Chapter 389 - Fighting Himself

Long Chen was not worried at all, as Zhao Qingyun was carrying them himself. Even though they were moving towards the black rock at high speed, he did not flinch. As expected, the moment he touched the black rock, he felt like he had jumped into a lake and easily sank into the rock.

The world spun and went dark. When his consciousness returned, he realized he was inside a vast, black room.

“This is indeed a small miniverse. It’s like the Heavenly Martial Realm and the Counter Essence Realm, but it’s really small.” Long Chen’s eyes widened as he scanned the room carefully. It was a regular cube, fifty meters long on each side. Even though it was considered a miniverse, it was tiny. However, as far as rooms went, it was a very large room.

The black room was completely empty. Every gentle step he took reverberated throughout the space.

“Murong Yu isn’t here?” Long Chen looked around and realized that Murong Yu wasn’t with him. However, he was sure that she was in another similar room.

“It looks like the mysterious enemy that Master mentioned will appear here ...” If Zhao Qingyun thought it was a mysterious opponent, then it was no simple entity. Basically, if Long Chen defeated it, he would have the right to control the Demon Emperor Sword. As for the final fight, it would be between him and Murong Yu and it would be unrelated to the Demon Emperor Sword. This meant that the mysterious opponent was the Demon Emperor Sword’s way of filtering its master.

It was not to be underestimated.

Long Chen kept his guard up. He knew that this mysterious opponent would appear at any moment now. He didn’t know if it would be an ambush or an obvious attack, but he knew he had to be prepared.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming from the darkness ahead. Long Chen looked up and saw a person floating out of the black wall. This person stood in front of Long Chen with a smirk on his face.

The man was wearing clean, black robes that fit him perfectly. His hair was tied up perfectly too; he had beautiful, dark blue eyes that were as dark as the ocean, yet also as cold.

“Why does this person look so familiar?” Long Chen lamented.

That was when Ling Xi suddenly cried, “Long Chen, isn’t that you?!”

Long Chen jumped, and when he looked more carefully, he noticed that the boy was identical to himself! He gasped and rubbed his eyes a few times. Indeed, he was identical.

This was very creepy.

“You don’t have to guess. I am you. You are Long Chen. I am also Long Chen,” said the boy as he glanced impatiently at Long Chen.

Long Chen was forced to accept this as reality, that the mysterious opponent looked identical to himself. He had made many guesses, but he didn’t expect the opponent to be like this. He suddenly recalled Zhao Qingyun’s reminder, which was to conquer himself.

The mysterious enemy was himself, then.

He had a bad feeling, so he asked carefully, “My techniques and my cultivation level; have you copied them all?”

The boy nodded. “Of course. Like I said, I am you, and you are me! Everything you’ve successfully cultivated—Divine Fire Clone, Traceless Demon Shadow, Shadow Sword, and the Demon Seed Planting Technique—I know them all! On top of that, I have ten percent more Qi than you and my techniques are ten percent more effective! You’re unlucky because you have mastered two stages of the Demon Seed Planting Technique. So, while your Qi increases by fourfold, I get four and half times more!”

Long Chen was terrified. This guy knew everything he had in his arsenal and was stronger! Wasn’t this going to be an unfair fight, then? What was the meaning of this?

“You look scared! Thinking of giving up? How useless,” mocked the boy.

Long Chen was silent for a while. Then he looked up and gave a small smile. “You don’t know me well. Not only does this not scare or anger me, it actually makes me excited. Defeating a stronger version of myself will only make me know myself better and improve from there. Isn’t that a very good thing?”

“If that is the case, have a taste of your own attacks!” There was a cold flash in the boy’s eyes. Then flames shot out of his body and burned brightly. 125 burning fire clones appeared instantly!

“I’ll first let you have a taste of Divine Fire Clone!” He ordered them to attack, and all 125 of them rushed towards Long Chen from all directions!

This was Long Chen’s first time being surrounded, and he felt like he had no space to retreat to. All he could do was fight the clones directly!

