Against The Heavens 3 Liang Tribe.

The Demonic Beasts were a constant threat, but they were also an opportunity. Whenever someone in the village came of age, they would have to venture into the wilderness and try to tame a Demonic beast, taking it as their companion. Those that failed to tame a Demonic beast would become normal citizens, while those that managed to tame a Demonic beast were taken in as warriors and protectors of the tribe.

Another opportunity that the Demonic beasts presented were their strong bodies. If they managed to kill a Demonic beast, they could eat its flesh and drink its blood, absorbing the abundant energy within. Absorbing this energy would make it easier for them to open their dantian as well as engraving their runes.

At the very edge of the village, a small and thin child was resting with his back against a tree. Despite being thin and small, the child had sharp eyebrows that resembled swords. He had short hair that was a brilliant azure in color, and deep black eyes that captivated anyone who looked at them for too long. He was clad in simple brown cotton clothing.

"Brother Yang, it is almost time for the affinity ceremony, so it is time to head to the village square."

Another child clad in cotton clothing came running up to the child that was resting against the tree. The child ran up and reminded the resting child, but he did not step within ten meters of the resting child, seemingly afraid of getting closer.

Within the village, everyone knew about Li Yang. Li Yang's parents died not long after Li Yang turned six, so everyone expected him to die early on. But he did not, no matter how bad the weather got, no matter how broken down his house got, no matter how little food he was given, Li Yang never seemed to be affected.

Everyone in the village knew Li Yang as a very kind and cheerful child, a faint smile always visible at the corners of his lips. But they also knew that he was a very strange child. His eyes were simply far too deep, far too inscrutable. No matter how hard they tried, they were simply incapable of reading him.

Because of this, some of the children and adults in the village were slightly scared of Li Yang. He was simply far too calm. Even when his parents had died, Li Yang had not shed a tear. He had simply buried their bodies and kneeled by their graves for three days. After the three days were up, he knocked his head against the ground nine times. After that, he never spoke of them again.

"Ah? Alright, I'll be there."

Hearing the child shout at him, Li Yang tilted his head towards the child. He stood up and brushed off the dust from his clothing, walking over to the child as he spoke. Whenever Li Yang took a step closer, the child would take one step back, making sure to keep his distance.

Li Yang did not mind the actions of this child, nor did he mind how some of the others in the village did the same. When Li Yang was born, while he did not have all the memories of his past life, he had some spread memories about his past life. These memories were also the reason why he had not been sad after his parents in this life had died. To him, they were only the parents of this body, they could never become his actual parents. The three days of kneeling and the nine kowtows had been him paying his respects for birthing this body, as well as severing his ties with them.

His sight had never been on this village, it had always been on a much grander scale. He was just waiting for the right time to leave the village. Li Yang did not know much about this world, the fact that he had been reborn into a small village located in a remote wilderness did not help this fact.

But he knew a few things about this world, while other things he managed to guess thanks to the few memories he had of his past life. One thing he knew was the cultivation system that this world used, as it was rather similar to the one he had in his past life.

Cultivation was based on using the natural energy in the surroundings, the Qi, to open a s.p.a.ce in the dantian. After opening this s.p.a.ce, a person would use their understanding of the world to engrave runes into this opened s.p.a.ce. The more runes one wanted to engrave, the larger they would have to make the s.p.a.ce.

The more runes one had, the stronger a person would be and the longer they would live. The number of runes a person had also signified their cultivation level. 1-3 runes meant that the person was at the Mortal Rune realm. 4-6 runes meant that the person was at the Houtian Rune realm, while 7-9 runes meant that the person was at the Xiantian Rune realm.

Before a person engraved a rune, they could only use the surrounding Qi to strengthen their bodies and make physical attacks. But after engraving a rune, a person could use the surrounding Qi to summon forth whatever rune they had engraved. Engraving a stone rune would let a person summon and control stones, a blood rune would let them summon and control blood, while a death rune would let them control dead bodies. Of course, the prerequisite was that they managed to gain an understanding about what they were engraving.

The strongest person in Wildbourne was Liang Zhu, the leader of the Liang tribe. He had two runes that he had engraved using his understanding of stones, so he was someone at the middle stage of the Mortal Rune realm. While the people in the village believed that a person had reached the peak of cultivation when they reached nine runes, Li Yang refused to believe this. There would always be a higher peak. Li Yang refused to believe that the peak cultivation level of this world would be something as weak as nine runes.

Of course, people could also have more than one type of rune. Liang Zhu, for example, had two stone runes as well as one wind rune. But since cultivation only cared for the one rune type that he had the most runes with, so he was still only considered at the middle stage of the Mortal Rune realm.

Having more than one type of runes could make a person stronger, as each rune would allow their strength to increase by a little. But it would take them more work to increase their cultivation level, as they had to divide their attention between understanding several different things.

Li Yang also knew that the village he lived in was placed on a truly ma.s.sive continent called Cloud's Peak continent. Half of Cloud's Peak continent was covered in a vast wilderness that was simply called the Cloud Wilderness. Wildbourne village was located at the outskirts of this Cloud Wilderness.

Demonic beasts were animals, plants, or even just normal materials like rock, air, water, or metal, that had absorbed enough Qi to start cultivating. Demonic beasts followed a different cultivation path from humans, but they were still called by the same cultivation levels as humans. So Li Yang knew that a Demonic beast that could match Liang Zhou would be called a middle stage Mortal Rune realm Demonic beast.

Li Yang headed towards the village square, hands behind his head as he walked with a leisure gait. Today was the time where they would test the affinity of the young children in the village. Testing their affinity would allow them to know just that, what the children had an affinity for.

It would show if a child had an affinity for understanding things about blood, about wind, about flowers, about water, letting them know exactly what the child should focus its cultivation on. Li Yang did not have too much interest in this ceremony, but he also did not have a reason not to go to it.

What Li Yang was doing now was waiting. He could feel that there was something important in his memories from his past life, something he had to remember no matter what. Once his memories awakened and he managed to remember that important thing, that would be the day he would leave the village.

He was already twelve years old, and could almost be considered an adult. He would soon have to venture into the wilderness to search for a Demonic beast to tame. If he did not regain all his memories before that time, he would not mind heading out into the wilderness and seeing if he could find a suitable Demonic beast.