The days continued to pass after Fan Jiahao left Liang Chen's abode, the day where they would be leaving for the Constellation King's competition swiftly arriving. The entire sect was bustling with excitement and nervousness, the disciples who had spent the last few months preparing all eager to show off their skills.

Liang Chen was currently sitting in front of the green palace that was the Storm Hall headquarters, sitting on a chair he had brought along. There were about 700 other disciples around him, with more and more arriving as time passed, and all of them were contestants that were going to take part in the competition. Each sect was allowed to send 1000 people to take part in the competition, so in total there would be 6000 people taking part in the competition.

Usually, between 30-50% of all the people taking part in the competition would end up dead by the end. This was the brutal reality of the sects, only the strong would be able to survive, the sects could only afford to let the strong ones survive. If they let the weak ones survive, they would take too many resources from the strong ones, lowering the speed at which their strength grew and as a result lowering the overall strength of the sect.

Liang Chen was sipping some spicy wine from a clay jug, absentmindedly staring at the sky. He had spent the last six months cultivating and training, constantly using his law of time to quadruple the speed of time around him. This meant that the six months of cultivating had turned into two years for him, giving him ample time to cultivate. But for the first time since he properly started cultivating, he hit the wall that was average talent.

Two years of cultivating and his cultivation had barely risen. He had carved the last two channels for the first stage of the Chaos King technique, allowing him to devour the Qi and bodily strength of dead bodies to cultivate himself. He had then snagged some bodies from Yumao, using them to cultivate with the Chaos King technique to somewhat increase his cultivation speed. But even then, his body and soul cultivation hadn't risen by much, both only growing a bit tougher.

He had managed to push his Qi cultivation to the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, all three of his Dragon Lotuses now having three leaves. The number of leaves that a Sebettu's Dragon Lotuses had was a sign of his cultivation realm, with each new stage doubling the previous number. The early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm meant having one leaf, the middle stage meant three, and for the late stage, he would need a total of six leaves on each lotus.

He was using a supreme technique like the Chaos King technique, but even so, his cultivation had only barely risen in the last two years. In the outside world, this achievement would be average, neither good nor bad. But Liang Chen wasn't in the outside world, he was in the Storm Wolf sect, a place that was filled with talented people. There was also the matter of his and Yan Ling's revenge, he could not afford to be average.

To make up for the slow increase in his cultivation, Liang Chen also used a bit of time to study some different techniques and skills. The Chaos King technique was a complete cultivation manual, so it also contained a few different skills that could be used in battle. It contained a grand total of nine different skills, three for each stage in the cultivation manual. Over these last six months, Liang Chen had managed to train in two of the three skills belonging to the first stage, one based on defense and one based on movement.

He also studied two other skills, but these came from the information that his birth parents had sealed up in his mind. These skills were different from the two skills he learned from the Chaos King technique, they were skills that could only be used if he was in immediate danger of dying. The reason behind this was that they were self-destructive at best and suicidal at worst, they were meant as a last-ditch effort to survive. But even if they were risky and dangerous to use, they at least meant that he had another trump card he could use when he was in danger.

As he continued to sit there and absentmindedly stare into the sky, his mind distant, he was suddenly jolted out of his absentminded state by the sound of someone talking to him.

"It's a tad rare to see you like this, are you thinking about something?"

Liang Chen lowered his head and blinked rapidly a few times, clearing up his mind and looking at the one that had spoken. Standing only a few steps in front of Liang Chen was Yan Ying, who was currently clad in a clean cyan-colored robe, his deep-green hair swept back. His head was slightly tilted, looking at Liang Chen with a somewhat curious gaze. After spending a second regaining his wits, Liang Chen figured that since he wasn't going anywhere with just his own thoughts, he might as well as Yan Ying.

"Brother Ying, I am indeed thinking about something. What is love? How does one know when they are in love?"

Back when Liang Chen brought Yan Ling to Green Rivers city and Yan Ying had delivered the Heaven Altering Masks, Yan Ying had told Liang Chen to dispense with the formalities. As such, Liang Chen didn't need to call him Senior Brother Ying and could refer to him directly as Brother Ying.

This question was what Liang Chen had been absentmindedly thinking about, the words that Fan Jiahao had said to him. Did he love Yan Ling? Did he feel for her what a man would feel for a woman, or was it something else he felt for her? He had no experience with that kind of love, so even if he tried thinking about it, he couldn't figure anything out.

Yan Ying gawked slightly when he heard Liang Chen's question, not surprised by the fact that Liang Chen had actually asked for his advice, but by the contents of Liang Chen's question. He quickly collected himself, bursting into laughter for a short moment before giving Liang Chen a deep look and chuckling.

"That's what you are wondering about? Well, I guess that even you have some normal worries and thoughts from time to time."

Liang Chen couldn't help but roll his eyes slightly after hearing Yan Ying's laughter. Of course he had normal thoughts and worries, he was still a normal person after all. Yan Ying tapped his chin for a short second, seemingly thinking about a proper response. He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eyes, causing his lips to curve into a faint smile as he responded.

