Against The Heavens 116 Awaken.

The air all around the panther trembled slightly just from the pressure it gave off as it prepared for battle. Despite being looked away here and having its life force sapped for an unknown amount of years, it still carried a tremendous amount of power within it. It wasn't a Divine Beast, but just by sensing the energy it radiated, Li Yang could tell that its bloodline was nothing to scoff at. Li Yang and Fang Ying locked eyes and gave each other a nod, Fang Ying whispering quietly.

"I'll take charge of the others, you can just run around and do as you always do."

Fleeing was not an option here, they had broken the arrays on the doors, allowing the panther to just chase them if they tried to flee. Fighting it with just the two of them was risky, so it was best to gather together the power of everyone here to deal with the Demonic beast. Fang Ying placed her hand on Langshen's head, the two merging into one again as she quickly called out to the others.

"It'll chase us if we try to flee, join forces with me to take it down!"

The remaining 33 people in the room all turned to look at Fang Ying at the same time, nodding their heads in agreement. Fang Ying had the highest cultivation of anyone in this palace, there was no one more suited to leading them right now than her. While the other people quickly moved closer to Fang Ying, Li Yang took several steps back, his eyes fully focused on the panther, observing even the smallest movement.

Everyone here was a strong cultivator, so in reality, only around three seconds had pa.s.sed since the panther first stood up and spoke to them. The one that made the first move after everyone gathered around Fang Ying was the panther, its entire body vanis.h.i.+ng from sight. Despite it going invisible, Li Yang's eyes continued to stay on the panther, none of its movements able to escape him

Six people were suddenly flung back right after the panther turned invisible, just barely able to raise their defense before the attacks landed on them. They were quickly caught by the people around them before they could fly too far away, they could not afford to have their ranks thin too much now.

Fang Ying's brows suddenly furrowed, her left hand stretching out and poking s.p.a.ce next to her, causing it to ripple like the surface of a lake. A man that had just caught one of the people that had been attacked suddenly vanished from his position, the floor where he had just been standing shattering immediately afterward. Five other people were immediately flung back, but unlike the man that Fang Ying had teleported away, these five were able to react in time and prepare their defenses. Fang Ying brandished her sword, a cloud of blood gathering in the cell as she spoke out and stepped forward.

"We can't let it force us into a defensive position, it'll just drain our energy and then pick us off one by one!"

The rain of blood stained the panther's fur and allowed the people in the room to see its location, but strangely enough, the blood vanished after touching the panther for just a second, forcing Fang Ying to keep the rain of blood going at all times so that they could keep track of it. After shouting out the order, Fang Ying charged forward, the b.l.o.o.d.y rain gathering around her and taking on a faintly pink color as it started to release the scent of apples.

The other people didn't stand around idle either, quickly gathering into three groups of 11 and forming the most rudimentary army array, one that would pool their powers together and allow them to borrow the strength of the others. The array was so common and simple that even the unaffiliated cultivators could pull it off after just receiving a few quick instructions.

The three groups quickly followed after Fang Ying, taking her as their center and acting as defense and supplementary attackers. The three groups launched their attacks at the same time, aiming for the head of the panther and forcing it to pay attention to them so that Fang Ying could attack freely.

And Fang Ying did just that. She vanished into a ripple in s.p.a.ce and appeared above the panther, just behind the three attacks that it was currently blocking with its six tails. The moment the three attacks were blown apart after touching the tails, she lashed out with her sword, the pink blood turning into a thin layer that covered the blade.

The sword collided with the tips of two of the tails, the blood spreading onto the tails and causing a sizzling sound to spread through the room as the two sickle tips started to melt away. At the same time as she lashed out with her sword, the rain of blood in the room gathered together to form several crescent-moon shaped blades that flew at the panther. As for the blood that had already gathered on the floor, it rose up into a thick spike beneath the panther, aiming to pierce through its chest.

The panther quickly reacted, waving the two poisoned tails to blow away any of the blood that had gathered on the blades. It then let out a deafening roar that unleashed a shockwave that caused the spike of blood to be squashed to the ground and sent Fang Ying flying through the air. Had she not reacted quickly and teleported away she would have crashed into the ceiling at full speed.

It quickly jumped away to dodge the blades of blood but they simply chased it as it fled, each of them controlled by Fang Ying. She flicked her finger and caused some of the blades to vanish into a ripple in s.p.a.ce, quickly appearing at different positions around the panther and closing in on it like a prison.

The panther glanced at the blades and let out a low growl, lowering its head and charging directly through two of them so that it could reach one of the three groups that were currently launching attacks to distract it. The blades left a cut on its neck and back, but they were far from being fatal just yet.

