Liang Chen delivered the freed captives to Rolling Hills city, reuniting them with their families before he left them, finding an inn where he could rent a room. Some of the citizens that knew what he had done wanted to give him a reward, but he firmly rejected it, giving them no choice but to leave.
Liang Chen did not want to be rewarded for the things he did, mainly because he was very clear on what it was he was doing. He was using his power to kill those he deemed evil, those who ruined the lives of innocent people. While the people he killed were considered vile, it did not change the fact that he was using his power to kill those weaker than him because of his own personal opinion. He was just as bad as those he wanted to kill, so he did not wish to be rewarded for what he did.
But this was fine for him, this was a resolution he had already made for himself back when Yan Ling cleared up his mind before he killed Liu Daning. Even if this path of his were to end in ruin, even if he had to crawl forward and look disgraceful, even if the whole world branded him selfish and evil, he would continue to move forward and follow his heart. No matter how battered he ended up, no matter how much wounds he had to suffer, no matter how much blood he had to spill, he would listen to his heart and move forward, working towards building the type of world he considered right.
Liang Chen did not stay in Rolling Hills city for long, leaving the moment the sun peeked over the horizon and continuing towards Wind's Whisper city. When he traveled with Yi Huang's caravan, it took them three days to go from Wind's Whisper to Rolling Hills city, but now that he was moving on his own, it only took him two days of constant moving.
Ever since his Heaven Devouring Dragon bloodline fully awakened, Liang Chen had stopped feeling sleepy, so he didn't need to stop to get any sleep, only to get some rest and restore his energy. Sleeping would only force Liang Chen to relive the execution of his parents, so this lack of sleepiness suited him perfectly.
Wind's Whisper city hadn't changed since the last time Liang Chen was there. If he had to say one thing that looked different, it would be that the strange runes drawn on the stone wall around the city looked fresher this time, as if they had recently been painted anew.
He easily entered the city and made his way through the crowded streets, heading directly for the Eternal Dragon Pavilion. He hadn't forgotten that he had picked up a mission from the Eternal Dragon Pavilion to check out the hidden realm and gather information about it. Now that he had left the hidden realm and learned quite a bit about it, it was of course time to deliver a quick report and pick up the rewards.
He received a few stares when he entered the Eternal Dragon Pavilion, some fearful, some wary, and others skeptic, but he paid them no mind. He walked up to the counter and told them as much as he could, keeping out the fact that those who participated in the first three trials received extra rewards.
It seemed like others who had left the hidden realm after leaving the Demon's Graveyard had already spread the news, as the woman behind the counter didn't doubt Liang Chen's words and swiftly calculated his reward and handed it over. He didn't hand over any of the resources he had gotten in the hidden realm, one of the parts of the mission, so his reward was mostly just normal coins used by non-cultivators.
Some cultivators would complain about receiving useless coins, but it suited Liang Chen's plans nicely. After putting away the reward, Liang Chen inquired about whether or not there were any caravans heading to Eternal Stream city. Thanks to the military academy being located in Eternal Stream city, it got a frequent stream of visitors, so he would only have to wait five days for a caravan to set out.
He bought a seat in the caravan and then left the Eternal Dragon Pavilion, renting a room at an inn and ordering some food for a late lunch. After eating, he left the inn and made his way to the completely round public library that he had visited once before. Entering it caused the familiar smell of mold and old wood to tickle his nose.
Liang Chen didn't come here to read any books, he came here to make a donation, so he was quickly led to the person in charge of handling the donations, an older man with graying hair and a somewhat tired face. Seeing the amount that Liang Chen was donating, a wide smile immediately appeared on the man's face.
"Thank you for your generous donation! Would you like to register this donation under a name and dedicate it for a specific purpose?"
"You can register it under the name Luo Xinyu, and the purpose it is dedicated for is the continued employment of the young girl working as a librarian, Luo Xiushi."
