Liang Chen's shadow.

Liang Chen closed his eyes and placed his palms on the two items around him, his left on Qian Liao's arm and his right on Zizi's corpse. A sweet smelling green liquid seeped out from his left palm and covered Qian Liao's severed arm, the flesh sizzling slightly before it began to melt and drip to the floor. Before long, all that remained of Qian Liao's arm were the bones and veins inside it, the flesh no more than a peach-scented puddle that was starting to seep into the earth.

Only the bones and veins in the arm came from the Nethersky Wyrm Emperor, the flesh was Qian Liao's own flesh, so it was useless to Liang Chen. For this reason, Liang Chen didn't do anything to the corpse of Zizi, it was the corpse of the mutated Nethersky Wyrm Emperor, so there was no part of it that would be useless to him.

Once Qian Liao's arm finished melting, Liang Chen's Qi slowly started to infiltrate both the remains of the arm as well as Zizi's corpse, the blood within them slowly starting to seep out. Liang Chen started to tap into his law of time while doing this, the flow of time in the immediate area around him starting to speed up to cut down on the time it would take him to finish.

The drops of blood that seeped out ended up floating into the air and forming a murky red orb filled with black dots in front of Liang Chen, a chilly and unpleasant energy radiating from the blood. After a few days, the arm and corpse had been completely drained of blood, the corpse turning into a dried husk that radiated the same unpleasant energy as the blood, albeit somewhat weaker.

Once all the blood had been gathered up, the resulting orb moved forward and covered all of Liang Chen in a thick layer of blood that slowly started to seep into his body. Liang Chen's own bloodline roared awake when the blood started to seep into him, unleashing a devouring force as it swept through his body and started to eat up the blood. But as he had no control over the devouring force that his bloodline was unleashing, the devouring could only be so effective, it couldn't devour all the blood at once. This resulted in some of the blood being able to move through his body undisturbed for a bit, more and more blood spreading through his body as the rest of the Nethersky Wyrm Emperor blood seeped into him.

Liang Chen felt what he imagined those who had fallen victim to his poison felt, a cold and empty sensation spreading through his body, eating away at both his body and his mind. It was like there were countless worms and maggots invading his body and nibbling away at his flesh, Qi, soul, even his Dragon Lotuses. It was cold and empty, yet strangely peaceful and calming, it was a strange sensation that wasn't entirely foreign to him, the sensation of death.

Liang Chen could feel his bloodline slowly grow stronger as it devoured the Nethersky Wyrm Emperor blood, some of the energy of the blood gathering in a spot beneath his four other Dragon Lotuses, slowly nourishing a new seed. His bloodline seemed a bit more proficient at the process now that it had fully awakened, it was moving quite a bit faster compared to when he devoured the blood of the Rot Dragon.

But for the moment, Liang Chen ignored the strengthening of his bloodline and the slowly growing fifth Dragon Lotus, he was fully immersing himself in the sensation of death. Lightning and poison were the first laws that Liang Chen became able to use, but he had already been touched by death even before he acquired those two laws.

His cultivation was spurred by the death of his parents, quickly leading him into Sky Piercer Forest where he ended up killing his first Demonic beast to acquire some of its blood. He then continued killing weak Demonic beasts to harvest their blood, eventually bathing in it and acquiring both the law of poison and the law of lightning by a stroke of luck.

But it didn't stop there, he nearly killed two people shortly after returning to the city and was then quickly chased out, nearly killing another person after he reached the next city. He then finally killed his first person while traveling towards the Mystic's Hidden Realm, a bandit that was besieging the caravan he was hitching a ride with. He continued to kill as he traveled, mostly Demonic beasts at firsts, but the number of people he killed also slowly started to increase, reaching a drastic number while inside the Mystic's Hidden Realm. He himself had several times been in a state where the line between life and death had been so blurred that he could barely tell the two apart.

Death had always been there with him on his cultivation path, walking alongside him as his shadow, paving the path forward for him. There was no going around it, he had been marred and stained by death ever since the start, this was simply the first time he was trying to take control over the actual law of death.

