Yao Jun sent the last of Du Xiao's spiders back into his God Gate, surveying the now quiet prairie. Just a short minute ago, the entire prairie had been enshrouded in screams and sounds of battle, yet now it was completely silent. Yao Jun had barely expended any energy, the only wound on his body being the one from when he grabbed a hold of Mordred's dagger.

Yao Jun stretched out his arm, Mordred's golden dagger appearing in his palm. He had stored Mordred's body into his God Gate, so the dagger had of course been tucked away at the same time. The dagger was only around 10 centimeters long, the golden blade curving slightly, it truly resembled a small fang.

Just looking at the dagger, it didn't seem to be very special, perhaps a bit gaudy. But when he glanced at the wound in his palm, he could tell that it was healing far slower than usual, something interfering with the healing. Mordred might truly have been saying the truth when he said that this dagger could shatter his God Gate and force it into a tremendously long slumber.

This wasn't the first time Yao Jun had encountered something that could harm his God Gate. Back when he had still been on his home planet, he had encountered a Demonic beast so massive that it spanned several hundreds of kilometers. This Demonic beast had spoken to him, calling him a shattered fragment of a forgotten demon god, and its voice contained so much might that it had reverberated through his body and left a crack on his God Gate.

Mordred said that the dagger would be able to shatter his God Gate because it contained a tooth-fragment from an Origin Beast that came from a different universe. Could this mean that the massive Demonic beast from back then was an Origin Beast?

While Yao Jun was pondering over this question, the prairie suddenly started to tremble. Yao Jun immediately put away the dagger and pulled out his own sword, entering a combat-ready state in the blink of an eye, sweeping the area with narrowed and vigilant eyes.

The thousands of corpses that littered the prairie started to move slightly, their backs exploding as all the blood in their body was sucked out, gathering into a single large orb that floated above the prairie. The orb started to slowly descend, shrinking rapidly as it did. By the time the orb touched the prairie, it had shrunk to only two-meters in size, the blood of over 3000 people concentrated inside it.

Yao Jun continued to look at the orb with a vigilant gaze, prepared to react immediately if something should happen. Under his gaze, the orb started to wriggle and change, forming a humanoid shape that quickly became more pronounced, ending up looking like a perfectly life-like man.

The man was two meters tall and had a somewhat thin and sickly looking frame, his back hunched slightly. He had deep crimson hair that hung down to his waist, fluttering slightly even though there was no wind on the prairie. His cheeks were slightly sunken in and his nose was strangely bent and sharp, almost resembling a hawk's beak.

While Yao Jun was cautiously observing the man, he opened his eyes and revealed his red pupils, his gaze landing on Yao Jun. When the man looked at him, Yao Jun felt like all his secrets were seen through, similar to the time Peyton had sent a bit of his Qi into Yao Jun's body and managed to see some of his memories. The corners of the man's mouth raised slightly and he stretched out his arms, giving Yao Jun a slow applause as he started to talk.

"Quite vicious. I asked for four to remain, but you indiscriminately killed every single one here, truly vicious and thorough. I like it. You even have a fragment of this universe's Origin Heart, a fragment that shares some similarities with my cultivation path, how very appropriate."

Yao Jun's entire body was on high alert, every hair on his body standing on end. The man in front of him had the same hoarse voice that had announced all the trials, and from listening to his words, it was clear that this inheritance was left behind by him. But what truly made Yao Jun's hairs stand on end was the sheer might that the man's body radiated. Yao Jun felt like he was standing at the bottom of an ocean, an endlessly strong pressure pushing him down. Not even when Yao Jun had faced Arthurius, a Heavenly Deity who had a fragment of the Supreme Law of Destruction, did he feel anything close to this. The man could clearly see Yao Jun's tense state, his lips curling up further as he continued to talk.

"No need to be so tense kiddo, you finished my trials so I won't do anything bad to you, I'll hand over the promised reward, plus a little extra for being so vicious and thorough."

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Yao Jun still didn't lower his tension, gripping his sword so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The man stretched out his arm, some blood gathering in front of his palm and forming a circular token that had a wavy pattern engraved into it. The man's expression grew a tad more serious as he waved his hand and sent the token over to Yao Jun, his voice changing from hoarse to a more robust and booming one.

