82 From mountain to rubble. (1/2)

After Li Yang told Blackstone and the two others what he was planning, he returned to the Mission Control building. The missions he had accepted were spread over a large part of the continent, so he had to pick up a talisman that would let him use the spatial arrays owned by the Royal Dragon Pavilion.

The talisman he received was in the shape of a silver crescent moon, the same one they had used when Li Yang was first brought to the Yuan clan. With this talisman, he could not only use all the spatial arrays of the Royal Dragon Pavilion, but also all of the permanent spatial arrays that the Yuan clan had over the continent. Thanks to several arrays built into the talisman, as well as the fact that it was refined by the Yuan clan patriarch, even if he lost the talisman, the Yuan clan could activate the arrays and have the talisman return on its own.

After picking up the talisman, Li Yang walked to the edge of the clan, returning to the array they had used when he first arrived here. He placed the talisman against the formation, causing it to light up with a blinding light. Space around Li Yang turned viscous and constricting, coiling around him as he was sent away through space.

Once the light vanished and space returned to normal, Li Yang arrived in a small room that was completely empty, the walls and floor covered in winding runes that formed a complex array. Li Yang left the room and took a small flight of stairs upwards, opening a door that was located at the top of the stairs.

Once he pushed open the door, he was in the Royal Dragon Pavilion branch located in the Fire Cloud city where the contest to earn a spot for the Huo clan competition had taken place. A female receptionist came up to Li Yang, but he simply showed her the talisman, proving that he had the right to use the spatial array.

He didn't stick around Fire Cloud city for long, leaving it right after arriving. The first mission he intended on finishing was a bit of a distance away from this city, and it was to take down a group of bandits that had taken up shelter in a mountain. The group was a nuisance, but they stayed far enough away from Fire Cloud city that taking care of them was troublesome for the Fire Cloud city lord.

Li Yang quickly moved away from the city, running at full speed to cover as much ground as possible. After he ran so far that he was no longer able to see the city, he found a small and barren mountain that didn't hold any people. He gave the entire mountain a quick sweep, making sure that there truly wasn't anyone there, and then glanced at Jinwu and Shenlong.

”Alright you two, you can undo the disguises for a bit, let me see how much you've grown.”

To hide the fact that Jinwu and Shenlong were Divine beasts, Li Yang made them disguise themselves, especially while they were in the Yuan clan. Because of that, even he didn't know how much the two had grown over the last two months.

The two gave a short nod of their heads, putting some distance between them and Li Yang. Their bodies then started to change, Shenlong turning from his snake form back into his dragon form, stretching into a one-meter-long serpentine dragon. The violet spines that grew down his back had grown a little larger, and his four legs had grown a bit thicker. Li Yang guessed that since he was one meter long in this form, he would be half a meter long if he split up with Huanglong.

Jinwu, on the other hand, had changed quite a bit more after absorbing a large amount of fire in the Yuan clan training ground. Without the disguise, he was no longer the size of a normal crow, he was now one meter long and had a wingspan of three meters. His eyes had taken on a faint golden color, and although his feathers were still black in color, the tip of his left wing had a faint golden sheen, while the tip of his right wing had a faint blue sheen. It had only been two months, but both had grown quite a bit, making Li Yang rather happy, petting both of them on the head.

”You should try to keep your disguises on at all times from now on, with how you look now, I can't really say that you are normal Demonic beasts.”

One was clearly a dragon, while the other was starting to show signs of being a Golden Crow. If others saw them like this, it wouldn't require too much knowledge to figure out what they were, something that could spell disaster for Li Yang and the two of them.

The two nodded their heads, returning to their previous forms of a small crow and a golden snake, each taking their usual position on Li Yang's body, Jinwu perching on his left shoulder and Shenlong coiling around his neck. With both of them in position, Li Yang resumed his running, heading directly for the bandit hideout.

Since he was running at full speed, and in a straight line, he managed to reach the mountain that the bandits called home after only three days of constant running. His speed was drastically increased thanks to his Qi and laws of lightning, so three days of constant running was enough to cross a considerably vast distance.

The mountain that the bandits had taken as their base was shaped like a large hook, with the tip of the mountain bending forward and casting a shadow over the forest beneath it. The mountain was somewhat small, only around 10 kilometers tall. Somewhat short and gnarly trees created a large forest around the mountain, providing ample room for both bandit lookouts and Demonic beasts alike.

Li Yang hid in the forest right after arriving in it, covering up all traces of him and slowly sneaking closer to the mountain. He spotted two bandit lookouts while he was moving, but he simply steered around them for now, memorizing their locations. Once he reached an area close to the outskirts of the mountain, he stopped moving and hid among the treetops, using the leaves to hide his body.

He then glanced at Jinwu and Shenlong, who both already knew what they had to do. Shenlong split in two, Huanglong slithering off into the forest, and Shenlong slithering towards the mountain. Jinwu also took off, heading in the opposite direction of Huanglong, vanishing into the forest.

Li Yang had no intention of just charging into the bandit hideout, he first wanted to see how many bandits there were, and just where they were located. The mission summary contained a little bit of information about the numbers and strength of the bandits, but it was always better to make sure that you were certain.

Li Yang didn't stay still either, activating his lightning-based search technique and starting to stealthily scour the forest, memorizing the locations of every bandit he encountered, as well as what direction they were moving or observing.

The four continued to do this for an entire day, before finally meeting up again at the spot where they had split up. Huanglong and Shenlong fused back together, and then Shenlong and Jinwu started to relay to Li Yang all the information they had gathered. After gathering all the information, Li Yang rubbed his chin slightly, gazing at the mountain with narrowed eyes.

”That's quite a few, and there are a lot of tunnels and caves they can use to escape. Fighting in such enclosed quarters also isn't something I'm terribly fond of...”

Their numbers were quite a bit larger than the mission briefing first mention, a little over 300 bandits of varying strength, with the leader having reached the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm. Jinwu and Shenlong didn't interrupt Li Yang's thoughts, quietly waiting until he snapped his fingers.

”Alright, I guess that's the best option. Jinwu, Shenlong, can the two of you continue to keep an eye on this area? I gotta go pick up some things.”

Even if the bandit leader had only reached the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm, Li Yang had no interest in taking on him and his 300 men at the same time. Jinwu and Shenlong nodded their heads, taking off and continuing their scouring of the area.

In the meanwhile, Li Yang started to run back to Fire Cloud city. Three days later, he stepped into the Fire Cloud branch of the Universe Merchants. He didn't waste any time, walking over to the first person he saw wearing the uniform of the Universe Merchants, stating what he was looking for, flashing his silver talisman while he was at it.

”I need the blood of Demonic beasts that have reached the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm. They all need to have the earth or stone element, and I need about 300 liters of blood. I will also need a Stoneheart Flower, a Frostking Caterpillar, an Everlasting Crystal Core, a Mindchilling Ganoderma, and the heart of a Stonefaced Manticore who has reached the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm.”