Yao Jun walked through the minuscule rubble that remained of the Lin clan outpost, the earth stained with so much blood that it turned into mud that squelched as he walked through it. His increase in strength could only be considered one thing, terror-inducing. He hadn't just reached the middle-stage of the Earthly Deity realm, he had fused together two God Gates, one that was a jack-of-all-trades and one that was focused entirely on attacking.

And the result left even him somewhat flabbergasted. The grand array was supposed to be able to even resist the attacks of an early-stage Heavenly Deity for a bit of time, but it had shattered under a single attack from Yao Jun, who hadn't even activated his strengthening technique. Clearly, his attacking power in his normal state had already transcended the early-stage of the Heavenly Deity realm, that was how great the power of a God Gate, a core piece coming from a fragment of an Origin Heart, was.

Yao Jun's steps stopped in front of the three women, his gaze landing on and piercing into the two that still retained their consciousness. He ignored their gazes and focused on the Lin clan bloodline flowing within their bodies. Yao Jun had seen Divine Beasts before, he had seen normal Demonic beasts, he had seen the children coming from Divine Beasts and their diluted bloodlines, he had seen normal animals mutated into Demonic beasts by Qi, he had even seen exalted Origin Beasts before.

But this was the first time he had ever seen a bloodline that had degraded in a manner like this, diluting and mixing with other bloodlines. In theory, when a Divine Beast bloodline degraded by time or was diluted due to mating with weaker beasts, it should lose the flavour of a Divine Beast bloodline. Even Little Gray was the same, back when he was still a Mist Eagle, a close descendant of the Illusory Roc, his bloodline didn't have the flavour of a Divine Beast.

Of course, Yao Jun wasn't just inspecting the bloodline for the fun of it, he was hoping to study the finer parts of the bloodline and merge that information with what he had seen from Little Gray's own bloodline. If he could compare what he knew of the two and pick out the miniature details specific to Divine Beasts, he hoped that there might be a chance to find other similar bloodlines in the future, diluted or degraded bloodlines that once belonged to Divine Beasts.

If they already had a Divine Beast bloodline within them, even if it was diluted and degraded, it would be easier for their evolutions down the line. If he could find Demonic beasts like this, it would save him more than just a little trouble in the future. After all, finding Divine Beasts was far from easy, a fact Yao Jun knew far too well.

True, Yao Jun had six Divine Beasts in his God Gate when all his beasts were assembled, but he had relied on immense luck to acquire them. Little Gray evolving into a Divine Beast, Zhuyin, and Zhuanxu, were all acquired by him thanks to the remains of the very first Demon God's Gate, Sirius had been handed to him by a friend of the man who held the Demon God's Gate or one of its fragments before Yao Jun, Ba-Shei had evolved due to a lucky stroke, and Xuhuan had only joined him due to the special happenings when they met.

So in truth, had it not been for the remains of the first Demon God's Gate, Yao Jun wouldn't have three of his Divine Beasts, which might have resulted in him not acquiring any of the later ones either. From this he could easily see how much luck he had relied on to get the beasts he did, if he could eliminate that luck through study and understanding he would be more than content.

Yao Jun quietly looked at the bloodlines of the three women for nearly three hours before he suddenly bent his body and grabbed onto the neck of the woman closest to him. He raised her into the air and locked eyes with her, his ghastly gray eyes causing her very soul to tremble as strange energy seeped into her. His God Gate had gone through a soft-reset, but it retained a few things that it couldn't really get rid off.

One thing was all the things he had put within the God Gate, the inside had shrunk drastically but not so much that the people of the Demon's Gate were in danger. The second thing was the changes to his body, such as his violet hair, his gray eyes, and the piercing vision he acquired long ago. And the third thing was the energy he acquired from his beasts, or more specifically, the mental energy he had gotten from Little Gray and Xuhuan. And so, right now, that mental energy and his Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi, was flooding directly into the woman's soul and mind.

She had already been crushed by Yao Jun's earlier attack, her spirit was so broken she was on the verge of fainting like the youngest of the trio. So when she was faced with his ethereal attack, her defences were unable to hold up in the slightest and were all pierced through like paper and her soul laid bare for him. He didn't have his poison or Human God's Gate so controlling her was a bit troublesome, but he still had other means.

His two different energies wreaked havoc on her mind until the world reflected in her eyes was so distorted that she thought she was back within the headquarters of the clan. And standing in front of her was her esteemed teacher, looking at her with the same stern yet caring gaze he always used. Yao Jun put her into a sweet illusion and then gave her the order, use all your means to send out the message that the bloodline of the Lin clan is so diluted and degraded that it no longer counts as an actual Divine Beast bloodline.

