บท 217: Charred wasteland.
Liang Chen's ship passed through the silver vortex as if it was moving through a screen of water, a wave of blisteringly hot air and ash crashing against him the moment his body passed through the vortex. Liang Chen raised his right arm to his head and wiped away the ash that had landed on his face, lowering his arm and gazing at his hand after wiping away the ash.
He clenched his hand a few times while looking at it, his knuckles producing a few popping sounds that were swiftly overshadowed by the explosive sound of the air being compressed and pushed aside within his palm. He had gotten his right arm back thanks to the void so now he no longer had to rely on his spear to form his arm. And not only had he gotten his arm back, but it had also grown quite a bit stronger than before, reaching the verge of the Primordial Immortal realm.
Of course, it was just his right arm that had reached this realm, the rest of his body was still only at the equivalent of the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal realm. Liang Chen knew that it wasn't a coincidence that his arm stopped at the verge of the Primordial Immortal realm, actually breaking through to the Primordial Immortal realm with any of his cultivation systems wasn't as easy as his previous breakthroughs.
The Primordial Immortal realm was a great divide in the cultivation world, it was where one stopped just blindly utilizing the laws and instead had to fuse their laws together to form a single law unique to them. Liang Chen would have a bit of an easier time due to the uniqueness of his three cultivation systems, but he could not get around the fact that he had to fuse all of his laws together. His soul and body were one thing, the laws for those were already fused together and would just need a final tiny touch, like the cherry on top.
His Qi cultivation, however, was a different question. He would have to merge all of his laws into one and use the fusion to fully replace the Dragon Lotus in his chest, as well as the roots that were spread throughout his entire body. A gust blew past Liang Chen's body and caused more hot ash to land on his face, cutting his thought process short and forcing him to wipe his face again. He threw the thoughts to the back of his mind, it was better to take a look at his present situation and leave the thinking about his cultivation for later.
Giving his surroundings a sweeping inspection, Liang Chen saw that his ship was currently hovering above the inverted dome of a dormant volcano. The volcano beneath him was only one of the many that dotted the scorched landscape around him, the earth carrying a strange tint that was a mixture of red and black. Azure cracks spread out from the bases of all the volcanoes, running through the scorched wasteland like gleaming rivers as they connected with each other, forming a strangely enchanting sight beneath the night sky.
Mixed in along with the azure cracks was something that Liang Chen would not have expected to see in such a charred landscape, verdant and sprawling trees. There were thousands of trees spread throughout the landscape, each one at least 100 meters tall and tipped with crowns of violet leaves. The leaves would occasionally fall down and drift along with the wind, dispersing into flickering violet flames and sparks that danced through the night. The few leaves that didn't turn into sparks were swallowed by the azure cracks and turned into warm white ash that covered the ground, occasionally getting picked up by the wind and carried along.
The thing Liang Chen noticed right after observing his surroundings was that there was a somewhat heavy pressure squeezing his body. The pressure didn't feel like it came from anywhere in specific, it seemingly came from all around at once and even somewhat restricted the flow of Liang Chen's Qi. It didn't take too much thought for him to guess at just what was going on. This was a major universe, one of the nine pillar universes no less, it was far mightier and more ancient than his own minor universe.
It wouldn't be strange for such an existence to be far stronger in terms of spatial stability and density of Qi, it was after all basically a higher rank of existence. Liang Chen didn't mind the pressure too much, it didn't impede him too much and it even reminded him of the first time he stepped into the Mystic's Hidden Realm. Back then he was almost unable to move normally due to the immense pressure, what he was feeling now was nothing in comparison.
Liang Chen finished observing his surroundings, he didn't spot any settlements or signs of living beings in the area so it seemed like he had landed in a rather remote place. He stepped out of his ship and used some wind to slow his descent to the ground, landing on the edge of the volcano and putting the ship back into his interspatial ring.
Yumao crawled out from his interspatial ring, looking somewhat confusedly at his surroundings. His consciousness turned dark the moment they entered the spatial vortex and arrived in the void, so he needed to spend a few seconds to understand the situation. Liang Chen slid off his interspatial ring and placed it on one of Yumao's horns, ruffling the feathers on his back for a bit while speaking.
"Sorry, but can you hide around here for a bit so that I can check up on the others?"
Yumao nodded his head repeatedly while hissing, his body descending into the mouth of the volcano as Liang Chen entered the orb within the interspatial ring. Liang Chen could enter the orb even while wearing the interspatial ring, but doing so would mean that the ring would fall to the ground unsupervised, it couldn't enter itself after all.
When Liang Chen arrived in front of the city within the orb, Yi Xue and the 17 other people were still gathered in front of the entrance, working on a large metal board. It had been two and a half days since he picked these people up, but since he had made time flow 500 times slower within the interspatial ring, it had only been about 12 minutes for these people. Noticing his arrival, the 18 people quickly turned around to face him, the black-haired and bronze-eyed man who had introduced himself as Liu San proudly showing Liang Chen the board.
"Greetings, Storm Lord! Reporting in, we have decided to take the liberty of taking this city as the headquarters of the sect, we've also gathered together and agreed on a name for it! Please give us a minute to hang it up, once that's done then we'll be ready to head to the other universe."
Engraved on the nearly 15-meter wide metal plate were the words 'Storm Wolf's Howl', Liu San and the other newly minted disciples working together to hang the sign up between two of the nine marble pillars that stood in front of the city. Liang Chen gazed up at the sign for a bit, tilting his head at the chosen name but eventually deciding to not comment on it, lowering his head to look at the disciples in front of him.
"We've already reached the other universe, but the place we're at right now isn't suitable for the lot of you, taking you out there is more likely to kill some of you. As such, I'll be doing the initial testing right here. Come at me all at once, let me see your skills so that I can see if I can figure out what you need to work on."
