Chapter 277: First contact.
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By the time Liang Chen pulled back his hand, the woman's eyes had turned blank and lifeless, dark pink foam bubbling out from her mouth. She collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes while Liang Chen lowered his arm, a bit of foam still clinging to his palm. He had forced her to spit out everything she knew and gotten hold of a bit more information, including several places that had a few decent resources that might be useful to either him or Yumao.
But even so, his expression was darker than it had been when he entered the mansion. He looked down at the corpse of the woman and the dead man strapped to the bed, eventually turning his gaze sideways so that he could look out from the window and oversee the city that spread out in front of him. As he overlooked the eerily quiet city, his dark expression eventually gave way to one that made him look a bit more tired.
"Beasts by nature or by circ.u.mstance, which is worse and which is better? And which one of them applies here?"
He didn't talk to anyone in particular, he was simply voicing his thoughts out so that they wouldn't fester inside his mind. The dead couldn't and wouldn't answer his aimless questions, but there was one being coiled up on his head that was more than happy to answer him.
"Hehe, does it matter? Will the answer save the little mongoloids when it's time to take out the trash?"
Yumao was a perfect representation of a beast by nature. He was born at Liang Chen's side and had followed him all along, so it stood to reason that he would be quite similar to him. But Yumao didn't have the same view on life as Liang Chen, innocent or sinner, kind or cruel, none of that really mattered to him.
He was as powerful Demonic beast, other than the close ties he had to some people, most other lives weren't all that important to him, he certainly wouldn't go out of his way to save someone unrelated to him for no good reason. Liang Chen remained silent for a moment as Yumao snickered, his gaze sweeping over the quiet city once more before he nodded his head and forced the slightly tired expression away from his face.
"You're right, it really doesn't matter. In the end, whether or not it made the choice or if it was born like that, a beast is a beast. The same is true whether it is a living being or not."
Liang Chen flicked his finger after he finished talking, the interspatial ring of the woman flying into his grasp. She and her two sisters had ruled this city for close to 30 years already, they had all accrued a fair bit of wealth so it would be foolish to leave behind a part of it. He didn't bother going through the mansion to look for any hidden vaults filled with treasure, the woman hadn't planned on staying here for more than 100 years so she hadn't bothered to prepare any such rooms.
Liang Chen left the room and slowly walked through the halls of the mansion, the Qi in his moving faintly as a fine white mist seeped out of his body. The mist spread out and covered the entire mansion as well as a small area around it, forming a poisonous domain that none in this city would be able to resist.
And all at once, all but two of the people residing in the mansion and the area around it melted, the bonds keeping their cells together liquefying under Liang Chen's poison. The woman was one of this city's three rulers, she had people scattered all around it gathering information for her. With Liang Chen taking hold of her knowledge, it was tantamount to him learning about everything that had happened in this city over the last 30 years.
So he knew, he knew exactly what sort of depths the people here were willing to fall to, how deep they were willing to go thanks to the coercion of Purgatory's Cradle. And that depth sickened him, no matter how many times he had come into contact with it. So he did what he had set out to do from the very start of his path, he murdered those that the heavens should have disposed of many years ago. While walking, he didn't forget to speak out, sending his voice to the remaining two people.
"The two of you haven't done anything yet so you can leave, Purgatory's Cradle isn't a good place to be so I'd suggest leaving. You are free to disregard my advice if you want to, I just hope that I won't stumble upon you in the future and learn that you have sunk to the same depths as the rest."
He reached another door in the mansion before long and entered it, stepping into a large hall that seemed to have been built to host parties. He walked over to his target, a massive window that stood several metres tall and wide, a window from which he could see the second of the three mansions that formed the edges of the city. He placed his hand on the glass, raising his gaze slightly and tapping Yumao on the head with his other hand.
"Ey, you should hop in and hide for a while, no way that you can handle the speed."
Yumao puffed slightly but still assented, sinking into Liang Chen's dantian in a flash of light. Yumao had been nourished by Liang Chen's own blood while he was still in his egg, he could easily hide within Liang Chen's body and saving them the usual trouble of buying a pouch that could hold Demonic beasts.
Once Yumao hid, the glass around Liang Chen's palm melted as a thin bolt of dull lightning shot out and connected the two mansions. The rest of the glass exploded when the resulting thunder rumbled out, but none of the dust-like fragments managed to reach Liang Chen before they fell to the ground.
