The horrid king.

Despite the fact that Yao Jun was about to face the chasing soldiers in frontal battle, not all of his concentration was placed on the battle. Part of his concentration was split off, entering the part of his soul that was constantly lurking within his God Gate. Since two new Demonic beasts had arrived within his gate, he would, of course, have to go and meet them.

Yao Jun surveyed the inside of the God Gate from the top of the ancient tree, inspecting the increase in size and what sort of new areas might have appeared. Only two new Demonic beasts had been absorbed into the God Gate, but its size had increased by almost half, covering almost 200 kilometers now. He could not help but wonder, if the inside continued to grow like this, what would happen once it grew larger than a planet?

The new area that appeared, the home of his two new Demonic beasts, was a massive, muddy swamp. The swamp was almost pitch black in color, bubbling and steaming, noxious gasses rising up from the swamp. Twisted trees that looked like they were made out of charcoal stretched out from the swamp, stretching towards the sky like broken fingers.

After inspecting the changes, Yao Jun's gaze turned toward the bottom of the tree he was standing on, that was where his Demonic beasts had gathered, waiting for him. Yao Jun dropped down, his gaze sweeping over his now 8 Demonic beasts. Little Thunder and Ba-Shei were in their beast forms, as they had just returned from battle, but among the group, there were still two Demonic beasts that had taken human form. His eyes landed on the two Demonic beasts, giving a slight nod of his head as he spoke.

"I didn't expect both of you to be able to take human shape already. I am Yao Jun, do you have names?"

Of the two Demonic beasts, one was a woman, and the other was a man. The woman resembled Elysande, a curvaceous and tall body, smooth and supple skin, hair like silk. But there were a few differences between the two, the woman in front of him having deep green hair and violet eyes. She also only had a single pair of eyes, rather than the four pairs of eyes that Elysande had. Her body was covered in an emerald robe, the image of a skull embroidered on the back of the robe.

The man was very short, only a little over one meter tall. His eyes were rather strange, as they were completely white, without a pupil. His hair was black and short, resembling needles, and his skin was very rough and thick, almost grey in color. He was clad in a very simple and neat blackish-grey robe that had no decorations. The two quickly gave Yao Jun a deep bow, introducing themselves.

"It is only because of you that we can take human shape, so we must thank you, Lord. I am called Spider Hive number 872994."

"I am called Gu beast number 103278"

The voice of the Spider Hive beast, the woman, was soft and enticing as it entered the ear, as if it was trying to lure you closer. The voice of the Gu beast, the man, was deeper and huskier, but listening to it was strangely calming. Yao Jun momentarily ignored the fact that their names weren't proper names, the words of the woman catching his interest.

"You could only take human shape because of me? How so?"

Despite the temporary increase in Yao Jun's strength, Sirius and the others were unable to take on a human shape, as it was their own cultivation that had to reach a certain level. It was likely the same for these two, so they clearly meant something else. The man gave a slight nod of his head, giving a quick explanation.

"We are Chimera beasts, unnatural abominations that are a result of experimentation and fusions. We are not true Demonic beasts, so we are not supposed to ever be able to take on human form. But the moment we were absorbed into your gate, we were granted the ability to take on a human shape, so that we could better aid you."

While they were fusions of multiple Demonic beasts, there were also quite a few mystic techniques and curses involved in the creation of each Chimera beast, so they could not be called Demonic beasts. And because of that, they did not have the privilege of Demonic beasts, the ability to take on human shape after reaching a certain level of power. Yao Jun gave a slight nod of his head after hearing the explanation, jumping back to the main subject, the reason he was splitting of part of his concentration to meet the new Demonic beasts.

"I'm gonna ask just to be certain, but do either of you have anything against following me in the future? I will borrow your strength, but in return, I will do my best to increase your strength and help you accomplish your wishes."

Yao Jun had no interest in gathering an army of slaves within his God Gate, they would never be able to bring out the same strength and will that someone who truly wanted to follow him could bring out. If they did not want to follow him, he would simply have Little Gray use his mental energy to erase their memories before releasing them again. But the two Demonic beasts quickly bowed, giving their consent.

"We do not mind following you, but we hope that you will help us get vengeance on the people in the Merged Heaven Clan who were responsible for creating us."

A Spider Hive beast was created by killing and forcefully fusing countless spider type Demonic beasts, merging their consciousness and personalities through a slow and painful process. Gu beasts, on the other hand, were created through a much more evil method. 100 weak Demonic beasts were placed into an enclosed area, forced to fight each other until only one was left.

All the deathly energy that came from the dead Demonic beasts were forced into the survivor, who was then forced to fight 99 other Demonic beasts who had gone through the same. This continued all the way until there was so much death attribute energy in the Demonic beast that it gained control over the law of death. It was an excruciatingly painful process, and the only prize of the final survivor was to become a slave. Following Yao Jun, who they were told was much nicer than the Merged Heaven Clan, was much better. Yao Jun gave a nod of his head, a slight smile appearing on his face.

"Very well, then I will be relying on you and your powers in the future. But before that, you need some better names. In the future, you will be known as Du Xiao, and you will be Siwang."

The Spider Hive was to be called Du Xiao, while the Gu beast would be Siwang. Yao Jun came up with the names on the spot, but he was rather satisfied with them. Du Xiao and Siwang also seemed to be pleased with finally having proper names, smiles appearing on their faces. Yao Jun turned away from the two, his eyes landing on Little Gray.

"Little Gray, there are a few things I still have to deal with on the outside, so I will leave it to you to show these two around and explain them everything they need to know."

