Liang Chen moved through the streets in a casual manner, moving further and further away from the ruins of the Ocean's Willow sect while taking advantage of the dark night to remain hidden. The number of corpses and treasures in his interspatial ring had increased once again, nowadays it almost felt like those two collections were growing faster than he could use them up.
He didn't give the new treasures an in-depth examination straight away, heading for one of the plazas that carried some of the city's spatial arrays. He had taken care of the division belonging to the Golden Branch sect and left the governor with enough information that he could produce an explanation that would appease the citizens, easing their fears at least a little bit.
And since that had been accomplished, it was time to move on to a city that housed a spatial array that would take him to one of the planets that carried a spatial array which could bring him to the Heaven and Hell Dominion. His journey through the city proceeded without any problem and he quickly managed to reach the triangular plaza, which was mostly deserted due to how late it was.
But, as long as there were spatial arrays here, so too would there be guards to keep an eye on them. And as Liang Chen stepped into the plaza, the guards immediately stiffened and tensed up, beads of sweat starting to seep out from their foreheads and backs. But none of the guards made a move to stop or apprehend Liang Chen, his identity was clearly more than apparent to them. This saved him the trouble of having to knock them out so he simply swept a questioning glance at the various arrays scattered around the plaza.
"Three-peaks?"
The guards moved practically in unison as they turned towards one of the spatial arrays located at the top of the triangular plaza, one that was a slight bit larger and darker in colour than the rest. Liang Chen nodded his head and crossed the plaza, the guards present barely breathing as he stepped past them and onto the spatial array. It was only as he started activating the array that some of the guards further away from him could let out their held breaths, two of them massaging their waists while glancing at Liang Chen, almost as if they were implying that his mere presence had caused their bodies to ache.
Liang Chen noticed their actions but didn't care, he hadn't done anything that could cause their bodies to ache. So if their bodies were in fact aching then it would be solely due to their own nervousness, it wouldn't have anything to do with him, it certainly wasn't something they could blame him for.
The array quickly activated and surrounded Liang Chen with a bright white light, space around him twisting as he was sent away. Three-Peaks city was a fair distance away from the city he was in right now so the teleportation actually took him a little over two minutes.
But he reached his destination without a problem, arriving within a sturdy stone city that actually had three large mountains within the city walls, their peaks piercing through the clouds above them. The city moved a bit up along the sides of the mountains but stopped at about the halfway point, allowing nature to claim the remaining parts of the mountains.
It was a rather grand and somewhat strange sight, but Liang Chen only gazed upon the three mountains for a bit over a minute before he moved on. He was already standing in a plaza filled with spatial arrays, the sun hanging high above him since this city was located on the other side of the planet. He didn't waste too much time and simply addressed one of the guards stationed within the plaza.
"Which one of these arrays can take me to Sky's Descent planet? More specifically, to Cloud's Song city."
The guard turned her head when she noticed that Liang Chen was talking to her, her gaze sweeping over his body for a short instant before she casually waved towards one of the spatial arrays to her left.
"That dark green one over there, the price should come to ab...?!"
The woman's casual manner froze as she gave Liang Chen another look-over, her gaze settling on his face for a bit as she gave a curious tilt of her head. And then the pieces fell together in her head, the light of realization flashing through her eyes, panic quickly swallowing that light.
"Tha... It's that spatial array over there, Senior, the dark green one depicting an eagle spreading its wings. Please allow me to guide you there, I'll personally make sure that the other guards don't trouble you, the fee for using the array is of course also waived."
The woman was practically sweating bullets as she started to lead Liang Chen over to the spatial array, but she managed to get out her words surprisingly well and strongly, maintaining a somewhat professional image. Liang Chen could only shake his head somewhat at her actions, Yumao snickering in delight at seeing Liang Chen unable to handle how people acted in front of him now that his information was starting to spread.
The guard quickly took care of the price for using the spatial array, causing Liang Chen to remember that he hadn't actually once paid for any of the spatial arrays he used. The three other guards around the array started to activate it for Liang Chen, the female guard nervously shifting her body around.
It was only when Liang Chen stepped onto the activating array and was surrounded by a white light that she could let out a long breath, massaging her waist as she returned to her post. As for Liang Chen, he was flung through the twisting and winding spatial tunnel for almost ten entire minutes before the light around him started to recede.
This was the longest spatial teleportation that Liang Chen had engaged in so far, and while the spatial tunnel around him showed some signs of strain, it managed to maintain its form. As such, he managed to reach his destination without any unforeseen accidents, arriving in a city so white that it almost hurt eyes to look around.
