Against The Heavens 19 Cloud's End City.

The city was located just outside the Cloud Wilderness, so it was surrounded by not just a large moat, but also by ma.s.sive metal walls. The walls reached several tens of meters into the air, shielding the city from attacks. The walls were completely black in color and covered with winding marks that were a deep red in color.

These marks were drawn using blood from Demonic beasts as well as blood from powerful cultivators. Using this blood as well as a few other materials, a person proficient in arrays could draw up an array that would increase the strength and toughness of the walls.

The gate into Cloud's End was guarded by ten guards, with each side of the gate having five guards. If one was not part of the Royal Dragon Pavilion or any of the merchant guilds, one would have to pay a small amount of money to enter. Shentu He and Li Yang were not part of the Royal Dragon Pavilion yet, so they had to pay a small fee before they could enter.

Upon entering Cloud's End city, it's full splendor was laid bare for them. Every building in the city was constructed out of st.u.r.dy stone and inscribed with arrays that strengthened them. Like this, every house could become a fortress if the city was ever invaded.

The houses were all two or three stories tall, with large triangular roofs. Some of the buildings had statues of various famous people standing around them, while others were engraved with old legends as well as pictures of mythical Demonic beasts.

"See those three buildings? The left one belongs to the Royal Dragon Pavilion, the middle one to the Universe Merchants, and the right one to the lord of the city."

After entering the city, Ren Jie pointed towards the center of the city. At the center of the city stood three tall buildings that completely dwarfed the other buildings in the city. Each building built in its own distinct way.

While the city lord's house was large, it was slightly smaller than the buildings belonging to the Royal Dragon Pavilion and the Universe Merchants. The Universe Merchants was just that, a merchants guild that bought and sold anything that people could think of. Just like the Royal Dragon Pavilion, they had a branch in almost every city on the continent.

The house of the city lord was five stories tall and completely round in shape. It was a pristine white in color and its engravings told the history of the city. The roof of the building was completely flat, allowing the city lord to place several large statues of his predecessors on the roof.

The building belonging to the Universe Merchants was six stories tall and shaped like a pyramid. It was made out of light blue stones that made the entire building give off a calming atmosphere. There were no engravings or statues on the building, making it look clean and pristine.

The building belonging to the Royal Dragon Pavilion was also six stories tall, but it was in the normal square shape. The building itself was built using black rocks, a statue of a golden five-clawed dragon winding around the entire building gave it a ferocious air.

"This is where we will split up. Should fate will it, I am sure that we will meet again."

Ren Jie smiled at Shentu He and Li Yang, bidding them farewell. He had to deliver the wares he had brought with him, while Li Yang and Shentu He were going to do their own things, so it was time for them to separate.

Shentu He did not say anything, nodding at Ren Jie and Li Yang, before heading towards the building belonging to the Royal Dragon Pavilion. Li Yang bade Ren Jie farewell and left to find an inn. Jinwu was perched on his shoulder, curiously looking at the city around him.

Li Yang quickly found an inn that he felt was cheap enough. He spent nearly all of his money, leaving behind only a measly few coins for himself, to rent a room for an entire month. The money he had gotten from Liang Zhou was just a tiny amount, so one month was all he could afford. After that, he would have to earn more money.

"Alright Jinwu, I will be cultivating for a little while, so you are on your own. They will deliver some food twice a day, so if you get hungry, you can eat that."

Li Yang entered the room that he had rented and sat down with his legs crossed on the bed. The room was quite small, only containing a bed, a table, and two chairs, as well as a door that lead to a small bathroom. He had ordered them to deliver food twice a day, so he was not worried about Jinwu going hungry.

He also didn't own anything worth stealing, so he was not worried about anyone robbing him. Of course, the moment someone that held even the slightest ill intent entered the room, he would notice and wake up.

After he reminded Jinwu, he closed his eyes and immersed himself in his cultivation. The reason he chose to cultivate now was because there was something that he wanted to ascertain.

He closed his eyes and let his mind sink into his memories of his past life, especially his experiences with fire, ice, lightning, and true destruction. In his past life, he had focused on lightning and true destruction, but that did not mean that he had never deal with fire and ice before.

After all, his wife had comprehended true creation, the act of creating everything. Through her, he had learned quite a bit about the fire and ice elements. Using these memories, he first started focusing on the ice element, allowing his understanding of it to flow through his mind.

This continued for a few days, with his understanding of the ice element getting clearer and clearer as he delved deeper and deeper into the memories. When he had gone through a certain amount of his memories, a stream of icy cold energy suddenly coursed through his body, filling him with a p.r.i.c.kling pain.

The stream of icy energy made his body rapidly cool down until it resembled a statue made out of ice. The icy energy traveled into his dantian, winding around itself and solidifying, turning into a rune that looked like it was carved from a crystal.

Li Yang did not stop after forming the ice rune, delving deeper into his memories and his past understanding of the elements. He continued delving into his memories for almost an entire month. Only when he realized that he could only stay in this room for another day or two did he stop his cultivation.

Had it not been for the fact that his current body was too weak, he could easily close his eyes and cultivate for several months, even years, at a time, completely losing track of time. But his current body was still too weak, it needed frequent food and water to survive. Spending almost an entire month in cultivation was already straining it.

The first thing Li Yang did after stopping his cultivation was to eat some food and drink some water. The inn had just brought some food and water into the room, so he was certain that it was fresh. While he was eating, Jinwu hopped onto his shoulder and looked at him with a questioning gaze, wondering why he bothered spending an entire month cultivating.

"I needed to ascertain something. I wanted to know if I could use my past life's understanding of the laws to increase my current cultivation."

Li Yang opened his mouth after swallowing some bread, explaining what he had been doing to Jinwu. Jinwu was his companion Demonic beast, so he had already told Jinwu everything about himself.

"While I can use my past life's understanding about the laws to increase my cultivation, I cannot engrave new runes without first increasing the amount of s.p.a.ce inside my dantian. Once I manage to increase the amount of s.p.a.ce inside my dantian, I can engrave a new rune immediately."

Li Yang had been pleasantly surprised by the results. As long as he absorbed enough Qi and increased the amount of s.p.a.ce inside his dantian, he could engrave new runes immediately. Of course, the amount of energy it took him to increase the s.p.a.ce inside his dantian was also quite ridiculous. He had four different runes after all.

After he and Jinwu finished eating, Li Yang got up and left the inn. He could only stay inside the inn for another day or two, so it was about time that he earned some more money, as well as checked if he could find some information about Fang Ying. And there was one place that would let him do all that, Royal Dragon Pavilion.