The Scourge of war. (3)

The crimson rain fell, and the world burned for it, screams of pain swallowed by the thundering rain. Each drop was a jolt of pain that ran up Liang Chen's nerves, errant embers that clung to his skin in the hopes that he would be reduced to ash before the last drop fell. But Liang Chen did not, could not, and would not, burn to ash. There were far too many others who had to die before the fires could ever be allowed to swallow him.

For a moment, his thumb brushed against the interspatial ring that Ren Shuren had thrown him before they parted ways, his senses sinking into it as he scoured its contents. He honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Well he could hazard a guess as to what sort of item it was based on what Ren Shuren said as he handed it over, but that was about it. But when he actually saw the item… He couldn't help but frown inquisitively, after a short twitch of his eyes that was.

The item appeared in his grasp, the ring warping until it fit snugly on the end of it. A shaft made from a strange grey wood, dark blue cracks etched across the entire length of it. A long and sharp head made from something akin to pale ivory, both sides of it polished and sharpened into thin edges. A small portion of the center had been removed, replaced by a deep red gem covered in undulating veins, still pumping with life. 

A spear. Long and sharp. Unadorned and simple.

But as the spear appeared, or rather as the spearhead appeared, the hammering of the rain faded away. Sound grew distant, even the raging Qi and laws that ran rampant in the ravine pulled back. It was as if the entire world was retreating, cowering in fear lest it be devoured.

Liang Chen knew. Just by looking at it, just by grasping it, he knew. Was it because of some resonance due to their bloodlines sharing an origin? Or was it because it was from a beast that could not stand to not be known, a beast engraved into the world itself?

This spearhead was crafted using a fang from Rahu, otherwise known as the Heaven Devouring Dragon, a Major Origin Beast that was born alongside one of this multiverse's 81 Major Universes. Liang Chen had traveled for quite a while, seen many a place, and fought many more people during those travels. But even in all that time, he had only ever encountered a single thing related to Origin Beasts. 

The weapon the Sky-Piercing Sparrow had once used to cut up Liang Chen had been forged using a small piece that came from an Origin Beasts fang. Back then, even though Liang Chen had already started to delve into the Void, the wounds had been so bad that he was only barely able to resist it, forcing him to go into hiding as he slowly took his time to heal up. He theorized that Lao Ye, whom he fought to acquire Purgatory, had the bloodline of an Origin Beast. But as Lao Ye was now dead and had become part of the Void, turning into tea-flowers within Liang Chen's domain, it was a theory that could never be proved.

But compared to the weapon that had cut Liang Chen in the past, this spearhead was evidently far more complete. The entire ivory head was forged using a single fang, seemingly gnawing at the world around it. And the red gem that filled the center of the spearhead… The sensation pulsating from it was even more intense than the rest of the spearhead. Just looking at it was enough to make Liang Chen's heart thump, his mouth filling with a sticky and uncomfortable sensation. This too, was undoubtedly forged using parts of an Origin Beast, probably Rahu. But exactly which piece it was he had no way of knowing at the moment.

But oh well. It wasn't like he needed to know exactly how it was forged. It would be useful, that was all.

"I will move first."

His voice swept out, and so did his spear, drawing a horizontal line through the rain. From touching the ring and inspecting the weapon to sweeping out the spear, less than a second had passed. And in the time needed to finish that second, Liang Chen disappeared from where he stood and arrived in front of his enemies. 

Faced with the rain of Purgatory, there were only four people within Wei Xin's squad that were able to resist, able to survive judgment. The first three were Wei Xin and her two adjutants, the strongest ones present. The last one was one of the weaker soldiers, when compared to the rest of the army at least. The reason he was able to survive was simple, he had yet to delve into the sins that Liang Chen condemned. He was someone raised in a sect, a cloistered child who had barely seen the dawn, much less the rest of the world. This was his first excursion, his first venture into the wider world. He did not deserve death.

And that was why Liang Chen had arrived in front of him, a young man who had a silhouette, a Reflection, resembling a cheetah surrounding him.

