"Bad Paparan! They weren't fun, they were all training!"
The first thing Liang Chen did after Yin Long left was to bring out Lan Yun again, but even though he had barely spent any time inside the King Sealing Pagoda, he still ended up getting an earful from the little girl. It seemed like she had the poor fortune of entering the interspatial ring while all the other disciples were cultivating, rendering them unable to entertain her.
"Yes yes, Paparan was mean and put you in the time-out bubble. But come on, you can't blame paparan for that, it's not like I keep an eye on the other disciples at all times."
Liang Chen didn't resist as Lan Yun tugged on his cheeks, the sounds of their voices mixing with the squelching of his feet striding across the damp earth of Purgatory's Cradle. He could have just mounted Yumao and flown deeper, but they knew far less about this land than they did about the Mystic's Hidden Realm, a bit of prudence would take them a long way.
"But Paparan could at least have checked first!"
Lan Yun didn't let up her pouting, years had passed but it seemed like her mind grew as slowly as her body did. But that was fine with Liang Chen, even if she was as spoiled and unreasonable as Yan Ling. He did not get to enjoy that same childhood for long, it had been taken from him and he had been forced to grind his own innocence to dust. And if there was one thing he wanted to avoid then it would be having Lan Yun end up like him, there were already far too many people like him in this world.
"Ah, yes, Paparan could have checked. But then what? Do you think it would be fair of me to stop their training just so that they could entertain you for a bit? How would you feel if someone interrupted you when you were busy just to force you to do something else?"
Of course, wanting Lan Yun to have the good fortune of enjoying her childhood for as long as possible didn't mean that he would let her do whatever she wanted. It was enough that Yan Ling spoiled her rotten, at least one of the parents had to be a bit strict so that she didn't go completely off the rails. And sure enough, while she looked like she wanted to pout further, she could only grind her teeth cutely.
"Gnnnn, bleh!"
She didn't say anything else unreasonable, but she kept tugging on Liang Chen's cheeks while puffing out her own. Just a little child with no proper place to vent her miss-placed frustration, or perhaps it would be better to say that she just wanted to vent her loneliness.
After all, this was the first time in several years that she got to meet her 'father' again, it stood to reason that she would want to spend as much time as possible with him. So to be tossed aside like that, even if she understood that it was likely for her own safety, it couldn't be helped that a tiny part of her would feel like he didn't want her at his side.
They were emotions Liang Chen didn't understand, if he had ever felt them then it was already so long ago that it had slipped from his memories. And if you couldn't understand the emotions, how could you possibly know when someone else was feeling them?
"Now now, you'll break your teeth if you grind them like that. Please try to understand Paparan, I can't bear to see you get hurt so I have to get you to a safe place when things get dangerous. Mamaran surely did the same, didn't she?"
Liang Chen stretched out his free arm and tugged on Lan Yun's cheeks as he spoke, a soft and gentle smile covering his face. Lan Yun's existence in this land was rather peculiar, she was like a tiny light of peace and tranquillity inside this bloodsoaked world that held no mercy. And that was exactly why Yan Ling had sent her over, she knew that Liang Chen, more than anyone else, needed a light in the darkness, a harbour where he could rest his heart so that it didn't sink to the depths of the darkness.
Lan Yun struggled slightly to escape his grasp, but it was nothing more than a symbolic gesture so that she could at least maintain her image. But it didn't escape Liang Chen's attention that she leaned slightly into his hand as he pinched her cheeks, subtly resting her head on him. His smile softened slightly at the sight, quickly taking the chance to change the topic.
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"You travelled with Mamaran for quite a while, didn't you? Did the two of you manage to learn a few tricks about the law of wind while doing so? Did Mamaran teach you some neat things that you could use to defend yourself?"
His question wasn't entirely random, carrying two separate purposes. The first was obviously to hear more about Yan Ling and Lan Yun's travels, the things they had encountered over the years. The second was to see if he could glean anything from the law of wind utilizations that they may have learned.
