Against The Heavens - 156 Wastelands Wall 2

Li Yang’s group of three people and one wolf quickly made their way through the ruined city by following the chubby man’s directions. They also used the symbols that the various groups that entered the ruins left behind, they kept track of where there had already been groups as well as where there were signs of active Deathcloud Warriors.

The group stopped for a few seconds when they reached the spot where Li Yang encountered the people from the Shadow Emperor sect, their gazes moving between Li Yang and the bloody smudge on the wall that was still dripping as they looked at it. Faced with their questioning gazes, Li Yang could only shrug his shoulders in defense.

“Forgot how squishy they were.”

Zhao Feng tried, and then quickly failed, to hold back a small laughter when he heard Li Yang’s shoddy defense. Fang Ying simply gave a nod of her head and removed her eyes from the bloodstain, the group quickly continuing their journey.

They moved slowly during the first day, but after not seeing even the smallest sign of any Deathcloud Warriors they decided to pick up their pace a bit. Their speed was quite a bit faster than that of the groups that usually entered these ruins so rather than spend the usual two weeks, they managed to leave the ruins only four days after they encountered the chubby man’s group.

The area beyond the ruins looked much the same as it did on the side where they first appeared, a barren wasteland covered with cracks due to how brittle the earth was. A road went from the ruins and cut a straight path through the barren wasteland, leading to a distant city surrounded by a massive stone wall.

It was as if a deity had drawn a line in the earth a few steps away from the city, the barren wasteland simply ended and gave way to fresh grass and tall trees. There were even some trees that stood on both sides of the invisible border, one half long withered while the other half was still growing strong.

The faded yellow wall surrounding the city had four surprisingly small gates carved into its front, each gate was only about two meters tall and one meter wide. The wall was about 200 meters high, so the gates looked like no more than ants, especially since Li Yang and the others were still rather far away from the city.

The group quickly followed the road and headed for the city, curiously inspecting the wasteland around them, a few faint tremors running through the ground. Over the last four days, they had started to feel what the chubby man was talking about, it felt like the wasteland itself was slowly sapping away their strength. It seemed like he hadn’t been exaggerating when he said that any life would wither away within at most three months in the wasteland.

They quickly approached the city, Li Yang honestly feeling somewhat disappointed that they hadn’t gotten to see a single Deathcloud Warrior. They managed to spot several thousand guards stationed on top of the wall as they got closer, the guards seemed to be divided into three different groups, with two of those groups wearing the robes of the Shadow Emperor sect and the Earth Rendering Empire.

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The last group wore robes that were a strange half white and half black, with a small touch of golden, the different colors on the robe forming the image of a cloud and sun torn in two. Since the two other groups were identified, Li Yang and the others guessed that this group belonged to the third great faction in this universe, the Heaven Devastator sect.

The group reached the gates to the city after walking for a few hours, a guard opening the door from the inside after receiving the clear from the guards atop the wall. One didn’t have to go through a lengthy process to enter the city, you just had to be alive and then the gates would be opened for you. They walked through the small gates one by one and entered the city, the armor-clad guard that opened the gate closing it behind them again. He, strangely enough, didn’t use an array to lock the door, he used a normal lock as well as a wooden beam to bar the gate.

The city that stretched out in front of them after they walked through the gate looked almost like a puzzle that had been taken apart. All the buildings were completely square in shape, and although the buildings closer to the center of the city were larger than most, all the buildings looked like they could be stacked together to form a single massive fortress.

The buildings had windows on all sides that you could use to scout for enemies, and all the buildings were made using a mixture of stone and metal so that they would be very sturdy. None of the people that walked the streets looked normal either, they all radiated a certain amount of energy, even the weakest person they saw had reached the early stage of the Ascending Heaven realm in soul cultivation. It was a rather strange sight to see a city that seemed to be so specifically built for war so Fang Ying turned her head to look at the armored guard and tilted her head slightly.

“Excuse me for my ignorance, but we’re travelers that have only recently arrived on this planet, is it normal for the cities here to be built like this? Even the citizens seem more prepared for battle than usual.”

