The city was buzzing with life and sound as Liang Chen left the bloody building that used to be the branch of the Tranquil Lake located within this city. The death of the governor, the Golden Branch division, and the Tranquil Lake had thrown a large rock into the quiet sea that this city used to be. Some people were just celebrating the deaths of these three groups but others were trying to immediately take advantage of their absence, some wanted to insert themselves into power, some just wanted to take advantage of the chaos to do some evil deeds they couldn't do earlier, while others just aimed to earn a quick sum of money by attacking the places previously protected by any of these three groups.
Liang Chen's gaze slowly roamed across his surroundings, only the area around him was quiet, no one dared to get close to him or even breathe too loudly when he passed them by. He was the man who murdered the governor and brought about the destruction of the three groups, a status that brought both awe and fear. Liang Chen stopped sweeping his gaze across the surroundings after a few moments, his hand reaching up and giving Yumao's head a few strokes.
"Sorry, but can I leave it to you?"
Yumao stretched his body and flapped his wings while giving a short hiss, shooting into the sky and returning to his actual size. He had feasted on quite a few corpses in the last three hours so about half of his energy was restored, it was quite enough for his current task. He flew into the air above the buildings and spread his wings, letting out a hiss so loud that it caused some of the nearer buildings to tremble slightly. His hiss spawned a dark orb above him, black lines shooting out from it and descending upon the city, each one accurately targetting one of the people trying to take advantage of the situation to fulfil some of their more wicked fantasies.
The buzzing of the city immediately quieted down as the black rays descended upon it, several terrified gazes landing on Yumao. Several people had seen him as Liang Chen moved through the city, they knew that he was the feathered serpent of the nameless slayer. And since the feathered serpent had made a move, the message was clear, the nameless slayer would not accept anyone taking advantage of this chaotic situation to fulfil their wickeder and more carnal desires.
Of course, with how large the city was there was no way that Liang Chen and Yumao could scare everyone into ceasing their activities. But they did what they could, they saved those that their grasp could reach, and for now, that would have to be good enough. Yumao swept his sharp grey eyes across the surrounding area in a threatening manner before descending again, shrinking and landing on Liang Chen's head, the spot reserved just for him.
Liang Chen gave his head a few soft strokes as they continued on their way, following the wide streets for a further four hours until they reached the building that belonged to the governor. The building was located at the very centre of the city and was shaped like a large dome that was only slightly larger than the Tranquil Lake headquarters, windows of various sizes dotting the entire building and making it look like a beehive.
A large crowd had already gathered outside the building, some of the people present clearly rather antsy with expectation and desire. But none had dared to enter the building, all of them turning to look at Liang Chen when he arrived. Everything within this building was part of his loot, his spoils of war, if they tried to take anything they might just be killed on the spot. They could only hope that he would have such a high vision that he would leave some things behind, what he considered beneath him might just be a great treasure to them.
The crowd automatically parted to open a path to the grand wooden doors that were engraved with the image of a sun rising over a small mountain range. Liang Chen pushed open the doors, the stench of blood immediately hitting him as the foul air within the building was unleashed. He could already see bloodstains cover the walls and parts of the floor, Bao Shan had clearly not been lying when he said that he didn't have anyone to bring along.
Liang Chen guessed that Bao Shan had only been allowed to live due to his strength, the Sky-Piercing Sparrow might have killed him too if he ended up surviving the battle and got the chance to tell Liang Chen anything. Then again, Liang Chen doubted that the Sky-Piercing Sparrow was actually able to monitor everything going on here so there was a chance that he had just given Bao Shan a deadline. If he failed to report his success before the appointed time, he would be killed just like the rest.
Liang Chen walked through the winding halls of the building, the blood sticking to his shoes and producing a slightly nauseating squelching sound with each step he took. He made his way from room to room and picked up just about everything of worth, even the pantry and the potted plants that could only be considered flowers or herbs that had absorbed some Qi were taken by him. He now had a sect filled with people that he had to feed and train, he would need every little resource he could get his hands on.
The governor proved to be far richer than Liang Chen had expected, the treasury of the building was filled to the brim with weapons, armours, pills, medicine, Spirit Stones, and various cultivation techniques for the three cultivation systems. Liang Chen took everything and tossed it into the orb within his interspatial ring, he could spend some time later going over everything and organizing the items he just picked up. He also had to figure out how to deal with Yi Xue's group and the other people that had just joined the sect, he had to at least separate them into groups of even strength to make it a bit easier to figure out how he should train each group.
As he tossed everything into his interspatial ring he came upon an item that caused his eyes to light up, the item in front of him was probably the most valuable one to him. It was a pineapple-size jade slip that contained a map of not just this planet but also the entire dominion he was currently in, the Nine Gods Dominion.
The map contained a bit of information about the countless planets and some of the larger factions, but more importantly, it listed the millions of spatial arrays that could be used. It was only upon checking through this map that he saw that his city alone contained a few thousand spatial arrays that could be used to drastically shorten the time needed to move around within the city.
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With this map, it would be far easier for him to figure out where and how to move to get to the Heaven and Hell Dominion to find Purgatory. If he was lucky, he might even be able to find out where the Nine Star Demon God's influence resided so that he could learn where Yan Ling was. He put away the map after giving it a quick check, mentally noting down which spatial array he could use to get to the closest city that contained a Heaven's Secret Company, which he only now learned actually existed not just within his own universe.
