World of flame.

The thousands of people gathered in front of the cave could only swallow whatever words they wanted to say, obediently nodding their heads. Right now they were weaker than the Earthly Deities, so they could only swallow their indignation and accept the implication hidden within the words of Elysa.

Of course, if they found an incredibly valuable treasure, they would likely still risk battling against the Earthly Deities, just on the off chance that they could flee and use the treasure to greatly increase their strength. Elysa and the four other Earthly Deities swept the other people, making sure that they understood their standing. After making sure that there was no one who looked like they planned on going against the status quo, they nodded their heads, Elysa waving them towards the cave.

"It's good that you all understand. Come, we must pool our strengths if we wish to break the seal blocking the entrance of the inheritance."

After speaking, Elysa and the four other Earthly Deities took the lead in entering the cave, with the remaining thousands of cultivators following right behind them. Yao Jun walked at the back of the group of people, somewhat curious how all these people were going to fit inside the cave.

He received his answer when he himself stepped into the cave, the square walls suddenly stretching out and vanishing into the distance. A single step into the cave had transformed it from a few meter wide cave into a vast cavern that stretched out for at least a few hundred kilometers. Yao Jun could be said to have some control over the law of space, but he hadn't the faintest clue how one could achieve something like this, or how much strength one would need to do so.

From the outside, the inside of the cave seemed to be the same ashen white as the rest of the mountain, but once Yao Jun actually entered it, he saw that the ground was actually a reddish brown in color. The color reminded him of earth that had been drenched in large amounts of blood over countless years. And judging from the somewhat metallic smell that filled the air, it seemed like that was exactly how the ground got its color.

After examining the expanded cave around him for a bit, Yao Jun's gaze landed on something directly ahead of him, the same thing that everyone else was looking at with searing gazes. Standing in front of the group was a massive array that stretched into the sky, lines as red as blood coiling around each other and forming the image of a gargantuan droplet.

Selova, the yellow-haired and human-shaped Demonic beast that had first discovered this previously unknown inheritance, spoke up in a loud and piercing voice, catching the attention of everyone that had entered the cave.

"This seal is blocking off the actual entrance to the inheritance, it should be some sort of test. Everyone focus your attacks on the top of the droplet, at the thinnest part, that's the weakness of this array!"

Being the first one to have discovered this place, Selova had, of course, made sure to properly examine it. The array was massive and far more powerful than anything any of them could set up, but it had a very glaring weak point that was so obvious it could only have been placed there on purpose.

A myriad of colors swiftly filled the air inside the cave, countless attacks raining onto the weak point of the array. Everyone was holding back some of the strength, making sure to keep some in reserve for when the actual battles would inevitably break out. Yao Jun also launched a few attacks, cracks swiftly starting to spread on the array.

After being forced to endure countless attacks for several minutes, the array could support itself no more, shattering into countless orbs of bloody light. The orbs of light spread out like flies, sticking to the bodies of everyone who had entered the cave, a peal of hoarse laughter ringing out inside the cave, hurting the ears of anyone who heard it.

"Gehehe, so the array I have set up has already been shattered, that's rather surprising. Listen up, the lot of you will get the chance to receive the rewards I have hidden away here, but only four of you will be able to receive the greatest reward I have hidden away here. You probably wonder what this great reward is, but too bad! I ain't gonna tell you what the reward is, only the top four among you who receive it will learn what it is. But what I can tell you is that the reward is something that even most of those you call Heavenly Deities will fight for, so do your best!"

The words that the hoarse voice spoke caused the heartbeats of everyone to speed up drastically. They could receive a reward that even Heavenly Deities would be willing to fight for? Didn't that mean that the reward would likely be able to drastically increase their strength? They might even become so strong that they could compete for the top 10 ranks!

Facing such an enticing offer, how could the greed of the surrounding people not be stirred? Everyone started to sweep the area with narrowed eyes, vigilantly keeping an eye on anyone that might get in their way. While the others were vigilantly observing the others, Yao Jun was somewhat interested in what the hoarse voice had said at the end of the sentence.

