Guan Ping, the wife of the man that Liang Chen was currently impersonating, buried her face in his neck and breathed deeply. Her breathing was somewhat erratic and Liang Chen could hear a few muted sobs, his shoulder slowly getting wet as the woman cried in his embrace."Thank the heavens... Thank the heavens you"re fine. When I heard what the Devil of Green Rivers did, I feared that you met the same fate as the rest of the city."
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The young girl, Zhong Tang, she was holding was too young to know what was going on, but due to the influence of her mother, she also started to cry loudly. The last two of Zhong San"s daughters also came over, the nine-year-old one, Zhong Ming, quickly latching onto Liang Chen"s legs while the seemingly 18-year-old one, Zhong Xue, walked over a bit more calmly, but even her eyes were getting red. Liang Chen did his best to keep his expression from distorting and put on a soft smile while calming down the four women.
"It"s fine, I"m here now, aren"t I? It might be shameful, but I escaped the moment the Devil started attacking and I saw that things were going bad. I"ve been heading here ever since, it"s the only reason I"m still alive."
It felt a bit strange to refer to himself as a devil, but that feeling was quickly drowned out by the relieved expressions that the four teary-eyed women put on. Guan Ting removed her face from Liang Chen"s neck and used her free hand to wipe away her tears, prying the younger Zhong Ming away from Liang Chen"s legs.
"Come on now, your Father is definitely tired after his ordeal, we have to let him get some rest. Come, dear, the bedroom is already made up so you can just go and lie down, I"ll prepare a quick meal."
The two daughters that were old enough to understand the situation quickly piped up that they would help prepare the meal, causing Liang Chen to suck in a soft breath. He felt a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach but he quickly put the feeling aside and took the youngest Zhong Tang off of Guan Ping"s hands, responding like he knew Zong San would.
"Don"t worry about it, this is the best way for me to recharge. It"s been a while since I"ve last been home, so why don"t we all go for a walk? I"ve also gained some new insights so I might seclude myself a bit before the tri-monthly compet.i.tion."
The seclusion was mostly an excuse to avoid interacting with the family, but part of the reason was also to merge his new law of the void into his body and soul cultivation. Guan Ping"s face bloomed with a smile, she and the two older daughters quickly nodding their heads and putting on some shoes for walking through the surrounding city.
Before long, the family of five left the house and started a leisure stroll through the surrounding city that was the Duskshield hall of the Nightshield sect. The family was often stopped by some of the other disciples as they walked, all of them either calling out, hugging, or patting Liang Chen on the shoulder.
"Junior Brother San, congratulations on escaping from that h.e.l.lhole, I heard things really went to s.h.i.t down there! It"s good that you"re back, would be a shame if Senior Sister Ping ended up bawling her eyes out."
"Senior Brother San, I"m glad that you managed to escape from that calamity, I can"t even imagine how horrifying it must have been."
"Senior Brother Zhong! I knew that a b.a.s.t.a.r.d like you wouldn"t die in a place like that! Haha, you"d better take good care of those brats now that you"re back, the sect shouldn"t be making you take on any new missions for a while."
Just looking at the sheer number of people that came to greet him, Liang Chen realized that Zhong San was far more loved than his memories made it seem. Guan Ping and the others also smiled when they saw the scene, Guan Ping tightly wrapping her arm around Liang Chen"s left arm, an action that only increased the sour feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Walking around the sect also caused Liang Chen to realize two things. The first was that despite the fact that the Nightshield sect and the Storm Wolf sect were sects of equal size, this Nightshield sect felt more homely and cozy than the Storm Wolf sect. Due to how it was set up, the Storm Wolf sect felt like it was more focused on solely cultivating, while this Nightshield sect felt like it focused a bit more on unity.
The other thing he realized was that the closer you got to your enemies, the harder it would be to see them as enemies. The Nightshield sect had taken part in basically eradicating his previous sect and thus killing Yan Ling"s father, Qing Lan Yong and Yan Ling"s mother were both part of this sect, and they had also taken part in the murdering of his sister. By all accounts he should hate this sect with all his might, he knew that he should detest it.