Liang Chen was fast, extremely fast even. When he first reached this major universe, his fastest speed had been around 50 metres a second, a speed that had only increased as his cultivation did. But how could that speed possibly compare to the speed of lightning, which sat at around 100 kilometres per second? And how was a person's body supposed to resist the forces that acted on his body under such an extreme speed? Their organs and veins would rupture, their bones would pulverize and they would end up as nothing more than scattered paste.
But Liang Chen wasn't a normal person, nor was his body normal. Forget about his bloodlines, even the body cultivation technique he cultivated was immensely peculiar. Most of his body had already been turned into pure lightning, as well as a few other elements. And thanks to this, it was theoretically possible for him to fuse with lightning, he was basically doing that every time he absorbed lightning to heal his wounds.
And in such a state, the only thing he really had to protect was the few parts of his body that had yet to be altered, and that was much easier than trying to protect his entire body. And it was thanks to this that he was able to instantly appear on the roof of the other mansion, right at the end of the lightning bolt he had sent out.
His face had gotten a bit paler and his stomach turned thanks to the sheer speed he had just experienced, but he remained unharmed. He exhaled a long breath and waved his hand, the dull violet lightning returning to his body now that he had finished his experiment. It was a useable technique, but for the moment he felt like he could only use it for long-distance travel, he would have to experiment a bit more to come up with other uses that fit him.
He lowered his gaze to the roof beneath his feet, the wood withering and dying, collapsing under his weight so that he fell into the mansion. He spread out his poison once more and located the second of the three rulers, his poison already flooding her soul. She fell under his control and quickly made her way over to him, willingly spewing out every little act she had done or heard about in her life.
And once she finished talking, her body solidified and turned to stone, all but a single person in the entire mansion sharing her fate. Liang Chen sent out his voice once more, giving the sole survivor the same advice he had given the first two before he picked up the interspatial ring of the woman. He made his way over to a different room with a large window, once more sending out a bolt of lightning that connected this mansion with the final mansion in this city.
He stepped onto the lightning and instantly reached the other mansion, but he had miscalculated the trajectory of the lightning a little so he smashed directly through the entire mansion rather than land on top of it. He luckily had a strong body, and the reaction speed to break apart any obstacle before he crashed into it, so he managed to avoid the worst-case scenario.
But he still looked a bit awkward as he rose from the ground, dust and scattered patches of earth covering him. He spat out a breath and got rid of the dirt, accidents were only to be expected when you were trying out something new. He spread out his poison domain once more as he entered the mansion, his eyebrow rising in surprise when he discovered the location of the final sister that ruled this city.
He slowly walked through the halls of the mansion, the final sister also moving in his direction. The two met before long, facing each other in one of the more narrow hallways where the floor was covered by a blue carpet. The woman in front of him could only be considered petite, almost half his height and with nearly child-like features. But just like her other sisters, she was already approaching 200 years of age, she only had this appearance due to the fact that she, unfortunately, ate a certain flower when she was young.
But it wasn't her appearance that had surprised Liang Chen, it was her soul. To be more specific, it was the fact that the soul residing within her body didn't actually belong to her, it was just a tiny fragment of someone else's soul. There were faint traces left in her soulsea that showed that her soul had indeed been there as usually not long ago, it had probably been extinguished just before Liang Chen arrived. And as for who could do such a thing, Liang Chen already had a guess.
"The Nine Wraths sect, no?"
The three sisters were members of the Nine Wraths sect, outer disciples sent here in case any news about Purgatory popped up in the area. So if anyone could extinguish their soul and take over their bodies in such a strange manner then it would definitely be the Nine Wraths sect. And his assumption was quickly proven correct, a dim black light flashing in the woman's blue pupils as a slightly aged voice slipped out from between her lips.
"So you already know, good. I was wondering who it was that was killing our disciples so quickly, but I hadn't expected it to be a Primordial Immortal cultivator. Tell me, isn't it a bit below you to linger around here and deal with kids like these? Where is your pride as a powerful cultivator?"
The three sisters were only at the Soaring Immortal realm, Liang Chen could kill thousands of them without even shedding a drop of sweat. For a powerful Primordial Immortal cultivator to personally slay some small Soaring Immortal people was indeed a manner that some would consider shameless, especially when there was no deep grudge between them. But Liang Chen wasn't bothered, he simply waved his hand in a gesture towards a dried up heap of bones scattered by the other end of the hallway.
