Against The Heavens

But when he saw her jump out of a ripple in s.p.a.ce in front of him, his mind went completely blank. She was clad in the light green robes of the Tian clan, her silvery-white hair tied into a somewhat disarrayed ponytail, and her emerald eyes were looking directly at him. She was three years older than him so she was almost a full head taller than him right now. She was just as beautiful as the day he lost her, just as breathtaking as he had always remembered her when he closed his eyes.

His eyes grew red before he knew it, tears starting to run down his face as his vision grew blurry. His feet moved on their own, pulling him forward and towards her, completely ignoring the silvery-gray wolf that was standing at her side and vigilantly inspecting him. Fang Ying also moved forward, her eyes as red as Li Yang"s, both of them crying just from seeing each other.

The two met and embraced each other after taking a few steps, Li Yang burying his head in her chest and Fang Ying burying her face in his hair, both of them greedily taking in the presence of the other. The silence of the embrace didn"t last for long, Li Yang speaking up in a voice that was barely more than a whisper.

"Ying"er... I missed you... I truly did."

Li Yang was a man whose pride was higher than the heavens, a truly arrogant man who would always show others his strength and cunning. Only when he was alone with Fang Ying or his friends would he show his weakness like this, only with them would he cry this freely, only with them would he show his fear and pain and lean on them for support. Fang Ying buried her face even harder into his hair, her voice somewhat unsteady from crying.

"Thank you...Thank you for coming for me again, thank you for finding me."

The two had spent countless years at each others side, they had already become dependent on each other, they needed the other to be the light in their life. If one lost the other, even if they still had their other friends, life would be mostly bleak, black with shades of gray. They wanted to say so much to each other, but just when they were about to open their mouths and continue talking, a loud crashing rang out very close to them, a shout quickly following.

"There you are! Don"t think that I will let you simply flee like that!"

The chubby brown-haired man that Fang Ying had been fighting, Zi Yanwu, burst through the wall that surrounded the city, a small axe in each hand, a thin layer of metal covering his entire body. His eyes were bloodshot and the flow of Qi in his body had grown stronger than before. But by looking at how chaotic his Qi had become, Fang Ying and Li Yang were able to easily guess that he must have eaten a pill to temporarily increase his strength.

Zi Yanwu noticed Li Yang and how intimate he was currently acting with Fang Ying, but the thing he paid attention to was Li Yang"s aura. It was the same aura that had been on the spear that had hit him, meaning that it was likely this youth that had launched the attack, his vigilance swiftly rising. Zi Yanwu had indeed taken a pill, Xiong Xieren giving him the order to chase and kill Fang Ying before she managed to flee too far away. Zi Yanwu did not know what sort of other tricks Li Yang might have hidden away, so he didn"t underestimate him despite his low cultivation.

With Zi Yanwu interrupting them, Li Yang and Fang Ying separated, wiping their tears and cleaning their faces. Fang Ying pulled out the sword she had stored away when she hurriedly left to meet with Li Yang, tilting her head at him.

"What do you think, are you able to take him on?"

Li Yang"s cultivation was quite a bit lower than Zi Yanwu"s, only at the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm. But she knew that one should never judge a person"s strength based on their cultivation, especially if that person was Li Yang. Li Yang finished wiping his tears, his mind had returned to its normal calm and his entire body felt as light as a feather, all his worries dissipating after meeting Fang Ying again. He looked at Zi Yanwu for a short second before shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.

"Not a chance in h.e.l.l. He can"t stop me if I want to flee, but even if I were to pull out my very last hidden trump card I would still not be able to handle him in single combat."

Li Yang had one last trump card hidden away, one that he did not wish to use unless everything was at stake, he could activate the Demonic beast bloodline he now had after getting Jinwu"s and Shenlong"s blood. While this would drastically increase his strength, it would clearly show others exactly what Demonic beast bloodlines he had, making them chase him so that they could drain his blood.

There was also another reason he did not wish to activate the bloodline unless he absolutely had to, his body was simply too weak to handle the strain. Activating the bloodline as he was right now would result in his body quickly breaking down if he kept it active for any period over a few seconds.

Normally this wouldn"t be much a problem for him, but with Jinwu and Shenlong laying dormant inside his own body, his body would use the connection he had with them to draw out more of their blood to heal his body as it was breaking down. If he kept using his bloodline and drew out too much of their blood, they would die, and that was something Li Yang refused to allow. Fang Ying nodded her head, making a mental note to have Li Yang spill the beans on this hidden trump card later on.

