100 The start of the grand competition. (1/2)

Li Yang quickly reached the dome that was the mission control building, accepting several missions that had rewards that were enticing to him. All of the missions were kill missions, meaning that they required him to kill either people or Demonic beasts, most of which were between the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm and the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm.

There was a large leap of strength between each cultivation realm, with someone at the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm usually able to easily kill droves of people at the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm. Because of this, Li Yang was not 100% confident in his chances to kill someone at the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, but he was confident that he could escape even if he failed to kill them.

He received the same pendant as last time, allowing him to use the spatial arrays that belonged to the Royal Dragon Pavilion to quickly move around the continent. After receiving the pendant and making sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, Li Yang left the clan using one of their spatial arrays, appearing on the other side of the continent.

He left the Royal Dragon Pavilion branch he had arrived at and took out the map he had bought before he joined the Yuan clan, checking how far away his current target was from his position. His first target was a rogue cultivator that had killed quite a few cultivators from the Yuan clan, and according to the rumors and some spies, he was currently hiding as an old merchant in a small town.

After making sure that he had arrived in the right place, Li Yang left the city and headed for the town where his first target was hiding. He only had about eight months until the start of the grand competition, so he couldn't afford to waste any time, not if he wanted to cultivate three different cultivation systems at once.

What followed could only be called a furious marathon of murder and cultivation, Li Yang traveling all over the continent and leaving nothing but ruins in his wake. He didn't even leave behind corpses, as all the corpses were taken by him to cultivate his Bloody Shura technique. Humans and Demonic beasts all had their blood and souls extracted to form Blood Seals, which had a rather peculiar appearance.

They were made up fo two parts, an outer circle that looked like a dragon biting down on its own tail, and an inner part that looked like two serpents coiled around each other in ferocious combat. Li Yang failed in his first nine attempts to create these runes, as he had never really interacted much with souls before. But after becoming a bit more proficient with the technique, as well as receiving some aid from the strange property of Jinwu's ice element, he managed to carve a successful rune and merge it with his soul.

Of course, he didn't just cultivate his soul, he also cultivated his Qi and used the Myriad Monarch technique to cultivate his body. As time continued to pass, and the number of missions he completed increased, the date of the grand competition crept closer and closer. Li Yang only returned to the clan twice in the eight months before the competition, and both times he only returned for a few minutes to hand in the completed missions and buy some resources. He then made a quick stop at his house to pick up all the resources that had been dropped off there and then picked up some new missions before leaving the clan once again.

The last mission Li Yang completed was to kill a flock of scorpion-type Demonic beasts that had taken over a part of the outer edge of the Blood Swallowing Graveyard, one of the five most dangerous locations on this planet. The leader of the scorpions had reached the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm and he had five other scorpions at the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm serving him. It was the hardest of the missions, which was why Li Yang had saved it for last, completing it half a month before the start of the grand competition.

After completing this mission, Li Yang returned to the clan for the second and last time in the eight months, picking up a few more resources and then leaving again. He headed directly to the Broken Rapid's city, which was named this because it was located on an island located at the center of a massive river that was famous for how swift and ferocious its currents were.

As it was a city owned and ruled by the Huo clan, the buildings were all colored various shades of red and orange. The insignia of the Huo clan was spread throughout the entire city, a solitary flame torching the sky. Normally one would have to use a specialized ferry to reach the city, but as Li Yang had the pendant of the Yuan clan, he could just head directly to the Royal Dragon Pavilion branch that was located in the city.

Once he arrived within the city, he sought out the person he had been told about, Huo Guanting, and showed him the token he had received upon achieving the 10th spot in the tournament he took part in. Huo Guanting, a somewhat frail crimson-haired man with a slight stubble who looked to be in his fifties checked the token, and upon ascertaining that it was real, brought Li Yang to a house that had been prepared ahead of time, telling him how things would proceed.

”Come to the center of the city in 13 days, an elder from the Huo clan will open a separate entrance to the hidden realm for us. Once you enter that hidden realm, you can only leave by surviving to the end of the competition, so make sure you have thought everything through and prepared for the worst case situation.”

Huo Guanting gave Li Yang a quick showcasing of the house as he spoke, making sure that he understood just how dangerous a competition like this was. They would enter the hidden realm through a separate entrance and arrive at the other end of it, quite a distance away from the people from the various clans and sects.