Yao Jun remained standing in the air, blood running down his body as he looked down at the kneeling Lucia. His body started to descend after a few seconds, his feet eventually gently touching the ground right in front of Lucia. His gaze moved away from Lucia and landed on his own body, his vision piercing through his skin and flesh so that he could perfectly see that state of his body.
The extent of his wounds was actually a bit smaller than what he originally calculated, there were plenty that would take some time to heal but none that were quite as bad as he expected. He used his excellent vision to locate some of the worse wounds, ruptured veins or shattered bones that were cutting through his muscles, as well as areas within him where Lucia's Qi was hiding away.
Yao Jun's vision had been excellent ever since he absorbed Little Gray, and it only grew better as he got stronger and absorbed more Demonic beasts. At this point, if he truly focused his vision to the max, he could even spot minuscule things such as viruses and poisons within people. As such, it was very easy for him to locate his wounds and problematic areas so that he could focus on healing them.
He still had about 20 seconds left before his strengthening technique would undo itself to protect his body, after that he would become somewhat weakened due to the strain. As such, he decided to take advantage of these 20 seconds, using ice to fix up his bones, threads of materialized shadows to sew up the ruptured parts of his veins, and poison to eat away at Lucia's Qi.
Dealing with the cut open flesh and muscles was a bit harder with his current laws, the wounds were too large to be sewn up, so his best option was to just leave them be and let his body cultivation deal with it. If worst came to worst then he would see if he couldn't find some enemies he could use Yama's abilities on. Yao Jun himself wasn't too aware of it, but he was already becoming a horrible entity to deal with, one that remained unfazed by most wounds.
He finished dealing with his internal wounds and then washed himself using a small wave of water that he created, getting rid of all the bloodstains covering him. Once his body was clean of blood and the small bit of dirt that had reached him during the battle, he put on a fresh green robe, immediately returning to his usual neat appearance. But even with his appearance returning to its usual elegant state, the look in his eyes remained chilly enough to send a chill down most people's spine.
He stretched out his arm and placed his finger on Lucia's forehead, a small knife of ice instantly sprouting forth and piercing into her flesh. He drew his finger diagonally down her face and left a deep gash that ran from the center of her forehead all the way down to the bottom of her left cheek. The edges of the gash froze thanks to the blade of ice, preventing her from healing it unless she actively focused on it and took some medicine. Doing it like this guaranteed that it would leave a large and gruesome scar, which was exactly what Yao Jun wanted. By the time he finished creating the wound, he reached the time limit and almost all strength left his body so he was forced to have Lucia do the next step on her own.
"Tear off your own right arm, and do it properly."
"As you wish, Master!"
Lucia didn't hesitate in the slightest after receiving the order, grabbing onto her own right arm and flooding both it and her shoulder with her own law of shattering. The bones within her arm practically disintegrated as she gave it a heavy tug, tearing it off at the shoulder and only leaving behind a bloody and jagged stump, pieces of shattered bone falling to the ground from it.
She clenched her hand even further around the arm, her law of shattering causing the entire arm to crumble and fall apart into tiny pieces. She lowered her head again the moment she finished tearing off her own arm, blood pouring out from the gash on her face and from her arm. Yao Jun let out a heavy breath as a wave of tiredness washed over him, waving Lucia away.
"Take out a few of those pills that your clan is famous for and then flee, return to where you came from and tell the world about the demon who ruined your face and arm."
Yao Jun could kill Lucia after controlling her with the Human God's Gate, but for now she would be worth more to him alive. She could not only serve as a spy in the Merged Heaven clan, but she could also spread fear, she could tell people of the Earthly Deity that defied logic and sank his fangs into the throat of a Heavenly Deity. And that fear was exactly what Yao Jun was after, sects and clans would be far more careful about moving against him when they learned that they could lose Heavenly Deities by doing so.
Lucia did as Yao Jun commanded, taking out several pills that looked like they had been carved from pink jade and placing them down on the ground in front of her. She then stood up and teleported away, fleeing from the area at full speed and looking like a defeated loser fleeing before she could be killed.
