Against The Heavens

But a problem quickly arose when the glacial energy tried to rebuild his body from scratch. It went fine at first, when only a small portion of his body was being rebuilt, but the problem arose when the ice tried to rebuild the rest of his body. His body had already been disintegrated and rebuilt once before, practically turning his body into pure flames.

Ice and fire were natural enemies, so now that the glacial energy was trying to rebuild his entire body, the fire that made up his body quickly revolted, refusing to coexist with the glacial energy. His body was quickly torn, half of it supporting the ice while the other half supported his fire.

Before Li Yang started to cultivate using this glacial energy, he was aware that there was a chance that this might happen. But he also knew that there was a chance that the two elements might be able to coexist thanks to his ice and fire runes, much like how they coexisted inside Jinwu"s body, which was why he had decided to do what he did.

The parts of Li Yang"s body that had yet to be rebuilt using ice appeared in a flash of fire, uncontrollable flams roaring out from his body, doing their best to push away the glacial energy. Sweat quickly started to pour down Li Yang"s body, gritting his teeth so hard that they almost shattered.

This was the worst possible scenario he could have encountered. He had reached the breaching point in his cultivation, only half a step away from the Ascending Heaven realm. It was too late for him to stop his cultivation, as he was in the middle of his breakthrough, interrupting it might end up detonating all his runes, destroying his body.

But if he let the ice and fire continue to battle like this, there were three possible outcomes. One was that the fire won, pushing away the glacial energy. He wouldn"t get to increase his strength any more using the glacial energy, but he would survive. The second was that the ice energy won, completely replacing the fire that his body was built up off. He would lose his greatly strengthened affinity with the fire element and lose the ability to turn his body into pure heat and flames, but he would survive. And the third outcome was that the two elements would never find a winner, his body and soul exploding under the might of the two battling elements. No matter which outcome he got in this situation, he would end up losing in one way or another.

Li Yang could only do his best to split off part of his concentration to support the fire element that was trying to push away the glacial energy, he still needed to keep most of his concentration on his current breakthrough. He had given the three outcomes some thought and come to the conclusion that he would lose the least if his fire element won.

But just as he was starting to support his fire element, a piercing screech rang out from inside his body. Jinwu flew out from within his body, temporarily undoing their fusion and flying in front of Li Yang. Thanks to the fire raging around Li Yang, he didn"t have to worry about suddenly freezing to death under the a.s.sault of the glacial energy.

Jinwu let out another screech, drops of blood suddenly flying out from his chest. This blood was a brilliant golden in color, wisps of blue mist floating around within the blood. Li Yang"s expression quickly dropped when he realized what Jinwu was planning, but he couldn"t divert more of his concentration, so he couldn"t stop him.

The drops of blood gathered in front of Jinwu, who now looked far weaker, even having shrunk back to being palm-sized. The blood then flew over to Li Yang, sinking into his body and integrating with his blood and his ice and fire runes, greatly nourishing them and filling Li Yang"s body with a tremendous amount of energy.

Shenlong, who was looking at this scene from around Li Yang"s neck, seemed to suddenly think of something. He uncoiled himself from Li Yang"s neck and flew over to Jinwu, floating in front of Li Yang. Li Yang looked at Shenlong with pleading eyes, but Shenlong completely ignored him.

Drops of golden blood flew out from Shenlong, who started to grow weaker and shrink. Once several drops of blood had left his body, he sent them into Li Yang"s body, integrating them into his blood and his lightning rune. Both Shenlong and Jinwu had now grown far weaker, so they flew over to Li Yang and fell asleep on his shoulders.

The two different types of Divine Beast blood simply contained far too much energy, far more than Li Yang"s body should be able to bear. Mixing together with the energy of his battling fire element and the glacial energy that was trying to rebuild his body, it became too much for Li Yang"s mind, which shut down to protect itself.

But even though his mind shut down, his consciousness did not drift apart and scatter, even his breakthrough continued unimpeded. He was unconscious, but changes started to quickly happen to his body, moving on without his control or supervision.

The first changes were to his runes, especially his ice, fire, and lightning runes. With Jinwu"s blood sinking into his fire runes, they started to grow and change, turning from their normal fire-like state into nine brilliant golden suns. His ice lotuses also changed, turning into nine roaring white tigers that brimmed with glacial energy. His lightning runes started to twist and turn, stretching out and turning from lightning bolts into nine golden-purple coiling dragons, golden lightning dancing around them.

After his runes changed, his body itself started to change. His blood grew thicker and more vigorous, hints of golden and blue color present in the blood. When all his blood had turned into this strange color, his fire element suddenly stopped battling against the glacial energy, sinking back into his body and allowing the ice energy to continue disintegrating and rebuilding his body.

The glacial energy continued to rebuild his body, but it didn"t push away the fire energy, the two contradicting energies started to spin around each other, fusing together into one as they continued to destroy and rebuild the unconscious Li Yang, his body growing stronger at a terrifying rate.

The last change was to his appearance, his previously azure hair turning icy-blue, and his previously pitch black eyes turning completely crimson, as if they were made from scorching flames. None of the changes that happened to Li Yang would normally happen to other people, even if they were given the blood of Divine Beasts.

The reason these changes happened was that the blood that Jinwu and Shenlong had given to Li Yang wasn"t normal, it was something called Essence Blood. This blood was the complete essence of a person or a Demonic beast, and they only had a limited amount of it. Any loss of this blood would lead to a severe drop in strength, and it might even outright kill the one who lost the blood.

Both of them had willingly fused this blood into Li Yang, perfectly integrating it into both his body and runes. This way, the two conflicting elements of fire and ice would no longer fight against each other in Li Yang"s body, and his runes would be able to reach a new height in strength and perfection. His body and soul also grew far stronger, because Li Yang was no longer just a human, he was now a humanoid Divine Beasts, carrying the blood of the Golden Crow, a True Dragon, and Jinwu"s unknown father.

