Constellation King's Competition.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling left the Storm Wolf sect and arrived in the Floating Rose nation, swiftly mounting Yan Ling's chariot and flying away, heading directly for Green Rivers city. While they were flying, making sure to fly so high up in the air that no one on the ground could see them, Yan Ling looked Liang Chen up and down.

"Little Freak, have you increased your cultivation in the time we didn't see each other? You feel a tad bit different."

She had felt it when she first met him, but only vaguely. Now that she got the chance to give him a more thorough look-over, the feeling she got only increased in intensity. It was a strange feeling, as if Liang Chen had gotten both more pressuring and captivating, drawing the eyes of people who glanced at him. Liang Chen didn't lie to Yan Ling, nodding his head and explaining his current cultivation.

"I have indeed increased my cultivation somewhat. My Qi cultivation is getting closer to the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, while my body cultivation has reached the peak of the Bone Forging realm and my soul cultivation has reached the peak of the Materialized Soul realm."

The increase in body cultivation resulted in the pressuring feeling, while the increase in soul cultivation resulted in the captivating feeling. Liang Chen cultivated the Lightning God Physique, which was different from the body cultivation systems of this planet. So even though he had only turned most of his bone marrow, only lacking the bone marrow in his skull, into liquid lightning, he was considered to be at the peak of the Bone Forging realm. And once he finished turning all his bone marrow into liquid lightning, he guessed he would probably enter the early stage of the Body Ascension realm.

As for his soul, he had channeled some of his Qi into it ever since it materialized. After doing this for the six months he had spent reading in the library, it had reached the peak of the Materialized Soul realm, now he just had to attempt to fuse it with one of his elements, seeing if he could use the principles of the Lightning God Physique on it. If he could do that, he guessed that he might be able to enter the Ascended Soul realm rather swiftly.

After getting the confirmation from Liang Chen, Yan Ling could not resist raising one of her eyebrows, sweeping his entire body with a quick glance before clicking her tongue.

"Tch, must be nice to have the law of time. Do you have any idea how many people would kill to have the same amount of time as you?"

Very few people cultivated more than one cultivation system, only those who had heaven-defying talent cultivated two or even three. And the main reason was simply the fact that if they tried to split their cultivation focus too much, they would end up lagging too far behind everyone else. By the time they managed to reach the same stage as everyone else, they would have already wasted all their talent and gotten too old to get anywhere meaningful.

But Liang Chen didn't have this problem, he could use his law of time to turn one and a half month of cultivation into six months. And that was just now, who knew how much more he could increase the flow of time in the future when he got stronger. Seeing Yan Ling click her tongue, how could Liang Chen resist smirking and teasing her?

"Is that jealousy I hear? Are you jealous? Are you?"

He could just tell her that he could also increase the flow of time for others around him, it would just be slower than when he did it for only himself, but where was the fun in that? While he was teasing her, Liang Chen also stretched out his arm and poked Yan Ling's shoulder, much like how she did to him occasionally.

How could Yan Ling, the one who always did all the teasing, allow Liang Chen to not only smirk at her and tease her, but also poke her like that? Just as Liang Chen's finger once again made contact with her shoulder, she lunged forward and pushed him down.

"You're 1000 years too early to tease me like that!"

Yan Ling pushed Liang Chen onto his bag and straddled him, raising both her arms. She pointed both her index fingers at Liang Chen's chest and started to viciously poke him, using wind to increase the speed of her arms to the limit. Faced with her ferocious poking, Liang Chen could only do his best to squirm free, squeezing out a few words between the bursts of involuntary laughter.

"Stop... I surrender!... I surrender!... Stop, we're... Really fucking high... Above the ground!"

The two of them were currently flying amongst the clouds, if they were to accidentally fall, they would turn into nothing but a red stain on the earth. But Liang Chen's plea for surrender fell on deaf ears, Yan Ling continuing to deliver rapid-fire pokes to his chest for a good five minutes before she stopped, freeing Liang Chen and returning to her previous position. After returning to her previous position, Yan Ling proceeded to act like she had not just spent the last five minutes viciously straddling and poking Liang Chen.

"What do you think, will you be able to increase your cultivation in time for the Constellation King's Competition in six months?"

Liang Chen didn't sit up immediately, spending a bit of time catching his breath, which had just been ferociously tickled out of him. Only after he managed to return his breathing to normal did he sit up and nod his head.

"Shouldn't be too hard to break through in my body and soul cultivation, my Qi cultivation should also be able to increase at least one stage. I read that the Constellation King's Competition is pretty brutal and bloody, but the book didn't say anything about where it takes place, do you know?"

The Constellation King's Competition was the name the sects gave to the grand competition they held as a tempering and ranking exercise for their younger disciples. Each sect would send out a certain amount of disciples to participate in the competition, and the top five people would all receive a title based on their rank, of course, the would also receive sufficient rewards.

The top-ranked was called the Dragon King, then came the Phoenix King, the Tiger King, the Turtle King, and the fifth-ranked got the title Wyrm King. The competition only took place every 10 years, and only disciples below the Primordial Immortal realm were allowed to take part in it. Yan Ling knew a bit more about the Constellation King's Competition, so she nodded her head, filling Liang Chen in on the rather special location of the competition.

"The competition takes place in a space that is rather special, it's called the Myriad Convergence. The Myriad Convergence isn't part of this planet, it is part of some other planet that was torn apart, the various pieces sent flying through space. Space around and in the Myriad Convergence is rather unstable, so plenty of spatial rifts and tunnels open there, causing a large variety of treasures and strange items to appear there, making it a natural oasis of treasures. Once the competition starts, we need to do our best to pick up as many treasures as possible and bring them back to the sect. The fewer treasures the other sects get to pick up, the better."

The unstable space of the Myriad Convergence made it not only a natural oasis for treasures, but it also made it a very dangerous place. With spatial rifts and tunnels opening all over the place, one had to be careful that they weren't swallowed up and sent away to some unknown place.

As a natural oasis of treasures, each of the five sects, even the distant Dawn's Blade Alliance, of course, wanted to monopolize the place. But the moment someone tried to take full control over it, the other sects would gang up on them and eradicate them, so they could only split it evenly, using it for the Constellation King's Competition. Of course, there would always be hidden undercurrents, people scheming to wipe out the other sects and take full control over the entire planet.

The next five days of flight, Yan Ling and Liang Chen continued to either chat or quietly cultivate, occasionally teasing the other if the atmosphere aboard the chariot got too boring. And during the afternoon of the fifth day, they arrived a short distance away from Green Rivers city, so Yan Ling brought the chariot down to the ground.

If they flew the chariot all the way to the city, their disguises would mean nothing, so they had collectively decided to land a bit away from the city and walk the rest of the distance, drawing less attention to themselves.

As they got closer to the city, Liang Chen couldn't help but grow quieter. It had been so long since he had last been here, the memories of his childhood couldn't help but resurface. The smiling faces of his parents, the various gifts they had given him, the advices they had given him, the taste of his mothers cooking.

Yan Ling could sense his somber mood and showed a rare moment of gentleness, quietly pulling closer and staying by his side, simply providing him with a bit of warmth. Like this, the two entered the city, Liang Chen leading Yan Ling down a road that was so very familiar to him. Following this road, it didn't take long for the two of them to spot the ruins of a burned down house.