Yao Jun fell to the ground the moment Lucia left, falling on his butt and greedily gulping in mouthfuls of air. His lungs felt like they were taking in fire, every inch of his being bursting with pain after the fierce battle. But his eyes shone brilliantly as he looked at the four pink pills in front of him. These were the pills that the Merged Heaven clan was famous for, using pills like this, anyone could restore lost limbs and organs with no problem.
He had read many reports about these pills, and looking at the ones in front of him he was completely certain that they were real. It was to get his hands on pills like these that he had bothered to enter the Ascending Dragon competition, sadly circumstances made it so that he had to leave the competition early and was unable to acquire the rewards.
He picked up the pills but didn't head into his God Gate right away, if he let Guo Luo and Yao Xuelian see him in his current state they would end up far too worried. He slowly calmed his breathing, placing his hands on the ground and leaning back with a soft sigh.
"Hah~ can barely even move, guess Heavenly Deities really do deserve their titles. Ey, Ba-Shei, could you take me around to the others?"
Yao Jun's shadow stretched out the moment he started talking, the nearly 200-meter long serpentine Ba-Shei soaring out from his shadow and stretching out his large bat-like wings. He quickly landed on the ground and lowered his head slightly, allowing Yao Jun to grab onto the two jagged horns adorning the side of his head and raise himself up onto Ba-Shei's head.
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Ba-Shei made sure that Yao Jun was securely seated on top of his head before he opened his maw wide, the lower jaw splitting in two down the middle, and letting out a thunderous roar that rocked the entire planet. His God had won a great battle and once again proven his great strength and worthiness for all, this was a declaration of victory for all to hear.
He then flapped his wings and shot into the sky, taking Yao Jun around the planet and showing him the end-times that his Demonic beasts had brought about. They first headed to the eastern part of the planet, the section where Zhuyin had been sent to fight. She was finishing up her fight as they arrived, and the surrounding area showed just what sort of fight she had gone through.
The entire eastern part of the planet, almost one-third of it, was completely covered in deep azure flames that roared as they reached for the skies. The water had evaporated and the earth was melting, it was a hell of fire no matter where you looked. And standing at the center of this fire was the 100-meter long and crimson-scaled Zhuyin, her thick four-legged body bursting with power, her wings spread out wide as a few drops of blood seeped out from some wounds on her body.
Yao Jun praised her for winning and checked her injuries before allowing her to return to the God Gate so that she could focus on recuperating. The body of the man she had killed was left to her, as were whatever he had in his interspatial ring, they were the spoils of her victory, they were not things that Yao Jun would take from her.
They then moved on to the southern part of the planet, a strange scene visible at the edge of Zhuyin's flames. The blazing hell of flames covered the entire eastern part of the planet, but they stopped right at the edge of a massive ocean that hadn't been there before, the waves and fire crashing against each other and unleashing violent hissing sounds as steam shot high into the sky.
Ba-Shei continued to fly over the ocean, he and Yao Jun quickly realizing that the ocean covered the entire southern part of the planet. This was where Yong Bo had been sent to deal with another one of the attackers, and it seemed like he didn't want to be any less grand than Zhuyin. Looking at the vast ocean that covered everything around them, Yao Jun was reminded of something Yun Yantian told him back on their own home planet after they first encountered Yong Bo. When a hydra grew nine heads its strength allowed it to drag entire continents to a watery grave.
Back then he might have doubted it, but right here and now Yong Bo had proved those words true without a doubt. Nine large draconic heads covered in deep blue scales rose out of the water, a set of spikes running down the middle of each head. Each head also bore a fang-shaped mark on the side, an indicator of how many times Yong Bo had evolved. One fang had already fully appeared so he had completed one evolution, but as he currently had nine heads it meant that he would soon be able to evolve again, absorbing all but one of the heads to greatly increase his strength while also causing the second fang to appear.
