Yao Jun turned towards the distant fox, his eyes narrowing slightly as he descended into thought. He didn't know why the Nine-Tailed Fox wanted his assistance, but it was clear that it was rather serious and urgent, otherwise, she wouldn't have taken the risk of revealing herself to him like that. He gave it a bit more thought but eventually decided that there was no real harm in at least hearing her out.

He took a step forward and vanished into a ripple in the surrounding space, appearing in a spot much closer to the fox. He then gave the area around him a quick search to make sure there wasn't anyone hiding there, once again stepping through space after ascertaining that there was no one there. He did this a few more times as he got closer to the fox, making sure that there wasn't anyone setting up an ambush for him.

This made the trip take quite a bit longer, but at least he would be able to ascertain his own safety like this. Nearly two hours after she asked for his help, Yao Jun arrived in front of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the two standing face to face.

The fox in front of him was around 20 meters long, each of her six tails almost five meters in length. Most Divine Beasts were massive in size, many of them could become planet-sized if they grew strong enough, this Nine-Tailed Fox had clearly chosen to take on a smaller form so that she could hide more easily. Liang Chen could see parts where the fox's fur was stained with blood, a few scabbing wounds visible beneath her fur, it seemed like she had been in battle not too long ago, it likely had something to do with why she asked him for help. The fox gave Yao Jun a polite nod, speaking in her beast language rather than the human language.

"Greetings, Young God, I am Xuhuan Huo. I won't beat around the bush, I require your assistance. I wish for your help in killing the ones known as Luosho Li, Ardet, Colinet, Ran, Shensheng Yan, Athena, and Evelina."

Yao Jun's eyes narrowed slightly when he heard the first two names she mentioned. Luosho Li was someone he was preparing to kill since she had acted so vicious and ruthless against him, but killing her would be very hard. Ardet was quite a bit easier to kill, he was also much higher on Yao Jun's list of people to kill, he was Peyton's right-hand man. Yao Jun didn't just thoughtlessly agree, he asked a few questions first.

"Why do you want to kill them? And what's in it for me? You are asking me to help you kill someone incredibly powerful, so I hope you've at least prepared a reward equal to Lusoho Li's strength."

Xuhuan suddenly shrank, turning from a fox into her human form. She now looked like a tall and graceful woman filled with mature charm, her hair half orange and half crimson, her eyes a deep pink in color. She seemed to have judged that talking in this form would be easier, her gaze turning mournful and distant as she started to talk.

"I have... had... a mate. You've met him before, he was the tree-type Divine Beast that was fighting Luosho Li. He was what you call a Horrid Beast, he had mutated and thus gained control over both the earth and wind element, when coupled with his wood element, he possessed terrifying might. Luosho Li came here to take advantage of my current weakness to steal some of his blood, resulting in them battling and her eventually killing him. I tried to aid him, but the others on my list held me back before I could reach him, wounding me and leaving me unable to save him."

Yao Jun's eyebrow twitched slightly when he heard about the tree-type Divine beast. It had tried to kill him the moment it saw him, so yeah, he could be said to have met it. He now also knew why its aura had felt somewhat different from normal Divine Beasts, he had been a Horrid beast. He was still alive when Yao Jun left, but it seemed like he had been killed in the time Yao Jun was recuperating and cultivating. Xuhuan turned her eyes back onto Yao Jun, her eyes blazing with hatred.

"If you agree to swear an oath that you will help me kill them, then I will give you as much of my blood as I can, it should be a great help to your dragon-type Divine beast."

Xuhuan knew that while killing Ardet and the others would be easy, that was only if they stayed in this area until she finished recuperating, which was unlikely. They might gang together to kill her before that, or they might all leave this place and head somewhere else, making it much harder for her to kill them. And then there was the greatest problem, Lusoho Li. She was stronger than Xuhuan, and if she wanted to grow strong enough to kill Luosho Li, there was no telling how long that would take, or if it even was possible.

This was why she had asked Yao Jun for help, he would be able to grow stronger much faster than her, and since he was part of the competition, he would be able to find them much easier should they all spread out. Yao Jun didn't immediately answer, looking at Xuhuan with a calm gaze.

Listening to her words, Yao Jun could guess that she had paid attention to him while he was fighting Yuri Jahad and Luosho Li, allowing her to see him use his law of fire. He was a bit surprised that she was able to instantly tell that his law of fire was granted to him by Zhuyin, his Crimson Dragon, but she was a Divine Beast after all. Yao Jun tapped his chin a bit as he descended into thought, shaking his head after a short few moments.

"Not good enough. How about this, if I swear an oath to help you kill everyone on the list, you let yourself be absorbed by my gate?"

He had originally come here hoping to just get some of Xuhuan's blood, but now he saw a chance to gain more than that. Xuhuan's brows furrowed as she opened her mouth, but Yao Jun stretched out two fingers and held them out in front of her before she got the chance to interrupt him.

"Don't reject it too quickly, let me finish talking. I have two options, the first is that you can let yourself be absorbed by my gate and follow me for 100 years, once the years have passed I will release you again, I can swear an oath on this. The other option is that I absorb you into my gate but never call upon you. I will only absorb you to gain your power and then immediately let you out from the gate, you can continue to live here or wherever else you want in the universe, the both of us never crossing paths again unless we choose to. What is your answer?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Yao Jun would prefer to only absorb Demonic beasts who agreed to be absorbed, those who submitted to him and wished to follow him. Demonic beasts were much like cultivators, strength reigned supreme, so the easiest way to have them agree to be absorbed was to convince them with superior power. Yao Jun didn't think he had the strength to cause Xuhuan to submit, which made it rather unlikely that she would agree to be absorbed, which was why he gave her these options.

