Chapter 283: Just men.
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Liang Chen's pace as he backtracked through the dungeon was quite slow, his brows slightly furrowed as his thoughts ran about. He had never really expected to end up back in the Mystic's Hidden realm, nor had he planned to enter it again if he ever did stumble upon it. After all, this hidden realm was owned by one of his enemies, the Sealing God Empyrean.
At one point, the Sealing God Empyrean had attacked Liang Chen's home planet just to end Liang Chen, he had even gone through the trouble of setting up a massive array around the entire planet. He hated Liang Chen for being born as a Sebettu, and he was obviously willing to do whatever it took to kill all those who carried that blood.
"So why hasn't he made a move yet?"
This was the question that caused Liang Chen's brows to furrow, why his thoughts were racing about. He had already been inside this hidden realm for five days, it should be plenty of time for the Sealing God Empyrean to make his preparations and deal with him. But forget about being attacked, he hadn't even encountered a single thing that could threaten him.
In truth, Liang Chen actually had a guess as to what might be the reason, and it was based on where the hidden realm had ended up. It was a bet that was a bit risky to confirm, but after giving it a bit of thought he ended up coming to the conclusion that he would have to take that risk if he wanted to have at least a little peace of mind.
"Yao Jun... Chang Yun... Ning Hao... Yin Long... Lin Sangye."
He said each name slowly, waiting around half a minute between each one. The first four names belonged to the Universal Hearts he had knowledge of, but there was no reaction even when he uttered the names loudly. There was no change in the air, no sensation that someone was looking at him, and only when the first four names showed no reaction did he utter the fifth one.
The fifth name didn't belong to a Universal Heart, it was the true name of the Sealing God Empyrean. He wasn't a Universal Heart, but he had still reached such a realm that just uttering his name would alert him, he'd be able to find you in practically a single second. But not even that name showed any reaction, allowing Liang Chen to feel a touch more confident in his guess.
"Seems like they've really been cut off, makes sense, really."
The place that this hidden realm had appeared this time was no normal area, it was Purgatory's Cradle. It was the remains of two Pillar Universes smashed together, housing the ownerless power of heavenly punishment, it was not a place that you could expect to follow the normal rules. And when Liang Chen thought back to the entrance of this hidden realm, how it had been practically invaded by the bloody aura of the land, it became clear that not even something as marvellous as this hidden realm could exist here as it pleased.
But that brought about another question that Liang Chen had to ponder. If the Mystic's Hidden realm couldn't resist the corroding of this land's bloody aura, why would it appear here? Why would the Sealing God Empyrean willingly send a training ground he had created to a place where it could very well end up being ruined? There was a chance that it wasn't actually the Sealing God Empyrean that made the hidden realm appear here, but Liang Chen didn't have a way to learn the truth at the moment.
"At the very least, for now, he doesn't seem to be able to see what's going on here."
Liang Chen threw the newfound question to the side for the moment and focused on what he had just learned. If the Sealing God Empyrean couldn't see what was going on in here then things were currently in Liang Chen's favour.
This was a hidden realm filled with treasures and valuable items, and if Liang Chen could shut it down then that would be for the best. He hadn't forgotten how it was in the past, how the automatic function of the hidden realm had been to force every cultivator to take part in the final trials, which were little more than a glorified slaughter to dig out the strongest. It didn't care about their d.e.s.i.r.es, strengths, or opinions, it simply drew them in and forced them to fight to their death, even if they had zero chance of success.
His brows smoothened out after he reached his conclusions, his gaze hardening coldly as he raised his head slightly. His senses had already spread out to cover the entire mansion so there was no way for the people within it to hide from his gaze, or from his judgment for that matter.
He picked up the pace a little, the empty cells shooting past him as he reached the entrance of the dungeon again. A sword came slashing down at him from the side the moment he stepped through the door separating the dungeon from the entrance hall, a spear also shot at him from the opposite side, catching him in a pincer attack.
But Liang Chen barely even acknowledge the attacks, his pupils simply sliding over the two men that had launched the attacks. His left hand rose slightly and caught hold of the descending blade, lightning dancing around his palm and rendering the sword as little more than molten metal. One of the small lightning bolts shot away from his palm, piercing directly through the skull of the man that had wielded the sword.