Yao Jun praised Yong Bo and checked his leviathan-like body for injuries before allowing him to return to the God Gate to recuperate and check his spoils of war, Ba-Shei swiftly bringing him to the western section of the planet. Zhuyin and Yong Bo had turned their sections of the planet into uninhabitable wastelands, and Zhuanxu had done just the same to the western part of the planet.
There was ice as far as the eye could see, gray clouds covering the sky and unleashing a perpetual snowstorm. Several jagged mountains of pure ice rose from the ground all over, resembling claws as they stretched for the sky. Each one was undoubtedly a strong attack unleashed by Zhuanxu during the battle. And standing at the center of the frozen wasteland was Zhuanxu, his horse-like body covered in pristine white fur with six blue streaks running down his side, his long mane of silver fur rustling in the wind as the jagged horn of ice growing on his forehead gleamed with a soft light.
Yao Jun once again repeated the process of praising and checking for wounds before letting Zhuanxu return to rest. All four battles had finished in their victory, and in the process the planet had been left practically uninhabitable, only the area where Yao Jun fought might still be able to house life. With all three of the others checked up on, Yao Jun placed his hand on Ba-Shei's head and gave it a few soft strokes.
"Can you take me to the target planet? Bringing out Little Lan here isn't the best of plans."
Ba-Shei would of course not refuse, he simply flapped his wings and shot into the sky, moving like a black blur as he moved from planet to planet. With his speed, it didn't take long for them to reach the planet Yao Jun had entered Lost God galaxy for, the planet that housed the items he had lost when his first interspatial ring was broken.
Ba-Shei landed on the surface of the planet, a barren wasteland covered in what was practically mountains of items that had been lost over time. His claws sank deep into the ground and revealed that it was just a thin layer of earth covering up even more lost items, this was clearly one of the planets that was formed as more and more items gathered together.
Ba-Shei lowered his head a little so that Yao Jun could easily step down, his body then strangely melting into Yao Jun's shadow as he vanished. Yao Jun had regained a bit of his strength now so he had his God Gate appear at his side, opening it and bringing out Guo Luo and Yao Xuelian. Yun Yantian was currently sparring with Tang Long, and both of them knew that this wasn't a scene for them to intrude on. The seemingly five-year-old Yao Xuelian curiously swept her surroundings with her gray eyes for a bit, eventually turning her gaze towards Yao Jun and looking at him with a tinge of suspicion.
"Papa, this isn't where we just were! Why did we leave the planet we were just on, what did you do to it?"
The corners of Yao Jun's mouth twitched slightly due to the accusations of his daughter, she really was a bit too perceptive when it came to the things he did. In situations like this, he decided to rely on the safest card in his arsenal, playing dumb while gently ruffling her rainbow-colored hair.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, this is just the other side of the planet."
Yao Xuelian continued to look suspiciously at him, but her expression quickly cracked as he continued to ruffle her hair, laughter quickly replacing her suspicion. Yao Jun turned his gaze towards Guo Luo, who looked at him with a gentle mixture of worry and care, he swiped his interspatial ring and took out one of the pink pills, his voice growing a bit hoarse.
"I'm sorry, I really made you wait."
Guo Luo could only smile gently when hearing Yao Jun's voice, her right hand stretching out and cupping his cheek, stroking it softly. Only she and he knew how much he had suffered and fought for this, how much he had beaten himself over the fact that she lost her eye. She took the pill with her other hand and swallowed it, a flowing stream-like energy spreading throughout her body.
She took control of the energy and moved it through her body, focusing all of it in her left eye. An itching feeling spread across her left eye, her free hand reaching behind her head and undoing the green silk eyepatch that covered her lost eye. The eyepatch slid down her face, and for the first time in years, a blinding light entered Guo Luo's left eye.
She had to blink it several times to dispel the light, but looking at that fresh pink eye that had finally returned, Yao Jun could no longer hold back. Tears started to run down his face, both his hands reaching out and embracing Guo Luo tightly, Yao Xuelian squeezed safely between the two of them as Yao Jun allowed his tears to flow freely.