and control that while dramatically increasing the power of said action? The end result was the weapon in his hand, that dull grey spear oozing with the power of the void.

It twisted the world just by existing, the air and space around it crumbled apart like dried earth, an ever-growing door to the void carving itself into the world. He used power to create it, to force it into a shape that he could utilize. And in turn, it gave him power, the constant stream of energy that seeped out of it pouring into him.

But of course, the only one who could actually use that power was him. If anyone else came in contact with that power then they would start to fade from existence, that was the kind of being that the void was after all. But that didn't mean that he could use the weapon willy nilly. It was quite similar to him, it maintained its form due to an immense flow of energy that kept it in check, once that energy was lost it would revert to its actual form. It may even expand so quickly that it would be like an explosion. It was that energy that made Liang Chen's arms ache, it felt like he was holding a few tons of molten stone.

"Here I come, Lao Ye, Purgatory."

He wasn't sure how long he could maintain this weapon so he didn't want to waste too much time, especially not now that Lao Ye had drawn upon the power of Purgatory. He gave the ground a light kick and vanished from sight, only a slight crackling in the air telling the world of his movements.

Lao Ye's gaze hardened, but he didn't retreat. He stepped forward and smashed his weapon downwards, cutting Liang Chen off before he could even reach the end of the lightning bolt he was trying to ride. The spear descended upon his right shoulder like a falling meteor, space cracking in its wake as Lao Ye failed to fully control and contain the power within his weapon.

But then an almost unbearable headache assaulted him, blood pouring out from his nose as he stumbled a quarter of a step to the side. He knew, instinctively he knew that this wasn't a backlash from the power he was using. No, this was pain born from his connection with the law of time. Again, Liang Chen had erased a possible future. There was no longer a timeline where that descending spear would land on his shoulder, it was bound to miss it by just a handful of centimetres.

But he grit his teeth and bore the pain, the taste of copper and iron filling his mouth. His weapon creaked in a quiet tone from how hard he was gripping it, from how much energy he poured into it. The weapon that had just barely missed Liang Chen's shoulder due to his stumbling immediately changed direction, the downwards smash morphing into a sideways sweep.

The more energy you put into an attack the harder it would be to change its course, and Lao Ye hadn't spared any energy as he launched his attack. His muscles snapped from the force it took to redirect the attack, but what did something like that matter to a dead man?

The sideways sweep collided with Liang Chen's spear, which had been in the process of stabbing forwards, space around the point of collision simply crumbling and fading quietly. Liang Chen's spear was slowly pushed to the side, but it was so slow that Lao Ye felt like laughing.

Just how great was the difference in their cultivation? If he went by energy density then Liang Chen was at about the middle-stage of the Primordial Immortal realm, quantity-wise he was probably at about the late stage. But Lao Ye? He had already reached the late stage of the Transcended Immortal realm, just a bit shy of reaching the very peak. He was an entire great realm above Liang Chen and dual-cultivated body and Qi.

And yet he was barely able to keep things even, he could even be said to be on the losing end in some exchanges. It was laughable, or at least he had to consider it laughable, otherwise he would just end up feeling fear. So he could only laugh inwardly and put more force into his attack, he had to push Liang Chen to the very limit in these last seconds he had left. But just as the tip of his spear reached Liang Chen's waist and left a small cut, spreading more of Purgatory's flames, Liang Chen vanished.

Lao Ye's pupils shrank slightly again, he hadn't heard any crackling of lightning or seen any arcs scattering about so he hadn't been prepared for Liang Chen to suddenly vanish. But he instantly felt him, that suffocating sensation bearing down on his neck couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

He once again didn't try to dodge, he just spun around and continued sweeping out with his spear, only tilting his head back slightly. He felt a headache again, one of the scars on his neck suddenly aching and acting up so that he couldn't lean his head back as far as he wanted to. Another possible future had just faded from existence, pushing him towards his end.

It would be bad enough to have his possible future erased like that, but thanks to his own law of time he had to suffer the horrible discomfort of feeling the future get erased, it almost made him curse the fact that he had the law of time. He didn't even dare to use that law right now, partly due to how the energy strain would lessen the time he would be able to handle Purgatory's energy and partly due to his fear that Liang Chen would counter his usage, he really couldn't handle more of that horrible discomfort right now.