He did not use his spear, his left hand shooting forward and tearing through the Reflection without any resistance. His hand covered the man's face and flooded his brain with poison, knocking him unconscious before he was chucked into Liang Chen's special interspatial ring. Liang Chen had briefly toyed with the idea of knocking him out and throwing him aside, but he couldn't guarantee that he wasn't dragged into the ensuing fight if he left it at that. So he tossed him into a deserted corner of his interspatial ring and loaded him with enough poison to keep him unconscious for years if need be.

Simultaneously as the young man disappeared, Liang Chen swept out his spear, a spiderweb of grey lightning extending from the spearhead, a few of the grey strands evaporating into a colorless mist that slowly spread out. As the sweep reached its zenith, he twisted his wrist and elbow so that he could pull his arm back and use the butt of the shaft to unleash a concentrated blast of the Law of time, temporarily freezing the time of the air to his left. He didn't need to use his spear to unleash attacks like this, but the materials helped improve the strength of the attacks, and the mental image helped with the efficiency, preventing an excessive loss of Qi.

The two moves blocked what they were supposed to, the advance of Wei Xin and her two adjutants, who had attacked Liang Chen the moment he dealt with the young man.

Wei Juan Xin. Her Reflection was in the shape of a beautiful lotus, three rows of petals endlessly spinning around the dazzling core that she inhabited. The outer layer of the leaves was a dark silver and iron-like color, the middle layer of petals was the same blue as her eyes, and the innermost layer of petals was a darker shade of brown than her curly hair. Contrary to how her Reflection looked, she had rushed right at Liang Chen's left side, the outer layer of petals turning into sharp blades that she had thrust at him. The time-locked air blocked her approach, but it would only last a second at best before it collapsed.

Lok Kong. His Reflection was in the shape of a giant man clutching a small golden sun in his hands, holding it as if he was praying. The giant had several small curved horns rather than hair, winding tribal tattoos extending across his skin from the base of the horns. Wei Xin's Reflection mirrored her own colors so Liang Chen initially thought that this was the case for all Reflections, but Lok Kong had long black hair and pale green eyes, he didn't match his Reflection at all so that probably wasn't the case. His Reflection tried to smash down its golden sun onto Liang Chen's head, but the gray lightning that blocked it suddenly flowed in reverse the moment they made contact, forcibly shifting the attack to the side.

Deshi Li Tsun. His Reflection was in the shape of a great lion with two heads, one with a verdant and flower-filled mane and one with a stiff white mane that resembled flowing ice. The man himself had dark black eyes and a completely shaved head so he too didn't match his Reflection. He attacked from the right along with Lok Kong, the air itself freezing into fragile sheets as the lion roared soundlessly. But the ice failed to break through the heat from Liang Chen's lightning, even after the lion sucked in a deep breath and unleashed another quiet roar.

Liang Chen's gaze moved between the three people, quietly analyzing and planning how to take them down. One he could already declare dead, leaving only the last two. His left hand reached out as his mind moved, grasping one of the arcs of grey lightning that still lingered in the air. they were a fusion of the law of lightning and the law of time, they would remain into nigh-on infinity, forming a net that his enemies would have to beware as they moved.

When his hand grasped the lightning, he vanished from where he stood, following the path that the lightning would now perpetually follow. Wei Xin broke through the sheet of time-locked air that he had used to block her, but he was already gone when her attack reached his spot. By riding on the lightning like this he could match the speed of the lightning, a feat that would have torn his body apart had he not become an elemental partially composed of lightning.

He let go of the lightning when he reached his desired spot, calm and indifferent golden eyes locked onto Wei Xin, who was momentarily reeling after having broken through Liang Chen's defense.

"This one's for you."

Liang Chen clutched the spear and drew his right arm back, his veins bulging as his Qi poured into the weapon. For a moment, the hammering of the rain was drowned out by the rumbling roar of lightning, the shaft of the weapon cracking violently as dull grey lightning seeped out of the cracks. But even that seeping lightning was forced back into line, a thick layer of wind coating the weapon to hold it all together. And then the weapon was pushed forward, Liang Chen's left hand twitching subtly for an instant too brief for anyone to see.

