335 Rock bottom.

Yao Jun couldn't feel the spatial vortex twist around him, he couldn't even register whether or not he had been properly dragged into it after he fell to his knees. The only things he could feel was the soul-tearing pain and an oppressive hollowness welling up from the depths of his body.

It wasn't a hollowness like you would get from having your body emptied, it was a hollowness akin to loneliness and isolation. From the moment Yao Jun truly started his journey, he had never been alone. There had always been a connection to his beasts in the back of his mind, a constant reminder on how they were doing and their location. But now there was nothing, it was so silent that he doubted whether or not his ears even still worked.

His body tipped forward but he placed his palms on the ground and stopped himself from falling flat, the soft sensation of grass tickling his palm. And then, without even noticing his surroundings or checking where he had arrived, he retched and stained the grass.

Blood poured out from his mouth in great quantities, but it wasn't just purely crimson blood that left his body. Blood that was tinged with various colours also left his mouth, a few black metallic chunks accompanying the blood as it started to form a puddle around him. Two more liquids ran down Yao Jun's face and dripped down into the puddle, one a brilliant violet and the other a ghastly grey.

He could just barely see his own reflection, or at least part of his face, in the pool of blood that formed beneath him, a rippling and distorted vision of himself. But even if it was distorted, it was enough for him to see exactly what sort of liquids were running down his face and mixing with his blood.

His hair seemed to be bleeding, the violet colour literally dripping out of his hair as it was replaced by the black hair he used to have as a child. The same was true for his eyes, the gray colour of his pupils was running out at the corner of his eyes like tears, leaving behind the black colour of yore. The enhanced vision that he had gotten so used to over the years also washed out along with the gray in his pupils, it almost felt like he was going blind suddenly. His God Gate had shattered, and as it fell it took with it everything that it had given Yao Jun over the years.

The passage of time meant nothing to Yao Jun in his current state, or rather, he couldn't even sense it all. He simply remained in his kneeling position and continued to retch, unaware that eight large gashes had appeared on his body and were spewing out vast amounts of blood and Qi. But eventually, that veritable sea of blood that filled his vision dimmed and faded, darkness overtaking both his vision and his mind.

A strange sensation overtook Yao Jun's dark consciousness, he felt weightless yet he also felt like he was falling through the darkness. But the strange sensation didn't last all that long before the darkness around him was torn up by a blinding light. That light in turn slowly weakened until it reached a state where Yao Jun's eyes could perceive his surroundings.

He found himself currently floating in the air, slowly falling to the ground without even an ounce of power in his body, his eyes seemingly not under his control. A vast plain covered in light pink grass stretched out beneath him, a forest filled with leaves so crimson that they seemed to be burning rising in the far distance. It was an environment he had never seen before, and a small part of his mind hoped that everything he had seen before was just a nightmare and that this falling was, in fact, him entering the competition after leaving the spatial whirlpool.

But reality never cared for the desires of those it toyed with, so it would not let Yao Jun have even that sliver of a wish. The sensation of his eyes opening overcame his entire body, the environment around him getting swallowed up by a bright white light as a result. And when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the puddle of blood that he had created.

He was lying on his back within the blood, the sticky sensation of it clinging to his skin. The bright blue sky was covering his vision, only a few sparse clouds and something that looked like islands or small planets gently floating about. But as he looked at the sky, it seemed so much more distant than it ever had before, it was as if the two didn't even exist in the same world.

A sense of weakness pervaded his entire body, a sensation that was far stronger than it had ever been before. His soul felt as if it had been shorn in half and he couldn't feel even the smallest smidgen of Qi, not just within his body but not even in his surroundings, it was as if Qi had simply stopped existing. But even now, where he felt like his entire body didn't even belong to him, it only took him a second to focus on the most important thing.

"Little Lan!"

He forced his arms up and clutched at his chest, his mind sinking inwards. He reached the position of his God Gate, but the only thing that remained of it was the nine uneven pieces that hung around in disarray. He touched upon each and every one of them again and again, straining his mind so much that blood started to leak out from his eyes and ears. But it was all to no avail, the chunks remained unresponsive and dead, like the final nails in the coffin of Yao Jun's hope.

He didn't care about his own injuries or the other things he might have lost, but his parents, his daughter, his other companions, they were all located within the God Gate as it shattered. And now he couldn't enter the fragments so he had no idea if they were fine, or if they had died along with the gate. His mind was in utter chaos as he kept trying to force his way into the dead fragments, but there never was a response. And in his desperation, Yao Jun did something he had never done before, he pleaded for help.

"Chang Yun, Li Yang! I know you can hear me! Please...just tell me that they're fine..."

