Against The Heavens 141 Mao Tengzou.

Li Yang's group of four plus one wolf quickly made their way out of the underground dungeon and cut a direct path through the forest, Tian Zheng guiding them towards the second island where he lost contact with one of the groups from his clan. While they were running, Fang Ying was occasionally sweeping a glance across their surroundings, eventually clicking her tongue in annoyance.

"It's pretty troubling that they're this clever, it'll be hard to find them even if were to try and look for them."
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The three others mimicked her movements and scanned the surroundings, Li Yang and Zhao Feng nodding their heads in agreement after a few seconds. Tian Zheng spent a few seconds longer scanning the surroundings but was eventually forced to shake his head.

"Sorry, but I really have no idea what you're talking about, I can't see anything from the Void Born here."

Tian Zheng had considered pretending to agree with them, but thinking about the embarra.s.sment he would feel once exposed he decided that it was best to just come clean. Zhao Feng cast a sideways glance at Tian Zheng, his gaze eventually moving back to Li Yang, his eyebrow-raising somewhat. Li Yang simply shrugged his shoulders, but as Fang Ying had the closest connection to Tian Zheng, she explained what she meant.

"Exactly, there's nothing. The only signs of the Void Born in the forest are the tracks left behind by the one that you and we fought. But from the underground dungeon, we saw that at least five or so should have been able to escape. At least five managed to escape and were smart enough to leave behind a piece of themselves for future regeneration, but there were only tracks from one Void Born in the forest. This could mean several things, but the most likely one is that the one that left behind the tracks was meant to serve as nothing more than a distraction, bait to draw all the attention while the others escaped. The smarter they are, the better they'll be at hiding and the harder they'll be to find."

This was something Fang Ying had only started to think about as they left the dungeon, with how many Void Born might have escaped that dungeon, there was a suspicious lack of trails where the surrounding lifeforce had been devoured. Tian Zheng clicked his tongue and gave a nod of his head after Fang Ying explained what she meant earlier, being able to have one of them act as bait might also mean that that Void Born had a clear hierarchy among them.

Although this point wasn't too surprising to the others, at least not to Tian Zheng. The Void Born were just like Demonic beasts and humans, the only problem with their race was how they sustained themselves on lifeforce. Had it not been for this one trait of their race, they would never have been feared and hunted like this, they would have been able to live just like all the other races.

They weren't trying to lay low this time, so Li Yang and the others ran at full speed, tearing through any Demonic beast stupid enough to try to stop them. Thanks to this, they managed to step onto the next island after only half a day, sharing a collective click of their tongues when they saw that a trail of bone-like earth on the sandy and mostly barren volcanic island. Li Yang kneeled down at the side of the trail and broke off a piece, the piece turning to ashen dust once he placed a bit of pressure on it. Looking at the dust blowing away, Li Yang stood up and dusted off his hands.

"Well, guess we were correct about there being another dungeon here. Expected, but still not terribly good. Well, let's scope out the damage."

The four followed the trail closer to the center of the island, a pillar-shaped mountain covered in crimson veins flowing with lava. The trail stopped at the base of the mountain, ending by a metal door that concealed another descending staircase. This door wasn't blown out like the last one, it had been completely torn in two, the jagged shards running down what was once the middle of the door now covered in somewhat dry slime that was a mixture of red and white.

The red didn't seem to be part of the slime, it seemed more like drops of blood that had mixed with the slime. Tian Zheng's gaze lingered on the empty Tian clan robes scattered in front of the torn open door and the surrounding area, a pained look flas.h.i.+ng past his eyes.

"So they also lost their lives..."

Each of the disciples brought into this compet.i.tion was an elite that would be extremely useful to the clan once they were nurtured and grown-up, each one lost was a punch to the clan's gut. Li Yang swept his eyes over the empty robes for a split second before stepping over those in front of the door, walking through the torn open part and descending down the stairs. Fang Ying and Zhao Feng followed right after him, Tian Zheng offering the deceased half a minute of silence before following the others.

Spreading out at the bottom the staircase was exactly what Li Yang had expected, another vast room filled practically to the brim with blocks that worked as prison cells. But they noticed that this place was different from the previous one the moment they set foot into it, Zhao Feng whistling while sweeping the room with a quick gaze, placing his hand above his eyes as if he was trying to s.h.i.+eld them from the sun.

"Whew, this place sure has been turned upside down. Pretty stark contrast to how neat the previous place was. Think it's like this because others have already been here?"

Compared to the previous dungeon, where each block only had a hole large enough for a normal person to exit torn into them, the blocks in this dungeon were completely torn apart and crushed. There was no blood splashed around, but there was no denying that the dungeon had been the site of a pretty intense battle. Li Yang didn't respond to the question, instead choosing to stretch out his arm and point at a stone block which stood not far from their current position. Just like in the previous dungeon, there were words carved into the block.

'This is the 59th prison for the Parasites created by I, Xiang Hong, it is my deepest desire that none shall ever lay their eyes on it and see the horrors sealed within.'

The first part of the writing was practically the exact same as the one from the previous dungeon, with the prison number being the only difference. But the first part of the writing wasn't what Li Yang was pointing at, he was pointing at some words that hat been carved closer to the bottom of the block, carvings that looked far fresher.

'Hehe, Xiang Hong, I told you that not even your prisons would be strong enough to hold me forever, the Void eventually comes for all creation. By the time you're reading this, I'll be long gone and will have entered hiding, but don't you worry, I'll come for you again, I'll always come for you. - Mao Tengzou.'

The words were practically dripping with hatred and bloodl.u.s.t, to the point where Li Yang's eyes stung slightly after just looking at the eyes for a few seconds. Whoever this Mao Tengzou was, he clearly had an immense grudge with the creator of these prisons, something Li Yang could somewhat understand. Li Yang turned his head to look at the others, Zhao Feng placing his hand on Fang Ying's shoulder the moment Li Yang opened his mouth to speak.

"Yeah yeah, we'll check the place to check of any signs, you don't have to spell it out for us. But if you think I'm dragging the new kid around this time, you're dead wrong. I'll kidnap your wife for a bit, you get to deal with that kid's awkward silence."

Zhao Feng did not let Tian Zheng save any face as he used his thumb to point at him, nor did he give Li Yang a chance to protest before dragging Fang Ying away to investigate the eastern part of the dungeon. Li Yang was left behind with Tian Zheng, casting a sideways glance at him before slumping his shoulders with a sigh.

"Alright, let's get this over with, follow me."