Xuhuan descended into silence, pacing around the area with furrowed brows as she thought over the proposals. She had seen Yao Jun's fight against Luosho Li, and she knew that him holding a God Gate gave him nearly infinite potential. Following him wasn't a terrible idea, but she wasn't ready to agree just yet. She stopped pacing and returned to her previous spot, stating her terms.

"Until the end of this competition, I will follow you to the end of this competition and then make my choice. You must swear an oath right now that once this competition ends, you will honor your promise no matter which option I choose, you must also swear an oath that you will never make any advances on me, and if I should choose to follow you permanently after this competition, you are forbidden from fusing me with any of your other followers. And of course, you must swear an oath that you will help me kill everyone I mentioned."

She would be able to see his growth by staying with him until the end of the competition, allowing her to have more information before making her choice. If he ended up becoming strong enough to make her whole-heartedly submit, she would not mind deciding to follow him permanently.

Yao Jun felt like letting out a laugh when he heard her say that he was forbidden from making any advances on her. He already had Guo Luo and a daughter, what else could he possibly need? He didn't let out his laughter, he simply stretched out his arm, nodding his head with a smile.

"Deal. I look forward to having you follow me, Xuhuan."

The end of the competition was still a ways off, Yao Jun was confident that he would become strong enough to make even someone like Xuhuan submit before then. Xuhuan returned the nod, stretching out her hand and grabbing Yao Jun's, the two exchanging a handshake while Yao Jun was swearing the necessary oaths.

After he finished swearing the oaths, an orange light surrounded Xuhuan, her body quickly shrinking into the light and then fusing into Yao Jun's chest. He already had the law of fire and could use mental energy to create illusions, but absorbing Xuhuan greatly strengthened both of these aspects while also increasing the strength of his body and his cultivation.

A surge of power flooded through his body, Yao Jun closing his eyes and enjoying the sensation of his strength growing. He had been at the middle stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm for a bit of time already, but now his cultivation finally broke through and officially entered the late stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm.

He felt like he had been stuck at the middle stage for quite a bit, a thought that would certainly infuriate most of the universe. Some cultivators had to spend hundreds of years to move from one cultivation stage to the next, even longer if they wished to move to the next realm. Very few people could move between the various stages as fast as Yao Jun, this was one of the blessings of having a God Gate.

A small vortex spread around Yao Jun's body, greedily absorbing all the Qi in the surrounding area to fuel his breakthrough. All the Qi flooded into his God Gate, which Yao Jun could feel was growing larger with each passing second, slowly approaching the size of 60 000 kilometers in each direction, almost as large as a medium-sized planet.

Yao Jun's breakthrough didn't take too long, less than a minute in total. When it was done and he opened his eyes again, he felt as if his entire body had been thoroughly cleansed and strengthened. He clenched his fist, somewhat wishing that he would run into Yuri again so that he could fight her again. He now felt like he might be able to at least put up a somewhat decent fight against her.

Yao Jun didn't go looking for Yuri, staying away from someone like her was probably for the best. There was something else he wanted to do now, his lips slowly curving upwards as he murmured quietly.

"Let's go deal with the first one immediately, It'll suit both of our wishes."

Yao Jun merged his mind into the surrounding space and quickly located his target, taking a step forward and vanishing. What he didn't know was that shortly after he left, Yuri came running to the area where he had just been, loudly cursing when she noticed that he had already left.

Yao Jun appeared on the northern part of the forest, very close to the volcano that stood tall at the center of the forest. He hid himself within the darkness, his gaze piercing through space as he observed his target, a man with peach-colored hair and elongated pupils that were a murky green color, Ardet. As the right-hand man of Peyton, Ardet was very high on Yao Jun's list of people to kill. He had decided to leave Ardet alone until he managed to get his hands on the blood of the Nine-Tailed Fox, but now that he had gotten the entire fox, there was no longer any need to wait.

Ardet was followed by 11 other people, all of them members of the Merged Heaven clan. They were thoroughly scouring their surroundings, most likely looking for any signs of Xuhuan's location. Yao Jun observed everyone in the group for a bit, gauging their strength. Of the 12 people, Ardet was the only one who had reached the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm, the others were all at either the middle stage or the late stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm. After he finished observing the entire group, he decided on his plan of action.

"I still have quite a bit left on this one, but let's test it out."

Yao Jun decided that now was a decent time to test out his half-finished domain-technique and see how it worked against people like Ardet. Yao Jun spread out his Qi, all the shadows in the area suddenly growing longer and darker, completely surrounding Ardet's group and swallowing them up in a pitch black domain.

When they found themselves in the domain, Ardet and the others felt like they had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. There was a crushing pressure bearing down on them and they felt like the darkness around them was liquid, restricting their every move. But despite this strange feeling, they could hear and feel a breeze, cuts opening up on the bodies of the weaker members of the group whenever the breeze blew over them, a feeling of death and weakness seeping into their very bones.

This was Yao Jun's domain technique, a domain that incorporated every single one of his laws into a single seamless whole. Right now he had only been able to merge his law of darkness, wind, water, death, and poison into the domain, but one day he would be able to merge all his laws into this domain, creating a true abyss for all life. Yao Jun was hiding within the domain, leaving Ardet and the others unable to see him, but they were still able to perfectly hear his cold voice.

"Ardet, welcome to my abyss."