Against The Heavens 146 The Darkening Sky.

"So what sort of plan have you worked out with Xiong Xieren and the others? I can't imagine that you intend for us to just continue searching around blindly like this."

Zhao Feng nodded his head in response to Li Yang's statement, removing a waterskin from his interspatial ring and dousing the flames, the smoke quickly dying down. After putting out the fire, he gestured towards Tian Zheng using his thumb.

"Kiddo here's been diligently keeping in contact with the others and got them to agree to form a net of groups covering the surrounding ten islands, that's the largest area we can cover while still maintaining acceptable co-operation should it be needed. The others got into position about a day and a half ago, but we were waiting for you guys to meet up with us, so they've been on standby for now. Oh, our start point is about 30 or so kilometers to the north, here's a map of the route we're gonna follow."

Zhao Feng removed a jade slip from his interspatial ring and tossed it to Li Yang, who caught it and sank his mind into it, giving the map and route a quick look over before handing it to Fang Ying. Tian Zheng cringed slightly at being referred to as a kiddo, but he chose to remain silent, this wasn't exactly the first time he had been treated like this since he met up with Li Yang and the others.

After going over the map and the route they were supposed to take, the four people and one wolf set off for their starting point, a triangular lake with somewhat rounded edges and light green water. Once they were in position, Tian Zheng sent a message to Xiong Xieren and the others, notifying them that they could start, the various groups heading down their respective routes.

Most groups were s.p.a.ced in such a manner that there was only about 20 kilometers between them, making it easy for at least one group to rush to another group's aid at any time. The various clans and sects had gathered all the disciples within the Ocean G.o.d's Graveyard to these ten islands, showing how seriously Tian Zheng and the others viewed the situation.

There was only one group that did not have any other groups within 20 kilometers of them, and that was Li Yang's group. The reasoning behind this was simple, their group was by far the strongest one here, there were very few groups that could actually be of help to them even if they rushed there. As such, the group closest to them was about 70 kilometers away, forcing Li Yang and the others to cover an area larger than the other groups.

But strangely enough, even after the first two days pa.s.sed, they hadn't discovered a single Void Born, not even the tracks of one. And it wasn't just Li Yang's group that failed to find anything, only a single group found something that could be considered strange. They found a ruined location within the forest that seemed to have been the location of a battle recently. And while it carried the tell-tale bone-like areas that the Void Born left behind, there were no drops of slime or dried up corpses in the area, making it hard to figure out exactly what had happened there.

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After four days of searching with no results, Li Yang's group decided to take a short rest during the night, setting up a small camp and making up a fire they could use to heat up food. The fire would also serve as a beacon that might attract any Void Born that might be foolish enough to be drawn towards it. They put up logs around the fire to sit on, and while Fang Ying was reheating a pot of soup and Zhao Feng went a bit away from the camp to answer the call of nature, Li Yang turned his head to look at Tian Zheng.

"Tell me, why are you so afraid?"

Tian Zheng's fingers twitched slightly in response to Li Yang's question, tapping against the log that he was sitting on. He turned his head and gave Li Yang a casual look, tilting his head slightly in perplexion.

"Sorry? I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean."

Li Yang wasn't fooled by Tian Zheng's hand, his right arm stretching out and stopping only half a centimeter in front of Tian Zheng's face. Tian Zheng's gaze was fully focused on the tip of the finger, his body subtly tensing up as Li Yang started to talk.

"Your pupils shrink when I glance at you, your throat rolls when you sneak glances at me, sweat keeps running down your back whenever we're walking close to each other, and your heartbeat is erratic whenever I'm near you. Even right now I can feel it, thundering in your chest so hard that it seems like your ribs will shatter. Your pupils are also trembling right now, quite a bit actually, they look like they're trying to tear themselves out of your eyes. So tell me, Tian Zheng, what have you learned, that it causes you such fear?"

Li Yang slowly moved his finger down Tian Zheng's body as he spoke, halting it in front of his throat and chest for a bit. Tian Zheng was the future patriarch of the Tian clan, and while he might not have gotten a lot of chances to show who he was now that he was tagging along with Li Yang and the others, it didn't change who he was. It was strange for him to be unable to hide his fear to such a degree, it either meant that he didn't have good enough control over his emotions or that the fear was too great for him to contain it.

Tian Zheng wanted to continue playing dumb, but glancing at the finger currently pointing directly at his throat, he couldn't help but swallow a bit of saliva that felt drier than sand, a low whisper escaping his mouth.

"I know about the Fang clan ma.s.sacre, as well as the death of the Golden Dawn."

Li Yang's finger stiffened slightly in front of Tian Zheng's throat, stretching out just enough to barely make contact with his skin, causing the hairs on Tian Zheng's neck to stand on end as he quickly started to maneuver his Qi. But luckily, Li Yang didn't do anything to him, pulling back his arm and slightly narrowing his eyes.

"Hoh, so you've learned about those things, huh? Should have known better than to trust what Jing Yimu said back then. So, tell me, what do you plan to do with that information? Let me warn you right now, trying to use it to blackmail me is useless, doing so will only end in catastrophe for you."

It was indeed a slight miscalculation on his part that Tian Zheng actually managed to learn about Li Yang's actual ident.i.ty, but he didn't consider it to be the end of the world. Tian Zheng breathed a stealthy sigh of relief when Li Yang pulled back his finger,

giving his throat a quick rub while talking.

"I don't need you to tell me that, I know full well what can befall the Tian clan should I be careless. You might not be there now, but there's no telling how quickly you'll regain your former strength, antagonizing you without being 100% certain that I can kill you is nothing but foolish so I plan on doing nothing with the information, I'll be the only one who knows."

Li Yang's eyes narrowed faintly as he observed Tian Zheng, studying his face and mannerisms for a short few moments. After making Tian Zheng nervous for a few moments, Li Yang shrugged his shoulders and leaned back slightly, looking up at the night sky with a nonchalant expression.

"That'd be best for you, but we'll see if you'll actually live up to your word."

Even if Tian Zheng ended up spilling Li Yang's secret, it wasn't guaranteed that people would believe him without any proper proof. And even if they did end up believing him, Li Yang wasn't without options and actions he could take. Just as Tian Zheng opened his mouth to ask a question, Li Yang's eyes, which had been lazily roaming across the night sky, stopped and narrowed dangerously.

"Somethings wrong, the stars are vanishing."