Neither Yan Ling or Liang Chen recklessly jumped into the large battle that was currently going on. They hadn't discussed it beforehand, but both of them were smart enough to realize that it would be best for them to wait a bit longer. Their targets would grow weaker and weaker as time passed, and once they were too weak to defend themselves properly, then it would be time for them to reap their lives.

Liang Chen stealthily took a few steps back, his narrowed eyes sweeping over the ongoing battle, reminiscent of the eyes of a serpent that surveyed its prey. His gaze landed on one of their targets, a woman who had reached the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. She was currently doing her best to defend against the frenzied attacks of three enemies, her own hands having turned into solid iron.

With his eyes landing on her, it was the same as her death being set in stone. A faint black light flashed on his shoulder, the feathered serpent Yumao appearing on his shoulder. Yumao had been patiently resting inside Liang Chen's dantian, waiting for a chance to stretch his body a little. How could he possibly stay still now that a battle was going down? Liang Chen used a finger to pat Yumao on the head, quietly whispering to her.

"Start with that girl, her neck and her eyes. Don't worry about her attacking you, I'll give you an opening. After that, head over to Yan Ling and help her deal with the remaining eight people."

Yumao eagerly nodded his head, darkness swallowing him and causing him to vanish. The moment Yumao vanished, Liang Chen fully awakened the paralyzing poison within the girl's body, causing her muscles to stiffen up for a quick second. She didn't understand why her body suddenly stopped moving, but she knew that this one second of inaction likely meant her death.

A black light stealthily appeared behind her, Yumao landing on her neck and sinking his fangs into her flesh. He was small and young, but his fangs were as hard as iron, even harder than the scales of some Demonic beasts that had reached the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. His teeth easily pierced her flesh and sank into her neck, cracking it with a single bite. Liang Chen wasn't sure if Yumao's bite would be enough, which was why he also told Yumao to go for her eyes, stalling her further. But looking at how easily he cracked her neck, it seemed like his worry had been needless.

At the same time, the three people she was fighting noticed her second of inaction, so they frenziedly launched attacks. Fire, iron, and a colorless type of energy landed on her defenseless body, tearing it apart and killing her. As her body was torn apart, Yumaoo disappeared into his own shadow and left the area. With the girl dying, the number of targets left to kill was only eight, with two of them having reached the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm.

"Scratch that, only six remain. She works fast."

Liang Chen corrected his own thoughts with a soft mutter. In the time he and Yumao had sneak attacked the girl, Yan Ling had taken care of another two of their targets. They were only at the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, the same as her, but for her to kill them so quickly, it showed that her strength was out of the ordinary. One of the two was killed by having his throat slit with a blade of wind and the other died from having water forced down his throat, drowning him on dry land.

The six targets that remained were the strongest, two girls who had reached the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, two men who had reached the same stage, and two men who had reached the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. But the Qing clan disciples were vastly outnumbered, so the strength of their targets was quickly wasting away as they were forced to defend themselves and the other Qing clan disciples.

After two more minutes passed, Liang Chen's gaze landed on one of the two men who had reached the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. At the same time, Yan Ling's gaze landed on the other man who had reached the same stage, their gazes the same as the judgment of the god of death. Both understood what the other was planning, so they moved into action at the same time.

Liang Chen awakened the poison that the man had ingested and caused it to flood into his eyes, melting the veins within them and blinding him with his own blood. The people close to him took advantage of this chance, ignoring the other Qing clan disciples and launching all their attacks at him. This caused the nearby Qing clan disciples, including the one that Yan Ling was targeting, to forego their own defenses in hopes of protecting their comrade. After all, everyone was targetting the currently blinded one, so who would launch any attacks against them?

The attacks collided with the hastily prepared defense set up by the Qing clan, a loud explosion rocking the hall. Under the cover of the large explosion, Yan Ling dashed into the bosom of the Qing clan disciple she was targeting. She took a deep breath and stomped on the ground, sending out a palm strike that gently collided with the chest of the Qing clan disciple.

Liang Chen thought that the attack looked rather soft, but the Qing clan disciple immediately started spewing blood and fell over dead, so it was clear that the attack was far stronger than it looked. At the same time, Liang Chen also finished up the disciple that he had blinded with his poison. The attacks launched at him were all blocked, but he was too weak to resist Liang Chen's poison, so his death was already certain.