Liang Chen continued to immerse himself in the cold yet peaceful sensation that permeated his body and assaulted all his senses, dragging and gnawing at his mind, whispering to him that it was fine to sleep, that he had done enough. It was the voice of death, but it felt like the softest and most comforting whisper when it reached his ears, it reminded him of the times Yan Ling lulled him to sleep while brushing his hair. But no matter how comforting it was, he refused to listen. He wanted to live, he had things to accomplish and people he wanted to live for, so no matter how tempting the voice of death was, it was useless against him.

And then, the comforting voice suddenly stopped, the empty feeling of death getting sucked into his chest and vanishing. Liang Chen had completely lost track of time as he immersed himself in the sensation of death so he had no idea how much time had actually passed, but all the Nethersky Wyrm Emperor blood had been completely devoured and merged with his bloodline. When he sank his vision into his own chest he saw the now five lotuses growing within his chest, each releasing a faint glow as their roots dug deep into his body.

The poison one was pure white, his time one was completely gray, his lightning one was a splendid violet, his wind one was a vibrant cyan, and his death one was a serene black. Each of them had 24 leaves, the mark that he had entered the middle stage of the Soaring immortal realm in his Qi cultivation. His body and Qi had reached the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal realm during his previous cultivation session so all he had to do now was merge the law of death into his soul and increase his soul cultivation to the same stage as his two other cultivation systems.

Liang Chen opened his eyes for a quick second and scanned his surroundings, making sure that the others were still okay. Yan Ling and Yumao were both still in the midst of recuperating from their wounds, Yumao slowly eating his way through the lower part of Zizi's corpse. Yan Ling had raised herself into a sitting position and crossed her legs, faint streams of water circling around her body and occasionally connecting to the hole in her stomach, which had already grown somewhat smaller. Lan Yun was sitting on Yan Ling's shoulders, wrapping both her arms around her head and resting her own head on top of Yan Ling's head, currently sleeping with a somewhat uneasy expression. After making sure that they were all still okay, Liang Chen closed his eyes again and returned to his own cultivation.

He took several deep breaths, the death energy radiating from the top part of Zizi's corpse and the remains of Qian Liao's arm drawn into his body with each breath. He led this energy, as well as the death energy created by his own Dragon Lotus, towards his own soul, which was currently sitting in the air above the lake of blood that was constantly present within him.

The energy turned into several drill-like tendrils that dug into his soul, burrowing into his veins and bones. This wasn't the first time Liang Chen merged a new law with one of his other ones so he simply followed his standard procedure, using his law of time as well as the strength of his bloodline to force the new law into submission and forcing it to merge with his other laws.

The law of death slowly merged with the law of poison, the law of time, and the law of rot that made up parts of Liang Chen's soul, the newly merged law slowly starting to encroach on the rest of Liang Chen's soul. He followed the principle of the Ocean God Physique, the 'flesh' and 'blood' of his soul disintegrating and being replaced by the newly merged law.

When Liang Chen finished replacing all the flesh and blood in the right arm of his soul with his newly merged law, a change took place within him. The bloody lake beneath his soul started to rumble and seethe, a faint gray mist rising from it and covering the entirety of the void that surrounded his soul and the lake. Liang Chen could feel the presence of each of the laws he had merged into his soul in this mist, as well as a soul-chilling might, so he knew what this was, it was his Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi. When he finished the work in his arm, he had officially entered the early stage of the Soul Rebirth realm, the equivalent of the Soaring Immortal realm, his Anima Essence strengthening as greatly as a result.

Liang Chen's soul opened its mouth and sucked in a vast quantity of the surrounding mist, more mist rising up from the bloody lake to replenish the drained mist. His soul used the Anima Essence to speed up how fast his newly merged law was encroaching on it, the flesh and blood in his left arm already starting to disintegrate. He had to take advantage of the fact that he had the corpse of Zizi here, as well as the momentum of his current breakthrough, to break through to the middle stage of the Soul Rebirth realm, otherwise, he would have to wait for the future when he had gathered more resources.

The flesh and blood in his left arm were also slowly replaced, his soul starting to work on his right leg the moment his left arm was done. But sadly, by the time all the flesh and blood up to his right knee had been changed, the corpse of Zizi and Qian Liao's arm both turned to dust, wrung dry of all their energy. It was enough for Liang Chen to reach the middle stage of the Soul Rebirth realm, but it was really just barely, he might drop down to the early stage if he was a bit careless.

