Playing the part of the oriole.

Liang Chen awoke to a soft sensation gently prodding his cheek. He furrowed his brows and wrinkled his nose to show discomfort, the prodding sensation quickly stopping. He thought that would be it, but then he felt something clasp around his nose and close it shut, cutting off his air and forcing him to fully wake up and open his eyes.

His gaze landed on Yan Ling, who was the one holding his nose. Seeing that he had opened his eyes, Yan Ling took her hand off his nose and gave his forehead a jab with her finger.

"You're the one who said we should leave early, so you better wake up, otherwise I'll keep playing with your face."

Liang Chen blinked his eyes a few times before sitting up, allowing Yan Ling to rub her somewhat numb thighs. She felt that since she was having Liang Chen use his spear to stab and slice her, something she knew made him feel absolutely horrid, letting him get some sleep on her thighs was the least she could do.

Liang Chen turned his head slightly, his eyes roaming over Yan Ling's body. She was wearing a light blue tightfitting sleeveless shirt that was open in the back, revealing her shoulder blades, and a pair of deep blue silken pants that were a bit looser than the shirt. His eyes stayed on her bare arms and shoulder blades for a bit longer, intently inspecting them.

Her skin was smooth and clean, not a single scar visible despite the vast number of cuts and stabs he had placed on her arms over these last 60 days. He was happy that her law of water allowed her to heal the wounds before they managed to leave any scars, but that didn't change the fact that he felt incredibly uncomfortable with the fact that he had used his spear to hurt her, and would have to keep doing so in the future to further deepen her insight into the law.

Yumao, who had been curled up on top of Yan Ling's head, flew over to Liang Chen and coiled up on his head, switching his resting spot. Liang Chen rubbed his face a little and cricked his neck, standing up from the bed and looking out the window.

"Sun hasn't risen yet. Let's get some breakfast and then we can leave. No telling what else might be arriving there while they are giving birth, so it doesn't hurt to show up even earlier."

Liang Chen swiped his interspatial ring after talking, taking out a pot filled with some soup and placing it on the table, taking out three bowls at the same time. Yumao immediately flew over and picked out one of the bowls as his own, eagerly waiting for the food to be handed to him. Yan Ling stood up walked over to the table, sitting down on the couch and rolling her eyes.

"Yes yes, how many times are you going to keep telling me that? I got it the first time."

She had already lost count of how many times Liang Chen had told her that they should get to the Rot Dragon nest early, it almost seemed like he had started saying it just to see how long it would take before it annoyed her. Liang Chen filled the three bowls with soup, slumping down into the couch and leaning backward with a light chuckle.

"Never know when you'll end up forgetting what I told you, so it doesn't harm to truly hammer it into your head."

Yan Ling simply rolled her eyes, not dignifying his statement with a response. She accepted the bowl of soup, quickly gulping down its contents and helping herself to a second portion. After starting her second portion, she cast her gaze out the window and let out a somewhat curious voice.

"What do you think Big Brother and the others are doing now? We've been gone for quite a while already."

Before they knew it, they had already been on this planet for around seven months, even longer if they counted the times Liang Chen had increased the flow of time around them. A lot could change in seven months so there was no telling what the situation on their own planet was right now. Liang Chen followed her gaze out the window, sipping some soup while giving his thoughts.

"I'm not sure, I guess it depends on what the Moon Dragon sect is doing. If they are being stupid and trying to get revenge for us beating Huang Dong, then there is a chance that the Storm Wolf sect is engaging in a few battles with the Moon Dragon sect. But if they are playing it smart and not doing anything then Brother Ying and the others should currently be busy cultivating like normal, probably waiting for us to return. Although, knowing Brother Ying, he might just be biding his time and looking for a chance to crush Huang Dong."

The Constellation King's competition should have ended about four months ago, and even though deaths and injuries were very common and there was an unwritten agreement between the sects that they wouldn't pursue any injuries and deaths, things might be different now. Liang Chen and Yan Ling had grievously injured Huang Dong, one of the top disciples of the Moon Dragon sect, who knew if they would just accept that in silence. The corners of Yan Ling's lips curled up slightly, her eyes glancing at Liang Chen out of the corner of her eye.

"You saying you wouldn't be doing the same?"

The way he spoke about Yan Ying's actions almost made it seem like he disagreed with them, that it was better to not bide his time and look for a chance to crush Huang Dong. She knew what he would answer, but she still wanted to hear him say it, which he did with a casual wave of his hand, as if he was slicing the air.

"Oh, I would be doing nothing but biding my time until I was strong enough to charge directly into the sect and kill him, no doubt."

Liang Chen was a very vengeful person, the moment Huang Dong hurt Yan Ling, his death had already been set in stone, it was only a matter of when. Of course, Liang Chen had already promised Yan Ling that she would get to be the one to kill Huang Dong, so there wasn't really much he could do to Huang Dong without her complaining his ears off. Yan Ling chuckled contently, giving Liang Chen a thumbs up.

"Nice and grand, I love it."

It might sound exaggerated to say that he would storm into one of the strongest sects on this planet just to kill one person, but Yan Ling had no doubt that he would someday be able to do just that. She knew that there would come a day where no one would dare stop Liang Chen from doing what he wanted to, they could only bow their heads and submit.

