Against The Heavens 111 Creation Sealing Array.

Both Fang Ying and Li Yang descended into a short silence after coming to their conclusion, descending into their own thoughts. When it came to a Devil's Grasp Vine as large as this, just the act of finding the current primary heart was a bit troublesome, actually draining the gathered up energy would be even harder. It would likely have set up rather tight defenses before hibernating, it might wake up the moment someone got anywhere close to the heart. After the two of them spent a few minutes mulling it over, Fang Ying came up with a proposal.

"If I fuse with Langshen again, I should be able to locate the primary heart by tracing the roots that used to connect to the tertiary heart that was here. But actually dealing with the Devil's Grasp Vine will have to be left to you. Remember that array you used against Lian Ah?"

Li Yang gave a light nod of his head, Lian Ah was someone he could never forget. She was one of the only five people he had ever met that could use the law of time, she was also one of the two people using that law that Li Yang had killed. The other was a man called Sun Chang, who was from a very strange race who seemed to be the descendants of a very powerful dragon-type Divine Beast.

Both fights were some of the hardest fights he had ever taken part in, only able to clinch victory thanks to ample preparation and the fact that he was supported by Fang Ying and the others. Li Yang went over the array in his head, going over what they would need to create it, shaking his head after a short moment.

"Drawing the actual array here is impossible, we lack the required resources and are currently too weak to control it. But if we can gather up enough resources here, we should be able to use a weakened version of the array, I'll just have to mix in some of your most numbing and paralyzing poison. The main ingredient would be all kinds of Demonic beast blood and any medicines with a numbing effect, so if you find anything like that you should immediately move to grab it."

The array in question was a grand sealing array that would seal everything within a certain area, time, s.p.a.ce, even all Qi would end up sealed up or slowed down within this array. The array would drastically slow anyone above the late stage of the Primordial Rune realm and completely freeze anyone below that realm, it was the strongest array that Li Yang had ever been able to create, his masterpiece, the Creation Sealing Array. Since he was the one who had created it, altering it was a rather simple task, it was mainly about changing the ingredients and some of the runes used to create it. Fang Ying nodded her head, her gaze landing on the palace located beyond the garden.

"I'm not carrying too much Demonic beast blood or numbing medicine on me, we'll just have to hope that this palace isn't completely empty. If our luck is so terrible that it does end up being empty then we'll just have to see if we can borrow some from the other people that had arrived here. If I just use the name of the Tian clan to ensure them that we'll pay them back then they should be willing to hand it over."

Most others, Li Yang included, would likely resort to just robbing the other people here for the resources they would need in case the palace was empty, but Fang Ying was different. She was more compa.s.sionate in times like these, and since she had the large Tian clan behind her, borrowing a bit of Demonic beast blood should truly not be a problem. Of course, the borrowing would be their last resort, neither Li Yang or Fang Ying were willing to easily enter the debt of others. Li Yang shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, not having anything against her plan.

"Alright, that sounds fine. I'll check out the other parts of this garden while you trace the roots, I already picked up two nice treats earlier, a Starlight Tree and a Blood-thickening Mint, there might be a few other good items around."

The Starlight Tree was the tree he had picked up earlier, it received its name from the star-shaped fruits that would glow slightly in the dark, something they did because the fruits absorbed the light of the stars to grow. Eating the fruits would cause the energy gathered within them to nourish a cultivators soul and help it grow stronger.

The Blood-thickening Mint was the item he had Langshen pick up earlier, and it was, in fact, a type of poison. Eating more than a few leaves would cause one's blood to turn as thick as jelly, killing the one who ate the leaves. But if one ate only one or two leaves at a time, carefully purifying and absorbing the energy in the process, one could strengthen their own blood somewhat and make it able to contain more energy.

As for the flower that Fang Ying had picked earlier, it was a Hundred-petaled Grapevine, which was a treasure that would sprout grape-like fruits once it reached a hundred petals and was fully grown. The grapes could be eaten to nourish and strengthen one's Ascending Foundation, meaning that they had already picked up three different resources for the three different cultivation systems, a rather decent harvest. The Starlight Tree and the Hundred-petaled Grapevine would require a few more years to actually grow and reach full maturity, but the two of them were fine with waiting.

