253 Handing over the points.

Yao Jun took a step forward and vanished from the area, the only trace of his movement being a faint ripple in space. It wasn't hard to find Luosho Li and the others, he just had to head towards the sounds of battle, and with his control over space, the distance was crossed in less than a second, Yao Jun once again appearing at the bottom of the valley.

The battle for the interspatial ring was quite a bit more heated now than it was when he left, everyone but the five strongest had already died, their ruined corpses littering the ground. The crimson-eyed and black-haired Yuri Jahad had a large wound on her back, going all the way from her right shoulder to her waist, the bleeding temporarily stopped thanks to a strange paste she had applied to the wound. The dark blue-haired and yellow-eyed Baam Noctris didn't have any wounds as large as Yuri but there were still a few cuts and bruises on his body, his expression no longer as carefree as it usually was.

The icy blue-haired and white-eyed Mascheny Materius was also in a somewhat poor state with cuts and bruises on her body, three of the fingers on her left hand were dangling around as she moved, not an ounce of strength in them. The silver-haired and gray-eyed helper that Luosho Li had summoned was in the worst state of everyone present, all that remained of her right arm was a jagged stump that had been burnt black to stop the bleeding.

Compared to everyone here, the blue-eyed and golden-haired Luosho Li looked to be in the best state, she was only a bit pale and her hair a bit disheveled. But that was only thanks to the fact that she had two fragments of the Supreme Law of Defense, when he compared how much energy they had left, Luosho Li actually had a little less than the others, he guessed that it likely cost quite a bit to defend against so many deadly attacks.

The battle came to a screeching halt with the arrival of Yao Jun, each of the combatants capable of sensing his arrival, with Baam being the one to notice it first thanks to his own control over space. Lusoho Li's eyes narrowed in vigilance when she saw him and his increased strength, she had considered him dangerous even before he reached the Earthly Deity realm, now he would be far worse. Of everyone here, Yuri was the one who had the best relationship with Yao Jun, she was also incredibly fond of battles and strong opponents, so his increase in strength only delighted her, while also making her somewhat curious.

And for the first time since they saw him, Baam, Mascheny, and Luosho Li's helper finally looked at Yao Jun with wary gazes. When they first saw him, they were very surprised at the strength he had as someone who was only at the Immortal Rebirth realm, but they didn't really care as he was not yet an Earthly Deity. But now, now they could sense a definitive threat from him, he was now a hunter, just like them. Luosho Li continued to look at him with narrowed eyes, the muscles in her arms tensing slightly.

"You, just what the fuck did you do just now?"

Both his strength and his points had increased greatly, the points could be explained with Xiao Yan surrendering before fleeing, but not his increase in strength. The possibility that he had killed and absorbed Xiao Yan's fragment didn't even cross her mind, nor the minds of the others present, they knew that one would have to abandon all their cultivation when one first picked up a fragment. Yao Jun shrugged his shoulders lightly, a black light flashing in his palm as his sword appeared in his grasp.

"Who knows. I suspect you'll hear about it any second now."

Luosho Li and the others raised an eyebrow upon hearing Yao Jun's non-committal response, but before anyone could press him for a proper answer, the interspatial rings of everyone except for Luosho Li's helper vibrated slightly. Yao Jun could tell that everyone sank their minds into their interspatial rings, undoubtedly to read the messages they had just received on their message jades. And just like he thought, Luosho Li's expression sank further after only a short second, her eyes somewhat dark as she looked at him.

"You had a fragment of the Supreme Law of Demons, you were a Demon Lord? Looking at how your points and strength increased, you killed Xiao Yan and absorbed his fragment, no? How did you manage to absorb it so fast? It should take you at least several months."

If Yao Jun held a previously unknown fragment of the Supreme Law of Demons, his increase in strength and points were far more easily explained. But it also raised another question, and a slight point of fear, the same one that Xiao Yan had wondered when he realized what Yao Jun carried. Just what sort of Demonic beasts had he absorbed, and how strong would he be when he fought alongside them? Once again Yao Jun shrugged his shoulders, giving another non-committal response.

"Actually, I've been told I'm more of a Demon God."

Luosho Li's lips curled into a slight sneer, but her eyes shot open just as she was about to retort, her body quickly stepping back. Yao Jun appeared directly in front of her as she stepped back, his sword cutting through the air where her head had just been. His sword vanished mid-swing, appearing behind Luosho Li's head and continuing to slice towards her.

Luosho Li punched upwards with her right arm, an invisible shield surrounding her hand as she punched Yao Jun's sword with all her might, causing it to slip from his grasp and fly into the sky. Luosho Li punched out with her left arm at the same time, her fist heading straight for Yao Jun's abdomen.

But before her fist could reach him, wind gathered in Yao Jun's palm, his black sword reforming from the wind. The blade was made using his own blood and power, it was one with both him and his laws. He slashed upwards with the blade, the sword colliding with the invisible shield around Luosho Li's fist.

