Chapter 672 - 428: The Former Goal

Chapter 672: Chapter 428: The Former Goal

"It’s not that I don’t trust you..."

Chi Cheng sighed at Lu Cang, his arms crossed and a troubled look on his face.

"It’s just that this whole ’coming back from the future’ thing is a bit too ridiculous."

He turned his head and asked, "Iz, have you ever heard of anything like this?"

Iz just shrugged. "Of course not."

"But it’s not entirely impossible, either."

"Besides, he said he came back with his original power. The him we see now isn’t the same Lu Cang we used to know, right?"

Chi Cheng was surprisingly sharp, grasping the crux of the matter.

After all...

Where did the original Lu Cang go?

For Lu Cang himself, it was a logical progression.

Time had reset, so he had arrived in this timeline.

But for people like Izparut and Chi Cheng, who were native to this timeline... where had the original Lu Cang gone?

Chi Cheng sat cross-legged, his hands clasped before him.

His expression was one of extreme conflict and confusion.

This wasn’t something they could just ignore. It meant the original Lu Cang had vanished.

"Iz, what do you think?"

Chi Cheng asked again.

Izparut scratched his head and sighed softly. "I’ve already thought about this."

"The answer should lie within a certain Magic."

"But I haven’t deciphered the answer from that Magic yet."

Chi Cheng nodded and asked, "Will he be okay?"

Iz shook his head. "If you’re asking about the original Lu Cang... I might be able to explain where he went soon."

"But as for whether he can come back..."

"I’ll only know after more research."

Iz replied seriously.

After their exchange, the two of them looked at Lu Cang in unison.

An indescribable guilt welled up in Lu Cang’s heart.

’Iz and the others... they’re still worried about the original me...’

’They haven’t just calmly accepted this reality because I’ve arrived.’

Chi Cheng said, "Hmm... Lu Cang, you’re coming with us to Boundaryless Mountain, right?"

"Is it confirmed that we’ll be teleported to Boundaryless Mountain?"

Lu Cang replied, "Yes. In the original timeline, you went to Boundaryless Mountain, and the rest of us followed the continent to the Moon Sea."

Chi Cheng mused, "Well, as for An Zheng, Iz should be able to handle him."

"It’s just that his destructive power might be a little hard to contain."

As he spoke, Chi Cheng extended one hand.

He formed a loose fist.

"Do you think your strength is comparable to ours now?"

Lu Cang maintained a calm smile. "It should be about the same."

Chi Cheng leaped from his seat.

"Care for a round?"

"A little spar?"

Lu Cang said, "Sure, a little spar should be fine."

Having reset to this timeline, Lu Cang was also curious. Just how big was the gap between his strength and that of Iz and the others? Or had he already caught up?

He was a Level 5 Warrior and a Level 5 Mage who had also accumulated so many years of experience.

In terms of seniority, Lu Cang was no longer their inferior.

It was just that in the constantly resetting timeline, he couldn’t continue to Upgrade.

Lu Cang could only give up on it for the time being.

However, he had accumulated more than enough.

Once he left this timeline and returned to normal, he should be able to raise his Level many times in a row.

「Battle Arena」

It had been a while since he’d been to this place.

The last time he had used the Battle Arena was about five resets ago.

Subjectively, almost two years had passed.

Inside the arena—

Chi Cheng stretched his body from side to side, warming up with the Invincible Stream’s Living Body Form.

Chi Cheng said, "This time, I’m going to be a little more serious."

"Lu Cang, let me see just how much you’ve improved."

The map was the Ice and Snow Realm.

Ice and snow covered the ground. All around were multi-layered Ice platforms and mirrors suspended in mid-air.

This was an extremely technical map.

Normally, one would have to weave and dodge across the multi-layered icy battlefield.

But the moment Lu Cang and Chi Cheng entered...

BOOM—

Countless shards of Ice shattered instantly.

Lu Cang held a War Spear in one hand—a War Spear wreathed in the countless colors of the Elements.

"That Weapon looks extraordinary."

"How did you get it?"

