The mask of man.

The rain fell down all around Liang Chen, hammering the streets and the buildings like tiny pieces of hail. But not a single drop touched him, they all moved a tiny bit just before they reached him, parting around him. He had summoned the storm, but the rain did not dare to touch him, the lightning did not dare to flash close to him, as if nature itself felt a sliver of dread.

His gaze was directed forwards, sweeping over the five men who served as the rulers of Wyvern's Wrath. Their souls unravelled in front of his eyes, he had made sure that the poison he sent out towards them was so weak that it was barely discernible, it didn't even have any offensive capabilities to decrease the chances of them noticing it. It couldn't harm them, but it could bare their lives to him, reveal their deeds and sins for him to judge.

But as his gaze swept over them, his brows suddenly furrowed for a second. He turned his head slightly, his gaze landing on a disciple that stood still in front of a newly formed statue of a young woman. His gaze landed on this man not because he had frozen up out of fear when she was attacking him, no, it landed on him because he had frozen up out of uncertainty, hesitation.

"Forgive me, Storm Lord...I hesitated when I saw how young she was...I suddenly became uncertain if what I was doing was right..."

The man sensed Liang Chen's gaze and hurriedly lowered his head while explaining himself. Liang Chen had brought them along to kill people before, but back then he had killed a middle-aged man, not a youthful girl like this. She looked young enough to be his daughter so his mind had wavered, was it really right to do this? Liang Chen obviously wouldn't scold him for hesitating, he simply spoke calmly.

"Chang Toh, right and wrong have nothing to do with this. We are not gods, we don't decide what is right and wrong, only what we want and don't want to do. So don't concern yourself with if what you're doing is right or wrong, just do what you want to do and then weather the consequences."

This wasn't a disciple that Liang Chen had interacted a lot with, he hadn't really had a lot of contact with any of the disciples he had taken in. But that didn't mean that he forgot about them, he still remembered their names and their stories, the goals they said they wanted to achieve. And this Chang Toh was no different.

"You said that you wanted to become strong enough to save so many people that your lost family could smile at you from the World Tree realm, so just focus on doing what you can towards that goal. Is it right to repay blood with blood? Is it right to kill those who kill? I can't answer that, no one here can. But what I can say is this, by killing that woman, we've saved at least a handful of lives from ending at her hands, and we've avenged many more. So don't think about right and wrong as you face your enemies, just think about whether or not killing them can save enough people to make your family smile."

Liang Chen wasn't raising an army of righteous warriors, he wasn't training cultivators to fight in the name of justice. The only thing he did was give grieving parents and weeping children a chance to fight, a chance to spill blood for whatever they believed in. Right or wrong didn't have a damn thing to do with that, it hadn't had anything to do with his journey for quite a while now, it was just another one of the things he had discarded along the way.

Liang Chen turned his head away as he saw Chang Toh's hardening expression. Worrying about right and wrong would just cloud their minds, and a clouded mind would be among the first to fall in battle. His gaze landed on the five men again, none of them had moved despite the apparent opening he left as he turned to speak with his disciples.

"I believe this is the second time we meet, no? Well, physically it's our first meeting."

Liang Chen's gaze was focused on the man standing at the head of the group of five, Wyvern's Wrath Song Zhao, one of the seven right-hand men of Nine Wraths Sect Leader Lao Ye. It was their first time meeting in person like this, but Liang Chen had actually interacted with this Song Zhao before.

It was back when he first entered Purgatory's Cradle, when he arrived in the first city and conducted his first massacre. Song Zhao had taken over one of the bodies of the disciples that had been sent to rule the city and tried to offer Liang Chen a non-aggression pact, they would pretend he didn't exist and he would do the same for them. Obviously, Liang Chen had rejected the deal.

"You came faster than I expected. But I must say, I don't think anyone has ever carved such a bloody path through this land as you have. Is there really any worth in eradicating cities filled with weaklings?"

Song Zhao spoke calmly, but his ear-length brown hair was a bit dishevelled and his blue pupils carried a slightly dim light. He was two small realms above Liang Chen, but he couldn't feel any confidence as he actually stood in front of him, it was as if his entire existence instilled dread in others.

"There is worth in it to me."

Liang Chen couldn't be bothered to discuss or argue with Song Zhao. He had eradicated two cities worth of people, but they were all so weak that they hadn't even filled half a drop towards the next reward from Purgatory's Cradle. In that regard, there truly was no worth in slaughtering them all, at least not in the eyes of those who lived here. Song Zhao didn't allow Liang Chen's simply, almost blunt, reply to get to him, doing his best to compose his mind and straighten his back.

"I warned you previously, not all of our disciples are the same as those little birdies in the outskirts, if you keep persisting then you will have to face our Nine Wraths Lamentations."

