Yao Jun stepped into the spatial tunnel, the token in his chest releasing another burst of energy that sent him flying forward at high speed. The tunnel closed behind him while he flew through it, the end of the spatial tunnel always a few meters behind him. After only a few seconds like this, Yao Jun reached the other end of the spatial tunnel, the energy that sent him flying forward vanishing as he arrived on the bloody prairie covered in jagged mountains and bone-like trees.
Standing a few steps away from him was the hunched forward, red-eyed and crimson-haired clone that Tang Guanyu had created using the blood of the cultivators that Yao Jun had killed here. His eyes were sweeping over Yao Jun, the corners of his mouth lifting up faintly when he finished inspecting Yao Jun.
"Gehehe, seems like you have gotten even sharper, I knew that sending you down there was the right decision."
While Tang Guanyu was inspecting him, Yao Jun was doing the exact same to Tang Guanyu, sweeping him with a calm gaze. After inspecting him for a short moment, Yao Jun spoke up, asking a question he had already mostly guessed the answer to.
"You knew that the ones I was looking for weren't down there, didn't you?"
Yao Jun didn't have any facts to support this hypothesis of his, only a gut feeling and a guess based on what little he knew of Tang Guanyu. But Tang Guanyu didn't deny his guess, his smile growing a bit wider as he laughed out in his ear-gratingly hoarse laughter.
"Gehehe, it's nice to have something to chase after and worry about, no? Makes it that much easier to focus on your cultivation."
Tang Guanyu had been able to find Yao Jun's home planet after scanning his memories, even learning who Yao Jun was looking for. Since he could locate his home planet, it stood to reason that he would also be able to locate Guo Luo and the others at the same time. His motives for sending Yao Jun down there despite knowing that Guo Luo and the others weren't there was quite simple.
As long as Guo Luo and the others were on that planet, they would be mostly safe, a fact that Yao Jun knew. But now that they had entered the wider universe, there was no telling who they might encounter, what sort of dangers they might face. To find them and protect them as quickly as possible, how could Yao Jun not put all his focus on getting stronger? Having his guess confirmed, Yao Jun didn't bother beating around the bush.
"How many of the other token holders do I have to kill to make you tell me their location?"
Tang Guanyu said that he was sending Yao Jun back to his home planet as a small extra reward for his performance, so it stood to reason that Yao Jun could do something else to have Tang Guanyu tell him where Guo Luo and the others were. Of course, he couldn't just do any normal thing, he most likely had to do something related to this disciple selection trial. Tang Guanyu's smile grew so wide that his teeth were revealed, he raised his right arm, stretching out his index finger.
"I do love it when people are clever and don't bother wasting my time. All of them. Complete your token and earn the right to become my disciple, only if you do that will I listen to one of your requests."
He had no reason to listen to the requests of someone unrelated to him, but it was something else if the one making the request was his disciple. Yao Jun wouldn't actually be considered his disciple until he entered the major universe where Tang Guanyu lived and met up with him, but that was something Tang Guanyu could easily ignore if he felt like it. Yao Jun gave a fractional nod of his head, not too surprised at the requirement.
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"Alright, do the tokens resonate with each other or are we just supposed to guess at who else has a token?"
Yao Jun would prefer having to kill everyone else in this competition, mainly because it seemed like something that would be nearly impossible to complete. He also didn't think Tang Guanyu was silly enough to think that his possible disciples would do something like that, he had likely put something in place. Tang Guanyu nodded his head, pointing at Yao Jun's chest and causing the token to unleash a faint vibration and guide Yao Jun towards Tang Guanyu's outstretched finger.
"The token will act like this once you get within 1000 kilometers of another token, alerting you to the location of the other token. But beware, the more tokens one has, the larger the range of the token is. If someone has two tokens, they will learn of your before you learn of theirs, allowing them to plan accordingly."
Tang Guanyu pulled back his arm, the vibrating token quieting down and falling silent. Tang Guanyu gave a brief wave of his hand, the entire bloody prairie starting to tremble and collapse, vanishing into nothingness. The token stored here had found an owner so there was no longer a need to leave this hidden realm. Tang Guanyu waved his hand once more and created a spatial tunnel that left this hidden realm, pushing Yao Jun into it with a laugh.
"I've got good expectations of you, show me the might of that Origin Heart fragment you're carrying."
Tang Guanyu's body turned into a pool of blood after he finished his words, he clearly saw no more reason to project a bit of his consciousness into this place. Yao Jun followed the spatial tunnel, leaving the collapsing hidden realm and arriving outside the mountain cave that had originally led into the hidden realm. The spatial tunnel closed behind Yao Jun, the last piece of the hidden realm vanishing.
Yao Jun gave his surroundings a quick scan to make sure that there was no one present, taking out the piece of jade he could use to check the contestants in the competition. A week had passed so he guessed that the frontmost rankings might have started to settle down. He checked up Peyton's ranking while he was at it but he was still only around the middle rankings. It was the top 1000 that garnered the most attention, especially four names within the top 100 that he recognized.
Rank 87, Sixth Heaven Demon King, Xiao Yan. Rank 75, Fourth Queen of Violence, Yuri Jahad. Rank 53, Eighth Lord of Reapers, Berius Daeman. Rank 11, Princess of the Impenetrable Fortress, Luosho Li. The first three were all famous fragment lords, Xiao Yan had a fragment of the Supreme Law of Demons, Yuri Jahad had a fragment of the Supreme Law of Attack, and Berius Daeman had a fragment of the Supreme Law of Souls.
All three were contenders for the top 10 positions within this competition so their ranks were sure to continue rising. But despite all their fame, none of them could hold a candle to Luosho Li, a fragment princess. She carried two fragments of the Supreme Law of Defense and was someone who could contend for the top three ranks of the competition, her only challengers were Rank 19, Nightsworn Emperor, Baam Noctris and Rank 89, Bringer of the Final Dawn, Mascheny Materius.
Baam was famous for having fused his law of darkness with the law of space, the law of crushing, and the law of speed to create a law truly unique to him. This law was so strong that Baam's attacks were even stronger than the attacks of some fragment lords who had a fragment of the Supreme Law of Destruction. Mascheny was just as terrifying, having fused her law of lightning with the law of light and the law of time, her speed and power nearly unparalleled. If someone was going to reach the top spot in this competition, it would be one of these three.
Yao Jun finished checking the ranking list and put away the jade, once again scanning his surroundings. He could only hope that none of these six people had acquired a token, but even if they had, he would still crush them and take their token, all so he could increase his chance of finding Guo Luo and the others. Yao Jun turned his eyes onto the distance, locking onto a group of people currently fighting a Demonic beast.
His new Demonic beast, the hydra Yong Bo, had eaten up almost all the corpses Yao Jun had stored up inside his God Gate. He would have to stock up on a few more if he wished to cultivate the body cultivation technique that Tang Guanyu had given him, Blood Ocean's Hunger. Yao Jun stepped forward, space rippling around him as he vanished, starting his hunt.