Liang Chen stepped through the hole that was left in the fence after he launched the gate into the pyramid, his steps slow and sure. His expression was calm and frosty, each of his steps leaving behind a footprint sizzling with corrosive poison that melted the earth around it. He hadn"t lowered his vigilance in the slightest ever since he dealt with the avatar of the Sky-Piercing Swallow, his energy surging through his body so that he was ready to strike at a moments notice.Yi Xue and the others hurriedly followed after Liang Chen, making sure that they didn"t accidentally step into his footprints, the poison would likely just eat through their shoes and enter their bodies. Liang Chen didn"t head directly for the white pyramid, his first target was the building-covered plot of land to the right of the pyramid, the place where they kept their slaves. Yumao was also following right behind Liang Chen, the mother and son pair riding on his back while doing their best to swallow their excitement and worry.
One of Liang Chen"s eyebrows rose slightly after they walked a few tens of steps closer to the plot of land that was their target, his left hand stretching out and pushing down Yi Xue"s head. A translucent sword sliced through the air just where Yi Xue"s head had just been, pa.s.sing through Liang Chen"s elbow before turning around and flying away.
The sword flew a few hundred meters to their left and sank into the body of a somewhat older man who was holding a triangular jade that distorted s.p.a.ce around him. It seemed to be an item designed to hide the user, Liang Chen had only managed to detect him when he launched his attack. Liang Chen glanced at his elbow, which didn"t have the slightest wound after the sword pa.s.sed through it. The older man seemed to guess his thoughts, a somewhat dark and humorless chuckle slipping out.
"It won"t hurt, don"t worry. My Anima Essence Sword strikes directly at the soul and deposits a small bit of energy into it to destroy it from within. You"ll simply lose consciousness and then it"ll all be over."
Liang Chen gave a faint nod of his head upon hearing the old man"s words, he had indeed felt that the sword was composed entirely of Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi. But he wasn"t worried about getting cut by it, his gaze interlocking with the old man"s.
"You shouldn"t have absorbed it back into your body."
Liang Chen only left behind those words and then continued walking, Yi Xue and the others dumbfounded by his actions, wondering if they should tell him that the old man was still right there. Even the old man was dumbfounded at first, thinking that he was being completely ignored.
But then he felt it, a slight p.r.i.c.kling within the very depths of his body, from within his soul. The p.r.i.c.kling rapidly intensified, his chest convulsing as a thundering headache a.s.saulted him. He sank his vision into his own body to look at his own soul, a miniature replica of himself. Right now, that miniature version of him was convulsing within his soulsea, its right arm rotting right before his eyes.
The rotting spread up the rest of the arm and through the rest of the soul like a vicious poison, the skin of the old man"s soul bubbling up before turning a pale green and sliding off. He tried his best to suppress the rotting, but it simply ate through all the energy he sent at it, swiftly swallowing his entire soul. The old man"s eyes turned dim and he collapsed to the ground, a dumbfounded and confused expression on his face.
Liang Chen"s soul cultivation technique was rather peculiar, it focused on turning his entire soul into the purest fusion of the laws of time, rotting, poison, void, and death. He didn"t even have to attack with it, just coming into contact with his soul would be enough to kill some people. The old man had sent a bit of his Anima Essence into Liang Chen"s soul and then drawn it back into himself, doing so was the same as swallowing poison, he had brought about his own death because he didn"t understand his enemy.
There were no more sneak attacks after the old man failed, if there were more people hiding in the surrounding area then it seemed like they were intending on waiting a bit longer, probably trying to learn a bit more about Liang Chen before they attacked. Thanks to this, Liang Chen and his group easily reached the five-kilometer wide plot of land that was covered in smaller buildings.
There were no people moving around outside the buildings but Liang Chen could feel the electricity running through their bodies, there were about 300 people hiding within the buildings spreading out in front of him. Liang Chen stopped and swept his gaze across the buildings, waving his hand and unleashing a gust of wind that blew over the buildings and tore open all the doors, his voice reaching into each and every house.
"There"s no more need to hide, there"s no more need to endure, you are free now. Flee by yourself, fight those who enslaved you, follow me, you are free to do whatever you want."
Liang Chen turned his head slightly after he delivered the declaration, glancing at the young boy, Dong Qiu, that was riding on Yumao"s back, gesturing towards the opened doors with a sweep of his hand.
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"Find your father."
Dong Qiu quickly jumped down from Yumao"s back and rushed to the buildings, calling out for his father while checking any house close to him. While the boy was rushing around the buildings, several of the people who had been hiding within the other buildings ran out at full speed, fleeing towards the white pyramid while calling for help from people who undoubtedly worked in the pyramid. Yi Xue quickly rushed forward to call those people back, but Liang Chen"s hand landed on her shoulder and stopped her.
"There"s no point, they won"t listen, their minds have already been ruined."
Looking at how desperately they were pleading for help from their own captors, it seemed like they had long since already become accustomed to their lives as slaves, perhaps even finding comfort in the position they had amongst the slaves. Yi Xue and the others looked at Liang Chen, bitter and complex expressions on their faces as they looked at the 50 fleeing people. Liang Chen"s gaze also followed the fleeing people, but only for a short moment before he retracted his eyes and shook his head.
"We aren"t G.o.ds, we can"t save everyone, nor should we. We can only save those we can hold in our grasp. And people like them, they are too far gone for our grasps to ever reach them, they probably consider us saving them as no more than a curse."
