Against The Heavens

He started by checking out the six smaller shacks that consisted of only a single room. The inside of these shacks were all very similar in appearance, one bed, one dresser, and one table and a few chairs. Some of the shacks had a few small pieces of decorations, a small statue or a painting, clearly, things that the bandits had acquired during one of their raids.

After thoroughly going through all of the smaller shacks, pocketing any money or valuables that he found, Li Yang turned towards the largest shack, the house of the bandit leader. This was the only shack that had more than one room, so it would obviously hold more items than the other shacks.

The first room Li Yang entered seemed to be where the bandit leader slept. Several human-sized statues decorated the room, depicting various heroes and beauties. A large double bed was located at the center of the room, it was stuffed with soft feathers, much better than the beds in the other shacks.

A large shelf was placed against the wall, various clothes and books were lined up on the shelf in a haphazard way. Various paintings that looked like they might be expensive were hung on the walls of the room. There was one door on the left of the room, as well as a door on the right of the room, leading to the two other rooms.

Li Yang nonchalantly headed towards the door on the left, the door was locked, so Li Yang was forced to freeze and shatter the lock before he could enter. The room that he entered seemed to be where the bandit group stored most of their valuables.

Even more, statues were placed in this room, though these ones looked much more valuable than the ones that bandit leader had in his room. Gold and various smaller gems decorated these ornate statues, showing off their obviously high value.

Paintings were stored haphazardly against the wall, various chests and containers littering the room. Li Yang slowly took his time, going through every chest and carefully checking each item inside of them. After checking through every chest, he could not help but sigh his head in disappointment.

The one item he wanted the most was sadly not stored in any of these chests, an interspatial ring. An interspatial ring was a ring or other decorative item, that contained a larger s.p.a.ce within it. Using one of these, Li Yang could easily store a large number of items and always have them on him, but it seemed like luck was not on his side, as there were no such items amongst the other loot.

Li Yang could not carry any of the statues or paintings, as they were too large, so he grabbed as much money as he could safely store away, before leaving the room. He was not too bothered about not being able to bring away the rest of the loot, after all, he could just earn more money by accepting more missions.

After checking out the room on the left, the only place left to search was the room on the right. And since the room on the left had been where they stored their loot, the room on the right could only be used for one other thing.

The room on the right was also locked, so Li Yang once more froze and shattered the lock, opening the door and entering the room. The room was dimly lit, only a single lantern used to light up the entire room, but Li Yang was still able to see the room clearly.

Gathered within the room were five young women, the youngest barely looking older than 14. They were all huddled together in one corner of the room, looking at Li Yang with fear in their eyes. Their clothes were tattered and torn, and they had clear bruises on several parts of their bodies.

Li Yang swept the room with his eyes for a short moment before turning around and leaving. He went to the shelf and picked up several pieces of clothing, before walking back to the room. Despite him leaving the door open, the women were still huddled in the corner, afraid to even move.

"Don"t worry. I killed them all, they will never be able to hurt you again. You can go home, you are safe now."

Li Yang spoke to the women in a soothing voice, throwing the clothes towards them as he spoke. After throwing the clothes to them, he walked over to the wall and froze it using his ice rune. He then delivered a kick to the wall, shattering it and allowing the sunlight to enter the room once more.

Upon seeing the corpses of the bandits in the distance, and feeling the breeze and the heat from the sunlight, the women could not help but burst into tears. Their huddling together turned into them hugging each other, loudly crying.

After they spent a few minutes crying, they hurriedly stripped out of their ragged clothing and put on the ones that Li Yang had thrown them. Li Yang, of course, turned around as they did so, otherwise, Fang Ying might kill him if she ever found out.

"You can enter the storehouse and take anything you can carry, I have no need for any of it."

After they had all gotten dressed, Li Yang pointed at the room where the bandit group stored all their loot. Since he had no need for it, they might as well take it. The women hesitated slightly, but upon seeing the warm smile on Li Yang"s face, they all entered the storehouse and grabbed as much wealth as they could carry.

After that was done, he brought the women and returned to where the body of the bandit leader and the Metal Eater laid. Upon seeing the corpses of the bandits up close, while the women felt slightly nauseous, they were more happy than sickened.

"Jinwu, how did you manage that?"

Upon returning to the body of the bandit leader, Li Yang couldn"t help but look dumbfound at Jinwu. Where the body of the Metal Eater once laid, only a few bones remained, with Jinwu cleaning any meat and bones away from the bones. The only things that he hadn"t eaten were the head as well as the Demon Crystal.

Jinwu turned around and happily hopped around on the bones, cawing loudly. After spotting the five women, he flapped his wings and flew into the bosom of the woman with the largest chest, happily resting on the soft peaks.

Seeing this, the corner of Li Yang"s mouth couldn"t help but twitch slightly. This little crow was a lecher? But at the same time, he could not help but be slightly shocked.

Despite its small size, Jinwu had quickly managed to eat the entire Metal Eater, barely leaving anything behind. Li Yang could also sense that Jinwu was slowly growing stronger after eating the Metal Eater, so it was clear that eating other Demonic beasts would greatly aid Jinwu in becoming stronger.

