The part of the island that Liang Chen had arrived on was mostly empty, a simple plain housing only the spatial array that brought him here. He knew that if he wanted to reach the five hovering islands that housed the five halls of the Nightshield sect, he would have to head about 20 kilometers to the north until he reached a city known as Dusk's Ascension.
Liang Chen didn't bother wasting any time on the empty plain and headed directly for Dusk's Ascension. There were a few weak Demonic beasts roaming the plain, but they weren't a problem for him even when he limited himself to the same cultivation level as Zhong San, the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm.
Liang Chen arrived by Dusk's Ascension before long, a rather large city where all the buildings were the same size, shape, and made from a dim white stone. The buildings in Dusk's Ascension were all the same because this was where the most common disciples lived, there was no distinction between them so there was no point in making any distinction between the buildings.
The sect itself didn't make the buildings different from each other, but they didn't prevent the disciples living there from decorating or altering the buildings slightly so upon entering the city you would see more minor differences between the outside look of the buildings. Liang Chen only gave the surrounding city a few sweeping glances as he moved through it, heading for the star-shaped plaza while nodding his head at the disciples that greeted him or talked to him as he moved past them.
"Good morning, Senior Brother San."
"Greetings, Senior Brother San."
"Respectful greetings, Senior Brother San, please greet mistress Ping when you see her."
"Hello, Senior Brother San, please hand this letter to Little Ming when you see her."
Liang Chen swiftly reached the plaza of the city, which was filled with small stands where disciples could sell items or resources that they got their hands on whenever they left their sect for any missions. At the very center of the yellow-cobblestone plaza stood another spatial array that was slightly different from the ones Liang Chen was used to, it was shaped like a star and had five places one could stand.
The entire array was surrounded by guards clad in the robes of the Nightshield sect, but each of these guards had already reached the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm so they were not people that the disciples in this city could handle. Liang Chen walked up to one of the nine guards and brought out his disciple token, the guard respectfully saluting him upon seeing it.
"Congratulations on your safe return, Senior Zhong. I heard that the Devil turned Green Rivers into a lifeless wasteland, escaping in time was the right decision. Please wait for a second while we prepare the Duskhsield section of the array. Oh, and I'd suggest not going against Senior Lim or Senior Chinyu, apparently somethings happened up there that's caused them to be incredibly on edge, they snap at the smallest things nowadays."
Liang Chen nodded his head and thanked the man for the advice, stepping onto one of the star's points and waiting there while two of the guards placed Spirit Stones into some of the array's grooves. The part he was standing lit up after not too long, space around Liang Chen distorting for a short second as he was teleported away from the city and up to the island housing the Duskshield Hall part of the Nightshield sect.
Once the transportation finished, Liang Chen found himself standing in a small hut lit up by three torches burning with faint blue flames. He could feel the presence of two guards at the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm outside the hut, but other than them he couldn't feel anyone within the surrounding five kilometers. Liang Chen knew the procedure so he once again took out his disciple token and opened the door to the hut, showing the token to the two guards that held out their halberds and stopped him.
"Halt, iden... Oh, it's Junior Brother San. Welcome back, we've already received the news that Junior Sister Shishi and Junior Brother Dong perished when the Devil ruined Green Rivers city, good work on making it out alive. Junior Sister Ping has been worried sick for the last few days since there hasn't been any news from you, you'd best head to her immediately to calm her down. Little Ming and Junior Sister Xue have also been worried sick, Junior Sister Xue even ended her mission early just to return to the sect to await any news."
The somewhat hunched back guard visibly relaxed when he saw the disguised Liang Chen, putting away his weapon and leaning back into the chair he was sitting on. The other guard also nodded at Liang Chen, but he wasn't as friendly with Zhong San so he didn't speak up. Liang Chen put away the token again, gesturing towards the distant city that served as the Duskshield Hall.
"Thanks, Senior Brother Ming, I'll head to them right away. But tell me, what's gotten Senior Brother Lim and Senior Sister Chinyu's panties in a bunch? I've heard that they're really irritable right now."
The expression of the guard, Tang Ming, became somewhat dark after Liang Chen asked his question. He turned his gaze towards the east of the distant city, using his cheek to gesture towards a hook-like mountain rising up not far from the city.
"They haven't made the specifics public, but something's apparently happened in the dungeon, likely to the prisoners we took from the other sects. I don't know what exactly happened, but it's so bad that Senior Brother Lim and Senior Sister Chinyu have changed guard duty so that it rotates between them and their right-hand men."
