Against The Heavens

"That woman in the statue, she is the reason that Huanglong could be born alongside you. In two years time, we will hopefully be able to meet up with her. At that time, I am thinking about letting Huanglong follow her, what do the two of you think?"

Huanglong was born from Fang Ying"s poison power mixing with the energy that the dragon bones released, if she was at Fang Ying"s side, both would be able to unleash greater power. But Li Yang did not want to force Shenlong or Huanglong into doing something they did not want, so he decided to ask for permission first. Shenlong closed his eyes for a bit, his mouth moving slightly, so Li Yang guessed that he was talking with Huanglong.

After only a short moment, Shenlong opened his eyes again, letting out a low roar and giving several short nods of his head, it was clear that Huanglong was more than willing to follow Fang Ying. Li Yang"s smile grew a bit brighter, patting Shenlong a bit more on the head.

While he was patting Shenlong, he felt something peck his neck, the somewhat unsatisfied face of Jinwu appearing before him as he turned to check. It was not hard to guess that Jinwu was a bit grumpy that he was not being petted as well, so Li Yang reached out and pat him on the head using his free arm.

With both his arms in an awkward position to pat both Jinwu and Shenlong on the head, Li Yang left the building and made his way down the hill. He stopped petting them as he made his way through the city, pondering over how he should leave the hidden realm. The normal way would be to return to one of the exits, but he did not know where the closest exit was, and walking all the way back to the entrance he had used did not sound optimal. A thought struck him as he walked, so he rubbed his chest and let out a slight mutter.

"Maybe this thing can help me."

With a thought of his mind, the emblem that was resting within his chest materialized above his palm, calmly hovering in the air. Li Yang tried to send an order to the emblem, telling it to take him out of the hidden realm. After a short moment of silence, the energy that the token released started to grow a bit stronger, s.p.a.ce around it distorting as a black gate appeared in front of Li Yang. Looking at the gate, Li Yang could not help but comment.

"I knew I could trust Zhao Feng and the others to make things convenient."

Li Yang swept the city around him one last time, before stepping into the black gate. As he stepped into the exit, Li Yang felt spice contort around him, a heavy pressure pushing down on him. Shenlong and Jinwu tightened their grasps, making sure that they didn"t get separated from Li Yang.

After enduring the spatial contortions for a few moments, a bright light flashed in front of Li Yang"s eyes, forcing him to close them. When the bright light pa.s.sed, Li Yang did not find himself standing in front of the log hut that had been the entrance to the hidden realm. He instead found himself standing at the top of a hill so tall and steep it could almost be considered a mountain. Li Yang fondled his chin, muttering slightly as he swept the surroundings with his gaze.

"Now then, where exactly did we end up?"

Jinwu and Shenlong also joined Li Yang in checking the surroundings, but as Shenlong had no idea if anything was familiar or not, he simply looked around out of curiosity. It did not take much searching before Jinwu let out a short caw, directing Li Yang to turn towards the right and peer into the distance, spotting Mourner"s Refuge in the distance. After spotting their destination, Jinwu and Shenlong both returned to Li Yang, Jinwu resting on Li Yang"s left shoulder, and Shenlong coiling around his neck.

Between the hill that Li Yang was standing on and Mourner"s Refuge, there was only a single forest separating them. Li Yang took his time moving through the forest, concealing himself just in case there were any strong Demonic beasts within the forest. Even the stronger Demonic beasts inside the hidden realm had been unable to spot him once he concealed himself, so as he moved through the forest, nothing was able to spot him, allowing him to make it to Mourner"s Refuge before long.

Mourner"s Refuge had stood for untold years, so the single year that Li Yang had been gone was unable to leave a single mark on it. Li Yang found a caravan that was returning to Cloud"s End City, hitching a ride with them after handing over a bit of money. Li Yang had been unable to get his hands on Jing Yimu"s interspatial ring, but he still had quite a bit of funds within the interspatial ring that Jing Yimu had gifted him. Of course, the funds within the ring were also gifts that Jing Yimu had given him for training expenses in the future.

Once on the caravan, Li Yang integrated himself with the guards, spending the days chatting with them. He stealthily released Jinwu and Shenlong, allowing the two of them to roam freely around the caravan. Shenlong had been stuck within the mausoleum for all his life, and Jinwu had been following Li Yang throughout the entirety of the time spent in the hidden realm, both could use a small break where they could fly freely. Of course, the fact that they dealt with anything that might attack the caravan was just an added bonus.

With nothing to interrupt them, the caravan was able to easily make its way to Cloud"s End City. The people of the caravan were quite shocked that the journey had gone by so peacefully, but none bothered thinking too much about why the journey had been so smooth. Jinwu and Shenlong had already returned to Li Yang once they got close to the city, so he didn"t have to wait for them once they arrived, allowing him to quickly enter the city.

The first thing Li Yang did after entering the city after a year"s absence was to head towards the building of the Universe Merchants. All the robes he had on him now were given to him by Jing Yimu, but they were not to his taste, so he wanted to get them switched out for better ones.

