Against The Heavens 100 The Start Of The Grand Competition.

There was a large leap of strength between each cultivation realm, with someone at the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm usually able to easily kill droves of people at the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm. Because of this, Li Yang was not 100% confident in his chances to kill someone at the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, but he was confident that he could escape even if he failed to kill them.

He received the same pendant as last time, allowing him to use the spatial arrays that belonged to the Royal Dragon Pavilion to quickly move around the continent. After receiving the pendant and making sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, Li Yang left the clan using one of their spatial arrays, appearing on the other side of the continent.

He left the Royal Dragon Pavilion branch he had arrived at and took out the map he had bought before he joined the Yuan clan, checking how far away his current target was from his position. His first target was a rogue cultivator that had killed quite a few cultivators from the Yuan clan, and according to the rumors and some spies, he was currently hiding as an old merchant in a small town.

After making sure that he had arrived in the right place, Li Yang left the city and headed for the town where his first target was hiding. He only had about eight months until the start of the grand compet.i.tion, so he couldn't afford to waste any time, not if he wanted to cultivate three different cultivation systems at once.

What followed could only be called a furious marathon of murder and cultivation, Li Yang traveling all over the continent and leaving nothing but ruins in his wake. He didn't even leave behind corpses, as all the corpses were taken by him to cultivate his b.l.o.o.d.y Shura technique. Humans and Demonic beasts all had their blood and souls extracted to form Blood Seals, which had a rather peculiar appearance.

They were made up fo two parts, an outer circle that looked like a dragon biting down on its own tail, and an inner part that looked like two serpents coiled around each other in ferocious combat. Li Yang failed in his first nine attempts to create these runes, as he had never really interacted much with souls before. But after becoming a bit more proficient with the technique, as well as receiving some aid from the strange property of Jinwu's ice element, he managed to carve a successful rune and merge it with his soul.

Of course, he didn't just cultivate his soul, he also cultivated his Qi and used the Myriad Monarch technique to cultivate his body. As time continued to pa.s.s, and the number of missions he completed increased, the date of the grand compet.i.tion crept closer and closer. Li Yang only returned to the clan twice in the eight months before the compet.i.tion, and both times he only returned for a few minutes to hand in the completed missions and buy some resources. He then made a quick stop at his house to pick up all the resources that had been dropped off there and then picked up some new missions before leaving the clan once again.

The last mission Li Yang completed was to kill a flock of scorpion-type Demonic beasts that had taken over a part of the outer edge of the Blood Swallowing Graveyard, one of the five most dangerous locations on this planet. The leader of the scorpions had reached the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm and he had five other scorpions at the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm serving him. It was the hardest of the missions, which was why Li Yang had saved it for last, completing it half a month before the start of the grand compet.i.tion.

After completing this mission, Li Yang returned to the clan for the second and last time in the eight months, picking up a few more resources and then leaving again. He headed directly to the Broken Rapid's city, which was named this because it was located on an island located at the center of a ma.s.sive river that was famous for how swift and ferocious its currents were.

As it was a city owned and ruled by the Huo clan, the buildings were all colored various shades of red and orange. The insignia of the Huo clan was spread throughout the entire city, a solitary flame torching the sky. Normally one would have to use a specialized ferry to reach the city, but as Li Yang had the pendant of the Yuan clan, he could just head directly to the Royal Dragon Pavilion branch that was located in the city.

Once he arrived within the city, he sought out the person he had been told about, Huo Guanting, and showed him the token he had received upon achieving the 10th spot in the tournament he took part in. Huo Guanting, a somewhat frail crimson-haired man with a slight stubble who looked to be in his fifties checked the token, and upon ascertaining that it was real, brought Li Yang to a house that had been prepared ahead of time, telling him how things would proceed.

"Come to the center of the city in 13 days, an elder from the Huo clan will open a separate entrance to the hidden realm for us. Once you enter that hidden realm, you can only leave by surviving to the end of the compet.i.tion, so make sure you have thought everything through and prepared for the worst case situation."

Huo Guanting gave Li Yang a quick showcasing of the house as he spoke, making sure that he understood just how dangerous a compet.i.tion like this was. They would enter the hidden realm through a separate entrance and arrive at the other end of it, quite a distance away from the people from the various clans and sects.