But looking at the people walking around and just living their lives like normal, he just couldn"t bring himself to hate it, just like he couldn"t bring himself to hate everyone living on the Tripart.i.te G.o.d planet while he was there. His hatred for Qing Lan Yong and Yan Ling"s mother still smoldered deep within him, but he just couldn"t bring himself to seeing the entire sect as an enemy, only furthering the sour feeling in his stomach. The disciples here were just normal people who hadn"t done anything to him, they were just trying to live their lives. Many of them might not even know about Liang Chen. If he hated and killed them, wouldn"t that make him just as bad as Qing Lan Yong?
The family of five continued to walk all around the sect until the young Zhong Ming was on the verge of dozing off. They took this as a sign that it was time to return home, the oldest Zhong Xue picking up Zhong Ming and tapping her on the forehead, causing her to instantly fall asleep. Liang Chen felt a familiar sensation when Zhong Xue poked Zhong Min"s forehead, commenting on it since Zhong San didn"t have any memories of this law. Of course, he made sure to stay in character while commenting, giving her some fatherly advice based on Zhong San"s own thoughts.
"Little Xue, you"ve managed to get insight into the law of poison? Are you sure that"s a good law to get insight into, wouldn"t it be better to try and get some insight into a different law like the law of fire or the law of shattering?"
Zhong San himself was actually considered rather talented, having gained insight into both the law of stone and the law of spinning. His two youngest daughters had yet to start cultivating, but the oldest daughter had inherited some of his talents and was already rather skilled in the law of freezing. Zhong Xue smiled confidently while softly carrying her younger sister, doing her best to calm down her "worrying father"
"Don"t worry dad, I know that the law of poison has acquired a rather nasty reputation, but I still want to cultivate it. I met a nice old man while traveling who used his law of poison to heal some of my team members after we got into a nasty fight with a Bog Swallower, he thought us a bit about how to use some more common poisons as medicine and then sent us on our way. If he could use the law of poison to heal others, who"s to say I can"t do the same? Maybe I can even take it to such heights that I can wipe clean the reputation of poison, wouldn"t that be nice?"
Liang Chen remained silent after receiving her response, only nodding his head in a somewhat worried and unconvinced manner as Zhong San would. Liang Chen actually found Zhong Xue"s motivations to be rather nice, using something known to be vile to do good. If he got the chance, he would have to look into it, but for now, he could only use his poison to ruin.
The five returned to the house and Guan Ping took Zhong Tang off of Liang Chen"s hands. She looked at her daughters with a blooming smile before handing the youngest Zhong Tang to Zhong Xue and sending her off.
"Could you put them both to bed and then start on dinner?"
Zhong Xue nodded her head with a smile and went to put the two kids to bed, closing the door behind her and leaving only Liang Chen and Guan Ping in the room. Guan Ping smiled and gestured towards the two couches surrounding the table, moving to the fireplace and removing a kettle filled with lukewarm tea from it.
When they both sat down on a couch each and Guan Ping poured them both a cup of the lukewarm tea, Liang Chen couldn"t help but inspect Guan Ping. She and her daughters hadn"t done anything wrong, they were just living here in peace and calm, and yet here Liang Chen was, impersonating the person most dear to them and making them live a false life.
They were happy and smiling, but it was all fake, a bubble just waiting to burst so that it could wash over them with the despair of realizing that he wasn"t actually their Zhong San. Had Liang Chen actually killed Zhong San, the situation would be even worse and he far crueler.
Liang Chen had never doubted his actions or kills before, but now, as he looked at the woman in front of him and thought about the three children who knew nothing, he for the first time doubted what he was doing. Was acting like this really the way to go about it or was he right now just as bad as those he deemed evil? Guan Ping took a sip of the tea while these thoughts were swirling around in Liang Chen"s head. She turned her head to glance at the closed door that her daughters had left through, turning to Liang Chen and lowering her head.
"I can do whatever you want, but please, don"t harm my daughters."