TWG 23 - 1 month passes, living in the city
" Clink, Clank. "
It was the clanging sounds of silver coins being dropped on the table. But strangely, the sounds it made did not escape the range of the table's proximity, It was quickly drown out before escaping any further.
Although, with how rowdy the bar currently is, no one would probably notice the sounds of these coins either.
A white-robed Li Zun placed down his glass of ale on the table, the look on his eyes was hazy, his mind constantly playing the scenes of the final moments of the bandits he had killed.
" In the end...was I wrong? Or...was I right? " He mumbled, a conflicted look appeared on his face.
It had been a month since then, but it had always been on his mind, reminding him of his deeds from time to time.
After all, 3 months ago, he was just an ordinary mortal. Sending a group of people to their deaths[1], ending the lives of a hundred people personally in one go..no matter how wicked those people are, it would continue to haunt a normal person to no ends.
Thankfully, Li Zun is by no means normal. Although that matter had troubled him a lot, he was not severely affected by it.
" Forget it, There was never a ' right ' in killing people in the first place. "
" The lives of people..no matter how measly they are.. they should not be handled lightly.. "
" I was far too rash, far too emotional. I thought I was someone who could control my own emotions well..but in reality? Heh! " He let out a self-mocking smile.
Actually, no matter how good someone is at controlling their emotions..to witness for the first time, a despicable act those bandits did first-hand, no one would be able to keep their emotions under control. Especially a man of values like Li Zun.
" In the end, I was wrong. " He smiled bitterly. Resolving the conflict in his heart.
Recognize and learn from his mistakes, this is the only way he could prevent him to make more mistakes in the future.
In truth, Li Zun's actions could not be described as 'wrong'. The one who he had ended their lives were a group of bandits who no one wouldn't have bat an eye on even if they were murdered. What more of the 100 Ravenous Tigers most vile personnels, they were also the one who made up the true strength of Ravenous Tigers.
If he had chosen to banish them to the isolated island he had sent the other members to, he couldn't guarantee that they would be able escape.
If they were to escape back into the mainland, could he be willing to risk the lives of thousands of villagers just for them? Impossible.
The only true solution to that is with Li Zun presiding on that island too, watching after these bandits so that they will not escape.
But what kind of person was Li Zun? He is a person of free spirit, he loved to wander and see the world. Asking him to live in an isolated island for years? Simply another impossibility.
With another glance at the silver coins on his table, Li Zun counted his expenses and knew that those silver coins would have covered more than enough for the drinks he had ordered, a second later he disappeared from the bar.
It was as if he wasn't even there in the first place, he arrived silently, and left just as silent..
~~~
Tap tap.
The noisy crowd of Lanwun City moved in waves as night falls. The City of Lanwun is an average sized city with around 5000 habitants but at night, the roads in the city would be bustling with plenty of people and colorful lights, brightening the city even at night.
In a certain venue of the city, however, the crowd was dispersed into two as a white-robed man was slowly strolling in the center of it.
Usually, this kind of incident would only happen if a noble would walk pass through the road or in some other cases, an extremely savage looking man that is passing through, but at this moment, the same treatment was given towards a lean, normal looking white-robed man.
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From afar, one could not tell the specialness of this white-robed man, but anyone who would come into a close range with him would feel that this white-robed man..gave off a very strange, unpleasant dark aura.
In fact, there is a reason why Li Zun didn't bother to think of the affects of his actions. He was very clear that there are people who are very similar to him in terms of aura in the Floating Cloud Continent.
Those people he are referring to, are called deranged mages!
Powerful, half-crazed mages of the dark element walking on the path of curses and hexes that has done countless of experiments on the body of living beings, causing them to release a very horrifying, dark aura.
These kind of mages possessed some of the most terrifyingly bizarre magics such as voodoo, hex, ghostly magics, poison and even possession!
These kinds of mages are the most dangerous, feared experts in the Floating Cloud Continent. Even experts of the 3rd realm might not necessarily want to anger these individuals.
Usually, not even powerful mages and warriors would dare to act so unruly in a state ruled by a king, but one could never tell what those deranged mages would do if they were angered, after all their sanity could already be questioned.
