Shen Fei's entire body was brimming with giddy excitement as he looked at Liang Chen. It hadn't been that long since he last saw him, but his eyes had turned a fair bit deeper, just gazing into them made it feel like there was an abyss tugging at his soul. He didn't know just how much time Liang Chen had actually spent inside the house with his law of time, nor did he know exactly what he found or did, all he knew was that Liang Chen had become an even more exhilarating opponent.
And he had already been waiting for this duel with bated breath so he wasn't planning on dragging things out even further, hurriedly ushering Liang Chen to follow him as he left the city. They moved through the streets of the city without a problem, none of the people around them even turning to look at them.
It had already been 15 days since they returned to the city so the citizens, or at least the two great families, should definitely have already noticed that he entered the house that had previously been unattainable. For them to not even acknowledge their existence like this, something was clearly amiss. His gaze slid over to Shen Fei, who only waved his hand without waiting for Liang Chen to ask his question.
"I don't want them to bother and interrupt us, I've already waited long enough. I've covered both of us in an illusion that renders us transparent, they won't be able to see us unless I want them to."
He spoke casually, but Liang Chen picked up on the strange way he spoke about it. Illusions were something you sent directly into someone's mind, you tricked them into seeing and feeling what you wanted them to, they were not something you could really cover yourself with. But there was no way Shen Fei would answer him even if he asked about his strange way of putting it, why would he bother to reveal some of his abilities right before they were going to fight?
Shen Fei's illusion allowed them to easily leave the city and set foot in the desert once more, quickly travelling a few tens of kilometres away from the city so that they wouldn't be interrupted. The place they stopped was a swathe of empty land, not even a blade of grass in sight as the sand stretched out for as far as the eye could see, only Moonset city barely visible in the distance.
Shen Fei walked a few steps forward before turning around, his yellow eyes calming down as he took control of his excitement. He swept his shoulder-length dark pink hair back and tied it up with a crimson cloth, he even removed his dragon-shaped and tiger-shaped hairpins. He hadn't done any of this during the duels between the Enlai and Tien family so it seemed like he viewed this sparring match with much greater importance.
Liang Chen didn't have any such preparations, he simply brought out his spear and made sure that Yumao moved a bit away to avoid getting caught up in any attacks. His gaze was focused on Shen Fei, but his mind was swimming with the various utilizations of the laws that he had just digested, all of them eagerly waiting to be brought forth. But Shen Fei didn't actually draw his sword right away, he instead raised his hand and started to talk.
"I've already seen your laws and a portion of your abilities, so I'll tell you some of mine to even it out a little."
Liang Chen's eyebrows ticked up in surprise as Shen Fei spoke, he was actually going to speak about his own abilities? He hadn't bothered asking him earlier since the odds of him actually divulging his own strengths was minuscule, but it seemed like that train of thought was just him not understanding Shen Fei's personality. Shen Fei flipped his hand so that his palm was facing the sky, a miniature version of himself appearing on top of his palm as he spoke.
"I have been granted the Authority of Dreams by my own universe so my law of illusions comes directly from the very core of my own universe. Thanks to this, my illusions are different from others. They don't affect the mind like normal illusions but instead appear in the real world, like this little me in my palm. They start out weak, but the stronger I get, the stronger my illusions get. At this point, I can already change place with all my illusions and even turn several of them real. Other than my Authority, I also use the law of swords, but you've already seen that."
Shen Fei clenched his hand and caused the miniature version of him to dissipate, his arm lowering as his hand landed on the hilt of his sword. Liang Chen had never heard about something like an Authority before, but if it really was a law granted by the core of the universe itself then it would definitely be something out of the ordinary.
The two didn't exchange any further words, one holding his spear at a tilted angle while the other grasped the hilt of his sword. The starting signal of the match was a simple nod of Liang Chen's head, Shen Fei bursting forth with his strength the moment Liang Chen's head moved.
The barren desert around them suddenly changed and turned into a verdant plain, grass, flowers, and a few trees suddenly covering the surrounding five kilometres. Every blade of grass felt lifelike, but if Shen Fei's words were to be believed then this should be nothing more than an illusion.
And he immediately proved that his words hadn't been a lie, disappearing from his previous position and instantly appearing behind Liang Chen's side. When he appeared again, he was still in the same position with his hand grasping his blade, not even a strand of his hair had moved, so he clearly hadn't just moved at an insane speed. He drew out his blade and slashed at Liang Chen's side, Liang Chen turning his gaze slightly with a mutter.
"Guess we'll try lightning first."
A deep rumbling sound immediately echoed throughout the surroundings as dull violet lightning flashed to life, tearing through the air and sand all around Liang Chen. Since he had three different main laws, one for his body cultivation, one for his soul cultivation, and one for his Qi cultivation, Liang Chen should, in theory, have three great domains. But as each of his main laws were made up of several fused laws, there was nothing stopping him from deconstructing his domains until they only contained one of his un-fused laws.
