Chapter 176: First encounter with the Spider Hive.

Yao Jun's blood was boiling, every inch of his being trembling with excitement. The blade in his hand was as light as wind, nothing more than an extension of his arm. Lightning coursed through his body while wind surrounded him, his speed the fastest it had ever been. At one moment he thought about running in the sky, and in the next second, he did just that, the wind surrounding him removing all his weight and lifting him up, letting him fly like a bird.

After he took out three squads with attacks that covered a wide area, the remaining enemy squads were too strong for him to easily wipe them out. They had also taken precautions, setting up several smaller formations within their main formation, allowing them to at least have somewhat of a defense even after Yao Jun took out the core of the main formation.

But Yao Jun did not care about any of that. Right now, Yao Jun was feeling fantastic. Since sneaking in to take care of the captain was no longer worth it, he would just crush them all head on, with full force. His sword was wreathed in a myriad of elements, eviscerating anyone it came into contact with, their remains swallowed by an all-encompassing darkness that followed all of Yao Jun's movements.

He was unstoppable. Their formations, their soldiers, their captains, none of them were able to stop him. The moment an attack even got close to touching him, he either dodged it thanks to his superior speed, or by flickering through space. He didn't even have to worry about running out of Qi, as all the fiery crystals and Spirit Stones he gathered off the corpses were providing him with a steady stream of energy.

At this moment, Yao Jun felt like he had managed to achieve everything he had been training for. He was strong enough to defeat anyone, he could protect his family and loved ones, secure a peaceful world for them. But he quickly squashed any such thoughts. He was still just a frog at the bottom of the well, there were countless people stronger than him, people who could kill him with a mere thought. Only once he could crush people like that would he have achieved his goal. Only once he stood at the peak would he be able to truly say that his loved ones were safe.

Without Yao Jun noticing it, he had become the focal point of the ongoing battle. The Final Fire clan army was gathering together to defend against him, and the World Tree clan army was rallying beside him, smashing directly into the squads that he encountered. Both armies realized the importance of Yao Jun, someone who could directly charge into a squad and take out the captain, someone who could evade all attacks, someone who had the strength to crush all enemies he faced. While Yao Jun was charging through a squad, carving a path towards the captain, he heard a familiar voice.

“You!”

Yao Jun raised his head slightly after hearing the voice, his expression turning into one of surprise. In the distance ahead of him, at the core of the formation, stood Watkin, the squad captain he had fought before his breakthrough. Back then, the two had fought each other to a draw, Yao Jun retreating because the rest of Watkin's squad was converging on him. But now, after carving the third channel and slightly increasing his cultivation, Yao Jun no longer needed to put Watkin in his eyes.

Yao Jun continued his charge, his foot stepping onto one of the silver lines that flooded his vision, his body flickering through space. Teleportation drained a lot of Qi, but it was instantaneous, so in a situation like this, where Yao Jun did not need to worry about how much Qi he used, it was perfect. He appeared behind Watkin in a flash of silver light, slashing down at the top of his head, his blade coated in a silver light that left a black line in the air.

But as his attack neared Watkin's head, Yao Jun's eyes rapidly narrowed. He heard a pained and grating howl, but it didn't come from Watkin, it came from a dark green spot located on Watkin's neck. The spot detached from Watkin's neck and grew in size, turning into a palm-sized dark green spider. Its carapace was covered in small thorn-like spikes, and its eight legs ended in sharp tips that glimmered with a faint light.

The spider dodged to the front of Yao Jun's attack, preparing to take the blow head on to protect Watkin, all the while releasing that same pained howl. Yao Jun could understand the words of all Demonic beasts, even if others only heard it as clicks. But the spider in front of did not say anything, there was only that pained howl. Right after the first spider appeared, a symphony of pained howls rang out from the surroundings. Even without looking, Yao Jun was able to guess that several more spiders had appeared, launching attacks on the people of the World Tree clan.

Yao Jun did not stop the attack, his blade crashing into the spider and slicing it clean in half. Its carapace was harder than steel, far harder than the bodies of the Final Fire clan people. But there was no way it would be able to resist an attack enhanced with the laws of spatial slicing, it was doomed to fail from the start.

But thanks to Yao Jun's surprise as the spider appeared, Watkin had been given the required time to dodge Yao Jun's attack. Watkin leaned his body forward and stomped down, an explosive blast of flames shattering the earth beneath him and pushing him forward at high speed.

As he ran, each step he took would sink into the earth and then shatter it in an explosive blast of flames that propelled him forward. Yao Jun did not pursue him, he simply raised his hand and pointed at the earth beneath the fleeing Watkin. Once his foot sank into the ground, he released a pained shriek, his panicked face turning towards the ground. But it was already too late, his other foot sank into the ground, Watkin releasing another scream. The earth beneath him shattered, turning into a deep hole. Watkin's body was pulled into the hole, vanishing with one last scream.

As it had happened underground, not even Diana had been able to tell what had happened to Watkin, so she only attributed it to another one of Yao Jun's laws. But what he had actually done was open an entrance to his Demon God's Gate underground, right where Watkin's foot would land. His foot landed by the entrance, allowing Zhuyin to stick her head out of the entrance and clamp her jaws down around his leg, shattering it. Once his second foot sank into the ground, another entrance opened, Little Thunder in beast form sticking his head out and shattering Watkin's other leg.

Once both of Watkin's legs were shattered, a third entrance opened underground, Zhuanxu freezing and shattering the earth beneath Watkin, allowing the three of them to pull Watkin into the God Gate. Once within the God Gate, Watkin had no way of fleeing from Yao Jun's Demonic beast, all but his head and fiery crystal quickly devoured by them. All but two of Yao Jun's Demonic beasts were Divine beasts, their strength far surpassed their cultivation level. With all of them working together, Watkin had never stood a chance.

After Yao Jun had opened the three gates, he no longer bothered with Watkin, his eyes landing on the two halves of the spider in front of him. His shadow extended, swallowing the spider, just like it had done with so many other corpses during the battle. But this time, he only took it into the shadows as a cover, immediately absorbing it into his God Gate after it entered the shadows. He did not feel an increase in strength, nor did he gain access to any new elements, so he guessed that he might need to absorb the entire Spider Hive beast if he wanted to succeed.

The pained howls from the spiders and the dying screams of the soldiers still rang out around him, so Yao Jun swept the surroundings with his eyes. He marked every spider he detected, memorizing their positions. Within just a short moment, he had managed to detect almost 100 palm-sized spiders, each one looking completely identical, each one releasing a neverending pained howl. Yao Jun let out a slight mutter, his body dashing towards one of the spiders.

“If you are in so much pain, then allow me to free you.”