After emptying the treasury, there were only a few more rooms for Liang Chen to check, the last of the valuables within the large dome quickly vanishing into his interspatial ring. With everything of value taken, Liang Chen had no more need to remain within the dome and headed for the exit, the soft buzzing of the crowd outside the building already starting to reach his ears. But as he made his way through one of the longer hallways in the building, his steps abruptly halted while his gaze narrowed. His body stepped back and his spear appeared in his grasp, Yumao expanding to his actual size and staying at Liang Chen's side in a vigilant manner.
And shortly after Liang Chen entered his wary stance, a girl who seemed to be a bit younger than him walked around the corner a few hundred meters ahead of him. The girl had silver hair that hung down to her ears and rather dark grey eyes that were bordering on black, a dignified and regal aura seemingly radiating from within her very bones, she was clearly someone who wasn't unaccustomed to the position of ruler.
The reason Liang Chen had immediately entered a wary stance was that he had actually failed to discover this girl before she managed to get within several hundred meters of him. The electricity within her, the signs of life flowing through her blood, even the movement of the wind around her, all of them were suppressed to a point where Liang Chen hadn't been able to detect them earlier. It was only now that she was so close that he could feel them, or rather, he could feel that she was suppressing them, seemingly instinctually.
The girl's cultivation was also a point of concern to him, she had reached the middle-stage of the Primordial Immortal realm, a cultivation realm that should only have been reached by Bao Shan within this city. The girl's eyes landed on Liang Chen when she turned the corner, her steps halting in surprise as she too seemed to have failed to detect Liang Chen's existence before now. Her eyes roamed over him for a bit before she snapped her fingers as the light of realization flashed through his eyes.
"Ah, you are the one who killed the governor, correct? I haven't encountered anyone else here who tastes so strongly of danger as you do so it feels like the most reasonable choice. You don't need to worry, we have no interest in stealing your spoils of war, we just came here to see if we could find some traces of my brother. My brother is supposed to be rather strong so we decided to check here, but you sadly don't resonate with me, so we seem to have made the trip in vain. You can continue with your business, we won't stop you."
The girl spoke in a composed and somewhat polite manner, even trying to ease Liang Chen's vigilance by stating why she was here. But hearing her mention that she wasn't alone only made Liang Chen's vigilance rise further, his foot sliding back slightly when he heard another voice coming from around the corner.
"Xiao Ping, did you find someone?"
Two more people walked around the corner a bit after the voice sounded out, a man and a woman who looked to be approaching their late thirties. The man had smooth features, somewhat short brown hair and strangely vibrant grey eyes, a few faint wrinkles visible at the corners of his eyes. The woman had rather delicate and soft features, long silver hair that reached just below her shoulders and deep-black eyes.
The appearance of the two people caused Liang Chen's vigilance to go into complete overdrive, he couldn't even sense their presence or cultivation while they stood right there in front of him. There was a chance that they had no cultivation, but they wouldn't be able to hide their presence that well if they had no cultivation, meaning that they were likely far stronger than him. His feet continued to cautiously slide back as he put some distance between them, the girl, Xiao Ping, waving her hand dismissively towards Liang Chen.
"Someone, yes, but not the person we are looking for. You really should scold that old fogey, the least he could do was tell us a bit more about brother to make it easier to find him. If I have to hear him say, 'You'll know him when you see him', then I'll have to formally request a duel with him to at least slap him once."
Xiao Ping seemed to drop a little of her regality while in the presence of these two people, but Liang Chen couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this fact. The two newcomers turned their gaze onto Liang Chen, letting their eyes sweep over his body while frowning for a short moment. Liang Chen's heart skipped a slight beat as the Qi within his body started to seethe, but the two newcomers didn't end up doing anything, nodding their heads casually.
"A shame. Forgive us for frightening you, we're looking for someone so we couldn't help but check out this place considering how lively it was. We won't do anything to you so feel free to continue searching the place or leaving if you want to."
The two adults and the girl started walking forward once they finished apologizing to Liang Chen, their bodies actually vanishing when their feet touched the floor again. A cold shiver ran down Liang Chen's back, he sensed that the group, or rather that Xiao Ping, appeared a few hundred meters behind him after they vanished. They had been able to teleport without him being able to even sense anything, it would probably be beyond easy for them to ambush him if they wanted to.
He couldn't help but spit out a heavy breath and then quickly made his way out of the building, the crowd of people once again automatically splitting for him. Liang Chen ignored them as he had done up until now, using the map he had just acquired to locate the nearest spatial array. He put some Spirit Stones into the array and activated it, teleporting to another one within the city and repeating the process nearly 20 times before he reached the spatial array he was looking for.
The spatial array he arrived at was quite a bit larger than the other ones, this one was nearly 100 metres wide and twice as long. This was the array that led to the nearest city that had a branch of the Heaven's Secrets Company, Quartz Lord city. He put Spirit Stones into the appropriate slots within the array and activated it, letting out a light breath as the runes lit up and covered him in light.
He had only been within this city for an exceedingly short time, but due to how much had gone down it felt like far longer. If Yan Ling had been here with him now he was certain that she would comment on how he should just get used to it, he was a massive magnet for trouble after all. The thought couldn't help but bring a soft smile to his face, the array fully activating and teleporting Liang Chen away from the city.