Against The Heavens

But while she was watching with bated breath, the mountain wall next to her suddenly burst forth with golden flames, forcing her to jump away so as to not become completely swallowed by the flames. She was still connected to the array, so even while jumping away and doing her best to pat out the flames that had landed on her shoulder, she was still able to tell that Li Yang vanished from within the array.

Both his escape paths had been blocked by the array, which she had made sure to reinforce twice. So for him to suddenly disappear, there was only one explanation, the array had finished its job, dissolving Li Yang.

She would have preferred to watch him dissolve, but this was also fine, as long as he was dead. Teng Shinsu wanted to laugh, but tears started to stream down from her eyes as she got choked up. Her sister was dead, but she had at least managed to get revenge for her. Teng Shinsu raised her head slightly, continuing to pat out the flames on her shoulder as a low mutter escaped her lips.

"I couldn"t save you, Ying"er, but at least he too will no-!"

Before Teng Shinsu got to finish her mutter, a cold hand landed on her neck, tightly grasping it and lifting her short body up from the ground. An icy cold stream of energy entered her body via the hand, her organs and blood freezing solid, reaping her life.

Cultivation wasn"t her strong point, she had just barely reached the Ascending Heaven realm, she focused on arrays and gathering information. Because of that, she wasn"t even able to react in time, not even having the chance to turn her head so that she could find out who had killed her.

The person who was grasping her neck and holding her in the air was Li Yang, who was now clad in a simple golden robe and had a somewhat pale face, his breathing shallow. Li Yang tossed Teng Shinsu"s body to the side, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out a short iron sword. He removed Teng Shinsu"s head with a quick cut, putting it into his interspatial ring.

After removing her head, Li Yang let out a deep breath, wiping away some sweat from his forehead, Shenlong and Jinwu flying out from his body, prodding at Teng Shinsu"s body. Li Yang had, of course, gathered up as much information as possible about Teng Shinsu while hunting her, as it would make the battle much easier if he knew what she was capable of.

Knowing that she specialized in arrays, Li Yang was very clear on the fact that there would likely be quite a few traps in whatever location they ended up meeting for their final confrontation. Because of that, before he entered the cave, he had left behind a small spark of Jinwu"s flames outside the cave.

This spark could explode into plumes of flame at a moment"s notice, making it possible for Li Yang to use his Flame Step skill, disintegrating his entire body and turning it to pure heat that he connected with the golden flames outside the cave, using them to rebuild his body. The downside to this was that it not only cost a ma.s.sive amount of Qi, which was why he made sure to keep some Qi-restoring pills ready in his mouth as he entered the cave, but it also ruined his clothes and forced him to use fire to create new ones.

Li Yang took another deep breath, taking out another pill from his interspatial ring and swallowing it. He had to move quite a bit of distance as pure heat, so it took more energy than he originally antic.i.p.ated. Had he not carved two new runes before he left the Yuan clan, he would be in an even weaker state right now. After calming his breathing somewhat, Li Yang"s eyes landed on Jinwu and Shenlong.

"You can eat her body, but the interspatial ring is mine."

Both Jinwu and Shenlong let out a quick sound of joy, Jinwu pecking off Teng Shinsu"s finger and handing it to Li Yang, allowing him to take the interspatial ring. While he was going through the contents of the ring, Shenlong brought out Huanglong, and the three Demonic beasts divided up Teng Shinsu"s body between them.

Some people didn"t let their Demonic beast companions eat human corpses, but Li Yang had no such qualms. Jinwu and Shenlong were Demonic beasts, it was in their nature to eat other Demonic beasts and humans, he had no intention of denying them something that was natural for them. He also saw no harm in letting them eat the corpses of his enemies, as they would just lay around and rot otherwise.

Teng Shinsu"s interspatial ring was surprisingly well stocked, containing various ingredients that could be used for either cultivation or for making arrays. From the looks of it, it seemed like she would have prepared even more arrays if Li Yang had spent more time getting here.