A screeching sound rang out when the two attacks collided, thin cracks quickly spreading through the surrounding space. Yao Jun's sword was slowly pushed back, but he simply continued to put more and more force into it, a stalemate quickly forming. Both of them put in more strength, Luosho Li strengthening the shield around her hand as much as she could, trying to push Yao Jun's own sword into his stomach.

But just as she felt like she would come out on top of this exchange, she saw that horrid faint smile on Yao Jun's face, the same one he had worn basically ever since he arrived here. He immediately opened all five channels he had carved of the Crumbling The Nine Heavens, simultaneously drawing upon the strength of five of his Demonic beasts, Little Thunder, Little Gray, Sirius, Ba-Shei, and Zhuyin.

The shield around Luosho Li's hand instantly shattered under the increased force, Yao Jun's blade cleanly chopping off everything but the thumb on Luosho Li's left hand. Luosho Li's expression sank even further, the Qi within her body quickly starting to surge and seethe. But Yao Jun didn't even give her the chance to fight him properly, acting immediately.

The shadow of Luosho Li's helper suddenly stretched out, a large fox with dimmed orange fur and six burning tails rising up from the darkness. Xuhuan Huo grew to become 20-meters long and opened her maw wide, biting down on Luosho Li's unprepared helper. The helper wanted to dodge, but the shadows cast by her own eyelashes suddenly stabbed into her eyes and blinded her, her yelp of pain muffling when Xuhuan bit down on her waist and dragged her into the darkness, both vanishing. Now that his secret was out, there was no longer a need for Yao Jun to keep hiding his beasts, he was free to call them out as he pleased. Yao Jun looked at Luosho Li, who hadn't been able to act in time to save her helper, his lips moving as he spoke two simple words.

"I surrender."

With Yao Jun's surrender, all his points were automatically transferred to Luosho Li, launching her to the top rank, her symbol reaching the required number of points to be broadcast to everyone. Yao Jun continued to smile faintly at her, thick cracks quickly spreading throughout the surrounding space while the earth beneath them turned into a viscous darkness which only Yao Jun and most likely Baam could move freely within.

"You keep a hold of those points, I'll come back for them at some point, and I won't stop at your fingers then."

Yao Jun didn't really want his position to be broadcast to everyone else, it would be too bothersome, so he decided to hand the points over to someone he wanted to know the future location of, Luosho Li. She might choose to do as he did, but he guessed that her pride might just prevent her from doing so. Yao Jun took a step back after finishing his words, the cracks in space expanding and turning into large spatial rifts that started to suck in everything around them. The darkness that the earth had turned into rose up, temporarily blinding everyone in the area and making it even harder to deal with the spatial rifts Yao Jun had brought forth.

The darkness vanished after only a short second, gathering within Baam's grasp before vanishing. His expression had changed once more, returning to its normal carefree and curious look as he swept the surroundings with a quick gaze, he had clearly grown rather interested in Yao Jun. But even after sweeping the entire surrounding area using his law of space, he found no trace of Yao Jun or Yuri, both having vanished.

Several tens of thousands of kilometers away, Yao Jun and Yuri appeared out of space for a short second before disappearing again, Yao Jun repeating this several times before stopping. After becoming an Earthly Deity, he could understand why most people considered it impossible for anyone below the Earthly Deity realm to kill an Earthly Deity. His Qi was countless times denser and stronger than before, it had reached a completely new level. He was certain that if it was the current him, he could shatter the entirety of his home planet if he so wished, maybe even bigger planets.

The area he and Yuri had arrived at when he stopped teleporting them was familiar to the both of them, it was the frozen wasteland that was once Xuhuan's home, it was countless kilometers away from where they had just been. The two stood outside the cave where Yao Jun had met Chang Yun and then holed himself up in, snow now covering the entire entrance.

Yao Jun waved his arm and caused all the snow to blow away, revealing the now almost frozen over cave beneath it. The ice within the cave moved beneath Yao Jun's gaze, forming various types of furniture such as chairs, tables, and couches. Yao Jun stepped into the cave, a bright crimson flame appearing beneath the cave ceiling, illuminating the entire thing. He sat down on one of the chairs and raised his right hand, a yellow tower appearing in his hand. He placed the tower on the table, casting a sideways glance at Yuri, who was curiously gazing at the cave while entering it.

"Heal your wounds, we'll do the battle for the tower once you're fully healed."

The two had made a deal, one that Yao Jun was planning on honoring. He would beat Yuri in a one-on-one battle and then take the tower for himself. Yuri looked at the tower with a great deal of surprise, but she quickly composed herself, nodding her head with an excited smile before taking out some pillows from her interspatial ring and placing them on one of the frozen couches, sitting down on them and focusing on her own wounds.