Liu San and the other disciples looked somewhat dumbfounded after Liang Chen made his statement, not really sure what to make of it. For a few seconds, they weren't even sure if he was joking or if he was actually planning on having this be their first lesson. But after four seconds had passed, Liang Chen showed just how serious he was with his words.
He took a step forward and turned into a blur as he charged, arriving in front of a shocked Yi Xue almost instantly. She hurriedly rushed to bring out her weapons and raise them to block, but Liang Chen's right palm was already in front of her face by the time her daggers appeared in her grasp. His palm smashed into her face so hard that her nose shattered under the impact and even sank in somewhat, her entire body flying backward like a broken kite before crashing into one of the pillars.
Liang Chen didn't give the remaining people any chance to take in what they had just seen, turning into a blur again as he charged at them one by one. He viciously beat them one by one, hitting them with strength based on their own cultivation and sending them all flying backward with blood leaking out from their mouths. When the last person collapsed to the ground with a groan of pain, Liang Chen lowered his arms, a sharp light in his eyes as he spoke to the moaning disciples.
"Four seconds, I gave you four seconds to prepare and yet you all failed to put up even a sliver of defense. There's no need to mention someone like me, even someone at your own realm would be able to easily kill you in that time with how you're acting. If you want to survive and grow stronger then you have to view every battle as if it was one to the death, always be prepared and always look for an opening. Who among you can still stand up?"
Liang Chen's eyes swept over the crumpled disciples like the eyes of a beast observing its prey, the disciples faltering slightly under his sharp gaze. But even as they faltered, their eyes burned with fire and they did their best to stand up, ignoring the blood leaking from their mouths. Liang Chen had already warned them that it would be painful and dangerous, but they were the ones who had chosen the path of revenge and judgment so they refused to buckle here. Liang Chen gave a slight nod of his head when he saw their resolute actions, only speaking a single word.
"Good."
His body blurred again right after he spoke and he once again arrived at Yi Xue's side, his foot kicking out and smashing into her abdomen. She was kicked into the air while vomiting, quickly falling to the ground again with a loud thud. But Liang Chen had already moved on by the time she was launched into the air, beating up the other disciples again. Once they were all beaten down again, he swept his gaze over them once more.
"Who can still stand up?"
The disciples once again grit their teeth and struggled to stand up, resulting in Liang Chen once again beating them down before asking the same question. He beat them down and they forced themselves to stand so that they could be beaten down again, Liang Chen beating an unyielding attitude into them. They had chosen to step onto the same path that he was walking on, and only by having an unbreakable will and attitude could they walk this path and have any hope of survival.
But he wasn't looking to cripple or terribly harm anyone of them so he stopped after beating them all down a bit over 10 times. He contacted Yumao and had him take out some of the medicinal herbs that were stored in Liang Chen's interspatial ring, transferring them into the orb and into Liang Chen's hands. These particular shrubbery-like herbs were nothing special, but by boiling them in some water and bathing in it one could ease pain and increase the speed at which their body healed. Liang Chen was just about to hand out the herbs when one of the disciples, a burly and tanned middle-aged man with needle-like brown hair and dark yellow eyes, spoke up somewhat hesitantly.
"Um... Wolf Lord, by any chance, did you plant these herbs yourself?"
The disciple speaking was Tien Cui, one of the oldest of Liang Chen's new disciples. Liang Chen's gaze landed on Tien Cui, one of his eyebrows rising in surprise at the fact that Tien Cui had been able to guess that Liang Chen had planted the herbs themselves. They were mixed in with the items he had taken from the people he killed on Dragon's Gate planet before he left so he had placed them into his interspatial ring and planted them in the earth there. Liang Chen nodded his head, Tien Cui somewhat nervously pointing at the roots of the herbs.
"I thought as much. Please forgive me for saying this, but you should take greater care next time you plant them and take them out of the earth. The roots have been torn somewhat and the leaves haven't been cared for properly, resulting in some discoloration and withering. If my guess is correct, the herbs have already lost about 15% of their medicinal energy."
Tien Cui lowered his head slightly after speaking, clearly not yet certain just what sort of actions from him were considered appropriate by his new sect master. Liang Chen looked down at the herbs and saw that Tien Cui was indeed speaking the truth, the roots of the shrubbery-like plants were somewhat torn and leaking juices while some of the leaves had turned a faint yellow. It wasn't much to not take proper care of these low-level herbs, but it would be close to a disaster if he did the same in the future with more high-level herbs. As such, Liang Chen quickly came to a decision and then continued to hand out the herbs.
"I see, thank you for telling me. You guys can pick any house in the city where you want to live, then you can boil these herbs in some water and bathe in it, it'll ease your pain and help you heal. Tien Cui, later on, please teach me what you know about farming and taking care of plants, we've got a large plot of farmland we can use on the other side of the city. The same goes for the rest of you, please teach me about your fields of expertise."
Liang Chen vanished from the area after he finished his words, leaving the orb and appearing on the back of Yumao, sliding the interspatial ring on his finger again. Yumao had descended into the mouth of the volcano, so Liang Chen pointed upwards, not bothering to sit down.
"Can you head on up? We should check out our surroundings, but I'd prefer to do so on foot so that we don't draw too much attention if someone sees us flying through the air."
Yumao nodded his head with a hiss, his body shooting into the sky and out of the volcano before quickly descending down to the ground at the base of the volcano. Liang Chen hopped down from Yumao's back, the charred earth so hot that it actually stung his soles a bit as he stepped on it. Yumao shrunk in size and curled up on top of Liang Chen's head, the man and beast starting their trek across the scorched wasteland to check out this major universe they had just arrived in.
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