Liang Chen's spear rose slightly at the same time, hitting the incoming spear from below and knocking it out of the other man's hands, launching the weapon so high that it embedded itself in the ceiling. But he didn't launch a second attack on the other man, he simply cast him a sideways glance before walking away.
"Leave, this is not a place for someone like you to die."
Liang Chen could observe every inch of the mansion, and he had also heard from the guards exactly what took place here, so he had already made his decision on who got to live and who would die. It might not be entirely accurate since he couldn't possibly hear the life stories of everyone in the mansion, but he would rather spare someone and then kill them later than accidentally kill someone innocent.
An argument could be made that the man had attacked him, but Liang Chen couldn't sense any true killing intent from him so he decided to let him live. It was a strange moral to have in a world as brutal as this one, but it was the moral Liang Chen had settled on so it was the moral he would live by, no matter what others said about it.
The man that had been holding the spear trembled uncontrollably, Liang Chen had swatted it aside as easily as one would a fly. And seeing how his hand had melted the other man's sword and then even killed him without resistance, it was clear to him that this was a being that they couldn't resist. Judgment day had come, but he had been spared, so he wasted no time before turning around and fleeing.
When Liang Chen first entered this hidden realm in the past, he needed two entire days of perfect concentration to spread his poison throughout one of these palaces. But now, now it only took him a short second to cover the entire area with his poison, the cells of those he deemed sinful drifting apart and reducing their bodies to bloody puddles.
The sound of rushed footsteps quickly echoed throughout the palace as those he chose to spare ran for their lives, a few of them accidentally running directly towards Liang Chen. They almost fell over the moment they saw him, mentally saying their final prayer. But Liang Chen simply walked past them, leaving them utterly dumbfounded.
Liang Chen only had a single target as he moved, there was only one person left in this mansion that had been spared for a reason other than innocence. He quickly reached the highest floor of the palace, a single decadent room that had a delicate glass door that led out onto the terrace that served as the top of the wave that the building was shaped like.
Liang Chen pushed open the door and stepped onto the terrace, his gaze landing on the long silk-covered bed that had been placed right at the edge of the terrace, giving you a perfect view of the entire city. A man was currently sitting on the bed, his green shirt stained by the blood that he was coughing up. His entire face was pale, and his golden hair had clumped together and was practically glued to his face thanks to the extreme amount of sweat that was oozing out from his skin.
"I'd ask if you're the one responsible for this, but that would be a bit of a dumb action, wouldn't it? You could poison me without my knowledge, so you're definitely stronger than me, even more so now that I'm weakened like this. So speak, what is it that you want from me?"
The man had a somewhat vicious glint in his brown pupils, his back leaning against the railing that marked the edge of the terrace. He couldn't even tell when he had been poisoned, whether or not it had been in a single instant or over a longer period of time. But that alone told him that Liang Chen was stronger than him, and the fact that he was still alive told him that Liang Chen definitely had something he wanted from him.
"An answer, I suppose. I want to know why, I want to know what sort of point there possibly is to this? You've reached the Primordial Immortal realm, so what can you possibly gain from torturing mortals and people who've just barely started cultivating?"
This was the question at the forefront of Liang Chen's mind at the moment. He had seen it so many times already, strong people abusing those weaker for seemingly no reason, it wasn't for cultivation or for resources, they simply did it. The golden-haired man's eyes bulged slightly as he looked at Liang Chen, the corners of his mouth eventually turning up slightly.
"Why? For the same reason you're standing here now, obviously. It feels good, doesn't it? To hold someone else's life in your hands, to have their entire existence depend entirely on you? There are countless other people stronger than us, but right there, at that moment, we are gods, reigning over life and death. We are above them, blessed, better than them, and they're stuck being boring mortals, so what's wrong with acting like gods? Is that not our right?"
The man coughed out some more blood as he spoke, his c.h.e.s.t heaving violently. But his eyes were filled with fervour and grandeur, a blazing light that bordered between d.e.s.i.r.e fulfilment. Liang Chen's expression didn't change much when he heard the man's reason, it was just that a tinge of sorrow and disappointment flashed through his pupils.