Liang Chen had erased the future where he evaded the attack by leaning his head back, but perhaps as was to be expected, he wasn't so omnipotent that he could erase all but one possible future. So Lao Ye was still able to slide his grip on his weapon back and tilt it upwards, blocking the grey spear that aimed for his life. He was in an extremely awkward position, his own spear almost pressed against his face and chest, but it was better than losing his head right away.

But as his eyes slid past his own weapon, what they caught sight of was simply Liang Chen disappearing again. The force that had pressed against his spear vanished, but the sense of imminent death that came from his side didn't give him even a second to breathe. His pupils slid to the side, his hand sliding up along the shaft of his spear so that he could smash it down sideways despite the awkward position.

Liang Chen had indeed arrived right at his side, his spear already lunging forward. Lao Ye's gaze slid down slightly, finally allowing him to see the culprit behind Liang Chen's disappearing act. A tiny arc of lightning could be seen beneath his feet, but the arc didn't stop there. No, it continued onwards, arching slightly as it disappeared beyond Lao Ye's line of sight.

"Ah..."

That was really all he could say, the only word he could muster at this exact moment. His descending spear collided with Liang Chen's, the force of the collision once again disintegrating space. But it wasn't just space that fell apart this time. Lao Ye's weapon crumbled a mere second after it made contact with Liang Chen's spear for the third time, disintegrating and fading like bubbles in the wind.

And it was the worst kind of fading possible, it had broken so thoroughly that he lost all contact with his Bloodwind Code. The rank he had built up, the title he had achieved, the weapon he had gotten used to, all of it vanished as if it had never existed to begin with. The weapon continued forward, Lao Ye reacting quickly and smashing his own fist into his waist.

He immediately bent awkwardly, like a shrimp. He could feel two of his ribs shattering as a result of the attack, but at least Liang Chen's spear missed him, passing through the area where his waist had just been. Lao Ye quickly acted again, his foot rising sharply and unleashing a violent ripple of Purgatory's energy.

The energy didn't just wash against Liang Chen, it also surrounded Lao Ye and crushed the tiny threads of lightning that had started to arc around him. He then kicked off the ground with his other foot, hopping backwards to put some distance between the two.

"You're a fast learner, first the law of time and now the lightning, you must have a good bit of experience in taking the techniques of others."

Lao Ye breathed a bit heavily as he spoke, gulping in deep breaths. Three hits had been enough to completely shatter his weapon, he didn't doubt that he would perish if he took a single hit of Liang Chen's spear. That alone was bad enough, a one-hit kill weapon, but the speed at which Liang Chen learned was also something that made his hairs stand on end.

One glimpse at how he prodded the river of time was enough for him to devise a way to erase possible futures. And he only had to be caught off-guard a handful of times before he found the weak point of riding lightning, as well as a countermeasure.

Yes, lightning left behind a small trail, once you saw the trail you would know where they would end up and could somewhat react. But what if the lightning had no trail? What if you were surrounded by a continuous web of arcs that connected together, a prison of lightning? Wouldn't your opponent be able to ride the arcs as he pleased, without having to worry that you'd get to see where he'd end up?

"It's a bit of a waste for it to be so focused on close-range combat, but the freedom to pursue your own path is the right of man."

Yes, it was a good way to remove the weakness of riding lightning, but it would only work in close-quarter combat, which wasted the inherent abilities and attributes of the law of lightning somewhat. But if that was the path Liang Chen had chosen to take it then Lao Ye wouldn't say anything about it.

Liang Chen didn't give any response to Lao Ye's statements, most of his focus at the moment was used to repress the immense pain that wracked his body. The flames of Purgatory were still scorching him as he stood there, and the weight of his weapon grew heavier with each passing second, he could feel it grow more volatile by the moment. For each second that passed, his ability to use his various laws decreased as he required more and more focus to contain the volatile energy. But that was fine, things had been properly set up already, it was time to end this.