"It"s a good thing you"re not alone now then. We"ll do it like usual, but this time I"ll take the lead. Let"s make it nice, grand, and quick, before any more interruptions can show up."

Fang Ying took a step forward, Li Yang"s lips curling up as he nodded his head, having Fang Ying be the one taking the lead didn"t feel all that bad. Fang Ying took her eyes off Zi Yanwu, who was happy with letting the two of them talk and waste time, it would give Xiong Xieren and the others more time to finish up their fights and chase after him. She cast a sideways glance at Langshen, nodding her head at him.

Langshen returned the nod, raising his head and letting out a long howl. His body turned into a silver stream of energy that entered Fang Ying"s body. A silver robe covered her body as the energy entered her, the image of a howling wolf covering the back of the robe. Her silvery-white hair turned completely silver and her eyes became the same amber color as Langshen"s. She had clearly formed the same blood bond with Langshen that Li Yang had formed with Jinwu and Shenlong, allowing the two to fuse.

Fang Ying tightly grasped her sword after the transformation was complete, stepping forward and vanishing as she teleported to the spot directly in front of Zi Yanwu, slashing down at his head. The moment she made her move, Li Yang did the same, golden fire and golden lightning bursting forth from his body as he activated both his strengthening techniques.

He had already used quite a bit of golden fire and golden lightning today so his body was starting to complain about the strain. But since Fang Ying said she wanted to make their reunion grand, even going as far as fusing with Langshen, how could he let her down? He stepped forward and turned into a blur, the sound of rumbling thunder resounding over the area as a small shockwave spread out when he broke the speed of sound.

He moved in a zigzagging arc around Zi Yanwu, appearing behind him and aiming a sideways kick at the left side of his waist. Zi Yanwu"s eyes grew solemn when he saw the scene, slashing the axe in his right hand upwards to intercept Fang Ying"s attack and slashing downwards with the axe in his left arm to intercept Li Yang"s kick. He covered the axe in his left hand with a reinforced layer of metal to give it the power to slice through Li Yang"s leg and surrounded the axe in his right hand with a layer of strong wind to dissipate some of the force in Fang Ying"s attack.

Li Yang created a small plate of ice in front of kick, blocking his own attack and using the rebound force to dodge the downward slash. He then created another place of ice behind his now recoiling foot, putting more force into his foot as he kicked the plate and used the rebounding force to send his foot forward again, changing his sideways kick into a downwards kick in the process, aiming for Zi Yanwu"s wrist. At the same time, he also took the chance to chat a little with Fang Ying, not willing to wait until later.

"I"m guessing your part of the Tian clan, since you"re wearing that robe and all?"

Both of them had jade pieces fused into their chests that gave off a certain energy to let others with similar jade pieces know which clan or sect they were part of. But Li Yang had never really interacted with people from other clans after getting this jade piece so he didn"t know which clan had which type of energy.

Fang Ying didn"t even bother blocking Zi Yanwu"s interception of her attack, she simply let go of her sword and threw herself forward, dodging past his axe and into Zi Yanwu"s bosom, almost as if she was trying to lay down flat on the ground. Zi Yanwu instantly realized what she would try to do, but it was too late to stop her now. The sword she had let go vanished, appearing again in her grasp and allowing her to aim a sideways slash at his stomach, responding to Li Yang while she was doing so.

"Yup, I was picked up by one of the Tian clan elders while I was still a child, I"ve been her disciple ever since. What about you? Looking at those robes, I guess you joined the Myriad Beast sect?"

Li Yang was still wearing the violet-furred wolf-skin robes he had custom ordered, and as robes like these were very common in the Myriad Beast sect, one could easily see why Fang Ying would make that guess.

Faced with the two attacks coming at him, Zi Yanwu showed that he had an abundant amount of fighting experience, and that he was rather flexible despite his chubby appearance. He let go of both his axes and leaned back so far that he could touch the ground with his left hand, digging his entire fist into the ground and lowering himself so much that Fang Ying"s sword went over his body, Li Yang"s kick missing his wrist because Zi Yanwu had moved his hand slightly before digging it into the ground.

