"...I'm surprised you didn't put me on the list."
Fue Sangye spoke up with a soft sigh after a short moment of silence, he didn't know if he would be spared or not, but since Liang Chen hadn't mentioned him it at least showed that he wasn't a priority target. Liang Chen simply shook his head somewhat sadly, he hadn't seen Fue Sangye do anything, and the dungeon beneath the palace was practically empty, so he knew what Fue Sangye actually meant.
"Turning a blind eye isn't a sin, it's just sad. If I were to kill people for turning a blind eye then I would have to end every single life in existence."
Indeed, even Liang Chen himself had turned a blind eye to thing in the past, when he was too weak to make a change. Most noticeably would be his time on Tripartite God planet, while there he had turned his gaze away from many a people because he was not yet strong enough to do anything. Fue Sangye let out another heavy breath, locking eyes with Liang Chen.
"I can't say much for the others, but I would like for you to hear me out in regards to the four behind me at least. I imagine that the thing drawing your attention is the five men in the dungeon, correct?"
Liang Chen wasn't surprised that Fue Sangye had dug out the truth straight away, he probably knew Qing Rue well enough to guess exactly which of his actions had displeased Liang Chen. And indeed, the thing that drew Liang Chen's attention, at least most of it, was a group of five men that were chained up at the very bottom of the dungeon.
The men were in the Soaring Immortal realm and were in a haggard state, traces of torture painfully evident on their bodies. In fact, the four people Liang Chen had pointed out had been beating up the five men as he stepped into the city, their faces distorted by a mixture of anger and sorrow. And of course, the reason behind their imprisonment was already told to him by the girl earlier, but he didn't say anything about that and simply nodded his head, giving Fue Sangye the chance to speak.
"I will admit, it's not a pretty sight, but there is a reason to everything. The four people behind me are practically family, they've been together for nigh 3000 years already. But in truth, there used to be two more people in this little family of theirs. But 150 or so years ago, these two people were killed and robbed by the younger brother of those five men, and to this day they still refuse to say where their younger brother fled. Tell me, are they not entitled to their rage, having lost two of their family members?"
Liang Chen was still young, extremely young even when you considered the lifespan of cultivators. So he couldn't fully understand the depth of emotions that would form after being together for 3000 years, but he guessed that it was quite similar to his feelings for Yan Ling. But even so, Fue Sangye's heartfelt speech was met with a very simple, practically disinterested question.
"Those five men, did they have anything to do with the death of the two people you mentioned? Other than not saying where their younger brother went."
Fue Sangye felt his chest thud once as Liang Chen's golden pupils pierced into him, cold dread washing over his back and leaving him chilly. It was as if Liang Chen's words contained an unviolable coerciveness, Fue Sangye could only respond with the truth, shaking his head. And sure enough, Liang Chen's calm and cold voice sounded out practically the moment Fue Sangye shook his head.
"So they couldn't find the target of their revenge and thus decided to take it out on five innocent people instead, keeping their agony going for 150 years."
Liang Chen couldn't understand the depth of emotions formed after 3000 years, nor could he understand the suffering experienced during 150 years of constant torture. But he did understand one thing, and that was that the five men were at the very least innocent of the crime they were being tortured for. Fue Sangye's clasped hands moved about a bit uneasily, his lips curving somewhat bitterly as he chewed on his words for a few seconds.
"...Surely you have a family of your own, right? Can you not understand their anger and anguish, can you really not accept it? I understand that they may have crossed the line slightly, but you have to at least admit that they had a good reason for doing so."
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Did he have a family? Once, Liang Chen had a very happy family, as did Yan Ling. But now, all that he had left was Yan Ling and Yumao, and Yan Ling only had Yan Ying and Lan Yun left, they had lost everyone else. So indeed, Liang Chen understood that anger and anguish, perfectly so even since it was what pushed him onto this path to begin with. But accepting it?
"The thing about lines is that they don't cross themselves, a choice is always made when you reach it. And once you've crossed that line, I stop caring about how you got there, all I care about is the choice that was made."