He swiped his interspatial ring and brought out a small crystalline dagger, weighing the weapon in his hand for a second. His Qi started to slowly roil, seeping out from his body and sinking into the golden-haired man's body. He didn't try to resist the Qi, maintaining his fervent expression as Liang Chen's gaze drifted towards him again.
"Boring, is there something wrong with being boring? I once fought against a woman who used her law of time in a truly amazing manner, one eye saw the most likely future while the other eye peered down the endless river of time and followed its countless offshoots, gazing upon futures that may have come to pass if different choices had been made. We had never met, but she knew so many of my moves that it was eerie."
Liang Chen still remembered that woman vividly, Chen Dairong, one of the Sealing God's Empyrean's disciples. To date, she was easily one of the hardest fights he had ever had to go through. Liang Chen walked forward as he spoke, stopping right in front of the golden-haired man, his gaze lowered to look down at him.
"And I've read about a man who merged his law of time into not just his own body twice, but also into a certain location. Do you know what the result of that was? Whenever he died, his body and soul would be pulled back to that location and that time when he first merged the law of time into himself. He had perfectly tethered himself in time, he could only be killed by severing that connection first."
The man in question was actually one of the Sebettu, he was mentioned in the records that Liang Chen's parents had handed him. He was one of the few people that the record mentioned using the law of time, but it had preciously little about how he used that law. The law of time was a truly supreme law, even the Sebettu would have extremely few people who could use it, so the record contained very little about different usages for that law.
"Compared to those two, I'm so much more boring. All I do is speed up or slow down the passage of time, I can barely be considered to be using the law. But is that so wrong? It gets the job done, it's effective and it serves its purpose, so what's wrong with boring?"
Liang Chen raised the dagger as he spoke, placing the tip against the golden-haired man's forehead. His law of time was one of his greatest weapons, it had helped him through most of his cultivation journey. But the way he used it was so simple it really could be considered boring, it had no flair or extraordinariness.
"I'm quite angry right now, so I hope you don't mind suffering under that boringness for a bit."
Liang Chen stabbed the dagger forward as he spoke, plunging the blade into the man's skull all the way into the hilt. The blade pierced directly into his brain so this would normally kill him instantly, but Liang Chen did not offer him this mercy, not with how poor his reason for being atrocious was.
So while it only took Liang Chen a handful of seconds to stab the dagger into the man's skull, to him it would feel like much longer. Each second would feel like several minutes, possibly even hours, Liang Chen hadn't bothered checking the effectiveness too thoroughly. And he would feel the dagger slowly sink into his flesh, piercing through his skull and into his brain, for every single one of those seconds, unable to do a single thing about it.
Liang Chen let go of the dagger after stabbing it into the man's skull, raising his gaze. He swept the city beneath him with a slow gaze, taking in the dark corners and the bright market, he was so high up that he could stretch out his hand and seemingly cover the entire city. But he didn't, he simply shook his head.
"I don't feel like a god, gods don't struggle. We're just men, we'll always be just men, the only difference between us will be what we're struggling for."
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Liang Chen's pace as he backtracked through the dungeon was quite slow, his brows slightly furrowed as his thoughts ran about. He had never really expected to end up back in the Mystic's Hidden realm, nor had he planned to enter it again if he ever did stumble upon it. After all, this hidden realm was owned by one of his enemies, the Sealing God Empyrean.
At one point, the Sealing God Empyrean had attacked Liang Chen's home planet just to end Liang Chen, he had even gone through the trouble of setting up a massive array around the entire planet. He hated Liang Chen for being born as a Sebettu, and he was obviously willing to do whatever it took to kill all those who carried that blood.
"So why hasn't he made a move yet?"
This was the question that caused Liang Chen's brows to furrow, why his thoughts were racing about. He had already been inside this hidden realm for five days, it should be plenty of time for the Sealing God Empyrean to make his preparations and deal with him. But forget about being attacked, he hadn't even encountered a single thing that could threaten him.
In truth, Liang Chen actually had a guess as to what might be the reason, and it was based on where the hidden realm had ended up. It was a bet that was a bit risky to confirm, but after giving it a bit of thought he ended up coming to the conclusion that he would have to take that risk if he wanted to have at least a little peace of mind.
"Yao Jun... Chang Yun... Ning Hao... Yin Long... Lin Sangye."
