The black gate closed and disappeared after Yao Jun pushed Little Gray and Xuhuan into it, his smile fading alongside the gate, his face returning to its normal calm state. He glanced at his right hand, inspecting the purple-golden symbol covering his palm, muttering quietly.

"Well then, I wonder if someone is actually going to be that dumb."

Yao Jun had proven his strength several times already, and news of his achievements should have already spread throughout most of the universe after he killed Xiao Yan. Not even Luosho Li or Baam Noctris would try to hunt Yao Jun for his points, so anyone else who tried to do so had either been hiding their true strength or they were dumb enough to think that he had gotten his points through luck. Yao Jun didn't expect anyone in this competition to really be that dumb, he guessed that it was more likely that others would choose to flee when they noticed that he was approaching them.

With everyone fleeing the moment he got close to them, handing these points over to someone else would become a bit more troublesome. There was also the fact that it seemed like the next stage of the competition might be started sooner rather than later, so Yao Jun decided that he might as well hold onto the points for now. Yao Jun scanned the surrounding area with a few sweeping gazes, rubbing his chin while continuing to mutter to himself, a habit he had formed due to how often he ended up traveling alone.

"Now then, who do we hunt next?"

As he thought it over, Yao Jun realized that he actually had quite a few targets he could go after right now. There were still eight more of Tang Guanyu's blood tokens roaming around that he had to find, he could try to fight Luosho Li, he could try to fight Baam or Mascheny Materius to see what he could learn from them, or he could even hunt for the strongest of the Sebettu that had entered this competition, Ren Shuren.

He continued to think it over, the only thing breaking the silence in the ruined land being the sound of his finger tapping on his chin. He had just recently broken through in all three of his cultivation types so he wouldn't be able to make a breakthrough within a short amount of time even if he did end up getting his hands on the last eight blood tokens. But even so, he stopped tapping his chin after half a minute, coming to a decision.

"Alright, let's hunt the blood tokens and get it over with."

Once he gathered all nine tokens, Tang Guanyu would show him where Guo Luo and the others were, acquiring this information was more important to him than killing Luosho Li or learning something new from Baam and Mascheny. OF course, finding the people carrying these tokens would be quite hard, as he would only be able to sense their presence when he was within 1000 kilometers of another token. So while he could easily spot others thanks to his law of space, he would have to get somewhat close to every single person he spotted as he moved.

Yao Jun swiped his interspatial ring and popped a light blue pill into his mouth, rolling it around inside his mouth and allowing it to melt into a stream of energy that flowed down his throat and spread through his body, rapidly restoring his Qi and easing any fatigue he might have accrued after the battle. Once his Qi had restored to about 70%, he picked a random direction and stepped through space, vanishing from the area.

Just as he expected, people started to flee once they noticed that Yao Jun got close to them, forcing him to chase after most of the people he discovered as he was teleporting around. Luckily he had the law of space, making it quite easy for him to chase most people, it simply cost him more Qi than it normally would have. Just as he did the other times he was teleporting around, he made sure to give Luosho Li, Baam, and Mascheny wide berth so that they wouldn't get the idea of starting a battle with him.

Yao Jun's luck turned out to be surprisingly good, it only took him three months to find and kill two people carrying blood tokens. The first one was at the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm, but she had been weaker than even Mordred so she hadn't been any challenge. The second person hadn't even reached the Earthly Deity realm yet, causing Yao Jun to wonder just how he had acquired the token to begin with, likely due to a great deal of luck.

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The acquisition of two more tokens granted him access to some of the future parts of the Blood Ocean's Hunger technique, he could now use it to cultivate up to the Heavenly Deity realm if he so wished. Of course, the sheer amount of corpses or blood-type cultivation resources that this would require was a number he did not want to think about.

