There was a large galleon-like ship making its way through the vast void of space. Ships like these were usually only used in war, but this particular ship had been custom-made for a different purpose, it was a transport ship that could quickly travel long distances, carrying passengers who couldn't afford to use the spatial arrays.
There were quite a few people present on the deck, these were the ones that hadn't paid for a room and had chosen to just spend the trip on the deck of the ship. One of these people was Margery Teffan, a youthful girl with flowing blonde hair and dazzling pink eyes. Margery was currently making her way across the deck, towards a handsome violet-haired youth that was sitting with his legs crossed and closed eyes, surrounded by four servants and a few small Demonic beasts.
She didn't walk too close, as she knew that the servants would stop her if she were to get within 10 meters of the youth. She stopped right on the edge of those 10 meters, sending a brilliant smile at the youth, whose name she still didn't know.
"Good morning, I see that you are still sitting out here."
Despite her going out of her way to greet the youth, he hadn't reacted in the slightest. But Margery had already expected this, so she wasn't too surprised, quickly continuing to talk.
"Would you like to join me for so-"
Before Margery got to finish her sentence, the eyebrow of the youth twitched slightly. Margery barely noticed it, but it seemed that the youth's servants immediately took notice of it. The leading servant, a violet robed man that was two-meters tall, had pitch black and sharp eyes, as well as deep purple hair that hung loosely down to his ears, quickly shooed her away.
"Please stop disturbing him."
Margery wanted to protest, but seeing the stern glares of the servants, she could only swallow her words and leave in a huff. She returned to her own group, which consisted of five other youths and one wrinkly old man that had a head full of silky black hair, as well as a drooping mustache. She sat down amongst the five other youths, letting out a dissatisfied harrumph.
"Humph, He's still ignoring me, even after two months! He hasn't even opened his eyes to look at me!"
She found the violet-haired youth handsome, and since she saw that he was alone, she wanted to invite him over to join her group. Margery had a decently high position in the sect, so the five Junior Brothers and Sisters quickly did their best to console and flatter her. But while they did so, the wrinkly man, their Grand Teacher, simply shook his head.
"I already told you that you should leave him alone, he is not as simple as he seems."
Margery had only managed to reach the early stage of the second book of the Fire Fairy technique, a cultivation equal to what others would call the Ascending Immortal stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm. Because of that, her senses weren't as sharp as those of her Grand Teacher. Since her Grand Teacher spoke like that, Margery quickly guessed that there was more to the youth than just his handsome appearance.
"You've noticed something?"
Margery's interest quickly grew, her eyes gleaming as she looked up at her Grand Teacher. For him to say that the youth wasn't simple, it was clear that he had noticed something truly special. The five other youths also looked up at their Grand Teacher, waiting for him to speak. The Grand Teacher didn't tell them what he saw, he simply pointed at the distant youth.
"Try using the All-Seeing Eye on him."
Margery and the five other youths quickly used their sect's secret technique, one they could only train in after getting the blood of a certain Demonic beast implanted into their bodies. They simultaneously turned to look at the quietly cultivating youth, but their expressions quickly twisted in shock.
The All-Seeing Eye was said to be able to lay bare all things. They had only trained it to a low level, but it was still enough to let them see through their opponent's secrets. But when they looked at the youth and his servants, it was like they were all covered by a layer of black fog, preventing Margery and the others from seeing anything about their cultivation or bloodlines.
But that wasn't even the part that shocked them the most. The air in a seven-meter dome around the youth was vibrating slightly, small flashes of light occasionally flashing around within the dome. They didn't know what these flashes were, but Margery could sense a deadly threat from them, so these flashes of light were clearly dangerous to them.
There was also another thing that Margery was just barely able to see when she pushed her All-Seeing Eye to its limit. Floating above the opened right hand of the youth, was a faint and tiny lotus bud that was pitch black in color. It was so faint that she was almost unable to see it, but what little she saw of it filled her with utter shock and dread.
"That...What is that?"