Dragon King's Six Steps. Fifth Step Shatters the Sky.

Dragon King's Six Steps. Third Step Shatters Mortality.

The world fell silent. The hammering of rain, the rumbling of thunder, the crackling of lightning, the howling of wind. For a moment, all sound was erased from existence. Following the sound into oblivion was color. The crimson of the rain, the myriad of colors from the Reflections, the earthen grey of the ravine's edges, the nigh-on colorless mist that scattered, everything was painted over by a singular, all-consuming grey.

In the silent and colorless world, the only thing that moved was a single bolt of lightning, carrying with it a deeper grey than the dull world around it. It was almost vibrant in its horror. Enough lightning to swallow the sky, enough power to rend the earth down unto its very core, all of it condensed into a single bolt of lightning barely the size of a man's fist. It wanted to splinter, it was a power meant to spread and arc out after all. But a thick layer of wind held it together, working together with the law of time within the lightning to maintain its shape as it shot forward, aiming straight for Wei Xin's head.

Naturally, the three Sovereign Gods wouldn't just let this come to pass. They hadn't underestimated Liang Chen from the start, they stood here fully ready to die, so even the sudden overwhelming power wasn't enough to leave them standing there agape with shock.

Deshi Tsun and his two-headed lion sucked in a violent breath with both heads, one unleashing a wave so frigid that Liang Chen could even feel his Qi start to flow sluggishly, while the other forced the earth within the ravine to morph fiercely, several tens of frost-covered trees sprouting from the ground. The rising plants coiled around each other, tens and hundreds of trunks forming a single great organism that faced the lightning.

Lok Kong's response was equally simple, the Reflection covering him pressing its praying hands together, nearly crushing the sun between them. The closer the palms got to each other, the heavier the air on the planet got. The heaviness became a breeze, the air, the drops of rain, the atmosphere itself, all of it getting pressed together into a single point of extremity that threatened to crush all within it.

Liang Chen had dredged through the souls of these people, he had seen their trauma and their sorrow, so he knew what sort of responses they would unleash in a situation like this.

Lok Kong. Law of Compression and Law of fire, front-line defender and attacker. Deshi Li Tsun. Law of Ice and Law of Plants, ranged support and attacker. 

The lightning reached the great tree even with the disruption of the violent compression that had pulled away most of the wind around the bolt, but its path had already been shifted by a good margin, at this rate it would only hit Wei Xin's waist rather than her head. It struck the tree head-on and carved a path through the wood, the melting frost turning into water that was swiftly blown away by what little remained of the wind around the attack. But each drop of water absorbed a little of the lightning before it was blown away, inevitably lessening the strength of it.

Still, the attack carved a path through the tree, Deshi Tsun had deliberately made it weaker than needed so that he didn't have to waste too much Qi. After all, it was enough to make sure that the attack didn't hit Wei Xin, which they successfully accomplished, the winding of the trunks within the tree directing the lightning so that it missed Wei Xin by a good meter. And as the attack missed its mark, the last person made their move.

The air around Liang Chen twisted violently, all the Qi in the area forcibly turned into sharp blades while the frost and ice brought by Deshi Tsun turned into water droplets that rained down upon Liang Chen, each one bringing with it either a tremendous weight or immeasurable sharpness.

Wei Juan Xin. Law of Metal. Law of Water. Law of Life. Close-quarters and long-ranged attacker as well as healer. She did not raise a defense, she simply trusted her companions and launched a retaliatory attack.

The attack Liang Chen launched had shattered the shaft of his spear, Ren Shuren had not been lying when he said that they had yet to find a shaft that could withstand the spearhead. Still, while his right hand caught the now falling interspatial ring and brought out a new shaft, his left hand also moved. The Law of Death poured out from him and latched onto the sharp blades, rapidly forcing them closer to the inevitable death of all metal, rusting and falling apart. The water he dealt with using a mixture of the Law of Wind and the Law of Time. The sharp droplets were pushed aside using violent bursts of wind, and the heavy ones were redirected using minute spots of frozen time that had been angled so that the drop's own momentum moved them aside.

