Against The Heavens 112 Divine Beast Tracks.

There was a straight path that went directly from the garden gate to the palace entrance, the entire path paved with a strangely rubbery stone. Strangely enough, despite the pa.s.sage of what was likely quite a few years, none of the gra.s.s or plants from the garden had spread to the path, it was completely clean.

While walking on it, Li Yang and Fang Ying felt a faint and tranquil sensation flow into their bodies from the path, calming their minds and clearing their thoughts. It seemed like the path itself was made using a man-made material designed to calm the mind and make it easier to cultivate, something Li Yang could only consider pointlessly luxurious.

Of course, the more pointlessly luxurious the path was, the more likely it was that the palace itself would contain plenty of good resources that they could snag. The two quickly reached the palace entrance, two ten-meter tall doors of cyan metal that had a soaring eagle engraved on them. The doors had been torn off their hinges by the people who had come before Li Yang and Fang Ying, tossed aside in a careless manner after they discovered that the doors weren't made from any rare material.

Li Yang walked over to one of the doors, giving it a few knocks with his knuckles. The door produced a strangely hollow sound as it was. .h.i.t, the sound echoing out and turning into a strangely soft tune that seemed to calm the mind somewhat, Li Yang's eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"I really wonder just where this Ocean G.o.d's Graveyard came from. I could at least guess at what type of material was used to make that path, but I have never even heard or read about any material like the one used to make this door."

Materials that calmed the mind weren't uncommon, Li Yang himself had owned quite a few mats and couches made of such material in his past life, he had even seen such items once or twice in this life already. But something like this door, which could turn a knocking sound into a calming tune? He had never even thought such a thing to be possible.

Now that Li Yang had reunited with Fang Ying and calmed his main worry, he was starting to focus more and more on the world around them, growing more and more curious about the various changes and advancements with each pa.s.sing day. At times he almost felt like a kid in a candy store, there was simply so much to see and learn.

And that was just in this universe, there were still countless other universes they could explore and adventure through, the things they could still see were close to endless. Fang Ying also walked over to the door, giving it a few gentle taps with her finger and listening to the tune.

"There are a few similar materials like this in the Tian clan, but none that have this calming effect. It could be that the Tian clan got the techniques to create these things last time this place opened, but haven't yet been able to study them enough to perfectly recreate them."

Fang Ying's guess wasn't far from the truth, the Tian clan had indeed gotten the techniques to create these kinds of items from here. But it wasn't that they were unable to recreate them due to not understanding the techniques, they simply didn't have the materials necessary to do so. Despite the great reach of the Tian clan, the recipe for items like this door contained materials they had never even heard of before. But that was only to be expected, the floating continent where this Ocean G.o.d's Graveyard was located came from a different universe after all.

Li Yang and Fang Ying took one of the doors each, putting them into their interspatial rings and storing them for closer inspection later on. Langshen had already headed into the palace while the two were busy with the doors so they quickly followed after him and entered the palace, arriving in a large hall that seemed to take up a large portion of the palace.

The hall was a bit different compared to what they had seen in the city so far, it was almost completely ruined. They could see places where large parts of the walls had been shattered, opening a path between the hall and some of the various rooms around it, this was the main reason the hall was so large, almost 50 kilometers in each direction now. There were large scars and holes in both the walls and floor, marks after weapon attacks. Various ruined weapons were scattered around the hall and the rooms around it, some of them shattered and some of them covered in rust and stains.

There were stains of dried blood all around the area, a large and violent battle had clearly taken place here. But despite all this blood and all these weapons lying around, there was not a single corpse present, there wasn't even any dust from bones. Another point that the two felt somewhat strange was the fact that the entire hall smelled faintly of fragrant wood, there wasn't the slightest foul smell despite all the dried blood.

The other groups that had entered the palace before them were busy checking all the bloodstains and the weapons, checking if anything was still useable. There was a set of fish-engraved doors that were twice as large as the entrance located on the opposite side of the room, leading deeper into the palace. Despite the scars and holes in the various walls, everything around this door was completely clean, not even a single crack in the walls. There were a few people from each group gathered around this door, trying to figure out how to open it. While Li Yang was sweeping the area with his gaze, Fang Ying softly tapped his shoulder, her voice drifting into his ears so that no one else could hear it.

"Langshen has found something, follow me."

Li Yang gave a fractal nod of his head, the two walking around like they were searching for anything still useable while slowly heading over to Langshen. When they reached him, Langshen used his nose to point at two small cracks in the wall, barely large enough to get half a finger in. Li Yang couldn't detect anything special about these cracks, but he didn't think that Langshen would lie to them, he likely discovered something thanks to his control over s.p.a.ce.

