Against The Heavens 109 Palace Garden.

Li Yang and Fang Ying weren't in much of a rush, they took their time as they walked, curiously inspecting the city around them. It wasn't often that one could enter a place like this so even Langshen was curiously looking at the surroundings while walking, using his sharp nose to see if he could sniff out any resources. After they had spent a few hours walking, Li Yang glanced at one of the surrounding buildings and spoke up.

"Hey, Ying'er, have you noticed?"

While speaking, Li Yang let his finger run along the wall of the closest building, tracing the edges of one of the windows. Fang Ying looked at the building he was glancing at, nodding her head and casting a sweeping glance at the other surrounding buildings.

"Yeah, it really is a rather curious thing. All the buildings seem to have been carved out of a single ma.s.sive rock, most of them likely created using the bare minimum of strokes. I'm not sure if that palace is the same, but if it is the same as these buildings then the one who made this place is truly skilled."

All the buildings they had seen so far didn't have any signs that they were made up of several smaller stones, causing the two of them to guess that the houses might have been made by someone using the law of stone or the law of earth. But when they gave the houses a few closer looks, they saw traces along the edges of the houses that showed that they had been carved into this shape using a very sharp weapon. They also saw that some of the buildings had natural markings like cracks or spots of different coloration that suddenly stopped at the edge of the house and then started again on the edge of the next house.

For it to be like this, the only explanation was that these houses were once part of the same greater whole. And looking at how many buildings were sharing such natural markings, it was likely that all the buildings they had seen so far were once part of the same greater whole, either a ma.s.sive rock or a large mountain. Li Yang nodded his head, looking through the window and into the house.

"Yeah, whoever did it was probably on the same level as the past us, they might even have been at a higher level. I also wonder where all the people in this city went, it seems like they just suddenly left, or vanished."

In the past, the most dextrous and artistically inclined one of Li Yang's friends, Ye Ning, would have been able to carve a mountain into a city using his dextrous skill with the sword. But he would not be able to do it as neatly as the one who had carved this city, there would be quite a few places where he would have ended up leaving a mark, like a chip in the stone or a slight tilt in the cut. This fact, coupled with the number of Divine Beasts he had sensed here earlier, made Li Yang grow more and more curious about this Ocean G.o.d's Graveyard.

Fang Ying nodded her head and followed his gaze, seeing what appeared to be a dining room, a short rectangular table surrounded by five chairs. There were plates and cups still standing on the table, some brown mushrooms growing out of what appeared to be the ancient remains of food on the plates. Two of the cups contained what appeared to be wine while the other three contained a clear liquid that smelled like sweet fruit, all of them untouched. It seemed like the people who had once lived here had simply left after setting up the dining table.

This house wasn't the only one that contained this strange scene, all the other houses they had entered and examined were the same. The closest still contained the rotting remains of clothes, there were items such as tools and weapons hanging on some walls, what appeared to be the remains of leather shoes still remained in the entrances of the houses. It seemed like the people here had simply disappeared while preparing for their day, which was why Li Yang corrected himself to say that they might have vanished.

The two of them spent two days following the roads before finally arriving in front of the blue hexagonal palace, which they now saw actually had a small golden orb-like building located on the ceiling, a small spire sticking up from the orb. The entire palace was surrounded by a tall stone wall covered in runes Li Yang had never seen before, a blooming garden just barely visible through the bars of the metal gates.

There were quite a few people gathered up in front of the gates, several of them closely inspecting the runes that covered the walls and gates. From the looks of it, an array seemed to be sealing up the palace, the people here currently busy with trying to break through the array. Li Yang and Fang Ying saw a few places on the gates which were scratched out, the marks appearing very recent, so it seemed like they were making rather good progress in breaking the array.

The two of them attracted quite a bit of attention when they arrived, Fang Ying was the princess of the Tian clan after all. Seeing the princess, and future wife of Tian Zheng, walking hand in hand with another unknown man, how could these people not help but stare? Of course, there were some people here that were enemies of Tian Zheng so they were perfectly fine with seeing him cucked like this. The moment the two of them arrived, someone called out to them.

"Junior Sister Ying! I'm so glad you entered this place as well!"

A man with silky black hair who looked to be in his twenties and was clad in the robes of the Tian clan pushed his way through the crowd of people that had gathered up in front of the gates, running over to Fang Ying with a bright smile. There were a few other people here clad in the robes of the Tian clan, but they didn't follow the running man, they simply looked at Li Yang with narrowed eyes. The man ran forward and reached for Fang Ying's hand, glaring at Li Yang.

"Come, Junior Sister Ying, you must leave that fiend. Senior Brother Zheng left for a different island, but I'm sure we can still catch up to him if we leave now. He misses you oh so much, so you best retur...!"