The sharp ones were successfully pushed aside, as were most of the heavy ones, but two of them still landed on Liang Chen, they had simply appeared too close, barely above his skin. The sensation when they hit him was… odd. It didn't feel like getting hit with a hammer or anything like that, he simply crumpled. The skin, flesh, and bones, around the area that touched the water simply crumpled together. One fell on the back of his wrist, but even the front of his wrist scrunched up, seemingly sucked towards the drop.

"The pressure of the deep sea, is it?"

For a moment, Liang Chen muttered to himself as his broken bones and rent flesh restored themselves. The drops weren't actually heavy, Wei Xin had filled them with the pressure of the deepest oceans, leading them to practically implode everything they touched. Luckily, Liang Chen had fused water into himself when he became an elemental, so he had a great deal of resistance to that particular Law. But still, when the strength reached a certain level it would still do harm to him, like right now.

It was painful. Bones crumbling, flesh tearing itself, skin ripping. But it didn't hurt more than the crimson rain that burned Liang Chen, the fires of judgment he burned himself with. So he didn't blink, he wasn't phased. Pain had long become meaningless to him. 

The great grey bolt of lightning he had launched slowly vanished, retreating in reverse in an odd manner until nothing was left of it, as if it had never been there to begin with. As it vanished, Liang Chen fitted the new shaft to his spear, another small bolt of grey lightning arcing out from him. The bolt led all the way past Deshi Tsun, forming a thin line that connected Liang Chen and one side of the ravine.

Liang Chen was fast, speed and destructive power were his forte, so his defense, fitting the shaft, retracting the first lightning bolt, and shooting out the connecting line, all happened almost simultaneously. As such, before Wei Xin could launch a second attack, Liang Chen grabbed the new line of lightning and rode it, vanishing from sight as he appeared above Deshi Tsun almost instantly. He let go of the lightning and descended, slamming his spear down towards Deshi Tsun's head along with a wave of the law of death, the goal was evidently to crush his Reflection and body in one move, and if that failed then to at least erode his lifeforce.

If the opponents were only relying on their own senses to react, then it would be impossible for them to react to this attack, it happened simply too fast. But they weren't relying on their own senses, they were relying on their laws and the Qi all around them, another sign that they weren't underestimating Liang Chen.

The great tree that still stood after it deflected Liang Chen's first lightning bolt moved in response to Deshi Tsun's summons, instantly appearing around him. It was tied to his Qi, born and grown from it, it could appear anywhere his Qi was. This was another reason he had made it purposefully weak. This way it would only get pierced by Liang Chen's lightning, not torn apart by it, allowing him to move it around as need be.

The thick wood coiled around Deshi Tsun, forming layers upon layers of defenses as he himself quickly descended. But when it came to wood born of a man's Qi, and the tooth of a Major Origin Beast, who would win? The wood faded away without resistance wherever the spear passed, worse yet, it seemed to be eaten by the crimson gem in the spearhead, turned into renewed power to push the attack even harder.

The spear cut through all the defenses, and had Deshi Tsun not dodged downward then he would be directly in its path. But as it was, he was only hit by the wave carrying the Law of Death and the wind produced by Liang Chen swinging his weapon. But even that proved dangerous when it was produced by the combined force of Liang Chen and an Origin Beast weapon. The wind cut deep into the lion Reflection that covered Deshi, pushing him down onto the ground so fast that his legs caused the earth to erupt with long cracks. He fought back the wave of death with his Qi, receiving timely support from Wei Xin in the form of the Law of Life filling the air above him, pushing back the Law of Death and giving Deshi Tsun a much needed moment to draw in several heavy deep breaths to catch and regain himself.

The crimson rain was still falling heavily onto the world, staining every inch of the land. As such, it was inevitable that one wouldn't notice another few drops of red that fell from Deshi Tsun's nose.

Liang Chen remained in the air, not choosing to chase Deshi Tsun since Lok Kong and Wei Xin had both charged at him to buy the man the time he needed to catch his breath.

The rain fell heavy. The blows tore through air and space alike. The war had only just begun, but Liang Chen's eyes remained as calm and calculative as ever.