She was unable to tell if it was a technique, if it was a law, if it came from a bloodline, it was a complete mystery to her, filling her with nothing but despair. Her Grand Teacher cultivated a different technique than hers, but he had already reached the Transcended Immortal stage in that technique, so she thought that he would be able to see more. But the only response her Grand Teacher could give her was a shake of his head and a vague answer.
"It should be a technique that he is practicing. Now do you see why he isn't as simple as he seems? Just leave him alone and focus on the task ahead, we'll reach the Four-Peaks planet in a little over one month, we should be able to acquire enough fire element resources there to upgrade your Fire Fairy technique to the next level. At that point, you will stand a better chance in the Ascending Dragon competition."
The Four-Peaks planet was a rather special planet, consisting of four massive mountain peaks. At the center of each peak was a massive Elemental Heart, a crystal made out of pure elemental energy. Each peak had a different Elemental Heart, attracting a different type of element, resulting in each mountain turning into a haven for elemental Demonic beasts and resources of those elements.
Every 15 Years, these Elemental Hearts would release some of the stored up elemental energy, drastically increasing the amount of energy on the four peaks in a process that was called Heart Discharge. This resulted in special types of herbs and Demonic beasts being born, and these special beings were their goal this time.
If Margery could upgrade her Fire Fairy technique, she might be able to reach the top 20 000 or top 10 000 of the Ascending Dragon competition, the grand competition that was hosted by the various sects and clans every 100 years. Margery took her eyes away from the youth, obediently nodding her head.
"As you say, Grand Teacher."
--
Yao Jun continued to calmly cultivate and practice his techniques, completely unaware that there was someone who had spent two months trying to make contact with him. His Demonic beasts also had no intention of telling him this, as they found it to be completely pointless to do so, they knew that Yao Jun would not care about the advances of this Margery.
Yao Jun was also heading to the Four-Peaks planet, having accepted several missions that took place on the planet. Most of the missions he accepted were to gather up certain herbs or take parts from some of the special Demonic beasts that were born during this Heart Discharge. But the missions were only secondary to Yao Jun this time around, he had a different main purpose behind this journey.
The four peaks of the planet were Thundercrest Peak, Windheart Peak, Stonelord Peak, and Firedance peak. Of the four peaks, Thundercrest, Windheart, and Firedance were perfectly suited to Little Thunder, Sirius, and Zhuyin. Picking the herbs and handing them to those three would allow them to increase their strength and strengthen their element while killing and absorbing the Demonic beasts would strengthen all his Demonic beasts and give Zhuyin, Sirius, and Little Thunder the chance to evolve further.
Evolving Zhuyin and Sirius would be hard, as they were already Divine Beasts. But Little Thunder was just a common Demonic beast, it would be far easier to evolve him. Yao Jun was confident that as long as he worked hard, there would sooner or later be a day where all his Demonic beasts had evolved to become Divine Beasts, maybe even reaching a higher stage.
As Yao Jun was quietly cultivating, he felt a hand land on his shoulder, gently shaking him. He knew that this meant it was time for him to stop cultivating, so he stopped his actions and opened his eyes, glancing at the one who had woken him up, Little Thunder.
"We have arrived at our destination?"
Yao Jun had hitched a ride with a ship prepared by the God Hunter Pavilion, but actually renting a room cost quite a bit, more than he was willing to spend on it. Because of that, he had simply chosen to quietly cultivate on the deck of the ship, waiting the three months it would take to reach the Four-Peaks planet.
He wasn't just cultivating these three months, he was also focusing on two of his techniques. The first was the one he himself had come up with but had yet to perfect, it was still in quite an infantile state. The second technique was the one he had learned after carving the fourth channel for his Crumbling The Nine Heavens, a technique simply called Sword Domain.
The Sword Domain was actually just that, it created a domain around you filled with swords made from your sword intent and Qi. The technique sounded simple, but Yao Jun found it to be incredibly profound and hard to perform, far harder than the three first techniques. By now he had also realized that what he had called sword intent was simply a different name for the law of swords.