Thanks to enduring the two blades and the distraction attacks that hit it, the panther arrived directly by the leftmost group of 11 people. It let out a loud roar and lashed out with all six tails as well as its two front paws. The array the group had formed managed to last for a single second under the might of the tiger but then it immediately collapsed. Four people were bisected by the still-sharp tails, two more crushed by the tails which had somewhat melted under her poison. As for the three who failed to dodge its two paws, all the bones in their bodies were shattered and their remains sent cras.h.i.+ng into the wall. Fang Ying furrowed her brows and waved her hand, s.p.a.ce around the remaining two people rippling as she sent them to the other groups.

"Integrate them into the groups, don't leave them exposed!"

Despite there only being a single sub-realm in difference between her and the panther, one being at the late stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm and the other at the early stage of the Primordial Rune realm, the difference between these two realms was actually incredibly vast. Most early-stage Primordial Rune realm cultivators could easily kill most late-stage Immortal Rebirth realm cultivators. When the panther gave up on everything else and launched its attack, it was impossible for Fang Ying to react in time to save the people in the group.

The remaining blades of blood continued to fly at the panther, quickly surrounding it again. The panther only glanced at the blades before charging for the next group, aiming to endure four of the blades this time. But just as the first blade of blood crashed into its back, Fang Ying appeared out from the blade of blood, stabbing downwards with her sword and driving it deep into the wound that had just been created.

The panther let out a pained roar but then quickly tensed all the muscles in its back, preventing Fang Ying from pulling out her sword again. It then lashed out with its tails, forcing Fang Ying to teleport away and abandon her sword. Her body was stronger than the average person, but she had yet to properly start cultivating her body, she could not afford to let any attack land on her.

The panther then quickly used its four sharp tails to cut out a part of its own back, stopping Fang Ying's poison from spreading through its body. Fang Ying teleported away, but not very far. She appeared directly above the tails of the panther, who was still in the process of cutting out a piece of its own back.

She stretched out her right arm and opened her hand right after appearing above the tiger, a golden bolt of lightning tearing through the air and arriving in her hand, turning into a golden-purple sword. She immediately slashed out with the blade, drawing a golden-purple line through the air and unleas.h.i.+ng a thunderous boom. The panther quickly spun around and lashed out with its right front paw, the blade colliding with its claws and resulting in a screeching sound as the air was forcefully pushed away.

The sword and paw were pushed apart, Fang Ying quickly teleporting away as the panther lashed out with its tails again. Her hands were aching after the collision, but the panther was feeling even worse than her. it had endured several attacks from the two groups already, and this collision just now shattered all the claws on its right front paw, the bones within the paw on the verge of breaking. It cast a hateful glance at Fang Ying but was then quickly caught off-guard by what it saw. She was smiling faintly, why was she smiling?

The panther quickly received an answer to its question, s.p.a.ce right behind it rippling for a short instant. Li Yang appeared directly behind it, the golden-purple sword already back in his hand and in the middle of a sideways slash aimed at the base of the second to the left of the six tails. Golden fire and lightning coiled around the blade and caused the air to violently distort, the panther able to feel their ferocious heat before they even touched it.

The panther wanted to quickly turn around to block the attack, but just as it tried to move, its feet slid slightly, a layer of ice having appeared beneath its feet and turned it unstable for a short second. The ice then rose up into sharp spikes that dug into the wounds on the already wounded paw, causing the Qi within that leg to turn slightly stagnant and further slowing the panther.

Li Yang's sword collided with the base of the tail, scorching the fur and cutting deep into the tail, nearly severing it and flooding the panther with lightning and fire that it had to defend against before it could properly act against him. Li Yang let go of the sword right after making the attack, grabbing onto the cut tail with his left hand and digging his right hand into the wound he had just created.

A torrent of glacial Qi flooded into the wound and caused the entire base of the tail to freeze solid for a short second. Li Yang quickly pulled out his hand and delivered a punch to the frozen base of the tail, golden flames turning his punch explosive and resulting in even more of the tail tearing apart. He then grabbed onto the tail with his right hand as well and exerted all his force, pulling at the tail with all his might, tearing it completely off.

The panther howled in pain and decided to ignore the fire and lightning rampaging through its wound, las.h.i.+ng out with its remaining five tails, one of them hitting Li Yang dead on and slamming him downwards. Li Yang blocked the attack using the tip of the tail he had just torn off, leaving a cut on the tail that hit him, but he was still slammed towards the ground at full speed. But even so, his face still carried a confident smirk that caused the panther to feel uneasy.