With the two of them having decided on their selective roles, they went about completing their own tasks. Fang Ying fused with Langshen and jumped into the crater that Li Yang created when he destroyed the tertiary heart, using her law of s.p.a.ce to follow the roots and map the entire Devil's Grasp Vine.

Li Yang started making his way through the forest, scouring the surroundings for any resources that might be useful to them. He plucked those that would be useful but left those that were useless to them, there was no reason to pick up something useless, he might as well leave it for the others so that they could have some luck as well.

After he made his way through half the garden and had reached the other side of the palace, he discovered a plant he hadn't expected to see here. The plant was a mushroom that was completely gray and had a gnarly exterior, it almost looked like it was made from stone. This mushroom was simply known as a Stoneskin Mushroom, and just like the Blood-thickening Mint, it was actually rather poisonous.

But if one could purify it and fully absorb the energy, one would be able to greatly increase the toughness of their skin. Back in Li Yang's previous life, this was one of the better ways for a normal cultivator to strengthen their body, it was also rather rare and somewhat hard to find. Even though body cultivation now existed, eating something like this alongside the Blood-thickening Mint would be like adding wings onto a tiger. He walked over to the mushroom to pluck it, but a loud shout from his right caused him to temporarily halt his hand.

"Fiend, stop your hand! That mushroom belongs to us!"

Li Yang glanced in the direction of the voice, his gaze landing on a group of five people from the Tian clan. The one who just called out was the one who Li Yang had beaten up right after they arrived here, the one who tried to have Fang Ying return to Tian Zheng. After giving the entire group of five, three women and two men, a quick glance, Li Yang scoffed lightly and waved his hand in a dismissive manner.

"Oh, it's just the a.s.slickers of the wastrel. I said last time that I would not be as merciful next time, you better take that threat to heart and just leave."

Li Yang proceeded to ignore the five after scoffing at them, grabbing the mushroom and digging out the earth around it, storing the entire thing into his interspatial ring. He couldn't be bothered to do anything to them if they didn't bother him, but it seemed like they had other plans. The youth with silky-black hair who had already gotten beaten once before glaring at Li Yang and extracting an axe from his interspatial ring.

"Don't think that things will end up like last time, We'll show you what happens when you disgrace the glory of the Tian clan."

The youth charged forward, two of the women quickly drawing their weapons and following him, glaring daggers at Li Yang. The last man and woman didn't follow them, looking at them with bitter expressions. Li Yang cast his eyes onto the three people that were charging at him with weapons, muttering lightly.

"Well, I warned you."

He truly couldn't understand how people like this could be chosen by the Tian clan to enter this compet.i.tion. Even if they were angry at him calling Tian Zheng a wastrel, they should at least swallow their anger until they were strong enough to exact proper revenge, charging in now was simply suicidal. Some people might pity their stupidity and go easy on them, but since they were showing killing intent towards him, Li Yang would show no mercy.

The youth with the axe was the first to reach him, sending a heavy sideways slash towards Li Yang's neck, all the air in the area gathering around the blade of the axe. The axe came from the left, so Li Yang dodged it by ducking down and giving his entire body a spin to the right, raising his right leg in the process. He stood up the moment the axe pa.s.sed over his head, using the momentum of his still ongoing spin to deliver a sideways kick to the youth's head using his raised right leg, the sole of his foot crashing into the youth's temple and ruining his balance. Li Yang finished the spin while lowering his right leg, forcing the youth down onto the ground, Li Yang's right foot pressing down on his head.

The two women that also charged over stopped slightly when they saw the scene, it had happened so fast that they were nearly unable to see it. In one swift motion, Li Yang had not only dodged the attack but also launched his counterattack, forcing the youth onto the ground and allowing him to stand on his head. Li Yang looked down at the youth, who was struggling beneath his foot, and then moved his gaze onto the two girls.

"Did you think my words were a joke? Did you think that just because Ying'er saved those four people earlier that I would be as kind and merciful? Too bad, I am not Ying'er."