Whoosh! Long Chen took out the Star Sword. He was not going to fight them with his own fire clones, because he felt like his opponents’ clones would be stronger anyway. Divine Fire Clone was still very useful to him, and he did not want to waste his Fire Seeds here for nothing.

It took him quite some time to condense 125 True Fire Seeds after all.

Traceless Demon Shadow, activate!

With the Star Sword in hand, Long Chen used Traceless Demon Shadow and turned into a shadow as he wove through the surrounding fire clones. He slashed his sword occasionally, cutting the clones in front of him in half!

However, there were a total of 125 clones. If he had to kill them one by one, he didn’t know how long it would take. And if he exhausted too much of his Qi, he would fare even worse against his opponent.

“Traceless Demon Shadow ... I think I know that too ...” A shadow appeared behind one of the clones. Then something blue and hard slashed down towards Long Chen’s head!

Startled, Long Chen raised his Star Sword to block, and a shrill metallic friction rang across the room. Long Chen’s knees were bent from holding off the huge force, almost forcing him to a kneeling position!

At the very last moment, Long Chen gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to kneel. He roared and used all the strength in his body to push the boy away, who finally stepped backwards. However, the densely packed fire clones swarmed towards him once more, punching at him with their flaming fists. Long Chen could only hold them off with his sword frantically!

However, he did not panic. He was very happy because his opponent’s move made him realize something important.

It’s true that he is indeed very strong with Traceless Demon Shadow and that powerful sword strike. He’s much stronger than the average Eighth River Stage cultivator. However, he is not the real me!

Long Chen had only used a quarter of his strength to hold off his opponent’s strike. After he absorbed the Ancient Bloodsoul Dragon’s Inherited Blood Essence, even without the Dragon Soul Transformation, the red Qi in his body was four times stronger than regular Qi. This was something a normal cultivator could achieve only after using the Demon Seed Planting Technique to its full potential.

And yet he had blocked off the boy’s strike with just a quarter of his strength. What did that say about him?

This means that the mysterious opponent can only imitate my cultivation level, Divine Fire Clone, Traceless Demon Shadow, and the Demon Seed Planting Technique! He even has my Star Sword, but it’s too bad that the Demon Emperor Sword is only a mere Heaven-tier divine weapon! It is unable to imitate my Inherited Blood Essence and its divinities such as the Blood Devouring Domain and Dragon Soul Transformation!

Long Chen had been worried about this. If his opponent knew how to use the Blood Devouring Domain, then his chances of victory would’ve been slim. He had gotten lucky that he could pick any one of the Ancient Bloodsoul Dragon’s divine techniques to defeat him.

Just now, he had suppressed his strength to a quarter of its usual level to test this theory. He knew that the Demon Emperor Sword could never imitate a skill as extraordinary as the Dragon Soul Transformation.

Long Chen smirked coldly, and his speed suddenly increased by fourfold. He dashed towards his opponent and slashed his sword. The opponent had not expected Long Chen to be this fast and quickly dodged using Traceless Demon Shadow. He stared at Long Chen in surprise. “Are you using the Demon Seed Planting Technique to increase your speed by fourfold this soon? I can do that too!”

He had guessed wrongly. Long Chen was only using his regular strength.

Black smoke rose from the boy. Very soon, black mist filled his eyes, and Long Chen sensed that his aura was strengthening to a level almost on par with his and then some. This was the second stage of the Demon Seed Planting Technique.

“What do you think? Can you feel it ... No matter what you use, I’ll be a little stronger than you!” The boy that looked identical to Long Chen laughed like a maniac.

“Idiot,” Long Chen said with a scoff. Then black smoke also rose from his body. When the black mist fully covered his eyes, the amount of Qi in his body was increased by four times, making it a total of sixteen times more Qi than his opponent. Right now, he was as strong as someone at the Ninth River Stage. And it was definitely enough to defeat the guy in front of him.