Arriving at Final Curse.

The spatial array sent Liang Chen away with a faint light, allowing some of the inhabitants of Quartz Lord city to heave a breath of relief. He hadn't been there for long, but the end result of his quick visit had been several thousand deaths, thousands of families forcibly torn apart and irreparably scarred. A good number of these deaths weren't Liang Chen's fault, but thanks to the propaganda from the Tranquil Lake and the Golden Branch, this simple fact was easily twisted into one that suited them better.

Liang Chen didn't know about the thoughts and propaganda already spreading, he only had an idea that it might happen. But even so, their thoughts and actions weren't of any concern to him, he didn't even spare them a single thought as he was being teleported away from Quartz Lord city. And before long, the light around him started to dim as he reached his next destination.

Liang Chen arrived within a circular plaza where stands and moveable wooden counters were placed in a circular manner around the entire plaza. Just like in Quartz Lord city, the plaza was stacked with people moving around between the shops, the air thick with scents and noise. Liang Chen's arrival didn't raise any large waves, his spatial array was just one of the several tens that were scattered throughout the plaza. He didn't leave immediately, his eyes narrowing slightly as he swept the surrounding with a sharp gaze.

"If anyone here is from the Tranquil Lake or the Golden Branch then you can just step forward right away, I really can't be bothered to play your little games of hide and seek. And I detest snakes hiding in the darkness while spying on me."

His arrival didn't draw much attention but his announcement certainly drew some, quite a few people looking over to see what exactly he was going on about. No one stepped forward, but that was within Liang Chen's expectations, he didn't need them to step forward. His gaze sharpened slightly as his eyes riveted to the right and landed on a young who was looking over with a somewhat curious gaze.

Liang Chen's body blurred as he shot to the side, the young man's expression turning gloomy as he pulled a metal orb out of his sleeve. But his hand was severed from his body just as he was about to put some Qi into the orb, Liang Chen catching the orb and severed hand, his right hand already holding his spear.

Liang Chen looked at the metal orb and the runes engraved directly into it, he couldn't quite make out just what sort of array it was but he could feel a tremendous amount of fiery energy within it. The young man knew that things had taken a very bad turn so he activated his final resort, self-destruction. Liang Chen's expression immediately sank when he detected the young man's actions. Just why was it that there were so many people willing to lay down their lives for the Tranquil Lake and the Golden Branch, just what was so great about them?

Liang Chen's spear flashed forth once more and ended the man's fanatical loyalty, decapitating him before he could self-destruct. When Liang Chen made his announcement, this man's eyebrows twitched slightly and his expression turned uneasy for a split-second, which was how Liang Chen could determine that he likely had something to do with his enemies. Of course, him bringing out the metal orb and then trying to self-destruct confirmed Liang Chen's thoughts and made it far easier for him.

Liang Chen threw the body and metal orb into his interspatial ring, sweeping the now rather chaotic plaza with another glance. Everyone was busy getting away from Liang Chen, he had just seemingly assaulted and murdered someone in an unprovoked manner. He couldn't detect anyone else that showed any strangeness that might connect them to his enemies so he considered himself done here, at least for now. If they wanted to come after him then they were free to do so, he would guide them to their tombs at any moment.

Yumao grew to his actual size and Liang Chen hopped onto his head, sitting down between his two jagged horns. Yumao flapped his feathered wings and shot into the sky, vanishing from the city and heading directly for Final Curse Island. As they shot into the sky, a vast and seemingly endless ocean spread out beneath Liang Chen and Yumao, thousands of islands dotting the deep-blue water.

Liang Chen pointed Yumao in the right direction and then laid down, enjoying the soft sensation of the warm feathers that ran down Yumao's back. He rested peacefully on Yumao's back for a few hours before he sat up again and swiped his interspatial ring, taking out one of the corpses he acquired in the Golden Dawn sect. It would take them about four or five more days to reach Final Curse Island so this was a good chance for him to test out the idea he had when it came to the new techniques he got when he opened the third layer of the Chaos King technique.

He placed his hand upon the corpse and touched upon the black book in his mind with his thoughts, a stream of devouring energy flooding into the corpse and turning it into a dried husk. A black orb of energy floated up from the corpse and sank into Liang Chen's hand, wriggling slightly as it still contained faint traces of the body's soul and laws. But that wriggling was quickly ended by a few arcs of lightning, the energy obediently sinking deeper into Liang Chen's body.

The orb of energy would normally start to dissipate and merge with Liang Chen's body, strengthening the weaker parts and slightly boosting his body cultivation. But Liang Chen forced the energy to stay together, dragging it into the very depths of his body and bringing it all the way to the grey lotus covered in wriggling black veins, the Dragon Lotus he acquired when the Voidborn bloodline merged with his own.

He forced the orb of energy to move all the way up to his lotus, which was still constantly flickering in and out of existence. The orb got close to his Dragon Lotus and entered the small area filled with the energy that his lotus radiated, Liang Chen relinquishing his control over it. He was hoping that the field of energy around the lotus would keep the orb together and prevent it from dissipating into his body.

