Liang Chen sat at the side of the body of water, his legs crossed as he regulated his breathing while gazing down upon the parts of the island he could see from the top of the mountain. A sombre atmosphere covered the entire island, the earth was tinted slightly red, the scent of salt and blood hung faintly in the air, and Liang Chen could feel a deathly energy course through the ground all around him.
But even so, he had to admit that the island was surprisingly beautiful, the sprawling forests and blooming plains that were split open by coursing rivers were a peaceful and calming sight. Had it not been for the atmosphere and the scent he would find it hard to believe that this was once a location where countless mass-executions had taken place.
He allowed his gaze to roam across the surroundings for a few moments before he closed his eyes and connected his senses to the surrounding Qi. It would take Yumao a few days to finish the task he had been given so Liang Chen had some time to focus on his own cultivation while also starting to set up for what was most likely to be his next move.
His plan was to use the Elemental Lotus to cultivate his body, an act that would simultaneously affect his Qi cultivation slightly due to the shared elements. As such, he decided to spend a bit of time now to focus on his soul, especially since the earth here was ripe with deathly energy he could use. He had a bit of poison-element resources at his disposal but he had to use his own Qi to convert the surrounding Qi into time and rot Qi as it was far harder to find resources containing those two elements.
Time and rot were lucky naturally occurring things so there would always be a bit of those laws within the Qi floating around, but using his own Qi rather than proper resources still meant that the efficiency was lowered quite drastically. The law of the Void was different, it wasn't naturally occurring but rather something that existed outside of logic and reason, there was no way traces of that law would float around within the Qi of the world. But as it existed outside of logic and reason, he could draw everything he needed of that law from himself without losing any efficiency.
His soul cultivation was at the equivalent of the middle-stage of the Soaring Immortal realm which meant that he had turned about 50% of his soul's 'flesh' and 'blood' into a concentrated version of the elements he had merged into it. Once he finished altering all the 'blood' and flesh' and started working on the 'veins' and 'skin' of his soul he would enter the Primordial Immortal realm. After that, he had to start altering the 'organs' to enter the Transcended Immortal realm, and beyond that, he would have to return to the very start again and work on changing everything into the purest form of laws for the final cultivation realms.
Of course, all those steps were far off in the future for him so he put all his focus on just changing the 'flesh' and 'blood' of his soul, he had to take it step by step to ensure the best result. The 'flesh' and 'blood' of his soul disintegrated under his merged elements and was slowly replaced, Liang Chen gritting his teeth to bear the agonizing process.
But Liang Chen was forced to halt his cultivation after just a single day, his eyes opening as his gaze drift towards the edge of the mountain to his left. 11 people made their way to the top of the mountain five minutes after Liang Chen opened his eyes, a mark resembling two claws either engraved onto their clothing or tattooed onto their skin. The group glared grimly at him, but Liang Chen's gaze simply moved away from them and landed on the mountain-edge that was to his front.
Nine more people made their way over the edge and onto the flat mountain top, but these nine people didn't wear the dual-claw mark. Their skin or robes were marked with a symbol that resembled a feathery wing ending in a five-pronged claw. The two groups exchanged a few glares, noticeably tensing up as their hands moved towards the weapons strapped to their waists. Liang Chen's gaze swept over the 20 people, but his expression didn't change and he remained seated.
"You guys should be from Laoshen's faction and you guys should be from Hiu Ming's faction, no? I'll take it you haven't just come here for a quick peek before leaving peacefully?"
Factions would pop up wherever people gathered, the weak would gather around the strong to survive and gain any benefits they could. Even here, on this island that was supposedly filled with nothing but scoundrel, this held true, five factions occupying the city. Each faction was lead by a person in the Primordial Immortal realm, they should all be somewhere between the early stage and the middle stage according to the report Liang Chen had bought.
The two groups didn't exchange any words with each other or Liang Chen, they exploded forth with all their Qi while he was still talking and launched their attacks. Most of the attacks were launched directly at Liang Chen, all of them first launching ranged attacks to stall him while they charged him. But only most of the attacks were launched at him, two or three in each group launched attacks at the other groups, not a single person present showing an ounce of mercy.
"Yeah, I thought things would turn out like this."
Since they didn't show mercy, neither would Liang Chen. His Anima Essence burst forth and blanketed the entire top of the mountain, washing over the 20 people like a violent tsunami as it hammered directly into their souls. Due to the special elements merged into his Anima Essence and the ethereal property of Anima Essence, even the attacks the people had launched were assaulted and crushed.
The sounds of the attacks faded and silence returned to the mountaintop, the eyes of the 20 people turning blank and lifeless. Liang Chen's poison had overwhelmed their souls and eaten away at their minds, turning them into obedient puppets that would follow every order. Liang Chen had yet to stand up, calmly waving the 20 people over.
"Come here one by one, tell me about everything going on in the city, I want to know about every single person that you know about."
