Liang Chen's Bloodwind Code continued to vibrate as he made his way away from the crowded bazaar, the voice of Kuan Niu sounding out within his head with each buzz. But Liang Chen simply cut off Kuan Niu each and every time so that he wouldn't have to listen to him as he headed for the branch of the Heaven's Secrets Company located within this city. He was slightly tempted to continue searching the bazaar, but knowing that the allies of the Golden Branch and the Tranquil Lake were already on his tail, he wasn't certain that it was a good idea to remain in such a densely crowded place.
Jue Po Bia had charged straight at him, which allowed him to discover her, but what if someone came at him in a much more normal fashion? What if they snuck up to him and then self-detonated or activated some small array to attack him? He didn't feel like risking his own life, or the lives of the innocent people within the bazaar like that, so he decided to leave it. The streets of Quartz Lord city were large enough to give everyone walking on them ample space from the others around them, it would be much harder to get close to Liang Chen without him noticing it.
But as walked through the streets and followed the map he had found within the home of the governor of Sand's Journey city, he quickly discovered that his enemies didn't have to get close to him to attack him. A few small items cutting through the air at a rapid pace entered his senses as he walked, his gaze narrowing sharply. Two would hit his head if he took a step forward, five would hit him all over if he remained standing still, and two would hit his head if he stepped back.
Liang Chen's pupils flicked to the left, Yumao understanding his intentions and flying away at full speed. Liang Chen turned his gaze towards the right after sending away Yumao, his energy bursting forth and blanketing the surrounding area. The nine small objects slowed down drastically when they entered the range of his energy, freezing mid-air a few metres away from him as time around them ground to a halt.
Liang Chen's gaze drifted past the items, small wooden arrows coated in a liquid that seemed to be closely attuned to the law of wind, making it much easier for the arrows to fly for longer distances. But since the arrows were coated in a material attuned to the law of wind, they left behind very faint traces of that liquid as they flew, Liang Chen could use these traces and his own law of wind to track down the attackers.
But just as Liang Chen raised his foot to track down the attackers, the sounds of five loud explosions reached his ears, two from the left and three from the right. He felt a faint sense of foreboding and changed his direction, heading down the same path that Yumao had flown earlier. He picked up the arrows at the same time, they might prove useful at some point.
With his speed, he quickly reached Yumao, who had reached the spot where the arrows that came from the left had been launched. Yumao hadn't received a single scratch, but the surrounding 11 kilometres of the city was completely devastated. The houses, the roads, the people, everything had been reduced to a single bloody crater, the familiar and disgusting smell of burnt flesh and hair stinging Liang Chen's nose.
A gloomy silenced loomed over the area right as Liang Chen arrived, but that silence quickly gave way to wails of sorrow and howls of pain. Some of the people closer to the outskirts of the blast had survived and were screaming now that the pain registered in their adrenaline-fueled brains. And others again were howling to vent their grief, howling because they realized who or what they had lost.
Liang Chen's heart sank to his stomach, his feet quickly moving as he dashed to the other place where the attacks were launched from, the place where he had heard three explosions. And just as he feared, that area had also been reduced to nothing more than a crater, but this one was nearly 20-kilometres long.
Liang Chen stood amidst the destruction that was undoubtedly caused by the self-detonation of those that attacked him, his gaze gloomy and icy. With how large the city was, these two destroyed areas could barely register as dots on the map, but Liang Chen didn't even want to think about just how many people had died here. How many children, how many parents, how many good people had lost their lives here?
This was the vengeance of the Golden Branch and the Tranquil Lake, swift, violent, indiscriminate. They didn't care how many others died, all that mattered to them was that Liang Chen died for going against them. Sure, one or two of their locations might get discovered like this, but they were all just sacrificial lambs anyway, the multiverse was so large that there would always be replacements.
Liang Chen closed his eyes, taking in the wails of sorrow and the howls of pain. Some might say that he was part of the reason behind the carnage and loss here, it never would have happened if he hadn't gone against the Golden Branch sect. But Liang Chen didn't think like that, everything was on the hands of the Golden Branch and the Tranquil Lake, trying to blame him for this would be like blaming a sword for killing someone rather than the person who swung the sword.
He opened his eyes again after a short moment, an eerie calmness surfacing within his golden pupils as the carnage around him was reflected in them. He turned his gaze sideways just as Yumao landed on his shoulders, his feet moving as he started dashing at full speed. Now that he was moving at full speed, he reached the Heaven's Secrets Company branch, a large and gothic church, in only a scant three minutes.
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The double-doors of the building were already open, revealing a short hallway that split into three smaller hallways that were marked 'Items' 'Information' and 'God Hunter'. Liang Chen went directly down the hallway marked 'Information' and quickly arrived within a large circular hall that had wooden counters line the walls. Each counter was separated by thin wooden walls, a door standing directly behind the people working behind the counters.