"My pride? You can find that in all the corpses I've scattered here and will scatter in the future."
Liang Chen had chosen a path that could be considered evil, he was a hypocrite that was just as bad as the people he killed. But he still took pride in the path he had chosen, and each innocent person that got to live because of a life he took was one that added to his pride. The light in the woman's pupils flashed for a few instances as she glanced at the bones, her eyes narrowing sharply as she delivered the ultimatum.
"...We'll ignore what you've done here, but in the future, please don't go around killing people from our sect. They all serve a purpose and each one killed makes our work a little bit harder, even if its weaklings like these three. We don't want to be enemies with you, but that doesn't mean that we are afraid of you. On the contrary, you are the one who should be afraid, you should already know that we aren't limited to Primordial Immortals in our sect. You pretend like we don't exist, and we'll pretend like you don't exist, that should be what's best for both of us."
The Nine Wraths sect was indeed not scared of a Primordial Immortal cultivator, they weren't even scared of most Transcended Immortal cultivators. But that didn't mean that they were willing to become enemies with just everyone, at least not on the surface and in the open. If they could have Liang Chen leave them alone until they felt that they had a need for his life, that would be for the best. But Liang Chen didn't even give the prospect any thought and turned it down straight away.
"I don't need you to ignore what I've done here. I've already heard a lot about how you act and how you train your disciples, what you teach them. So let me tell you this, I don't accept it."
The Nine Wraths sect was located at the centre of Purgatory's Cradle and had existed there for many years already, the natural laws of this place were also the natural laws that they adhered to with all their hearts. All lives existed to be used, even the closest of relationsh.i.p.s could be ended at a moment's notice if you stood to gain one of this realm's benefits from doing so. They were undoubtedly the type of people that Liang Chen despised the most. His refusal and statement were simple, the woman in front of him sneering in response.
"Are you sure you want to become enemies with us just because of something so small? If you've gone through their memories then you should also know about or Nine Wraths Lamentation, don't think that all our disciples are like these little ones."
The soul that had taken over her body for this meeting knew what Liang Chen was talking about, he wasn't fond of the way they killed people so easily and indiscriminately and was willing to become their enemy just because of it. But if he thought that a mere Primordial Immortal could really become a proper enemy just because he killed two outer disciples, then a disdainful sneer was the only answer she could come up with. It was a bare-faced threat, but Liang Chen simply didn't care about it.
"I know, and I don't care. You can bring out all nine of your wraths, I only need my one."
The dim black light flashing in the woman's eyes faded after Liang Chen finished his statement, the small soul fragment that had taken over her body dissipating under Liang Chen's law of death. The woman's body fell to the floor, Liang Chen snatching her interspatial ring and storing it alongside the rest.
The woman had been the last living person in this mansion, the rest had already fallen to Liang Chen's law of rot and become withered bones. So with her death, all three mansions had been cleared out, Liang Chen spitting out another breath as he turned around and left the mansion.
"Phew, I really seem to be making enemies wherever I go. Let's go, Yumao, we'll finish up in this city and then move."
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By the time Liang Chen pulled back his hand, the woman's eyes had turned blank and lifeless, dark pink foam bubbling out from her mouth. She collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes while Liang Chen lowered his arm, a bit of foam still clinging to his palm. He had forced her to spit out everything she knew and gotten hold of a bit more information, including several places that had a few decent resources that might be useful to either him or Yumao.
But even so, his expression was darker than it had been when he entered the mansion. He looked down at the corpse of the woman and the dead man strapped to the bed, eventually turning his gaze sideways so that he could look out from the window and oversee the city that spread out in front of him. As he overlooked the eerily quiet city, his dark expression eventually gave way to one that made him look a bit more tired.
"Beasts by nature or by circ.u.mstance, which is worse and which is better? And which one of them applies here?"
He didn't talk to anyone in particular, he was simply voicing his thoughts out so that they wouldn't fester inside his mind. The dead couldn't and wouldn't answer his aimless questions, but there was one being coiled up on his head that was more than happy to answer him.
"Hehe, does it matter? Will the answer save the little mongoloids when it's time to take out the trash?"
Yumao was a perfect representation of a beast by nature. He was born at Liang Chen's side and had followed him all along, so it stood to reason that he would be quite similar to him. But Yumao didn't have the same view on life as Liang Chen, innocent or sinner, kind or cruel, none of that really mattered to him.
