Against The Heavens 63 Gathering The Groups.

But as he made his way through the Cloud Wilderness, looking for any tracks that would lead him to the other groups. Because so much time had pa.s.sed since Jinwu's scouting, his directions were no longer all that useful, which meant that Li Yang had to use a different way of searching.

But searching blindly was timewasting and highly unlikely to produce any favorable results. As Li Yang continued to make his way through the wilderness, his brows furrowed while he thought about different ways to cut down the time needed to find the other groups. An idea quickly struck him, his lips curling into a faint smile. He quickly turned his body and rapidly made his way towards the Demon Plains, a slight chuckle sounding out as he explained his plan to the confused looking Jinwu and Shenlong.

"Why bother blindly searching for them? They want something suspicious, I will give them something suspicious that will cause them to come running like good little dogs."

Li Yang continued to rush towards the Demon Plain, jumping from tree to tree as he perfectly hid himself to make sure he was not accidentally discovered by anyone. Since there were barely any trees on the Demon Plains, Li Yang could no longer hide in the trees once he reached the Demon Plains.

He did not stop at the outskirts of the Demon Plains, swiftly making his way towards the depths. As he moved, he would occasionally stop by some hills or smaller mountains, but he found no place that suited his plans, so he continued to make his way deeper into the Demon Plains.

In the end, he had to travel for a little over half a day before he managed to find a place that suited his needs. The place he found was the remains of a mountain, with half of the mountainside dugout, as if ma.s.sive claws had torn off part of the mountain. The front was open, while the sides and rear were blocked off by the tall mountain, it was perfect for what Li Yang had in mind.

Li Yang swiped his interspatial ring, taking out several Demonic beasts corpses he had kept as food for Jinwu and Shenlong, quickly draining their blood. He also took out several herbs and Spirit Stones, crushing them up and mixing them with the blood, creating a thick crimson paste. He drew up several strange symbols with the thick paste, explaining his actions to Shenlong and Jinwu.

"Even though we are able to beat them head-on, there is no need to be stupid and risk it. They'll be coming to us, so we would be dumb if we don't prepare a little something for them."

Li Yang spent a few hours covering the dugout part of the mountain in strange runes. After everything was covered in runes, he covered the symbols with a thin layer of ice, and then covered the ice with dirt, perfectly hiding the runes. While he was working on writing down the runes, he had also gotten a report from Huanglong, telling him that some of the Liang tribe people had returned to the village. Clearly, the people taken to serve as guides for the Heaven's Gate Sect had returned. With the preparations complete, Li Yang set his plan into motion.

He walked to the center of the dugout mountain, fusing with Jinwu and Shenlong. He gathered all his Qi between his palms, an orb of golden flames slowly forming. The orb quickly grew as Li Yang fed it more Qi, even throwing in some Spirit Stones to let it grow even larger. After a few minutes, the orb was even larger than Li Yang, so he stopped feeding it Qi, throwing the orb into the sky.

The ball of flames flew high into the sky, quickly exploding and expanding, forming a second sun that floated high in the sky. After creating the sun, Li Yang sat down on the ground and closed his eyes in quiet cultivation, waiting for the people that would surely be attracted by the second sun.

It was only after waiting for almost an entire day that Li Yang's actions showed their results. A large number of people had gathered in front of the dugout part of the mountain, looking at Li Yang and the golden sun with a mixture of suspicion and excitement. The people seemed to have come to an agreement, as they waited for the others to show up before they actually entered the dugout part of the mountain.

Once they stepped closer to Li Yang, the golden sun that was still hanging in the sky dissipated, Li Yang standing up and stopping his cultivation. His lips curved into a smile as he surveyed the groups that had entered his grasp.

"You all came here quite fast, you must be eager to find results. I wonder, which of you belong to the Roaring Soul sect?"

There were a large number of people that had arrived, but they were all clearly divided into nine separate groups, keeping a slight distance from the others. Li Yang gave them a quick count, and the numbers mostly matched what Huo Bo had originally told him, only the Puppet G.o.d Sect missing a few people. While Li Yang was surveying the nine groups with a calm gaze, a female youth clad in the robes of the Puppet G.o.d Sect stepped forward and spoke up.

"Who are you? Are you the one who released those golden flames?"

