Chapter 224: Bao Shan.
The expression of the golden-haired and black-eyed handsome man sank somewhat when Liang Chen pointed his gray spear directly at him. He had hoped to use the strong connections and allies that they had to scare him away just like he had done so many times before, but it seemed like the one attacking them this time was a bit more arrogant than the others, or just too dumb to understand just how great those connections were.
But while his expression sank, his eyebrows also furrowed slightly as his thoughts moved. He could tell that Liang Chen was only at the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal realm while he himself had already reached the early stage of the Primordial Immortal realm. He had used some pills and other special treasures to force his own cultivation to rise by a bit, but it wasn't to a stage where others should notice it, so why exactly was Liang Chen still so confident?
Liang Chen ignored the slightly pondering expression of the handsome man and let his gaze sweep over the 500 soldiers gathered up behind the handsome man. The guards in front of the gate of the estate had been forced to spill everything they knew so Liang Chen knew that these 500 people should be close to 90% of the total strength available to this location.
These soldiers were different from the guards outside, who had been hired to make the estate at least seem like they were contributing to the city, they had been born and raised in the estate, bred to be the perfect defense and an eternally loyal force. Liang Chen glanced sideways at Yi Xue and the others, gesturing for them to take a step back before turning his gaze onto the soldiers again.
"Watch closely. Observe and learn, maybe you'll gain some insight for your own attacks or techniques."
Yi Xue and the others hurriedly stepped back while keeping their eyes locked on Liang Chen, they were all far too weak to get involved in his battles. The handsome man's eyes narrowed dangerously when he heard Liang Chen's calm statement, quickly giving a wave of his hand.
"Prepare the 50-segmented format...!"
The man's pupils shrank rapidly before he could finish his words, he saw Liang Chen's body vanish as a blur shot past his vision. By the time the first bead of sweat had managed to seep out of his forehead, Liang Chen had already arrived in the midst of all the soldiers, his low mutter the only sound that could be heard.
"I hope that your next lives will be better and luckier."
These soldiers were born and bred here, all they knew was to protect the estate while aiding them in their deeds, they probably weren't even be aware of just how vile those deeds were. But that didn't change the fact that they had done what they did, it didn't change the fact that their minds had already been twisted and geared towards these actions. So he would kill them without remorse, at most hoping that their next lives would at least give them a chance to go down a different path, because he himself did not have the mercy to give them that chance in this life.
Liang Chen swept out his spear the moment he finished muttering what could be called the last rite of these soldiers, the tip of the spear tracing a translucent purple line in the air. The line shot forward and passed through the soldiers as if they were air, each soldier who was touched by the line falling to the ground with dull eyes. The translucent purple line was a fusion of Liang Chen's law of death, poison, rot, and his Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi.
With one sweep of his spear, nearly 200 soldiers and some of the mentally twisted slaves that had run to them to seek shelter from Liang Chen's group fell lifelessly to the ground. The Wrathful Scourge Lord had proclaimed his name earlier, now he was proving it to all who looked upon him.
His spear swept out a second time the moment he finished his first sweep, drawing an even larger arc through the air than before. Another translucent line swept out and passed through the remaining people, reducing what was once 500 soldiers and about 50 slaves to only Liang Chen and the handsome young man. Liang Chen was someone who could only be described as a freak of nature, especially after the Void Born blood merged with his own bloodline. If one wanted to be able to stand against him they would either have to be several realms above him or be similarly freaky thanks to either a bloodline, technique, or the law they cultivated.
With the fall of the soldiers, Liang Chen's gaze landed on the handsome man, the leader of this entire estate. By now, the handsome man would have to be a fool to not understand that Liang Chen was stronger than he seemed, just the blinding speed he showed earlier meant that he was more than capable of taking on the handsome man.
The man's expression turned solemn as his finger twitched so that he could swipe his interspatial ring to draw forth his weapon. But Liang Chen moved at the same time and appeared right at the side of the man, his leg sweeping out in a sideways kick. Lightning and time were amongst the fastest laws, the fusion of the two gave Liang Chen such speed that he arrived at the man's side before he even managed to swipe his ring.
The man could only burst forth with all his Qi to form a shield in front of his abdomen, he knew that he would never have the time to move his arms into position to block. Liang Chen's leg collided with the shield of Qi, a bit of the law of the void seeping out and erasing the hastily constructed shield.
Liang Chen's leg then smashed directly into the handsome man's abdomen and caused him to spew forth blood as his body bent and shot backward, arcs of lightning trailing from his charred abdomen. Liang Chen mainly used his Qi to fight, but his body had also reached the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, and thanks to the uniqueness of his laws and the technique he used for his body, his body cultivation was quite a bit stronger than others of the same realm.
The handsome man flew back and crashed into the white pyramid so hard that large cracks started to extend out from the place he crashed into it, the entire pyramid ending up covered in a spiderweb-like pattern of cracks. The man didn't cultivate his body properly, he had even needed to use pills and the like to reach the Primordial Immortal realm, so his back practically exploded open upon crashing into the pyramid, even surprising Liang Chen somewhat.