Once, there was an incident where a deranged mage specializing in curse magic was angered by a noble in a kingdom, and at the very next day, that deranged mage spread his curse magic across the noble's territory, causing a casualty of more than 1000 people, turning fertile lands into waste, killing all the poultry raised and even more people suffering from the curse.
Of course that mage was long dead, hunted by the kingdom's warriors. But cases like that did not only occur once, In fact, it has happened 6 times in the history of Floating Cloud Continent!
Each time it happened, lands turned to waste, deaths came like rain. These events had long terrorized the population of Floating Cloud.
But the main reason why they have continued to exist till this day is the existence of the " Deranged Emperor ", a terrifying deranged mage of the 3rd realm, 8 rank!
This is the reason why the guards of the city would not bother to act on these kind of individuals as long as they did not disturb the city.
Of course, that White-robed man was not a deranged mage, but instead Li Zun, a being far more frightening than an ordinary dark mage.
Seeing the crowd dispersing around him, Li Zun could no longer be bothered. This was a scene he had seen almost every day in the past month he had visited cities.
Although he had made qualitative improvements in the control of his Divine Energy, this curse of him was still there, not allowing him to live a normal life. Li Zun suspected that only when he could fully control his Divine Energy like the back of his hand is the time when he could envelope the curse to not leak outside.
After a short walk, Li Zun had finally arrived on the inn he was currently staying at. Although he would be able to instantly teleport to the inn, he would relish the chance to take a walk in the busy street once in a while, even if he had to feel the discomfort of people avoiding him. He had been too used at it already in his past life, now he was already very content with little Xie by his side and the 3 little birds, who are actually not afraid of him.
But even if they were not afraid of him, Li Zun wouldn't allow them to touch him, or he feared that the curse might attack these little birds.
Once he arrived at the front door of the inn, Li Zun did not bother to use it and instead, he directly teleported into the door of his room.
" 398 " He confirmed, and with a turn of the doorknob, the door was opened. The room he rented was very big, actually it was the biggest room that the inn could afford.
It even took up a fourth of the floor of the inn! Although Li Zun did not need suh a wide room, with how active little Xie and the three birds are, he decided to rent the largest room for them to play around. Little Xie was there, scampering around the room chasing after the 3 little birds in the air, occasionally jumping and occasionally barking. The Daredevil dog[1] was there too, sleeping alone in the corner of the room, it opened his eyes for a moment when he saw someone entering but closed it's eyes again as soon as it saw that it was Li Zun who had entered.
Swiping his paws towards the little birds, Little Xie jumped high into the air, but it wasn't able to catch his target and instead, it fell head first into the wooden floor, his snout whimpering. The 3 little birds noisily chirped at it almost to the point where they seemed like they were laughing at him.
Seeing this scene, Li Zun couldn't help but let out a small laugh, this was a very usual scene for him.
Only when Li Zun let out a light laugh did those 4 mischievous creatures finally noticed him, they stopped playing around and ran towards them with gleeful faces.
Little Xie hurriedly leaped up into Li Zun's arms while the 3 birds circled around his head, chirping gleefully.
Although Li Zun did not allow them to touch him, they were still very affectionate towards Li Zun and since they were not the slightest bit scared of him, Li Zun allowed them to be near him as long as they are not in contact with him.
Because of the special bond they shared, Little Xie is the only one Li Zun would allow to touch him.
At the time, he discovered that a part of his curse had affected little Xie as well, thankfully though, it's curse is nowhere as powerful as Li Zun's and would only cause the people around it to feel uneasy, it would also not cause any adverse affects when he touched someone else.
The little pup continuously barked and jumped at him, while the 3 little birds chirped continuously at him. The Daredevil Dog did not say anything, but by now it's eyes have opened and a look of eagerness was in it.
If it was any other person, they might not understand what they are being noisy about, but as someone who had lived them for more than a month, Li Zun could naturally understand what they wanted.
" Alright, alright..you guys wanna go out? Let's go out then! " smiled Li Zun.
Staying cooped up in this room for the day would definitely bore them to death, which is why they would usually go out at night.
" Get ready. " said Li Zun, activating his Divine Energy, and a second later all 6 of them, including the Daredevil Dog disappeared into nothingness.
[1] Li Zun sent the first bandit groups he met to their deaths in chapter 17.
[2] Remember? The Daredevil Dog was forced to become the servant beast of Little Xie in chapter 14.