252 A God's Power.

Yao Jun's eyes narrowed faintly after he heard Li Long's grand declaration, one of his eyebrows raising slightly as a somewhat curious voice escaped his lips.

"The true power of my God Gate? Something other than the ability to use the laws of all the Demonic beasts I've absorbed?"

Just the ability to use any laws by just absorbing some Demonic beasts could be considered heaven-defying, when you added on the fact that he could increase his cultivation by just absorbing Demonic beasts, it became even more so. Li Long grinned at Yao Jun, looking at him with a deep and piercing gaze.

"Of course, did you really think the God Gates were that simple? It's all in the name, God Gates. Those holding them can truly be considered gods."

Yao Jun couldn't help but tilt his head slightly after hearing Li Long's statement, his gaze growing slightly distant as he thought back to all the things he had gone through in his cultivation.

"Gods, huh? Can't say I ever felt like a god, much less thought of myself as one."

If he were to say, he would consider himself to be nothing more than a scared man continuously charging forward to prevent himself from losing that which he treasured. It was quite far from the image one got when they pictured a god. Li Long simply continued to grin, pointing at the vast universe spreading out beneath them.

"That's the funny thing about gods, those who proclaim themselves as ones are never really gods. A god is born from the belief of others, not your own. Look below you, focus your gaze and try to see the light, what do you see?"

Yao Jun did as Li Long said, lowering his head and peering down at the universe, his eyes narrowing slightly as he concentrated. Slowly, the twinkling of the stars died down, a few shimmering lines of light replacing them, each of the lines connecting to Yao Jun.

"I see lines stretching out from me, about 20 of them."

Yao Jun stretched out his hand and grabbed onto the strings, giving them a light pull. The moment he pulled on the strings, the entire universe blurred for a short moment, two planets appearing in front of him and Li Long. One of the planets was very familiar to him, it was his own home planet. The other planet was unfamiliar to him, it was shaped like a flat plane covered in a wide variety of environments. Located in the midst of the forest that was the center of the plane was a large black castle that had a large spire as its center and was surrounded by ten other towers. Li Long pointed at the lines of light and the two planets, giving a short explanation before his gaze landed on Yao Jun's home planet.

"Those lines are your ties to others, it is the belief and worship that they feel towards you. This faith energy will slowly start to strengthen every single one of your aspects as you gather more of it, it's quite a useful thing. It won't do much for you right now, but just you wait until you gather up more of it. Normally, you only touch upon faith energy within one of the major universes when you reach the final stages of cultivation, but anyone who holds a God Gate can start to enjoy the benefits of faith energy when they reach the Earthly Deity stage. But I gotta say, I expected you to only have the faith of the Demonic beasts you absorbed, but you actually have some humans worshipping you already. Nice work."

Yao Jun knew about major and minor universes, but he didn't know about the other cultivation stages present in the larger universes. But as he didn't know how long he could chat with Li Long, he decided against asking side-tracking questions.

Yao Jun's gaze also landed on his own home planet, following the lines of light that connected him to it. The lines led him to a small town that was somewhat familiar to him, recognizing it after a short moment. It was where he had appeared when he first returned to his home planet, he had helped the townspeople kill a Demonic beast that had been terrorizing them. His overwhelming display of power should be what caused some of them to worship him as a god.

His gaze then landed on the other planet, the flat plane. Since Li Long said that he expected Yao Jun to only have the faith of his Demonic beasts, this planet should be where his Demonic beasts were currently living. He kept in contact with them, but that was mostly to check if they were okay and if they needed anything, he hadn't really asked about what they were doing and where they were. He looked at the overly grand and garish castle, which was where the lines of light ended up, quietly praying that they didn't have anything to do with its appearance. His attention was quickly pulled away again when Li Long continued talking.

"But while this faith energy is nice, it is a power belonging to all the God Gates, what I promised you was to show you the true power of YOUR God Gate. Tell me, do you remember what Little Dong, or Nine Heavens Soul Emperor, told you about me when the two of you talked?"

Yao Jun's pupils shrank drastically when he heard Li Long's words and saw the proud expression on his face. He quickly took a deep breath, retelling what the Nine Heavens Soul Emperor told him back then.

"... He said you could control all the Demonic beasts in the universe and gather all their power onto you."

The might of all the Demonic beasts in the universe, concentrated within one man, just how grand mustn't such a thing have been? Li Long nodded his head, pointing at the flat planet and the black castle standing at the center, his proud expression morphing into a warning one.

"Correct. Your God Gate is weakened and fragmented so you can't gather power from all the Demonic beasts in the universe, you can only gather all the power of the Demonic beasts you have absorbed into your God Gate. But beware, gathering power like this strains the body tremendously, it is much like that Crumbling The Nine Heavens Technique you have. You must not forget to temper your body, only like that will you be able to contain all that energy."

