Yao Jun felt his head buzzing, it was as if lightning was bouncing about within his skull. He had somewhat expected it, forcing lightning into your cells and brain wasn't exactly something that you could just do as you pleased when you had a body like Yao Jun's, which could be considered exceedingly normal for a cultivator at his realm. But even so, it was a bit worse than he had expected since it had been so long since he last used his law of lightning properly, it was to the point that it nearly completely obstructed his hearing.

"We're done now, so can you drop that appearance already?"

Yao Jun rubbed his temple somewhat wearily as he spoke, his eyes still narrowed sharply as he glanced sideways at the Thousand Arms Master, who still wore Yun Yantian's appearance. But he simply smiled in a manner far too similar to the Yun Yantian that remained in Yao Jun's memories.

"No can do. Like I said, this is just a soul-fragment that I got to leave behind. I can't actually change my appearance as freely as it appears, only by bringing my actual soul out of Tartarus can I do that. Every time I appear, I reach into the mind of the closest person and copy two or three appearances from them, generally the ones that will anger them the most so that they'll fight properly. So you can either live with this appearance, the female appearance from earlier, or the appearance of the one you call Guo Luo."

The Thousand Arms Master's appearance started to morph as he spoke, but Yao Jun halted him by cutting his hand through the air. His wounds had been closed up and his bones set back into place, but his entire body still ached thanks to the exertion so just that simple movement sent a tingling shock up his entire arm. The Thousand Arms Master halted his transformation and returned to Yun Yantian's appearance, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Let's go, it's time to give you what's yours."

His voice dropped a bit as he spoke, containing a strange mixture of melancholy and resignation. He raised both arms, one pointing towards the grand central island while the other pointed at Yao Jun, who turned his head sideways and pointed towards the horizon before the Thousand Arms Master could do finish what he was doing.

"Wait, I want to gather my companions first."

Yao Jun could see that the spectacle on Ba-Shei's island had quieted down, but he still couldn't see Sirius or Little Gray so he couldn't help but worry slightly about how they were doing. The Thousand Arms Master followed Yao Jun's outstretched finger, the outstretched arm that was pointed towards the central island following his gaze and settling on Ba-Shei's island.

His open hand curled into a fist, a barely discernible quiver running through the surrounding air. The islands between theirs and Ba-Shei's island started to move as the quiver ran over them, sliding to the side while Ba-Shei's island was drawn towards them, connecting so perfectly with their island that they seemed to originally belong to a single whole.

A faint shimmer ran over the newly-tacked on island as what was likely an isolation barrier was dissolved. Yao Jun didn't know what had happened to the other people who used to be on the island, but all that remained on the island now was Ba-Shei standing on perfectly flat earth, even the stage had vanished.

Yao Jun didn't bother himself too much with what had happened on the island, his surprised gaze drawn towards Ba-Shei. The reason was quite simple actually, Ba-Shei was one of the more ferocious and hard-hearted of his companions, yet right now he actually had tears streaming down his face.

"Come on now, is there really a need to cry like that?"

Yao Jun's entire body burned with pain, but he still wore the same soft smile he always did when he talked to his friends. And it was this smile that only served to further pierce into Ba-Shei. No matter how deep the depths he fell to, their god still remained the same to them, never before had he felt so convinced of this.

"My Lord, until the end of time, please allow me to fo..."

Ba-Shei dropped to his knees in front of Yao Jun, practically instinctually at this point. But Yao Jun didn't even let him finish his request before he placed his hand on Ba-Shei's head, ruffling his hair in much the same manner that he previously used to stroke his head when he was still in his original form.

"Yeah yeah, enough of all that. Don't you remember what I told you about kneeling and the like?"

Ba-Shei choked back his words in the face of Yao Jun's gentle admonishing. He had already told them plenty of time not to kneel and the like, it made him uncomfortable since he saw them as companions rather than servants or worshippers. He stood up from his kneeling position and wiped his tears, positioning himself behind Yao Jun while gazing somewhat sharply at the Thousand Arms Master.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

But he simply didn't care about Ba-Shei's gaze and moved his outstretched arm three more times, the surrounding islands sliding away and making way for three other islands that came towards them. The three islands attached themselves to Yao Jun's island in much the same way as Ba-Shei's had, forming a seamless whole.

Of the three islands, there was quite a difference between the one that was occupied by Zhuan Yi and the two that were occupied by Sirius and Little Gray. Zhuan Yi's stage was covered in blood and body parts, seemingly not a single corpse remaining whole after the battle royale. The stages of Sirius and Little Gray on the other hand were completely clean, with barely a drop of blood staining them.