His hoarse and almost gurgling voice left behind a slight echo as it vanished into the distance, but the only response he got was the soft breeze of the wind. He called out again and again to the only two existences he felt might be able to help him, but with silence being his only answer, he almost crumbled.

"So you won't even answer... Haha... How worthless..."

The words slipped out from his bloody mouth between his tears, but not even he knew if he was cursing himself or those he called out to. He had never felt this weak before, both in body and mind, he had never felt how effective despair could be at weakening someone. But as that despair ate away at what remained of his soul, a familiar voice snuck into his ear.

"My Lord, your bracelet..."

His entire body tensed up as he heard the voice, but it wasn't due to fear or the like, it was due to the item he had forgotten about, he tensed up due to that final despairing hope he could cling to. His already strained and pained mind immediately shot into the bracelet he was wearing, the gift given to him by Yao Xuelian.

His mind touched upon the special crystals, the Forget-Me-Not, whose only function was to sense the other fragments that came from the same ore. And as he allowed himself to sink into the crystals, a sensation similar to grasping a thread formed in his mind. He followed the thread with all the might he could muster, and the place it pointed him towards was the third largest of the nine chunks lingering in his chest.

It wasn't proof that Yao Xuelian and the others were still alive, it was just proof that the three bracelets she was carrying still existed. But that hope was better than nothing, it was a thread that could be grasped to temporarily calm himself. And it was because he managed to somewhat calm himself that he realized another thing he had forgotten.

"The first gate...it still exists..."

Back on his home planet he had once entered a hidden realm containing a vast number of different environments, it was where he got hold of Zhuanxu, Zhuyin, and the blood to evolve Little Gray. And when he went back there in the future and forced himself in, he saw that the crack he had entered was just one of many, there were several tens more that led to other environments, or just the empty void of shattered space.

It was there that he learned about the defect in the current God Gates, how they lost a piece of themselves each time their holder died and passed it on. That hidden realm just so happened to be the fragment that remained after the first God Gate was shattered in the distant past.

And that was the thing he had forgotten, that those shattered pieces still remained. And the beasts that were living in them were still doing fine, they continued to exist to this very day, new ones born and dying all the time. And if the beasts in those broken-off pieces could still survive, then there should be a good chance that Yao Xuelian and the others were still alive, just trapped inside the broken fragments.

Yao Jun had no idea how he should even go about opening these dead fragments, or if the same logic of the broken-off pieces even applied when the entire God Gate was shattered like this. But he needed the hope, he needed the light at the end of the tunnel, the goal to strive towards, otherwise, he had no idea how far his mind would sink.

He pulled his mind out from the bracelet, his gaze once again drifting towards the oh-so distant sky. He turned his head slightly while lying there, his gaze landing on the pale and clearly somewhat exhausted Little Gray, Sirius, and Ba-Shei. He could see them, but that connecting feeling that had always been there in the past was gone.

It was as if a blade had cut their bonds clean in half. But even so, the three remained there at his side, and he guessed that they were the reason that he no longer had an arrow in his chest. Thinking about that, a thin smile couldn't help but creep up on his face.

"So you're all still here...thank you..."

Their relationship was severed when his gate broke, he was no longer the master that could control their lives as he wished. He no longer had any power of them nor did they have a reason to obey him. But they still stayed and cared for him, and that alone was enough to fill up a bit of the hollowness that filled him. The three human-formed beasts looked visibly relieved when Yao Jun looked at them, each of them lowering their heads in turn.

"Please don't speak like that, My Lord. I was born as nothing more than a snake, and it was only through a stroke of luck that I managed to absorb enough Qi to become a Demonic beast. But even then, my fate would still be nothing more than to live a bit longer before someone came along to exterminate me. But you picked me up, you stretched out your hand and welcomed me. You accepted me and carried me along, and you brought me to heights greater than anything I ever deserved. No matter where you go, no matter where you end up, I have already sworn that I will follow you."

"Don't thank us, Milord, we failed to protect you despite being right by your side, we should be apologizing above all else. Once I was just a Mist Eagle, and while I dreamed of soaring freely in the sky, I knew that my fate was to grow a bit stronger, spread my wings, and then get plucked out of the sky. But you took that fate and you rejected it, you brought me out of that vast forest that now feels so small, and you allowed me to spread my wings and soar into a sky far bigger than anything I could ever dream of. So no matter how far you fall or what you choose to do, I have already sworn to pave your path to godhood for you."

"Ours is a story quite unlike the usual. I was once just a gift handed to you so that you could use me as you please, barely a pup at the time. My life and death were in your hands, and I accepted that without really understanding what it meant. But you didn't use me as you pleased, you gave me freedom and a right to choose, and never once did you force me to do anything I disliked. I have seen your journey and your heart, and I have sworn that I wish to let you live with the same freedom that you gave me."