He then used his left hand as support and kicked off the ground, both his legs lifting above his head as he did a cartwheel, his feet stomping down on Fang Ying"s sword when they touched the ground. He pulled his left hand out of the ground and gave his body half spin to the left, raising his right leg as he was doing so. He aimed a quick stomp at Fang Ying"s right elbow with his right leg and used his left arm to send out a backhanded punch aimed at Li Yang"s head.

Li Yang stepped forward and ducked down, dodging beneath Zi Yanwu"s fist and stepping closer. He used his right arm to send a sideways punch at Zi Yanwu"s waist and his lift arm to send an upwards punch aimed at Zi Yanwu"s elbow, aiming for the two largest openings Zi Yanwu currently had. AT the same time, he also responded to Fang Ying.

"Bzzt, wrong. I"m actually part of the Yuan clan right now, I"m wearing these robes because I got rather fond of this style of clothing while I lived in the tribe as a child. That"s a nice sword you got there, but try this one."

While punching out, Li Yang also sent a bit of his mind into his dantian, causing his sword to come flying out like a blur, heading directly for Fang Ying. Fang Ying used her left hand to grab onto the hilt of the sword that Li Yang had sent at her, somewhat surprised when she recognized it as his old sword. But she could also see that it wasn"t the same as it was in the past, it had absorbed and fused with her poison.

She slashed upwards at Zi Yanwu"s incoming foot, the purple wavy pattern on the sword releasing a faint light as deep purple lightning started to dance around the blade. At the same time, she responded to Li Yang and sent her Qi into the sword she was still holding in her right hand, using the special array inside it to cause the blood within Zi Yanwu"s left foot to flow in a chaotic manner.

"It"s rather pretty, isn"t it? It was gifted to me by Master when I broke into the Immortal Rebirth realm, the array within it helps me control the blood in other cultivators who are normally too strong for me to control their blood. And oh, you"re a tribe savage, are you?"

Zi Yanwu didn"t know what he found worse, that he was unable to get an edge over these two even after he ate a strength-enhancing pill or the fact that the two were seemingly flirting while fighting him.

He used his law of wind to alter the direction of his right foot, turning his stomp into a sideways kick to deflect Fang Ying"s sword attack. Li Yang"s attacks were a bit more troublesome, as Fang Ying controlling the blood in his left foot made it hard for him to step aside while he dodged. In the end, he realized that he had no choice but to let one of Li Yang"s attacks. .h.i.t him if he wanted to properly avoid the other.

He covered his waist with even more reinforced metal, hastily creating a wall of wind in front of it to soften the blow as much as possible. As for his currently mid-swing left arm, he created a thick wall of wind in front of it, a loud banging sound resounding out as his fist slammed into the hardened wind, forcefully stopping his attack and causing Li Yang"s upward punch to miss him.

Li Yang"s fist slammed into the wall of wind that Zi Yanwu had created in front of his waist, his law of ice flooding into the wind and freezing it, allowing his fist to shatter it. His punch landed on Zi Yanwu"s waist, a thunderous boom ringing out as Li Yang unleashed as much fire and lightning as he could, the metal on Zi Yanwu"s waist turning completely white from the heat, a few drops of molten metal dripping to the floor. Of course, he did not forget to respond to Fang Ying at the same time.

"A tribe savage, eh? Just you wait till it"s just the two of us, I"ll show you just how savage I can be."

Zi Yanwu"s eyes shot up slightly when he saw that the metal on his waist had gotten so hot that parts of it were even starting to melt. He was quietly thanking himself for not underestimating Li Yang, otherwise, he might have suffered a small wound now. Some of the lightning penetrated the metal and entered his body, but he quickly crushed the lightning with his far stronger Qi, so he didn"t suffer any damage.

Things went far worse for his right foot, which kicked into the side of the sword that Li Yang had tossed to Fang Ying. Zi Yanwu recognized the danger, but he had to kick the sword aside, there was no way for him to block it or dodge it without touching it. His foot made contact with the side of the sword, and he did succeed in kicking it to the side, but his foot started corroding the moment it touched the purple lightning.

The first to corrode was the flesh on his pinky toe, it turned black and simply slid off the bone, his other toes and the rest of his foot swiftly following. The poison in this sword wasn"t the same as the poison Fang Ying could use right now, it was the poison she used while she was at her peak, her strongest poison. It was only a small miscalculation, believing that even if he got poisoned he wouldnæt be affected immediately, but it was this miscalculation that led to Zi Yanwu"s downfall.