Cloud's Song city followed its name to a degree that could only be called overly extreme, the buildings there constructed using a material that resembled clouds but maintained the hardness of stone. Liang Chen didn't explore the garish city and headed directly for the closest guard to ask about the spatial array to the Heaven and Hell Dominion, but the answer he got wasn't exactly what he hoped for.
"Sorry, but the spatial arrays are undergoing maintenance right now, their spatial tunnels have started getting so unstable that they're a tad dangerous. Please have some patience, we should have them up and ready again within three or so months."
Long-distance arrays were far more delicate than normal spatial arrays, they had to endure much more Qi to power their spatial tunnels. Being stuck within one such array when the spatial tunnel broke down would not be something pleasant, you'd have to endure the full power of the shattered space.
As for why the other spatial arrays were undergoing maintenance, it was mostly just to make sure that they were in proper shape. Since they were already working on some of the arrays they might as well just do them all, there were other cities on this planet with long-distance arrays so there was no problem if this city shut down its arrays for a bit.
Liang Chen nodded his head to the guard and checked out the other plazas in the city, but the answer he got was the same everywhere, the long-distance spatial arrays were undergoing maintenance. They weren't the spatial arrays that saw the most use, so normally it wasn't a problem to perform maintenance on all of them at once.
With this being the case, Liang Chen could only curse his own bad luck when it came to timing and check out the map he had acquired back in Sand's Journey city. He located the closest other cities that had long-distance arrays, this planet served as a sort of crossroads for long-distance travels so it had more than just this one city with long-distance spatial arrays.
He picked out the closest city and calculated the time it would take to get there if he flew on Yumao's back. It would take about three weeks to get there, but that was much better than waiting for three months so he decided that it was the better choice. And so, Yumao grew to his actual size and took off from the city, the citizens finally able to breathe a bit easier now that Liang Chen had left.
Liang Chen sat on Yumao's head and took this time to go through his interspatial ring, organizing all the treasures he had acquired as well as the contents of the other interspatial rings he had coincidentally gotten. At the same time, he used a bit of his mind to devour some of the corpses, storing up the energy to fuel the techniques he got when he opened the Chaos King technique for the third time.
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He tossed a few corpses to Yumao to appease him as he started to whine, the aura radiating from Yumao scaring off any other airborne Demonic beasts that might try to disturb them. Thanks to that, they were able to reach Fall Mirror city without being disturbed, the mountain and cascading waterfall serving as the centrepiece of the city falling into their sight during the morning of their 20th day of flight.
Liang Chen gazed upon the perfectly circular city from Yumao's head, his gaze drifting towards the southern gate that was embedded into the array-covered walls that surrounded the city. Liang Chen let out a short sigh upon seeing the scene by the gate, patting Yumao on the head and indicating for him to land there.
Yumao landed heavily in front of the nearly 1000 people gathered up in front of the open entrance, knocking down those closest to him as he touched the ground and shrank. Liang Chen hopped down from Yumao's head just before he shrank, his gaze landing on the brown-eyed man leading the armoured soldiers.
"Another welcoming parade, huh? And you've prepared quite a bit as well, haven't you?"
His gaze slid past the emerald-haired man who looked to be in his late twenties and fell upon the city that laid beyond the open gates. The streets were completely empty, guards lining them so that no citizens accidentally got close to the entrance. The brown-eyed man leading them could only smile somewhat bitterly while shaking his head, giving the expected explanation.
"We can't help it, your achievements inspire more than just a little fear in people. So when the citizens heard that you were coming this way, the already ongoing fear was almost turned into a full-blown panic, we were only barely able to contain it. I am Juye Gong, and please do not worry, we will not make things difficult for you, we only ask that you'll allow us to follow you while you are within the city."
It was the same request that had been made by governor Zeng Lao, and it probably would have been made by the governors of the other cities he had visited after leaving Final Curse island if he hadn't arrived there by using a spatial array. Liang Chen wasn't planning on staying within the city for long so he casually nodded his head, Juye Gong guiding him into the city with a smile.
The streets were completely deserted wherever he went, if it wasn't for the fact that he could sense people hiding within the houses then he might have thought that the city was already abandoned. Liang Chen swept his gaze around the city, which seemed to have been constructed by cultivators using the law of earth, his glancing gaze eventually landing on Juye Gong, who wore a light green robe whose only decoration was a pin shaped like a blue whirlpool.
"You should be the governor, no? No offence, but you seem a bit weaker than the other governors I've met so far."
From the respect he commanded of the soldiers, he was clearly the leader around here, but his cultivation had only reached the late stage of the Soaring Immortal realm so he seemed a bit too weak to rule a city. Juye Gong wasn't too bothered by Liang Chen's frank question, chuckling lightly as he explained the truth of the matter.