Liang Chen had taken Yin Long's words to heart, he needed to take in everything he had if he wanted to create a true trump card. He had Lightning, Poison, Time, and Void as his main laws, he used them frequently and to great effect. But those weren't his only laws, he technically also had Death, Rot, and Wind in his arsenal.
But Rot served as a degraded version of Death so it wasn't used often, even the law of Death was barely used since he could generally just use Poison for the same effect. And then there was Wind, probably the law he used the least, despite being the law he acquired when Yan Ling shared her own bloodline with him to save his life.
Death and Rot he could study alongside Yumao, but when it came to Wind then he would have to rely on someone else. He did have the massive amount of information that his biological parents had given him, but plucking information from multiple different sources would always be the best option, it made it more likely that you would find something that suited you.
And luckily, it seemed like Yan Ling had indeed shared something with Lan Yun, but the exact source of the information was not one he would have expected.
"Oh, Oh! Mamaran told me about something that Master Sirius taught her!"
Star God Sirius, a loyal follower of the Nine Star Demon God and the progenitor of almost all wolf-type Demonic beasts in Liang Chen's home universe. He was a being that eclipsed the Sebettu race, probably even back when they were at their prime. If it was advice that came from him then there was a good chance that it would be something that was far from common.
"She said that she had been taught that far too many people look at the grand nature of wind, the great storm that rages as it tears open the land. No one looks at the littlest wind that blows all around, sneaks through all the small holes and enters places no one else can. It's tiny, but it can produce extreme damage when used appropriately. She said that it was in that tiny little wind that you would find the heart of wind, the core of the law!"
Lan Yun spoke excitedly, puffing out her chest while Liang Chen carried her. Her earlier pouting had all been blown away now that she could pretend like she was a high and mighty teacher, despite only retelling what Yan Ling had told her.
Liang Chen pulled his free arm away from her cheek and rubbed his chin softly, pondering over the words. Yumao was resting on his head, only paying half attention since the law of wind wasn't something that meshed with him.
It was indeed an avenue he hadn't considered before, even the records he had perused mostly spoke about the great blunt force, sharp winds, great speeds, flexibility, and wide-area attacks that the law of wind was most commonly used for.
But to focus it into just a tiny wind, a miniature breeze? That would be closer to the law of lightning and its great penetrative power, focusing everything you had into a single coiled bolt of lightning that could pierce everything. His eyes narrowed slightly, a sliver of his Qi moving as he kept walking forward.
As his foot touched the damp earth, a muffled rumble came from deep within the earth, a heavy tremble running through the land and almost throwing Liang Chen off-balance. Several more rumbles sounded out right after, the trembling getting worse as Liang Chen steadied his balance.
"Figures that it wouldn't be easy to control... the distance is a bit of a problem."
Condensing the wind through the principles of lightning was surprisingly easy, probably due to his experience with lightning. But as he sent it into the earth, moving it through the tiniest cracks and openings he could find, he quickly found that controlling it was much harder than lightning. Keeping it compressed became harder as he packed more force into it and tried to send it further away, it had escaped his control and erupted several kilometres before he actually intended it to.
"Hmm, oh well, time is on my side, we'll figure it out eventually."
Liang Chen wasn't too bothered by the failure, he wouldn't have gotten this far if a single instance of failure could demoralize him. His gaze rose slightly, landing on the city that was starting to just barely become visible in the distance.
That would be his next target, and if he was correct, then the fact that it was closer to the centre of his realm meant that it would contain stronger people. But he wasn't really focused on the people of the city, there was something else there that was drawing his attention.
He had three rewards waiting for him in this realm, the cradle pointed him towards three different places as a reward for the blood he had shed. Or rather, the blood it thought he shed, all he had really done was kill one of the Sky-Piercing Sparrow's avatars. And one of those rewards was located inside that city, a reward that was supposed to be quite beneficial to at least one of his laws.