Yao Jun's group was escorted through the large dining hall, which was nearly 10 kilometers in each direction, it had reached a point where Yao Jun couldn't consider it anything other than needlessly large. The dining hall, despite its name, actually seemed to serve more as a place to show off decorations rather than a place to share a meal. At the very center of the room stood the only table within the entire room, a circular table large enough to house upwards of 20 people.
Surrounding this table was actually a small forest filled with somewhat short trees, most only between 10 to 20 meters in height. The leaves were so soft that stepping on them felt like walking on a carpet of silk, and the various flowers spread through the forest filled the entire area with a fragrance that seeped into the body and calmed the mind while easing any fatigue that those who entered it might have.
There were four fountains within the room, one placed at each corner of the room and each one depicting either a dragon, a turtle with a snake coiling around it, an eagle with its wings spread, or a beast with the body of a wolf, head of a bull, and legs of a lion. The water from the four fountains turned into four rivers that ran straight through the room before meeting underneath the table and sinking down into the earth, returning to the fountains to repeat their journey.
Yao Jun might consider a room like this to be utterly pointless, but Yao Xuelian was more than happy with how interesting the room was, even Guo Luo looked around with undisguised appreciation for the beauty of it, as well as the care that had to have gone into creating this room. Yun Yantian was once the young master of the Yun clan back on Yao Jun's own home planet so he was a bit more used to grandiose rooms like this, his expression remaining calm with only a small twinkle within his eyes revealing his thoughts.
Pan Long and the others were already sitting at the circular table when Yao Jun's group arrived at the end of the path that took them through the forest. They looked as if they had just arrived, but thanks to his connection with the spiders within their bodies, Yao Jun knew that these people had been sitting here ever since they sent Pan Huisu to escort them over.
Pan Lim and the two other youths that had tried getting close to Yao Jun and his group through the journey were a touch pale and a bit stilted in their greetings, their fear of Yao Jun was clearly interfering with their thoughts a bit. Pan Long was quite a bit better, smoothly rising from his seat and greeting Yao Jun's group, beckoning towards their seats before sitting down again. He was polite and showed no signs of fear, making sure that he maintained the dignified and relaxed expression of a clan leader.
Guo Luo knew that Yao Jun had certainly gone out to do something with Pan Long and the others when he vanished the previous night, but looking at how terrified Pan Lim and the others looked it seemed like she had underestimated that something. She shot him a weak sideways glare but didn't say anything about it, after all, she had long known that Yao Jun was nothing if not a worrywart.
Food arrived the moment Yao Jun and the others sat down, women and men clad in delicate black outfits and carrying trays of various light dishes arriving through several small spatial arrays that were placed not far from the table. The food was placed on the table and generous portions of wine were served to everyone, a quick glance from Yao Jun causing the maid heading for Yao Xuelian to switch out the wine for a bit of fruit juice.
Yun Yantian and Guo Luo showed no fear in eating the food or drinking the wine, with Yao Jun and his Du Xiao here there was zero chance of getting poisoned. The breakfast quickly went underway, Pan Long and Pan Huisu standing for most of the talking on the Pan side of things, the others were simply unable to get out the words in a natural manner. Yun Yantian and the others asked a few questions about the things they were curious about, Yao Jun waiting until the breakfast was reaching its end almost two hours later before placing his elbow on the table and resting his temple against his knuckles, looking directly at Pan Long.
"So, that large open field within the forest to the north of this mansion, what exactly is it used for?"
Pan Long's expression tightened slightly when he heard the question and locked eyes with Yao Jun, he could practically feel those ghastly gray eyes pricking his soul. Pan Long knew that there was only one possible response for him to give in this situation, a sigh escaping his lips as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Since you're asking about it, I imagine that you already know the truth. It's a martial field, we use it for training and sparring. And if my guess is correct, we should currently be losing our weekly sparring matches against the Lin clan and the Shisui clan."