The people did as he ordered, stepping forward one by one and telling Liang Chen everything they knew about everyone they knew. They had lived in the city for quite a few years already so the number of people they knew wasn't low, it was to the point that it took a full four days before the last one finished talking. Liang Chen listened to them without his expression changing, killing them one by one as they finished their stories.
He closed his eyes again after killing the last one, returning to his soul cultivation while also using the Chaos King technique to suck up the souls of the 20 bodies. Liang Chen's body cultivation and Qi cultivation were strong, but what few realized was that it was actually his soul that was the strongest aspect about him.
The Chaos King technique reinforced all three of his cultivation systems and allowed him to increase his cultivation through devouring corpses, but he actually had one other technique working at all times, one that only strengthened his soul. The Bloody Soul Sea technique, the innate technique that all Sebettu were born with, automatically devouring a portion of the soul of any living being that they killed.
Thanks to this innate technique constantly working on his soul, the strength of his Anima Essence was actually already on par with that of a soul cultivator who was approaching the middle-stage of the Primordial Immortal realm. Thanks to this, his Anima Essence was one of his greatest trump cards, especially when he coupled it with his Dragon King's Six Steps. Of course, as it was his trump card, he couldn't use it willy nilly, the moment the enemy realized how strong it was then it would be easier for them to set up a defence to lessen the damage they took.
The souls of the 20 people were quickly used to strengthen Liang Chen's soul, coupling together with his own efforts to push the conversion rate of his soul's 'flesh' and 'blood' to a bit over 60%. He had quite a bit of experience with the technique, and the strength of his Anima Essence made the conversion both fast and smooth, he guessed that it would probably be a bit slower if he had been working on converting his body.
But that conversion was all he had time for, Yumao returning to his side four days after Liang Chen killed the last of the 20 people. He rose up from Liang Chen's shadow, tendrils of darkness stretching out from his body and dragging along several tens of brown crystalline plates engraved with dense runes. He dropped the plates on the ground in front of Liang Chen and flew up onto his head, hissing in a demand for praise. Liang Chen assented, plucking Yumao down from his head and rubbing both the top of his head and his chin while looking at the crystalline plates.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"Heh, you've actually gone and snatched so many of these things to make your own job easier? So, are things down there as bad as they made it sound?"
Yumao released several drawn-out hissing sounds of contentment from Liang Chen's petting, pointing at the plates with his tail as a form of response. Liang Chen continued to pet Yumao for a few minutes before placing him back on top of his head and turning his attention to the plates. He knew what these plates were, they were portable arrays that could be used to draw in the surrounding Qi and convert it to light, replicating the scenery around them.
The weakest versions would only catch a still image while stronger versions would catch it as a moving recording, stronger versions still would even include sound by drawing in the surrounding vibrations along with the Qi. Liang Chen activated the first one he got his hands on, an image of a back-alley gathering above it and remaining still for a second before it started to move.
The back-alley was filled with corpses and the recording showed three people lugging more corpses to the back-alley unceremoniously tossing them onto the rest. A few of the ones they were tossing onto the pile were actually still moving, feebly grasping for the throats of the ones that tossed them away.
Liang Chen quietly looked at the recording from start to finish, watching it once more before silently moving on to the next plate. He slowly and carefully made his way through the plates, all of which contained recordings that Yumao had gathered up from all around the city. Liang Chen remained silent as he went through the recordings, one of his hands unconsciously reaching up and stroking the soft feathers running down Yumaos back. He only opened his mouth when he finished the last recording, but even then he didn't say much.
"Sad, it really is just sad."
Liang Chen closed his eyes after he finished talking, returning to his agonizing soul cultivation. The recordings of the city reminded Liang Chen of his time in the Mystic's Hidden Realm, when he had spied on the happenings in Liu Daning's mansion. This was a place where mercy or kindness held no home, all that mattered here was the eradication of everyone else to further your own standing. It was a sad showcasing of how deep into the abyss human nature could go.
Liang Chen had feared that things might be like this when they were attacked the moment they got close to the island, and that fear was almost fully solidified when he made the 20 people spill everything they knew. And now, with Yumao's task and verdict completed, his fear had fully solidified and his next step had become clear.
Liang Chen remained seated next to the body of water while focusing on his soul cultivation, using his law of time to increase the flow of time around him. Using his law of time like this further decreased the efficiency of his soul cultivation, but that didn't really matter to him right now since he was going to spend a bit of time in this location.
He sped up the flow of time by eight and remained in his seated position until he turned 99% of his soul's 'flesh' and 'blood' in the concentrated version of his merged elements. The last step would take him to the Primordial Immortal realm, a process that still required one final touch that he had to complete in his merged elements. Of course, increasing his soul cultivation by that much took a fair bit of time, even with how easy it was thanks to the strength of his Anima Essence.
He had been sitting by the edge of the body of water for a little over a month, his law of time turning it into nearly nine months for him. It took a fair bit longer than he expected, but that was due to the fact that cultivation got harder and harder the further along you got, the last 5% alone had taken a little over a month.
