A Chaotic World 305 White Griffin

"Absolutely," the old lady answered without hesitation.

"Okay then," Lu Tianzi turned back to the door in front of him. "Let's enter."

He had followed the old lady through a secluded alley in the town, and now they were standing before a small house with absolutely no signboard whatsoever.

If anything, it looked more likely to be someone's residence than an actual shop.

But since the old lady was this sure, there was no harm in trying. The locals should know best after all.

Even if it turned out otherwise, all he had to lose was some time.

"Wait, are you intending to enter like that?" the old lady asked. "Don't you have a mask or something?"

"A mask?" Lu Tianzi blinked blankly. "I do have one, but is it necessary to wear one?"

"Well, it is up to you. But don't you think it is better not to reveal your face in this sort of setting?" the old lady explained while putting on a mask of her own.

"I guess that makes sense," Lu Tianzi nodded.

If anything, poison had always been a topic that was associated with cowardice and murder.

In that sense, any purchase of poison materials certainly did not sound the like the most glorious of activities, and thus Lu Tianzi could understand why the old lady wanted to hide her identity.

Of course, if Lu Tianzi really wanted to do so, the old lady's mask would do little to hide her facial features from his perception.

With that, Lu Tianzi took out an exquisitely made mask from his spatial ring.

This was the same mask that he had received from Nanlan Qianbing back in Bluenight City, one that was capable of hiding his facial features from the perception of martial artists below the Origin Core realm.

"So you are prepared after all," the old lady smiled.

That's right, the young man had come all the way to Bog Town just for this, so she would be shocked if he had not prepared something as simple as a mask.

"I just happened to have one on hand," Lu Tianzi shrugged before putting on the mask.

"You just happened to be here in Bog Town, just happened to be looking for poison materials, and just happened to have such a beautiful mask on hand, eh?" the old lady laughed. "You don't have to be so careful. We are on the same side."

"…" Lu Tianzi suddenly had a bad feeling.

Perhaps somewhere along the line, some sort of misunderstanding had developed between the two of them?

But there was no use worrying about it.

They were already at their destination anyway. Whether or not their thoughts had diverged at some point, he would know soon enough.

The old lady gave the door a slight knock. "Excuse me, are you selling any poison materials today?"

"What kind of materials?" a rough voice came from the other end.

"Those that you can't find on Wondertrap Mountain," the old lady replied.

Lu Tianzi let out a sigh of relief after hearing their conversation.

It seemed that he had been overthinking things. The old lady had indeed brought him to the right place.

The door creaked open to reveal a tall masked man with bulging muscles. He had shaved off his hair, and that only made him look even more intimidating.

Of course, there was no way the Lu Tianzi would be intimidated by this much.

This masked man was only at the Primary Essence Condensation realm. Though it was far better than the old lady who had only established a foundation to begin Slaughter Essence cultivation, it was still insignificant to the current Lu Tianzi.

And in any case, he was a customer, so surely the other party would not find trouble with him!

"You brought someone new today, Old Harpy," the masked man remarked the moment he saw Lu Tianzi.

"Don't worry, Bald Falcon. He is safe," the old lady replied.

"I never doubted your judgement," Bald Falcon nodded. "How do I address this friend over here?"

"That's right, I never got to ask you," the old lady turned towards Lu Tianzi. "What's your alias?"

"Alias? Do I need one too?" Lu Tianzi was dumbfounded.

He had already listened to her and put on a mask without complaints, but now he even needed an alias?

"Everyone is wearing a mask for the same reason. If you use your real name, wouldn't it defeat the purpose of wearing a mask?" the old lady explained. "If you don't have an alias, you can just come up with one right now."

"Just call me White Griffin then," Lu Tianzi answered.

Lu Tianzi did not put too much thought into the matter. After all, he was just going to buy the materials he needed and leave.

There was no special meaning to the alias he chose either.

Since the other two had named themselves after beasts, Lu Tianzi simply decided to do the same, and White Griffin just happened to be the first thing that came to mind.

Hearing this, Old Harpy and Bald Falcon looked at each other and nodded in satisfaction.

"Nice to meet you then, White Griffin!" Bald Falcon greeted. "So what took you so long to come to us?"

"He can't be blamed for that, Bald Falcon," Old Harpy interjected. "White Griffin just arrived in Bog Town after all."

"Wait a minute," Bald Falcon's tone turned serious all of a sudden. "He just arrived in Bog Town, and you already decided to bring him here? Old Harpy, on what basis have you determined that he is safe?"

"Don't question me like that," Old Harpy snapped back. "I didn't decide to bring him in. He already knew of the code before this."

"He knew of the code?" Bald Falcon was stumped. "White Griffin, you really just arrived in Bog Town?"

"That's right," Lu Tianzi answered.

Though Lu Tianzi had no idea what they were on about, Lu Tianzi decided to just go along with it. After all, he was not lying anyway.

From Bald Falcon's reaction, it would appear that this poison material shop was only open to exclusive customers, and yet the old lady was trying to get him in.