He was as powerful Demonic beast, other than the close ties he had to some people, most other lives weren't all that important to him, he certainly wouldn't go out of his way to save someone unrelated to him for no good reason. Liang Chen remained silent for a moment as Yumao snickered, his gaze sweeping over the quiet city once more before he nodded his head and forced the slightly tired expression away from his face.
"You're right, it really doesn't matter. In the end, whether or not it made the choice or if it was born like that, a beast is a beast. The same is true whether it is a living being or not."
Liang Chen flicked his finger after he finished talking, the interspatial ring of the woman flying into his grasp. She and her two sisters had ruled this city for close to 30 years already, they had all accrued a fair bit of wealth so it would be foolish to leave behind a part of it. He didn't bother going through the mansion to look for any hidden vaults filled with treasure, the woman hadn't planned on staying here for more than 100 years so she hadn't bothered to prepare any such rooms.
Liang Chen left the room and slowly walked through the halls of the mansion, the Qi in his moving faintly as a fine white mist seeped out of his body. The mist spread out and covered the entire mansion as well as a small area around it, forming a poisonous domain that none in this city would be able to resist.
And all at once, all but two of the people residing in the mansion and the area around it melted, the bonds keeping their cells together liquefying under Liang Chen's poison. The woman was one of this city's three rulers, she had people scattered all around it gathering information for her. With Liang Chen taking hold of her knowledge, it was tantamount to him learning about everything that had happened in this city over the last 30 years.
So he knew, he knew exactly what sort of depths the people here were willing to fall to, how deep they were willing to go thanks to the coercion of Purgatory's Cradle. And that depth sickened him, no matter how many times he had come into contact with it. So he did what he had set out to do from the very start of his path, he murdered those that the heavens should have disposed of many years ago. While walking, he didn't forget to speak out, sending his voice to the remaining two people.
"The two of you haven't done anything yet so you can leave, Purgatory's Cradle isn't a good place to be so I'd suggest leaving. You are free to disregard my advice if you want to, I just hope that I won't stumble upon you in the future and learn that you have sunk to the same depths as the rest."
He reached another door in the mansion before long and entered it, stepping into a large hall that seemed to have been built to host parties. He walked over to his target, a massive window that stood several metres tall and wide, a window from which he could see the second of the three mansions that formed the edges of the city. He placed his hand on the glass, raising his gaze slightly and tapping Yumao on the head with his other hand.
"Ey, you should hop in and hide for a while, no way that you can handle the speed."
Yumao puffed slightly but still assented, sinking into Liang Chen's dantian in a flash of light. Yumao had been nourished by Liang Chen's own blood while he was still in his egg, he could easily hide within Liang Chen's body and saving them the usual trouble of buying a pouch that could hold Demonic beasts.
Once Yumao hid, the glass around Liang Chen's palm melted as a thin bolt of dull lightning shot out and connected the two mansions. The rest of the glass exploded when the resulting thunder rumbled out, but none of the dust-like fragments managed to reach Liang Chen before they fell to the ground.
Liang Chen was fast, extremely fast even. When he first reached this major universe, his fastest speed had been around 50 metres a second, a speed that had only increased as his cultivation did. But how could that speed possibly compare to the speed of lightning, which sat at around 100 kilometres per second? And how was a person's body supposed to resist the forces that acted on his body under such an extreme speed? Their organs and veins would rupture, their bones would pulverize and they would end up as nothing more than scattered paste.
But Liang Chen wasn't a normal person, nor was his body normal. Forget about his bloodlines, even the body cultivation technique he cultivated was immensely peculiar. Most of his body had already been turned into pure lightning, as well as a few other elements. And thanks to this, it was theoretically possible for him to fuse with lightning, he was basically doing that every time he absorbed lightning to heal his wounds.
And in such a state, the only thing he really had to protect was the few parts of his body that had yet to be altered, and that was much easier than trying to protect his entire body. And it was thanks to this that he was able to instantly appear on the roof of the other mansion, right at the end of the lightning bolt he had sent out.
His face had gotten a bit paler and his stomach turned thanks to the sheer speed he had just experienced, but he remained unharmed. He exhaled a long breath and waved his hand, the dull violet lightning returning to his body now that he had finished his experiment. It was a useable technique, but for the moment he felt like he could only use it for long-distance travel, he would have to experiment a bit more to come up with other uses that fit him.