Yao Jun smiled lightly in response to the first part of Pan Long's question. This mansion and the surrounding area were indeed extremely large, but by merging his mind into the surrounding space he could easily cover about a third of the entire city with his senses, much less the entire mansion and the area around it. Yao Jun didn't take his eyes off of Pan Long and continued to smile lightly, asking a question with only one answer.
"I'd like to ask the people of the Lin clan a few questions so I want to head over there, that shouldn't be a problem, right?"
If the Lin clan really had blood that could be used as one of the materials needed to revive Little Thunder, then there was no way that Yao Jun could let them just go without at least asking them a few questions. The revival of Little Thunder was one of the main driving forces behind Yao Jun entering this universe, even the slimmest thread of information had to be thoroughly investigated and followed through. Pan Long realized that there was only one answer to this question, rejecting him now only meant that Yao Jun would head over there without them, and there as no telling just what might happen if he were to do that.
"Of course not, I too am somewhat interested in the progress our disciples have made."
Yun Yantian and Guo Luo could already guess what Yao Jun was planing when they heard Pan Long mention the Lin clan, Guo Luo cleaning away some of the crumbs and stains that Yao Xuelian had managed to scatter around her face. Yun Yantian glanced at Yao Jun and sent him a signal with his eyebrows. Yao Jun responded with a nod, Yun Yantian's shadow stretching up and swallowing him whole, sending him into Yao Jun's God Gate and back to Yang Yuhuan.
It had already been a while since he last went back to her so it was about time he returned to her side and spent a bit of time with her. Pan Long and the others were caught a bit off guard by Yao Jun's actions but didn't pursue them, they weren't exactly in a position to ask Yao Jun too many questions. The maids and butlers started to clean the food and drinks from the table, Pan Long bringing Yao Jun and the others over to a spatial array located close to the fountain shaped like a turtle. Looking at Yao Jun's raising eyebrow, Pan Huisu took the time to explain while activating the spatial array.
"This universe is incredibly vast, there's so much space between most things that just about all organizations draw up hundreds of spatial arrays to make traveling easier. If we had to walk, ride, or fly to every place we wanted to visit we would end up wasting far too many hours of our days."
Yao Jun found Pan Huisu's explanation more than reasonable, he himself might have the law of space and could teleport wherever he wished, but most people would have to use their own two feet to move. It might not seem like much a problem, but just this mansion alone was at least a few dozen kilometers wide and long, it could easily take hours for some disciples to head from one end to the other. The city itself was much larger and would thus require even more time, it was indeed just easier to draw up multiple spatial arrays that could be used.
The spatial array surrounded Yao Jun and the others with white light, their bodies seemingly losing all weight as they seemed to fly through the sky for a few seconds. The light vanished and their bodies returned to normal, their surroundings already changed from the dining room to a large open sandy area that had a five-kilometer wide stone stage serving as the centerpiece. The stone stage was surrounded on all four sides by a seating area that was shaped like stairs, making the entire place seem like an arena.
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They were only a few hundred meters from the seating area and the stone stage so it was easy for even Yao Xuelian to see that there were currently nine people engaging in a rather fierce duel on the stage. all nine people had reached the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm so the stage should be a bit too small for their duel, but there seemed to be some penalty if they left the stage, all of them making sure that they didn't step out of bounds.
Pan Long guided Yao Jun and the two others to the seating area and sat down along with them at the very front of the eastern seating area, the perfect position to see the duel up-close. The arrival of Pan Long immediately drew a great deal of attention, all of the attention quickly focusing on Yao Jun and the two strangers accompanying him. For them to be accompanied by the clan leader himself meant that they likely had a rather high status, but no one present had any clue just who they were.