Li Yang put more force into his right foot, a crunching sound echoing throughout the area as the youth's head was crushed beneath Li Yang's foot. The youth likely thought that things would go better now that he wasn't alone and was also prepared for battle, but it was completely useless. These five people here were clearly the weakest of the Tian clan group that still remained in this city, the strongest among these five was the other man, he had just recently entered the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm. The others had likely already entered the palace to search for the best resources.

The two women had not expected Li Yang to act as quick and forceful as he had, they were from the esteemed Tian clan, after all, there were very few people who dared attack them in a manner like this. But it was already too late for the two of them to realize that charging forward had been a blunder.

Li Yang dashed forward at full speed, golden arcs of lightning and fire trailing in his wake. The women were so close that he could cross the distance in less than a second, a normal sword appearing in his grasp, fire and lightning flooding into it. He slashed out with the sword, the blade digging into the neck of the first woman and exploding, unable to contain the power Li Yang had channeled into it.

The woman's head was eviscerated by the shards of the sword, scorched by the fire and lightning they contained. The other woman wanted to use this chance to escape but found herself unable to move her legs, a strange icy energy flooding into her body and completely freezing the bones in her legs.

Li Yang flicked his fingers, controlling the shards of the exploded sword by manipulating the fire and lightning within them. The shards rained down on the other woman, piercing through her flesh and embedding themselves in her body. Li Yang unleashed the remaining fire and lightning, the rancid smell of scorched flesh and blood quickly spreading in the area as the woman fell over. Li Yang looked at the three corpses with an indifferent gaze, murmuring lightly.

"Can't let them go to waste."

Li Yang quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed their interspatial rings and then froze all the blood that remained in their bodies, extracting it after it was all frozen. Their blood contained quite a bit of Qi and could be used to draw arrays, wasting it was no good. While draining their blood, he cast a sideways glance at the two remaining people, who had started slowly backing off.

"Do you want to follow in their footsteps?"

The corners of man and the woman's mouth twitched, a bitter expression spreading on their faces. They both raised their arms high to show their intent to surrender, the man shrugging his shoulders in a casual manner.

"Forget it, we have no interest in committing suicide like them. But could you tell me, how do you have such great strength? You shouldn't have any high position in the Yuan clan so it can't be something they have given you."

Li Yang had been easily able to kill three people at the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm, and while that wasn't exactly uncommon amongst the people in the clans, it was rather rare to see it done by someone who didn't have a high position within their clan. Li Yang stored away the frozen blood and then turned around, leaving the area without bothering to give the two people any response.

He spent a bit more time scouring the forest for resources before returning to Fang Ying. who was still focusing on mapping the Devil's Grasp Vine. Li Yang sat down at the side of the crater, quietly waiting for her to finish. Half an hour after he arrived, four hours after the gates to the garden were opened, Fang Ying finished her task, opening her eyes and turning to Li Yang.

"It really does cover the entire island, it even encroaches into the ocean around the island, absorbing the lifeforce of any fish that gets too close. The spot with the most concentrated energy that should be the primary heart is located at the opposite end of the city from where we arrived, but just as we guessed, there are countless roots covering the entire area. The moment anyone gets within 50 kilometers of the primary heart, the beast will be notified and awaken. Luckily, this palace has attracted all the attention so there is no one close to the primary heart. How did your search go?"

Considering how large this island, and the Devil's Grasp Vine was, it was actually somewhat surprising that it would keep such a small defensive perimeter around it, it seemed like it had been hibernating for quite a few years already. Fang Ying undid her fusion with Langshen, rubbing his head while feeding him strips of meat she always kept within her interspatial ring. Li Yang shrugged his shoulders in response to her question, pointing at the palace with his thumb.

"Uneventful and boring. I found a few good resources, I'll show them to you later. But now we should enter the palace, wouldn't want everyone else to s.n.a.t.c.h everything away from us."

Fang Ying nodded her head, jumping out from the crater and landing next to Li Yang. He handed her some of the resources he had picked up and then the two of them started heading for the palace, Langshen sauntering behind them while chewing on some dried meat.