The still shocked and even somewhat terrified Pan Long couldn't help but turn his vision inwards the moment the door shut behind Yao Jun. He had to see exactly what Yao Jun had done to his insides, exactly what sort of blade he was holding above their heads. He didn't see anything straight away when he checked his chest, but as he peered into his own heart and lungs, as well as his veins, his breath caught in his throat and a cold sensation swept over his entire body.
Crawling around within the valves of his heart, throughout his veins, and even along the insides of his lungs were tiny orange spiders. Each spider was only the size of a grain of dust, hundreds of them moving around within his body. The spiders seemingly noticed that he was looking at them, all of them stopped what they were doing and turned their gazes towards his head, a grim smile floating up on their tiny faces.
He didn't doubt that just touching these spiders with the slightest trace of energy was enough to have them explode and unleash their poison. Pan Long turned his gloomy expression onto Pan Huisu, Pan Lim, and Pan Liuxian, his gaze piercing directly into their bodies. And just as he feared, their bodies were teeming with tiny orange spiders, all of them turning towards Pan Long and grinning at him once they noticed his gaze. He didn't know when Yao Jun had inserted the spiders into his children, but it was clear that Yao Jun had made preparations from the first moment they met. Faced with such a situation, Pan Long wasn't even sure what to do, a subdued mutter escaping his dry throat.
"What have we done?"
--
Yao Jun calmly walked through the halls of the Pan clan mansion, the darkness that gushed forth from his shadow having retracted the moment he left the throne room. His hands were clasped behind his back as he hummed a quiet tune, not rushing his steps as he moved from hall to hall while following a seemingly pre-determined path. He continued to hum his quiet tune all the while until he rounded a particularly sharp corner and bumped into someone, eliciting a short yelp from her.
"Yeowch! Bad Papa! No singing, you have to watch where you walk!"
Yao Jun lowered his head slightly and looked at the person he had bumped into, Yao Xuelian. She was currently clad in her nightwear, a full-body nightgown made from somewhat thick green silk, Guo Luo had personally spent nearly a month learning how to make it before spending another month sewing it. It was because he had noticed that Yao Xuelian was walking about that Yao Jun hadn't just teleported back to his room, instead choosing to walk the entire way. Yao Jun picked up his daughter and held her to his chest, rubbing the red spot on her forehead that showed where her head had clashed with him.
"Before we talk about that, why are you out and about? I can't imagine that Mama sent you to look for me on your own, so what are you doing?"
Yao Xuelian's eyebrows couldn't help but twitch when Yao Jun immediately called her out like that. She sucked on her lips and hurriedly turned her head away to avoid Yao Jun's gaze, but after sensing that his gaze practically pierced directly into her, she couldn't help but let out a low mutter and confess her crimes.
"...It's because Mama was wondering where Papa went... I had to make sure that Papa wasn't lost, so I went to find you before Mama could worry."
Yao Xuelian turned her head back towards Yao Jun, but she didn't raise her eyes to meet his, afraid that she would be scolded for heading out on her own. But Yao Jun's lips only curved up somewhat, his free hand stretching out and pinching Yao Xuelian's nose as he started to walk again.
"You cheeky brat. Me, get lost? You gotta give me some face, can't let Mama have all of it, otherwise, I'll start thinking that there is some favoritism going on."
Yao Xuelian struggled to free her nose from Yao Jun's pinching while giggling sweetly, but even after exerting all her force was she unable to escape Yao Jun's grasp and could only subject herself to the punishment. The two leisurely walked through the halls, Yao Jun occupying his daughter's thoughts for a bit so that she didn't see him nod his head at one of the darker corners of the hallway located a short distance away from their rooms. Yun Yantian was hiding within the dark corner, returning the nod before slipping into the door hiding within the corner.
With all the things they had gone through, no one within Yao Jun's group would be so naive as to simply believe the people of the Pan clan. The only reason they hadn't done anything yet was due to the simple fact that Yao Jun was more suited to it than them, his myriad of laws meant that he was suited to just about any task. Yao Jun quickly reached his room and closed the door behind him, Yao Xuelian jumping out from his embrace and quickly skittering over to Guo Luo.
"Mama, Mama, I found Papa! He had gotten lost and couldn't find the way back so I had to help him! Praise me, praise me!"
Yao Jun's eyebrow ticked up straight away, he had only just entered the room but was already being slandered and sold out by his own daughter. Yao Xuelian jumped at Guo Luo and was quickly picked up, but rather than receiving the praise that she hoped for, she ended up getting her nose pinched by Guo Luo.
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"Wandering off on your own, are you? What would you do if Papa wasn't... lost and ended up running into you? Would you have continued to walk around until the big bad beast that eats all naughty girls finds you?"
Guo Luo was evidently a bit more merciful than Yao Jun, Yao Xuelian only had to squirm around a bit before she managed to free her nose so that she could properly form her retort.
