Against The Heavens 61 Fan Long.

Li Yang did not mind picking up the corpses of the Demonic beasts, storing them into his interspatial ring. These Demonic beasts were too weak to be noticed by the groups from the sects and clans, but they were perfect for Liang Zhou and the others, leaving them behind would be nothing but a waste.

After another half day of traveling, Jinwu's directions finally led him to a new group of people. Li Yang praised his own luck, because the people in the group were clad in the white robes of the Heaven's Gate Sect. He had been looking to find out who the current sect leader was, so this was perfect timing for him.

There were three people in the group that were clearly guards, Li Yang recognizing one of them as Liang Chun, a teenage girl who had become one of the tribe's warriors a few years before Li Yang left the village. The two other guides were burly and tanned boys, but Li Yang could not recognize them, so they clearly weren't from the Liang tribe.

Liang Chun and the two boys were carving up several Demonic beasts, pulling out their insides and showing them to the people from Heaven's Gate. The leader, a female with shoulder-length green hair, who seemed to be in her twenties, inspected the presented insides, but shook her head each time. Other than the female, who was only at the middle stage of the Houtian Rune realm, there were four other members, but they were all a little weaker than the leader. This group was clearly one of the weaker groups that went out, one that the clan did not expect to complete the mission.

Li Yang swept the group with a quick glance, thinking about the best way to approach them. Thanks to his tracking technique, he could tell that there was no one else within 1000 meters, he could also tell that the three guides were in perfect health, without a single wound. Li Yang tapped his nose for a bit as he pondered, but in the end, decided to just go with the most direct approach.

He jumped down from the tree he was hiding in, Jinwu and Shenlong tightly grasping onto him so they did not fall off. He landed a short distance away from the group, lightning surrounding his body. The people in the group quickly noticed his presence, but at that time, it was already too late. Li Yang dashed forward like a bolt of lightning, immediately reaching the leader, tightly grabbing her throat. His gaze was calm as he glanced at the people behind her, his voice cold.

"Don't move. Move and she dies. All I want is for you to answer my questions, there is no need for you to die a pointless death."

Just to prove his point, lightning started to crackle around Li Yang's hand, dancing on the girl's throat. The four remaining people in the group, who were just about to take action, quickly halted in their steps, looking at the leader with uncertain eyes. The girl, who Li Yang had heard was called Xun Qiu, took a deep breath and weakly waved her hand.

"Do as he says, we stand no chance."

She knew that no one in her group was a match for the youth in front of her. She could feel lightning enter her body from the hand of Li Yang, her body numbing as she slowly lost control over her own body. The people in the group lowered their arms but kept looking at Li Yang with wary gazes. Li Yang sent a slight smile at Xun Qiu, wasting no time as he started to talk.

"Excellent, a sensible one. My questions are simple, who is the current leader of your sect, what are you searching for out here, and what have you done to the people of the Liang tribe?"

Even though he was talking to Xun Qiu, he was constantly keeping an eye on the rest of the people in the area, watching their every move. He did not mind killing them if they were to try anything. Xun Qiu quickly organized her thoughts, responding to Li Yang's questions and sending a short nod at Liang Chun

"My group has done nothing to the people of the Liang tribe, you can even ask the girl herself. I don't know what we are searching for, I only know that the clan posted a mission to investigate a strange occurrence in the Cloud Wilderness. The guides suggested we look for what caused the sudden rain of fire a year ago, but as they don't know what truly caused it, we can only search around for anything. I am merely an outer circle disciple, I don't have the right to know anything about the sect leader. If anyone is going to know, it would be Senior Brother Fan Long."

Li Yang found it rather strange that Xun Qiu did not know who the current leader of Heaven's Gate was. Back when he was at his peak, it had been common for even normal people to know about the names of the leaders of the strong sects and clans. Had something changed since then? He sent a short glance at Liang Chun, who nodded her head to indicate that Xun Qiu had spoken the truth, before turning back to Xun Qiu.

"Where will I find this Fan Long?"

Xun Qiu did not know, but at least he had gotten a clue as to who knew the information he was curious about. Of course, if she did not know where this Fan Long was, or if he was too far away, there was nothing Li Yang could do. Luckily, it seemed that his luck was rather good, as the answer that Xun Qiu gave was favorable.

"He is currently within the village of the Shentu tribe, resting after his most recent search."

Xun Qiu could not resist Li Yang, so there was no point in resisting or lying. She had been given the duty of bringing the members of her group back home alive, lying could very easily lead to the death of everyone in the group, the worst possible outcome. Li Yang gave a short nod of his head, his gaze landing on the other members of the group as he spoke out.

"Quick answers, good. Hand over your interspatial rings, all of you."