Li Yang's eyes turned towards the female youth, Zhu Caishi, who had long black hair, tanned skin, and green eyes. He swept his eyes over the people that had gathered behind her, quickly scanning them. Not only were there people from the Puppet G.o.d Sect standing behind her, but there were also a few people who were clearly from some of the surrounding tribes.

Li Yang recognized a few of the people standing behind her as members of the Liang tribe, his eyes landing on a somewhat older woman that was standing next to Zhu Caishi. He scanned the woman, his eyes narrowing slightly as he gave a slight nod of his head.

"You are quite skilled in the law of puppets. You managed to turn her into a puppet without killing her and tinkering with her spine and bones."

Turning a human into a puppet required you to mess around with their spine and bones, sometimes even their brains. To do so while a person was alive meant that the one who would become a puppet had to endure horrendous torment. While it was rather inhumane, it was quite useful for gathering information. Zhu Caishi could not help but raise an eyebrow after hearing Li Yang's praise, not noticing that the other groups around her were strangely quiet.

"You could tell?"

Zhu Caishi was rather proud over her achievements in the law of puppets. When she made a puppet, unless one knew what to look for, it would be hard to tell it was a puppet. Could it be that the golden youth in front of her was someone specialized in the law of puppets? Li Yang simply gave a light shrug of his shoulders, not giving a proper explanation.

"When someone like you, someone with a limited cultivation, creates a puppet, there are some tells that can be used to determine when a person has been turned into a puppet."

No matter how lifelike Zhu Caishi could make a puppet, it would still end up being a puppet, its movements somewhat jerky and clearly controlled by someone else. Only when she reached a higher cultivation would she be able to make living puppets. Before Zhu Caishi got to say anything else, Li Yang's eyes turned sharp, his voice calm, but cold.

"Turning them into puppets makes it easier to control them, so normally it would be considered a good idea. But that is only normally, today it can only be considered a bad idea."

The woman she had turned into a puppet was called Liang Hengwei, someone who had once been a warrior for the Liang tribe. Her fate would make Liang Zhou sad, so the death of Zhu Caishi was already set in stone. Li Yang no longer bothered with Zhu Caishi, his narrowed eyes sweeping over the remaining groups as he gave them an ultimatum.

"Everyone but the Huo clan, the Tian clan, and the Puppet G.o.d sect can leave, but I never want to see you enter the Cloud Wilderness again. If you refuse to leave, don't blame me for being merciless."

The three groups he had mentioned all contained people from the Liang clan, so Li Yang first had to make sure that they were all unharmed before he let any of those three groups leave. The rest of the groups he did not really care about, so if they were to leave immediately, he could not be bothered to kill them. The remaining groups shook slightly after hearing his words, a burly man clad in the skin of a tiger opening his mouth.

"Heaven's Gate isn't here. I guess that would be thanks to you?"

The burly man, Tao Yanzhen, had brown skin and a muscular body that was covered in scars. He had black hair that was shaven short and clear blue eyes. The tiger skin robe he was wearing was embroidered with the image of a roaring lion, an image that the other people behind him also had on their clothing. Li Yang turned his head towards Tao Yanzhen, giving a slight nod.

"Yup. Fan Long and his men have already been forced to leave the Cloud Wilderness. Well, he and the survivors of his men at least."

Tao Yanzhen did not look too surprised at Li Yang's words, as if he had already expected the result. He swept the surrounding area for a short second, his eyes quivering slightly. In the end, he gave a nod of his head and took a step back.

"Very well. The Myriad Beast Sect will retreat and deliver your message to our superiors. Would you mind giving us a name that we can report?"

Zhu Caishi looked at Tao Yanzhen with a surprised expression, uncertain why he would agree to simply leave. But Tao Yazhen paid no attention to her, his men already starting to turn around and leave. Li Yang had no interest in giving them his own name, so he used the t.i.tle Fan Long had called him by.

"You can tell them that the Golden Dragon Prince does not want outsiders in his wilderness. Anybody else who wants to do the smart thing?"

After Li Yang's question rang out, the expressions of the remaining groups distorted slightly, their faces somewhat pale as they swept the surroundings with fear in their eyes. In the end, they could only nod their heads, turning around and leaving. the dugout part of the mountain quickly emptied, only the groups of the Tian clan, the Huo clan, the Puppet G.o.d Sect, and the Roaring Soul sect remaining. Li Yang smiled at the remaining groups, his smile sending a slight shiver down their spines.

"And just like that, only you guys remain."