And his hopes were quickly fulfilled, the orb trembling slightly before quieting down again and starting to silently orbit around the lotus. Liang Chen stood up from his seated position once the orb started to orbit around his lotus, tossing the dried corpse forward and allowing Yumao to snatch it up. He then stretched out his right arm and sent a punch to the side, drawing upon the orbiting energy as he tried to unleash the Chaos King's Punch.

The orb of energy instantly rushed through Liang Chen's body and left through his fist, a loud booming sound resounding through the sky as a small shockwave was unleashed by his fist. Yumao's scales shimmered with a faint black light that blocked the shockwave so his flight wasn't disrupted, Liang Chen pulling back his arm and sitting down again.

His thoughts had proven themselves correct, he could utilize the final skills of the Chaos King technique by using a bit of a roundabout way to ignore the fact that he didn't actually have any devouring force of his own. Now that he knew this, he immediately started working on gathering up several more orbs of energy that he could use as an emergency fund to power the two Chaos King techniques, tossing the dried up corpses to Yumao, who complained a bit about how dry they were.

The days quickly passed in a monotonous manner, Liang Chen finally spotting Final Curse Island after four days of flight. The island was shaped like an irregular circle, the edges jagged and sharp in a way that made it look like the island was once part of a greater whole that had been broken up.

The island actually reminded Liang Chen of the Green Rivers city where he grew up. A third of the island was taken up by a large city and another third was taken up by a large mountain, hundreds of small waterfalls and rivers cascading down from the top of the mountain and spreading through the rest of the island, providing it with what was likely freshwater. The rest of the island was covered in either forests or blooming plains, but a sombre atmosphere hung over the entire island, the earth even carried a faint red tint.

Liang Chen's gaze landed on the city that occupied the centre of the island, his eyes drawn to the crescent moon-shaped plaza at the centre of the city. A large guillotine stood there, its blade covered in rust while the wood had turned dark from all the bloodstains. The earth in front of the guillotine was covered by a light yellow mosaic that formed a blazing sun, but that was far from enough to cover up the dense feeling of death that seeped out from beneath it. The thing hiding beneath that mosaic was his target, that mass-grave contained the Three-Petaled Elemental Lotus he came here for.

Liang Chen's eyebrows rose up slightly as they approached the island, they hadn't even landed yet but there were already attacks flying at them. Liang Chen didn't even have to stand up, Yumao flapped his wings and let out a loud hiss that caused several orbs of pure darkness to appear in front of them. The attacks fell into the orbs and weren't strong enough to break through them, the spears and arrows getting swallowed up before the orbs vanished.

But a new wave of attacks was launched the moment they were dealing with the first wave, Yumao flapping his wings once more to deal with the attacks. They continued to approach the island, more and more attacks coming at them from within the city, it was clear that they were less than receptible to new arrivals that might try to snatch the Elemental Lotus.

In the end, Liang Chen had to help Yumao resist the attacks, using wind to either redirect the attacks or simply destroying them with several bolts of lightning. Looking at the attacks that were dripping with killing intent and not an ounce of mercy, Liang Chen's expression sank slightly, his gaze landing on the large mountain.

"I originally wanted to at least take a walk through the city to check it first, but if that's how they want to do things. Yumao, just take us directly to the top of that mountain."

Yumao flapped his wings and changed course so that they headed directly for the mountain, the two dealing with any attacks that were launched at them. Most of the attacks weren't terribly threatening, they were so high up in the air that most of the power within the attacks had dissipated by the time they got close to Liang Chen. As such, they didn't face any real danger and managed to land safely on the top of the mountain.

The top of the mountain was actually surprisingly flat, most of the area taken up by a large body of water that seemed to dig directly into the depth of the mountain. It was this body of water that created the cascading waterfalls and rivers that ran down the mountain and provided the island with drinkable water.

The faint scent of salt hung in the air and looking at how the body of water didn't seem to shrink, Liang Chen guessed that it was actually connected with the ocean. It probably dug all the way through the mountain and the island and sucked up the ocean water through a stream beneath the surface. The inside of the body of water, the walls of it specifically, was filled with watermelon-sized clams packed so tightly that it was impossible to see the actual walls of the mountain.

Liang Chen fished out one of these clams and pried it open, spotting several pure white pearls that were coarse to the touch. The pearls smelled strongly of salt so Liang Chen was fairly certain that these clams filtered out the salt in the water, it was they who made it so that the water that ran down the mountain was actually drinkable. Liang Chen dropped the clam back into the water and then sat down next to the body of water, Yumao shrinking down to his smallest size and allowing Liang Chen to stroke his head.

"You're better at sneaking around than me so can I leave checking out the city to you? I'll start working here so that we can just jump into the action the moment you return and deliver your verdict."

Yumao enjoyed Liang Chen's petting while letting out a few soft content hisses, eventually stretching his body and flapping his wings in a gesture that seemed to be him saying that Liang Chen could trust him. Yumao then sank into Liang Chen's shadow, vanishing from sight as he left to fulfil the duty that Liang Chen had entrusted him with, the duty of the judge.