He lowered his gaze to the roof beneath his feet, the wood withering and dying, collapsing under his weight so that he fell into the mansion. He spread out his poison once more and located the second of the three rulers, his poison already flooding her soul. She fell under his control and quickly made her way over to him, willingly spewing out every little act she had done or heard about in her life.
And once she finished talking, her body solidified and turned to stone, all but a single person in the entire mansion sharing her fate. Liang Chen sent out his voice once more, giving the sole survivor the same advice he had given the first two before he picked up the interspatial ring of the woman. He made his way over to a different room with a large window, once more sending out a bolt of lightning that connected this mansion with the final mansion in this city.
He stepped onto the lightning and instantly reached the other mansion, but he had miscalculated the trajectory of the lightning a little so he smashed directly through the entire mansion rather than land on top of it. He luckily had a strong body, and the reaction speed to break apart any obstacle before he crashed into it, so he managed to avoid the worst-case scenario.
But he still looked a bit awkward as he rose from the ground, dust and scattered patches of earth covering him. He spat out a breath and got rid of the dirt, accidents were only to be expected when you were trying out something new. He spread out his poison domain once more as he entered the mansion, his eyebrow rising in surprise when he discovered the location of the final sister that ruled this city.
He slowly walked through the halls of the mansion, the final sister also moving in his direction. The two met before long, facing each other in one of the more narrow hallways where the floor was covered by a blue carpet. The woman in front of him could only be considered petite, almost half his height and with nearly child-like features. But just like her other sisters, she was already approaching 200 years of age, she only had this appearance due to the fact that she, unfortunately, ate a certain flower when she was young.
But it wasn't her appearance that had surprised Liang Chen, it was her soul. To be more specific, it was the fact that the soul residing within her body didn't actually belong to her, it was just a tiny fragment of someone else's soul. There were faint traces left in her soulsea that showed that her soul had indeed been there as usually not long ago, it had probably been extinguished just before Liang Chen arrived. And as for who could do such a thing, Liang Chen already had a guess.
"The Nine Wraths sect, no?"
The three sisters were members of the Nine Wraths sect, outer disciples sent here in case any news about Purgatory popped up in the area. So if anyone could extinguish their soul and take over their bodies in such a strange manner then it would definitely be the Nine Wraths sect. And his assumption was quickly proven correct, a dim black light flashing in the woman's blue pupils as a slightly aged voice slipped out from between her lips.
"So you already know, good. I was wondering who it was that was killing our disciples so quickly, but I hadn't expected it to be a Primordial Immortal cultivator. Tell me, isn't it a bit below you to linger around here and deal with kids like these? Where is your pride as a powerful cultivator?"
The three sisters were only at the Soaring Immortal realm, Liang Chen could kill thousands of them without even shedding a drop of sweat. For a powerful Primordial Immortal cultivator to personally slay some small Soaring Immortal people was indeed a manner that some would consider shameless, especially when there was no deep grudge between them. But Liang Chen wasn't bothered, he simply waved his hand in a gesture towards a dried up heap of bones scattered by the other end of the hallway.
"My pride? You can find that in all the corpses I've scattered here and will scatter in the future."
Liang Chen had chosen a path that could be considered evil, he was a hypocrite that was just as bad as the people he killed. But he still took pride in the path he had chosen, and each innocent person that got to live because of a life he took was one that added to his pride. The light in the woman's pupils flashed for a few instances as she glanced at the bones, her eyes narrowing sharply as she delivered the ultimatum.
"...We'll ignore what you've done here, but in the future, please don't go around killing people from our sect. They all serve a purpose and each one killed makes our work a little bit harder, even if its weaklings like these three. We don't want to be enemies with you, but that doesn't mean that we are afraid of you. On the contrary, you are the one who should be afraid, you should already know that we aren't limited to Primordial Immortals in our sect. You pretend like we don't exist, and we'll pretend like you don't exist, that should be what's best for both of us."
The Nine Wraths sect was indeed not scared of a Primordial Immortal cultivator, they weren't even scared of most Transcended Immortal cultivators. But that didn't mean that they were willing to become enemies with just everyone, at least not on the surface and in the open. If they could have Liang Chen leave them alone until they felt that they had a need for his life, that would be for the best. But Liang Chen didn't even give the prospect any thought and turned it down straight away.
"I don't need you to ignore what I've done here. I've already heard a lot about how you act and how you train your disciples, what you teach them. So let me tell you this, I don't accept it."