Li Yang crouched in front of the cracks, giving the wall a few knocks and inserting some Qi to test how strong they were. The result he got back was rather shocking to him, he could tell that even if he were to use all his strength, he would still be unable to damage these walls. There was no point in talking about any of these large cracks or holes, he probably couldn't even create a thumbnail-sized hole. With that being the case, just what sort of battle had gone down here to wreak such havoc?

He sent a sideways glance at Fang Ying, who quickly let Langshen know what he should do. s.p.a.ce around the three of them rippled for a short second before returning to normal, the three of them completely vanis.h.i.+ng from everyone else's sight. Langshen had used his control over s.p.a.ce to set up a small barrier that diverted all light that would hit them, completely s.h.i.+elding them from everyone else's sight.

Once the barrier was set up, Li Yang placed his hands over the two cracks, blocking them with his palm and flooding them with ice. Once the cracks were completely filled with ice, he pulled the now jagged shards of ice out of the cracks, pulling out what had been hiding within the cracks.

One of the cracks contained a shattered blue scale while the other contained parts of a golden feather, both of which were covered in a few seemingly fresh drops of blood. Li Yang's eyes narrowed the moment he pulled out the two items, immediately understanding why Langshen had called them over here.

"They're from Divine Beasts, both of them. The scale and the feather feel somewhat similar to the auras I felt when this place first opened, but the drops of blood give me a completely different feeling, it might be from a Divine Beast that has already been killed. The scale and feather are a bit strange, they feel very similar, yet a little different from each other."

Li Yang placed the two items back into the cracks after he finished talking, testing a hypothesize of his. The moment the two items entered the crack again, he became completely unable to sense the Divine Beast aura that they unleashed, proving his guess correct, the walls here were able to block even the Divine Beast aura. He then pulled the two items out from the cracks and quickly stored them into his interspatial rings, every part of a Divine Beasts body was a treasure that people would kill for, especially the blood. Fang Ying furrowed her brows slightly, sweeping the large hall for a moment before talking.

"The rest of the blood here has already dried so it shouldn't come from any Divine Beasts or cultivators at the Celestial Immortal realm, so the others shouldn't have noticed anything yet. They might suspect a few things based on the strength of the wall, but that should be it. We need to be careful that the others don't learn about this, they might call back the others that have already left this island."

If they called back everyone else, not only would it be harder for her and Li Yang to acquire resources, but there was also a risk that they might wake up the slumbering Devil's Grasp Vine. Li Yang nodded his head, bringing out the small feather fragment, spinning it around in his hand for a bit, the corners of his lips slowly pulling up.

"This drop of blood is still fresh after all these years, the feather looks like it was plucked a few seconds ago, and the scale still s.h.i.+nes with a beautiful splendor, the Divine Beasts that dropped them have certainly reached at least the Celestial Immortal realm in strength. And looking at the fact that these walls have been scarred this badly by weapons, we can also guess that there were at least one or two cultivators of the Celestial Immortal realm here. And yet, there is no more fresh blood anywhere in this hall."

Demonic beasts, even when taking on a human shape, would generally not use weapons, their bodies were their strongest weapons. So the ones that caused these scars and holes in the walls using weapons were most likely humans who had reached at least the Celestial Immortal realm, the same realm as Li Yang and Fang Ying in their prime. Li Yang stored away the feather again, sweeping the hall for a short moment before his gaze landed on the sealed door.

"I can think of three things that this could mean. First, someone has already been here before and taken away all the blood and other remains after the battle, this option is a bit unlikely looking at the fact that the door over there remains sealed and the fact that the garden was untouched. The second option is that none of the Divine Beasts or Celestial Immortal realm cultivators ended up wounded or dying, this option is also rather unlikely based on the destruction caused here and the fact that this feather and scale fragment have blood on them. The third option is that a certain something has already devoured all the blood and any possible remains, it might even have used the energy of that blood to mutate itself."

Li Yang looked down at the floor when he said his last guess, as if he was trying to see through the ground and observe the Devil's Grasp Vine that was slumbering inside the earth. If the Devil's Grasp Vine had really absorbed all the blood, it would explain how it seemed to have mutated somewhat, it also meant that they might be able to extract some of that blood when they drained the current primary heart of the stored up energy.

A clacking sound suddenly came from the other end of the room, the sealed door engraved with the image of a fish opening, it seemed like the various groups had been successful in opening the doors. The various groups immediately halted everything they were doing and rushed towards the door, wis.h.i.+ng to head deeper into the palace before anyone else. Langshen undid the barrier around them, the three of them heading towards the door while Fang Ying whispered quietly.

"There's one more option, there could be a beast or cultivator living in this castle who has already s.n.a.t.c.hed all the blood, we need to be careful."