He said each name slowly, waiting around half a minute between each one. The first four names belonged to the Universal Hearts he had knowledge of, but there was no reaction even when he uttered the names loudly. There was no change in the air, no sensation that someone was looking at him, and only when the first four names showed no reaction did he utter the fifth one.
The fifth name didn't belong to a Universal Heart, it was the true name of the Sealing God Empyrean. He wasn't a Universal Heart, but he had still reached such a realm that just uttering his name would alert him, he'd be able to find you in practically a single second. But not even that name showed any reaction, allowing Liang Chen to feel a touch more confident in his guess.
"Seems like they've really been cut off, makes sense, really."
The place that this hidden realm had appeared this time was no normal area, it was Purgatory's Cradle. It was the remains of two Pillar Universes smashed together, housing the ownerless power of heavenly punishment, it was not a place that you could expect to follow the normal rules. And when Liang Chen thought back to the entrance of this hidden realm, how it had been practically invaded by the bloody aura of the land, it became clear that not even something as marvellous as this hidden realm could exist here as it pleased.
But that brought about another question that Liang Chen had to ponder. If the Mystic's Hidden realm couldn't resist the corroding of this land's bloody aura, why would it appear here? Why would the Sealing God Empyrean willingly send a training ground he had created to a place where it could very well end up being ruined? There was a chance that it wasn't actually the Sealing God Empyrean that made the hidden realm appear here, but Liang Chen didn't have a way to learn the truth at the moment.
"At the very least, for now, he doesn't seem to be able to see what's going on here."
Liang Chen threw the newfound question to the side for the moment and focused on what he had just learned. If the Sealing God Empyrean couldn't see what was going on in here then things were currently in Liang Chen's favour.
This was a hidden realm filled with treasures and valuable items, and if Liang Chen could shut it down then that would be for the best. He hadn't forgotten how it was in the past, how the automatic function of the hidden realm had been to force every cultivator to take part in the final trials, which were little more than a glorified slaughter to dig out the strongest. It didn't care about their d.e.s.i.r.es, strengths, or opinions, it simply drew them in and forced them to fight to their death, even if they had zero chance of success.
His brows smoothened out after he reached his conclusions, his gaze hardening coldly as he raised his head slightly. His senses had already spread out to cover the entire mansion so there was no way for the people within it to hide from his gaze, or from his judgment for that matter.
He picked up the pace a little, the empty cells shooting past him as he reached the entrance of the dungeon again. A sword came slashing down at him from the side the moment he stepped through the door separating the dungeon from the entrance hall, a spear also shot at him from the opposite side, catching him in a pincer attack.
But Liang Chen barely even acknowledge the attacks, his pupils simply sliding over the two men that had launched the attacks. His left hand rose slightly and caught hold of the descending blade, lightning dancing around his palm and rendering the sword as little more than molten metal. One of the small lightning bolts shot away from his palm, piercing directly through the skull of the man that had wielded the sword.
Liang Chen's spear rose slightly at the same time, hitting the incoming spear from below and knocking it out of the other man's hands, launching the weapon so high that it embedded itself in the ceiling. But he didn't launch a second attack on the other man, he simply cast him a sideways glance before walking away.
"Leave, this is not a place for someone like you to die."
Liang Chen could observe every inch of the mansion, and he had also heard from the guards exactly what took place here, so he had already made his decision on who got to live and who would die. It might not be entirely accurate since he couldn't possibly hear the life stories of everyone in the mansion, but he would rather spare someone and then kill them later than accidentally kill someone innocent.
An argument could be made that the man had attacked him, but Liang Chen couldn't sense any true killing intent from him so he decided to let him live. It was a strange moral to have in a world as brutal as this one, but it was the moral Liang Chen had settled on so it was the moral he would live by, no matter what others said about it.
The man that had been holding the spear trembled uncontrollably, Liang Chen had swatted it aside as easily as one would a fly. And seeing how his hand had melted the other man's sword and then even killed him without resistance, it was clear to him that this was a being that they couldn't resist. Judgment day had come, but he had been spared, so he wasted no time before turning around and fleeing.
When Liang Chen first entered this hidden realm in the past, he needed two entire days of perfect concentration to spread his poison throughout one of these palaces. But now, now it only took him a short second to cover the entire area with his poison, the cells of those he deemed sinful drifting apart and reducing their bodies to bloody puddles.