The Nine Wraths sect was located at the centre of Purgatory's Cradle and had existed there for many years already, the natural laws of this place were also the natural laws that they adhered to with all their hearts. All lives existed to be used, even the closest of relationsh.i.p.s could be ended at a moment's notice if you stood to gain one of this realm's benefits from doing so. They were undoubtedly the type of people that Liang Chen despised the most. His refusal and statement were simple, the woman in front of him sneering in response.
"Are you sure you want to become enemies with us just because of something so small? If you've gone through their memories then you should also know about or Nine Wraths Lamentation, don't think that all our disciples are like these little ones."
The soul that had taken over her body for this meeting knew what Liang Chen was talking about, he wasn't fond of the way they killed people so easily and indiscriminately and was willing to become their enemy just because of it. But if he thought that a mere Primordial Immortal could really become a proper enemy just because he killed two outer disciples, then a disdainful sneer was the only answer she could come up with. It was a bare-faced threat, but Liang Chen simply didn't care about it.
"I know, and I don't care. You can bring out all nine of your wraths, I only need my one."
The dim black light flashing in the woman's eyes faded after Liang Chen finished his statement, the small soul fragment that had taken over her body dissipating under Liang Chen's law of death. The woman's body fell to the floor, Liang Chen snatching her interspatial ring and storing it alongside the rest.
The woman had been the last living person in this mansion, the rest had already fallen to Liang Chen's law of rot and become withered bones. So with her death, all three mansions had been cleared out, Liang Chen spitting out another breath as he turned around and left the mansion.
"Phew, I really seem to be making enemies wherever I go. Let's go, Yumao, we'll finish up in this city and then move."
By the time Liang Chen pulled back his hand, the woman's eyes had turned blank and lifeless, dark pink foam bubbling out from her mouth. She collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes while Liang Chen lowered his arm, a bit of foam still clinging to his palm. He had forced her to spit out everything she knew and gotten hold of a bit more information, including several places that had a few decent resources that might be useful to either him or Yumao. But even so, his expression was darker than it had been when he entered the mansion. He looked down at the corpse of the woman and the dead man strapped to the bed, eventually turning his gaze sideways so that he could look out from the window and oversee the city that spread out in front of him. As he overlooked the eerily quiet city, his dark expression eventually gave way to one that made him look a bit more tired. "Beasts by nature or by circ.u.mstance, which is worse and which is better? And which one of them applies here?" He didn't talk to anyone in particular, he was simply voicing his thoughts out so that they wouldn't fester inside his mind. The dead couldn't and wouldn't answer his aimless questions, but there was one being coiled up on his head that was more than happy to answer him. "Hehe, does it matter? Will the answer save the little mongoloids when it's time to take out the trash?" Yumao was a perfect representation of a beast by nature. He was born at Liang Chen's side and had followed him all along, so it stood to reason that he would be quite similar to him. But Yumao didn't have the same view on life as Liang Chen, innocent or sinner, kind or cruel, none of that really mattered to him. He was as powerful Demonic beast, other than the close ties he had to some people, most other lives weren't all that important to him, he certainly wouldn't go out of his way to save someone unrelated to him for no good reason. Liang Chen remained silent for a moment as Yumao snickered, his gaze sweeping over the quiet city once more before he nodded his head and forced the slightly tired expression away from his face. "You're right, it really doesn't matter. In the end, whether or not it made the choice or if it was born like that, a beast is a beast. The same is true whether it is a living being or not." Liang Chen flicked his finger after he finished talking, the interspatial ring of the woman flying into his grasp. She and her two sisters had ruled this city for close to 30 years already, they had all accrued a fair bit of wealth so it would be foolish to leave behind a part of it. He didn't bother going through the mansion to look for any hidden vaults filled with treasure, the woman hadn't planned on staying here for more than 100 years so she hadn't bothered to prepare any such rooms. Liang Chen left the room and slowly walked through the halls of the mansion, the Qi in his moving faintly as a fine white mist seeped out of his body. The mist spread out and covered the entire mansion as well as a small area around it, forming a poisonous domain that none in this city would be able to resist. And all at once, all but two of the people residing in the mansion and the area around it melted, the bonds keeping their cells together liquefying under Liang Chen's poison. The woman was one of this city's three rulers, she had people scattered all around it gathering information for her. With Liang Chen taking hold of her knowledge, it was tantamount to him learning about everything that had happened in this city over the last 30 years. So he knew, he knew exactly what sort of depths the people here