78 I wonst play along. (1/2)
Huang Yong and the rest of the group did as Xiang Wuying ordered, quickly sweeping through the burning remains of the palace and finishing off any disciples that they might have missed. They didn't find the disintegrated corpse of Gao Gang, but they found the sect's Soul Tablet room.
Soul tablets were a type of jade tablet where one could store part of their Qi and blood, allowing the tablet to be connected to the one who first put their Qi and blood into it. Once the person who put his Qi into the tablet died, it would crack and dim down, allowing others to know that the person had died. Since Gao Gang's Soul Tablet had shattered, it was clear to Xiang Wuying and the others that he had already died.
Xiang Wuying personally searched the center of the palace, so the other searching disciples were unable to find the emptied treasury, causing them to click their tongues in an unsatisfied manner. Once the entire palace was swept clean and all the disciples were killed, Xiang Wuying gathered everyone together and gave a light clap of his hands.
”Alright, let's return to the clan and pick up our reward.”
Huang Yong and the others could only nod their heads, still somewhat annoyed that the sect seemingly didn't have a treasury. Xiang Wuying sent a slight glance at Li Yang, but he didn't seem to have any interest in mentioning Li Yang emptying the treasury, allowing Li Yang to keep the spoils to himself, seemingly looking to build a friendly relationship with Li Yang.
The group undid the formation they had set up around the palace and then quickly left the city, ignoring the shocked and relieved cries of the citizens that went to check out the palace. The moment the formation vanished, a black light swooped down from the sky, Jinwu landing on Li Yang's shoulder and letting out a few caws.
Jinwu had killed and turned the five fleeing disciples to ash, so right now he was a bit annoyed that he didn't get to eat them. Because of that, Li Yang could only quietly promise him that he could eat the next ones.
The group swiftly returned to the mountaintop where the temporary spatial array was located. They gathered on the spatial array and Xiang Wuying brought out the jade plate, inserting his Qi into it and activating the formation beneath them. A silver light flashed in front of their eyes, space around them turning viscous and stretching around them into a cocoon.
Once the cocoon vanished, the group was standing in the mission control room again, in front of the booth of the gray-haired and black-robed elder. Xiang Wuying handed the jade plate back to the elder, as well as handing over the gray jade slip, the heads of Teng Jiang and Gao He, as well as the Soul Tablet of Gao Gang, proving that the mission was completed.
The black-robed elder went over the proof, making sure that everything was in order. Once he was certain that the mission was completed, he started to hand out the rewards, starting with Xiang Wuying. Before Xiang Wuying left after received his reward, he turned to Li Yang, giving him a slight nod.
”Junior Brother Yang, if you face any troubles in the future, you can come to look for me and I will help you resolve them.”
Huang Yong and the two others couldn't help but turn slightly jealous after hearing this. Having one of the top five outer disciples personally guarantee that they would take care of you was something that every outer disciple dreamed of. Li Yang put on a polite smile, cupping his hands.
”Thank you, Senior Brother Wuying, I will make sure to keep that in mind.”
Xiang Wuying gave another slight nod of his head, leaving the mission control building. Huang Yong and the two others also quickly left after receiving their rewards, leaving Li Yang as the last one to receive his reward.
The black-robed elder swiped his interspatial and took out a plum blossom that was crimson in color, an orange pattern in the shape of a flame decorating the leaves, a faint heat radiating from the flower. He handed the flower to Li Yang, asking a standard question.
”Here is the Fireplum Blossom, the 100 contribution points have also been registered in your name, raising your contribution points up to 200. Would you like a list over everything that can be bought for contribution points?”
Li Yang accepted the flower and stored it into his interspatial ring, placing it amongst the other items he had gotten from the Ghost Banner sect treasury. He then gave the black-robed man a nod, as he didn't actually know all the things he could buy using contribution points. The black-robed elder swiped his interspatial ring, taking out a jade slip made from yellow jade, handing it to Li Yang and allowing him to leave.
As Li Yang left the mission control building and made his way back to his own lodgings, he sank a part of his mind into the jade slip and quickly went over the contents. Seeing the wide variety of items that could be bought for contribution points, his eyes couldn't help but light up, especially when he saw the top-ranked items.
”They even have blood like this huh? That means that this clan has someone who has at least reached the middle stage of the Celestial Immortal realm, a Heavenly Immortal. It should be quite useful for Jinwu or the Shenlong twins, so I should try to get my hands on some.”
Three of the top-ranked items were a few drops of blood, specifically the blood of an adult Crimson Dragon, the blood of an adult Kun, and the blood of an adult Peng. These three creatures were all Divine beasts like Jinwu and Shenlong, so their blood, especially the blood of adults, was incredibly valuable. This was reflected in the price as well, as each drop of blood would cost 10 million contribution points, a number that felt incredibly distant to the current Li Yang.
The clan also offered various cultivation manuals that interested Li Yang, especially the body cultivation or the soul cultivation manuals. Some of them were rather cheap, while others were quite expensive, so Li Yang decided to check through the collection of books he had just acquired before deciding on which he should buy. After checking through everything he could buy, Li Yang sent a part of his mind into his interspatial ring and started to organize the various books he had acquired.
Once Li Yang reached his own lodging, which was located close to the shore of a lake, he saw that Rivergrass and his two other servants were working around his house, cutting the grass and cleaning the house, keeping everything in pristine condition. Seeing his arrival, the three servants quickly bowed to him, the scarred and black-haired Blackstone swiftly speaking up.