'Those you call Heavenly Deities', what did the voice mean by saying it like this? Why not just say Heavenly Deities, why bother specifying that they called them Heavenly Deities? Could the one who set up this inheritance be a person from a different universe who used a different cultivation system? But if that was the case, why was their inheritance located in this hidden realm, and not in their own universe?

While Yao Jun was mulling over the various questions and thoughts that popped up in his mind, the bloody lights that had stuck to the bodies of the gathered cultivators started to grow increasingly brighter. Once they had turned so bright that the bloody light drowned out everything else, the hoarse voice once again rang out, sounding a bit more serious this time.

"I am forged and born in blood. Brutality and savagery is my calling, and death is my path! Show me your strength, forge your road to my rewards using the blood of your enemies!"

The voice drowned out all other sounds, becoming the only thing within the world of bloody lights, like a divine decree. Thanks to Yao Jun's control over space, he was able to feel the bloody lights distort space around him, transporting him to a different location.

Once the bloody light vanished and allowed Yao Jun to once again see his surroundings, he was standing on a barren patch of earth similar to the one of the cave he had just been standing in. A vast prairie spread out around him, the stench of blood heavy in the air. The earth of this prairie was even redder than the earth of the cave had been so it was clear that an unfathomably large amount of blood had been spilled here, forever tainting the place.

A black light flashed in Yao Jun's palm, his unadorned black sword appearing in his grasp. He tried to scan the area around him, but when he tried to send out his law of space, he felt like his mind had entered a quagmire. Even if he put his all into scanning the surrounding area, he could just barely spread out his law of space to about 30 kilometers, far smaller than what he usually could.

His eyes narrowed somewhat, pulling back his law of space to only cover a 20-kilometer area around him. Spreading it out past this would require him to constantly spend some of his Qi to counteract the quagmire like feeling, which would somewhat reduce his combat efficiency. There was no telling what he would face here, so he had to constantly be at full power and efficiency.

Shortly after Yao Jun arrived on the bloody prairie, thick blood started to seep out from the ground a short distance away from him. The blood was far thicker than any blood Yao Jun had ever seen, it was more reminiscent of mud than anything else.

The blood gathered together into a large blob, thick tendrils of blood shooting out from it and latching onto the ground allowing the blob to drag itself closer to Yao Jun. What seemed to be empty eye sockets and large maws occasionally appeared on the blob, but they kept moving around on the blob, or just disappearing and then reappearing somewhere else.

When it got closer to Yao Jun, the blob seemed to attempt forming a bear-like shape, but it wasn't able to hold itself together, collapsing back into a blob. It continued to change itself into various shapes and sizes, all the while hobbling towards Yao Jun as it put on this grotesque display.

Yao Jun cocked his head slightly as he observed this strange blob of blood, somewhat curious as to how it was created. But his curiosity did not mean that he would let his guard down, or that he would let this blob get any closer to him. Once the blob arrived within five kilometers of him, Yao Jun stretched out his left arm, pointing directly at the oncoming blob.

After Yao Jun pointed at it, the wind around the blob grew increasingly ferocious, swiftly forming a large tornado that trapped the blob within it. Yao Jun wasn't certain if it was possible to cut the blob, as it was made from blood, so the tornado wasn't made up of sharp blades of wind, the way he would usually do it.

Instead, the tornado focused fully on increasing the speed and force of the wind, lifting the blob up from the ground. Trapped and thrown around in the center of the tornado, the blob was forced to endure a tremendous amount of pressure and centrifugal force. The tornado was fully under Yao Jun's control, so he constantly altered it in a way that the pressure and the centrifugal force directly tore the blob of blood apart, dying the tornado crimson with blood.

After only a short moment, the blob of blood had been reduced to droplets so tiny that they were nearly invisible to the naked eye, so Yao Jun undid the tornado to check what would happen. The blood fell to the ground after the tornado vanished, spreading over a large area. Yao Jun kept his guard up just in case the blood would once again turn into a blob, but it seemed like his vigilance was unnecessary.

The blood gathered together again, but it didn't form the same blob, it instead turned into a small diagonal path that was about two meters long, stretching towards the sky. After the small path was formed, two more blobs started to appear from the ground, hobbling towards Yao Jun.

