Awkward tactic.

Liang Chen also took up his battle position, holding his left fist close to his chest and his right fist a bit further away, a standard boxing position. Yan Ling's eyes narrowed faintly, a serious expression starting to creep onto her face. She knew about Liang Chen's actual strength better than anyone else, so she knew that he was a dangerous foe, even with the various restrictions currently on him.

She swiftly swiped her interspatial ring, a somewhat strange sword appearing in her grasp. The blade of the sword was completely white in color and almost a meter long. It was as thin as a cicada's wing, and the blade curved slightly upwards, a blue wave-like pattern running along the side of the blade. This was the first time Liang Chen had ever seen Yan Ling's weapon, and his eyebrows couldn't help but tick up slightly when he saw it, involuntarily clicking his tongue.

"Tch, you're really taking every advantage you can get to bully me."

Liang Chen didn't know a lot about how weapons were ranked, but judging from the energy that her sword radiated, Yan Ling's sword was clearly of very high quality, far better than anything Liang Chen had ever seen. Hearing his complaint, Yan Ling simply replied with a snicker.

"Nihihi, to bully a brute you, I'll need any advantage I can get."

Her words sounded as joking and teasing as always, but there was a kernel of truth and seriousness hidden in there. Liang Chen always managed to pull up some new trick or ability from his sleeve, greatly surprising her. Who knew what sort of previously unseen ability he'd show her this time.

Both of them ceased talking, quietly sizing up the other, looking for any opening they could take advantage of. Other than the short exchange with Geng Zhen, this was Liang Chen's first time seeing Yan Ling take part in a battle. And he had to admit, he was greatly surprised by the focus and seriousness she showed, she had clearly trained quite a bit.

After the two sized each other up for a bit, Liang Chen decided on a battle plan, stepping forward and breaking the silence. His Qi started to course through his body, azure lightning coiling around him as he dashed forward, the sound of muffled thunder sounding out as he turned into a blur.

He arrived directly in front of Yan Ling, his body somewhat crouched as he sent an upwards punch towards her abdomen. Yan Ling was clearly prepared for him, so the moment he appeared in front of her, she took half a step backward, slashing down at Liang Chen's arm. Yan Ling knew that no matter how restricted Liang Chen was, she would never be able to match him in terms of speed, so she would obviously prepare a countermeasure ahead of time. As long as Liang Chen was unable to use his time element, he would create wind by moving, allowing Yan Ling to track his location and movements.

She didn't hold back in her attack, the blade of her sword swiftly arriving directly above Liang Chen's fist. He quickly reacted, opening his fist and forcefully changing his punch into a slap, pushing the sword to the side. His palm only made contact with the side of the blade, but several small cuts still appeared on Liang Chen's hand, the entire weapon seemingly surrounded by tiny blades of wind.

When Liang Chen pulled his palm away from the sword and took a step forward to chase after the dodging Yan Ling, he noticed that his hand was moving slower than usual, as if a gust of wind was constantly pushing in the opposite direction of whatever way he was moving his hand. He didn't know if this was something Yan Ling created using her control over wind, or if it was something that the sword did whenever someone touched it, but what he did know was that unless he used more Qi to counteract the wind, it would severely impact the speed of his hand.

He put more Qi into his right hand, temporarily pushing the strange wind away using a few arcs of lightning. He continued with his step forward, all he needed was to finish this step, and he would be within arm's reach of Yan Ling. But as his foot was about to touch the ground, his instincts rang the warning bell. He lowered his gaze slightly, concentrating it on the ground beneath his foot.

A very thin and nearly invisible layer of ice had appeared on the ground, just beneath his currently lowering foot. If he continued as he had, he would have stepped on the ice without knowing it, and he would likely have slipped, disturbing his balance. Liang Chen raised his gaze again, locking eyes with Yan Ling. He put more strength into his left foot, turning his normal step into a heavy stomp, shattering the ice beneath his foot.

With the ice shattered, he put weight onto his leg, leaning forward and sending out a palm strike with his bloody right hand. But Yan Ling was quick to react, the shattered ice beneath Liang Chen's foot growing thicker, turning into tiny spikes that dug into his foot. Once they dug into his foot, the spikes of ice were forcefully moved a few centimeters to the left, his foot forced to follow them.

