Li Yang and Mei Kongxu stopped in front of the tall crystal pillar, Li Yang stretching out a hand and placing it on the grainy and faintly warm surface.

"Alright, tell me what sort of keywords I should be looking for."

The visions that the two of them saw weren't the same. Mei Kongxu had the fortune of actually seeing scenes and events, Li Yang on the other hand only got to hear things in an indistinct and unruly manner. Even when he focused and managed to clear up some of the things he heard, it was usually focused on cultivation or how to fight.

As such, it was Mei Kongxu who had more knowledge about things that might lead to clues about their visions. Mei Kongxu had evidently already expected him to ask her, immediately listing off several keywords.

"Thunder's Roar, Tyrant's Howl or howl of the tyrant, Blood-soaked Queen, Pristine Tyrant, Cloud Wilderness, and Calamitous Star."

Li Yang couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as he listened to Mei Kongxu list off her keywords, there were actually more of them than he expected. She had only asked him about the Thunder's Roar and the howl of the tyrant in their past encounters, so she either hadn't bothered to mention the other keywords before, or she had only heard about them recently.

Whatever the case was, the more clues they had the better it was for them. With his hand on the pillar, he only had to insert a bit of his Qi while keeping the keywords in his mind, a soft blue light emerging from the depths of the pillar. He threw in a keyword of his own while he was at it, he was just too lazy to mention it.

The light that emerged from the depth of the pillar increased in intensity and finally left the pillar, turning into eight motes of light that hovered around the pillar. Li Yang only had to remove his hand from the pillar to make four of the motes descend into his palm, the remaining four motes shooting through the air and heading for their respective areas in the archive.

Li Yang bit down on his thumb and sprinkled a bit of blood on two of the motes, causing them to pulsate for a short second before calming down. He then pushed these two motes at Mei Kongxu, the light expanding and surrounding her in a faint halo while Li Yang kept the last two motes for himself.

"Those two motes will take you to the records that contain information linked to the Thunder's Roar and the Pristine Tyrant, mine will take me to the information about the Cloud Wilderness and something with nine lives. The other keywords aren't mentioned in any of our texts so this is the best we'll get."

The four texts that had been pointed out were located a fair bit away from each other so it would be quicker to split up as they picked them up, otherwise Li Yang wouldn't have used a bit of his blood to mark Mei Kongxu as a sect member. Mei Kongxu merely nodded her head, evidently not too surprised that the sect didn't have records containing all of the keywords.

The two split up and followed their respective motes of light, Li Yang reaching his first one after half an hour. The text currently surrounded by the glow of the mote of light was in fact just a large book, an atlas containing some of the older maps of the planet. The light shrouding the book vanished into the pages when Li Yang picked it up, flipping it open carelessly until he reached the section of the book that still contained a faint glow.

A crude hand-drawn map revealed itself on the pages he reached, depicting what seemed to be a continent covered in wilderness. The map didn't show any specifics or give too many details, but flipping over to the next page revealed a paragraph that gave a short explanation.

'The Cloud Wilderness has existed for as long as the planet has, existing on a separate continent between the Jade Cloud and the Heretic Song continents, at the very edges of the Saint Burying Abyss. It has existed for innumerable years but has yet to be properly explored by human hands, not even the Leviathan Heart's sect daring to venture too deep into it.'

There wasn't much information written about the Cloud Wilderness, but there was enough for Li Yang to learn at least a little bit. The Heretic Song continent was the continent closest to his sect, the Deep Sea King sect resided on the islands to the east of the continent while the World-Rending Behemoth sect resided on the edge of the continent.

The Jade Cloud continent was located to the west of the Heretic Song continent, the two separated by the dreaded Saint Burying Abyss. As for this abyss, it was a massive stretch of unruly ocean that was constantly stormy. And it wasn't just any type of storm, it was one so vicious that it twisted space around it so violently that even the strongest cultivators would have to be prepared to lose half their life if they wanted to go through it.

Thanks to this, the best way to actually reach the Jade Cloud continent was to circumvent the entire planet by going eastward, or by first leaving the planet and flying through the empty space around it to move above the abyss. Even spatial arrays were affected by the mere existence of the Saint Burying Abyss, the twisted space there prevented spatial arrays from forming a proper spatial tunnel, so you couldn't even use arrays to reach the continent.

