The second test.

As Yao Jun was sitting on the ground, the sound of squealing blobs of blood being reduced to ash ringing out around him, he couldn't help but wonder just how long this trial would take. It had already been an entire day, yet the blobs showed no sign of ceasing their endless spawning.

By the time the second day ended, Yao Jun was forced to shrink his fiery domain down to 15 kilometers to make sure it had enough power to incinerate the tightly stacked blobs. But the end of the third day, he had to shrink it down to five kilometers, and by the middle of the fourth day, he had to shrink the domain down to a measly 100 meters around him.

With the domain shrunk down to 100 meters, the blue flames and the heat they gave off was so intense that the moment even the slightest piece of the blobs entered it, they were instantly incinerated to ash. Using his domain, especially in a concentrated manner like this, cost quite a bit of Qi, so Yao Jun frequently swallowed down pills to restore his draining Qi.

The blobs had reached such a massive number that they covered everything around him, the only thing in his sight being the thick and murky blood that was the blobs. He was unable to see the diagonal road that the blobs would meld into once they died, but he as he could still see the ash fly away, he guessed that the road was still growing in size with each kill.

This tedious and repetitive trial continued for an entire week before Yao Jun finally spotted a change, the number of blobs was slowly decreasing. An opening slowly started to appear in the horde of blobs, which were still throwing themselves at Yao Jun and his domain.

Yao Jun stood up from his seated position, and since the blobs were growing fewer and fewer in number, he started to slowly increase the size of his domain again. After another two hours passed, the last of the blobs had been turned to ash, the bloody prairie around Yao Jun once again completely empty.

Standing to the left of Yao Jun was a bloody path that stretched into the sky, stretching into the horizon with no end in sight. While Yao Jun was calmly sweeping the area, vigilantly keeping an eye on his surroundings, the hoarse voice of the person who had set up this trial echoed throughout the area.

"Gehehe, you have completed the first little test. Go! Ascend the road you have created, use the walk to rest and restore your energy, the next test won't be as breezy as this one."

Yao Jun's vigilance didn't lower after hearing the hoarse voice, but he still stepped onto the bloody road, slowly walking along it. He tightly held his sword, ready for any sort of situation that might arise. But his vigilance turned out to be for naught, the road completely peaceful and safe.

Yao Jun made sure to swallow a few pills while walking on the road, restoring his Qi and stamina to their peak. The road was so long it vanished into the horizon, but with the speed of most cultivators, it could be easily traversed in only half a day.

At the very end of the road, so high into the sky that the earth beneath Yao Jun had nearly vanished completely from sight, stood a single white door. There was nothing else around him, so Yao Jun pushed open the door and entered it, space around him distorting as he was transported away.

The place where he was transported was a prairie quite similar to the one he had just left. The difference was that this prairie was much smaller, only around 100 kilometers in each direction, he also wasn't alone this time. About 90 other people were present on the prairie, sitting with crossed legs on the red earth, keeping a respectful distance from each other.

Yao Jun recognized most of these people, as they were amongst the thousands of people who had gathered up in front of the cave. With the strong memory of most cultivators, remembering the faces of several thousand people was a simple act. But there were a few here that he didn't recognize, meaning they hadn't been among the people gathered up in front of the cave.

While Yao Jun was sweeping the others with his gaze, they were also checking him up, measuring him and guessing at his strength. There was one person among the 90 that caught Yao Jun's attention. Sitting at the center of the prairie was a man with short green hair, brown eyes, and a tattoo in the shape of a turtle-shell covering the top half of his face. Yao Jun knew who this was, he was one of the five Earthly Deities that had entered this cave, Meridus.

After sweeping the entire area, Yao Jun found a spot close to the edge of the prairie, which was marked by a thick wall of Qi that prevented anyone from leaving the prairie. He sat down and placed his sword on his lap, vigilantly keeping an eye on the other people, waiting for the start of the next test.

The wait continued for another two days, new people occasionally arriving and joining the others in waiting. During the evening of the second day, the 100th person arrived in a flash of white light, vigilantly sweeping her surroundings. With the arrival of the 100th person, the walls of Qi that surrounded the entire prairie suddenly strengthened, the hoarse voice ringing out in the area.