The corrosive poison left his eyes and flooded into his brain, turning it into mush that started to leak out of his ears and nose as he fell over. To the onlookers, it simply seemed like the Qing clan had failed to block all the attacks, a perfectly normal occurrence in a battle like this. Six turned into four, Yan Ling and Liang Chen setting their deadly gazes onto the last of their targets.

The two locked eyes for a short second, just long enough for both of them to get across what they were thinking. Their eyes then landed on the two girls, who were doing their best to defend against the waves of attacks, continuously shouting out that they hadn't poisoned the other disciples. But at this stage, it was already too late for words, too much blood had been shed, too much fear had spawned in the hearts of everyone.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling sprung into action, sealing the fates of the two girls. Yan Ling had Yumao appear inside the sleeve of the girl, allowing him to stealthily create spears of darkness that pierced into the girl's wrist, rendering her arm useless. Yan Ling, disguised as a member of the Bai clan, took this chance to rally the surrounding disciples and have them launch all their attacks on the girl.

The attacks landed on the girl and caused everything from her chest and up to explode into a bloody mess, her remains collapsing to the ground. While the surrounding disciples switched their focus onto the remaining Qing clan disciples, Yumao stealthily caused the remains of the girl to vanish into the darkness, seemingly storing away her body for later.

While this was going down, Liang Chen was taking care of the other girl. A quick thought of his awakened the poison in her body and had it swarm her right shoulder, corroding the flesh, veins, and bones in that shoulder. As a result, her dominant arm became completely useless in the midst of defending against an attack, allowing it to land on her and shatter her chest, instantly killing her.

With this, the only targets remaining were the two disciples who had reached the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. Liang Chen and Yan Ling had purposefully saved them for last, allowing them to waste as much of their enemies strength as possible before they made their move. Their two targets were located at the leftmost and rightmost side of the Qing clan disciples, responsible for supporting the sides of the reverse triangle defensive formation they had hastily assembled.

They were besieged by the other disciples who had reached the Heaven's Gate realm, but since they focused on defending, they were able to keep themselves safe and the enemies at bay. If things continued without changing, they would probably be able to continue defending like this for at least one or two hours, plenty of time for reinforcements from the Qing clan to arrive.

But would Yan Ling and Liang Chen allow them to defend like this for much longer? The other targets were dead, and the two last ones were already weakened somewhat, it was time to reap their lives and finish the mission. And once the mission was finished, Liang Chen could finally find out where his parents had been buried.

Liang Chen sent a quick look at Yan Ling, letting her know which of the two targets he was going to aim for. After making sure that she understood, Liang Chen's gaze landed on the Qing clan disciple that was located at the rightmost side of the defensive formation. He had already planned out how to deal with him, so he wasted no time springing into action.

He awakened the poison within a few of the Qing clan disciples located at the front of the defensive formation, temporarily paralyzing them. The enemies responded by launching ferocious attacks on the paralyzed disciples, forcing the surrounding disciples to hastily put up a defensive wall. Another loud explosion rocked the hall and tossed up a thick cloud of dust, Liang Chen and Yan Ling dashing forth at the same time.

As Yan Ling dashed forth, a gentle breeze started to blow around her, her appearance reverting to normal. The wind around her suddenly turned crimson in color, her blue eyes turned deep green, and strands of crimson hair started to appear in her normal cyan hair. She had activated the secret technique that stimulated her mostly dormant bloodline, forcibly increasing her strength.

If she wished to deal with someone at the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, she had to rely on this strengthening technique. Thankfully, the wind around her further kicked up the surrounding dust, making it so that no one was able to see anything except for what was right in front of them.

Her speed drastically increased after activating her strengthening technique, her body turning into a crimson blur that swiftly arrived in front of the target she was responsible for. The man quickly cast his gaze onto her, shock appearing in his eyes. He pushed out both of his palms to force away Yan Ling, but she simply ignored his palms and launched her own attacks.

Wind and water gathered around her palms, wind around her left and water around her right. The wind moved clockwise while the water moved counterclockwise, both growing faster and faster. Yan Ling allowed the attack of the man to land on her left shoulder, tearing open a deep gash. But in return, she pushed out both of her palms and had them gently make contact with the chest of the enemy.

Once again the attack looked gentle, but the moment her palms touched his chest, the cloth around her arms was torn to shreds and burst outwards. The chest of the man imploded, all the organs and bones in his chest crushed into a fine paste and instantly killing the man.