The reason behind this wasn't actually to ensure that the disciples of the clans found the best resources, it was to ensure that the disciples of the clans didn't immediately kill all the compet.i.tors who didn't come from a large clan or sect. Seeing that Li Yang didn't show any reaction to his warnings, Huo Guanting started explaining about the format of the compet.i.tion.

"The compet.i.tion will follow a very standard format and is technically split into three parts. During the first part of the compet.i.tion, you must kill Demonic beasts and beat other cultivators to gather points, the points will be automatically counted by the token you received, so take good care of it. After about a year or two, the compet.i.tion will enter the second part, the center of the hidden realm opening itself. Everyone who has gathered more than a certain number of points must defend their tokens and make their way to the city located at the center of the hidden realm to enter the third part of the compet.i.tion. If you lose your token or are defeated and lose your points during this second part, you are of course barred from entering the third part. The third part is just as simple as the others, it is a more straight forward series of duels which will be used to decide the exact rankings. All in all, the compet.i.tion usually takes between two to four years to finish, so don't forget to properly cultivate while in the hidden realm."

The duels that took place in the third part of the compet.i.tion usually took just as long to complete as the first part of the compet.i.tion, as the compet.i.tors were given at least a weeks break between each fight, more if they were wounded. They wanted to get an accurate ranking, so they made sure that each compet.i.tor was in peak condition before each fight.

Li Yang nodded his head to show that he understood how the compet.i.tion would take place, Huo Guanting responding with a nod of his own before leaving. He was only in charge of explaining the compet.i.tion and preparing the lodgings for people like Li Yang, anything after that was no longer his business.

After Huo Guanting left, Li Yang locked himself up in the house he had been provided, taking out all the resources he had bought as well as all the corpses he currently had on him. He only had 13 days left, in these 13 days he would focus fully on his cultivation and do his best to increase his strength as much as possible.

The days continued to move onward without pause, the 13 days pa.s.sing in what felt like a blink of an eye. Li Yang halted his cultivation and left the house, heading to the center of the city, which was already packed with people. Some of the people had only arrived to check out the people taking part in the compet.i.tion, but most of the people present were there to take part in the compet.i.tion.

Li Yang's cultivation had actually improved greatly over these last eight months. His Qi cultivation had reached the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm, only a short step away from the late stage. After being baptized with countless Blood Seals, his soul had become corporeal and could even leave his body, meaning that he had reached the Heaven Reaching Soul realm and acquired the soul equivalent of Qi, Vital Essence. Mixing this Vital Essence with the ice element granted to him by Jinwu made it incredibly easy for him to kill people who didn't defend their souls.

His body cultivation had also improved greatly, entering the Heart Rune realm thanks to the large amount of Monarch Runes he had fused into his body. Thanks to this, his body had started creating Dark Star Essence, the body cultivation of Qi. He now had Qi, Vital Essence, and Dark Star Essence at his disposal, his Qi was devastating, his soul was strong, and his body was incredibly tough, he was perfectly well-rounded. All he had to do now was come up with a defensive technique using his law of ice, and then he could be considered truly perfect in all aspects of combat.

His cultivation had improved greatly over the last eight months, his strength increasing by quite a bit. But even so, his cultivation was on the lower end among all the people gathered here, most of them having already entered the Immortal Rebirth realm. But Li Yang was nothing if not confident. He would meet up with Fang Ying again and the two of them would utterly dominate this compet.i.tion. He would walk side by side with Fang Ying to the top, and he would crush anyone who tried to stand in their path.

The orange-robed elder from the Huo clan arrived at the center of the city and drew up an array on the ground, using it to draw in all the Qi in the surrounding. He then used this Qi to open a new entrance to the hidden realm, a pure white crack appearing in s.p.a.ce and sucking in the surrounding Qi at a ferocious pace.

The Huo clan elder waved his hand, signaling that the compet.i.tors were to enter the crack. The sea of people waiting in the city swarmed into the crack, each of them sent into a random part of the outer edge of the hidden realm. Li Yang stepped forward at a more leisurely pace, his eyes closed as muttered to himself.

"Just like I said, Ying'er. Through life and death, through time and s.p.a.ce, I will chase after you."

With his eyes closed, he felt like he could already hear the familiar song that she played on her zither and smell the sweet fragrance that he had grown so fond of. So long had pa.s.sed, but now they would finally meet again.