The reason Li Yang didn"t want Jinwu and Shenlong to do this was that he knew the price they had to pay. They had given him most of their Essence Blood to ensure that he survived, but because of that, there was a chance that they would never wake up from their slumber. And even if they did wake up, not only would their strength drastically drop, it would be far harder for them to ever increase their strength and grow up.

There were only two ways for them to get back this lost Essence Blood, and both ways were incredibly hard. The first way was to give them some supreme treasure that could restore Essence Blood, but these treasures were so rare that not even in his previous life did Li Yang manage to acquire many of them. The second way was to kill a cultivator or a Demonic beast that had reached the same level of quality as Jinwu and Shenlong, feeding their Essence Blood to them.

This was hard for two reasons, the first being to find and kill either a Divine Beast or a cultivator who had reached the Celestial Immortal realm, which was on par with a Divine Beast. The second reason was that most Divine Beasts or cultivators of the Celestial Immortal realm would burn their Essence Blood if they realized that they were likely to die. This would give them an instantaneous boost of power that they could use to drag their killer with them into death.

Li Yang did not want them to pay this price, but how could Shenlong and Jinwu just sit by and watch as Li Yang either gave up such a great opportunity or died? Jinwu had been able to burst through his egg thanks to the blood that Li Yang dripped onto it, he was the first being Jinwu ever saw. Li Yang had given him a name and the two had journeyed together side by side. As for Shenlong, he and Huanglong were born thanks to Li Yang and Fang Ying"s blood and energy. To them, Li Yang and Fang Ying were their parents, and they were willing to sacrifice everything for them.

Li Yang"s unconscious body continued to be destroyed and rebuilt, his affinity for ice and fire reaching a level that could only be described as monstrous. This process continued for over three and a half months before finally ending, Li Yang regaining consciousness and opening his eyes.

Li Yang quickly sat up, his eyes landing on the sleeping Jinwu and Shenlong. He carefully lifted the both of them down from his shoulder, both having shrunk so much that they now fit in his palms. They didn"t react, even as he picked them up, so he couldn"t help but let out a soft sigh.

"You idiots, there was no need to do something so excessive..."

He stroked the two on the head, but they still didn"t react, so he could only let out another sigh. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding the icy air in his lungs for a short moment before expelling it. When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with determination. There was no way he would let the two of them continue to slumber like this, he had to do his best to wake them up, even if it meant waiting until he reached the Celestial Immortal realm and could hunt down Divine Beasts or cultivators.

He carefully placed Jinwu and Shenlong into his dantian, next to his sword, something he could only because he now had their blood flowing in his veins. He then stood up and gave both his own body and the surroundings a quick sweep, checking if anything had changed.

He was a bit surprised at the changes to his hair and eyes, but he didn"t pay it much attention, as the changes were minor. What surprised him quite a bit was the physical strength of his body, as he guessed that it was now likely strong enough to kill someone at the late stage of the Xiantian Rune realm using sheer brute force.

The last thing in his own body he checked was his dantian, or rather, his Ascending Foundation, the sign that he had entered the Ascending Heaven realm. The various runes he had carved in his dantian had all gathered in a large circle, a thick stream of Qi connecting all 36 runes together. And at the center of this circle was his Ascending Foundation, a platform that shimmered with black, golden, blue, and crimson light, formed through the gathered energy of his 36 runes.

This was his Ascending Foundation, upon which he would construct his Ascending Road, a ma.s.sive mountain, that would let him reach the Ascending Gate, connecting him to the heavens and to immortality. But constructing this Ascending Road would require not only a large amount of Qi, but also required him to pour more of his understanding of the various elements into it, so it would take time.

After checking out his Ascending Foundation, Li Yang checked out the surrounding cave. The droplet crystal floating in front of him had shrunk a little, but only by a tiny bit, so it seemed like it contained far more energy than he had first expected. He felt like he would now be able to reach the 9-meter mark, but he wasn"t confident he could step closer than that, even with his great increase in strength.

He was curious as to exactly what this crystal was, but he was not in the mood to try inspecting it. He also didn"t have the time to do so, as he was able to tell that at least three months had pa.s.sed while he was unconscious. This meant that the six-month agreement he had made with Yuan Ruogang was nearing, only about a month away, so he had to return to the clan.

Li Yang cast one last glance at the droplet crystal, making sure to make a mental note that he had to return here when he was stronger. He then turned around and left, using the Twinlife Stone to make sure he was moving in the right direction.

Thanks to his greatly strengthened affinity with the ice element, Li Yang was able to notice two rather strange things about this cave. The first thing was that he could feel the cold energy within the cave pulsating, almost like a beating heart. The pulsating came from even deeper in the cave, vanishing far into the ground.

The second thing was a bit more terrifying, and that was that the people and Demonic beasts that were frozen solid inside the cave walls were still alive. Their hearts were still beating, and their blood was still flowing, but they were completely frozen, unable to move or make a sound. Forever trapped in this ice, completely conscious, was this not a fate worse than death?

Li Yang was curious just how they had been frozen alive like this, but just like with the crystal droplet, he was not in the mood to investigate it. Jinwu and Shenlong falling into a slumber for him put him in a foul mood, so he simply wanted to return to the clan and quickly increase his strength.

He swiftly left the cave, the Twinlife Stone ensuring that he didn"t lose his way. He picked up the other half of the Twinlife Stone and put both pieces into his interspatial ring, starting his descent of the mountain. He had about a month until the agreed upon duel, so he had a bit of time to finish up the remaining missions before he returned to the clan.