Fang Ying let go of the white sword she was holding in her right hand, using the force of Zi Yanwu"s kick to spin her entire body around and direct a sideways slash into the waist of the panicking Zi Yanwu. The golden-purple sword dug into Zi Yanwu"s waist, Fang Ying letting go of the sword and thrusting her now empty right hand towards the other side of Zi Yanwu"s waist. The white sword he was still standing on vanished into a ripple in s.p.a.ce, appearing in Fang Ying"s hand again, the tip of the sword piercing into Zi Yanwu"s waist and throwing all his blood into a chaotic frenzy. Despite all these actions, Fang Ying still responded to Li Yang, even letting out a cute giggle.

"You say that as if it"s a threat, but all I"m hearing is the makings of a good time. Path"s open, make it grand."

Li Yang immediately knew what Fang Ying meant, quickly standing up from his ducked position. Zi Yanwu was panicked and doing his best to deal with the poison in his right waist and his chaotic blood, his defenses were completely lowered. Li Yang sprung up from the ground and placed his hand on the back of Zi Yanwu"s head and channeled his law of destruction into it, taking great care to properly control it.

His law of destruction gathered inside Zi Yanwu"s brain, forming a miniature black hole that started to devour and twist apart everything around it. Zi Yanwu"s struggle immediately ended, his expression becoming blank for a short second before his entire head imploded, sucked into the miniature black hole. Parts of his neck and shoulders were also starting to get sucked into the black hole, which used the energy contained within Zi Yanwu"s flesh to grow larger. Li Yang didn"t want this black hole to run out of control so he quickly dissipated it, causing Zi Yanwu"s mutilated body to collapse to the ground. Li Yang picked up his golden-sword, sending a smile at Fang Ying.

"Nice, grand, and quick, just like the lady ordered. Any complaints can be taken to our customer department, but you cannot expect a response for at least a few weeks."

Li Yang was completely at ease now that he was with Fang Ying, he could drop his perpetually cold and calm demeanor and crack a few jokes. Fang Ying put away her sword, casting a sideways glance at the corpse before undoing her fusion with Langshen and nodding her head.

"I"m fine with waiting a few weeks if it means I can complain as much as I want."

The two locked eyes, their faces lighting up with smiles. Li Yang stepped over Zi Yanwu"s body and was just about to open his mouth when another loud crashing sound drew his attention. Turning his heads he could see that two more groups had reached the area, one group clad in the robes of the Tian clan and one group clad in the robes of the Puppet G.o.d sect. They all had a few wounds so it was clear that they had been battling just recently. Looking at the interrupters, Li Yang only felt like cursing.

"Oh for f.u.c.k"s sake, more of you?"

Li Yang looked at the two groups with exasperation and annoyance, but they looked at him with a mixture of interest and shock. Fang Ying had stepped forward and was standing by his side, both of them standing over the mutilated body of Zi Yanwu, whose flesh had started falling off due to the poison. It wasn"t hard for them to guess that Li Yang was the one who had thrown the spear earlier, he had the same aura as the spear after all. And looking at the scene, it seemed like the two of them had joined forces to kill Zi Yanwu.

They couldn"t help but wonder, was this youth the one that Fang Ying had come here to find? Li Yang"s gaze landed on Xiong Xieren, who was looking at Fang Ying with furrowed eyebrows. Xiong Xieren was about to open his mouth and say something, but Li Yang opened his mouth first.

"If I were you, I wouldn"t look at my wife like that. It"s a real easy way to end up losing your eyes or your life."

How could Li Yang let anyone look at Fang Ying with eyes like Xiong Xieren, eyes filled with nothing but greed and l.u.s.t? He was fine with people looking at her with loving or worshipping eyes, she was the best woman in the universe after all. But looking at her with that type of l.u.s.t and greed was something he would not allow. The eyes of everyone in the two groups shot up after they heard Li Yang"s words, and looking at the smile on Fang Ying"s face, it was clear to them that she didn"t reject his words. Xiong Xieren"s expression sank and he opened his mouth, but before he got the words out, he was interrupted by Fang Ying.

"Alright, now"s not the time to cause trouble. Let"s find a more secluded place first."

She placed her hand on Li Yang"s shoulder and nodded her head at Langshen, who let out a growl and caused s.p.a.ce around the three of them to ripple. The three of them vanished, leaving behind not only two groups of shocked people, but also a news story that would cause quite a bit of commotion.