Lu Cang replied, "Brother Chi Cheng, it’s Magic."

All the Elements are condensed into corresponding materials, and then those materials are used for direct Forging.

This creates brand-new equipment.

Compared to the Magic he had learned before, like "War Spear Generation," "Sword Generation," and "Battleaxe Summoning"...

This Magic was far more High Level.

To be precise...

It wasn’t Pure Magic.

It was a combination of Magic and Forging, accomplished through the Temporary Forging Technique.

And the Temporary Forging Technique...

...was the technique used by the Half-Sheep People who believed in the God of Forging, back in the Aigemisa Trial.

"Haha, how interesting..."

"In that case... let’s begin."

Chi Cheng lowered his upper body slightly. As he crouched, an immense pressure seemed to bear down from all directions!

He was like a bomb charging up, radiating a dangerous aura.

BANG!

The next instant!

Chi Cheng moved in a flash!

’So fast!’

’But it’s no longer a speed I can’t keep up with!’

He vaguely remembered being casually swatted away by Chi Cheng back when he’d first become a Level 4 Warrior.

He couldn’t even see the movements clearly back then.

But now...

"Seventh Forbidden Magic—Elemental Initiation!"

SWOOSH—

A kaleidoscope of colors instantly enveloped the area, centered on Lu Cang!

The coverage spread as if completed in an instant of frozen time.

The Elements had initiated!

BANG—

Aside from Chi Cheng, every other Element in the area collapsed.

Lu Cang could now see a force field constantly emanating from Chi Cheng’s body.

It was this force field that had resisted his Elemental Initiation.

And in the very next instant after Lu Cang unleashed his Initiation...

SWOOSH—

Chi Cheng had already appeared directly above Lu Cang, a Giant Sword in hand, cleaving downward with all his might!

"Second Forbidden Magic—Time Cage!"

VMMMM—

Chi Cheng, who had been moving with incredible speed just a moment ago, was now so slow he seemed frozen in place.

He had been slowed by a factor of ten thousand.

In a flash, Lu Cang appeared behind Chi Cheng instead!

He brought his War Spear down in a vertical slash!

"Azure Sky Stream, Second Form: Split!"

The War Spear slammed into Chi Cheng’s back!

BOOM!

The impact roared like an explosion!

A straight streak of light shot downward as Chi Cheng smashed through the entire ice surface!

’That was surprisingly easy.’

’Chi Cheng... he used to be an unreachable goal.’

’Now, fighting him doesn’t feel that strenuous.’

VMMMM—

Suddenly, even though he could still see Chi Cheng smashed beneath the ice, trapped and unable to move within the Time Cage, his Final Sense delivered a premonition of danger.

In his mind’s eye, Lu Cang faintly saw what was about to happen.

His "Final Sense," combined with "Chronology," "Prophet," and the Level 6 Professional Mastery of a Decryption Scholar, allowed him to understand the source of his intuitive senses.

After a long period of research, he could now directly see the impending Future based on the intuition from his Final Sense.

Chi Cheng’s face, just as Lu Cang had seen in the illusion in the Deep Land, was now covered by a white, mask-like visage.

And the constraints of all Rules weakened around him.

The white-faced Chi Cheng shot out from the ice layer like a bullet.

To them, a bullet’s speed was already slow.

But this was his speed while under a ten-thousand-fold time dilation.

Although he sensed that it wasn’t ten thousand times anymore; the Effect on Chi Cheng had weakened to only a few thousand times slower.

But that was still more than enough to be terrifyingly powerful.

Lu Cang whipped his spear around!

BOOM!

But Chi Cheng met the blow head-on and stopped it cold!

As their strengths collided, Lu Cang felt an unbelievably immense force transfer into his own body!

SPLAT—

The arm holding the War Spear instantly exploded, only to be Reborn at the same time.

’I lost in a head-on clash?’

’Even though my Heaven-Ascending Realm of Perfection had only been stacking for a few seconds...’

’...to be bested in a direct collision with a Level 6 Warrior...’

’...this is the first time it’s happened since I reached Level 5.’