Beaten into a Ball

"The bigger the body, the more pressure it feels. Looks like I can only work on my speed."

To avoid being surrounded, Chen Qing kept himself about the same size as the puppets. Getting too big would only hinder his movements.

What was wind? It was air pressure; it was motion. Chen Qing, who had grasped its essence, knew all this.

But when the puppets attacked, Chen Qing couldn't see them—or rather, he could see the wind, but the black shadow's fist was already there.

"Turning? Shifting? It's formless! So that's how it works!"

Just as the black pillar of shadow struck Chen Qing, his body slid to the side like a sheet of paper, following the force.

It wasn't that Chen Qing had gotten faster. He was moving with the wind, beginning to merge with it.

"Boom!"

A vortex quickly took shape overhead, and a drop of blue-green water fell. Though Chen Qing's movements were ghostly, the drop landed squarely on his forehead.

Only a few days had passed, yet Chen Qing had already earned the recognition of the Law of Wind. He couldn't help feeling exhilarated.

"Hahaha! What a rush!"

Now he was one step closer to the fifth level, and Chen Qing was filled with boundless confidence.

But he hadn't been happy for long when the mist outside churned, and eight more puppets appeared on the plaza.

"That was fast!"

Chen Qing's mouth twitched. One moment of carelessness, and a puppet behind him kicked him in the back.

As his body pitched forward, he hurriedly braced himself with one hand, blocked a fist from the side with his foot, and used its force to dodge being surrounded.

"This won't do. Speed, speed! I have to get faster."

With eight puppets now, he could either tough it out and win through attacking, but attacking was mostly pointless.

Killing them did no good. They would soon recover, and the whole group would take turns against him. Worse, they would keep getting stronger as they copied him.

And it was easy to get surrounded. He could just about handle four puppets, but against twelve, even the slightest delay would leave him surrounded.

The only other option was to use his speed to buy time for as long as possible. Ideally, he'd wear them down by leading them on a chase!

Unfortunately, reality quickly taught Chen Qing a lesson. The twelve puppets were even faster than he was.

No matter which direction he went, even if he dodged one punch, countless more fists would appear at his side.

Chen Qing was either kicked away or smacked aside. It felt like a combination of basketball and soccer, and Chen Qing was the ball!

"Faster! I need to get faster!"

Time kept passing. Though he had plenty of World Power and his wounds healed quickly, Chen Qing's will was beginning to wear down.

Little Cloud kept breaking apart and recovering, only to break apart again. Thankfully, the Green Lotus was there, so her origin wasn't harmed.

"Lightning is about penetration, wind brings acceleration, and light refracts..."

Every idea for speeding up or dodging flashed through Chen Qing's mind, one after another, and he put them to use.

He didn't know how long had passed. Though he had grasped the Law of Light, Chen Qing was still getting beaten up. He was just taking fewer hits than at the beginning.

Suddenly, his vision cleared. The puppet in front of him seemed to slow down, and Chen Qing instinctively adjusted his posture, easily leaping past the figure across from him.

"It slowed down? No, my time sped up!"

As the law acknowledged him, Chen Qing realized that he had grasped a minor branch of Time Acceleration.

"Well, would you look at that. They all had Time Acceleration. I knew there was no way I could dodge them, no matter how fast I got!"

Only now, facing the King-Rank puppets, did Chen Qing realize that several of them carried fluctuations of time. He had been unconsciously learning from them even as he accelerated himself.

"I really was blind to what was right in front of me. The wind kept fooling me for so long, and I wasted all that time!"

At the hill where the Supreme Treasure had originally been, Jiang Fang and Yao Rao had finally found Chen Qing after nearly ten years of travel.

Neither of them had changed much. If anything, they had reined in their auras considerably.

"It really is a palace. You can tell from its aura alone that it's a Peak Supreme Treasure!"

Inside a private room in the Virtual Universe, Original Ancestor and Biluo watched the screen before them.

Behind them, Jiang Fang and Yao Rao exchanged a glance. Why did this senior sound so bitter?

Palace Master Biluo glanced at Original Ancestor. "It's not in the center?"

"Who knows? Has anything strange ever happened when that kid's involved?"

Original Ancestor gave a mocking smile, a hint of schadenfreude in his voice.

"Looks like he's been getting beaten up for ten years, but he's gained quite a lot."

"Teacher, are we really not going to help?"

Yao Rao saw the two of them chatting away, as if they'd forgotten why she and Jiang Fang had come.

"No need!"

Biluo's voice was as cool as ever, though a moment later she added, "The puppets' attacks are part of the trial to recognize their master. It's not so simple for a World Lord to make a Supreme Treasure recognize him."

Original Ancestor glanced at Biluo with curiosity. She was more talkative now. It seemed Biluo had changed quite a bit herself.

"Don't worry. These puppets are nothing like the King-Ranks outside. They have no amplifications or secret techniques, and their only real strength is their defense. They're still a long way from killing that kid!"

Chen Qing was finally feeling at ease. Now that all the laws had initially acknowledged him and the door to the fifth level had opened, his mind had settled.

From here, he could either continue comprehending the laws or start refining his secret techniques.

Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to refine an offensive secret technique, and he didn't want to make things harder for himself.

He would need to give his movement technique some thought, too. Ideally, he'd find a way to connect teleportation with Time Acceleration.

"Unfortunately, I still haven't grasped teleportation. I'll put the movement technique aside for now and focus on offensive techniques."

With these King-Rank puppets as models, and the support of the Origin Land, Chen Qing felt that Time Acceleration wasn't being concealed at all. It was even being demonstrated to him from time to time.

"So whether it's the wind's extreme speed, or lightning or light, when they break the speed of light, the resulting fluctuations involve changes in space and time..."

As time passed, Chen Qing's understanding grew deeper and deeper.

He was no longer focused only on Time Acceleration. He was also beginning to understand the teleportation he'd long been yearning for.

"These fluctuations are constantly converging... These are spatial nodes. Resonance between the nodes causes them to overlap..."

As his understanding grew, Chen Qing was like someone dancing on the edge of a limit. Sometimes, he would even suddenly appear in front of a Marquis-Rank puppet just to taunt it.

At some point, the twelve puppets had become barely able to touch him.

"Roar!"

All the puppets threw their heads back and roared, startling Chen Qing from his absorption in the laws. He wasn't the only one; Jiang Fang and Yao Rao opened their eyes, too.

As Chen Qing wondered what was happening, all the puppets gathered together. The secret markings on their bodies began to merge, and the mist around them grew thicker and thicker!

"They can combine?"

Chen Qing didn't dare let his guard down. Judging by the resistance of the domain, they would soon surpass the King-Rank level.

"Spirit Burning! Mystic Water!"

Chen Qing stood at a distance as his World Power began to boil. His aura steadily rose, though it still fell slightly short of the combined puppet's.

"Amplification!"

Countless blades formed a vast ocean, with wave after wave piling up before finally converging.

Chen Qing brought every means at his disposal to bear, unleashing a strike about as powerful as an ordinary Venerable's casual attack.

Unfortunately, when it landed on the puppet, it only made its aura falter for a moment before quickly settling again.

"Damn it! Why doesn't it have a soul?!"

Watching the Black Mountain bearing down on him, Chen Qing cursed in frustration.

The recognition trial was less than a third complete. If it was interrupted, repeating the process would be pointless.

"There's no other way."

Chen Qing sighed inwardly. As the "Black Mountain" descended, he heard the familiar voice of his woman beside him.

"Don't!"