As for the continent existing at the edge of this forbidden land, Li Yang had actually heard about it before. But the name used for that continent wasn't one that made people want to visit it, it was simply named Reaper's End, signifying that even the grim reaper would lose his life there.

But what surprised him the most about the small paragraph was that things hadn't changed since this information was written. The Leviathan's Heart sect was the strongest sect on this planet, it held great influence over even the surrounding galaxies. But even to this day, they had yet to fully explore Reaper's End, constantly losing contact with those they sent to explore its secrets.

Li Yang closed the book after memorizing the paragraph and the crude map, tucking it under his armpit as he headed for the other mote of light. Just one of the keywords pointed towards the location serving as the undisputed number one among what was known as the Three Great Ruinous Lands, Li Yang really had no idea what he would do if all the keywords pointed towards similar things.

An hour after picking up the first book, he reached the second mote of light, the one surrounding the jade slip that contained information about the keyword he had selected on his own. Back when he saw the vision of the young woman and the old man in the cabin, he had heard repeated mentions of nine lives, so he was exceedingly curious about what sort of thing could go through nine lives. And as he sank his mind into the jade slip, he got the answer he was looking for.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

'Nine Hells Fox, a variant of the Nine-Tailed Fox that can only be born under very special circumstances. They are different from normal Nine-Tailed Foxes in that they don't grow additional tails as they become stronger, the only way for a Nine Hells Fox to acquire a new tail is to die. Its soul will descend into Naraka upon death, where it will stay for a short while before it returns to the living world and forms a new body, one that has acquired an additional tail and gotten even stronger.'

'This process will repeat until the Nine Hells Fox has acquired nine tails and enters its final life in its strongest state. Death in this life is final, and will allow the killer of the beast to finally reap the greatest reward, the Nine Hells Soul Essence. Ingesting this Soul Essence will instantly materialize a person's soul and form a miniature world within it, allowing them to store a virtually infinite supply of energy.'

Li Yang had expected that any being that could live nine lives would be extraordinarily powerful, but never had he expected it to actually be a Divine Beast. And not just any Divine Beast, a variant Divine Beast that was even rarer than a normal Divine Beast, which was already an extremely transcendent and terrifying existence.

Of course, this didn't guarantee that the old man he saw in his vision was one such Nine Hells Fox, but it was definitely an option he had to keep in mind. At the same time, there was also one additional connection he had to make.

Back when that illusory tail first appeared behind him, he had heard multiple voices echo in his head. Each voice spoke about various things related to tails, one of them mentioning tails all the way up to the seventh tail. If that old man really was a Nine Hells Fox that should have nine tails, then there was a good chance that he would have something to do with the illusory tail. After all, it would be far too coincidental if he just so happened to hear voices about tails, have the ability to bring forth an illusory tail, and then even see a vision about a man who might be a Nine Hells Fox.

The problem was that he didn't know how all of these things would connect with him. His parents didn't have any Divine Beast blood in them, nor did any of his ancestor have such exalted blood flowing through their veins. So it was highly unlikely that it was some form of inherited memories coming from his blood.

As for being the reincarnation of that old man, that was even less likely. If he really was a Nine Hells Fox who managed to go against the heavens and acquire the tenth life, he wouldn't be born in a body like Li Yangs. He would be a fully-fledged Divine Beast and would thus be born in a fully formed body bearing all ten tails, he wouldn't suddenly become a human like Li Yang.

He couldn't make any headway on this conundrum so he simply chose to drop it for the moment, it really wasn't worth wracking his brain over something he couldn't figure out. This was the last mote of light he had to pick up so he tucked away the jade slip and started walking again, returning to the crystal pillar so that he could meet up with Mei Kongxu. She was already waiting for him there so he sauntered over with a carefree smile.

"Well, Wifey, did you find what you were looking for? Did you get to crossreference the things we have here with what you had in your own sect?"

He tossed over the book and jade slip as he spoke, Mei Kongxu putting aside the two books she had found and then catching the two objects. She opened the book to the page Li Yang pointed her to, raising her gaze slightly when he pointed at the paragraph on the other page.