Now it was Liang Chen's expression that dimmed slightly. His plan was to sneak into the dungeon to check up on Yin Yang and the others, but that would be next to impossible with Chang Lim and Rong Chinyu personally taking guard. Even getting past their right-hand men would be hard, as all of them had reached the middle stage of the Primordial Immortal realm. But Liang Chen didn't lose his cool, his mind quickly spinning as he came up with another plan he could try.
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"Yeah, I can see why that would cause them to get cranky as all hell, especially after we went through all that trouble to get those prisoners here. Don't tell me their pissy moods have even caused them to cancel the tri-monthly competition?"
The tri-monthly competition was something held by the Nightshield sect to check the progress of their disciples and to reward them for it. Disciples on the lower island could be promoted and accepted by one of the halls while the other hall-disciples could be accepted as disciples by the various elders or receive other resources depending on how well they did. Tang Ming snorted once, smirking slightly as he looked at Liang Chen.
"Cancel it? Heh, as if the two of them have the guts to cancel a competition that has already been a tradition. From what I've heard, the elders have ordered them to not only run the competition as normal, they even have to oversee it personally so that they can hand out proper rewards. Elders probably want to avoid the sect from falling into disarray while they're gone, following the traditions is a good way to do so."
Liang Chen slowly nodded his head, the gears in his mind turning as the pieces of a plan started to fit together. This competition would be his best chance to either get closer to Chang Lim and Rong Chinyu or to take advantage of the fact that almost everyone would be at the competition, making it somewhat easier to sneak into the dungeon.
But the competition was still a month and a half away, so Liang Chen would have to lie a bit low until then. Luckily, the Qi here was incredibly dense and concentrated, it would be an excellent place for him to cultivate and focus on merging his new law of the Void into his soul and body. He bid Tang Ming and the other guard farewell, heading for the large city that was about 10 kilometers away.
The city was built in a manner that almost made it resemble a mountain, inclining as you got closer to the center of the city, which was occupied by three large mansions that were even larger than most castles. Zhong San didn't have a terribly high status in the sect so his house wasn't very deep into the city, meaning that Liang Chen only had to walk for about half an hour before reaching his house, a two-floor stone house decorated with green lanterns. Liang Chen took a quick breath and then pushed open the door with a smile.
"Ping'er, I've returned!"
Liang Chen entered a rather cozy living room that had a fireplace built into the left wall, was decorated using a few rather common yet colorful flowers, and had a rectangular table surrounded by two couches and two chairs and was covered in a hand-woven cloth serving as the centerpiece. The moment he pushed open the door and announced his presence, the sound of running footsteps came from behind a door at the other end of the room.
The door was pushed open by a mature woman with frizzy orange hair and green eyes, a loose robe covering her somewhat short body. The woman was carrying a one-year-old young girl with brown hair and blue eyes in her arms and was currently looking at Liang Chen with eyes that were slowly reddening. The sound of more feet quickly came from behind the woman, a nine-year-old girl with blonde hair and brown eyes running up and hiding behind the woman's legs, gazing at Liang Chen with wide eyes. Another woman, one who looked to be about 18 and had blonde hair and green eyes, came up from behind the woman and looked at Liang Chen, letting out a soft breath of relief.
These four women were Zhong San's family, his wife and his three daughters, they were also the main reason Zhong San managed to survive his encounter with Liang Chen. Since Zhong San had daughters of his own, especially one that was very close to Qing Chun in age, he couldn't bring himself to torture her or watch her get tortured, so he would guard by her cell whenever he had the chance and make sure that no one got close to her.
This put Zhong San in a somewhat awkward spot for Liang Chen. On the one hand, he was an enemy working for the sect that was trying to smoke out and kill Liang Chen, but on the other hand, he had done what he could to protect Liang Chen's family, protecting her from harm on at least two occasions. After giving it some thought, Liang Chen eventually came to the conclusion that his good deeds outweighed his bad ones, resulting in Liang Chen deeming him innocent enough to be spared.
The mature woman, Guan Ping, quickly rushed forward and embraced Liang Chen, burying her face in his neck and breathing deeply while making sure that their youngest daughter, Zhong Tang, didn't get squished. Liang Chen's eyebrow twitched slightly, but he still wrapped his left arm around Guan Ping's waist and placed his right hand on her head, stroking it softly.
"I'm back, Ping'er, sorry for worrying you."
Liang Chen managed to sneak into the Nightshield sect and come up with another plan for checking up on Yan Ying, now he just had to do his best to fool Zhong San's family, otherwise, he would have to figure something out.