"I am Tang Guanyu, the Blood Ocean Emperor! Yao Jun, with this token, I give you the right to cultivate part of my technique and to take on the trial to become one of my disciples! There are eight more of these inheritances spread throughout this half-finished universe, and everyone who clears it will receive one such token. With the token you have received now, all nine tokens have found a home, so the final part of the disciple competition can start. Find the eight other people who carry this token, kill them and steal their tokens to complete yours. Once the token is complete, it will be able to open a tunnel to the major universe where I live. The one who manages to complete the token and arrive in front of me will be the one I shall accept as a disciple, he will be the one who receives a chance to aim for the peak."

Tang Guanyu's voice boomed over the entire prairie, clearly audible no matter where you were. The circular token that Tang Guanyu sent to Yao Jun merged into his chest and vanished from sight, only leaving behind a small mark in the shape of a crimson wave on Yao Jun's chest. Right after the token merged into his chest, a flood of information rushed into Yao Jun's mind.

Part of the information was about Tang Guanyu, bragging about how great he was and how high of a position he held in his major universe, the Endless Dawn universe. The information also mentioned a little about the various universes, how there were major and minor ones that varied vastly in size. This wasn't the first time Yao Jun had ever heard about other universes, but this was the first time he heard that there were major and minor ones, it was also the first time he heard that he lived in a rather powerful minor one.

But while part of the information was about the different universes and Tang Guanyu, most of the information was about a cultivation technique. The cultivation technique was called the Blood Ocean's Hunger, and it was the body cultivation technique that Tang Guanyu had created, a cultivation technique focused on extracting the blood of other living beings and using it to temper one's body.

Sifting through the information of the technique, Yao Jun couldn't help but be overjoyed. This mass of information only contained the first part of the technique, just enough to cultivate to the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm, but it was just the thing that Yao Jun was needing right now, a body cultivation technique.

The token gave Yao Jun the chance to become a disciple of a truly top-level figure in a major universe, and it also gave him part of a supreme body cultivation technique, but Yao Jun didn't for one second forget how much danger the token also brought. In this hidden realm, or half-formed universe as Tang Guanyu had called it, there were eight other inheritances like this one, meaning that there were eight other people who had such a token.

Yao Jun hadn't decided yet if he would try to head to the universe where Tang Guanyu was, but that didn't mean that the eight other people thought the same. They were likely immeasurably thrilled at the prospect of becoming the disciple of someone like Tang Guanyu, so they would likely do everything in their power to find and kill the eight other people who had received a token. Even if Yao Jun had no intention of seeking them out, they would likely try to seek him out, so he had to be ready for them.

While Yao Jun was going through the cultivation technique and starting to think about preparations he could set in place for the time the eight other token-holders found him, Tang Guanyu clapped his hands once again, breaking Yao Jun's concentration and drawing his attention. Seeing that Yao Jun's full attention was placed on him again, Tang Guanyu gave a slight nod of his head.

"That is the reward for completing the trials, but as I said, I will also give you a small extra reward because I liked your performance."

Tang Guanyu waved his hand, the air at his side starting to shimmer with a silver light. A two-meter tall oval opening appeared next to Tang Guanyu, a spatial tunnel visible past the opening. Yao Jun curiously peered into the opening, wondering where it led. But once he saw where the spatial tunnel ended, his entire body froze.

Located at the end of the spatial tunnel was a small planet covered in so much water that it resembled a blue pearl. There were only four continents on this planet, three smaller ones that were placed so near each other that they formed a triangle and one massive continent that was almost four times as large as any of the other three. Yao Jun knew this sight, he had seen it once thanks to Sword Empyrean Heng Jiang, this was his home planet, this was where the people he longed for every day lived. While Yao Jun's eyes were locked on the distant planet, Tang Guanyu spoke up again.

"You wanted to go home, didn't you? To return to them? Well, here you go. I'll give you one week, you have one week to do whatever you please on that planet. Once the week is over, the token will activate and draw you back into this half-finished universe so that the disciple trial can continue unabated. Enjoy yourself."

After he spoke, Tang Guanyu waved his hand once more, an invisible force surrounding Yao Jun and throwing him into the spatial tunnel. Yao Jun couldn't even be bothered with the fact that he had been thrown into the spatial tunnel like that, all he cared about was the fact that he could see Guo Luo and the others again, even if it was just for one week.