Stepping away from the main road and the group that he was originally following, Liang Chen navigated through the somewhat narrower back alleys while following the sound of violent knocking. More and more shouting started to intermingle with the sound of knocking, parts of it angry and parts of it filled with a pleading intent.
As Liang Chen headed towards the source of the knocking, he felt like a fish swimming against the current. The other people in the area, the poor citizens that looked like they could only barely afford the patched robes they were wearing, were all rushing away from the area, not a single one of them showing the slightest interest in helping. A sigh escaped Liang Chen's lips, the sudden halting, and subsequent increase in pleading shouts, capturing his attention.
Liang Chen's eyes sharpened somewhat as his speed increased, cutting through what felt like a sea of departing people without a problem. It only took him a handful of seconds to reach the source of the knocking, an incredibly small house that only seemed large enough to house a single room. Despite being so small, the house was built using the same sand-like material as the rest of the building, leading Liang Chen to wonder if the original builders of this city divided it into wealthy and poor districts right from the start.
The sounds were all coming from the entrance of the house, where there were currently standing eight people. Six of the people were men and women dressed in the same light blue robes embroidered with the insignia of a sparrow piercing through a cloud, the last two people seemed to be a somewhat older brown-haired mother and her nine-year-old child. The mother and son pair were clad in patched brown robes that were a few centimeters too short for them, they could be called clothing well-suited for where they were living.
The six people in blue robes were scowling at the small family with irritated expressions, the mother doing her best to hold her son behind her trembling body. The boy did his best to slip out of his mother's grasp and head for the group of six people, but she clamped down on his upper arm like a vice, her knuckles pale from the force she exerted. One of the men in the group of six, a green-haired and orange-eyed man with a large stature, rubbed his temples in exasperation and annoyance as he looked at the woman in front of him.
"Why can't you just hand him over already? Look, even the kid himself has agreed to voluntarily follow us to erase the debt, so right now it is your own actions that are causing you to retain that debt. Hand him over and I can swear on my honor that I'll find a good buyer for h...?"
The man suddenly sensed something and closed his mouth, his brows furrowing slightly as he turned his head. The other people present also followed his gaze, their eyes landing on Liang Chen, who was in the process of walking over. The man was the leader of this small dispatch force and thus had the highest cultivation among them, the late stage of the Soaring Immortal realm. He could tell that his cultivation was a small realm higher than Liang Chen's, but he felt a strange sense of unease as he looked at Liang Chen, prompting him to usher him away straight away.
"You shouldn't be here, kiddo, this isn't a good place to be right now, we're conducting business in the name of the Tranquil Lake. If it's the marketplace you're looking for, then you gotta turn around and return to the main road, it'll take you straight there if you follow it."
The man even threw out the name of their organization in an attempt to push Liang Chen away. The name would usually spark quite the reaction in just about everyone living in the city, not due to the strength of the organization but due to the person who founded it, the Sky-Piercing Sparrow. This person hadn't shown themselves for several decades, but the strength they had shown last time they appeared was still fresh in the minds of most people. But the only response the man got after throwing out the name of his organization was a slight tilt of Liang Chen's head.
"Yeah, I'll probably check out the marketplace later, but right now I'd like to hear about the situation here."
Liang Chen came from a minor universe so there was no way for him to have heard the name of the Tranquil Lake or its founder, but his trip through the void, as well as his law of the void, made it so that he didn't showcase any of the symptoms that were common in people who had just ascended from a minor universe, making it so that the green-haired man failed to notice Liang Chen's origins. The man's expression sank slightly, taking Liang Chen's nonchalance as ridicule against his organization, but just as he was starting to speak up again, the young boy interrupted him, venting all his grievances.
"It's business of the Tra..."
"They're liars! Liars and cheats, bad men! They forced Father to take up an unfair loan with interests he couldn't possibly hope to pay back! Father was forced to sell himself as a slave, but they still didn't erase the debt, citing interests that had been added on just as Father sold himself! Mother did her best and bought us another five months in hopes that we could receive help from the governor, but he's remained silent and now these scoundrels have come to collect their nonsensical interest!"
The boy stopped trying to rush forth from behind his mother as he shouted, clutching her robe with all his might. The boy could feel something from Liang Chen, a strange sense of calm and safety that prompted him to halt his earlier attempts at surrendering, it was as if he stood within the eye of a storm. One of the women in the group of six frowned in response to the words, but she was stopped by the leader just as she was starting to raise her hands.
"Kid, don't talk about things you don't understand. There was nothing unfair about the loan, everything was written properly and clearly in the contract and it was your father himself who chose to sign it. We only made him the offer to provide the money, we even gave him a two month period with no interest to make it easier for him."
The man's expression was slightly gloomy as he spoke, his pupils flickering between Liang Chen and the young boy, keeping a close eye on both of them. The boy faltered slightly under the man's forceful presence, but his trembling mother grit her teeth and forced out her words, the man responding shortly after.
"You may have made him the offer, but you knew that Jung'er couldn't refuse, he needed that money for Little Gao's medicine. You took advantage of his desperation and forced him into a corner just so that you could eventually add another three people to your roster of slaves!"