The sound of rushed footsteps quickly echoed throughout the palace as those he chose to spare ran for their lives, a few of them accidentally running directly towards Liang Chen. They almost fell over the moment they saw him, mentally saying their final prayer. But Liang Chen simply walked past them, leaving them utterly dumbfounded.
Liang Chen only had a single target as he moved, there was only one person left in this mansion that had been spared for a reason other than innocence. He quickly reached the highest floor of the palace, a single decadent room that had a delicate glass door that led out onto the terrace that served as the top of the wave that the building was shaped like.
Liang Chen pushed open the door and stepped onto the terrace, his gaze landing on the long silk-covered bed that had been placed right at the edge of the terrace, giving you a perfect view of the entire city. A man was currently sitting on the bed, his green shirt stained by the blood that he was coughing up. His entire face was pale, and his golden hair had clumped together and was practically glued to his face thanks to the extreme amount of sweat that was oozing out from his skin.
"I'd ask if you're the one responsible for this, but that would be a bit of a dumb action, wouldn't it? You could poison me without my knowledge, so you're definitely stronger than me, even more so now that I'm weakened like this. So speak, what is it that you want from me?"
The man had a somewhat vicious glint in his brown pupils, his back leaning against the railing that marked the edge of the terrace. He couldn't even tell when he had been poisoned, whether or not it had been in a single instant or over a longer period of time. But that alone told him that Liang Chen was stronger than him, and the fact that he was still alive told him that Liang Chen definitely had something he wanted from him.
"An answer, I suppose. I want to know why, I want to know what sort of point there possibly is to this? You've reached the Primordial Immortal realm, so what can you possibly gain from torturing mortals and people who've just barely started cultivating?"
This was the question at the forefront of Liang Chen's mind at the moment. He had seen it so many times already, strong people abusing those weaker for seemingly no reason, it wasn't for cultivation or for resources, they simply did it. The golden-haired man's eyes bulged slightly as he looked at Liang Chen, the corners of his mouth eventually turning up slightly.
"Why? For the same reason you're standing here now, obviously. It feels good, doesn't it? To hold someone else's life in your hands, to have their entire existence depend entirely on you? There are countless other people stronger than us, but right there, at that moment, we are gods, reigning over life and death. We are above them, blessed, better than them, and they're stuck being boring mortals, so what's wrong with acting like gods? Is that not our right?"
The man coughed out some more blood as he spoke, his c.h.e.s.t heaving violently. But his eyes were filled with fervour and grandeur, a blazing light that bordered between d.e.s.i.r.e fulfilment. Liang Chen's expression didn't change much when he heard the man's reason, it was just that a tinge of sorrow and disappointment flashed through his pupils.
He swiped his interspatial ring and brought out a small crystalline dagger, weighing the weapon in his hand for a second. His Qi started to slowly roil, seeping out from his body and sinking into the golden-haired man's body. He didn't try to resist the Qi, maintaining his fervent expression as Liang Chen's gaze drifted towards him again.
"Boring, is there something wrong with being boring? I once fought against a woman who used her law of time in a truly amazing manner, one eye saw the most likely future while the other eye peered down the endless river of time and followed its countless offshoots, gazing upon futures that may have come to pass if different choices had been made. We had never met, but she knew so many of my moves that it was eerie."
Liang Chen still remembered that woman vividly, Chen Dairong, one of the Sealing God's Empyrean's disciples. To date, she was easily one of the hardest fights he had ever had to go through. Liang Chen walked forward as he spoke, stopping right in front of the golden-haired man, his gaze lowered to look down at him.
"And I've read about a man who merged his law of time into not just his own body twice, but also into a certain location. Do you know what the result of that was? Whenever he died, his body and soul would be pulled back to that location and that time when he first merged the law of time into himself. He had perfectly tethered himself in time, he could only be killed by severing that connection first."
The man in question was actually one of the Sebettu, he was mentioned in the records that Liang Chen's parents had handed him. He was one of the few people that the record mentioned using the law of time, but it had preciously little about how he used that law. The law of time was a truly supreme law, even the Sebettu would have extremely few people who could use it, so the record contained very little about different usages for that law.