Luo Xinyu was one of the three caravan guards that had died while Liang Chen was hitching a ride with Yi Huang's caravan. The man had been kind to Liang Chen, and thanks to his death, Liang Chen had learned a valuable lesson from Yi Huang. Even if someone died, as long as their hopes and dreams were passed on to someone else, they would never be truly gone.
He had also been told that even if a dream seemed impossible to achieve, that was only because you were currently too weak, it would likely be completely different once you got stronger. These words had spurred on Liang Chen, planting the desire to revive his dead parents.
Liang Chen left the library after making the donation, returning to his room in the inn. His caravan was going to leave in five days, so he decided to quietly cultivate while he waited for time to pass. This cultivation was also the reason he chose to utilize a caravan rather than running the entire way to Eternal Stream city, he wanted to start cultivating the Lightning God's Physique.
He sat down on the bed in his room, which only contained a bed, a single closet, and one nightstand at the right side of the bed. He closed his eyes and sank his vision into his own body, the inner workings of his body laid completely bare before him.
He quickly found the three streams that represented his elements, connecting his mind with the golden one that represented his lightning element. The stream followed his orders, flowing through his body and quickly reaching his right hand.
Liang Chen gave himself the chance to take a deep breath and then ordered the stream to sink into the bones of the fingers on his right hand. The stream split into five and started drilling into Liang Chen's fingers, causing a piercing and electrifying pain to spread through his body. Even when he used his poison to numb his own sense of pain, it seemed like it didn't work in the slightest, the pain continuing to assault his mind.
Because of this, Liang Chen could only grit his teeth and endure. Besides, he had already gotten used to inflict torturous pain on himself, so he wasn't worried about collapsing under the pain. He allowed the lightning to sink into the very depths of his fingers, slowly changing his bone marrow.
At first, the lightning slowly strengthened his bone marrow, turning it golden in color. But even after it turned golden in color, Liang Chen continued the process, burning away all the bone marrow and replacing it with liquid lightning that released a golden glow. Only once all his bone marrow had turned into this liquid lightning would he have completed the first part of the Lightning God Physique.
But this process would take a little while, something Liang Chen realized when the five days were up and he had only managed to fully change the bone marrow in two of his fingers. But despite realizing that the process would required quite a while, Liang Chen wasn't disheartened. Once his cultivation grew, he would be able to speed up time around him by more and more, giving him all the time in the world to cultivate.
He left the inn and headed to the gate from which the caravan would set out from. This was not a caravan that would deliver wares, but one that would deliver people, so the wagons were built to resemble small rooms where one or two people could live. Liang Chen showed them the token he got from buying a seat in the caravan and was directed to his wagon, one of the smaller ones that only had the bare necessities when it came to furniture, a bed and a closet.
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Liang Chen sat down on the bed and closed his eyes, continuing his cultivation. The caravan would require about 13 days to reach Eternal Stream city so he was confident that he could at least finish up changing all the bone marrow in the fingers of his right hand, probably even start on the rest of the bones in his right hand.
He only kept a sliver of his mind outside his body, keeping a watch on the surroundings to make sure that he didn't miss anything important while he was cultivating. The caravan set off after waiting for a few more hours, starting its journey to Eternal Stream city.
Liang Chen got to quietly cultivate inside his wagon, but it seemed like caravans like these were very popular targets for bandits, as the caravan had to stop at least once every three days because of a bandit attack. This forced Liang Chen to halt his cultivation and leave the wagon, making sure that there weren't any needless deaths.
Most of the bandits that attacked were so weak that they were easily dealt with by the caravan guards and the other passengers, Liang Chen mostly just watched from the side, protecting and saving those that needed it. This formed a habit as the journey continued, so when they were attacked on the 10th day, Liang Chen could only halt his cultivation once again and let out a sigh.
"There really are a lot of bandits, life must be really hard for non-cultivators who just wish to visit a new city."