All three of his beasts were of the same opinion, they had always been. Yao Jun had killed two of them and was gifted the third, but even so, they didn't hate him. And while his God Gate did indeed control their lives and deaths, the reason they followed him and obeyed him wasn't fear but rather heartfelt respect and admiration, gratitude even. The three beasts didn't hesitate after voicing out their thoughts, shifting into a kneeling position while lowering their heads even further.

"The seat of the Demon God belongs to only one man, and we have yet to pave that path to you, so please allow us to keep following you!"

No hesitation, no stuttering or uncertain emotions, their voices were filled with nothing but immovable determination and conviction. Yao Jun could feel his eyes grow moist as he looked at them, the thought that he was this loved was not one that had struck him all that often. But even though his tears welled up and ran down his face, the urge to laugh actually struck him.

"Haha, I'll have to warn you that I'm quite weak right now, and I've lost my fair share of things."

His enhanced vision, the Demonic beast blood that his God Gate automatically gave him to more easily let him use the laws of his beast, even his hair and eye colour had been lost. And those were only the lost things he had noticed straight away, he was certain that there was more he had lost. But even so, his kneeling companions maintained complete confidence.

"That is fine, we will protect you for the short while you will need to carve open a new path to the seat of god."

The thin smile on Yao Jun's head grew a bit larger as he returned his head to a neutral position. Despite how far he had fallen now, he still felt blessed to have been allowed to meet such people in his life. Of course, while smiling he didn't forget to sink his vision inward to take full stock of his current situation.

And the moment he checked his own body, he realized that calling his current state miserable would be an understatement. Firstly, all his Qi cultivation was gone. Everything had been based on the God Gate, so with it shattering it was the same as crippling a normal cultivator by destroying their dantian.

Secondly, about a third of his soul had been shattered along with the gate. He had connected his soul and his God Gate in the past, which was a rather advanced step that would give him great benefits in the future. But now that the God Gate shattered, it obviously took that connected part with it, so even his soul cultivation was affected.

And thirdly, one of his greatest trump cards was ruined, his Crumbling The Nine Heavens technique. He had carved nine channels for it, eight in his body and one in his soul, and all nine of them were connected to the God Gate, they relied on it to store up the needed power that they required to burst forth. His God Gate was no more so the channels had all erupted and collapsed in on themselves, and he obviously couldn't draw on the power of his beasts anymore since that was an ability of the God Gate.

Practically everything about him was affected by the shattering of the God Gate, the only thing that wasn't touched was his body cultivation. But while he had the Blood Ocean technique all the way up until the Godking realm, he had only cultivated it to the Blood Lake realm, which was equal to the Earthly Deity realm. He had lost so much of his strength and abilities that it was almost laughable, a self-deprecating chuckle escaping his lips.

"Hah, practically rock bottom, huh?"

He was curious just how many people in his own universe would jump on the chance to assault him if they knew of his current state. There were probably a few people in this universe too who would jump on that chance, especially the Lang brothers, who he could easily guess were the reason behind that arrow.

His right hand twitched slightly, but he wasn't surprised when he failed to call out his glaive. It was a weapon formed by the Sword God's Gate that had merged with his own God Gate, so it too had obviously shattered along with it. His fingers twitched slightly once more, and his black sword did actually appear in his grasp.

But the sword was covered in cracks and was missing several small chunks, he guessed that these small chunks were the black fragments he had vomited out earlier. And sure enough, the moment he clenched his hand around the handle, the sword crumbled and fell apart into useless chunks.

This was a weapon Sword Empyrean Heng Jiang had granted him, it was formed using his own blood. But sadly, the version of the technique Heng Jiang used was one he had altered himself to make it better for the people of his home planet, where they were all born with an inborn power. This version of the technique used not only the cultivator's blood but also their inborn power, allowing it to grow even more as the cultivator got stronger and enhanced their power.

Yao Jun had lost most of the blood that had been used in the creation of the sword since his body no longer held the Demonic beast blood granted to him by his God Gate and his inborn power had just shattered. As a result, the sword basically lost its core and what could be considered most of its body, the only fate left to it was to shatter.

Yao Jun added the two weapons onto the list of things he had lost, the urge to laugh rearing its head once more. But he pushed down that urge and raised his gaze to the sky while bringing up his right hand. He stretched his arm out as much as he could, but the sky was still so distant that it seemed untouchable, a soft mutter slipping out from between Yao Jun's lips.

"I won't stop moving forward. I'll come for you... so please, wait for me."

And so, Yao Jun had successfully entered the Six Dawn's Baptism, the most dangerous competition within this universe. But he did so at rock bottom, deprived of nearly everything he had accumulated and relied on over the years. All he had left was three companions and a thread of hope he clung to with immovable determination and endless fear.