But even so, the stages were still littered with corpses, it was just that none of them really seemed to have any external wounds. Sirius and Little Gray didn't quite know what was going on, but seeing as Yao Jun was standing there with a being that radiated a dreadful pressure, the both of them could come to some conclusions.

"Milord, please accept them, we've made sure not to spill too much blood."

The two of them bowed respectfully while gesturing towards the seemingly untouched corpses that littered the stages behind them, making it quite clear why they had killed them in such a neat and pointlessly clean manner. Yao Jun needed blood to cultivate his body, the more blood he had the better, especially if it came from strong cultivators. That was especially the case now, where he had to rely solely on his body and soul cultivations.

Yao Jun shook his head lightly in exasperation as he accepted the corpses, but he felt gratified that they were willing to do such a needlessly troublesome thing for him. It was a sensation he felt that he was experiencing quite a lot recently, the sensation of being loved and cared for despite being at a low point.

Of course, Yao Jun's three original companions weren't the only ones that had been brought over. He did, after all, enter this tomb with a fourth companion that he had made a deal with shortly before the tomb opened for the new arrivals.

Zhuan Yi had barely set foot on the island before she halted again, her dark silver pupils trembling fiercely as she looked at the Thousand Arms Master. She didn't recognize his appearance, but appearance really didn't matter to her race, it was something that could be changed on a whim after all. But that sensation of pressure, and that familiar feeling resonating within her very blood, there was no way she could mistake it.

"Ancestor, Descendant Zhuan Yi greets you!"

Zhuan Yi dropped to her knees so strongly that the earth beneath her cracked slightly, more cracks appearing when she placed her palms on the ground and lowered her head until her forehead touched the ground. She didn't know the full story of the situation, but she felt that her bet had at the very least paid off.

She had reached the sanctum and gotten to meet with the ancestor of her race, an existence so elusive that the others of her race that had entered here hadn't gotten to meet him. Yet there he stood by Yao Jun's side so it didn't take much thinking to realize that Yao Jun was one of the reasons he had shown himself.

"Ah? You're one of my descendants, huh? The bloodline feels quite weak in you, quite a few years must have passed in the outside world, huh. Well, you completed the three trials so you've earned the right to make your way towards my sanctum, maybe one of them will take a fancy to you."

The Thousand Arms Master's tone was quite disinterested despite meeting one of his descendants. It wasn't something Yao Jun could understand yet, but such was commonplace for old existences. They had so many descendants that caring and worrying about each one would be too much, especially when some of them were so far removed from you that tracing them back to you would be hard.

And the Thousand Arms Master was even dead already and had lost most contact with the outside world, it would be even harder for him to care about his descendants. Of course, him being disinterested did nothing to deter Zhuan Yi from what she was trying to accomplish, it only made her a slight bit despondent.

"Please wait, ancestor! I have not come here to acquire one of the old weapons, I have come because the situation is dire. A group known as Basilisk's Tail has captured the remaining members of our race, I was only able to escape because the First Elder ignited his own Evolution Heart to fend off my assailants. They intend to use our blood and energy to pry open the seal you placed on Teardrop Lake so that they can clean it out. I am unable to fight their leader as she has already reached the peak of the Sovereign God realm so I've been forced to come and beg for your help. If you have no way of helping, then I am afraid that our race will die out with me."

Yao Jun had already heard from Zhuan Yi that their race might go extinct before long if she didn't get to meet with their founder, but this was the first time he heard the specific details behind it. And it was quite an unbelievable thing, using an entire race's bloodline and power in an attempt to pry open a seal, it certainly didn't bode well for whatever was trapped behind said seal.

The Thousand Arms Master may have been disinterested when faced with his descendant, but as was to be expected when it concerned the race that spawned from him, he would have to take its eradication a bit more seriously. His expression scrunched up a bit, his foot tapping the ground in a rhythmic manner as he muttered quietly to himself.

"Extinction huh... that's a bit more serious. Fading away in a natural manner would be accepted, but I can't let the creators' race fade away in such an unnatural manner..."

Yao Jun didn't quite see why the Thousand Arms Master was hung up on that particular point, there didn't really seem to be a difference between a natural and an unnatural extinction. But whatever difference he saw in the two, it seemed to be enough to spur the Thousand Arms Master into action.

"Very well, an unnatural extinction must be avoided. But you overestimate my capabilities, I am stuck in Tartarus until the advent of the next Sphere War. Leaving early would sap too much power so Hades won't allow that unless it truly is an emergency, which this would not count as. So, the help I can give is extremely limited, you have almost wasted your time in coming here."