Against The Heavens

While the arena was seething with excitement, there were quite a few varying opinions about Li Yang going around. Some found him brave for challenging Yuan Yijun, some found him arrogant for how he went about challenging her, some were awed at the strength he had shown, and some of the women in the audience were charmed by how he fought against Yuan Yijun for what she had said about his wife.

Li Yang completely ignored the surrounding audience, his gaze firmly locked on Yuan Yijun, who was likewise looking at Li Yang with a solemn gaze. Her gaze occasionally flickered to the blood Yuan Ruogang, who was receiving care at the side of the stage. Yuan Ruogang was one of her lovers, so with how Li Yang had trashed Yuan Ruogang, how could Yuan Yijun not be furious?

When he had first challenged her, she wanted to accept, but she felt that her odds of victory weren"t above 70%. Because of this, she wanted to postpone the battle for a few months, giving her the chance to focus on her next breakthrough, allowing her to drastically increase her chance of winning. But since Li Yang had ended up using such a straight forward method to force her to fight him, she could only go with the flow and pull out all her power.

Li Yang swiped his interspatial ring, a standard Jian sword appearing in his grasp. Despite fusing with the blood of Jinwu and Shenlong, he was still not able to actually use his prided sword for longer than 10 seconds. He also didn"t intend to bring out the sword in a place where people could see it, if the news that the current him carried such a high-grade weapon spread out, there was no telling how many people would come after him in an attempt to steal the weapon.

Not only Yuan Yijun"s expression changed, but the expressions of Kong Lingxin and some of the other people in the audience also changed after Li Yang pulled out his sword. When Li Yang fought Kong Lingxin and Yuan Ruogang, he had never used a weapon, he had brutalized them using only his fists.

Not even Xiang Wuying and the others who had joined Li Yang in the mission to eradicate the Ghost Banner sect knew that Li Yang used a sword as his weapon. They couldn"t help but wonder, he was already strong enough to savagely beat Yuan Ruogang when he was using just his hands, just how much stronger would he be when he actually used a weapon?

While Yuan Yijun was narrowing her eyes, Li Yang took a step forward, lightning shrouding his body as he turned into a faint blur that cut through the air. He instantly arrived in front of Yuan Yijun, the stage shattering beneath his feet from the sheer force of his movement. He slashed upwards with his sword, the blade of the weapon covered in a minute layer of flames, the air warping due to the heat.

Yuan Yijun swiftly reacted, taking three steps backward and one to the left, pushing her right palm outwards and to the right. A strange force suddenly acted upon Li Yang"s sword as it approached Yuan Yijun, forcibly diverting its course away from Yuan Yijun. The sword was pushed away, but it was already too late to stop the attack.

The minute flames around the edge of the blade were unleashed, greedily devouring any Qi and air they came in contact with, using them to propagate into a blazing inferno. The flames formed a blazing fire that was only the width of a fist but stretched out for over two kilometers, stretching into the audience seating area.

Accompanying the flames was the sharp slash of Li Yang"s sword, which was connected to the flames using Li Yang"s Qi. A deep scar was left in the stage and the parts of the audience area where the flames had reached, the edges of the scar still burning with flames so hot that they melted the surrounding stone. Not only were the flames still hot enough to melt the surrounding stone, but they were also still slowly growing, increasing the size of the scar.

This was something Li Yang had gained insight into after gaining the blood of Jinwu, ever-growing flames. The Golden Crow was famed for having the most destructive flames, fire that could destroy anything it touched. The golden flames would then use the energy that was a result of this destruction process to grow themselves, turning stronger and stronger the more they destroyed, a true scourge upon creation, and a perfect fit for Li Yang, who had insight into the law of destruction.

The spectators who were seated in the area where the flames struck swiftly retreated, the stronger ones gathering together to deal with the growing flames.

Right after diverting the course of Li Yang"s attack, Yuan Yijun launched her own counterattack. She moved her right arm, which was already very close to Li Yang"s right arm, tapping her finger on Li Yang"s sword. While her right hand was tapping on the flat side of the sword, she also used her left foot to softly tap the stone stage.

Two strange scenes occurred as she did these actions, the first was that Li Yang"s sword suddenly started to twist and turn, the blade folding up into a small square. The second was that the parts of the stage that were between Yuan Yijun and Li Yang suddenly shifted, the portions beneath his feet moving in opposite directions, trying to force him down into a split.

