Nine Golden Rings appeared behind Shi Ruolan, forming the shape of a circle; they floated behind her like they were wings. And as soon as they appeared, her aura increased, and the blood energy in her body suddenly increased, creating an area of intense yang energy that could be felt dozens of meters away.
Shu Ruoland had activated a unique technique called the Sovereign Tyrant Body that people with Emperor Bone could only cultivate.
She cultivated this technique by condensing blood energy in the shape of the rings behind her. There were 12 rings, and each subsequent one required more time, energy, and resources to condense.
The Sovereign Tyrant Body was a unique technique that allowed its user to open the Gate of Power after condensing the 11th ring and the Gate of Flesh after condensing the last one.
However, this technique had a significant flaw as it was an active body refining technique. When Shi Ruolan did not activate the rings, her body was relatively weaker; it was still powerful but not nearly as powerful as when she activated them.
As such, she can get assassinated a lot easier before she activates the rings. Luckily, Shi Ruolan used some other techniques to somewhat compensate for the deficiency, which will also disappear after opening the Gate of Power.
Shi Ruolan rushed toward Chu Luo to punch him.
Bang!
She flew back a few dozen meters. She lost in a direct confrontation, and she immediately knew the reason. Her ability forced her opponent to have the same stats as her. However, Chu Luo was better at controlling his strength.
As such, with the exact stats, he could exert more power than her.
Nevertheless, she did not stop attacking after one confrontation. No, she kept rushing at him with the objective of a fist-to-fist brawl. With each attack, she lost, and Chu Luo would go on the offensive to punch her in the stomach, ribs, face, and everywhere else; it was a one-sided beating.
Shi Ruolan planned to evolve amid battle and reach the same level of control as her opponent; she did the same tactic during her battle with Xiao Tiandi. Regrettably, she soon realized the two were in entirely different realms regarding force control.
If she wanted to reach his level, she would need years–and even then, she might fail.
“Let’s change tactic.’ Shi Ruolan decided to stop the fleshly body confrontation and used her other powers. She had lost in this confrontation. Nevertheless, excitement emanated from her eyes as she knew she had met a worthy opponent.
A golden aura covered her body as the natural pressure she released suddenly increased. All the participants could tell she had gotten stronger, and people like Wang Wei, Chu Luo, Zhang Yucheng, Monk Wuzhi, and Xiao Tiandi could tell her strength had increased from the middle of 4-Leaf to the peak.
“Heart of Invincibility,” commented Chu Luo.
“Exactly.”
Chu Luo knew of this state of mind that could boost battle since he cultivated one in his first life. Cultivators can cultivate an Invincible Heart through constant fighting and defeating all opponents, increasing their power in battles.
Invincible Heart has levels. For example, all the people Chu Luo defeated were no match for him in the first place, so his Invincible Heart had little effect on the boost it granted. Meanwhile, Shi Ruolan had to defeat many of her peers–people as talented, if not more than her.
As such, her Invincible Heart gave her a significant boost.
“It’s a shame you’re going to lose your invincible heart after this battle,” Chu Luo commented with a sneer. After his first failure to pass the Outlaw Trial, he lost his Invincible Heart. And as long as Shi Ruolan lost this fight, the same will happen to her.
“We will see,” replied Shi Ruolan with a big grim. Then, golden flames appeared on her body before she punched.
[Sovereign Flame]
The golden flame engulfed half of the sky. However, Chu Luo remained calm. He waved his hand to manifest a cauldron. The cauldron’s top then opened to release an ocean of black water that canceled out the flame.
Shi Ruolan raised her hands to manifest two golden bolts of lightning
Swish!
She threw them so hard that they traveled a few million faster than light. The bolts were powerful and contained a suppressive power even more mighty than a gravity trillion times of a planet similar to Earth.
Regrettably, her opponent responded rapidly and with ease. Silver chains suddenly appeared, and they caught the bolts.
‘Anti-Lightning Chains? No, but also Anti-Sovereign powers. Creation Dao is too versatile in battle.’
Despite this, she would not give up. She had cultivated her Sovereign Dao to a high level where it could compete with Outlaw Daos. She wanted to lord over all laws and concepts; she wanted everything between Heaven and Earth to bow to her–including Grand Dao itself.
With an unwavering fighting intent, Shi Ruolan rushed toward her opponent. When she was closed, she controlled her law to use one of her most potent spells.
[The Court’s Corruption]
Chu Luo’s face changed as he wanted to react and move out of the way; it was too late. A sword with dragon designs on the hill manifested in Shi Ruolan’s hand, and she slashed him.
Chu Luo crossed his arm to defend himself, but the attack’s potency sent him crashing to the ground, destroying many buildings. He only took a few seconds to get back up, but he still had a scar across his arms and small parts of his chest; his white robe was tainted by blood.
With a serious look, he watched Shi Ruolan in the sky.
‘Corruption. Her attack momentarily corrupted my laws, rendering them useless for a brief moment.’
Chu Luo was instantly unhappy–not because he suffered injuries at the hands of a person much weaker than him. But because this technique was the ban of his Creation Dao that was inherently flawed.
As he sensed his body, he could feel some trace of corruption remaining inside his body. Then, a cauldron appeared before him before a few pills popped out from the inside.
After ingesting them, his injured healed at speed visible to the naked eye.
“I know the flaw in your Creation Dao,” Shi Ruolan said. “You can only create items with attributes, but not the attributes themselves; this is why you did not create the black water to extinguish my Sovereign Flame; you had to create a cauldron that could make water.”
Ever since Shi Ruolan knew her opponent controlled an Outlaw Dao without the aura of a Dao Overlord, she knew there would be some restrictions and was on the lookout for them.
After seeing the method he used to deal with the flame, she had her suspicions. However, she confirmed her theory when he used those pills to heal his injuries.
If Chu Luo was an Overlord, he could just create a pill with healing properties instead of creating a cauldron that made healing pills. And if he could use his Creation Dao at an even higher level, he should be able to create the concept of healing to help with his injuries.
However, when he used the power of other purely conceptual laws, he also had to create a weapon with the attribute of the concept he wanted to utilize, for example, the Sword of Fate attack he used.
That attack was not a choice, but Chu Luo could not directly create fate-related techniques. He can only create weapons with fate-related powers, thus limited in the scope of what he can accomplish with his Creation Dao.
“So what?” replied Chu Luo, very annoyed. The flaw in his Dao was a sore spot in his heart; it reminded him of all his failures, how he disappointed his parent’s efforts, and how he had to watch them sacrifice so much for him in vain.
“Supreme Outlaw Dao is Supreme Outawl Dao. No matter the restriction, it is still better than anything you have or will ever have. And I will show its’ power to you.”
“Hahaha, I would love to see how.”
Domain Activation
Chu Luo was in the Incarnation Realm, and his Domain See had evolved into a towering tree and gave birth to the Fruit of Laws. So, he had a powerful Domain to boost his power.
“A Domain? I have one, too,” said Shi Ruolan with laughter as she activated hers. Then, the sky suddenly split into two colors: one golden and the other a misty white and greyish color.
A domain confrontation had started.
The participants watched with great attention–except for Xiao Tiandi, who only watched with half his eyes closed. Wang Wei also paid great attention since there was some benefit to gather.
Empyrean had the power of Creation–at the very least, life creation. And to reach that realm, Great Emperors did not require an understanding of Creation Dao beforehand. However, knowledge on the subject drastically increased the success rate of becoming an Empyrean.
So, he wanted to use this opportunity to learn something from Chu Luo and prepare his path to becoming an Empyrean.