Against The Heavens

"Since you have such trust in me, how could I possibly fail? On the thunder"s honor, I will make you the future king of this Cloud Wilderness."

Li Yang did not waste any more time after speaking, his fingers digging into the head of the eagle type Demonic beast, pulling out its eyes. He placed the two severed eyes over Liang Zhou"s, the Qi within his body surging as he performed the technique. At first, the eyes only started to glow a little, but the strength of the light quickly grew, stinging the eyes of anyone who looked at it.

Liang Zhou was the one who experienced the worst pain, his own eyes melting under a sudden strong heat that threatened to tear his mind apart. Darkness engulfed him, the pain making him want to scream out. But he bit down on his lips and he endured. As the future leader of the tribe, he had rarely gotten to show it, but he too desired strength. Strength to protect the tribe, to provide a better life for them, strength to stand tall and proud. And seeing how strong Li Yang had been upon returning, he even somewhat desired enough strength to become someone that Li Yang could proudly call a friend. So he endured, no matter the pain, no matter the darkness, he endured it.

The eagle eyes started to shrink somewhat, growing to a size where they would fit Liang Zhou. It was a slow process that took almost half an hour, Liang Zhou enduring the pain and darkness all the while, his teeth puncturing his lips, droplets of blood running down his throat. After a little over half an hour, light returned to Liang Zhou, the eagle eyes settling in his empty eye sockets.

While Liang Zhou was letting out a sigh of relief at the pain vanishing, Li Yang continued to pour Qi into the eyes, their appearance changing until they looked like Liang Zhou"s old eyes. Only once it looked like nothing had happened to Liang Zhou was the procedure over. Liang Zhou did not feel any increase in his strength, but his vision had become immeasurably stronger, to a point where it felt like the world around him had slowed down somewhat. But Li Yang"s voice quickly pulled him out of his awe-struck state.

"That was the first one, now we move on to the main piece."

Liang Zhou"s back was quickly filled with cold sweat at the prospects of going through that pain once more, but seeing Li Yang"s expectant expression, he still gave a strong nod of his head. Li Yang proceeded to tear out the spine of the panther, as well as the two wings of the eagle. Liang Zhou did not know which sort of mystic technique Li Yang used, or where he had learned it, but the spine and wings started to slowly fuse together, becoming a single ent.i.ty.

Once they had merged, he turned towards Liang Zhou, who understood what Li Yang meant. He took off his shirt and laid down on the ground, revealing his bare and somewhat scarred back to Li Yang. The spine and wings were placed against Liang Zhou"s back, Li Yang starting the technique once more. Liang Zhou thought he had been prepared for the pain after experiencing it once, but this time it was far worse than the first time.

This time, his spine and shoulder blades crushed themselves, turning into a paste that squeezed itself out through his skin. Had it not been for the special technique involved, the removal of his spine would have immediately killed him. This time, Liang Zhou was unable to resist, a guttural roar escaping his lips. The villagers looked on in horror as Liang Zhou roared in pain, but Li Yang"s eyes were completely calm and focused.

Strength always came at a price, and this pain was the price Liang Zhou had to pay. Li Yang also couldn"t afford to get distracted or let his thoughts waver, as the slightest mistake would result in the death of Liang Zhou. So he hardened his heart and ignored the cries of pain, focusing fully on the task at hand.

The process was a bit slower this time, taking an entire two hours before it was finally finished. By the time it was over, Liang Zhou had screamed so much that his throat was b.l.o.o.d.y and hoa.r.s.e, his voice unable to be released, his body limp and almost unable to move. He thought he would need to spend a bit of time resting, but the moment the procedure was complete, an unearthly strength filled his entire body, flooding through his veins and bones.

The size of his dantian rapidly increased, strange runes forming and taking up position next to the runes he had carved with his own effort. As Li Yang had transmitted everything he knew about the technique, Liang Zhou knew that these were the Demon Runes that were part of the technique, they were what allowed him to unleash the full might of the Demonic beast part. In just a short moment, three such runes had quickly formed, glowing with a demonic red light as they filled him with strength.

He pushed off the ground, his body bouncing up like a cannonball. When his entire body left the ground, two gray wings sprouted from his back, keeping him afloat as he soared in the air. The wings had been brown earlier, but since Liang Zhou had an affinity with the stone element, they had taken on a more stone-like color. The villagers marveled at the sight of the flying Liang Zhou and the strength he released, but Li Yang simply picked up the two corpses of the Demonic beasts, turning to the villagers.

"Two more can be transformed right now, who is next?"

There was a slight moment of silence from the crowd before several of the older warriors stepped forward to volunteer themselves. Since there were only enough parts for two more people, Li Yang picked out the two most suited, one that specialized in strength, and one that specialized in speed, and did the procedure on them.

The one that specialized in strength got the front legs of the panther as well as some of its bones, while the one that specialized in speed got the hind legs of the panther and some of the lighter bones from the eagle. During the procedure, they too screamed themselves b.l.o.o.d.y and hoa.r.s.e, but Li Yang simply told them to endure and then ignored them.

Their strength also quickly increased, Li Yang explaining how to best use the Demon Runes. After spending half a day getting used to their new strength, the two warriors wandered into the wilderness to look for more Demonic beast. Now that they had personally experienced the might of the Demon Warrior technique, they could hardly contain themselves. How strong would the Liang tribe become if everyone could become a Demon Warrior? Taking on the great tribes was no longer just a dream. But at the same time, people could not help but wonder, where had the young and mysterious Li Yang acquired such a demonic technique?

Li Yang did not explain where he had gotten the technique from to anyone. After all, how could he tell them he had gotten it when he helped someone from the Devil"s Gate escape from her pursuers after the destruction of the sect? She had been someone he considered a friend, much like Liang Zhou, so he simply wiped out anyone who chased after her. In the end, she still died, becoming the last of Devil"s Gate to fall, leaving Li Yang as the only living person who knew how to create Demon Warriors.

Li Yang had no intention of waiting around for the warriors to return, he had things of his own that he also had to do. So before the warriors even left, he bade Liang Zhou farewell and a.s.sured him that he would return after a few days. Once Li Yang reached the outskirts of the village, a black blur shot out from the forest, landing on his shoulder with a few triumphant caws. Seeing Jinwu again after sending him out to check the surroundings, Li Yang chided him slightly.

"What did I say about making a mess?"

Jinwu"s feathers and beak were stained with blood, so it was clear that he had killed something or someone for food. Li Yang did not bother with asking what he had done, creating and melting some ice, using the water to give Jinwu a quick clean. Once Jinwu was clean, Li Yang got onto the main topic.

"Well then, Jinwu, what sort of prey did you find for us?"

Jinwu let out a few caws, Shenlong raising his head to listen in. Huanglong was staying behind in the village, acting as a hidden guardian for Liang Zhou in case things go awry while Li Yang was gone. After getting the report from Jinwu, Li Yang"s lips curved up somewhat, his eyes peering into the wilderness, as if he was trying to see the people he was muttering about.

"Two groups from Heaven"s Gate, one from the Huo clan, and one from the Tian clan. Well then, shall we go and deal with those who have intruded in our home?"

The sound of rumbling thunder rang out as lightning coiled around Li Yang, his body turning into a blur as he quietly vanished into the wilderness. His goal was simple, the extermination of everyone he deemed a threat to the Liang tribe, as well as anyone that might try to lay their hand on the corpse of Jinwu"s mother.