Yao Jun stopped splitting up his concentration after he handed the responsibility to Little Gray, the piece of his soul returning to the ancient tree. While he was talking to Du Xiao and Siwang, Yao Jun had also been focusing on dodging the attacks that were sent at him, but now there was no longer a need to do that.

He swept the soldiers around him with his eyes, mentally planning what he was going to do and what sort of moves he was going to test out. Thanks to his running around, there were about 20 soldiers around him, doing their best to block off all paths of escape he could use. Of course, that was only to soothe their own minds, they had already realized that they were unable to stop Yao Jun if he truly wanted to flee.

The first to notice a change in the situation was the captain of the Merged Heaven Clan soldiers, Andromalus. Yao Jun was no longer dodging through space, his expression somewhat absent. His eyes had grown sharp, his back tall and straight. His black robe fluttered in the wind, two strange energies that resembled smoked coiling around him, one deep green, and one pitch black. Even worse, the array that had been supporting him seemed to have fully recharged, his strength returning to its peak.

Yao Jun quickly organized his thoughts, deciding on the things that he wanted to test. With everything in order, Yao Jun moved into action, not wanting to give his enemies the chance to escape. He stretched out his right arm and clenched his fist. Space all around the surrounding soldiers collapsed, large rifts in space preventing anyone from entering or leaving the area. The rifts inched up so close to the soldiers that they were barely able to move, not even allowing them to dodge. It was at this time that Andromalus realized that they never truly stood a chance, the battle had been rigged against them from the very start. If Yao Jun wanted, the rifts could have immediately swallowed the soldiers, killing them all.

The soldiers quickly realized that things took a turn for the worse, but it was already too late to flee. Andromalus had a much higher cultivation than the normal Yao Jun, but thanks to the formation core supporting Yao Jun, they currently had the same cultivation. And as long as his opponent had a cultivation similar to his own, Yao Jun was very confident in his chances of victory.

Yao Jun raised his left arm, pointing at half of the soldiers, green smoke coiling around his arm. The green smoke dissolved into the air, vanishing from sight as it rapidly approached the soldiers. They wanted to dodge, but thanks to the spatial rifts behind them, there was nowhere to go, the poison almost immediately invading them.

The soldiers infected by poison quickly felt pain spreading through their chest, coughing uncontrollably, more and more blood spurting out of their mouths. They continued to cough up more and more blood, quickly finding themselves short of breath, even growing unable to breathe.

Poison was not just something that led to a slow and agonizing death, it could also be quick and gruesome, it merely depended on how you used the laws of poison. The poison Yao Jun used this time was of the second type, closer to acid than it was poison. Once it invaded the soldiers' bodies, it attacked their lungs and organs, quickly melting them.

While the first few soldiers were coughing, Yao Jun moved his right arm, pointing it at the remaining soldiers. The black energy coiling around his body gathered at the tip of his finger, turning into a small orb that pulsated, sending out faint black waves.

The soldiers gathered together behind Andromalus, doing their best to raise a defensive wall. But how could normal defenses work against the laws of death, the inevitable end of all life? Each wave struck their defenses like a hammer, a small amount of energy passing through the wall each time. The deathly energy infiltrated their bodies, their organs and flesh slowly withering away.

A strange scene appeared, Andromalus feeling nothing but fear. Half of his soldiers were coughing up blood and organs, their flesh melting and revealing their bleached bones. The other half of his soldiers stood behind him and his defensive wall, but they were simply withering away, their skin turning gray and dry as they died one by one.

Andromalus could also sense that he himself was slowly suffering the same fate, his body growing weaker and weaker. Just the act of keeping his arms raised to support the defensive wall was starting to take a toll on him, his bones hurting. And all the while, Yao Jun was simply standing there, looking at them with a somewhat interested gaze, two streams of smoky energy coiling around him, one deep green, and one pitch black. Looking at him, Andromalus was reminded of an old legend his parents had told him as a child, a legend they used to scare him whenever he did something bad, the legend of the Horrid King.

Was this the person they had been chasing all the while, was this why Elysande had ordered them to chase him? But if he had strength like this, why would he even bother running from them in the first place? All the questions swirled around in Andromalus's mind as his body slowly and inevitably died, but in the end, he was only able to utter a weak curse.

"You...You monster..."

Yao Jun tilted his head slightly after hearing Andromalus's curse, momentarily stopping his observation of the laws of poison and death.

"I get told that a lot, but compared to the rest of the world, I feel that I am fairly decent."

Yao Jun had seen people commit rape, murder, abuse, all types of sin imaginable, all so that they could either feel better about themselves or so that they could get a small edge over someone else. The way he saw it, those people, who were seemingly considered normal, were far more monstrous.

Andromalus wanted to say something, but his defensive wall had weakened drastically thanks to the death of his soldiers, so the laws of death had already thoroughly invaded him. His cultivation was equal to Yao Jun's current cultivation, so there was no way he could put up any semblance of defense, his body withering away and shutting down.

With the death of Andromalus and his soldiers, Yao Jun stopped using the laws of poison and death, pulling them back. He was very satisfied with their usage and strength. Compared to his other laws, these two laws were far more geared towards killing, having almost no other uses. Yao Jun picked up the interspatial rings of the soldiers and then quickly found a place to hide, preparing to inspect the battle taking place high above him.

The main focus of his attention was Arthurius, who was clearly the strongest person in this battle, the focal point. Arthurius had yet to move, but Yao Jun could tell that there was a terrifying amount of energy gathering within and around Arthurius, so it was clear that he was about to send out an attack. An attack by someone at the middle stage of the Heavenly Deity realm, just how strong would it be?