Li Yang put away the ring and looked at Jinwu and the others, who had already finished devouring Teng Shinsu"s body, not even leaving behind any bones. Seeing that Li Yang had finished checking the ring, Jinwu let out a few caws, nodding at the cave. Li Yang"s eyes landed on the cave, a sliver of surprise flashing past them.

"There"s something in the cave you want me to check out?"

Jinwu himself wasn"t quite sure what it was, only that there seemed to be something very beneficial to him inside the cave, so he wasn"t able to give Li Yang a clear image of what exactly it was. Shenlong and Huanglong fused into one again, he and Jinwu taking up their normal positions on Li Yang"s body. Li Yang fondled his chin, inspecting the cave with a thoughtful gaze.

This was the Frozen G.o.d"s Tomb, and even though they were still in the outskirts, who knew what sort of dangerous things might lurk here. But he wasn"t really willing to just flat out deny Jinwu the chance to acquire something that would be beneficial to him, especially since he didn"t know if there really was any danger here. In the end, he decided to nod his head.

"Alright, we"ll check out what it is. But we"ll proceed with caution, and if things look too dangerous, we"ll retreat immediately."

Li Yang had learned from his foray into the Cursed Realm, the realm set up by Zhao Feng and the others. Back then, he had been too arrogant, too confident because of his past status, so he thought nothing of entering the Cursed Realm. But had it not been for some precautions set up by Zhao Feng, Li Yang would have died right after entering the hidden realm, forever unable to meet up with Fang Ying again. That was the last thing he wanted, so ever since then, he had made sure to act with more caution.

After Jinwu and Shenlong nodded their heads in understanding, Li Yang carefully moved closer to the cave. Before he entered it, he took out the Twinlife Stone and split it in half again, placing one part outside the cave. He didn"t know how deep or convoluted the cave was, so this would help him find his way back in case it turned out to be like a maze.

Teng Shinsu wasn"t around to control the array within the cave anymore, so the four white bulls had already vanished. Li Yang still spent a bit of time to erase the array, making sure that nothing unexpected would happen because of it. Once the array was taken care of, Li Yang continued to make his way deeper into the cave.

As he walked, the air around him started to slowly turn colder and colder, the cave sloping downwards slightly. After walking for a little over three hours, Li Yang couldn"t help but get a little curious. With the speed at which he was walking, three hours was more than enough to reach the bottom of the mountain, yet the cave continued to slope downwards. Did this cave continue to extend even into the layer of ice that made up the ground of the Frozen G.o.d"s Tomb?

After having walked for over three hours, the air around Li Yang had already become so cold that he had to constantly use quite a bit of his Qi to keep himself and Shenlong warm, otherwise, they would freeze solid. Jinwu on the other hand, seemed right at home, enjoying the deadly chill.

Li Yang grew more and more curious about Jinwu, and just what sort of Demonic beast Jinwu"s father was. For him to be able to enjoy a chill like this, it was clear that his father was far stronger than any normal Demonic beast, he might even be a Divine beast, or an even higher ranked Demonic beast.

Two hours later, a sudden wind blew through the cave, a whistling sound warning Li Yang of its arrival. For there to be wind so deep in this cave, Li Yang refused to believe that it was a normal wind, so he quickly started to back up. But the wind moved far faster than he did, reaching him after only a short few seconds.

The wind felt like the icy hand of death, a horrible sense of death filling Li Yang"s body. But just as the wind reached him, Jinwu reacted, diving into Li Yang"s body and fusing with him. Li Yang"s hair and eyes turned golden, a golden robe covered in Golden Crows draping his body. With Jinwu fusing with him and sharing his power with him, the icy wind of death turned into a pleasant breeze, allowing Li Yang to let out a deep breath.

"Thanks, that was a bit too close."