Yao Xuelian was more than happy with all the attention, puffing out her chest and sweeping her gaze across the surrounding seating areas. Yao Jun tapped her on the head to make her calm down, his gaze lingering on the large duel taking place. There were nine people fighting and there seemed to be three from each clan, three wearing the brown robes of the Pan clan, three wearing the yellow robes of the Lin clan, and three wearing the blue robes of what should be the Shisui clan according to the descriptions he had heard while they were heading for the seating area.
The Shisui clan and the Lin clan seemed to be on somewhat good terms, at least the disciples in the battle looked to be, they were currently working together to take down the three disciples of the Pan clan. The battle only lasted a few more minutes after Yao Jun arrived, the disciples of the Pan clan were forced into a terrible spot close to the edge of the stage and ejected by the heavy attacks of their opponents.
The six disciples from the other clans didn't start fighting amongst each other after beating the people from the Pan clan, all of them turned to look at one of the young girls among the disciples. The girl looked to be in her mid-twenties and had a tall body and full figure, her eyes were sapphire blue and her hair was a gleaming violet.
The girl, who seemed to actually be the leader of these six people, turned her gaze away from the defeated Pan clan disciples and onto the seating area where Pan Long was sitting. Her gaze then landed on the unfamiliar Yao Jun, the girl's eyes lighting up with realization as she let out a burst of loud laughter.
"You've invited a helper to save some face, Clan Leader Long! Well, come then, come, come! I've beat down three so I might as well beat down two more, come, come, let me show you what true strength is! Who knows, I might recommend you to the Lin or Shusui clan if you put up a good fight for the first three moves!"
Pan Long's expression violently distorted when he heard the undisguised arrogance in the words of the young girl, she had probably done the worst thing she could have. Pan Long hurried turned to Yao Jun and swiftly explained the situation to him, hoping to somewhat ease his anger.
"Please don't be angry at her, Benefactor. She, Lin Shuyen, is a mixed child produced between the Shusui clan and the Lin clan and has perfectly inherited both of their bloodlines. The Shusui clan has an earth-element bloodline so children produced between the two clans would usually die due to the conflicting bloodlines. But in Lin Shuyen's case, she actually survived and received a great cultivation talent. But the conflicting bloodlines still took a toll on her, leaving her with a very volatile and arrogant personality."
Yao Jun only glanced slightly at Pan Long, not giving him any response before he turned his gaze back onto the stage, where Lin Shuyen was staring directly back at him. Her eyes suddenly shot open, a ferocious wind billowing forth from her body and pushing the others away while she herself was launched into the air. The moment her feet left the ground, the stone stage beneath her bulged outward and shattered, a thick pillar of lava so azure that it was almost purple rising from the ground.
The lava shot straight at the ascending Lin Shuyen, the intense heat from it violently distorting the air around it. But just as the lava was about to catch up with Lin Shuyen and swallow her whole, Yao Jun tapped the wooden railing in front of him, the lava stopping as if it had hit an invisible wall. Following the soft sound of Yao Jun's tap was his voice, Pan Long momentarily uncertain who he was talking to.
"You're not allowed to kill her, we still want to chat with the Lin clan after all."
Shortly after Yao Jun spoke out, the base of the lava pillar moved slightly and a human figure walked out. The human was somewhat short, only about one and a half meter in height, and had a slim body covered in a deep crimson robe. She had to yellow eyes and crimson hair that hung down to her shoulders in an unruly manner, it almost resembled flames in the way it hung. This was the human form of Zhuyin, who no longer carried the playful expression she usually wore, the only thing her current expression conveyed was anger.
Yao Jun might not necessarily get angry when people insulted him, especially not people like this Lin Shuyen, she was simply not worthy of his anger. But the same was not true for his beasts, who revered him as their lord and god. It was one thing if his strong enemies insulted him, they would swiftly learn the truth and get trounced like all his other enemies. But now even a weakling such as this dared to insult him? A weakling who Yao Jun himself couldn't even be bothered to move against? How could Zhuyin and the others possibly allow something like that?