The Nine Wraths sect wasn't the ruler of Purgatory's Cradle for nothing, it had its own secret techniques and the like to rely on. As such, they weren't afraid of becoming enemies with a mere Primordial Immortal cultivator, they wouldn't even necessarily be scared of most Transcended Immortal cultivators.

But if it could be avoided then it would be for the best, it was just a shame that this was one of those situations where it seemed like avoidance was impossible. If Liang Chen was someone who could be scared off with threats then he wouldn't have reached his current position, his only response was to raise his spear and repeat his response from when he last received the same threat.

"And? I'll just repeat what I said back then, you can bring out all nine of your wraths, I only need my one."

Tit for tat, neither gave an inch. It was obvious that there was only one possible outcome now that they had met in person, the wyvern would have to face the storm. Liang Chen faced four middle-stage and one late-stage Primordial Immortal, but he didn't show the least bit of fear as they faced each other in silence, the time for words had already passed.

There was no great signal to start the battle, no shout to rouse the spirits. There was simply a flash of dull violet light and the subdued rumbling of thunder as Liang Chen vanished from his position, practically instantly arriving in front of the right-most cultivator.

The man hadn't even had time to react, Liang Chen was already right in front of him by the time he saw the lightning. The skin on Liang Chen's face had been pulled taut from the sheer speed and force he had to endure as he rode the lightning, but moving like this was faster than any other option he had available.

His spear swept out, time around it twisting like a wave so that it seemed to move extremely slowly, at least to the man he was targeting. But while the upper part of the wave made the spear seem slow, it actually rode the lower part of the wave, where the flow of time was increased so heavily that the spear almost vanished from sight. The man's head left his shoulders before his thoughts even caught up with the situation, a middle-stage Primordial Immortal like this was not someone who could stand in front of Liang Chen.

Liang Chen's gaze moved at the same time as his spear struck, drifting towards the remaining four people. The three middle-stage Primordial Immortals realized that they would at best only be able to play a supporting role so they rushed to back up, putting some distance between them and Liang Chen so that they could support Song Zhao.

While they retreated, Song Zhao advanced, already grasping a great and heavy sabre that was almost a metre and a half long. The weapon was swept upwards towards Liang Chen, bringing with it a dim brown flame that seemed to shriek mournfully, all the rain and wind within the surrounding ten kilometres vanishing. Liang Chen's heart moved slightly due to the mournful nature of the shriek, it felt as if the sorrow hidden deep within his heart was being forcefully dragged out.

He forcefully buried that sorrow and moved his Qi again, the law of time seeping into the surrounding area. But he didn't use the law of time to directly attack the three retreating men, using it on them directly would drain too much energy. But that didn't mean that he couldn't use it to attack them, they had kicked up plenty of things that could be used to seal their fates.

The man who had retreated the furthest suddenly coughed up blood, a sharp pain spreading across his entire body. He quickly shot a panicked gaze down at his own body and saw that several small holes had appeared in his flesh, a few drops of blood and small chunks of flesh hanging in the air in front of him.

But as he looked closer, he saw that they weren't hanging in the air, they were clinging to tiny pebbles and grains of dust that seemed to have been frozen in place. Liang Chen took advantage of this and shot forward without hesitation, brushing past Song Zhao's weapon as he charged.

Song Zhao wasn't as helpless as the rest, the direction of his weapon changing in tune with Liang Chen's movements. The weapon snuck itself underneath Liang Chen's arm, lopping it off and spraying blood through the air. But as the blood landed on Song Zhao, several jolts of shocking pain erupted from the places where the blood landed, arcs of lightning crackling violently as the blood revealed its true nature.

Liang Chen ignored the pain and reached the man, who had pierced himself on dust and pebbles whose time had been halted. Liang Chen's remaining arm shot forward, his spear running the man through and unleashing a torrent of the law of death. The man's skin turned sickly pale as his life was forcefully stolen from him, his blood coagulating within his veins before his eyes turned dim and he collapsed to the ground.

Song Zhao wasn't happy that he had lost two men so quickly, but he could at least comfort himself with the fact that he had managed to take one of Liang Chen's arms. Or so he thought at least, when he turned his head he saw that the rain and wind he had previously pushed away with his brown flames had gathered again.

But this time, all of it was gathering around Liang Chen, sucked towards the stump that remained of his arm. Several bolts of lightning poured down from the dark clouds and merged with the wind and rain, connecting to Liang Chen's body as a fresh arm was quickly formed to replace the lost one. Only now, as he looked at the eerie scene in front of him, did Song Zhao realize that perhaps the thing they had formed enmity with wasn't human, but rather a monster masquerading as a man.