Long Ling'er was standing in the middle of a group of strange shadow warriors in White Bones Realm, struggling to defend herself against attacks from all sides.
These shadow warriors would attack with any part of their bodies, including their heads, limbs, and joints. All Long Ling'er had to do was stop them from breaking through her defense.
The reason Gu Nan could casually break through the spatial barrier she put up multiple times was because flaws existed in her defensive barriers.
The shadow warriors attacked in such a way that allowed Long Ling'er to become aware of her weak points.
This was one of the training methods Gu Nan designed for her.
At the same time, because such training required too much fine control, the two had to return to White Bones Realm—the small plane's laws were incomplete, which was very inconvenient for comprehending the finer manipulation of laws.
Bang!
A light sound rang out. Long Ling'er's barrier was broken yet again by a shadow warrior's elbow strike. All the shadows stopped moving simultaneously, as if they were frozen in this moment by some power.
Gu Nan slowly walked over from the side and pointed at the warrior who broke the barrier, especially his elbow that broke the barrier.
"Only five shadow warriors attacked this time, yet you merely lasted ten seconds, which is even worse than your score against seven warriors earlier. Do you know why? This is the result of being caught off guard by surprise attacks."
Of course Long Ling'er knew. She complained resentfully, "What kind of person can snap out their humerus in a fight…"
That shadow warrior's so-called elbow strike actually meant popping out the humerus bone from the arm to attack. This kind of attack that surpassed the limits of human anatomy was why Long Ling'er couldn't react in time.
However, Gu Nan fell silent when he heard that. He stretched out his right hand and exerted a little force. His elbow joint naturally broke, and the bone inside his arm popped out.
But even with such a gruesome scene, not much blood actually flowed out. On the contrary, the bone in his right arm snapped right back into position again with a casual press of his left hand.
Long Ling'er, who was watching this from the side, was so stunned that her eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Only then did Gu Nan say, "At our level, no form of attack should come as a surprise. In a real battle, a single mistake will be enough to kill you."
Long Ling'er also understood this, so she nodded quietly, but Gu Nan then added, "Let's stop the training here. I'll take you to an actual battle."
The reason he said this was because one month had already passed since they started training.
Gu Nan put quite the effort into teaching Long Ling'er. After all, he was counting on her help to deal with the Silver-Robed Ancestor for him.
On the other hand, he also wasn't too worried about the problem of "helping a potential enemy."
He and Lu Wen didn't really have any grudges between them. It was nothing more than how Lu Wen lost some face because he wanted Gu Nan to help Lou Wanying but was ultimately declined.
Gu Nan snatching away the sand of time later on wasn't a very big deal either—Lou Wanying couldn't use it in the first place, and Lu Wen's goal wasn't the sand of time to begin with.
"An actual battle?" Long Ling'er felt some rare excitement when she heard these words—Gu Nan trained her using all kinds of methods during this past month, putting her through unspeakable misery.
The current Long Ling'er felt like she'd never craved a fight as much as she did now.
"Who are we killing?" She asked with wide eyes.
Gu Nan smiled. "Me."
...
Inner World, Crescent Moon World.
Gu Nan directly brought Long Ling'er into Crescent Moon World's dungeon this time, while Nie Shuangshuang had been waiting in the Inner World for a long time now and entered as soon as Gu Nan opened Crescent Moon World's dungeon.
The three of them met at the initial inn, while Nie Shuangshunag instantly recognized Long Ling'er.
"The Dragon of Space?"
"Oh? Do you also know her?" Gu Nan was a bit surprised. He thought that since Long Ling'er usually always stayed by Lu Wen's side, not many people would recognize her.
Nie Shuangshuang was silent for a while, then explained, "Reportedly, when Lu Wen ascended to the ranks of the Thirteen Heavens back then, the two great Daos he comprehended were time and space. But he could only choose one of them when ascending to Unified Dao Realm, so he used a secret technique to preserve the space Dao…"
She stopped when she got here and just quietly stared at Long Ling'er.
Gu Nan, however, had a sudden realization. Only after hearing Nie Shuangshuang's explanation did he understand Long Ling'er's origin—she wasn't actually part of the dragon race, but a manifestation of the law of space!
No wonder she could manipulate the power of space to such an extent.
In the game's background, only one person could possess a specific Tier 10 or above law at a time.
For example, if the Goddess of Darkness—a major god who was at least Tier 10—already possessed the law of darkness, then it was impossible for a second major god-level god of darkness to exist in this world. Unless the former died, the other gods of darkness would forever be stuck below Tier 10.
The same applied to the Myriad Heavens Universe. Here, people referred to powerhouses on the level of the Thirteen Heavens as "Unified Dao Realm" cultivators, meaning they had already unified their bodies with their Dao.
Correspondingly, they could only merge with one Dao, and once someone ascended to Unified Dao Realm by unifying with a particular law, then no one else would be able to ascend to Unified Dao Realm using that same law anymore.
So be it the Thirteen Heavens here or the Twelve Major Gods in the World of Gods, their internal relations weren't necessarily very harmonious—after all, some of them were blocking others from reaching Unified Dao Realm just by being alive.
On the contrary, there was no such problem between the two plane clusters—for example, Clockwork Heaven and the God of Time both ruled over the law of time, yet both were above Tier 10.
Gu Nan reached the Third Round—Tier 16—in his previous life, so of course he knew this set of rules like the back of his hand. Only it never occurred to him that Long Ling'er was actually an existence Lu Wen used to lay claim to the Dao of space.
In this regard, Lu Wen really was a genius.
There were many people who comprehended two great Daos at once, especially time and space, which were two sides of the same existence. But the number of people who could really use their comprehension of two Daos to their advantage was few and far in between.
For example, the god known as the Ruler of Light and Justice was someone who occupied two great Daos and possessed the characteristics of both light and justice. He became the undisputed strongest among the Twelve Major Gods, but no one knew how he did it.
Although Lu Wen wasn't able to unify two Daos, he laid claim to the great Dao of space in another form—he condensed his own comprehension of space and created a new independent consciousness, which was Long Ling'er.
As long as Long Ling'er could grow stronger in the future and perhaps even reach Tier 10, Lu Wen would gain a natural ally. The benefits were certainly great.
All these thoughts flashed across Gu Nan's mind for an instant, while Long Ling'er was noncommittal.
Nie Shuangshuang wasn't the first person to say this to her, and her origin wasn't considered a secret among the more veteran Star Rulers.
"Where's the one we're going to kill?" Long Ling'er didn't pay much attention to Nie Shuangshuang and merely asked Gu Nan eagerly.
Gu Nan casually opened a passage in space and headed straight for Martial Alliance City. "Come with me. This time we'll try to clear it in one go."
Nie Shuangshuang followed him inside first. She always appeared calm, but her movement at this moment betrayed her.
Having suffered so many defeats at the Silver-Robed Ancestor's hands, to say she wasn't frustrated at all was certainly impossible. And now, the best helper arrived.
With the Dragon of Space, they could perfectly neutralize the Silver-Robed Ancestor's habit of tearing open space to flee at the slightest sign of danger.
[ Using Dao interchangeably with laws, can also mean paths ]