Li Yang quickly found the same merchant he had been at last time, commissioning several of the same robes he had asked for last time, violet robes in the form of a wolf skin, with a padded left shoulder for Jinwu. He was considering whether he should add something for Shenlong to the robe, but Shenlong protested, saying that he enjoyed the feeling of closeness when he coiled around Li Yang"s neck.

Since it was Shenlong himself who said it, Li Yang did not say anything else. After waiting for a few hours, the commissioned robes were done, Li Yang quickly putting one on after finding a secluded spot. In his past life he had been fonder of clean and simple robes, but in this life, thanks to his time in the Liang tribe, he had grown rather fond of robes like these, ones fashioned after wolf skin.

Once his clothing was in order, Li Yang made his way towards the Royal Dragon Pavilion. One reason he headed towards the pavilion was to see if his previous message he had sent had gotten any results, and another reason was to see if anything had happened during this one year he was gone.

The Royal Dragon Pavilion had not changed while he was gone, still releasing a strong pressure that made one not dare think of causing trouble. Li Yang casually opened the door and entered the building, giving the room a quick sweep with his eyes. The sun had already set, so there were quite a few people drinking, making a small amount of noise as they talked with each other.

Li Yang"s eyes landed on the counter at the left of the room, an expression of light surprise appearing on his face when he saw that the woman standing there was the same one he had met one year ago. He made his way to the counter, taking out the tablet that served as his identification and placing it on the table as he spoke out.

"Has the message I sent gotten any responses?"

The woman was sitting on a chair that leaned against the wall, casually reading a book. When she heard Li Yang"s voice, she raised her head, her eyes lighting up with surprise when she saw Li Yang and his identification tablet. She closed the book and stood up, giving the identification tablet a quick look-over before speaking out in surprise.

"Took you a while to get back to us. Had it not been for the tablet letting us know that you were still alive, I would have signed you off as dead. We sent your message to 23 different people, but there was only a single response."

The woman swiped her interspatial ring and took out a small piece of paper, handing it to Li Yang. Hearing that there were 23 people that fit the criteria he had specified, Li Yang could not help but be surprised. But he quickly shook away the surprise, grabbing the piece of paper and reading it. Once he saw the words written on it, his face split into a silly grin and he had to stop himself from letting out a loud laugh.

"I look forward to hearing the thunder rumble during the compet.i.tion. Down by the river, where the ocean meets the sky."

Li Yang read the message several times, his grin growing sillier and sillier as he read it. She had gotten the message. In three years time, they would finally be able to meet again. Jinwu and Shenlong knew the reason behind his grin, but the receptionist could only raise her eyebrows in confusion. Li Yang quickly wiped the grin off his face, returning to business as he spoke up.

"So what kind of interesting things have been happening lately? To be more specific, what has been happening around the Cloud Wilderness."

Shortly before he left the Cloud Wilderness, a Golden Crow and a Torch Dragon had fought each other to the death. Li Yang refused to believe that none of the clans had noticed this, so he was wary about what they might do. After all, that Golden Crow was Jinwu"s mother, he could not let them desecrate her corpse. The receptionist fondled her chin slightly after hearing Li Yang"s question, seemingly trying to remember something. After a short while of thinking, her eyes lit up as she spoke out, shrugging her shoulders.

"Around the Cloud Wilderness? Half a year ago, the various clans and sects of the continent sent over several groups to investigate something around the edges of the Cloud Wilderness. Half a year has pa.s.sed, but none of the groups have left the Cloud Wilderness, my guess is that they are imposing themselves on the tribes residing in the outskirts until they find whatever it is they are looking for."

The woman spoke casually, but her words froze in her throat when she saw Li Yang"s expression turn cold and gloomy. She did not know why, but faced with that expression, she almost felt herself overcome with dread as if she was nothing but helpless prey in front of a predator. Li Yang"s expression quickly returned to normal, cupping his hands towards the woman.

"I see, thanks for the information."

Li Yang turned around and left the building, his expression growing a bit cold again. He could easily guess that the people that had arrived were looking for the corpses of the Golden Crow and the Torch Dragon, hoping to cut them apart and harvest every inch of them. Not only that, they were most likely imposing themselves on the various tribes, the Liang tribe included.

Li Yang had, after all, spent 12 years in the Liang tribe, so he had some feelings towards it. Especially Liang Zhou and Liang Xinyi, they were people he considered friends. It was far from the friendship he had with Zhao Feng and the others, but it was enough for him to be willing to help them.

People from sects and clans were often quite arrogant when faced with people of lower birth, especially when it came to people who lived in tribes, the weakest of the weak. There was no telling what they might do to the people of the Liang tribe, people they viewed as almost sub-human. Li Yang continued to walk, heading towards the building of the Universe Merchants as he muttered to Jinwu.

"Seems like we have to make a quick trip home."

Whether it was to stop the people from the sects and clans from acquiring the body of the Golden Crow or to stop them from harming the Liang clan, both alone were reason enough for Li Yang to return to the Cloud Wilderness. But now that he had to do both, there was no way he could avoid returning.