Looking at the path, and the two new blobs, Yao Jun was reminded of the words that the hoarse voice had said. 'Forge your road to my rewards using the blood of your enemies'. It seemed like he would have to kill enough of these blobs to create a path that stretched into the skies. As for how long this path would have to be, only the one who set up this trial would know that.

Yao Jun looked at the two blobs that were moving towards him, pointing at one with his sword and the other with his left hand. The one he pointed at with his sword was suddenly engulfed in deep blue flames, while the one that he pointed at with his left hand was surrounded by a faint mist, swiftly freezing. The blobs hadn't grown stronger, so he figured he might as well check if all kinds of attacks could harm them.

The blood that was engulfed by the blue flames let out what sounded like a high-pitched squeal, quickly turning into crimson ash that flew over to the diagonal road, increasing its length by two meters. As for the blood that was frozen, it quickly froze solid and shattered, turning into a fine dust that joined the ash and became a part of the road, stretching it to six meters.

Looking at the scene, Yao Jun guessed that he only had to inflict a certain amount of damage to the blood for it to join the bloody path into the skies. After the two blobs became one with the path, the earth around Yao Jun started to seep with more blood, four new blobs swiftly forming and hobbling towards Yao Jun.

Yao Jun continued to test out the idea that he only had to inflict a certain amount of damage to the blobs, four small orbs of energy appearing in front of him. One orb was azure in color and crackled with lightning, the second orb was silver in color and caused space around it to tremble slightly, the third was light green in color and released the smell of flowers, and the last one was pitch black in color, the scent of death hanging around it.

The four orbs were sent out with a flick of Yao Jun's finger, each orb reaching a different blob of blood. The blob hit by the azure orb of lightning started to quickly boil, releasing a squealing sound as arcs of azure tribulation lightning danced around it. Under the might of the lightning, it didn't take long for the blob to lose all shape and collapse into a puddle of blood that moved towards the six-meter long path, becoming a part of it.

When the orb of silver energy hit the second blob, the entire blob was crushed and compressed into a circle that was the size of a grain of rice, space all around it trembling. After the blob was crushed thanks to the law of space, Yao Jun undid his control over the orb, allowing the now crushed blob to join up with the path.

The light green orb of poison made contact with the third blob, resulting in the blood quickly turning greener and greener, bubbling and releasing steam that had a sweet smell. The blob continued to bubble for a bit before collapsing into a puddle, joining up with the path.

The last blob was hit by an orb of energy that contained the law of death, the entire blob starting to turn gray and wither away. Yao Jun had been uncertain if the blood would be affected by the law of death, as he wasn't sure if the blood was capable of dying. But it seemed like his uncertainty was unfounded, as the blood withered away and became a part of the path, extending it even further.

With this, Yao Jun was now certain that one only had to deal enough damage to these blobs, it didn't really matter what sort of attack you used. With the four blobs becoming part of the path, the expected result happened, eight new blobs started to gather together from the blood that was seeping up from the ground.

Yao Jun glanced at the blobs of blood, which were using their bloody tendrils to hobble closer to him. Since he had already figured out that he only had to deal enough damage to them to destroy them, he didn't see the need to waste too much time here. He sat down on the ground and placed his sword across his waist, closing his eyes.

When Yao Jun closed his eyes, everything within 20 kilometers of him suddenly caught on fire, blue flames turning everything they touched into ash. This was something he had come up with after seeing the last technique that Sword Empyrean Heng Jiang had left behind in his Crumbling The Nine Heavens technique, the Sword Domain.

This technique used the principle of the sword domain, but instead of using his law of the sword, it used his law of fire. It forcefully changed any Qi it came in contact with into fire, creating a world of flames around Yao Jun that would only vanish when he ran out of Qi, died, the domain was shattered, or he himself undid it. The strength of the flames was weaker than if he would concentrate them into a single attack, but it was perfect for battles like this, where he had to fight a horde of weaker enemies.

The blobs of blood quickly started to squeal under the assault of the flames, their bodies turning into blood-colored ash that flew towards the path and became a part of it.

Yao Jun simply continued to sit on the ground with closed eyes, even when 8 blobs became 16, and then 32, then 64, then 128, continuing to double in number each time they were killed. It didn't matter how many blobs there were, in the end, they would all become ash under his flames.