His balance was ruined and the course of his attack forcefully diverted, his palm sliding past Yan Ling's waist. Yan Ling took this chance to punch out with her left arm, aiming a downward punch at Liang Chen's right shoulder. It seemed like she was determined to incapacitate his right arm as quickly as possible, hoping to lower his combat efficiency.

But right after she sent out her punch, a strange heat spread up from her waist, from the place where Liang Chen's palm had slid past her. Her concentration and focus was disrupted for a second, slowing down her attack and giving Liang Chen more time to react.

Liang Chen used the movement of the ice underneath his left foot to his advantage, kicking off with his right leg and allowing his entire body to fall to the left. He stretched out his left arm, digging his fingers into the stone stage and using his hand to support the weight of his body as he raised both of his legs, the spikes of ice breaking off and remaining within the sole of his left foot.

With both legs in the air, he put more strength into his left arm and gave it a light twist, spinning his entire body and allowing him to deliver an upside-down sideways kick to Yan Ling's approaching fist. The fist was pushed to the side, another burst of warm energy flooding into Yan Ling's body from the point of contact, further disrupting her concentration.

Liang Chen took the chance this created to push off the ground with his left arm, removing his fingers from the stone and launching himself away from Yan Ling. He spun slightly in the air, allowing him to land on his feet a few meters away from Yan Ling, his expression having grown more solemn and serious.

Luckily, he had finished changing the bone marrow in both his arms and legs into liquid lightning using the Lightning God Physique, so his physical strength was a bit better than other people at his age and cultivation level. He glanced at his now bloody left foot and the spikes of ice that were lodged in it, turning to Yan Ling with some surprise in his eyes.

"I didn't expect you to be able to already add another element to your Ascended Tower. But why the ice element?"

One could introduce another element into their cultivation whenever they wanted, but most would only do so after reaching the Heaven's Gate realm. The reason for this was that trying to build an Ascended Tower comprised of multiple elements was far harder to build than one that only had a single element.

The law of ice was excellent for defense, but Yan Ling already had the law of wind, which would let her move in ways far more flexible than most people. Because of this, the law of wind was excellent for dodging and parrying attacks, but in exchange, it didn't excel in attacking. Because of this, Liang Chen thought it would be better for Yan Ling to choose a law which specialized in attacking, like fire, piercing, or slicing.

Yan Ling, who was now rosy red in the face and sweating lightly, shook her head slightly after hearing Liang Chen's statement, telling him how it really was.

"Not the ice element, the water element. I am able to turn the water into ice by mixing it with my wind element, turning it cold enough to freeze instantly."

Fusing different laws would produce countless wondrous effects, so Liang Chen wasn't surprised that Yan Ling was able to create ice by mixing wind and water. But her answer left him with another question.

"But why water? Why not something with a bit more attacking force?"

The law of water was even worse at attacking than the law of ice, it also didn't have the defensive strength of the law of ice. The law of water was more focused on support, especially in the healing and purifying aspect. Yan Ling narrowed her eyes slightly, sending a faint glare at Liang Chen as she let out a light snort.

"Humph, I wouldn't take this law if it wasn't for the fact that there was a certain someone that always ran around and ignored his own injuries."

Even back when the two first had met, Liang Chen had fought in a way that could only be described as self-destructive, tearing down his own body to kill his enemies. Even now he still did that, something he showed quite clearly during their previous mission, where he had practically ruined himself twice within a short span of time, once against Geng Zhen and Xiao Daibao, and again when Yan Ling faced the heavenly tribulation.

Among the two of them, Liang Chen wasn't the only one worried about the other. Yan Ling was worried that if Liang Chen kept fighting as he did, he would eventually run himself into the ground. But even if she was worried, she knew that there was no way for Liang Chen to stop fighting like this, he had to fight like this if he wanted to beat his enemies. And so, she had picked up a law specialized in healing and support, so that she could help ease his inevitable wounds.

Upon hearing her statement and realizing what she meant, how could Liang Chen's face not soften? His raised guard lowered slightly, his lips curling into a grateful smile as he spoke up.

"Thank y-!"

Before he got to finish his sentence, his instincts once again rang the alarm bell, the sound of rushing wind coming from behind him. He threw himself forward and onto the ground, a thin blade of wind grazing past the back of his head and cutting off a few strands of his hair. He pushed himself up from the ground, the corners of his lips twitching slightly.