Li Yang wasn"t angry at Jinwu for not fusing with him earlier, as he knew that it cost Jinwu a lot of energy to fuse with Li Yang, it also tired him very quickly. Li Yang wanted to turn around and leave, but Jinwu let out a few caws within Li Yang"s mind, telling him that it wasn"t much further. Jinwu was quite insistent and a.s.suring, so Li Yang could only let out a sigh and continue moving forward.

Another two hours later, the walls of the cave around them had turned completely clear, allowing Li Yang to see countless Demonic beasts and people frozen solid deep within the walls. Some looked like they had laid down to die, while others looked like they had been frozen solid within a split second, likely caught by the same wind that Li Yang felt earlier.

Since they were frozen so deeply within the walls, he guessed that this cave probably used to be far larger, but had slowly frozen over time, becoming more and more narrow. He wondered how much further they would have to walk, but as he turned a bend in the cave, he finally saw what it was that Jinwu had discovered earlier.

Floating in the air in front of him, only a few meters away, was a deep blue crystal in the shape of a droplet, streams of ocean blue mist coiling around the crystal. The crystal was twice as large as Li Yang"s head, terrifying glacial energy radiating from it. Looking at it, Li Yang couldn"t help but be shocked, as it hadn"t been visible through the completely clear walls.

Li Yang took several steps backward, moving around the bend in the cave again. He looked through the crystal-clear walls once again just to make sure, but he truly couldn"t see the crystal through the walls. He stepped forward and moved around the bend again, the crystal quietly floating in front of him. The cave continued past the crystal, but the glacial energy that the crystal radiated prevented Li Yang from moving further, despite having fused with Jinwu.

Li Yang tried to step closer to the crystal, but each step closer caused the glacial energy to drastically increase in strength. The crystal was currently around 15 meters away from him, and the glacial energy was tolerable. But just taking three steps closer caused the energy from the crystal to become so cold that it threatened to freeze his blood as it flowed. Just what was this crystal, and how had it ended up here? As he looked at the crystal with shock, he also talked to Jinwu.

"This is the thing you said was going to be beneficial to you? How do you plan on doing anything with it?"

There was no way they could take this terrifying thing with them, they couldn"t even get within 10 meters of it. A few caws resounded in his mind, Jinwu telling him how they should make use of the crystal and its energy. They weren"t going to take it away, they were going to sit down and slowly absorb the energy within it. As long as Li Yang absorbed the energy into his own body, Jinwu would be able to absorb it as well, both of them benefiting from it.

Li Yang gave it a bit of thought, but he didn"t see a problem with Jinwu"s plan. Absorbing the energy from this thing would not only be very beneficial to his cultivation, but it would also be extremely useful to both Jinwu and his glacial runes, making them even purer and stronger. He took three steps back, returning to the 15-meter line and sitting down on the ground with crossed legs. Looking at the crystal, Li Yang made up his mind.

"We"ll spend the foreseeable future cultivating here, at least until we break through to the Ascending Heaven realm. After that, we"ll rush through the last few missions and then return to the clan just in time for the six-month agreement.

Since there was such a good cultivation supplement here, not using it for all it was worth would be a waste. He took a deep breath, stretching out his Qi and drawing in tiny amounts of the glacial energy. He only took in a tiny sliver to test it, but just that tiny sliver was enough to make his body feel like it had frozen solid. Jinwu had fused with Li Yang so he quickly helped him better control the energy, dividing it into countless tiny threads that spread throughout Li Yang"s body.

The threads not only sank into his glacial runes, but also into his flesh, bones, blood, and organs. Jinwu drew in even more of the glacial energy, creating more and more threads that spread throughout Li Yang"s body. With the countless threads sinking into his flesh, his body was slowly disintegrating under the cold, the icy threads rebuilding his body from scratch.

Normally, this would cause Li Yang"s consciousness to scatter, resulting in his death. But thanks to the aid of Jinwu, the fact that he had done this once before using fire, as well as the sheer potency of the energy from the crystal, he was able to keep his mind in one piece.

Quietly and slowly, hidden away deep within a world of ice, a man who had a body made up from the two conflicting elements of fire and ice was slowly being born.