He stepped out of his wagon, his eyes sweeping over the 11 bandits that had surrounded the caravan and started their attack. None of the bandits had even reached the late stage of the Houtian Tower realm, so they weren't a real threat to the caravan. But there was one bandit amongst the 11 that caught Liang Chen's eye, causing them to light up.
The bandit in question was a mature woman with long brown hair and a curvaceous figure covered by a tight leather armor. The reason she caught his eye was not because of her looks, but because of the element she used. Just like Liang Chen, she used the lightning element.
Liang Chen had no one that could teach him about how to best use his elements, he could only learn by watching how others did it. The information that his birth parents sealed in his mind contained information about how they used their laws, but they used the law of motion, the law of piercing, and the law of time, so most of the information was useless to him.
Liang Chen stepped forward and took over for the caravan guard that was fighting the woman, wanting to get a closer look at how she used her lightning element. He pulled out his spear, which was already close to breaking from having been forced to endure his usage of the tribulation lightning in the Demon's Graveyard.
But when he pulled out his spear, a strange scene unfolded in front of him. Some of the stones around him as well as the weapons of the other people who were nearby, all suddenly flew through the air, heading directly for Liang Chen's spear. Liang Chen even felt that his own blood started to move strangely, as if it was trying to leave his body and gather around his spear.
Liang Chen's eyes immediately lit up as he activated his law of time, slowing down time around his spear as well as time around the woman's head, slowing down the speed at which her mind was able to control her Qi. His only opponent right now was the woman in front of him, so it was clear that whatever was happening right now was because of something she had done using her lightning element.
With the time slow in effect, Liang Chen got a moment to closely inspect his spear, allowing him to notice tiny arcs of lightning coiling around his spear, producing a strange attracting force that drew in the other weapons and some of the surrounding stones.
Once he noticed the arcs of lightning and their strange attracting force, he took out some pills from his interspatial ring, stuffing them into his mouth so that he could swallow them whenever he wished. Once these preparations were finished, he sped up time around him as much as he could, swallowing one of the prepared pills whenever he felt his Qi start to run low.
By slowing down the speed of the woman's mind, she couldn't maneuver her Qi at full speed, giving him a few moments of time. But these few moments were clearly not enough to properly understand exactly what it was the woman was doing, so he sped up time around himself, stretching those few moments into several hours.
When he went for a sustained and manageable increase, he could double the speed of time around him and keep it going for half an hour before he had to restore his energy. But now he was focusing on increasing the speed as much as possible, not bothering with keeping it going for too long, so he could increase the speed of time even further, at the cost of his Qi rapidly draining.
After taking out a new round of pills and swallowing his eighth pill, Liang Chen finally understood what it was the woman was doing, an amazed laughter escaping from his lips.
"So that's how it is, you turned my weapon into an electromagnet! Truly a fascinating way of using the lightning element."
She used her lightning element to create a current around his weapon, forming a magnetic field that used his weapon as the center. His weapon then turned into a large magnet, attracting all the metal in the surrounding area, even the trace amount of metal that was present within his body.
Now that he understood what she had done and even gotten quite some time to study the current she used, it was easy for Liang Chen to replicate or negate the phenomenon. His own arcs of lightning started to coil around his spear, overriding the electric current that the woman used to create a magnetic field, shutting it down.
To Liang Chen, several hours had already passed as he studied the current, but for the woman, it had only been mere moments, so she couldn't help but be shocked at the speed with which Liang Chen discovered her trick. Sadly for her, now that Liang Chen had managed to steal her utilization of the lightning element, there was no longer a need for him to dawdle.
The woman had genuinely tried to kill him, so he showed her no mercy in return, a bolt of lightning flashing through her skull and reaping her life. Shortly after, the rest of the bandits were also dealt with, the caravan resuming its journey to Eternal Stream city.
It was already the 10th day, so after only another 3 days, the caravan reached Eternal Stream city, one of Liang Chen's stops before he headed to the Storm Wolf sect.