"Compared to those two, I'm so much more boring. All I do is speed up or slow down the passage of time, I can barely be considered to be using the law. But is that so wrong? It gets the job done, it's effective and it serves its purpose, so what's wrong with boring?"
Liang Chen raised the dagger as he spoke, placing the tip against the golden-haired man's forehead. His law of time was one of his greatest weapons, it had helped him through most of his cultivation journey. But the way he used it was so simple it really could be considered boring, it had no flair or extraordinariness.
"I'm quite angry right now, so I hope you don't mind suffering under that boringness for a bit."
Liang Chen stabbed the dagger forward as he spoke, plunging the blade into the man's skull all the way into the hilt. The blade pierced directly into his brain so this would normally kill him instantly, but Liang Chen did not offer him this mercy, not with how poor his reason for being atrocious was.
So while it only took Liang Chen a handful of seconds to stab the dagger into the man's skull, to him it would feel like much longer. Each second would feel like several minutes, possibly even hours, Liang Chen hadn't bothered checking the effectiveness too thoroughly. And he would feel the dagger slowly sink into his flesh, piercing through his skull and into his brain, for every single one of those seconds, unable to do a single thing about it.
Liang Chen let go of the dagger after stabbing it into the man's skull, raising his gaze. He swept the city beneath him with a slow gaze, taking in the dark corners and the bright market, he was so high up that he could stretch out his hand and seemingly cover the entire city. But he didn't, he simply shook his head.
"I don't feel like a god, gods don't struggle. We're just men, we'll always be just men, the only difference between us will be what we're struggling for."
Liang Chen's pace as he backtracked through the dungeon was quite slow, his brows slightly furrowed as his thoughts ran about. He had never really expected to end up back in the Mystic's Hidden realm, nor had he planned to enter it again if he ever did stumble upon it. After all, this hidden realm was owned by one of his enemies, the Sealing God Empyrean. At one point, the Sealing God Empyrean had attacked Liang Chen's home planet just to end Liang Chen, he had even gone through the trouble of setting up a massive array around the entire planet. He hated Liang Chen for being born as a Sebettu, and he was obviously willing to do whatever it took to kill all those who carried that blood. "So why hasn't he made a move yet?" This was the question that caused Liang Chen's brows to furrow, why his thoughts were racing about. He had already been inside this hidden realm for five days, it should be plenty of time for the Sealing God Empyrean to make his preparations and deal with him. But forget about being attacked, he hadn't even encountered a single thing that could threaten him. In truth, Liang Chen actually had a guess as to what might be the reason, and it was based on where the hidden realm had ended up. It was a bet that was a bit risky to confirm, but after giving it a bit of thought he ended up coming to the conclusion that he would have to take that risk if he wanted to have at least a little peace of mind. "Yao Jun... Chang Yun... Ning Hao... Yin Long... Lin Sangye." He said each name slowly, waiting around half a minute between each one. The first four names belonged to the Universal Hearts he had knowledge of, but there was no reaction even when he uttered the names loudly. There was no change in the air, no sensation that someone was looking at him, and only when the first four names showed no reaction did he utter the fifth one. The fifth name didn't belong to a Universal Heart, it was the true name of the Sealing God Empyrean. He wasn't a Universal Heart, but he had still reached such a realm that just uttering his name would alert him, he'd be able to find you in practically a single second. But not even that name showed any reaction, allowing Liang Chen to feel a touch more confident in his guess. "Seems like they've really been cut off, makes sense, really." The place that this hidden realm had appeared this time was no normal area, it was Purgatory's Cradle. It was the remains of two Pillar Universes smashed together, housing the ownerless power of heavenly punishment, it was not a place that you could expect to follow the normal rules. And when Liang Chen thought back to the entrance of this hidden realm, how it had been practically invaded by the bloody aura of the land, it became clear that not even something as marvellous as this hidden realm could exist here as it pleased. But that brought about another question that Liang Chen had to ponder. If the Mystic's Hidden realm couldn't resist the corroding of this land's bloody aura, why would it appear here? Why would the Sealing God Empyrean willingly send a training ground he had created to a place where it could very well end up being ruined? There was a chance that it wasn't actually the Sealing God Empyrean that made the hidden realm appear here, but Liang Chen didn't have a way to learn the truth at the moment. "At the very least, for now, he doesn't seem to be able to see what's going on here." Liang Chen threw the newfound question to the side