were willing to fall to, how deep they were willing to go thanks to the coercion of Purgatory's Cradle. And that depth sickened him, no matter how many times he had come into contact with it. So he did what he had set out to do from the very start of his path, he murdered those that the heavens should have disposed of many years ago. While walking, he didn't forget to speak out, sending his voice to the remaining two people. "The two of you haven't done anything yet so you can leave, Purgatory's Cradle isn't a good place to be so I'd suggest leaving. You are free to disregard my advice if you want to, I just hope that I won't stumble upon you in the future and learn that you have sunk to the same depths as the rest." He reached another door in the mansion before long and entered it, stepping into a large hall that seemed to have been built to host parties. He walked over to his target, a massive window that stood several metres tall and wide, a window from which he could see the second of the three mansions that formed the edges of the city. He placed his hand on the glass, raising his gaze slightly and tapping Yumao on the head with his other hand. "Ey, you should hop in and hide for a while, no way that you can handle the speed." Yumao puffed slightly but still assented, sinking into Liang Chen's dantian in a flash of light. Yumao had been nourished by Liang Chen's own blood while he was still in his egg, he could easily hide within Liang Chen's body and saving them the usual trouble of buying a pouch that could hold Demonic beasts. Once Yumao hid, the glass around Liang Chen's palm melted as a thin bolt of dull lightning shot out and connected the two mansions. The rest of the glass exploded when the resulting thunder rumbled out, but none of the dust-like fragments managed to reach Liang Chen before they fell to the ground. Liang Chen was fast, extremely fast even. When he first reached this major universe, his fastest speed had been around 50 metres a second, a speed that had only increased as his cultivation did. But how could that speed possibly compare to the speed of lightning, which sat at around 100 kilometres per second? And how was a person's body supposed to resist the forces that acted on his body under such an extreme speed? Their organs and veins would rupture, their bones would pulverize and they would end up as nothing more than scattered paste. But Liang Chen wasn't a normal person, nor was his body normal. Forget about his bloodlines, even the body cultivation technique he cultivated was immensely peculiar. Most of his body had already been turned into pure lightning, as well as a few other elements. And thanks to this, it was theoretically possible for him to fuse with lightning, he was basically doing that every time he absorbed lightning to heal his wounds. And in such a state, the only thing he really had to protect was the few parts of his body that had yet to be altered, and that was much easier than trying to protect his entire body. And it was thanks to this that he was able to instantly appear on the roof of the other mansion, right at the end of the lightning bolt he had sent out. His face had gotten a bit paler and his stomach turned thanks to the sheer speed he had just experienced, but he remained unharmed. He exhaled a long breath and waved his hand, the dull violet lightning returning to his body now that he had finished his experiment. It was a useable technique, but for the moment he felt like he could only use it for long-distance travel, he would have to experiment a bit more to come up with other uses that fit him. He lowered his gaze to the roof beneath his feet, the wood withering and dying, collapsing under his weight so that he fell into the mansion. He spread out his poison once more and located the second of the three rulers, his poison already flooding her soul. She fell under his control and quickly made her way over to him, willingly spewing out every little act she had done or heard about in her life. And once she finished talking, her body solidified and turned to stone, all but a single person in the entire mansion sharing her fate. Liang Chen sent out his voice once more, giving the sole survivor the same advice he had given the first two before he picked up the interspatial ring of the woman. He made his way over to a different room with a large window, once more sending out a bolt of lightning that connected this mansion with the final mansion in this city. He stepped onto the lightning and instantly reached the other mansion, but he had miscalculated the trajectory of the lightning a little so he smashed directly through the entire mansion rather than land on top of it. He luckily had a strong body, and the reaction speed to break apart any obstacle before he crashed into it, so he managed to avoid the worst-case scenario. But he still looked a bit awkward as he rose from the ground, dust and scattered patches of earth covering him. He spat out a breath and got rid of the dirt, accidents were only to be expected when you were trying out something new. He spread out his poison domain once more as he entered the mansion, his eyebrow rising in surprise when he discovered the location of the final sister that ruled this city. He slowly walked through the halls of the mansion, the final sister also moving in his direction. The two met before long, facing each other in one of the more narrow hallways where the floor was covered by a blue carpet. The woman in front of him could only be considered petite, almost half his height and with nearly child-like features. But just like her other sisters, she was already approaching 200 years of age, she only had this