"To have just arrived in Bog Town yet you already knew of our code…" Bald Falcon's words trailed off a little.

"Now that you mention it, that's quite strange. But it isn't anything to worry about, is it?" Old Harpy asked.

"Nothing to worry about indeed," Bald Falcon nodded before taking a step backwards, revealing yet another door behind him. "Come on in."

It was a heavy oak door, and the sheer thickness of the door served as a sound muffler of sorts, masking out the voices that were coming from within.

"Welcome, comrade," Bald Falcon said before pushing the door open.

Lu Tianzi frowned right after taking his first step in.

The inside of the house had not been compartmentalised into smaller rooms. This meant that it was a huge chamber by itself, and everything could be seen with a single glance.

Every window had been shut tight, reinforced with heavy oak shutters. This blocked out every external source of light, leaving a huge Sky Crystal at the other end of the house as the only source of illumination.

In this dimly lit house, there were at least two to three hundred masked individuals, all of them facing the Sky Crystal, their attention focused upon a well dressed man who was standing atop a small platform.

This man was masked as well, and had a thick book in his hands.

Right now, he was reading out the contents of the book to his hundreds of audiences, all of them so engrossed in what he was saying that they appeared completely oblivious to Lu Tianzi's arrival.

Either that, or they simply did not bother.

"Please make yourselves comfortable, I will go let them know of your arrival," Bald Falcon excused himself before disappearing into the crowd.

Lu Tianzi and Old Harpy stood near the entrance as they waited. Since there was nothing better to do, they naturally turned their attention to the man on the platform as well.

"Next, I shall talk about the Dongluo Family. It has already been more than a month, yet the Dongluo Family has to take responsibility for their actions! How preposterous! These heinous criminals holed up within their estate, thinking that time will wash away their crimes. But no! Even if the world forgets, we will be there to remind them! Even if the world is willing to overlook such despicable acts, we will act as the crusaders of justice! We must constantly remind everyone of this. Even if it takes hundreds or thousands of years, even if these criminals die holed up in their residence, we shall continue passing this on to our descendants. We shall make sure that these corrupted noble families get punished one day, even if it meant that their descendants have to bear their sins! And we must actively let these criminals know of our intentions as well, so they will understand that hiding does nothing to aid their cause…!"

The man spoke with much fervour in his voice, displaying his conviction and belief in every word that he said.

And he was not done with just this.

He continued reading on and on, speaking about the other noble families and listing all the corrupted acts that they were involved in.

It was a wonder where he obtained all these information, or whether they were even real in the first place.

But the hundreds of people in the audience did not bother about such minor details.

All they wanted to hear were the facts that were being fed to them, and they were fully engrossed in absorbing every single detail.

After all, it was their duty to act as the crusaders of justice and ensure that those heinous criminals were punished.

How would they be able to justify their actions to others if they were lacking the information to support their argument?

As they continued to listen, the feelings of rage kept on burning within these people's hearts, growing more and more intense until it developed into an uncontrollable inferno.

"Down with the corrupted nobles!"

"Down with the corrupted nobles!"

No one knew who the first to shout it out was. But before they knew it, everyone was yelling the same thing at the top of their voices, as though they were venting out their cumulated frustrations.

At one point, even Old Harpy who was beside Lu Tianzi had started shouting along with the crowd.

Lu Tianzi blinked blankly as he took all these in.

What in the world was he witnessing right now?

From the sound of it, this poison materials shop seemed to also be a gathering place for people who were against the noble families.

But what was with the way they acted?

The audience comprised of a wide variety of people, from non-martial artists all the way to Peak Essence Condensation realm.

Yet no matter what their cultivation level was, all of them were behaving in the exact same way, as though they were puppets strung along by the man on the platform.

If this man was an Origin Core realm martial artist, Lu Tianzi might not be as surprised. But he was only at the Peak Essence Condensation realm, similar to some of those in the crowd.

But his cultivation level appeared to have little impact on his influence.

Right now, it almost seemed like he was the spiritual leader of some cult!

Lu Tianzi decided that once he managed to buy the materials he needed, he absolutely had to get out of here as soon as possible.

Otherwise, who knew what sort of trouble he could get into if he lingered at such a strange setting?

At this moment, Bald Falcon appeared before the small platform and whispered a few words to the man.

The man immediately turned his face towards Bald Falcon, apparently shocked by what he just heard.

Next, he turned back to the audience and raised a hand.

Understanding that he wanted them to quieten down, the crowd did as they were instructed.

"Everyone here has been brought in by an existing member of the organisation," the man started to speak. "Be it a friend, a family member, or even a passer by. At some point in time, you have come across an existing member of the organisation who found you to be upright enough to join our cause. But no matter who brought us in, there is one thing in common among us – we are all members of Bog Town and want to see our home improve for the better. Today, however, there is someone special among us. He is a person who isn't even someone from Bog Town, and has travelled from far just to join our cause! Everyone please welcome… White Griffin!"

"…" Lu Tianzi was stunned speechless as everyone turned around to look at him, even putting their hands together in a thunderous applause.

What...?

Chapter end