Ever since he had taken on the trial of Sword Empyrean Heng Jiang, Yao Jun had been able to faintly use the law of swords, but as he had no Demonic beasts that used that law, it was far weaker than any of his other laws, causing him to rarely use it.
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Little Thunder gave a slight nod at Yao Jun's question, pointing downwards.
"Yes, the ship is descending to the surface of the planet now."
Yao Jun stood up and stretched his body, looking down over the side of the ship. A good distance below them was Four-Peaks planet, which was quite similar to Earthen Peak planet. Four massive mountains spread out beneath him, one cone-shaped, one volcano, one shaped like a thick bolt of lightning, and one shaped like a large awl.
The four mountains were all tied together at the bottom, a massive empty basin located at the spot where all four mountains connected to each other. This basin was where the ship was headed, as it was the one place on this planet where there was a city.
"Alright. I trust that everyone remembers the plan, so I won't bother repeating it. The outbreak started three years ago, but there should still be a large number of Crestborne Apes, Windheart Eagles, and Firedance Salamanders that we can hunt. There haven't been any reports that the Crestborne or the Windheart Kings have been killed, so we might be able to take them down as well."
The kings he mentioned were some of the higher ranked versions of the special Demonic beasts that were born during the Heart Discharge. Very few of them were born, most often only one or two at a time. The fire and stone kings had already been killed two years ago, but the wind and lightning kings seemed to still live. Little Gray and the others quickly nodded their heads to show that they remembered the plan, Little Thunder dipping into a deep bow.
"...Thank you"
Little Thunder knew himself very well. Of all of Yao Jun's Demonic beast, he was ranked at the very bottom. Ba-Shei was similar to him, but he had a very mysterious and dangerous element, everyone else was either a Divine Beast or a Chimera beast. The moment Yao Jun was thrown into the wider universe, Little Thunder had prepared himself for the fact that he would likely be replaced by a stronger lightning type Demonic beast.
But it never happened, Yao Jun didn't even show any signs that the thought had ever crossed his mind. He had even given him a proper name, Lei Wang, the thunder king, and he went out of his way to look for things that could help him evolve. For all these things, Little Thunder was immensely grateful. Yao Jun stopped Little Thunder before he could finish his bow, straightening him up and patting him on the shoulder with a light laugh.
"No need for thanks, just continue to stay by my side."
Little Thunder had been Yao Jun's first Demonic beast, the one that started his entire journey, the one that had awoken his God Gate. He had been at Yao Jun's side since the very start, through everything he had experienced. It was impossible for Yao Jun to abandon him, just like he wouldn't abandon his other Demonic beasts. Little Thunder looked at Yao Jun's light smile, his eyes growing incomparably determined.
"I swear it."
Little Thunder had seen all of Yao Jun's journey, from the very first step. He knew that Yao Jun was destined to rise to the top, to reign supreme over all living beings. He would not allow himself to hold Yao Jun back, he would live up to the name he had been given and serve as one of Yao Jun's guards, all the way until he died.
The ship quickly landed at the edge of the city, which was called Four Elements city, the passengers disembarking. Some went into the city to pick up rations or rent rooms in an inn, while others immediately headed to one of the peaks.
Yao Jun was part of the latter group, heading directly for the mountain that was shaped like a lightning bolt, a mountain that was covered in light-blue grass. Yao Jun headed to Thundercrest Peak alongside Little Thunder and Ba-Shei, but his other Demonic beasts separated from him and headed to two other mountains. Du Xiao, Sirius, and Zhuanxu headed towards the awl-shaped Windheart Peak that was covered in light-green grass, while Zhuyin, Little Gray, and Siwang headed to the volcano-shaped Firedance Peak.
They had all disguised themselves as more common Demonic beasts, Siwang and Du Xiao acting as the owners of those two groups. This was the plan Yao Jun had come up with to cut down the time they spent here. Both of the other groups had two Divine Beasts, so as long as they didn't move too high up the mountains, they would not face any problems in hunting for Demonic beasts and herbs that would be useful for them. And even if something were to happen, they could return to the God Gate with a mere thought.