appearance due to the fact that she, unfortunately, ate a certain flower when she was young. But it wasn't her appearance that had surprised Liang Chen, it was her soul. To be more specific, it was the fact that the soul residing within her body didn't actually belong to her, it was just a tiny fragment of someone else's soul. There were faint traces left in her soulsea that showed that her soul had indeed been there as usually not long ago, it had probably been extinguished just before Liang Chen arrived. And as for who could do such a thing, Liang Chen already had a guess. "The Nine Wraths sect, no?" The three sisters were members of the Nine Wraths sect, outer disciples sent here in case any news about Purgatory popped up in the area. So if anyone could extinguish their soul and take over their bodies in such a strange manner then it would definitely be the Nine Wraths sect. And his assumption was quickly proven correct, a dim black light flashing in the woman's blue pupils as a slightly aged voice slipped out from between her lips. "So you already know, good. I was wondering who it was that was killing our disciples so quickly, but I hadn't expected it to be a Primordial Immortal cultivator. Tell me, isn't it a bit below you to linger around here and deal with kids like these? Where is your pride as a powerful cultivator?" The three sisters were only at the Soaring Immortal realm, Liang Chen could kill thousands of them without even shedding a drop of sweat. For a powerful Primordial Immortal cultivator to personally slay some small Soaring Immortal people was indeed a manner that some would consider shameless, especially when there was no deep grudge between them. But Liang Chen wasn't bothered, he simply waved his hand in a gesture towards a dried up heap of bones scattered by the other end of the hallway. "My pride? You can find that in all the corpses I've scattered here and will scatter in the future." Liang Chen had chosen a path that could be considered evil, he was a hypocrite that was just as bad as the people he killed. But he still took pride in the path he had chosen, and each innocent person that got to live because of a life he took was one that added to his pride. The light in the woman's pupils flashed for a few instances as she glanced at the bones, her eyes narrowing sharply as she delivered the ultimatum. "...We'll ignore what you've done here, but in the future, please don't go around killing people from our sect. They all serve a purpose and each one killed makes our work a little bit harder, even if its weaklings like these three. We don't want to be enemies with you, but that doesn't mean that we are afraid of you. On the contrary, you are the one who should be afraid, you should already know that we aren't limited to Primordial Immortals in our sect. You pretend like we don't exist, and we'll pretend like you don't exist, that should be what's best for both of us." The Nine Wraths sect was indeed not scared of a Primordial Immortal cultivator, they weren't even scared of most Transcended Immortal cultivators. But that didn't mean that they were willing to become enemies with just everyone, at least not on the surface and in the open. If they could have Liang Chen leave them alone until they felt that they had a need for his life, that would be for the best. But Liang Chen didn't even give the prospect any thought and turned it down straight away. "I don't need you to ignore what I've done here. I've already heard a lot about how you act and how you train your disciples, what you teach them. So let me tell you this, I don't accept it." The Nine Wraths sect was located at the centre of Purgatory's Cradle and had existed there for many years already, the natural laws of this place were also the natural laws that they adhered to with all their hearts. All lives existed to be used, even the closest of relationsh.i.p.s could be ended at a moment's notice if you stood to gain one of this realm's benefits from doing so. They were undoubtedly the type of people that Liang Chen despised the most. His refusal and statement were simple, the woman in front of him sneering in response. "Are you sure you want to become enemies with us just because of something so small? If you've gone through their memories then you should also know about or Nine Wraths Lamentation, don't think that all our disciples are like these little ones." The soul that had taken over her body for this meeting knew what Liang Chen was talking about, he wasn't fond of the way they killed people so easily and indiscriminately and was willing to become their enemy just because of it. But if he thought that a mere Primordial Immortal could really become a proper enemy just because he killed two outer disciples, then a disdainful sneer was the only answer she could come up with. It was a bare-faced threat, but Liang Chen simply didn't care about it. "I know, and I don't care. You can bring out all nine of your wraths, I only need my one." The dim black light flashing in the woman's eyes faded after Liang Chen finished his statement, the small soul fragment that had taken over her body dissipating under Liang Chen's law of death. The woman's body fell to the floor, Liang Chen snatching her interspatial ring and storing it alongside the rest. The woman had been the last living person in this mansion, the rest had already fallen to Liang Chen's law of rot and become withered bones. So with her death, all three mansions had been cleared out, Liang Chen spitting out another breath as he turned around and left the mansion. "Phew, I really seem to be making enemies wherever I go. Let's go, Yumao, we'll finish up in this city and then move."