for the moment and focused on what he had just learned. If the Sealing God Empyrean couldn't see what was going on in here then things were currently in Liang Chen's favour. This was a hidden realm filled with treasures and valuable items, and if Liang Chen could shut it down then that would be for the best. He hadn't forgotten how it was in the past, how the automatic function of the hidden realm had been to force every cultivator to take part in the final trials, which were little more than a glorified slaughter to dig out the strongest. It didn't care about their d.e.s.i.r.es, strengths, or opinions, it simply drew them in and forced them to fight to their death, even if they had zero chance of success. His brows smoothened out after he reached his conclusions, his gaze hardening coldly as he raised his head slightly. His senses had already spread out to cover the entire mansion so there was no way for the people within it to hide from his gaze, or from his judgment for that matter. He picked up the pace a little, the empty cells shooting past him as he reached the entrance of the dungeon again. A sword came slashing down at him from the side the moment he stepped through the door separating the dungeon from the entrance hall, a spear also shot at him from the opposite side, catching him in a pincer attack. But Liang Chen barely even acknowledge the attacks, his pupils simply sliding over the two men that had launched the attacks. His left hand rose slightly and caught hold of the descending blade, lightning dancing around his palm and rendering the sword as little more than molten metal. One of the small lightning bolts shot away from his palm, piercing directly through the skull of the man that had wielded the sword. Liang Chen's spear rose slightly at the same time, hitting the incoming spear from below and knocking it out of the other man's hands, launching the weapon so high that it embedded itself in the ceiling. But he didn't launch a second attack on the other man, he simply cast him a sideways glance before walking away. "Leave, this is not a place for someone like you to die." Liang Chen could observe every inch of the mansion, and he had also heard from the guards exactly what took place here, so he had already made his decision on who got to live and who would die. It might not be entirely accurate since he couldn't possibly hear the life stories of everyone in the mansion, but he would rather spare someone and then kill them later than accidentally kill someone innocent. An argument could be made that the man had attacked him, but Liang Chen couldn't sense any true killing intent from him so he decided to let him live. It was a strange moral to have in a world as brutal as this one, but it was the moral Liang Chen had settled on so it was the moral he would live by, no matter what others said about it. The man that had been holding the spear trembled uncontrollably, Liang Chen had swatted it aside as easily as one would a fly. And seeing how his hand had melted the other man's sword and then even killed him without resistance, it was clear to him that this was a being that they couldn't resist. Judgment day had come, but he had been spared, so he wasted no time before turning around and fleeing. When Liang Chen first entered this hidden realm in the past, he needed two entire days of perfect concentration to spread his poison throughout one of these palaces. But now, now it only took him a short second to cover the entire area with his poison, the cells of those he deemed sinful drifting apart and reducing their bodies to bloody puddles. The sound of rushed footsteps quickly echoed throughout the palace as those he chose to spare ran for their lives, a few of them accidentally running directly towards Liang Chen. They almost fell over the moment they saw him, mentally saying their final prayer. But Liang Chen simply walked past them, leaving them utterly dumbfounded. Liang Chen only had a single target as he moved, there was only one person left in this mansion that had been spared for a reason other than innocence. He quickly reached the highest floor of the palace, a single decadent room that had a delicate glass door that led out onto the terrace that served as the top of the wave that the building was shaped like. Liang Chen pushed open the door and stepped onto the terrace, his gaze landing on the long silk-covered bed that had been placed right at the edge of the terrace, giving you a perfect view of the entire city. A man was currently sitting on the bed, his green shirt stained by the blood that he was coughing up. His entire face was pale, and his golden hair had clumped together and was practically glued to his face thanks to the extreme amount of sweat that was oozing out from his skin. "I'd ask if you're the one responsible for this, but that would be a bit of a dumb action, wouldn't it? You could poison me without my knowledge, so you're definitely stronger than me, even more so now that I'm weakened like this. So speak, what is it that you want from me?" The man had a somewhat vicious glint in his brown pupils, his back leaning against the railing that marked the edge of the terrace. He couldn't even tell when he had been poisoned, whether or not it had been in a single instant or over a longer period of time. But that alone told him that Liang Chen was stronger