He stretched out his other hand, waiting for the others to throw their interspatial rings to him. They wanted to say something, to keep their rings, but facing Li Yang, there was nothing they could do. They quickly took off their rings and threw them to Li Yang, who quickly caught them, sifting through them. He also took off Xun Qiu's interspatial ring, sifting through it as he had with the others. Seeing the expressions that they were wearing, he let out a slight chuckle.

"Don't look so worried, I can't be bothered to rob the lot of you."

Li Yang was not above robbing others, but he did not rob just anyone. These people had done nothing to him or those he cared about, and they had also complied with his orders, so he would not bother robbing them. He quickly found what he was looking for, taking out a white jade talisman from each of the interspatial rings, quickly shattering them. The expressions of the Heaven's Gate people sunk a little when they saw his actions, so Li Yang let out a light chuckle.

"What, did you think I would let you report to your superiors? f.u.c.k off, I don't want to see you in my Cloud Wilderness again."

The talismans he had broken were used to communicate with other people. without these talismans, it would be impossible for this group to report what had happened here to the other groups, giving Li Yang the element of surprise.

He let go of Xun Qiu's throat, removing the electricity he had inserted into her body. He handed her the interspatial rings he had taken, ignoring her aggrieved expression. But as she was weaker than Li Yang, there was nothing she could do about having her interspatial ring, something many cultivators considered their second most private thing, stolen and searched through. She quickly brought the four other members of Heaven's Gate and left, rapidly moving away, fleeing, from Li Yang. Once he was certain that they were gone, Li Yang turned towards Liang Chun, beckoning her over.

"Liang Chun, follow me back to the tribe. The two of you, return to wherever you came from."

Liang Chun was still shocked at the sudden appearance, and the great strength, of Li Yang, but she quickly stood up and walked over to him. The two other guides could only put on bitter smiles. They wanted to tag along with Li Yang, but it was clear that he did not care about them.

Returning to the tribe was much faster than leaving it had been, as Li Yang was not stalking around for other groups. He simply lifted Liang Chun up, carrying her under his arm as he dashed through the wilderness at full speed. She was unsatisfied with being carried like that, but she knew when it was best to not say anything. Once they reached the outskirts of the village, Li Yang stopped running and let go of Liang Chun, handing her an interspatial ring.

"Hand this to Liang Zhou, he'll know what to do with it."

The interspatial ring was filled with the Demonic beast corpses that Li Yang had picked up while searching for other groups. After handing her the ring, Li Yang did not bother to stay around any longer, dashing into the wilderness again, leaving behind a slightly confused Liang Chun.

After leaving Liang Chun at the edge of Wildbourne, the village of the Liang tribe, Li Yang quickly started making his way towards the village of the Shentu tribe. Since the Liang tribe had to pay some taxes to the Shentu tribe, Li Yang knew where the Shentu tribe was located, he had simply never been there before.

Li Yang still moved through the trees, but with a target in mind, he moved much faster than when he was just following Jinwu's directions. Thanks to that, it only took him a few minutes to reach the outskirts of the Shentu tribe village, Cloudsink.

The entire tribe was surrounded by a tall wooden wall made out of logs, the top of the logs sharpened into thick spikes. The buildings in the village were all made out of white stones and were rather curvy in shape, as if they were trying to imitate clouds. The buildings were much larger than the ones in the Liang tribe, the building at the center of the village five floors tall. The ground in the village was also paved, covered with flat grey bricks.

The area around the village was completely devoid of trees, so Li Yang could only enter the village from the front entrance, a tall gate made out of metal bars, something that was very rare here in the outskirts of the wilderness. Before Li Yang approached the village, he activated the fusion with Jinwu and Shenlong, reaching his strongest state. He was only going to ask about the sect leader of Heaven's Gate, but there was no telling what the Fan Long might choose to do.

There was a tense silence hanging over the entire village when Li Yang entered it, with almost no one walking out and about. There were some traces that showed that there had been some fighting in the village, so Li Yang guessed that some of the warriors of the tribe had put up a futile resistance when the sects and clans arrived.

Li Yang quickly made his way through the empty streets, heading towards the center of the village, to the place where Fan Long was most likely to be. Besides the five-floored building shaped like a paG.o.da, there was a large plaza at the center of the village. Placed in the plaza was a wooden scaffolding, two clear crystals placed on top of the scaffolding, most likely where they performed their affinity ceremony.

There were also 7 people sitting at the top of the scaffolding, quietly cultivating. The person sitting at the center of the 7 was a tall and rather muscular man, his head clean shaven and polished, with six brown dots lined up in two orderly rows going along the top of his head. With Li Yang approaching, the tall man opened his eyes, his black eyes calmly gazing at Li Yang as he spoke up.

"Golden Dragon Prince, I was wondering if you would show up here."