There weren't any more signs or the like within the room so Liang Chen did the same he had done within the Heaven's Secrets Company branch he visited before he left his own universe, he simply picked one without thought. He walked up to the counter and didn't even wait for the man with light orange skin to open his mouth before he spoke up.
"I want information on how to reach the Heaven and Hell Dominion, how to get to Purgatory more specifically. I also want everything you have on the Golden Branch sect and the Tranquil Lake, their every ally and branch, everything."
The man behind the counter smiled politely and then placed his finger on a rather large ruby embedded into the ring he wore on his left hand. He maintained his silence for a little over a minute before he removed his finger from the gem, stating the price to Liang Chen with a smile.
"The price for the directions is rather cheap, but the information on the Golden Branch and the Tranquil Lake cost quite a bit, and it will not contain too much detailed information about their higher-ranked members. If this is fine with you, the total will come to 220 High-grade Spirit Stones."
Liang Chen didn't actually buy things with Spirit Stones often, but he still knew about their divisions and grades so he was aware that the price was actually rather steep. Each high-grade Spirit Stone was worth about 1000 mid-grade, who in turn was worth about 1000 low-grade ones. But he luckily had a decent bit of funds on him after raiding the governor's home, so he handed over all his high-grade Spirit Stones and several of his mid-grade ones, instantly losing nearly 70% of his Spirit Stones.
The man happily accepted the interspatial ring filled with the payment, giving it a quick check before placing it against the ruby on his ring. The interspatial ring vanished, a new one appearing to take its place. The man handed the ring to Liang Chen, who gave it a quick check to make sure that everything was there. He then nodded at the man and gave him a short thanks before leaving the building, part of his mind sifting through the jade slips stored within the interspatial ring.
Getting to the Heaven and Hell dominion would be rather simple, each of the five largest cities within the various dominions had spatial arrays that could be used to travel to the other dominions. For Liang Chen, this simply meant heading to Sky's Descent planet, which only required him to take a single spatial array since the planet was fairly close.
After that, he would have to head to the very centre of the dominion to reach Purgatory's Cradle, which was the name given to the area where Purgatory resided. Entering the depths of it to reach Purgatory would be a bit harder, however, the entire place was a massive land of death filled with people trying to either reach Purgatory, people trying to nurse Purgatory back to health, or those trying to prevent anyone from ever getting close to Purgatory so that things would remain as they were.
Liang Chen put the information aside for now and focused on the information about the Golden Branch and the Tranquil Lake, his gaze narrowing further the more he read. The first was the Tranquil Lake, they actually had branches of various names spread through not just this dominion but also the surrounding five dominions.
The information listed quite a few of their members but did keep their personal information to the minimum. When it came to their leader, the Sky-Piercing Sparrow, it didn't even state his name, it just stated that he had most likely entered the Empyrean Ruler realm. This meant that he was only a single realm below the Sealing God Empyrean and only two realms below a Universal Heart.
Compared to him, the Golden Branch sect was quite a bit smaller, focused entirely on the surrounding 400 planets. Their overall strength was also much lower, their leader, a man who went by the moniker of Golden Worldtree, had only reached the peak of the Transcended Immortal realm, possibly having entered the Sovereign God realm recently.
They were both much stronger than him, but Liang Chen never once felt a sliver of fear towards them. His greater enemy, Sealing God Empyrean, was even stronger than both of them, and not even he could make Liang Chen feel fear. All Liang Chen felt was wrath and determination, the same things he had always felt ever since he stepped onto his road of cultivation. After he finished scouring through the information, Liang Chen slid off his interspatial ring and handed it to Yumao, giving his heads a few strokes.
"Into the darkness."
Liang Chen vanished into the orb within his interspatial ring after he finished speaking, Yumao sinking into the darkness and vanishing just as Liang Chen had asked. Liang Chen arrived within the house he had chosen for himself inside the city located within the orb, just barely able to hear the sounds of Yi Xue and the others training. Listening to how many people seemed to be training, it looked like Yi Xue and the others had already integrated the people that Liang Chen picked up in Sand's Journey city.
Liang Chen closed his eyes and shut out the sounds of their training, the strength of his current enemies made him acutely aware of the fact that he was too weak right now. He had to increase his strength, and luckily he had plenty of resources and various cultivation manuals and skills that he could go through. But before he went through any of those, he wanted to do one thing first, his vision sinking into the bloody sea upon which his soul floated. And hovering above both his soul and the bloody sea was an ancient black book radiating power. It had been long enough, it was time for Liang Chen to once again open the book and learn the final parts of the Chaos King technique.