”Senior Brother Yang, you have returned. Would you like me to make some food?”
They remembered that Li Yang referred to eating as one of the greatest joy a cultivator could have, so he assumed that Li Yang would want some food right after completing a mission. Li Yang gave a short nod, affirming Blackstone's thoughts.
”Please do.”
The three swiftly entered the house and started to work on the dinner, Ji Shun and Blackstone cooking while Rivergrass prepared the table. They all sat down at the table once the food was done, Jinwu and Shenlong sitting on the table at the left and right of Li Yang. While they were eating, Li Yang seemed to think of something, taking out three books from his interspatial ring.
”Right, the three of you can study these books, they should prove to be helpful to your cultivation.”
He handed the books to the three servants with a casual wave of his hand. He had already checked these books while he was returning to his house and had found that their contents were useless to him. They described various aspects of several laws, but none of the laws that Li Yang cultivated, so he decided that he might as well hand them to these three servants. They were useless to him but far better than anything Rivergrass and the others had access to, so they were ecstatic when receiving them.
”Thank you, Senior Brother Yang!”
The group continued to eat, quickly finishing the food. Once they had finished eating, Li Yang dismissed the three servants and retreated to his room, sitting down on the bed with crossed legs His plan now was to carve one or two more runes, increasing his cultivation further by using the resources he had looted in the treasury.
He took out a few herbs, fruits, and mushrooms from his interspatial ring, handing them to Jinwu and Shenlong. The resources he handed them were either fire, ice, lightning, or poison element resources, as only those would be really useful to them. The resources weren't of the top-quality that Divine beasts would usually use, but it was the best he had access to at the moment, so they could only accept them.
After handing them their resources, he took out the ones meant for him and placed them on the bed around him, closing his eyes and sinking his mind into his own dantian, which resembled a pitch black space where six sets of four different runes floated.
The first thing he did was absorb all the energy within the herbs and fruits that contained large amounts of pure Qi, drawing it into his dantian and using it to assault the edges of his dantian. The size of his dantian started to slowly increase, creating room for more runes and allowing him to store more Qi in his dantian.
Once he had created enough space, he split the remaining Qi into eight separate streams, positioning them next to his other runes. The first runes he decided to carve were the runes for his law of true destruction.
The two streams of Qi that gathered next to his previous runes started to slowly change as he inserted part of his mind into them. The previous colorless Qi turned a deep black in color, a slight suction force spreading out as the streams started to change in shape, coiling around themselves and forming the images of black holes.
The suction force released by the runes slowly grew stronger as Li Yang inserted more and more of his mind into them, solidifying his understanding of true destruction into the runes. After an unknown amount of time, the suction force completely vanished, leaving behind two runes in the shape of black holes. The two runes didn't release any suction force or radiate an ounce of pressure, but looking at them filled one with a sense of dread that was born from their own instincts.
The next runes he carved were the runes for his law of lightning. The two streams he had set aside for his law of lightning split up into even more thin strings, each string slowly turning a deep azure in color. He sunk his mind into each of the strings, imbuing them with different parts of his understanding.
some strings crackled with lightning that contained intense heat, some with lightning so fast it could be seen, some with lightning that released a strange attraction force, some with lightning that spiraled as it moved, and some with lightning that seemed strangely calm and weak.
The various strings started to coil around each other, twisting and turning as they slowly started to form two runes. The two runes were in the shape of a cloud crackling with bolts of lightning, each bolt of lightning radiated a different type of pressure, representing a different part of his understanding.
The next runes he carved where his fire runes, the two streams of energy turning a deep crimson in color. Different from his lightning runes, these fire runes only contained a single understanding, extreme heat that burned everything, turning all of creation into a single massive fire. The streams quickly coiled around themselves, forming runes that resembled a burning flame.
The last runes he carved were his ice runes, the last two streams of energy turning a light blue in color, a horrifying freezing feeling radiating from them. These ice runes also only contained a single understanding, a cold so horrifying that it would turn all of creation into ice. The streams started to form runes that resembled a clean and pure lotus formed from terrifyingly cold ice.
With the completion of his ice runes, Li Yang had successfully managed to increase his cultivation by two small sub-realms, pushing him into the middle stage of the Xiantian rune realm. After finishing the runes, he also realized how much time had passed, just about 10 days, a rather short period of time. But his brows were furrowed as he opened his eyes, a light mutter escaping his lips after he finished carving the runes.
”It's gonna start to become more troublesome soon... I should put more focus on increasing my understanding of the fire and ice elements, or at least bring that one concept to the very peak.”
Thanks to Fang Ying, Li Yang had some understanding of quite a few other laws. But this could only be called a very basic understanding, far from comparing to his understanding of the law of lightning. He was only in the Human Rune realm right now, so he could get away with only carving fire and ice runes that contained a single understanding, but if he wanted his ice and fire laws to be on par with his lightning laws in the future, he would likely have to deepen his understanding of them.
But rather than increase his understanding of the various applications of fire and ice, he knew that there was one other thing he could do instead, focus fully on the aspect of extreme heat and extreme cold.
Li Yang found the law of fire and ice to be very similar to the law of true destruction, in that they were incredibly inclusive. If true destruction was left to wreak havoc, it would swallow the entire universe, turning everything into the empty void that was true destruction.