Yao Jun was quite familiar with the feeling of overloading his own body with excessive energy, he was acutely aware of the dangers, so he nodded his head solemnly. Li Long rolled his eyes for a bit, as if thinking something over, before speaking up again.

"I'll do you a favor and combine both techniques into one, it should make it far easier for you to understand it and start cultivating in it."

Li Long raised his right arm, a multicolored light gathering at the tip of his index finger. He stretched his arm and placed the finger against Yao Jun's forehead, a flood of information entering his mind, his vision slowly turning dark as Li Long's now faint voice rang in his ears.

"Well then, Yao Jun, my successor, I pray that you will acquire the strength you seek, and I beseech you, please break this horrible cycle that has swallowed our universe. And never forget, while I was born a God, you were made one, take pride in that."

This was the solemn request of a person born alongside this universe, his deepest desire that continued to haunt him even after his death. Yao Jun was unable to respond due to his vision fading and the flood of information entering his mind, but he at least made sure to engrave the words in his mind.

When his vision started to return to him, he found himself back in the spot where he had been when he killed Xiao Yan, the corpse still in front of him. But the area around them had changed quite a bit, the earth seeming to have moved around violently while he was absorbing Xiao Yan's fragment.

Yao Jun closed his eyes for a bit to go over the information that had just flooded his mind, quickly going over the technique that Li Long had just granted him. Just like he said, he had fused it with the Crumbling The Nine Heavens technique, making it so that he would draw upon the power of one of his Demonic beasts any time he activated one of the channels. He even left behind instructions on how to add more Demonic beasts to each channel, in case there should come a time when he had enough Demonic beasts to add more to each channel.

Yao Jun then opened his eyes and looked at his own hands for a short moment before he swept the surroundings with a sweeping gaze. Right now he felt an unprecedented sense of power and control, as if the laws in the surrounding area were waiting for him to take them over and control them.

Yao Jun's gaze landed on the ground at his side, the earth suddenly turning in flames such a deep blue that they were starting to turn faintly violet. This wasn't him burning away the ground, the earth had simply changed into flames when he interacted with the laws moving through it. Yao Jun knew what this meant, he could also feel it in his body, he had entered the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm thanks to Xiao Yan's fragment.

Yao Jun then quickly turned his vision inwards, looking at his God Gate. The wall had connected with the gate on the right side, forming a seamless whole. Yao Jun cast his vision into his God Gate, slight shock washing over him when he saw that the inside had doubled in size, it was now comparable to some of the largest planets in the universe. And standing within the God Gate was a tall yellow tower, Yao Jun's lips curving up slightly.

"You really did have it, sneaky bastard."

He had only guessed when he talked to Xiao Yan and accused him of still carrying the tower, he hadn't been 100% certain even after seeing Xiao Yan's expression. But now that he finally saw the tower in his possession, he could let out a breath of relief. He opened his eyes again, his gaze turning towards the distant sounds of battle, his fists clenching slightly.

"Luosho Li, shall we see if our battle will end the same way it did previously?"

--

"...That is all that the report says."

Marcell Tilor was kneeling on the floor and finished delivering the report that the other scouts had handed to him. He cautiously raised his head to give the surroundings a quick glance, wanting to memorize it before he was told to leave.

He was currently within the headquarters of the Demon's Gate, within the room where the leaders met to discuss various matters. This was his first time here, and he didn't know if he would ever be able to set foot here again, so he wanted to savor it while he could.

The room was surprisingly simple, a few strange golden lotuses decorating the corners of the room, a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling above and casting a bright light on the rest of the room. At the center of the room stood a rectangular wooden table surrounded by 12 chairs, five on the left, five on the right, and two side by side on the furthest end of the table.

9 of the 12 chairs lining the side of the table were currently occupied by seven men and two women, each of them radiating the pressure of an Earthly Deity. Marcell knew that these nine people were the current leaders of the Demon's Gate, he had seen them once or twice before when they were outside the headquarters.

But he had never seen the people who should be sitting in the last three seats, the tenth seat had been prepared quickly a few months ago, it was meant to house another person of the same rank as them. But the two chairs at the furthest end of the table were different, only the true leaders of the Demon's Gate were allowed to sit there. No one in the Demon's Gate knew who these two leaders were, they only knew that they were a husband and wife.

One of the seven men sitting at the table, a tall and muscular man that was a little over two meters tall and had azure hair and pitch black eyes, gave a slight nod of his head and waved Marcell away.

"Very well, you may leave, but continue to keep an eye on the situation."

After Marcell left, the azure-haired man, Little Thunder, turned towards the eight other Demonic beasts that were sitting around the table, his lips curving up and forming a content expression.