"AND HOW IS THAT OUR FAULT?! Should we not extend a helping hand when a man needs money for his sick son? Should we have let him run around and beg in desperation? If you want to blame someone, blame your son for deciding to run out and play on such a rainy day, blame him for getting sick!"
"Are you out of your mind?! How could I possibly blame a child for wanting to play and have fun as children should? You took advantage of his desperation, you stalked him for days on end until he had no other option but to bend! Is it not you that I should blame here!?"
The loud back and forth seemed to become too much for the woman who had just been stopped while raising her arms. She flicked one of her fingers, a nearly two-meter long blade of white bone materializing in front of her and shooting directly at the shouting mother. The leader's expression immediately distorted somewhat, his gaze flickering towards Liang Chen.
But by the time his pupils flickered toward Liang Chen's direction, the area there was already empty, the leader's fears affirming themselves. His head quickly turned towards the mother again, and just as he thought, Liang Chen was standing in front of her and had grabbed onto the bone blade, effortlessly shattering it.
With his law of time and his law of lightning, just how fast was Liang Chen? In short bursts like just now, he could unleash such speeds that only those who specialized in speed or had already reached the Primordial Immortal realm would be able to follow him. The bone blade shattered and fell to the ground, Liang Chen turning around and crouching down in front of the boy.
"Looking at your actions earlier, were you trying to surrender yourself so that they wouldn't hurt your mother?"
Liang Chen put on the softest expression he could as he spoke, the boy timidly nodding his head. The men in front of him were so strong that they could easily rule over this entire district of the city, yet none of them had been able to react to the movements of the youth that was talking to him right now, this fact alone was more than enough to show just how terrifying the soft-faced person in front of him was. Liang Chen gave a fractal nod of his head in response to the boy's words, giving his forehead a soft flick.
"You've got guts, but how do you think your mother would feel if you actually did that? First, she loses her husband and then her son, suddenly she's all alone and things will probably only get worse. It sounds nice and grand to sacrifice yourself for others, but you should always spare a thought for those left behind. Sometimes they would prefer to stay together and perish together rather than be left behind all alone."
The boy continued to timidly nod his head, not quite certain what other actions he could take right now. But Liang Chen stood up again after flicking the kid's forehead, turning around and facing the group of six, who were all currently experiencing a strange phenomenon. The insignia on their robes were releasing a bright light that gathered together in front of them, the blue light forming a humanoid shape.
The shape reminded Liang Chen of the ones he had seen in the final trials of the Mystic's Hidden Realm, when the prizes were handed out. But compared to back then, the shape in front of him released quite a bit more pressure, it seemed to hold at least a bit of combat power. The humanoid light turned its head a bit, taking in the surroundings before its gaze landed on Liang Chen, a somewhat youthful voice sounding out.
"Oh, so you're the title-holder who triggered the mechanism I left behind in the robes. Looking at the amount of energy this avatar has, you should be a Lord class, no? Sorry, but would you mind leaving this place? I know that my Tranquil Lake might do things a bit below the table, even a bit despicable at times, but such is the way of the universe. If you wish to reach the apex of power, you must dive down under the table without hesitation, such is the truth of cultivation in this fucked up universe of ours."
Liang Chen's gaze roamed across the body of the humanoid figure, his gaze far calmer than the eyes of the eight people around him. Liang Chen didn't know who this avatar was, but listening to him talk, the others around him could easily understand that the avatar belonged to the Sky-Piercing Sparrow himself. But since Liang Chen didn't know, he didn't care, nor would he care if he knew. He simply raised his chin slightly, gesturing towards the men gathered behind the avatar.
"First they blame the father, then they blame the kid, and now you blame the universe itself, is giving dumb excuses the only thing that you and your people are good for?"
Liang Chen wouldn't deny that the multiverse they lived in was fucked up, but if the avatar in front of him wanted to use that as an excuse for the actions he had just heard about then it would be a bit too pathetic. You would never be able to fix something fucked up by adding more fucked up things to it, doing so would only add to the misery. The avatar didn't show any great change in expression, it only barely had facial traits to begin with after all, simply giving a very minor tilt of its head.
"Excuses, you say? Do you know what excuses are? They're just reasonings you don't agree with, those you don't want to accept because they go against your own reasoning. So if you don't mind, I would be pleased if you'd be so kind as to take back your earlier curse, cursing someone's reasoning just because you don't like it has already transcended the realm of rude."
The avatar spoke softly and politely, the voice flowing forth containing a great deal of charm that seemed like it wanted to drill its way into Liang Chen's head. But in the face of the penetrating charm, Liang Chen simply showed his standard calm smile, the same calm smile that was usually followed by a storm so violent it was beyond imagination.
"Really, I haven't even been here for long yet I've already run into things like you. But don't get me wrong, I'm not cursing you or your reasoning, not at all, I am rejecting it. You, your reasoning, the reasoning of your Tranquil Lake, this fucked up state of the universe, I reject all of them. From what I've seen, they're all worthless and need to be fixed."