The order was distorted heavily when it reached her ears, her mind already fully trapped within the illusion Yao Jun had dragged out from the depths of her mind. She happily sent out the order like a good student, but her world went dark when her esteemed teacher pat her shoulder in praise, Yao Jun tearing her soul apart with his Anima Essence and mental energy to go through all her memories.

He stretched out his left arm and tapped her on the chest after killing her, a hole suddenly appearing where her heart should be. Blood gushed forth from the hole and gathered in the air in front of Yao Jun, his Qi gathering around it and forming it into an orb that settled above his left hand. Once the woman was drained of Qi, he moved on to the second one and repeated the process, he then prodded the third one awake and did the same to her, stealing the interspatial rings of the three women at the same time.

And just like that, the news that the Lin clan bloodline had long degraded was spread through every information channel available to the three women. As commanders of this outpost and people at the middle-stage of the Earthly Deity realm, they held a fairly high position within the Lin clan, they could even send messages to the various allies of the Lin clan should they require assistance. As such, the information could be considered to have spread to nearly the entire Snowkiss territory, one of the three territories within the massive Snow Muse Province.

It might not do much right away, it might never do anything at all, but it didn't matter much to Yao Jun. Even if none of the other clans or organizations within the territory made a move against the Lin clan, he would still move against them, he would erase them from the face of this planet, that was the vow of the demon god.

After ending the lives of the three women, reducing the outpost into nothing more than a lifeless and bloody ruin, he looked at the orb of blood floating above his left hand. Just studying the blood for three hours wasn't enough for him to learn much so he extracted it from their bodies so that he could keep studying it whenever he wanted to. He temporarily put away the blood, giving out a quick order that it was not to be touched by Xuhuan or the others, and then turned his gaze deeper into the forest.

He had forcefully torn out all the memories of the three women, making him quite a bit more familiar with not just the Lin clan but also the surrounding beast-filled forest. And due to that newfound information, he had discovered two locations of interest and one that might be of interest to him. So he locked onto the direction of the nearest of the locations and took a step forward, violently piercing through space a few tens of times in a row until he arrived at the side of a lake shaped like an irregular circle that was a few kilometres in width.

The lake water was so murky that it seemed like it was filled with steam so Yao Jun couldn't see the bottom of it, but thanks to the memories he just searched through he already knew what was beneath him. Yao Jun gazed into the water and wavered slightly on how to approach it, eventually deciding that there was no need to be too antagonistic. He stepped into the lake and sank into the water, which was actually so hot that it was above boiling temperatures, it was a wonder that the surface was so calm and that the lake hadn't evaporated yet.

And as he sank deeper into the lake, he found the spot he was looking for, as well as the beast responsible for the strange situation of the water. At the bottom of the lake, a small volcano was nestled, hissing steam rushing up from the opening and polluting the water. And resting within the mouth of the volcano was a 200-meter long salamander with crimson skin and several small blue protrusions that looked like small geysers on its back.

This was a Demonic beast he had discovered within the memories of the three women, it had reached the middle-stage of the Earthly Deity realm and was a bit of a freak, it could use both water and fire at the same time. And it wasn't just normal water and fire, the fire was of a strange blue type that could burn even underwater and the water could actually act like fuel for flames, helping them burn even hotter than they would normally. The salamander noticed Yao Jun the moment he arrived, vigilantly raising its head and warily looking at him with its purple eyes, a deep voice reverberating through the water.

"An Authority Holder? Leave, I have no desire to follow anyone, I just wish to remain here in my own little slice of land!"

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Fiercely territorial and stubborn, those were the notable traits of this beast's personality, a fact that Yao Jun was well aware of. He hadn't come here to absorb the beast into his God Gate, so he simply stated his demand straight away.

"I know, I haven't come here to pick you up. I want some of your blood and a bit of your water and fire, just a little of each."

The blood would be useful to Xuhuan and Yong Bo, as well as Zhuyin should she choose to follow him again in the future. The two elements would also be useful to the same three beasts, it would strengthen their fire and their water elements, simultaneously strengthening his own. The gaze of the salamander narrowed dangerously when Yao Jun made his demand, bellowing out in a furious manner.

"You say that you know, meaning that you know a bit about me, yet ask for some of my blood!? Are you mad or just dumb?! Leave, before I attack!"