Seeing Jinwu happily frolicking in the bosom of one of the women, Li Yang could only sigh and shake his head. He took out two large bags and stored away the head of the bandit leader and the head of the Metal Eater.

"I plan on returning to Cloud"s End City, you should follow me back, it will be safer for you."

Li Yang picked up the metallic Demon Crystal of the Metal Eater and stuffed it into his mouth as he spoke. It was only the size of a cherry, so it was no problem putting it into his mouth. The five women hurriedly nodded to him, happily following him as he left the bandit camp.

The trip back to the city took much longer than the trip to the bandit camp. Since he was now escorting the five women, he took breaks much more frequently. Jinwu was also forced to hunt for food more often, but he happily a.s.sented, as it allowed him to play around in the bosom of the women after they ate.

Li Yang also took this chance to digest the Demon Crystal from the Metal Eater. Using a special technique from his past life, he broke down the Demon Crystal and sent the energy within it to every corner of his body, allowing him to slowly strengthen himself.

As he was working on increasing the size of his dantian, he noticed that it went much quicker than he expected. This only helped ascertain the thought that Li Yang had, that engraving the nine runes was only the first step of cultivation. If it was not just the first step, there was no way it would be this easy to increase the size of his dantian.

Six days after leaving the bandit camp, the group arrived at the entrance of Cloud"s End City. Li Yang immediately brought the group of women to the guards, explaining their situation. The guards quickly thanked Li Yang for returning the kidnapped people, promising that they would return them to their families.

"Thank you Big Brother Yang."

After Li Yang spoke to the guards, a low voice rang out from behind him, a small hand grabbing onto his sleeve. The one who spoke was the youngest girl in the group, a girl who introduced herself as Su Cai Ah. Despite her being older than Li Yang, her body was smaller than his, she was also slightly malnourished and thin.

"No need to mention it. You make sure that you take care of yourselves. If something were to happen, you can come to the Royal Dragon Pavilion and look for me, I"ll do what I can to help."

Li Yang bent over slightly, patting the young girl"s head as he spoke with a smile. They had traveled together for six days, so Li Yang had some good impressions towards these women, he would not mind helping them if they needed help with something that he could do.

The women were quickly taken away by the guards, brought to a place where they could clean themselves and get a good meal. After they were cleaned and fed, they would be reunited with their families, allowing this nightmare of theirs to end.

Li Yang turned around and headed towards the Royal Dragon Pavilion, it was time for him to complete the mission. The inside of the Royal Dragon Pavilion was the same as last time, with a myriad of people sitting around and enjoying some alcohol, food, and company.

"The mission is done."

The same short and stout woman he had seen last time was standing behind the counter, reading through a book. Li Yang did not waste any words, immediately placing the two bags that contained the heads on the counter.

The stout woman slightly raised an eyebrow upon seeing Li Yang again. She opened the two bags and took out the two heads. Six days had pa.s.sed, so the heads were starting to slightly rot, but it was still easy to see who the heads belonged to.

"Indeed, the mission is done. Insert a bit of your blood and Qi into this tablet. It will allow us to know whether you are dead or alive. It will also double as your identification."

The stout woman put the heads back into the bags and closed them up, placing them behind the counter as she spoke with a nod. She swiped a ring on her finger, a green jade table appearing in her hands. She placed the jade in front of Li Yang and told him what to do.

Li Yang had seen such a jade table in his previous life, so he did not hesitate to cut a small wound on his finger and dripping some blood onto the tablet. He also input some Qi into the tablet, causing it to light up with a green light.

"Name?"

After the green light vanished, the tablet split into two. The stout woman grabbed the two tablets and looked at Li Yang, waiting for his answer. Once he responded, she used her own Qi to engrave the name onto the two tablets. She also engraved a number on both tablets.

"This one will serve as your identification. We will keep the other one, as it will allow us to know if you were to die."

The stout woman handed one of the two jade tablets to Li Yang while keeping the other one, placing it into a box located next to her. With Li Yang"s Qi and blood stored inside the tablet, it was now connected to him. Once he died, the Qi and blood inside the jade tablet would vanish, causing the jade tablet to crack and shatter.

"You are now a One-Clawed Dragon. To increase your rank to a Two-Clawed Dragon, you will need to show proof that you have the strength of someone at the late stage of the Mortal Rune realm, someone with three runes. You will also need to have completed a certain amount of missions before we will give you the mission to become a Two-Clawed Dragon."

"We do not forbid any of our people from killing each other, just don"t do it inside one of our buildings or inside the city. When you want to take on a mission, you come up to the counter and tell me what type of mission you want, as well as if you want to take on a mission in a distant location. Rewards are only given upon showing proof that the mission is complete."

The woman explained to Li Yang how the Royal Dragon Pavilion worked, at the same time, she also gave him the reward money from the mission he had just completed. It was an entry mission, but it still had a reward attached to it.

After being explained at how the Royal Dragon Pavilion worked, Li Yang bade the woman farewell and returned to the inn. He had not quite decided what mission he would take on next, but first, he wanted to spend a bit of time quietly cultivating, allowing himself and Jinwu to fully absorb the energy from the Metal Eater.