The two finished their food, Yumao returning to hiding within Liang Chen's dantian before they left the building. They returned to the building where they had first arrived, taking the spatial array down to the second floor and then heading to the building that they had first arrived in when they arrived on the second floor, using the spatial array within it to get to the first floor.

They were asked to hand over a bit of their Qi before they left the tower, the handed over Qi being inserted into a stone cylinder. When they returned to the tower, this Qi would be used to identify them and which floor they had reached. But the Qi could only last for half a year inside the stone cylinder, if they were to return later than that, they would have to climb the tower from the bottom again.

The two handed over a bit of their Qi and then left, heading for the western exit of the city. The western exit led to a plain covered in rolling hills, a forest visible on the horizon, a small swamp located on the eastern part of this forest was their target.

They left the city, Yumao popping out from Liang Chen's dantian the moment they were far enough away from the city. Having to hide within Liang Chen's dantian whenever they wanted to leave the house was unpleasant, so he relished in this chance to roam around freely. Yan Ling swiped her interspatial ring and took out an item Liang Chen hadn't seen in a while, her golden chariot. Now that they had a map, there was no need for them to move cautiously and inspect their surroundings, they could use the chariot to fly through the air again.

The two of them mounted the chariot and took to the sky, Yumao flying alongside them. Yan Ling increased the speed of the chariot as much as she could, but Yumao was able to keep up with them no matter how fast they were flying, he clearly didn't have any problems with his speed. With the speed of the chariot, it only took the two of them a little over two days to reach the outskirts of the forest, several mountains with various shapes visible in certain locations of the forest.

Yan Ling brought the chariot down at the edge of the forest, putting it back into her interspatial ring. Flying over a forest like this, which was infested with Demonic beasts, was not a good idea. They would also be able to remain hidden by walking, Yumao would also be able to hunt a few Demonic beasts to stretch his body if they were walking, it was about time for them to start stocking up on meat again after all.

They entered the forest, covering up all traces of their own presence so that they could minimize the number of times they were attacked by Demonic beasts. As for Yumao, they just let him roam free and do as he pleased, with his control over darkness, he was even harder to spot than them. He let out a joyful hiss and then jumped into the darkness, vanishing from sight and starting his hunt.

The two started carefully making their way through the forest, using the various mountains they could see to figure out where they had to go. They didn't see Yumao, but as the days started passing, the corpses of various Demonic beasts were sent to them through the darkness. Yumao had even neatly sorted the Demonic beast corpses into two categories, those that could be used for cultivation and those that could be used for food.

Due to the vast size of the forest, as well as the fact that their target was located rather deep into the forest, it took them a little over a week of walking to reach the large swamp that was the territory of the Rot Dragons. There was no open area between the forest and the swamp, the forest just suddenly turned into a black swamp filled with contorted trees and bubbling muck. At the center of the swamp stood a tilted mountain that had partially sunk into the swamp, a large number of caves digging into the mountain. Looking at the scenery, it almost looked like a large portion of the forest had just turned into a swamp one day, most likely when the Rot Dragons arrived and made it their nest.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling's gazes landed on the tilted mountain, on the two dragons currently sitting there. The dragons had four thick limbs, a lizard-like body that had sharp spikes running down the entire spine, a thin whip-like tail that ended in a three-pronged spike, and four backward-curved horns on top of their head, just above their eyes. Their scales were a murky purple color and there was a faint black mist occasionally drifting out of their maws.

A large amount of energy was pouring out of these two dragons, sinking into a purple-mottled egg that was placed between them. Both of the dragons looked rather tired and exhausted, they had clearly been doing this for quite some time already. The egg was moving slightly, but no cracks had appeared on it yet so it didn't seem like it was hatching just yet. Yan Ling looked at the two dragons, clicking her tongue and cursing.

"Shi Longyu, you are a fucking idiot. If I could bring you back to life, I would do just that, all so that I could beat your ass once again."

The reason she cursed was because of the strength of the dragons. Both were clearly weakened somewhat, but they still had a strength that had at least reached the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal realm. Just taking on two normal Demonic beasts at this level would be very hard for Liang Chen and Yan Ling, but these two had a dragon bloodline, it would be even harder, it might be just as hard as facing two Huang Dongs. Liang Chen reached out his arm and pat Yan Ling on the head, his lips curling up slightly.

"No need to curse him like that, he might have helped us quite a bit. There is a small pack of five tiger-type Demonic beasts hiding in that forest over there. One of them seems to be pregnant but wounded, they might be hoping to use the dragon bloodline to aid the pregnant one. That, or they might just be looking to eat the dragons while they are weakened. The strength of their pack is lower than the two dragons, but there are more of them, so even if they fail to kill them, they should weaken them further, enough for the two of us to kill the dragons."

Liang Chen hadn't seen these tigers himself, it was Yumao that delivered the report. With his ability to hide in the darkness, the only way for him to be spotted was if he went right up to the two dragons. Yan Ling looked towards the part of the forest that Liang Chen had pointed at, her lips slowly curling up. The mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.