Zhuyin didn't even say anything else, Yao Jun's words had already served as an acknowledgment that she could practically do whatever she wanted as long as Lin Shuyen didn't die. She placed her hand on the pillar of lava, causing it to shrink and cover her hand, a portion of it flowing over to her other hand and covering it, turning into a pair of nearly violet gloves. She then shot a cold glare at Lin Shuyen, spitting out a single cold word.
"Watch."
Zhuyin kicked off the ground the moment she finished her word, appearing in front of one of the other combatants from the Lin clan. She sent out a single fist that smashed into the man's stomach, sending him flying out of the stage and into the spectator stands. She kicked off the ground again and shot away like a crimson blur, arriving in front of the other four people and sending them flying with a single punch, all of them crashing into the spectator stands without the ability to resist.
This was Zhuyin, a Divine beast of the Crimson Dragon lineage, few early-stage Earthly Deities would be able to stand against her. And with the five other people dealt with, she arrived by Lin Shuyen again. Lin Shuyen had only barely gotten the time to reach the earth again by the time Zhuyin arrived in front of her once more. She had seen Zhuyin's actions just now and felt a sliver of fear sprout in her heart, both palms pushing forward at the same time.
The entire stone stage trembled as all the earth beneath it rose up and rushed forward like a nearly ten-kilometer tall tidal wave. But Zhuyin didn't even move, she simply pushed her own palm forward and placed it on the tidal wave just as it was about to reach her. Her deeply azure flames once again burst forth and swallowed the entire wave, turning it into nothing but ash and embers that fluttered in the wind around her.
Zhuyin's flames were stronger than the flames of normal Crimson Dragons, they had mixed not just with the flames of Yao Jun's Nine-Tailed Fox, Xuhuan Huo, but they were also strengthened each time Yao Jun devoured a Demonic beast with the flame element. The same was true for all of Yao Jun's other beasts, as long as their element grew stronger in Xuhuan's Element God's Gate, or Yao Jun devoured a beast of their element, their own element would grow stronger. Like this, they could all endlessly strengthen their own element, like this they could all better pave a path to the peak for him.
With Zhuyin easily negating her attack, Lin Shuyen's eyes opened wide as her pupils shrank. She hurriedly took a step back, clenching her right hand into a fist and punching forward to unleash another attack. Wind and lightning gathered in front of her fist and was launched forward in the shape of a one-meter wide tornado crackling with violet bolts of lightning. Zhuyin only glared a Lin Shuyen and her attack, scoffing coldly.
"That lightning, you don't deserve it."
Zhuyin then stomped the earth and shot into the sky, stomping empty air and unleashing a violent explosion beneath her feet to launch herself forward. She flew over Lin Shuyen's attack and landed behind her, causing Lin Shuyen's heart to tremble. She quickly halted her previous attack and swung her left fist behind her in a backhanded smash, but her attack was easily caught by Zhuyin.
Zhuyin grasped tightly onto Lin Shuyen's wrist and then flung her arm, raising Lin Shuyen into the air and then smashing her into the ground again. She continued to fling Lin Shuyen around like a ragdoll, smashing her into the earth again and again until all strength left her body and she could just lie there with her face in a bloody mess. Zhuyin then let go of Lin Shuyen's hand, snorting coldly.
"Humph, with that pitiful strength of yours you dare to speak ill of our Lord? You wouldn't even be able to get through the weakest of his vanguards with strength like that. If our Lord wished to end you, he would only have to look at you, he wouldn't even need to move. You are pathetic and weak."
Zhuyin finished saying her bit and then turned around and gave Yao Jun a bow before sinking into her own shadow, Yao Jun returning her to his God Gate. Pan Long and the onlookers were so stunned that they couldn't even utter a single word, none of them had expected the scene in front of them. Yao Jun ignored the dumbfounded gazes and stood up, stepping through space and appearing in front of Lin Shuyen. She was beaten a bit more than expected, but she should still be conscious enough to answer a few questions.