When Liang Chen regained consciousness and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a damp earthen ceiling above him. There were a few small roots sticking out from the ceiling, prompting Liang Chen to assume that he was currently lying on the ground in a small cave. He couldn't see any source of light, but even though the area around him should be pitch black, he was still able to see everything around him with perfect clarity.
Liang Chen felt a strange feeling he hadn't felt before, it felt like his consciousness stretched out beyond just his body. He could feel a slight wind moving through the cave, brushing past the hanging roots, every groove and bend on them perfectly visible in his mind. He could also feel the wind move around something else in the cave, around a person leaning against the wall that was half a meter to his right, Yan Ling.
Liang Chen felt like he could touch reach out and touch the wind, gathering all the air in the area around his fingers. It was similar to the feeling he felt when he stood in the middle of a lightning storm or was close to items that contained poison, but it was the first time he had ever felt like this when it came to wind. He couldn't resist the feeling and stretched out his right arm, his fingers reaching for the wind that moved around the roots. The wind started to slowly move to his fingers, but his concentration was broken by a shout from Yan Ling.
"Little Freak, you've woken up?!"
Yan Ling took out a yellow crystal that started to release a bright light, pushing away the darkness of the cave. Liang Chen pulled back his arm and sat up, his gaze landing on Yan Ling. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious, but he could see that Yan Ling was rather dirty, mud and dust covering most of her arms and robe, her cyan-hair so dirty that it clumped together.
There were deep bags under her bloodshot eyes, her cheeks somewhat sunken in. She had clearly been keeping watch at his side for quite a while, making sure that she didn't fall asleep for even a second. Liang Chen's expression softened when he saw her, his arms stretching out and pulling her into a soft hug. He leaned his head against the top of her's, softly speaking.
"It must have been hard on you. Thank you for keeping watch over me."
He didn't know what had happened after he passed out, but there was no way it had been pleasant. He wanted to apologize for making her go through whatever she had to go through, but both she and Yan Ying had already told him that it was always better to say thanks rather than sorry.
Yan Ling hadn't expected to suddenly be pulled into a soft embrace, but she didn't resist. She leaned her head against Liang Chen's chest, listening to his calm and steady heartbeat and letting out a soft breath of relief. The two didn't say anything for a few minutes, simply enjoying the silence and the fact that they were still alive. But after a few minutes passed, Yan Ling seemed to remember something, hastily pulling away from Liang Chen and giving his body a few sweeping glances.
"How does your body feel? Are there any places that feel weaker than normal, any problems with your Qi circulation?"
All his wounds had been healed but that didn't mean that there wouldn't be any problems, like places that had become weaker after sustaining such grievous injuries. Liang Chen closed his eyes and started to check up on his entire body, looking for any places that might need special care in the future. After spending a bit of time checking, he opened his eyes again, clenching his right fist slightly as he responded.
"No problems. On the contrary, my body seems to have grown quite a bit stronger than before. If there is anything that's strange, it would have to be my bloodline. It seems to have fallen a bit more dormant after I was forced to overload it. But that's not the strange part, I can activate less of it than in the past, but it seems to have grown even stronger. I'm also suddenly able to sense and somewhat control the surrounding wind, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with my bloodline. Ling'er, exactly what happened after I fell unconscious, and where are we right now?"
With things having reached this point, Liang Chen no longer saw a reason to call Yan Ling by her full name, deciding to use the more intimate form of her name. Yan Ling had expected his question, so she nodded her head.
"I'll explain everything to you in a second, but you should first take a look at your appearance."
Yan Ling raised her right hand, a bit of water gathering above her palm. She froze the water using a chilly wind, forming a floating mirror that perfectly reflected Liang Chen's current filthy appearance. He too was currently covered in quite a bit of mud and dust, most of it coming from the ground of the cave he had been lying on until just now. But Liang Chen ignored all the filth, focusing on his appearance.
Ever since he first started cultivating in that bath of Demonic beast blood, his eyes had been golden and his hair had turned emerald in color, but that had changed now. His left eye was still golden, but his right one had turned a light cyan in color, reminiscent of Yan Ling's hair color. His own emerald hair had also changed, turning a very light gray, as if it was a mixture of his law of time and his pure white poison.
While Liang Chen was curiously inspecting his new appearance, Yan Ling started to explain everything that had happened after he passed out. She explained how she failed to kill Huang Dong, how she had healed his wounds by implanting her own Star God bloodline into him, and finally she explained how she had jumped into the spatial rift because of the trembling from the jade fragment. After leaving the spatial rift, she had immediately dug a hole in the ground and covered it up again, creating the cave they were currently sitting in.
And since she entered the spatial rift, two weeks had passed before Liang Chen finally woke up, allowing her to no longer worry about him never waking up again. The jade fragment hadn't trembled any more after they arrived here, causing Yan Ling to guess that something, or someone, was blocking the resonance between the two pieces.
While she waited for him to wake up, Yan Ling had also taken the liberty to name his new bloodline, dubbing it the Heaven Devouring Wolf bloodline. After telling Liang Chen everything, Yan Ling lowered her head slightly, preparing to face Liang Chen's disappointment at the fact that she had failed to live up to his expectations. But his disappointment never came, he instead pulled her in for another hug.
"So Huang Dong still lives? That's good, that means I get to see you kill him with my own eyes."
He didn't say that he would kill Huang Dong, because Yan Ling had set killing him as her goal, and he would not rob her of the goal she had set for herself. He would help her with all his might, but he would never complete it for her, it just wouldn't be the same if he did.
Her explanation also made it clear why Liang Chen's bloodline felt like it had fallen a bit more dormant and why he suddenly could sense and slightly control the wind. His awakening Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline had fused with the mostly dormant Star God bloodline, the fused bloodline producing his current appearance.
But since the Star God bloodline was mostly dormant, relying on the power of the Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline to slightly awaken itself as they fused, it meant that his entire bloodline had indeed fallen a bit more dormant after fusing. But the new bloodline was already in the process of awakening. Given enough time, it would fully awaken and give all its power to Liang Chen.
Liang Chen could feel that Yan Ling was slowly starting to fall asleep in his embrace, the strain of having to stay awake and stressed for so long finally catching up to her. Before she managed to fall asleep, he pulled her a bit away from him, looking her directly in the eyes with a serious expression.
"I'm gonna say this before you fall asleep. I wanted to wait for a better time, but who knows when something like that is going to come around nowadays. I want to stay at your side, no matter what may come to pass, no matter what sort of enemies we end up facing, I want to stay at your side as we face it all. And I want you to do the same, I want you to stay at my side, through thick and thin, until this multiverse collapses and crumbles, I want us to always stay together."
They didn't know where they were, they didn't know what they were going to face, so Liang Chen wanted to say these things now, before something happened that might make it impossible for him to ever say it.
Yan Ling's tired face bloomed into a splendid smile that, to Liang Chen, shone like the sun itself. She could feel her consciousness slipping, so she quickly leaned in and planted a kiss on Liang Chen's lips, her wordless response. Her vision then blackened as she fell asleep in his arms, barely managing to squeeze out a few words.
"Now you're stuck with me, my Little Freak."