"I'm not scared of some big bad beast, Papa will scold it so much that it will cry if it should even think about harming me!"
Both Yao Jun and Guo Luo ended up rolling their eyes after hearing Yao Xuelian's reply. The mother was nice and polite while the father was a bit callous but still kind, so just how had the two of them ended up raising such a cheeky brat? Guo Luo gave a slight shake of her head and brought Yao Xuelian over to the silk-covered bed that was large enough to house at least five people, tucking her in at the center. She then turned and looked at Yao Jun, gesturing towards the bed. Yao Jun gave a light shake of his head but still walked over, pulling Guo Luo into a soft embrace and giving her a gentle kiss before whispering into her ear.
"I'm just going to try out something in the stable first, I'll be back in a few minutes."
Guo Luo didn't stop him, only giving him a quick kiss in return before his figure shimmered and vanished through space. When he appeared again, Yao Jun was standing in a stable segmented into several hundred smaller booths, each booth containing one of the pale-gray horses as well as a stack of pale yellow hay that shimmered slightly. Yao Jun didn't bother wasting any time, walking over to one of the booths and resting his arms on the top of the wooden door while addressing the horse standing somewhat warily within the booth.
"Good evening, would you mind if I used you for a few tests? I'll, of course, repay you properly if you say yes."
The horse looked somewhat warily at Yao Jun after he spoke, its pupils darting all around the place for a bit before it seemed to calm down slightly. It let out a somewhat low neigh, the bestial sound turning into proper speech when it reached Yao Jun's ears.
"Good evening, Foreign Lord. I do not mind aiding you, but what exactly is it that you wish to test?"
Hearing the automatic translation, the corners of Yao Jun's lips curved up slightly. This conversation was, in fact, one of the tests he wanted to make, he wanted to see if his Demon God's Gate would still translate the sounds of Demonic beasts into proper sentences. With the first test out of the way, Yao Jun moved on to explain the next tests.
"I just wanna test if my gate still works, it'll be harmless for you. You'll just have to do two things for me. First, you have to think that it is fine to follow me, and then when I say so you have to think the opposite. Simple no?"
Yao Jun could feel that his God Gate was being suppressed in this major universe, but the suppression didn't feel as suffocating or all-encompassing as he first thought. As such, he wanted to test out whether or not his God Gate could still absorb Demonic beasts. He wasn't very specific with his words, but it seemed like the beast in front of him knew what he talked about.
"I see, so you want to test if your Demon God's Authority still works after entering a universe separate from the one where it was born. Very well, please allow me to aid you. As for any repayment, if you could give me a place where I can bring my family and live in peace, that would be enough."
Yao Jun hadn't heard the term Demon God's Authority before, but he guessed that it was the name given to his Demon God's Gate here in this major universe. Hearing that it had an actual name also allowed him to guess another thing, there were probably other people who had a power similar to his. Guessing this fact also made him curious about one thing, what would happen if he absorbed a Demonic beast carrying such an authority, or what if he fused such an authority with his God Gate?
Yao Jun threw the thoughts to the back of his mind for now, he could think about them in the future should an opportunity like that present itself. He focused his gaze on the pale-gray horse, who had lowered his head slightly to show that he was ready. Yao Jun stretched out his arm and placed his hand on the head of the beast, sending a quick signal to his God Gate.
Light seeped out from his chest and surrounded the horse, its figure rapidly shrinking and shooting into Yao Jun's chest. Yao Jun felt a bit of resistance and weight as he absorbed the horse, he even had to spend about 1/10th of his energy to force the beast through the suppression surrounding his God Gate. But the horse broke through the suppression and entered his God Gate, Yao Jun immediately becoming aware of its presence and powers, if they even could be called that.
He then released the horse from his control, returning it to the booth in front of him. He gave the beast a few seconds to prepare and then placed his hand on its head again, once again attempting to absorb it into his God Gate. But this time, with the horse actively trying to avoid being absorbed, Yao Jun had no way of getting it through the suppression around his God Gate. He even tried pouring nearly 60% of his full power into it, but the suppression remained unmoved, the horse not showing the slightest sign of being absorbed.
Yao Jun pulled back his arm and stuffed a pill into his mouth, the corners of his lips curving up a touch further. With this, he was practically certain that he could absorb Demonic beasts as long as they were willing to follow him. He didn't know why his God Gate was less suppressed than the first God Gate, but he didn't bother too much with it.
As for the horse in front of him, he gave it the payment that it asked for. He absorbed it, its wife, as well as their three children, allowing them to freely roam around within his God Gate. The horses were amongst the weakest type of Demonic beasts, they didn't even have the ability to control any laws, the only things they had going for them were their tough bodies and deep reserves of stamina. With his tests having been concluded and the proper price paid, Yao Jun vanished from the stables and returned to his own room, lying down in the large bed and squeezing Yao Xuelian between him and Guo Luo.