Li Yang got enough of the youth's mindless dribble before he even finished his sentence. He let go of Fang Ying's hand and took a step forward, grabbing onto the outstretched wrist of the youth with his left hand and then stepping into the youth's bosom and driving his right elbow into the chest of the youth.

His elbow unleashed an explosive burst of fire that threw the youth backward, but since Li Yang was holding onto his wrist he didn't get very far. Li Yang used the momentum that the youth had gained to give his own body half a twist to the left, the youth dragged along as Li Yang was performing the motion. The moment Li Yang completed the half-twist, he let go of the youth's wrist, flinging him into the wall that surrounded the palace and launching a second attack.

The youth crashed into the wall but didn't leave as much as a scratch on it. The moment he crashed into the wall, Li Yang's second attack reached him. Arm-thick spikes of ice grazed the youth's skin before striking the wall and shattering, the small fragments landing on his arms and freezing, crucifying him to the wall, blood leaking out from the sides of his lips.

After dealing with the youth in a swift and brutal manner, Li Yang swept his narrowed eyes over the other people that had gathered there, lightning and fire dancing within his pupils while a chilly mist started to coil around him. His eyes eventually stopped on the group of the Tian clan, the corners of his lips curling into a sneer that contained hints of a challenging intent.

"Ying'er is MY wife, she has nothing to do with that wastrel you call your future patriarch. You can try to take her back to him, but the next time anyone here makes a move on her, I won't be as merciful as I was just now."

Some might consider his words to be arrogant and outrageous, but the strength he had shown was the real deal. The youth that had run up was only at the late stage of the Ascending Heaven realm, but he was after all chosen by the Tian clan to take part in this compet.i.tion, he could be considered somewhat of a genius. For Li Yang, who was only at the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm to manhandle him like that, the spectators were able to guess that he likely had the strength of someone at the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, he might even have more strength hidden away.

The one who seemed to be the leader of this group of Tian clan disciples, a slightly wrinkly pink-haired woman that had reached the middle stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, gave Li Yang a sideways glance, waving her hand to get one of the other disciples to free the crucified one.

"You can speak grandly all you want, our Young Master will still come to reclaim his fiancee in the future. I would like to see if you are still going to be so arrogant then."

She was downright furious that Li Yang had dared call Tian Zheng a wastrel, but she knew that there was nothing she could do now. She might be able to get the upper hand in a battle against him, but Li Yang had Fang Ying and Langshen at his side, her side would lose heavily should they try to fight. Li Yang raised an eyebrow at the woman, opening his mouth to respond when he was suddenly interrupted by a scoffing sound coming from Fang Ying.

"Reclaim his fiancee? I have never agreed to become his future wife, you simply decided that I would love the arrangement and settled the matter between yourselves. Let me make it clear here then. This is my husband, Li Yang, I will never marry Tian Zheng."

After speaking, Fang Ying grabbed onto Li Yang and pulled him close, planting a deep kiss on his lips, as if she was underlining her words while simultaneously marking her territory. The mouth of the pink-haired woman twitched furiously when she saw this, but a few of the other people looking at the spectacle whistled loudly to cheer them on, taking this chance to mock the Tian clan a little.

By saying these words here, she made certain that no matter what happened, everyone would know that Fang Ying belonged to Li Yang, not even the mighty Tian clan could change that fact. After Fang Ying ended the kiss and pulled away from him, Li Yang gave his lips a quick lick before they curled into a disdainful smile.

"You'd like to see if I can still be arrogant when I meet Tian Zheng? Heh, all he will be is another person joining the long list of people I've already killed. And if I had to rank him on that list, he would be pretty close to the bottom. My arrogance remained strong even in the face of the heavens, it'll take far more than just a little wastrel to crack it."

Even if he ignored his previous life, Li Yang had killed Jing Yimu in this life, someone countless times stronger than Tian Zheng. There were quite a few factors involved that allowed him to kill Jing Yimu, but there was no need for him to mention any of that. The eyes of the pink-haired woman twitched quite a bit, but she chose to swallow her anger, turning her head away to ignore Li Yang and Fang Ying.

The two found an empty corner and sat down on the ground, Langshen resting his head on Fang Ying's lap while sending Li Yang a slight nod, clearly rather pleased with how he had handled things. It didn't take much longer for the people to crack the array that sealed the palace, Li Yang and Fang Ying only forced to wait for another two days before the array was broken and the gates flung open, the thick scent of precious herbs wafting out from the garden around the palace.

The people gathered in front of the palace quickly flooded into the garden, a few people lagging behind so that they could use the ones that were acting hastily as gauges for how dangerous the garden was. Li Yang and Fang Ying also stood up, Langshen following them as they started walking towards the entrance, preparing to pick up as many resources as possible.