Cities would usually have countless normal citizens, non-cultivators or retired and crippled cultivators who handled the farms and other important functions of the city. But here, they didn’t see anyone that wasn’t a cultivator, there was even a farm a few kilometers to the right of the entrance that was being run by cultivators.

The armored guard moved his head slightly upon receiving the question but didn’t seem terribly shocked, the ruins left behind by the Bloodwind Emperor were a very popular place for people from outside the planet to visit. Due to this, the number of people he had seen arrive in high spirits but never return had already passed several thousand.

“No, not all the cities on our planet are built like this, this particular city is just a bit special. We are the Wastelands Wall, not only do we protect the outside world from the wasteland, but we also protect the wasteland from the outside world. The aura of life mixed with the aura of death inside the wastelands attracts a lot of Demonic beasts, sometimes entire swarms of them, so we have to stop them before they flood into the ruins and end up feeding the Deathcloud Warriors. There are also times where a Deathcloud Warrior grows so strong that it becomes able to command legions of weaker warriors and tries to leave the ruins with all of them. There are also special occasions where their hunger grows so large that they might swarm to leave the ruins, but that usually only happens if they catch the scent of a being filled with so much lifeforce that it truly stirs their hunger and desire. In those times, we are the first line of defense, and thus we have to be battle-ready at all times.”

The guard spoke with a heavy and solemn tone that contained the unmistakable tinge of pride. They were the first line of defense, the bastion relied upon by the rest of the planet, how could he not feel pride in that? Li Yang’s eyebrows actually furrowed somewhat when he heard the guard’s words, his eyes sweeping around the area as he questioned further.

“We encountered a group that said they were from the Shadow Emperor sect about four days ago, they wouldn’t happen to have come here, right?”

Fang Ying and Zhao Feng weren’t immediately certain why Li Yang would ask about that, but seeing his furrowed brows they could be certain that it wasn’t for anything good. The guard was also a little caught off guard, but he still gave a nod of his head after a short moment of thought.

“There was indeed a group that returned about a day ago, but they returned to their sect less than an hour after arriving here. A friend of my husband said that they seemed to be in a hurry, one of them even warned that friend that the ruins might get a bit noisy within the next few days. But so far it’s all been quiet, so it’s more likely that they just wanted to scare him a bit, wouldn’t really be the first time.”

Li Yang’s eyebrows furrowed even further when he heard the guard’s response, it seemed like his worry was correct. He thought it would be fine since they had left the wasteland, but now it seemed like that wouldn’t be the case. He pulled Fang Ying and Zhao Feng a few steps away from the guard, lowering his voice somewhat and stating it plainly.

“We need to be battle-ready at all times from now on. The Deathcloud Warriors are attracted to lifeforce, but they didn’t make a move on us even once over these four days. Given that they supposedly have some intelligence, there is a possibility that they didn’t attack us because they realized the difference in strength and have thus decided to gather more forces. Now that we’ve left the wasteland, they might actually be getting panicky and have decided to stop gathering forces to immediately launch an attack.”

Fang Ying and Zhao Feng still weren’t quite certain what Li Yang was talking about, but their expressions changed after only a few seconds. The Deathcloud Warriors were attracted to lifeforce, and their group just so happened to contain one body cultivator who was also a humanoid Divine Beast, a wolf-type Divine Beast, and a cultivator whose veins flowed with the blood of a dragon, they were a feast ripe with tremendous amounts of lifeforce.

If the Deathcloud Warriors really had a history of swarming out of the ruins upon sensing such a feast, then it might really end up like Li Yang stated. Fang Ying and Zhao Feng nodded their heads with somewhat solemn expressions, agreeing with Li Yang’s idea. Most people would definitely choose to flee right away upon guessing something like this, but the three of them were far from normal, they were confident enough in their abilities that they felt that they would be able to flee even if things turned south. There was also the fact that all three of them were rather curious about these Deathcloud Warriors, if a swarm really came then it would be a good chance to get a good look at them.