"Our Lord has taken another step forward, dragging us all along as he continues to move. I trust I don't need to say it, but we cannot waste this graciousness."

All of them lost contact with Yao Jun about two days ago, but before they were even able to start worrying, their strengths started to increase. Before any of them had the chance to question what was going on, they had all been propelled directly to the early stage of the Earthly Deity realm. It was around this time that a piece of news quickly spread through the universe, allowing them to understand what had just happened. Someone known as Yao Jun carried a previously unknown fragment of the Supreme Law of Demons, and he had killed Xiao Yan and stolen his fragment.

The other Demonic beasts gave slight nods of their heads, with the black-haired and amber-eyed Ba-Shei being especially emotional. He had once been a normal snake that by chance had become a Demonic beast, he would never have amounted to much had it not been for Yao Jun. Little Thunder gave a satisfied nod after seeing them all respond, moving on to the main subject of their current meeting.

"You've heard the report from our scouts, the various clans and sects are preparing to start battling against the World Tree clan again, what do you think we should do?"

Demon's Gate hadn't been formed for very long, but thanks to the great strength and varied abilities of all of them, they were able to quickly grow the sect and acquire new members, including some spies. And from the report they just received, the Final Fire clan and their other allied clans were preparing to head to war with the World Tree clan again. After a short moment of silence descended over the room, the silver-haired and silver-eyed Little Gray spoke up, standing up from his seat.

"No matter what their motives were, the people of the World Tree clan helped our Lord. I'll head to the area and keep an eye on it, should a situation requiring our aid arise, I will bring you all over."

As he could control the law of space, he was truly the one best suited for this task. He could easily hide, escape, even attack if he needed to. Little Thunder and the others nodded their heads, Little Thunder speaking up again, his lips slowly forming a mocking and somewhat amused smile.

"Alright, the rest of us will remain here and continue hunting down the men working for Peyton. Although, looking at the Lord's strength, I imagine it won't be too long before even Peyton falls to him."

--

On the small planet covered in a vast forest of gargantuan trees that served as the base of the Eagle Soul Sect, the rainbow-haired and pink-eyed Guo Luo was sitting beneath one of the trees in her courtyard. Sitting on her lap was a very young girl with rainbow hair and gray eyes, both of them currently staring at the massive list that covered the sky, Guo Luo pointing at the glowing name currently in the rank 1 spot.

"Look, do you see that name right there, the one shining like a star? That's your Papa. He can't come here right now, but he'll certainly come to you when he's done in there. If he doesn't, we'll just go to him and drag him along by the ear."

After killing Xiao Yan, Yao Jun's points had drastically increased, immediately propelling him to the number one spot on the All-God's List. Coupled with the piece of information that spread throughout the universe, countless clans and sects were paying very close attention to him, doing their best to scrounge up any information on him. While Guo Luo was pointing at the name and telling Yao Xuelian about Yao Jun, a somewhat tired voice rang out from behind them.

"I told you he has a penchant for getting into the deepest of shit. Just look at it, now the entire universe knows a bit about his secret. Well, looking at how high his ranking is, his strength has probably reached the usual ridiculous degree that his strength has always been at, he should have the strength to defend himself. It's probably part of his miraculous ability to dig himself out of any shit he finds himself in."

Guo Luo turned her head and glanced at the chestnut-haired and green-eyed Yun Yantian that was walking over. There were faint bags under his eyes and his shoulders were slumping a little, it seemed like he had been rather busy lately. Guo Luo smiled at Yun Yantian and spoke in the most dramatic voice she could muster up.

"Oh mighty Senior Brother Yantian, and here I thought you were too busy to come to visit lowly disciples like us."

Yun Yantian let out a snort and sat down by the table that Guo Luo was sitting at, fetching a gourd of wine from his interspatial ring and taking a few sips before smacking his lips.

"Bah, if I weren't terrified of brother Jun holding me accountable, I'd smack you over the head for talking like that, you know I can't stand the grand treatment."

Guo Luo laughed lightly but didn't give any other response, quietly looking at the drinking Yun Yantian for a bit. His cheeks had sunk in slightly and his eyes were also somewhat bloodshot, so Guo Luo could easily guess that something was afoot.

"Things aren't going well?"

She had never seen Yun Yantian look this tired before, not even when they first left their home planet and ventured out into the wider universe. Yun Yantian let out a deep sigh, taking a scroll out from his interspatial ring and placing it on the table in front of Guo Luo.

"Haah, not really. You should receive the news in a few days, I received them a bit earlier due to my position. The Merged Heaven clan is preparing to start a battle with some other clan known as the World Tree clan, and it seems to be quite serious, they are calling upon all their forces, even the disciples of all their subsidiary sects. All disciples must report and head for the battlefield, anyone who refuses or tries to escape will be killed without mercy. In about half a year, we'll be going to war."