Three and a half months after killing Peyton, Yao Jun suddenly stopped teleporting through space, halting on top of a large five-clawed hand that stuck up from the earth, already rotten so that only bones remained. The reason he stopped was very simple, he discovered someone he knew about when he scanned this area. And when he discovered them, they discovered him. They tried to hide that they had noticed his scanning, but Yao Jun had been able to notice the minuscule fluctuation in their Qi when his senses swept over them.

Even if that person hadn't discovered his searching, Yao Jun would still have stopped here so that he could meet with them, there was something he wanted to talk about them with. Yao Jun locked on to the person and stepped through space again, appearing a few hundred meters away from the person, who pretended to be startled when he noticed Yao Jun.

Standing in the distance, surrounded by what seemed to once have been the ribcage of a large monster that had died countless years ago, was a male youth with strangely vibrant gray eyes, handsome and smooth features, as well as somewhat short brown hair. Yao Jun's eyes were locked on the man, but he knew that there was a woman hiding underground in a cave that had been covered with a strange Qi that almost fully repelled his law of space. But while it repelled his law of space, he could still use his special eyes to see right into the cave, even observing the insides of the woman if he so wished. Yao Jun took a few steps forward and sat down on a broken bone, taking the initiative to talk.

"I'd like to avoid having to fight you, so how about we have a chat, Ren Shuren?"

The male youth standing in front of him was the one that the Sebettu girl had told him about, the strongest one of them that had entered this competition to support Luosho Li. Ren Shuren, someone who had reached the middle stage of the Earthly Deity realm, had a strong bloodline and could use the law of time and the law of motion. If Yao jun could have him give up on supporting Luosho Li then killing her should become a little bit easier.

--

While Yao Jun was meeting Ren Shuren for the first time, the Eagle Soul sect was bustling with activity, countless disciples of varying cultivation realms gathering into their respective groups and heading for the hundreds of flying ships that had gathered above the planet surface. Guo Luo was still standing in the small courtyard of her house with Yao Jun's parents, Yao Xun and Yao He. She had forced Yao Xuelian, her daughter, to hide inside her God Gate, an ability she had thankfully gained after reaching the Immortal Rebirth realm. The three of them were looking at the ships when Yun Yantian entered the courtyard, a somewhat thin silver armor covered in engraved wings adorning his body.

"It's no use, they won't allow anyone to stay behind. A few overseers from the Merged Heaven clan have arrived to make sure that all disciples take place, even bringing along a list to make sure that no one sneaks away. Best I could do was make sure that we are all put in squadrons relatively close to each other. It might be rude of me to ask this, but are you guys really sure you want to come along? I'm certain that we'll find a way to escape once we actually leave this planet."

Yun Yantian sighed as he spoke, just remembering how inflexible the overseers were made his head ache and his stomach burn, it was simply infuriating. Guo Luo took her eyes away from the ships, flashing Yun Yantian a calm smile.

"Truth be told, I'm actually rather scared. But I don't want him to be the only one fighting, I want to become stronger so that I can become someone worthy of him, I want him to be able to rely on me no matter what situation we are in. So I'm sure, I will be joining."

Yun Yantian had already expected an answer like this, he knew that Guo Luo hadn't been quite the same since the time Yao Jun was forced into a spatial rift because he had to protect her. He turned his vision onto Yao Xun and Yao He, but the two of them simply let out a carefree chuckle.

"No need to look at us like that. I can't really call myself his old man if I allow myself to fall too far behind, I'm still a young spry man myself after all!"

"This guy's a bit of an idiot, so I can't really let himself run off on his own. Besides, how can I let my daughter-in-law run into such a place on her own before my idiot of a son has even given her a proper wedding?"

Yun Yantian could only let out a chuckle of his own, it seemed like everyone who gathered around Yao Jun was a peculiar person in their own right. He swept them all with his gaze before turning his eyes onto the flying ships, his fingers moving slightly as his lips turned up faintly.

"All right then, let's make sure that we all make it out of this alive, last thing I need is for brother Jun to go bonkers."