He had no true experiencing in creating a domain, which was why he decided to start with a small domain based on just his law of lightning rather than one of his fused laws. His law of lightning had been with him since the start, it was one of the two laws he was the most experienced in so it should make the process quite a bit smoother.
And sure enough, the dull violet lighting that appeared on its own was proof that the domain had been set up properly. Of course, he was just a Primordial Immortal so his domain was more akin to him forcing the surroundings to take on his attributes. As he got stronger and deepened his understanding of each of his laws, his domain would stop forcing the surroundings and gradually shift into merging into and absorbing the surrounding energy in a more harmonious process.
But its current state was still strong enough, Shen Fei's body halting with a soft tremble before his sword could reach Liang Chen. His eyes brightened from the scene, his body vanishing just as a bolt of lightning tore through where he had just been. He appeared again a short distance away, a sharp aura erupting from his body and forming a small bubble around him.
Any lightning that entered this bubble was weakened drastically, reaching a stage where Shen Fei could cut them up relatively easily. But even his own domain weakening the lightning wasn't enough to cover up the tyranny of the lightning, resulting in Shen Fei's eyes glowing even brighter. His domain was exceptionally sharp and fearsome, especially when limited to such a small area, it could even automatically cut apart crimson lightning and make normal violet lightning dissipate after a few seconds.
But to get rid of Liang Chen's dull violet lightning he still had to use his own sword, it was clearly lightning that had reached a whole new level of tyranny. And looking at how his body had stopped earlier, it was clear that Liang Chen's control over lightning wasn't limited to sheer tyrannical power.
"You influenced the electrical signals moving through my nerves? If you had reached a slightly higher realm then the fight might just have ended there, that's a pretty scary thought."
Shen Fei only had a guess, but he was quite confident in it. There weren't many ways for lightning to just freeze a person's body like that, only by interacting with the electrical signals that the brain sent to the nerves should it be possible. And he was proven correct when Liang Chen nodded his head, uttering a short warning.
"Correct. But I've got one more thing I want to try out, so be careful."
Using his lightning to interact with the electrical signal running through the nerves was something Liang Chen had a fair bit of experience with, doing so within his domain only strengthened his ability to do so. Shen Fei's gaze narrowed in response to the warning, his body suddenly vanishing and appearing in place of a blade of grass a few metres away.
The sand where he had just been standing rose up just as Shen Fei vanished, several fist-sized lumps of dark sand tearing through the air as they shot straight at him. He continued to vanish and appear a few times, but the fist-sized lumps of sand continued to chase after him wherever he went. In fact, more and more such lumps were appearing as he moved around.
But Shen Fei didn't bother playing with the lumps of sand for too long, eventually just waving his hand and causing several large metal rods to appear all around on the plain. The lumps of sand immediately veered away from him and slammed into the metal rods, even the surrounding bolts of lightning getting drawn over to them. Shen Fei gave a small nod of his head when he looked at the lumps of sand that had battered the metal rods, the corners of his lips tugging up.
"With a desert as large as this, there is inevitably going to be some iron sand hidden beneath the surface, all you had to do was use your lightning to turn my sword into a magnet to draw it out. Good, no, marvellous! You haven't let your exalted law blind you and even studied your law of lightning so much that you can use such minute techniques. Liang Chen, you're really making me admire you. Come, let me have even more fun so that I can do what I was born for!"
Shen Fei had more than just a bit of experience when it came to combat so he was quickly able to figure out what Liang Chen had done. And the moment he understood what his enemy did, he only had to use an appropriate materialized illusion to handle it, such as these magnetized lightning rods.
Shen Fei expanded his own domain after he spoke out, every blade of grass and flower on the illusory plain suddenly releasing a sharp splendour. Just standing on the grass cut apart Liang Chen's shoes and left behind several cuts on his feet, Shen Fei had clearly also formed a domain based on a fusion of his law of swords and his authority.
Shen Fei vanished once more as the grass and flowers all around Liang Chen rose up into a furious tornado that spun around him. The eye of the tornado was where the sharpest energy was gathered, there were even some illusory shackles that spawned into existence and started to coil around Liang Chen.
Shen Fei would occasionally take the place of a strand of grass or a flower and launch an attack at Liang Chen, shredding his robe and lacerating his body. But none of the cuts were particularly deep, this was just a sparring match and Shen Fei was more interested in seeing what else Liang Chen was going to bring out, victory was secondary.
And standing in the midst of the flurry of attacks, Liang Chen's gaze remained as calm as always. A ripple spread out from his body and passed through the area, the tornado slowing down as the sound of the wind howling grew in intensity. The soft sound of drops of rain splashing against the tornado emerged from within the howling wind, dull arcs of grey lightning crackling forth from Liang Chen's spear and spreading through the surrounding area.
Shen Fei wanted to see what else he could bring out, and Liang Chen wanted to test his own domains. And facing this fused domain of Shen Fei, it was a good chance for Liang Chen to see what a domain of his fused Void Storm law could do.