562: Chapter 562 It Was Your Self-Saving

After regaining his focus, he began to contemplate how to establish rules for the Tianhuang Continent.

As he was thinking, a scene at the back gate of the Shen Residence quietly entered his perception.

He Fu, the steward of the Shen Residence, was holding a woman like one would a chicken, casually tossing her onto the ground.

The woman stumbled and fell, her knees hitting the stone slabs with a dull thud. Ignoring the pain, she scrambled up and knelt, kowtowing like a pestle pounding garlic.

"Steward He, I beg of you, let me see my son. Just once, just once is enough..." Her voice was hoarse and tearful, as if she had been crying for many days, her throat ruined by it.

He Fu raised a foot and kicked her shoulder, sending her tumbling back to the ground. "Scram! If you come to the Shen Residence to cause trouble again, watch out or I'll break both your legs."

The woman climbed up again, her forehead already bleeding. Blood flowed down the bridge of her nose, mixing with tears to smear across her entire face.

She seemed completely oblivious to it, simply kneeling and kowtowing.

"Steward He, I beg you. My son is only three months old. He cries in the middle of the night, he looks for his mother... Please let me see him, just once..."

He Fu sneered, squatted down, and pinched her chin, forcing her to look up. "Du Jiuniang, listen well. Your son's surname is now Shen, not Du. He calls Squire Shen 'Father' and the Madam 'Mother.' What are you? Just a tool for birthing children."

Du Jiuniang trembled all over, her lips quivering, unable to say a single word.

"If you're smart, scram far away. If I see you again, I'll sell you to a brothel." He Fu let go of her like he was discarding a dirty rag and added, "You can forget about ever seeing him again in this lifetime."

With that, he turned and entered the back gate, closing it with a bang.

Du Jiuniang knelt outside the gate, staring at the tightly closed door as if it were a mountain she could never cross.

She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Tears fell one by one onto the ground, splashing into the fine dust.

Qin Chen's expression was calm, but something was churning deep within his eyes.

When his Divine Thought had covered the Tianhuang Continent just now, such incidents were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.

For instance, in a manor outside the capital city of the Great Yan Dynasty, a twelve-year-old boy had chains through his collarbones, tethered in a stable and covered in scars.

And at a mine in the Chu Dynasty, hundreds of miners worked bare-chested in dark, sunless tunnels.

All the miners had been kidnapped. Some were worked to death and thrown into ravines to feed the wolves. Some tried to escape, were caught, had their legs broken in public, and were left at the mine entrance for all to see.

And in a brothel in the Xuanwu Dynasty, a teenage girl sat by a window, her face covered in thick rouge, yet her eyes were empty.

She had been sold by her parents. She had to take guests every day; if she refused, she was beaten. She thought of death, but the brothel had specialized guards; she couldn't even manage to die.

The Tianhuang Continent had over a hundred dynasties and countless cities. Similar things happened every day, too many to count.

Widows and orphans were oppressed, enslaved, and traded.

The lives of the weak were not considered lives.

They were goods, tools, and blades of grass.

Qin Chen's earlier thought—to change the rules of this continent—was not a momentary impulse.

He had seen too much, so much that he couldn't pretend he hadn't seen it.

Thinking it over, since he had nothing to do during the day anyway, he decided to resolve two matters first—

First, Squire Shen. By dealing with one person, he could save ten thousand.

Second, save Chu Chu's mother.

With a shift of his intent, he arrived at the Shen Residence.

Inside the Shen Residence's living room, the red sandalwood round table was polished so brightly it could reflect shadows.

The table was spread with sixteen delicacies—live fish sashimi, tender snow deer hooves, milky nectar, chilled embryonic silk, steamed bear paws...

A dozen maidservants stood around, eyes lowered and submissive, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Squire Shen and his daughter, Shen Zhiwei, sat at the table, eating leisurely.

Squire Shen picked up a piece of sashimi with his chopsticks, dipped it in sauce, and put it in his mouth, chewing with squinted eyes and a look of satisfaction.

Shen Zhiwei took small sips of the nectar, her cheeks puffed out like a satiated cat.

Qin Chen slowly walked into the living room.

The gazes of Squire Shen and his daughter turned toward him. First they were stunned, then their brows furrowed.

"Who are you? How dare you barge into my Shen Residence?" Squire Shen put down his chopsticks, his voice turning cold.

Qin Chen's tone was flat. "The five colors blind the eye; the five notes deafen the ear; the five flavors dull the palate. This single table of yours is enough to feed an ordinary farming family for two hundred years."

Squire Shen's expression changed.

"Who exactly are you?" His voice deepened as his gaze swept over Qin Chen.

Shen Zhiwei lost her patience first. She slammed her chopsticks down and said coldly, "Father, why waste words with him? Someone! Throw him out!"

As soon as she spoke, three servants immediately rushed in from outside. Each was brawny with a powerful aura—they were all martial arts experts.

Without a word, the three of them lunged at Qin Chen.

Qin Chen didn't even lift an eyelid; he simply took a light step forward.

An invisible, massive force extended from beneath his feet, like an earthquake or a tsunami, silent and soundless.

Before the three servants could even get close, they were sent flying by that force. They tumbled and rolled across the ground, knocking over tables and chairs, blood spilling from their mouths.

Squire Shen's pupils constricted sharply.

As a Grandmaster Realm expert, he could naturally see the profundity of this move—it wasn't just raw power, but control.

That kind of control, handling the heavy as if it were light and releasing or retracting at will, was something he couldn't do. No one he had ever met could do it.

He even suspected that the person before him was in the Heavenly Human Realm.

Squire Shen hurriedly stood up, a smile plastered on his face. He cupped his hands and bowed low, adopting an extremely humble posture. "Senior, to what do we owe the honor of your visit? Whatever this old man can do, I will certainly give my all, even at the cost of my life."

Qin Chen's tone remained flat. "Do you know what it means to atone?"

"Atone?" Squire Shen was stunned.

"There are tens of thousands of orphans and widows in this city," Qin Chen said, looking at him. "That is your only chance for atonement."

Squire Shen froze for a moment before understanding dawned. He nodded repeatedly. "Understood, understood! This old man will immediately arrange for people to build residences and provide them with work, so they have jobs and food. I won't let a single person go hungry, nor a single person freeze!"

Just as he finished speaking, Shen Zhiwei became displeased.

She was only in the Acquired Realm and had never seen a true expert, let alone someone like Qin Chen.

In her eyes, the Shen family was wealthy and powerful, and they even had the Duke of Zhenguo backing them. In this imperial capital, whom did they need to fear?

Her voice was full of disdain. "What do the lives of those tens of thousands have to do with us? Do you know who is backing us?"

Squire Shen's face paled. Just as he was about to shout at her to stop, Qin Chen glanced at her indifferently.

That glance was not cold, not angry; it didn't even hold any emotion.

But Shen Zhiwei's back suddenly went cold, as if she were being watched by something terrifying. The words in her throat were all choked back.

The corner of Qin Chen's mouth curled slightly with a hint of contempt. "The Duke of Zhenguo, the Fang Family?"

Shen Zhiwei was taken aback, then sneered. "Since you know, you still dare to come to my Shen Residence to cause trouble?"

"Wei'er, shut up!" Squire Shen shouted sharply, sweat pouring down his forehead.

He took a deep breath, cupped his fists toward Qin Chen, and said in a very low voice, "Senior, rest assured. This Junior will definitely not fail your request."

Qin Chen looked at him and smiled faintly. "It is not a request; it is you saving yourself."