Thundercrest peak was many tens of kilometers tall, and hundreds of kilometers wide, it filled all of Yao Jun's vision once they got closer to it. The light-blue grass let out faint arcs of lightning whenever they stepped on it, even the air crackled with arcs of lightning. The various trees that grew on the mountain were all twisted and bent, their bark pitch black and their leaves either light-blue or violet in color. Some of the trees bore violet fruits that looked like pears, violet lightning crackling around them. Yao Jun could easily detect a large amount of lightning Qi within these pears, so they picked every last one that they came across.
They also quickly encountered the beasts that they were looking for, the Crestborne Apes. They looked like five-meter tall gorillas with violet fur, two jagged tusks growing up from their lower lip. Every inch of their body rippled with muscles and lightning, their eyes flashing with light from time to time. The moment Yao Jun spotted a Crestborne Ape, they immediately charged at it and killed it, continuing their hunt for more.
Each of the four peaks was massive in size, so even after Yao Jun had spent two days wandering around and killing Crestborne Apes, he had only encountered one other group of people, which had quickly distanced themselves from Yao Jun, not wanting to engage in a pointless battle with him.
During the afternoon of the second day, Yao Jun pulled his sword out of the skull of a Crestborne Ape. He glanced at Little Thunder and Ba-Shei, who were currently working together to take on a different Crestborne Ape, slowly whittling it down. Looking at the time they needed to actually wound it, he couldn't help but mutter to himself, sending a message to Du Xiao and Siwang.
"Just like the report said, their bodies truly are incredibly hard. Had it not been for Little Gray, I would probably need about five attacks just to create a proper wound. Have you guys had any luck?"
The bodies of these Cresborne Apes were continuously tempered by lightning, so they were even stronger than the bodies of the soldiers from the Final Fire clan. Thanks to the slicing power of his law of space, he could easily wound them, but it was quite a bit harder for Little Thunder and Ba-Shei. While he continued to observe Little Thunder and Ba-Shei's battle, the responses from Du Xiao and Siwang quickly came.
"It has proven to be rather difficult for us to hunt them, so we have only been able to hunt down a total of six Demonic beasts each."
Windborne Eagles were incredibly fast, especially when they dove down from the sky and attacked. Du Xiao and her group first had to slow them down and force them down to the ground, making it a bit hard to kill them. The Firedance Salamanders, on the other hand, were troublesome because they kept hiding away inside the lava of the volcano, swimming through it and launching surprise attacks.
There was also the fact that they had to spend quite some time searching before they actually managed to find any of their targets, so killing six in two days wasn't all that bad. Yao Jun rubbed his chin slightly, his mind moving as he came up with an idea.
"Hmm... Our speed is a bit slow. Little Xiao, could I trouble you to send over a few of your spiders that we can use as scouts? Could you also do the same for Siwang and his group?"
Du Xiao was a Spider Hive Chimera Beast, she was made up of countless spiders, each a part of her. Even though she had been granted the ability to take human shape, she could still release hundreds of tiny spiders that could serve as her eyes and ears. After he proposed his idea, there was a quick response from Du Xiao.
"As you wish."
Instead of having the small spiders run to Siwang and Yao Jun, Du Xiao sent them into the God Gate. Once they were inside the God Gate, Yao Jun could easily take out the ones he needed and give Siwang the right to open an entrance to the God Gate, taking out the remainders.
The tiny dark-green spiders quickly scurried away, spreading out over the three mountains and scouring every nook and cranny. With Du Xiao giving them directions, the three groups managed to increase their speed by a bit, no longer needing to spend as long searching.
After spending another two days following Du Xiao's directions, Yao Jun once again put his group's hunting on hold for a bit. These last four days of hunting had proven effective, the strength of his Demonic beasts increasing by a bit. But he found it unsatisfactory, it wasn't enough and it took too long. He quickly made up his mind, sending a message to the two other groups.