"I thought you said this was a library and that one had to be quiet. What was it you said again? If you can't hold your tongue, then it will be held for you?"

Her goal was obviously to use Li Yang's own words against him to finally silence him, but would it really be that easy? Li Yang wasn't flustered in the slightest and instead smirked at her, sticking out his tongue as he leaned forward.

"Come on now, Wifey, if you want to touch my tongue then you just have to ask. Here, touch all you like."

Mei Kongxu instinctively recoiled slightly as Li Yang leaned closer with his tongue on display. But a soft light flashed through her pupils after a short second, the corners of her previously line-like mouth curving into a thin smile.

"You're right, I think I will touch all I like."

She stretched out her hand as she spoke, her Qi circulating within her fingers and carrying with it the unmistakable stench of decay. He didn't want to lose his tongue so he pulled it back, leaning back a bit to dodge her incoming fingers while putting on an amazed expression.

"Was that... a joke? Wifey, you actually know how to make jokes? And here I thought your humour was as cold as your exterior, but it seems like your humour is just as charming as your interior."

Mei Kongxu's fingers twitched slightly when even her quick-witted attempt at silencing him was used to tease her. She pulled back her arm and returned her gaze to the book in silence, doing her best to block out Li Yang's snickering voice.

"Are you pouting? You're pouting aren't you, I can tell."

Mei Kongxu's left hand flashed out as Li Yang snickered, picking up the two books she had put aside and tossing them at Li Yang. Reading would at least force him to be quiet, and he also had a connection with these keywords so he had a right to know whatever they could learn.

Li Yang caught the two books, one titled Famed Devils and one titled Ancient Calamities. Mei Kongxu had left small marks on the specific pages so Li Yang easily found the information tied to the specified keywords they had used to find these two books.

The book titled Famed Devils contained the keyword Pristine Tyrant, and it was tied to a murderous cultivator specializing in the laws of lightning and fire. The book only contained a small bit of information about him, such as some of the massacres he had taken part in on the Heretic Song continent as well as some of the places he had visited. It even mentioned the place where he was finally killed, dragging 90 000 opposing cultivators with him to the grave.

The other book mentioned a catastrophe that once struck a large valley located on the Heretic Song continent, within the territory of the 76th ranked Woodborne Eagle sect. The valley was once a sprawling and bustling stretch of wilderness until it was one day suddenly beset by a horrific lightning storm that ravaged the entire valley. The entire valley was turned into a wasteland under the thunder's roar, requiring nearly five thousand years before it finally started to grow back.

Li Yang originally didn't know how this Pristine Tyrant keyword tied into everything, but after reading over both bits of information he could form some guesses. This Pristine Tyrant might possibly be the one responsible for the Thunder's Roar catastrophe that struck the valley, and he was likely also tied to the Tyrant's Howl keyword that their archives didn't have anything on.

The location of the Thunder's Roar and the places tied to the Pristine Tyrant were also on the Heretic Song continent, which meant that it was at least possible for Li Yang and Mei Kongxu to investigate them. Mei Kongxu had already finished going over the book and jade slip that Li Yang had tossed to her, so she spoke up when he closed the two books.

"Your thoughts?"

Li Yang knew what she was actually asking about, and the unyielding determination in her eyes told him exactly what she was thinking. But he didn't mind it since it was in line with his own plans, so he simply shrugged his shoulders with a faint smirk.

"What's the point in asking? We want to know the truth so it's obvious that we've got to check out any clues that we can. Going on a journey also sounds rather fun, just thinking about all the dullards I get to re-educate is enough to almost make me giggle."

All the places were on the Heretic Song continent so they were all within reach for investigation, as such, it was inevitable that they head over there to check things out. A journey would also be good for them, as it was an excellent way to gather more experience, which both of them needed. But Li Yang knew that they couldn't head out straight away, there was something they had to do first.

"But you probably know it just as well as me, we still have to perform our duty before we leave, otherwise our sects won't be too pleased."

Mei Kongxu's expression turned a touch rigid for a second but quickly regained its usual chillness. This was indeed something that the two of them had to take care of, otherwise, the higher-ups of their sects would start complaining, some might even start to spread rumours.

"I know. I'll contact my mother and tell her that the wedding will take place in two weeks, that should be more than enough time for them to prepare everything."