"There's no point in thinking about it. Just close your eyes and think about the person in question, you'll receive an answer to your question."

Yan Ying looked at Liang Chen with a knowing smile, but he didn't say anything else, turning around and leaving. Liang Chen decided to try out Yan Ying's suggestion, so he closed his eyes and completely emptied his mind. He didn't even need to think about anything, Yan Ling's face started to appear in his mind on its own, her various expressions flashing past his eyes. The stories she had told him, the time the two had spent together, the advice she had given him, all of them flashed through his mind.

As he was absorbed in his recollection and thoughts, he didn't notice someone sneak up behind him. He was finally jolted out of his thoughts when he felt someone flick his ear, whispering right next to his head.

"What're ya doing there, Little Freak?"

Liang Chen had become fully absorbed in his thoughts, not paying the least bit of attention to the outside world, so he hadn't noticed anything before it was too late. Liang Chen was so caught off guard that he couldn't help but jump slightly, toppling over the chair he was sitting on and ending up falling on his ass.

As he fell on his ass, he could hear a crystal clear and very familiar giggle from behind him, making it very clear to him who it was that had just spooked him. He stood up and brushed off the dirt on his robe, turning around and letting out a light breath.

"Yan Ling, are you trying to end my life by giving me a heart attack?"

Standing right behind him was Yan Ling, who was clad in the same cyan-colored robe that the other disciples in the area wore. These robes were the official robes of the Storm Wolf sect, so now that they were about to head out to a tournament to represent their sect, they would, of course, wear these robes. Yan Ling didn't show the slightest sign of repenting, continuing to giggle at Liang Chen.

"What do you expect me to do when you are sitting there like that? Next time I see you like that, I'm going to viciously poke your waist, see how high I can make you jump by applying different levels of force."

Liang Chen looked at Yan Ling, who was happily laughing right in front of him. Seeing her cheerful smile, all the thoughts and questions he had were simply blown away. It was so simple that he couldn't help but let out a light laugh, picking up the chair and sitting down again.

"Really, it was so damn easy. Can't believe I spent that much time thinking about it, now I just feel like an absolute idiot."

Seeing her smile it all became clear to him. He wanted to make Yan Ling happy. He wanted to ease her sorrows, to fulfill her wishes, to help her reach her goals, he wanted to make her so happy that there was no sorrow that could leave a mark on her.

He had spent the last month thinking over it, four months in total thanks to his law of time, his thoughts running in circles and not getting him anywhere. He had wasted so much time when all he had to do to receive an answer was to go see Yan Ling, how could he not laugh at himself? Yan Ling didn't understand the meaning of Liang Chen's words, so she took a step closer and curiously pushed on.

"Oh? Little Freak has finally seen the light and realized his stupidity? Come now, tell this Senior Sister what caused you to realize the truth."

Liang Chen looked at Yan Ling, who seemed like she was ready to start poking his waist if he didn't answer her soon. He placed his elbow on the armrest of the chair, leaning his head on his hand and giving Yan Ling a nondescript smile.

"I wonder, I wonder. Do you want to know, do you? Are you dying to know? So curious that you can't stand it? Well too bad, I have no intention of telling you, so you can just suffer in your lack of knowledge for a bit."

Liang Chen didn't intend on voicing out his feelings just yet. He knew that he probably had close to 0 EQ, but even he knew that this place, surrounded by nearly a thousand other disciples, was not the place to have that kind of conversation. He would have to see if he could find an opportune time during the Constellation King's competition, it was at least better than doing it here.

Yan Ling clicked her tongue upon receiving Liang Chen's cheeky reply, stretching out her hands so fast that they turned to blurs. Before Liang Chen got the chance to react, she started to viciously poke his waist, digging her fingers as deep as she could into his sides and causing him to once again jump slightly.

"Oy! It's cheating to use your Qi to increase your speed and strength, cheating I say!"

Liang Chen tried to defend himself, but as Yan Ling had gotten the drop on him, it was already too late for him to put up any resistance, Yan Ling continuing to poke his waist.

"Stop, I surrender! I...surrender...stop...surrender."

Yan Ling did not care for Liang Chen's accusations and his following pleas for surrender that were mixed with an involuntary laughter. She also ignored the stares of the surrounding people, continuing to exact her vengeance, vengeance for Liang Chen daring to even think about being cheeky against her.

"Bah, who cares if I cheat a little when it comes to you? If I tried to play fair, a certain brute would just take advantage of the situation!"

Yan Ling continued to poke Liang Chen's waist, forcing him down from the chair and onto the ground, her law of wind increasing the speed of her hands until they turned into blurs as she started to poke Liang Chen all over his body. At first, it was because she wanted to enact vengeance on Liang Chen for daring to be cheeky, but the purpose swiftly changed. Now she was just doing it because she found it fun, she wanted to see just where Liang Chen's weak spots were, just where he was ticklish.

Even as the ground all around them lit up with silver runes as a massive array activated did she continue to poke him, only stopping when the array fully activated and sent the now 1000 disciples through space, to the place where they would meet up with the other sects before entering the Myriad Convergence where the competition would take place.