Could you provide a convincing reason, a justification that allowed you to harm unrelated people? Liang Chen did not think so, no reason would be great enough. Once you made that choice, no matter the reason, you became just as bad as those you hated. That was a fact you had to accept and come to terms with, and you also had to accept the consequences that may arise from crossing that line.
"I'll have to fight you, you know that right? I can't just stand by and watch as you kill my men, I really can't."
Fue Sangye's expression was still bitter as he looked at Liang Chen, at this point he could only hope that Liang Chen was at least a little tired and exhausted after killing Qing Rue. The people behind him had put their trust in him, given him their loyalty, he could not just stand by and watch them die, even if he had to fight a losing battle for them. But what a shame, Liang Chen was a despairing existence that would not even give him a chance.
"But you will."
Liang Chen stood up from his seated position as he spoke, Fue Sangye's heart sinking to the pit of his stomach. He put strength into his leg to stand up, but to his horror, his body refused to listen to him. He tried to order his limbs around, but it was as if they weren't his any longer, they were simply frozen in place.
"It's a paralyzing poison, it's mixed with a bit of lightning to override your nervous signals rather than shut it down entirely, you should be able to move again in a few hours."
Liang Chen's voice sank into his ears, Fue Sangye's last bit of hope shattering into smithereens. He couldn't even tell when he had been poisoned, it was as if the poison had always been present in his body and was just waiting for the order to activate. He tried to muster up his Qi, but even that wasn't allowed, every ounce of energy he mustered up vanishing before it could gather together.
Liang Chen raised his gaze slightly, moving it away from Fue Sangye and onto the 15 people that had gathered behind him. They had obviously heard their conversation so they knew what was about to happen. But would they really resign themselves to their fate without at least struggling a little?
The twins were the first to react, their hands shooting forward the moment Liang Chen started to stand up. Their veins bulged, one of them bursting and ejecting a bit of blood that had turned a dark green thanks to the poison. Their arms also extended unnaturally so it seemed like they cultivated laws relating to blood and their body, they had probably relied on those laws to gather up the poison in their body so that they could expel it.
A small dagger appeared in their grasps, Liang Chen taking two steps forward and one to the side so that the daggers stabbed into his shoulder rather than his chest. He could have dodged if he so desired, but this was an opportune moment to test something he had been a bit curious about in the past.
The daggers sank into his shoulder after a bit of resistance, but the expressions of the female twins didn't turn joyful due to this. A light wooshing sound reached their ears as their daggers stabbed into Liang Chen, and both of them saw a bit of dull violet lightning crackle across their daggers.
The lightning travelled up the daggers and into their hands, racing through their body and wreaking havoc on their insides. Their heart was unable to handle the overload, it shut down along with the rest of their organs, both of them collapsing to the ground like deflated balloons.
Liang Chen's body and soul cultivation were special, they focused on first turning his body into the purest form of his elements and then eventually into laws. So in truth, his flesh and blood was actually a mixture of wind, water, lightning, time, and the void. And the twins had stabbed their metal dagger directly into that merged element, the lightning that resided in it conducting up through their weapons and bodies.
"Huh, so it does work like that."
Liang Chen had the theory that his body worked like this, it didn't strive for an extraordinary toughness and instead aimed for an extraordinary strangeness. His body wouldn't be as defensively strong as other body cultivators, but he could easily regenerate by taking in one of the elements he had used for his body cultivation.
He had specifically avoided having a doctor use acupuncture on him in the past since he didn't know if the man would even be able to pierce his skin, or if he would be shocked by lightning if he did succeed. And now he had gotten a proper answer to that question, he had already formed a guess in the past, but getting confirmation was always nice.
Liang Chen drew in some of the surrounding air, the small stab wounds in his shoulder closing themselves. A faint mist seeped out of his body, invading the souls of the two other men he had pointed out as well as the other people he had targeted within the palace. The dull thuds of corpses collapsing echoed throughout the silent castle, Liang Chen lowering his gaze slightly to look at the pale-faced Fue Sangye.
"You can hate me all you want, but direct that hatred at me, not at anyone else. I am Liang Chen, and if you want to have your revenge, you can always come looking for me, I'll always be ready to accept your wrath."