But now his preparations were complete, it was time to head down to the city to pick up the Elemental Lotus he had come here for. He opened his eyes, a faint greyish-purple light flashing through his golden pupils as he stood up. He took a quick bath in the body of water right next to him and changed into a fresh robe before he descended the mountain and headed for the city.
Liang Chen walked past several dead animals and a few dead Demonic beasts as he headed for the city, Yumao greedily snatching them all up. But he didn't eat them right away, he first handed them to Liang Chen and allowed him to store them into his interspatial ring, Yumao knew that it wasn't safe to eat the beasts in their current state.
There were no guards standing by the large metal gates that led into the city but there were five corpses sprawled on the ground a few steps away from the gate. The corpses were tossed into his interspatial ring as Liang Chen stepped past them and entered the city, slowly making his way through it. The streets were littered with corpses wherever he walked, some clutching at their throats, some bleeding from all their orifices, others gushing forth a viscous foam from their open mouths.
Tens, hundreds, and finally thousands of corpses were all dragged into Liang Chen's interspatial ring, his cold gaze not once wavering. He reached the crescent-moon shaped plaza after a few hours of walking, the mosaic of the blazing sun now stained with blood and countless corpses. The leaders of the five factions were also here, they were lying at the centre of the plaza and all the corpses, their expressions forever frozen in hatred, confusion, and despair.
The body of water he had sat next to provided all the drinkable water for this island, if the living beings on this island wanted to drink then it would have to be from one of the rivers originating from that body of water. And Liang Chen had sit next to it for over a month, allowing his poison to seep into it and spread out over the entire island, reaching the mouths of every living being.
It was weak at first and contained a bit of his Anima Essence, influencing the minds of those who drank it to lessen their suspicion. But then they drank more and more, the poison seeping deeper and deeper into their souls, continuously affecting them so that they didn't even think about the person that had just arrived on the island.
And then people started dying, one by one they fell after drinking the water, and one by one the factions started to blame each other. It all culminated in a large battle at the centre of the city, but by then it was already too late, the battle couldn't even rage for more than a few minutes before the last person fell to the poison. Liang Chen wasn't a stranger to using his poison like this, and he didn't feel a shred of remorse for turning this city into a lifeless zone, he had seen what these people were doing to each other for their own fun.
All the corpses were sucked into his interspatial ring so that he could later remove the poison, the plaza becoming empty once more. Liang Chen stood a bit away from the yellow mosaic, looking down at it and sensing the deathly energy seeping out from the ground. He stretched out his arm and pushed down, a violent gust of wind crackling with lightning smashing into the mosaic and crushing it, tearing up the earth and revealing a large crater.
The walls of the crater were lined with skeletons, some so dried that they looked like they were about to turn into dust while others carried a faint sheen and glimmer that showed they belonged to somewhat strong body cultivators. And located at the very bottom of the nearly 3-kilometre deep crate was the beautiful bringer of death.
The lotus looked just like Liang Chen had expected, it had a lower layer of brown leaves, a middle layer of blue leaves, and an upper layer of blackish-grey leaves that all rotated around the lotus, the Qi around it so dense that it formed a fine multicoloured mist. There was actually a few buds on the top of the Elemental Lotus, a fourth layer of leaves in the process of growing. Given enough time, this Elemental Lotus would become a Four-Petaled Elemental Lotus, and that would be the time this island saw a grand massacre as the five factions started to fight over it.
Liang Chen took a step forward, but the skeletons within the crater started to rattle just as he moved his foot. They burst out of the earth and congregated around the Elemental Lotus, all of the bones connecting and merging as they morphed into a large monstrosity that looked like a skeletal bull with six legs and a head that was split into eight sections like a flower, all eight sections peeling back to reveal bones that had been crushed into the shape of sharp fangs.
"H..Hat...Hate...Kill...Kill...Execute...Protect...Mother..."
The monstrosity gargled forth words in a dry and raspy voice that constantly changed, a nearly transparent black mist seeping out from the skeletons and swirling around the monstrosity. This was a beast formed entirely out of hatred, fragmented souls filled with resentment stitched together by the overpowering death-element Qi seeping out from both the Elemental Lotus and the land itself.
This was not a turn of event that Liang Chen had planned for, he hadn't expected that those executed here would hold such resentment that parts of their souls would still linger on even so long after their death. The deathly energy emanating from the lotus and their own resentment had kept them alive for so long, and now that they sensed a threat to the lotus they had congregated, using the lotus as a centre to form a monstrous body.
Liang Chen couldn't help but feel a sliver of sentimentality as he looked at the malformed monster in front of him. Would this be his end-result if he died before he accomplished everything he wanted? Would his hatred and resentment gather together what remained of his soul and form a being like this? He shook his head and discarded the thought, his spear appearing in his grasp as Yumao grew to his full size.
"You've stuck around for long enough already. Sleep, I will put your resentment to rest."