"Haha, none taken, I get that quite a lot. But that's only to be expected, I got my position more through connections than through actual skill. You see, my father is an elder of the Earthen King sect, I got the position mostly to flatter him."
Liang Chen had a few recollections of the Earthen King sect, the name popped up once or twice within the map he held, it was one of the larger sects on the planet, ranked somewhere around the 10th spot. If his father was an elder in that sect then it certainly made sense for him to have some connections so Liang Chen didn't bother with the question any further. And before long, after only three hours of walking, Juye Gong stopped the group and gestured towards a castle-like building made from wood that radiated a faint comforting warmth.
"Here we are, the finest inn you can find in this city, their rooms are worthy of kings and emperors."
Juye Gong spoke of it grandly, his back tensing slightly when he sensed Liang Chen's gaze slide onto him. Liang Chen had no interest in staying in this city, a stance he made exceedingly clear with the look in his eyes. Juye Gong didn't say anything, giving his surroundings a sweeping glance before looking at Liang Chen with a sliver of pleading intent in his eyes.
Liang Chen's own eyes narrowed slightly at the sight, but he eventually nodded his head and entered the inn, at least willing to hear out Juye Gong before he decided on a course of action. Juye Gong lit up with a bright smile and followed Liang Chen into the building, taking him directly to the sole room that took up the entire sixth floor of the building. He ushered out all the guards so that it was only him and Liang Chen, getting straight to the point.
"I'm not going to waste your time, I don't think you'd appreciate it. Did you hear how I spoke about an ongoing fear earlier? Well, in truth, several tens of citizens have already gone missing lately, mostly children who had some aptitude for cultivation but had yet to join any sects or the like. Quite a few Demonic beasts serving as companions to various cultivators have also gone missing, but when it comes to them we aren't talking about numbers as low as just tens. We believe it is connected to the Sword Dancer's sect that has taken up residence at the southeastern edge of the city, but we don't have enough conclusive proof to make a move on them."
Juye Gong removed a jade slip from his interspatial ring as he spoke and handed it to Liang Chen, allowing him to go through it. The jade slip contained various testimonies they had gathered from some citizens as well as some tracks they had found, but just as he said, it wasn't enough to actually prove that the Sword Dancer's sect had done anything. Liang Chen went through the entire jade slip but didn't comment on the contents straight away, raising an eyebrow at Juye Gong while handing the jade slip to Yumao so that he could go through it too.
"You seem quite prepared, no?"
Preparing a jade slip like this wasn't something that was done in just a single day, especially since it was highly unlikely for all this information to have been gathered in a single jade slip. It had probably been gathered on several slips over time as the testimonies came in. And for him to just carry it as Liang Chen came, it seemed unlikely to be an accident, something that Juye Gong didn't deny.
"It's no coincidence. In truth, I knew you would come here the moment you left Cloud's Song city. The reports about you said that you left the moment you learned that the arrays, most likely the long-distance arrays since they are the main attraction of the city, were undergoing maintenance so it was clear that you came there to use those arrays. And since you weren't willing to wait for them to finish their maintenance, it was easy to guess that you would come here, the closest city that has long-distance spatial arrays. I knew you would come here so I prepared everything I could, hoping that you could help us bring an end to the fear that has seized the citizens."
Juye Gong didn't hide anything as he spoke, his gaze practically burning with sincerity and concern. Liang Chen wasn't too pleased that reports of his movements were getting around this quickly, but such a thing was only to be expected with an entity like the Heaven's Secrets Company running around. Yumao dropped the jade slip after going through it, Liang Chen catching it and holding it up in front of his face.
"You're quite convinced that I'll help you despite you having this little evidence."
There was no conclusive evidence in this jade slip, otherwise, Juye Gong would have definitely made a move against the Sword Dancer's sect already. As such, Liang Chen couldn't help but be slightly curious as to why Juye Gong was so confident that he would help them, Juye Gong once again not shying away from answering earnestly.
"You are a special person, one of the last of what can be considered a dying breed, a good person willing to help. You have seen that the universe is wrong, and you have decided that it needs to change. But unlike others, you also have the ability to cause change, to save people and set things right. Right now it might only be a soul here or there, but I shiver at the thought of how many there can be in the future. So I wouldn't say that I'm confident that you'll help us, I'd say I'm more confident in the fact that you'll at least keep us in your minds, maybe take a look for us and give us more leads."
Juye Gong looked directly at Liang Chen as he spoke, his brown eyes practically shooting out sparks. Even if Liang Chen didn't deal with the Sword Dancer's sect, he could find new leads so that they could get a step closer to the actual culprit, and that alone would also be enough. Liang Chen didn't respond to Juye Gong's statement, his gaze running up and down the white jade slip for a few moments.
"..."