The spear that broke the night. (2)

Liang Chen's body bent slightly forward, like a panther getting ready to pounce. He ignored the nonsensical gibberish that Chen Dairong was spouting, none of it made any sense to him. He instead put his focus on gathering his power, his veins starting to bulge and flash with a dim black light before receding back into his body, a sign that he had fully activated his bloodline. This Chen Dairong in front of him had only reached the late stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, but the sense of danger she gave him was even higher than the one Qian Liao and Yu Jiang had given him.

A gray light flashed in his grasp as his dragon-maw spear appeared in his grasp, the five lightning bolts running down the hilt now having increased to six after he gained the law of the void. Liang Chen lightly kicked off the ground, his spear flashing with a soft light as his entire body shot forward like a bolt of lightning. He immediately stabbed out with his spear, a screeching sound shrieking across the plain like an echo as the tip of his spear drew a thin line in space.

Liang Chen hadn't wasted the one year of cultivation he had just gone through, he had increased his soul cultivation to the same stage as his body and Qi cultivation, the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal realm. He had also merged the law of the void into the rest of his body and soul, his strength had increased quite a bit since he fought against Yu Jiang.

The earth all around Chen Dairong exploded as Liang Chen altered his position by stomping the ground, nearly instantly arriving behind her and to her left. His spear finished its stab, but Chen Dairong seemed perfectly capable of knowing his position despite being blind. She leaned forward into a bow so that the spear passed over her, but she actually bowed so deeply that the energy radiating off the speartip was just barely unable to reach her.

She then spun her body around, her right hand accurately grabbing onto the hand that Liang Chen was using to grasp the spear. She tightly grasped his hand and continued spinning her body around, lifting her legs off the ground and trying to wrap them around Liang Chen's neck.

Liang Chen leaned his torso back, but Chen Dairong seemed to have anticipated his actions, using her grasp on his stable hand to push herself closer to him just as the thought to lean back struck him. As a result, her slender legs reached his neck and started to wrap around it. But Liang Chen had plenty of experience and was thus able to quickly counterattack, brown lightning accompanied by a fierce wind howling out from his body.

Chen Dairong once again reacted quickly, her legs already retreating by the time the lightning and wind left Liang Chen's body. But Liang Chen wouldn't let her escape so easily, pulling his right arm back a little and taking advantage of the fact that she was still holding onto his hand to pull her closer.

The lightning and wind blasted her legs away as a result, the scent of roasted flesh reaching Liang Chen's nose. Chen Dairong quickly used the force of the attack to spin her lower body and lift herself up into a handstand on top of Liang Chen's hand, which didn't even budge under her weight.

But just as Liang Chen was about to unleash a burst of poison from his hand, Chen Dairong let go of it by pushing herself up into the air. The air around her seemed to harden as she pushed herself upwards, giving her a platform she could handstand on for a short second before she lowered her legs and kicked off another vertical platform. She launched herself away from Liang Chen, somersaulting in the air and landing on her feet a few steps away.

By the time she landed on her feet, the scorched flesh on her legs was almost fully healed, the wounds rapidly vanishing as if they had never been there to begin with. Chen Dairong gave her now fully healed shins a soft stroke, her face once again carrying a sweet smile as she looked at Liang Chen.

"Just like always, darling, quick to react and not an ounce of hesitation in your moves. The title of Heaven's Decimator is not wa... No, that's not right, sorry I got you confused again."

Chen Dairong's eyes once again flashed with confusion and realization, but Liang Chen continued to ignore her gibberish, not having the slightest clue what she was talking about. She occasionally talked as if she was very familiar with him, but Liang Chen was certain that he had never met this Chen Dairong before.

No, Liang Chen was much more focused on the two platforms Chen Dairong had created to escape, as well as how her energy moved whenever she seemed to predict his movements. It was a bit fuzzy when it came to how she predicted his moves, but he could feel a large amount of energy flood her left eye whenever she predicted his movements. It was much clearer with the platforms, he could clearly sense the law of time from them, she had frozen the time of the air in that area to create the platforms, something Liang Chen himself used to do.

His expression couldn't help but sink slightly when he realized it, she could use the law of time just like him. This was his first time fighting someone else using the law of time, it was a very elusive and rare law after all. Normally he might take the chance to observe her moves for a bit, but right now he didn't feel like he had the chance to do so.