What Yan Ling had just used was a secret technique that her father had taught her, a technique called the Storm King's Fist. It used the law of water and the law of wind, the pressure of the deep sea and the pressure at the center of a tornado, to forcibly crush anything it came in contact with. It was a devastating attack, but she wasn't yet able to use it properly, so this one attack had caused cracks to appear in both her wrists, leaving them on the verge of shattering.

But her enemy was dead, so the attack was a complete success. While the cloud of dust still covered her, she swiftly picked up the interspatial ring of the man, deactivating her strengthening technique and putting on her disguise again. At the same time, Yumao popped out from the shadows and had the body of the man vanish into the darkness, storing another body for later.

While Yan Ling was dealing with one man, Liang Chen was dealing with the other. He dashed through the cloud of dust, his disguise melting away as he activated his bloodline, his hair and eyes turning gray as gray scales started to grow all over his arms, only stopping when they reached his jaw. Liang Chen also swiped his interspatial ring, the golden spear with a blackish-silver spearhead that Yan Ling had gifted him appearing in his grasp.

Emerald lightning started to coil around him, increasing his speed by so much that he was able to reach the front of his target in less than a second. When the man's eyes landed on Liang Chen, fear immediately filled them as he realized Liang Chen's identity and hastily tried to back up.

"It's you! The Scourge Ki..."

The man didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, Liang Chen stomping down and unleashing a lightning fast stab with his spear, a soft voice sounding out in his heart.

"First step shatters the body."

Liang Chen instantly unleashed the first attack of the Dragon Lord's Three Steps, all the energy of the attack gathering at the tip of his spear. The tip of his spear made contact with the chest of the man, all the energy gathered in it bursting forth in an instant.

A green light flashed at the tip of Liang Chen's spear, a rumbling sound mixing together with the explosion that had occurred when the various attacks had collided with the defenses of the Qing clan disciples. An emerald bolt of lightning as thin as a finger shot out from Liang Chen's spear, piercing through the man's chest and continuing upwards, piercing through the ceiling of the hall and vanishing.

This was the advantage of having a weapon, it made it far easier for Liang Chen to concentrate and compress his power. Not only did it waste less energy, but it also made his attacks far more penetrative and damaging. With the bolt of lightning piercing through the man's chest, his heart was scorched into ash by the heat, the light in his eyes dimming.

Liang Chen swiftly snatched the man's interspatial ring, storing both it and his own spear away. He undid his own bloodline and put on his disguise again, quickly retreating from the area. Once he left the cloud of dust, he locked eyes with Yan Ling, who had also just finished her target. Both of them nodded their heads, Yan Ling changing her appearance to match one of the wait staff from the Qing clan.

They both then dashed away at full speed, looking like two weak servants who were afraid of getting caught up in the chaos. While running away, Liang Chen weakened the poison inside the bodies of the various disciples, making it look like it was naturally vanishing. No one stopped Yan Ling and Liang Chen, mostly because everyone else was busy taking part in the large battle.

The two ran through the city, occasionally running into an alley to change their disguises. Only when they left the city and entered Sky Piercer Forest did they feel safe and stop running, sitting down on the ground and leaning against each other's back to catch their breath. While they were catching their breath, Yan Ling let out a victorious laugh.

"Nihihi, it was a good plan, wasn't it? Didn't I tell you that I had a good plan?"

Liang Chen couldn't help but chuckle. They had just snuck away from a large battle, and the first thought that came to Yan Ling's mind was apparently to fish for praise. But her plan was indeed good, so Liang Chen did not mind indulging her this once.

"Yup, it was a good plan that made things a lot easier, you were quite clever to come up with it."

Receiving the praise only made Yan Ling's laughter turn even more victorious, as if she had just beaten Liang Chen at something. The two continued to lean against each other and catching their breath, resting for a few minutes before Liang Chen turned to face Yan Ling and asked the question that was at the forefront of his mind.

"So, did you manage to find out where my parents are buried?"

To find out where his parents were buried was the main reason Liang Chen had accepted this mission, so he was of course quite eager to find an answer to where they had been buried. But after he asked the question, he saw that Yan Ling's body stiffened, an expression that was a mixture of bitterness and sorrow appearing on her face. Seeing her expression, Liang Chen instantly felt his heart drop to his stomach, an uneasy feeling flooding him. It seemed like the place where his parents were buried was no normal place.