The man slid down the side of the pyramid and fell to the ground while gushing forth blood from his entire body, he had been even weaker than Liang Chen originally expected him to be. Liang Chen put away his spear and started walking towards the man, swiftly arriving in front of the sprawled out body, which tenaciously clung to life. The man struggled to raise his head to glare at Liang Chen, sputtering out a few words through his bloodstained death.
"You...You may have won now... but you have doomed yourself and all around you.... You will be hunted and... framed... you will have all the... sins of the world thrown on your shoulders... you will be hunted by all as revenge..."
No one who went against the Tranquil Lake or the Golden Branch sect ever met a good end, they were hunted and exterminated even by unaffiliated parties. Liang Chen might destroy this estate here, but the Golden Branch sect or the Tranquil Lake would just start hunting him and pin other crimes on him. If he turned out to be too strong they would even abandon one of their own estates and pin all the vile deeds it had done on him to create outrage, they would do everything in their power to ensure that their enemies never had a single day of rest. But faced with his threat of certain doom, Liang Chen didn't even raise an eyebrow, he simply pointed a finger at the head of the man.
"And? Go ahead if you can, gather all the sinful acts of the world for me to bear. And shoulder them I will, it changes nothing. I will still walk down my path with my head held high, even if that brands me with the title of Prime Sinner."
This was Liang Chen's determination and arrogance, one that didn't even care if all the hate of the world was gathered on him. A translucent poison shot out from Liang Chen's finger and entered the soul of the handsome man, rendering his gaze blurry and unfocused as he fell under Liang Chen's control. He only had a bit of life in him and his speech was slurred and staggering, but Liang Chen still forced him to spit out as much as he knew, forcing him to keep talking until the last trace of life vanished from him and he was freed from Liang Chen.
With the death of the handsome man, the estate was utterly finished. The only people left in it were the remaining 50 soldiers as well as the slaves and the various people undergoing experiments. Liang Chen and his group entered the pyramid and swept through the entire thing, freeing the last of the slaves and those that were being experimented on. These people made the same choice as the previous ones he had picked up, they had nowhere to go so they all chose to join up with Liang Chen, once again causing his Storm Wolf sect to grow in numbers.
They also swept through the treasury of the estate, everything of worth ending up in Liang Chen's interspatial ring. The slaves had no one else and the soldiers had all been born and raised here, none of them had any family within the city that could use some of the wealth, leaving it all to him. When they finished checking the last room in the pyramid, Liang Chen turned his head slightly, as if he could peer through the walls. He let out a light breath and then waved his hand, drawing Yi Xue and the others into the orb in his interspatial ring.
"Let's go, Yumao, I'll probably need your help with this one."
Yumao let out a short hiss in response, expanding to his full size of nearly seven meters and flapping his wings as he flew at Liang Chen's side. The two left the pyramid and once again arrived in the now flattened area that used to be an exotic forest. A sea of people had gathered outside the metal fence that surrounded the entire estate, but none of them dared to set foot through the gate that Liang Chen had torn out, none of them dared to get closer to the sole man that was standing in the open area and waiting for Liang Chen.
Liang Chen's gaze locked onto the man, who looked to be in his 80's or 90's, yet had shimmering black hair and a brown beard that hung all the way down to his chest. The man suited the description that Liang Chen had received of the city governor, the sole person in the city who had reached the middle stage of the Primordial Immortal realm. Liang Chen's spear appeared in his grasp, his gaze sweeping through the surroundings for a bit.
"You didn't bother bringing any of your guards or anyone from the Tranquil Lake?"
There were no living beings in the surroundings other than the sea of people outside the fence, but none of the people that fell into the range of Liang Chen's senses had strength greater than the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm so it was unlikely that they were soldiers or assassins. The governor, Bao Shan, allowed his blue eyes to roam over Liang Chen and Yumao for a bit before he gave a light shake of his head.
"I had no one I could bring, they've all been killed. I don't know what you did, but Senior Sparrow seems to have completely abandoned this city and the branch of the Tranquil Lake, he's even gotten rid of everyone who worked for him so that no information ends up spreading."
Liang Chen's expression sank and his eyebrows furrowed slightly when he heard Bao Shan's response. He had previously seen how the Sky-Piercing Sparrow had gotten rid of the six men to avoid them spilling any information about him. They had been twisted and distorted into fleshy vortexes, it was an exceedingly grim way to go.
It could be said that this saved Liang Chen from the trouble of heading to the Tranquil Lake in the 9th district to deal with them, but at the same time this meant that he lost the chance to gather a lot of information. The Sky-Piercing Sparrow was also definitely far more ruthless than Liang Chen, who wasn't above sparing those he felt hadn't sinned too much, the Sky-Piercing Sparrow might have simply killed everyone working for the Tranquil Lake no matter how low their position.
Bao Shan ignored Liang Chen's furrowed brows and stretched out his arms, red light flashing out from his palms and turning into two larger crimson greataxes. The weapons gave him a similar feeling to his own spear so he guessed that they were created by a Bloodwind Code, Bao Shan nodding his head in a curt greeting.
"I am Bao Shan, I hope that I will be the one remaining alive after this fight."
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