Yao Jun's own gaze narrowed slightly when the salamander called out, since it didn't want to do things the easy way then he just had to do things the other way. He stretched out his right arm and touched upon both the law of water and the Sword God's Gate, the water by his right arm forming into a weapon. But to his surprise, it wasn't a sword that formed in his grasp but rather a long glaive. The glaive was a little over two metres long and ended in a slightly curved blade with a sharp tip, jagged spikes running down what should be the blunt side of the blade.

His brows couldn't help but furrow as he looked at the heavy glaive, he knew that the Sword God's Gate was actually the Supreme Law of Attack so it wasn't just limited to a sword, but he hadn't expected it to bring out a glaive when he summoned a weapon. He focused his thoughts on the silvery-black glaive, its shape quickly morphing into a standard Jian sword like his normal weapon.

The salamander opened its mouth again when Yao Jun brought out his weapon, but a swing of the sword cut off its voice. Yao Jun was at least a few hundred metres away from the beast, but the slash instantly reached it and cut off everything behind the hindlegs of the beast. Even the volcano beneath it, the lake floor, even the shore of the lake and part of the forest outside the lake were cut open by the attack, a large slash of water bursting forth from the lake and devastating the areas it touched.

The salamander looked at its cut open body with undisguised horror, it hadn't expected a single attack from Yao Jun to decimate it this badly. It also knew that Yao Jun had shown mercy just now, if he actually wanted to that attack could have easily touched the head of the salamander rather than its behind. AS such, the salamander quickly lowered its head, its voice far lower and less powerful.

"Please forgive me, I spoke out of line. I beg of you, please do not take offence to it. I will gladly hand over some blood and a bit of my elements."

The blood pouring out from the severed behind of the salamander stopped flowing as the wound had already started closing when it finished talking. The salamander then opened its mouth and spat out three globs, one of blood, one of flickering blue flames, and one of lightly orange water.

Yao Jun stretched out his other arm and collected the three globs, giving a bit of the blood to Yong Bo and Xuhuan, at the same time also giving each of them half of the glob of water. Xuhuan had the Element God's Gate so she too could absorb water to strengthen her own water element. He also gave Xuhuan half of the glob of fire, saving the other half for when he met up with Zhuyin and the others again. After collecting the three globs and dividing what he could, Yao Jun had his weapon dissipate, swiped his new interspatial ring and threw a medicinal pill to the salamander and then pierced through space again, vanishing from the lake.

He pierced through space several more times until he reached his next destination, a nearly 400-metre tall tree that had bark that seemed to be constantly burning, the faint smell of sulphur emanating from it. Yao Jun stopped in front of the tree and looked down at the ground in front of it, his gaze piercing through the earth and landing on a small beast resting within the earth among the roots, a squirrel that was only half a metre long. The squirrel immediately noticed Yao Jun's piercing gaze, shivering slightly as it knew that it couldn't hide. Yao Jun also didn't waste too many words here, directly stating his desire.

"I would like some of your fire, if you just comply straight away I can compensate you."

The squirrel trembled slightly before letting out what seemed to be a sigh, burrowing out from the earth and giving a slight bow to Yao Jun. The squirrel was quite a bit weaker than the salamander, it hadn't even reached the Earthly Deity realm, but the three women still remembered it since it had rather special flames. They were hoping to wait for it to reach the Earthly Deity realm before they came to gather it up, saving them from having to use resources on it.

The squirrel was a dark silver in colour but had a brown stripe running down its back, a bit of the stripe flying off of its body and over to Yao Jun, revealing that it was a small brown flame. The flame was special in that it was incredibly solid, it flickered like fire but was actually as tough and sturdy as metal.

Yao Jun caught the small flame with his left hand and immediately handed half to Xuhuan, having her send out a bit of her own flame in return. The squirrel accepted the flickering azure, nearly violet flame, and swallowed it in one gulp before nervously staring at Yao Jun. But he didn't do anything else to it and stepped away, piercing through space and heading to the last location, the one that was only a maybe on whether or not it would be interesting to him.

This one was quite a bit further away than the other two, it took Yao Jun nearly six hours of continuous piercing through space to reach it. The place he reached was a rather barren stretch of land where the trees were spread out rather sparsely, large jagged boulders and other stone formations taking their place. Yao Jun's gaze landed on the rather small mountain that stood at the centre of this barren land, the mountain was barely two kilometres in height.

"You can just come out, I know you're there."

It looked as if he was speaking out into empty air, but a small one-metre wide piece of the mountain actually trembled and separated from the rest of it after a short moment. The chunk fell to the ground and suddenly sprouted six legs and a turtle-like head, five pairs of granite-like eyes looking somewhat helplessly at Yao Jun while a somewhat grating yet feminine voice rang out.