Liang Chen opened his eyes and let out a heavy breath once he finished his cultivation, checking how much time had passed by using his law of time. Once he realized how much time had actually passed, he couldn't help but be rather surprised, he had spent an entire year cultivating just now. But thanks to the increase to his cultivation, as well as the extremely dense energy in the area, he had managed to increase the flow of time by a factor of 11, meaning that only a little over a single month had passed in the outside world.

He somewhat wished that he could always cultivate in an environment like this, but he knew that actually finding an environment as rich in energy as this place was rather rare, he was better off returning to the sect and using their various arrays to gather energy for him. Liang Chen let out another deep breath and stood up, resisting the urge to stretch his body, afraid that the sound of his joints popping would disturb Yan Ling and the others.

The wound in Yan Ling's stomach had shrunk further, now only a bit over half as large as it used to be, it should be fully healed in another month or two. Yumao was a bit better off, all his wounds had already been healed and he had even grown larger, now almost six meters long. Tendrils of black energy were coiling around him, sinking into his body as he continued to eat away at Zizi's corpse, greedily devouring the energy within it. Yumao noticed that Liang Chen had stood up and turned his head towards him, but Liang Chen hushed him before he could make a sound.

"Sshh. I'll leave things here to you, just cause a ruckus if you need me to return."

Yumao nodded his head gravely in response to Liang Chen's whisper, his eyes narrowing as the tendrils of dark energy slowed down slightly, almost as if they too grew vigilant. Liang Chen flashed him a smile and then pat him on the head a few times, giving Lan Yun a few pats as well so that she didn't complain. He then quietly left the cave, Yumao taking over the responsibility of keeping the ceiling stable, using the shadows in the cave to form several thick and solid pillars to hold up the ceiling.

Liang Chen took a deep breath once he left the cave, the wind and lightning in the area drawn towards him and pelting his body. Now that Liang Chen was focusing a bit more on his surroundings, his law of death allowed him to sense the other side of death, life. He could feel the vast lifeforce hidden within the ground and the trees in the surrounding area, even the crystalline grass had a bit of lifeforce in it, calling out to Liang Chen's law of death.

Liang Chen turned his head slightly, his gaze landing on the massive tree at the center of the area. The tree looked like a brilliant sun, filled with a vibrant lifeforce so strong that it felt crushing and suffocating. Liang Chen could even faintly feel that there was something at the very top of the tree that contained a lifeforce that was at least equal to the one that the tree contained, maybe even a bit greater.

Liang Chen knew that it was this lifeforce spread throughout the area that had allowed Qian Liao to seemingly come back from the dead several times. He used the peculiarity of his race's body cultivation, as well as the fact that he had merged the law of death with his body, to drain the lifeforce of the surrounding area and use it to rebuild his body whenever it was grievously wounded. So in theory, as long as there was lifeforce in the surrounding area, he had some Qi, and he wasn't utterly obliterated in an instant, he could regenerate even from wounds that would be fatal to other Fiendgods.

Liang Chen turned his gaze away from the massive tree, his gaze drifting towards the path he had run to get here after fleeing from Qian Liao. He traced his past path with calm steps, the lightning and wind in the area gathering around him and raging with each step, tearing at the ground and the surrounding trees.

After walking for a little over two hours, he reached the spot where Yan Ling had previously fought with Qian Liao, the area that had been ravaged when Liang Chen finished his cultivation and arrived. Sitting at the center of the area was Qian Liao, his lost arm regrown and his entire body brimming with energy. He opened his eyes, his right eye completely white and lifeless, when he noticed Liang Chen approaching him, his expression sinking slightly when his gaze landed on Liang Chen.

"I really wasn't wrong when I said that one was scarier than the other. A mere month has passed and yet you've not only increased your soul cultivation but also integrated the law of death into yourself. I dread to imagine what would happen to this planet if just one or two more of your kind were born amongst the humans, just how fast would you dethrone and massacre us?"

Qian Liao had yet to figure out that Liang Chen could use the law of time so he could only assume that Liang Chen had truly managed to do all those things in a single month. Liang Chen didn't bother responding to Qian Liao's statement, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out a simple spear that he had found in one of the interspatial rings they had taken from those they had killed, pointing the tip at Qian Liao's throat.

"Like I said last time, your head is mine. And now I have come to collect."