His gaze moved slightly, drifting past the city and to the west. If he took too long here then they would definitely attract the attention of the people gathered there for the tri-monthly competition. At that point, Liang Chen would be surrounded on all sides and even be attacked by two people who had reached the late stage of the Primordial Immortal realm, it would be the worst possible situation.

But just as his gaze drifted for half a second, Chen Dairong's body flashed forward, her speed far faster than it was earlier. Two golden brass knuckles appeared on her hands as she almost instantly reached Liang Chen's front and punched out with both hands. As her fists tore through the air and headed for Liang Chen's abdomen and chest, he sensed a familiar energy fluctuation he would never have expected from her. He was almost 99% certain that he already knew what technique she was using, but hearing a soft mutter escaping her lips he became fully certain that his guess was right.

"First step shatters the body."

The power and speed behind Chen Dairong's fists suddenly doubled in power, both her fists arriving mere centimeters away from their targets in less than a blink. Liang Chen quickly reacted and took a step back, spinning his spear and placing it in front of his body to block both the fists.

The fists struck the handle of the spear and unleashed the energy gathered in them, Liang Chen's wrists trembling from the power contained within the attacks. His body was flung backward through the air, his sharp instincts allowing him to quickly raise his feet and deliver a sharp kick to Chen Dairong's left elbow. A cracking sound resounded from within her elbow as Liang Chen was flung backward, her left arm hanging limply, a deep cut in her elbow nearly severing everything beneath it.

Liang Chen was flung back nearly half a kilometer before he touched the ground again, quickly rolling backward and stabbing the butt of his spear into the ground to launch himself a few meters into the air, dispersing the remaining momentum and force. He swiftly landed on the ground again, a few drops of blood leaking out from the corners of his mouth. He blocked the attack using his spear, but it contained a strange penetrating power that dug into his body like maggots and attacked his organs.

His strong body cultivation extinguished this power almost instantly and healed his wounds, but some blood was still able to force its way up his throat. Liang Chen's expression was solemn as he looked at Chen Dairong, whose broken and almost severed arm was already swiftly reverting to normal.

"The Dragon Lord's Three Steps, where did you learn them?"

The Dragon Lord's Three Steps was the supreme technique of the Heaven Devouring Dragon, it was something he left for his descendants, something only those of a pure bloodline could practice. He couldn't sense even a faint trace of Sebettu blood within Chen Dairong's body, so just how was she able to use it?

Another fact that surprised him was that her attack seemed to have become stronger than it should have thanks to the technique. If he were to use it, it would double the power of his attack, a 100% increase so to speak. But when she used it, the increase seemed to be closer to 110-120%. Did it have something to do with her cultivation or was it perhaps a modified version?

Liang Chen's mind was racing with thoughts, some trying to figure out how she could use it while another part was trying to figure out if he too could modify it to increase its strength. Chen Dairong wasn't in a hurry to chase after him, glancing at her healing arm and then at Liang Chen's serious expression.

"Would you believe me if I told you that it was you who taught it to me? It was a gift you gave me when you married Sister Ling'er, a promise that I would be the next one. Or at least, that's how it should have been."

Chen Dairong's voice seemed a bit distant as she spoke, a forlorn sigh escaping her lips. Liang Chen's racing thoughts came to a grinding halt as the pieces started to fall into place in his mind, his expression growing severe as he started to guess at just how Chen Dairong used her law of time.

"I see, whenever your law of time floods your eyes, you're actually using it to peer into the future, or at least a possible future, aren't you?"

This was the only explanation he could think of for why she would not only know what he was going to do just as the thought struck him, but also why she seemed to know him very well. But what Liang Chen didn't understand was exactly how she did it, just how had she cultivated the law of time to become able to do this? Chen Dairong actually smiled sweetly after Liang Chen spoke, softly nodding her head.

"I knew that I couldn't hide it for long, you would have guessed it before long even if I hadn't said a single word. Both guesses are right. I've sacrificed my eyes and half my brain to the law of time, giving my left eye the ability to peer into the most likely future about to unfold and my right eye the ability to see futures that may have been if we hadn't made certain choices. I may have become blind and my mind muddled due to the various futures I see, but I can now see far more than I ever could. You for example, when I look at you with my right eye I see a future where you and Yan Ling were accepted as disciples by the Sealing God Empyrean, eventually becoming overlords on the same level as him. But that future will never come to pass now, you awakened your Sebettu blood too early, now the only future I see for you is death."