"All the participants for this test have finally arrived. The test itself is very simple, there are currently 100 of you here, but only one of you can move on and join up with the others who are currently undertaking similar tests. Now, how do you turn 100 contestants into a single winner? The answer is simple, start a small killing spree! Only the final man alive will be allowed to move on, so chop chop, get to killing!"

After the voice rang out, only a short second passed before almost all the people on the prairie turned to look at Meridus. He was the only Earthly Deity here, so he was the greatest threat to all of them. In that short second, they had come to a silent agreement, Meridus had to be the first one to die. Faced with the gazes of the surrounding people, the lips of Meridus curled into a disdaining smile.

"You want to gang up on me and kill me first? You highly overestimate yourself. Once you have become a Deity, weaker cultivators could swarm you in vast hordes, but they still wouldn't be able to kill you. You are unable to kill me, you can only wait for me to kill the lot of you."

Right after Meridus spoke, the four people closest to him suddenly coughed up blood, falling over dead. He then stood up, the earth all around him exploding outward and sending chunks of earth flying throughout the area. Meridus took a step forward and vanished from sight, appearing in front of a cultivator who had reached the middle stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm. The cultivator didn't even have time to react as Meridus stretched out his finger, tapping the cultivator on the forehead. The light vanished from the cultivator's eyes and he fell down like a sack of potatoes, dead.

The other cultivators quickly reacted, launching quick and forceful attacks at Meridus, a rainbow of colors filling the sky. Meridus simply continued to sneer, waving his arm at the incoming attacks. The earth all around him suddenly turned into wood, raising up into thick branches that blocked all of the attacks.

This was the difference between a normal cultivator and someone who had reached the Earthly Deity realm. A normal cultivator might be able to produce a domain like Yao Jun, but Earthly Deities went a step further, changing the very world around them into any element that suited them while fighting. The only way to stop them from doing this was by using an even stronger Qi, wresting away control from the opposing Earthly Deity.

The earlier statement of Meridus had not been wrong, faced with someone who had reached any of the Deity realms, weaker cultivators were only fit to be called ants. He was able to easily dodge around as he pleased, blocking any and all attacks that were launched at him. When it came to those who had reached the middle stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm, Meridus only had to touch them once or twice for them to die. As for those who hadn't even reached that stage, he was able to kill them without even touching them as long as they were within two kilometers of him.

Meridus was free to slaughter as he pleased, a nearly gleeful smile on his face as he dodged around, practically vanishing through space. As he was dodging around and killing, he even had it so easy that he could laugh and taunt.

"Hehehe, is this it! You wanted to kill me with just this! Just hand over your heads, I promise that I'll complete this trial and gain the inheritance for all of you!"

While taunting, Meridus couldn't help but sneer inwardly. Just how long had he spent cultivating to reach the Earthly Deity realm? If he let himself be killed by a few Immortal Rebirth realm brats, he would turn into an utter joke, the weakest and most pathetic of all Earthly Deities.

But just as Meridus finished killing the 34th cultivator, he suddenly felt a horrid sense of danger pierce through his neck. He didn't waste even a second, the air in front of his throat turning into wood and earth, forming a thick defensive shield. He still didn't feel quite safe, so he dodged to the side, piercing through space with a single step.

Just as he took his step, his own shadow suddenly rose up, forming a thin spike tipped with a silver layer of energy. The spike pierced through his defensive layers, swiftly arriving at the spot where his throat would have been if he hadn't dodged.

The smile on Meridus' face vanished, his expression sinking somewhat as he traced the Qi of the shadow spike back to its origin, his gaze landing on the violet-haired and black-robed Yao Jun sitting on the ground at the edge of the prairie. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly in anger as he spoke out.

"A sneak attack, really? I figured I would save you for last, but it seems you want me to push the time of your death forward."

Meridus was strong and arrogant, but he wasn' a complete fool, he was able to carefully observe his surroundings and make level-headed decisions. He found Yao Jun's calmness somewhat odd and disconcerting, so he wanted to wait until he had at least thinned out the remaining cultivators before he moved to kill Yao Jun.

Yao Jun didn't show any change in expression because of Meridus' words, calmly standing up. He stretched out his arm and pointed the tip of his sword at Meridus, the Qi in his body starting to seethe and roar as he spoke out a few simple words.

"That head of yours, hand it over."