Against The Heavens

A few days after leaving Mourners Refuge, Li Yang stood outside the entrance to the Cursed Realm. The entrance to the Cursed Realm was in the form of a small and cozy log hut. It even had a small chimney that continues released small amounts of fragrant smoke, almost like incense.

There used to be a large forest around the log hut, but it had apparently been chopped down after people discovered that there was a hidden realm located inside the log hut.

"What do you say, Jinwu?"

Li Yang glanced at Jinwu, who was resting on his left shoulder. Since he found out that the Four Monarchs were indeed his old friend, he knew that he had to investigate anything that might be connected to them.

But no one that had ever entered the Cursed Realm had ever managed to leave. Li Yang was confident that he would be able to survive thanks to his experience, but he could not decide everything on his own, he had a companion that he brought along after all.

Jinwu barely even glanced at the log hut, disdain apparent in his eyes, before he answered with a few affirmative caws. What divine beast would be scared of a measly Cursed Realm.

"If that is what you think, then let"s go."

Li Yang"s lips curled into a grin as he stepped forward and put his hand on the door. With only a slight push, the door of the log hut opened. The moment the door opened, black smoke unfurled from within the hut, turning into tendrils that pulled Li Yang into a completely black world.

Li Yang did not panic when the black tendrils coiled around him and pulled him into a world of darkness. This was just the way to enter the hidden realm, it was also one of the reasons it got its name, as the black smoke looked ominous.

When vision returned to Li Yang"s eyes, he and Jinwu were surrounded by lush trees. Black mist crawled along the ground, while deep black smoke covered the sky above them. Yet despite black smoke covering the sky, light pierced through the smoke, shone down and lit up the world.

"So this is the inside of the Cursed Realm?"

Li Yang glanced at his surroundings as he spoke, slowly walking forward. The trees around him were lush and in full bloom. Despite the black mist crawling along the ground, flowers and gra.s.s still bloomed in vibrant colors.

Of course, that did not mean that Li Yang lowered his guard. He had a tight grip on his sword and constantly surveyed his surroundings, Jinwu keeping an eye on the area behind him, both ready to act at a moments notice.

After only walking for a few short minutes, Li Yang found out why no one had ever returned from the Cursed Realm. He came upon a large clearing in the forest, filled with a large variety of flowers and other plants.

With the rays of light from above shining down on it, it would make for a rather peaceful sight and beautiful sight. But the clearing only filled Li Yang with a cold feeling in his chest.

Bleached bones were sticking out from the ground all around the clearing, rotting corpses riddled with holes that had flowers growing out of them, rusted weapons and armors were strewn around. The clearing looked like a ma.s.sive graveyard that had been hastily thrown together.

As Li Yang got close to the clearing, the black mist that crawled along the ground suddenly rose up, turning into sharp tendrils that shot towards Li Yang. Looking at the sharp tendrils, it became obvious how the rotting corpses had become riddled with holes.

Li Yang jumped up and grabbed onto a branch, drawing on the power of his fire rune as he did so. Arrows of fire bloomed into existence around him, shooting at the black mist. Jinwu also contributed, golden flames gushing forth from his beak and falling down upon the black mist.

The black mist that was. .h.i.t by their flames scattered, but then quickly gathered together into sharp tendrils again, it even seemed to have multiplied after reforming. Li Yang exerted strength in his arms and pulled himself up onto the branch, but the black mist continued to chase him.

He kicked the branch and propelled himself forward, grabbing onto a branch of the nearest tree and using the momentum from his jump to continuously jump from branch to branch.

"How f.u.c.king stubborn can you be?"

Yet no matter how quickly he fled, the black mist continued chasing him. As he moved around, more and more black mist rose up from the ground, turning into sharp tendrils that chased after him, even trying to block off his escape paths.

"You have to be f.u.c.king kidding me!"

Li Yang had just grabbed onto a new branch when he couldn"t help but curse out loudly. The moment he grabbed onto the branch, a black mist came out from the tree he had just grabbed onto, shooting towards him faster than he could dodge.

But just as Li Yang was expecting the black mist to pierce through him, it hit his chest and dispersed, turning back into normal black mist. Under Li Yang"s dumbfounded stare, all the black tendrils that had been chasing him, trying to take his life, turned back to black mist and fell to the ground.

"What?"

Li Yang could not help but be confused. The black tendrils had touched his chest, and then immediately dispersed into black mist. He had seen the rotting corpses riddled with holes, so it was clear that the black tendrils were capable of killing people. So why hadn"t they killed him?

Li Yang did not let go of the branch immediately, instead sending fire, ice, and lightning at the black mist that was now peacefully crawling along the ground. Only after seeing that nothing happened did he carefully let go of the branch and drop to the ground.

When he landed on the ground, the black mist slightly coiled around his feet as if it was trying to embrace him. Li Yang raised his foot and took a step forward, and the black mist immediately created an open path for him to walk on.

Li Yang was slightly wary, matching eyes with Jinwu, who nodded at him. Li Yang continued following the path that the black mist had created for him, walking around the clearing as well as several other areas that were filled with bones and rotting corpses.

After following the path for a few hours, Li Yang reached the edge of the forest. The black mist also stopped at the edge of the forest, seemingly unable, or unwilling, to move past the boundary of the forest.

After stepping out of the forest, Li Yang managed to get a better look at his surroundings, and he could not help but be surprised. The forest was located at the top of a steep hill, allowing Li Yang to see far into the distance.

At the bottom of the hill stood a small town, even from where Li Yang stood, he could see a lot of people walking around inside the town. Further away, almost at the very edge of the horizon, stood another small town, but this one was covered in snow.

To his left, Li Yang could see a small plain, followed by a large beach. The sand on the beach was as white as snow, the water shimmering like beautiful sapphires. Li Yang could not see any Demonic beasts or animals in the water, but he did not doubt that the water hid many ferocious Demonic beasts.

To his right, Li Yang saw a volcanic area. But it was not red-hot lava that poured out of the volcanoes, but a deep green liquid that looked like molten emeralds. The emerald green liquid released a faint light that caused the entire area around the volcanoes to look illusory.

"How nostalgic, me and Ying"er once toured a very similar place."

Looking at the green volcanoes in the distance, a gentle smile appeared on Li Yang"s lips. In his past life, he had traveled all around the world with Fang Ying, and they had stumbled upon such volcanoes once, spending a few years just touring the area.

He could not help but wonder, were these volcanoes connected to the volcanoes he and Fang Ying had once explored? Li Yang did not linger on the thought for too long. He decided to head to the town at the bottom of the hill now and see if he could get some information there.