"The strength of the younger ones isn't exactly satisfactory, I guess we really should head higher up. Little Xiao, make sure you keep the little ones as hidden as possible. Every spider you lose decreases your strength temporarily, so we can't have you losing too many of them. Should they start dying too quickly, just return them to the gate."
The closer to the foot of the mountain one got, the younger the Crestborne Apes and similar Demonic beasts got. And the younger they got, the weaker they were. Only once they started to properly scale the mountain would they face the older and stronger ones, only then could they quickly strengthen Yao Jun's Demonic beasts. The two other groups still had a lot of strength to spare, so their reply quickly came.
"As you wish."
Yao Jun was eager to increase the strength of his Demonic beasts, but not so eager that he would grow careless. The three groups moved very slowly as they made their way up the mountains, carefully checking the strength of the surrounding Demonic beasts and making sure that they didn't enter an area that was dangerous for them. Du Xiao sent her spiders far ahead of the groups, vigilantly scouting the area.
After spending a little over three days slowly scaling their respective mountains, Yao Jun suddenly sensed Du Xiao's mental state shake fiercely, as if she had gotten a major shock. If he tried to connect his vision with hers now, his mind would overload because of all the spiders that were scouting the areas, so he could only send a message to her to check on her.
"Little Xiao, what happened? Are you fine?"
Du Xiao was the quiet, graceful, and steady type. Not even the presence of Arthurius had been able to shake her mental state like this, so it was clear that something serious had happened. Luckily, it didn't seem like she was wounded, as a response quickly arrived.
"I'm fine, I just ended up seeing a person I didn't expect to see here. We need to be careful, Milord, Peyton Eluard has sent over one of his stronger slaves and several other guards, they are currently making their way up your mountain."
Yao Jun's eyes immediately narrowed when he heard the answer. Peyton Eluard, the 5th young master of the Merged Heaven clan, the holder of the 7th fragment of the Supreme Law of Life. Yao Jun had first met him when the Merged Heaven clan first showed that they were in an alliance with the Final Fire clan. Yao Jun's mind quickly started moving, sending another message to Du Xiao.
"One of Peyton's slaves? Can you tell the strength of the group?"
If the strength of the group was too high, he would have to temporarily give up on scaling this mountain, something he truly didn't want to do. Little Thunder had already been forced to wait for far too long for his evolution, he didn't want to make him wait even longer. A few moments of silence followed, Du Xiao doing her best to get closer to the group so that she could better gauge their strength. After a few quiet minutes, she sent over an image of the group, as well as her answer.
"The strongest among them is Peyton's slave, she has reached the Transcended Immortal stage."
The leader of the group was Peyton's slave, a dwarfish woman with curly green hair and an extra set of arms that grew out from her shoulders. Yao Jun studied the image and started thinking to himself, his thoughts racing. In the end, his eyes hardened and he sent out his orders.
"Transcended Immortal stage... Keep two or three spiders on them, but do your best not to get discovered. Siwang and Little Xiao, your groups can just continue as they have, but be a bit more careful."
The Transcended Immortal stage was the last stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, quite a bit higher than Yao Jun's current cultivation. But it was not a level of strength where he would simply give up, he still had the strength to fight. The two other groups quickly sent over their affirmative responses, continuing their climb up their respective mountains.
Yao Jun took out the mask he had been given by Diana, using it to alter his features and body. He was uncertain if Peyton knew of his real appearance, as it had been seen for a split second during the final battle of the war, but he was not willing to risk it. After putting on the mask, he returned Ba-Shei and Little Thunder to his God Gate, continuing up the mountain alone.
"Peyton Eluard, huh? Don't think that you can stop me from getting what I want."
Since Peyton was climbing up this mountain, he was likely headed for the Crestborne King. Yao Jun wanted to use the Crestborne King to greatly increase the chance of Little Thunder evolving, so there was no way he would just let Peyton take it for himself. Besides, after the war, he was already considered an enemy of the Merged Heaven clan, so he did not mind making some trouble for them.