than him, and the fact that he was still alive told him that Liang Chen definitely had something he wanted from him. "An answer, I suppose. I want to know why, I want to know what sort of point there possibly is to this? You've reached the Primordial Immortal realm, so what can you possibly gain from torturing mortals and people who've just barely started cultivating?" This was the question at the forefront of Liang Chen's mind at the moment. He had seen it so many times already, strong people abusing those weaker for seemingly no reason, it wasn't for cultivation or for resources, they simply did it. The golden-haired man's eyes bulged slightly as he looked at Liang Chen, the corners of his mouth eventually turning up slightly. "Why? For the same reason you're standing here now, obviously. It feels good, doesn't it? To hold someone else's life in your hands, to have their entire existence depend entirely on you? There are countless other people stronger than us, but right there, at that moment, we are gods, reigning over life and death. We are above them, blessed, better than them, and they're stuck being boring mortals, so what's wrong with acting like gods? Is that not our right?" The man coughed out some more blood as he spoke, his c.h.e.s.t heaving violently. But his eyes were filled with fervour and grandeur, a blazing light that bordered between d.e.s.i.r.e fulfilment. Liang Chen's expression didn't change much when he heard the man's reason, it was just that a tinge of sorrow and disappointment flashed through his pupils. He swiped his interspatial ring and brought out a small crystalline dagger, weighing the weapon in his hand for a second. His Qi started to slowly roil, seeping out from his body and sinking into the golden-haired man's body. He didn't try to resist the Qi, maintaining his fervent expression as Liang Chen's gaze drifted towards him again. "Boring, is there something wrong with being boring? I once fought against a woman who used her law of time in a truly amazing manner, one eye saw the most likely future while the other eye peered down the endless river of time and followed its countless offshoots, gazing upon futures that may have come to pass if different choices had been made. We had never met, but she knew so many of my moves that it was eerie." Liang Chen still remembered that woman vividly, Chen Dairong, one of the Sealing God's Empyrean's disciples. To date, she was easily one of the hardest fights he had ever had to go through. Liang Chen walked forward as he spoke, stopping right in front of the golden-haired man, his gaze lowered to look down at him. "And I've read about a man who merged his law of time into not just his own body twice, but also into a certain location. Do you know what the result of that was? Whenever he died, his body and soul would be pulled back to that location and that time when he first merged the law of time into himself. He had perfectly tethered himself in time, he could only be killed by severing that connection first." The man in question was actually one of the Sebettu, he was mentioned in the records that Liang Chen's parents had handed him. He was one of the few people that the record mentioned using the law of time, but it had preciously little about how he used that law. The law of time was a truly supreme law, even the Sebettu would have extremely few people who could use it, so the record contained very little about different usages for that law. "Compared to those two, I'm so much more boring. All I do is speed up or slow down the passage of time, I can barely be considered to be using the law. But is that so wrong? It gets the job done, it's effective and it serves its purpose, so what's wrong with boring?" Liang Chen raised the dagger as he spoke, placing the tip against the golden-haired man's forehead. His law of time was one of his greatest weapons, it had helped him through most of his cultivation journey. But the way he used it was so simple it really could be considered boring, it had no flair or extraordinariness. "I'm quite angry right now, so I hope you don't mind suffering under that boringness for a bit." Liang Chen stabbed the dagger forward as he spoke, plunging the blade into the man's skull all the way into the hilt. The blade pierced directly into his brain so this would normally kill him instantly, but Liang Chen did not offer him this mercy, not with how poor his reason for being atrocious was. So while it only took Liang Chen a handful of seconds to stab the dagger into the man's skull, to him it would feel like much longer. Each second would feel like several minutes, possibly even hours, Liang Chen hadn't bothered checking the effectiveness too thoroughly. And he would feel the dagger slowly sink into his flesh, piercing through his skull and into his brain, for every single one of those seconds, unable to do a single thing about it. Liang Chen let go of the dagger after stabbing it into the man's skull, raising his gaze. He swept the city beneath him with a slow gaze, taking in the dark corners and the bright market, he was so high up that he could stretch out his hand and seemingly cover the entire city. But he didn't, he simply shook his head. "I don't feel like a god, gods don't struggle. We're just men, we'll always be just men, the only difference between us will be what we're struggling for."