Liang Chen stepped forward after he finished his words, heading for the people who hadn"t fled after his declaration. He was still weak, his reach far too small to save enough people. But he could only take things one step at a time, if he didn"t then he was sure to get an earful from Yan Ling once they reunited.
The group quickly arrived amongst the buildings, people warily stepping out of the opened doors and nervously surveying their surroundings. Dong Qiu hurriedly rushed over to Liang Chen, holding the hand of a middle-aged man with light-brown hair and black eyes. Rather than Dong Qiu saying anything in his excitement, it was actually the middle-aged man who spoke up first, bowing deeply to Liang Chen.
"Thank you, thank you for saving my son and wife, I owe you my life. I can"t do much, but I can cook and clean decently well, I would be honored if you would allow me to work for you in the future."
Repaying Liang Chen was part of the reason the man so willingly offered to work for Liang Chen, but another part of the reason was that the man could feel a certain aura from Liang Chen. He was certain that the calm youth in front of him would go far in the future, following this man would allow his wife and son to be safer than ever before so there was nothing shameful about offering himself up as a butler. Liang Chen gave a slight nod of his head while looking at the man, his gaze turning onto the other people that were starting to surround him.
"I didn"t save you because I wanted followers or people to work for me, but if you want to follow me then you are more than welcome to do so. What about the rest of you?"
The remaining people in the area exchanged quick looks, those more familiar with each other quietly talking. The soft silence only lasted for about half a minute before the 150 people who hadn"t fled seemed to come to a decision, performing an act that caused Liang Chen"s eyebrow to twitch, they kneeled on the ground.
"Thank you for freeing us, we would be honored if you would take us in and make good use of us!"
Liang Chen felt like shaking his head while looking at their actions, why was it that people kept kneeling to him when he was helping them like this. But for now he could only shake his head and ignore it, addressing the people around him.
"Alright, I am Liang Chen, and from this day forward you can all be considered people of my Storm Wolf sect. Let me first get all of you away from here, if you have any family you want me to pick up then you can just tell me whenever."
Liang Chen waved his hand once he finished speaking, all the people around him getting sucked into the orb within his interspatial ring. The only ones that remained were Yi Xue and the others, whose eyes gleamed with the light of pride and exhilaration. With the slaves on this plot of land taken care of, Liang Chen turned around and started walking towards the white pyramid.
"Come, they have already gathered for us."
Yi Xue and the others weren"t quite certain just who Liang Chen was talking about but hurriedly followed after him, none of them willing to miss even a single second. This was what they aimed to become, capable of saving people without caring for what others might think, without caring what sort of enemies they made, saving others purely for the sake of saving.
Liang Chen"s calm steps quickly brought him to the front of the pyramid, Yumao following right at his side now that he no longer had to protect the mother and son pair. The large ornate wooden doors of the pyramid were thrown wide open and nearly 500 people clad in armor engraved with faint runes had swarmed out and taken up positions in front of the gates.
Some of the people that had fled from the slave quarters were mingling with some of the armored people, one of the women fearfully wrapping one of her arms around the arms of a rather graceful and handsome man standing at the front of the 500 people. She received a few frowns from the armored warriors around her, but the woman ignored their glares and stuck close to the man, whispering while pointing at Liang Chens" group, her eyes flashing with nothing but fear as she looked at them.
Liang Chen noticed something and glanced sideways at Yi Xue, who was looking at the woman with a rather complex expression, a mixture of expressions flashing past her eyes. She quickly noticed Liang Chen"s glance, giving a light shake of her head while responding.
"It"s nothing, it"s just that the woman over there reminded me a bit of what my aunty told me about my own mother. She said that Mom was a maid who ended up getting killed because she loved someone too far removed from her own world. Looking at that woman I just couldn"t help but wonder if my mom was the same as her in the eyes of other people."
Liang Chen gave a nod of his head but didn"t actually know what to say, he wasn"t exactly the most suited when it came to comforting others about their parents. As such, he simply did what Yan Ling, or his own parents, had occasionally done to comfort him, he placed his hand on Yi Xue"s head and gave it a few strong rubs, giving off the air of a protective elder brother.
The enemies were directly in front of them so he only gave her head three rubs before taking back his hand, his gaze intersecting with the gaze of the handsome man standing at the front of the armored warriors. The man"s golden hair was tied into a neat bun at the back of his head, his black eyes slightly narrowed as they swept over Liang Chen.
"From what I"ve heard, you"ve come here because you aren"t content with how we treat our people, correct? We are a subsidiary division of the Golden Branch sect and we also have close ties with the Tranquil Lake and the governor, all of our experiments are done for them. As a sign of respect, let me just ask you this, are you sure it"s wise to act against us? You can still turn around and leave."
The man was clearly trying to scare Liang Chen by using the big names of the governor, Tranquil Lake, and the Golden Branch sect. But what a shame, he didn"t understand Liang Chen"s personality and drive, his words were nothing but pointless and only served to add more targets. Liang Chen flicked his wrist slightly, his gray spear appearing in his grasp and pointing at the handsome man.
"It"s got nothing to do with acting wise. I don"t like what you"re doing, I think it"s vile and evil so I will move to stop it. And if you"re Golden Branch sect, Tranquil Lake, and governor want to stop me so that you can keep doing what you are, then I will have them all follow you to the grave."