Kuan Niu.

While the large array teleported him to Quartz Lord city, Liang Chen was surrounded by white light and a sensation that made him feel as if he was floating within a deep pool of water. It was quite a bit different compared to the spatial array he used to reach Sand's Journey city so he guessed that it might have something to do with the distance he was travelling. The sensation and light also lasted for quite a while, surrounding Liang Chen for nearly five minutes before they started to fade as he reached his destination.

When the light fully faded, Liang Chen found himself standing within an octagon-shaped plaza paved with faintly crimson stones, stone or wooden buildings spreading out around the plaza. The immediate area around the spatial array was empty, but once you got about 100 metres away from the array the plaza became completely filled with various stands or blankets people had thrown on the ground to display whatever wares they were trying to sell.

The plaza was also filled with a myriad of scents coming from the various stands selling food or from the Demonic beast parts that some people were trying to sell. Coupled with the voices that mixed together as everyone chattered, the plaza was the perfect image of chaos, there wasn't the slightest semblance of order.

Liang Chen swept his gaze across the plaza and the people that filled it, stepping off of the spatial array and slowly making his way through the plaza. He didn't immediately head for the branch of the Heaven's Secrets Company, items that might be useful to him could easily show up in a chaotic bazaar like this. But little did he expect that the Bloodwind Code within his chest would actually buzz slightly after he started wandering through the bazaar, an unfamiliar soft and calm voice sounding out within his head.

"Greetings, I believe you should have gotten some time to recuperate after going through the battle that granted you your rank so now it shouldn't be considered inappropriate of me to contact you. I am the King of Heaven Embracing Justice, Kuan De Niu, but you can just call me Kuan Niu for simplicity's sake. Would now be a good time for you to talk?"

Liang Chen's pupils violently contracted after the voice quieted down, but not solely due to the title used by the one who contacted him. The other reason behind his pupils contracting was that he had detected someone at the late stage of the Soaring Immortal realm quietly and surprisingly stealthily rushing through the crowd and dashing directly at him. The woman running at him held both her hands against each other, a violent and fiery fluctuation seeping out from the gap between her hands.

Her eyes were locked on Liang Chen and were filled with determination, murderous intent, as well as a slight twinge of desperation. Liang Chen temporarily ignored Kuan Niu and sprung into action the moment the woman got close to him, accelerating to full speed and sidestepping her.

His left hand reached out and grabbed onto her right wrist as he sidestepped her and then took a step back, separating her hands and twisting her right arm behind her back. He didn't stop there, taking another step to the side so that he was right behind her, his right hand also grabbing onto her right wrist so that his left hand could let go and grab hold of her left arm.

He twisted both her arms behind her back and kicked her legs out from underneath her, causing her to fall to the ground face-first. He placed his foot on the spot between her shoulders and pressed her body into the ground while holding her arms into the air by grabbing onto her wrists. The sudden twist in positions had happened so fast that the woman didn't even realize it at first, sorrow creeping into her eyes when she realized that her sneak attack had failed.

The other people around them noticed the strange situation, stopping what they were doing while looking over with interest. Some of the onlookers seemed to actually recognize the woman, whispering to each other while pointing at her with somewhat curious expressions. But Liang Chen disregarded the onlookers and focused on the woman, his gaze narrowing slightly as he spoke.

"I don't believe I've even had the chance to form any enmity with you, are you from the Tranquil Lake or the Golden Bran...!"

He cut off his own words when he noticed that a large amount of energy was gathering within the chest of the woman. She had drawn back the energy she had gathered up for her attack and focused it in her chest, agitating the rest of her Qi at the same time so that it rampaged and turned violent. Liang Chen didn't even need to see the sorrow and resignation within the woman's eyes to realize what she was planning, she was going to detonate herself so that she could hopefully drag Liang Chen down with her.

She had reached the late stage of the Soaring Immortal realm so Liang Chen had no doubt that her self-detonation could hurt him pretty badly while also levelling about half of the plaza around them, it was a rather vicious tactic. And since she was intent on being vicious then Liang Chen would respond in kind, acting nearly on instinct as he decided to dispatch her as quickly as possible.

He didn't use any Qi, he simply exerted his physical might with his arms and the foot that was pressed against her back, pulling his arms back while pushing his foot down. Cracking sounds instantly resounded throughout the plaza, his foot crushing every bone between her two shoulders while his own hands forcefully tore off her arms.

Part of her spine and her cervical spine were pulverized under the strength of Liang Chen's body, instantly reaping her life and causing the rampaging Qi to lose the factor that was agitating it. The Qi settled down and dissipated into the surroundings now that the woman had died, even her own self-detonation failing.

But Liang Chen's expression didn't ease up after he killed her, it remained somewhat gloomy. The man from the division of the Golden Branch sect said that Liang Chen would be hunted, but he hadn't expected for it to happen this quickly, mere minutes after he entered a new city.