Li Yang dropped his now ruined weapon without hesitation, but instead of jumping back to avoid the suddenly shifting parts of the stone stage, he dashed forward. Each of his steps was accompanied by arcs of lightning and carried enough force to shatter the stone stage, rendering the movements of the stone stage useless against him.

Once he caught up to Yuan Yijun, he stomped the stone stage so hard that his right foot sank into it, anchoring him in place as he gave his body a quick spin and sent a sideways kick at Yuan Yijun"s waist. Yuan Yijun once again showed her position as one of the top five outer disciples, swiftly reacting and counterattacking.

She pushed down with her right arm, Li Yang"s leg suddenly sinking and slowing down, his attack changing direction to aim at her shin instead. At the same time, she narrowed her eyes, a spike of invisible energy heading directly for Li Yang"s forehead.

She thought that Li Yang"s attack was no longer a problem after being suppressed by her, but when his kick made contact with her shin, she realized just how wrong she had been. She felt like someone had grabbed a ma.s.sive hammer and slammed it into her leg, her bone creaking slightly under the force. She couldn"t help but be somewhat fearful, if this was the force after being suppressed, just how strong had it been when it was at full force?

She quickly jumped to the left, twisting her limbs to dispell the force that still remained in her body. But there was a strange icy energy that accompanied the kick, sticking to her body like a leech. The icy energy even tried to creep towards her soul, forcing her to push it away with all her might. While she jumped away, she cast her gaze towards Li Yang, hoping to see the results of her attack.

But all she found when she looked at him was despair. Floating in front of Li Yang"s forehead was a small spike of ice that was crystal clear, without the slightest impurity. In front of her eyes, the frozen spike that had been her attack fell to the floor and shattered, completely ineffective. Li Yang tilted his head slightly, his gaze meeting Yuan Yijun"s, his lips slowly curling into a faint smile.

"So you cultivate the law of motion and your soul. And looking at that attack, your soul cultivation should be equal to your Qi cultivation, no wonder you could become one of the top five outer disciples. But what a shame, your soul energy is unable to harm me."

The law of motion was a rather strange and rare one, focusing on the movement of the world. With just a thought of their mind, a strong cultivator with the law of motion could have an entire planet suddenly rotate in the opposite direction, even causing the blood of their enemies to flow in the opposite direction. It was powerful, but very hard to gain insight into. Of course, the larger the area one wanted to affect, or the stronger the enemy was, the harder it would be to use the law of motion to affect them.

As for her soul attack, had it been in the past, Li Yang would have to be very fearful of it. But that had completely changed after he gained Jinwu"s blood and managed to unlock the true strength of the strange ice element that Jinwu carried, the ability to freeze souls and other incorporeal things.

Jinwu"s golden flames could destroy anything corporeal, and his ice element could destroy anything that wasn"t corporeal. Were it not for the fact that Jinwu had rather weak defenses and regenerative abilities that were below average for a Divine beast, he would be the perfect Demonic beast.

Li Yang couldn"t help but grow even more curious about Jinwu"s father, just what sort of Demonic beast could use ice that was able to freeze even things like souls and other incorporeal things? Li Yang had heard about Demonic beasts and cultivators doing similar things by turning their ice so cold that nothing was able to escape it, but Jinwu"s ice was different, it didn"t rely on sheer cold to freeze souls and incorporeal things, it simply relied on its own strange characteristic.

Of course, it wasn"t only Jinwu"s blood that gave Li Yang great benefits. With the blood of Shenlong flowing in his veins, not only could Li Yang use the golden lightning that was famed to be the strongest wrath of the heavens, turning both body and soul into ash, but he could also turn any of his lightning poisonous thanks to mixed blood that Shenlong carried.

With these two Divine Beast bloodlines joining together in his body, Li Yang could be considered perfect when it came to attacking, having something to deal with both body and soul. Of course, he did not let this get to his head, as long as the difference in strength was large enough, none of these things would matter, he would be squashed like a bug.

Li Yang clenched his fist, his faint smile sending shivers down the spines of Yuan Yijun and most of the onlooking audience. As he spoke up, his voice was still as calm and casual as it had been since he first entered the stage that day, as if he wasn"t currently facing one of the five strongest outer disciples.

"Now then, let"s see how long you will be able to run before I get my hands on you."