"Come on now, that's just rude."

She had purposely waited for him to lower his guard because of his gratitude, aiming for that slight opening. Had his instincts not warned him, that blade of wind might have reached his neck, forcing him to surrender. Yan Ling, whose face had grown even redder, her robe damp with sweat, simply responded with another snort.

"Humph, I don't wanna hear that from a brute like you."

The two became silent again, once again sizing each other up. But Yan Ling clearly found it quite a bit harder to concentrate, squirming slightly. This was part of Liang Chen's plan, so he quickly dashed forward, turning into a blur and leaving behind blue arcs of lightning in his wake.

He arrived at her side with the sound of rumbling thunder, aiming a punch at the right side of her waist. Yan Ling quickly took a few unstable steps to the side, sending out a hurried slash to block Liang Chen's punch. But her attack was quite a bit weaker than her previous ones, so Liang Chen simply opened his fist and grabbed onto the blade of the sword.

Tiny blades of wind tore open his hand even further, the blade digging into his palm. But as Liang Chen had already shut down his sense of pain, he didn't feel any of it. He gave a strong pull, yanking the weapon out of Yan Ling's hand and then throwing it away. He stretched out his left arm to grab onto Yan Ling's neck, but she responded by punching his hand away using her now empty hand.

She jumped back to put some distance between them, but her legs were trembling slightly, more and more sweat appearing on her body as he breathing started to grow rushed and her vision blurry. Liang Chen's gaze was calm as he dashed forward like a furious bolt of lightning, appearing next to Yan Ling, who by now found it hard to even concentrate on keeping up with Liang Chen's movements.

Liang Chen stretched out his arm again, grabbing onto her neck with a soft grip. He didn't clench his hand or lift her up, he simply held onto her neck as a sign of victory. After grabbing onto her neck, he raised his eyebrow slightly, a teasing smile appearing on his face.

"Want me to keep going and lift you up?"

It was already clear that he had won, but how could he let the chance to tease Yan Ling slip through his fingers? Yan Ling didn't respond, turning to Liang Chen with blurry eyes and rushed breath, speaking out in a soft voice only the two of them could hear.

"What sort of poison did you use on me?"

Liang Chen cocked his head slightly, not quite understanding the meaning behind her question. Did the type of poison he used on her matter that much? But even if he didn't understand it, he still gave an honest response.

"I used the poison of a weak Demonic beast known as the Silver-tipped Larvae, it's supposed to be good for disrupting the concentration of others. I spread it through the air right after the battle started, and then poured more and more into your body every time I touched you."

The Silver-tipped Larvae was a rank 0 Demonic beast that could be found in most large forests. It could never even reach rank 1, so Liang Chen had only glanced over the description provided by the book about Demonic beasts that he had read, only memorizing the part where it said the poison was excellent at disrupting concentration.

Liang Chen had chosen this poison as he didn't want to use a poison that was too vicious, afraid that it might accidentally cause irreversible harm to Yan Ling. After hearing Liang Chen's explanation, Yan Ling's blurry gaze turned into a fierce and embarrassed glare, as if she was dying to eat him alive.

"The poison of the Silver-tipped Larvae, good for disrupting concentration? You idiot, it's an aphrodisiac!"

Liang Chen's breath got caught in his throat after hearing Yan Ling's words, resulting in him heavily coughing. It was an aphrodisiac? His eyes grew wide as saucers as he looked at Yan Ling, looking her up and down. Her skin had become covered in a charming and enticing rosy blush, her legs were squirming, her breathing rushed, and her eyes somewhat blurry.

He had thought nothing of it at first, but now that he knew that the poison was, in fact, an aphrodisiac, it became clearer and clearer that these weren't symptoms produced by a poison. He could only let out several more awkward coughs, doing his best to quickly remove any traces of poison from Yan Ling's body. This was a poison that he himself had created using his Qi and then sent into Yan Ling's body, so it was easy for him to remove it.

Even with the poison gone, the symptoms would still remain for a little while. Yan Ling sent him another glare, letting out a loud snort and turning around, fleeing from the stage as quickly as she could. Liang Chen could only look at her fleeing away from the stage, rubbing the back of his head in an awkward manner.