From the looks of it, he had heavily underestimated exactly what sort of information network the Golden Branch sect, or the Tranquil Lake had. The words of Bao Shan might even have been no more than a lie, the Sky-Piercing Sparrow might have actually kept some people alive in Sand's Journey city to spy on Liang Chen so that they would know what city he went to next.

Liang Chen let go of the woman's torn off arms, he had only planned on shattering her spine to kill her but her body was a bit weaker than he expected, resulting in the added gruesomeness that was her torn-off arms. Liang Chen swept his gaze across the surrounding onlookers, some of who were looking at him in shock and others that looked at him with some relief.

Some of the people present had noticed that the woman was planning on self-detonating, but those that hadn't simply assumed that he killed her like that just because she dared to attack him. This time Liang Chen didn't disregard them, perking his ears up slightly to catch some of the whispers that they were sharing amongst each other.

From what he gathered, the woman he just killed was called Jue Po Bia and belonged to some sect known as the Golden Dawn. She had a fairly good reputation within the city and was liked by quite a few people, the number of suitors vying for her hand in marriage couldn't be counted by the fingers on both hands. As such, Liang Chen's brutal murder of her caused some of the onlookers to look at him with displeasure, mainly from those who didn't realize that she was about to self-detonate.

Liang Chen once again thought back to the words of the man from the Golde Branch division, he said that Liang Chen would be framed and have all the sins of the world thrown onto his shoulders. Looking at the scene around him, they had clearly put that plan into motion straight away, not intent on giving him a single moment of rest or peace.

But just as Liang Chen had said back then, he completely disregarded it and simply ignored the displeased looks. They were free to hate him if they wished, it made no difference to him, he would walk his path and he would do so with his head held high. They were free to come at him to vent their displeasure, but they would have to be ready to pay the price if they did so, Liang Chen wasn't exactly filled with mercy towards his enemies.

He stepped away from the body of Jue Po Bia, her corpse sinking into the darkness as Yumao snatched it to eat later. She was the first one to attack him so the surrounding people couldn't officially say much about him killing her, even the guards entering the plaza now couldn't say anything as he had just acted in self-defence. Most people returned to their own business but there were some that kept their eyes on Liang Chen, who proceeded to ignore them all as the voice of Kuan Niu once again sounded in his mind.

"Hello? Is now perhaps a bad time for you?"

Liang Chen had no idea what Kuan Niu wanted, but he was filled with vigilance towards him. Liang Chen swept through the Bloodwind Code and saw that Kuan Niu was indeed the one who had the king rank for the justice virtue on the multiverse list, meaning that he was two entire ranks above Liang Chen.

He didn't know how Kuan Niu could contact him but guessed it was a function of the Bloodwind Code, after all, Liang Chen himself could now contact people of the Lord rank after receiving his rank on the multiverse list. As for why he was vigilant towards Kuan Niu, part of it had something to do with the previous justice title holder Liang Chen had met and the other part was Kuan Niu's strength, or at least the strength he likely had.

Since he held a king title he was definitely terrifyingly strong, and being contacted by such a person wasn't necessarily a good thing. As such, Liang Chen only gave a short reply to end the conversation as quickly as he could.

"What do you want?"

Liang Chen didn't think that Kuan Niu simply contacted him to congratulate him on receiving his rank and title, Liang Chen sincerely doubted that any of the titleholders had that kind of personality. And Kuan Niu proved him correct straight away by stating his reason for contacting him, Liang Chen not for one second doubting that he was likely wearing a rather pleased and somewhat conceited smile while talking.

"Ah, good, I was worried that you might be pre-occupied with something. I won't take too much of your time, it's just that I'm friends with the girl who used to hold the title you now carry. I told her that these things happen and that she should just focus on her own cultivation, but she remains unconvinced and wants to duel you for the title. so I'm just contacting you to know what time would be fitting for you to have that duel with her. I can see which universe you reside in thanks to my king rank so you just have to name a time and place and I'll make sure that she'll be there. So what do you say, when is good for you?"

Liang Chen felt like heavily rolling his eyes while Kuan Niu spoke. The way he talked reminded him of Qian Liao, the previous justice titleholder that Liang Chen had interacted with. Could it be that all justice titleholders were like this, self-absorbed and conceited to a twisted degree? If this was what Kuan Niu wanted then Liang Chen simply didn't have the patience to bother with him, something he stated very clearly.

"I don't care much about titles or the like so you can tell that girl that she can have the title and rank if she wants, not like I was the one who decided that I should get them. But don't contact me just to state that I'm going to take part in a duel, especially not if you're going to do it in such a conceited and self-pleased manner. You don't decide on what I'll be doing so let me tell you right here, I can't be bothered to take part in any duel, and I don't think I can be bothered with you if your personality is what you've shown here. Goodbye, and don't contact me again."

Liang Chen poured some Qi into the Bloodwind Code and cut off Kuan Niu before he could respond to Liang Chen's blunt statement. From the looks of things, it might be suitable to ask Ye Zhong about ways to shut out certain people from contacting him the next time Ye Zhong contacted him for the questions Liang Chen had earned from increasing his rank and receiving a title.