And just as it feared, s.p.a.ce around Li Yang rippled and he vanished before he hit the floor. But just as Li Yang vanished, so too did the sword he had let go of earlier. Both appeared directly above the left shoulder of the panther, Li Yang retaining all the momentum he had as he was sent cras.h.i.+ng towards the floor. He grabbed the sword and used the momentum to his advantage, spinning his body around and slamming his sword into the left shoulder of the panther.

A cracking sound resounded through the room, the entire shoulder sinking down slightly as the bones within it were shattered from the impact. Li Yang didn't stop his attack there, once again letting go of his sword and grabbing onto the tail he was still carrying. He used the tail like a whip, las.h.i.+ng out with the tip and gouging out the right eye of the tiger. s.p.a.ce around him and the sword then rippled again, both vanis.h.i.+ng before the panther could retaliate.

Li Yang appeared in the spot where he had stood earlier, close to the door, and let out a deep breath, rubbing his forearms with a slight grimace, his entire face as pale as sheet of paper. He was a humanoid Divine Beast and had already started cultivating his body, but even so, blocking just one of the tails shook his bones quite badly.

But his attacks had been a success. He had spent the start of the battle just quietly observing the panther, locating two weak spots on its body. The first was the tail he had torn off, the panther would not use as much force in this tail as it did with the rest, it also made sure that none of the blades of blood could come close to this tail.

The second weak spot was the left shoulder, the panther put less weight on its left front leg, something Li Yang could detect since he had used his law of ice to keep a close eye on the temperature changes in the room the moment the battle started. Since it put less weight on that leg, it would produce less heat when pressed against the floor, making it easy to notice.

At first, he guessed that it might be the paw itself that was wounded, but then he saw that even when the panther charged through the blades of blood, it made sure that its left shoulder remained untouched, tipping Li Yang off to which part of the left leg was likely wounded in the past. With one tail torn out and the stump bleeding profusely, and its left front leg crippled, the panther became far less dangerous.

Li Yang cast a sideways glance at Fang Ying, who had become pale after being forced to use the law of s.p.a.ce so many times in succession. As it was one of the more supreme laws, the amount of Qi and energy it drained was no joke. She noticed his glance, turning her head towards him and flas.h.i.+ng him a smile, giving him a thumbs up. Li Yang returned the smile with a wink, stepping back again and leaving the rest of the fighting to the two groups. To make sure that both attacks had their desired effect, Li Yang held nothing back, even using as much of his law of destruction as he could, greatly draining his energy.

Fang Ying joined Li Yang, both of them sitting down and leaning against the wall while keeping a close eye on the ongoing battle. The panther was now crippled and bleeding heavily, he wasn't able to last much longer under the coordinated a.s.sault of the two groups, collapsing to the ground with an indignant howl after another half hour, finally dying.

The two groups, which were now mostly exhausted, cast a sideways glance at the resting couple, waiting for them to speak up. They knew that things would have looked bleak had it not been for the two of them doing most of the work, the first pick of the spoils of war went to them. Li Yang looked at them for a bit before shrugging his shoulders casually.

"We'll take all the blood, the rest you can do with as you please."

He wanted to take the entire body, but there was no way Fang Ying would agree to that, these people had also pulled their own weight, so they deserved a reward. The others nodded their heads and quickly decided who would get what remained of the corpse, selecting a few people to dissect the corpse. The corpse was rather large, so it took almost two hours to properly dissect it, a middle-aged man named Shen Tianyu handing Li Yang an interspatial ring containing all the blood of the panther.

After dissecting the corpse, the remaining people started to explore the rest of the cell, making sure to inspect every inch so that they didn't miss anything. But in the end, even after spending another two hours searching, they found nothing of value, only the vines of the Devil's Grasp Vine remained in the room.

They were dejected, but there was nothing they could do about it. They could only leave this part of the palace and head into one of the other doors that remained and hope that the other groups hadn't completely emptied them out. They all gathered up and started to leave the cell, deciding to stay close just in case they encountered any other dangers.

But just as they stepped out of the cell, the entire palace shook fiercely, the walls and floor even starting to crack from the strong trembling. Li Yang and Fang Ying both got an uneasy feeling, quickly turning their heads and looking into the cell they had just left. They turned their heads just in time to see that the vines had risen up and were currently being sucked back into the hole they came from. Both of them realized what this meant, cursing out at the same time.

"It's woken up!"

"Those f.u.c.king idiots woke it up!"

They knew that it couldn't be them that had woken it up, otherwise, it would have already started moving while they were fighting the panther. But whatever the cause, the worst situation had come to pa.s.s, the Devil's Grasp Vine had awoken from its slumber.