"What do you want from me, Authority Holder? I am too weak to be of use to you so why would you bother wasting your time here?"

The turtle-like beast wasn't wrong, it had only reached the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, it was far too weak to be of use to Yao Jun. But Yao Jun didn't respond to the beast straight away, taking out the orb of blood he got from the Lin clan people and holding it up, one eye studying it while the other peered directly into the small beast.

The reason this beast had caught his attention was due to the fact that it looked almost the exact same as the Origin Beast back in his own universe, the only differences were the size and the number of eyes. He doubted that it was a beast holding the degraded version of an Origin Beast, but for it to be that similar it might just be from a race that had a Divine Beast far back in its history.

And peering into both the beast and the orb of blood, he started to see a few very faint similarities within the blood. The similarities were hidden within the very depth of the blood, so small that they were practically invisible, but they still couldn't hide from Yao Jun's downright vicious eyesight.

He couldn't be certain that these similarities were what he was looking for, but even if they weren't, he was willing to risk it. After all, it wouldn't be the first time he raised a normal beast to the status of a Divine Beast. He put away the orb of blood and looked directly at the beast while wearing a dignified expression and reaching out with his arm.

"I'm heading for the throne of God and I want companions that will accompany me all the way to the peak. I want you and your strength, are you willing to follow me?"

Other than the fact that the beast in front of him might have a Divine Beast ancestor far in the past, there were two more reasons that Yao Jun decided to extend this offer. The beast could control the law of earth and had an exceedingly strong body. The strong body would be useful for Yao Jun's own body cultivation, it would be like adding wings to a tiger, and the law of earth was one he didn't have yet, it would add another weapon to his arsenal.

The beast trembled slightly when it heard Yao Jun's offer, this was one of the last things it had expected to hear from Yao Jun. Its five pairs of eyes looked closely at Yao Jun, studying the sincerity and expectation within his eyes. And upon seeing those clear black eyes, it knew that Yao Jun wasn't lying or deceiving it, he was earnestly desiring the strength of the beast. He had seen past its low cultivation and seen its worth and wanted it to follow him to the throne of God.

This was the fourth-largest planet within a major universe, there were countless other beasts just like it, even within this forest there were probably millions of other beasts that were a better choice. But Yao Jun had chosen it, and sensing the various energies radiating from the Authority Yao Jun held it could tell that Yao Jun hadn't absorbed a lot of other beasts.

Such a level of strength yet he hadn't absorbed a lot of beasts, he was clearly one who valued quality over quantity. And he had chosen it, he had decided that its quality was enough, it was worthy. Anyone holding an Authority was basically a god to whatever its Authority reigned over, so being chosen by someone fit to be called a god, the beast couldn't help but feel gratified, noticed, and appreciated. So the choice wasn't hard for the beast, it lowered its head and chose to follow, it chose to brave the greater world.

"This nameless one is willing to follow you to the throne of God."

Yao Jun nodded his head as the beast made her choice, he was glad that she decided on it so simply. But Yao Jun wasn't a Demonic beast so he couldn't know what sort of charisma and attractive power a person like him had to Demonic beasts, it was an instinctual sensation that ran straight to their very souls, even if his Demon God's Gate came from a different universe. Yao Jun took a few steps closer to the beast and placed his hand on her head, a light extending from his God Gate as he spoke.

"You are nameless no more. In the future, you will be my, Yao Jun's, Shan Zhu, the lord of all mountains. Go, meet the others, in the near future I will let you all hold a grand feast to push you all up to my level."

The light from his God Gate surrounded the entire beast, Shan Zhu, and absorbed her. The moment she appeared within his God Gate, Yao Jun could feel the inside area increase again, the workings of the law of earth also immediately appeared within his mind, making him feel as if he could create mountains with a mere move of his wrist.

Yao Jun flipped over his hand and looked at his palm after absorbing Shan Zhu. He looked at the grooves within his palm in silence, eventually clenching his hand and letting out a sigh. He had gotten stronger, far stronger, that was a fact he was very clear of after today. But all strength came at a price, usually pain and effort. But just this once, that price hadn't fallen on him, it had fallen on his best friend, leaving Yao Jun with only the pain of loss.

He spat out a heavy breath and unclenched his hand, his gray eyes firm and unwavering. His determination was set, his target was set, all he had to do was keep moving forward and grow stronger, just as he always had. And the next step of that plan would be to head back to the Pan clan to reunite with Guo Luo and the others, he had to meet Yang Yuhuan and face her judgment.