145 Unexpected faces.

The edge of the forest was in the shape of a steep incline, with the frozen wasteland located at the top of the incline and the forest at the bottom. The trees and vegetation at the edge of the forest had already withered and died because of the cold, so it was a very brown and dull area where nearly no life thrived.

Yao Jun did not immediately enter the frozen wasteland once he reached the edge, he instead found a decently secluded spot and sat down in quiet meditation. He had three reasons to sit down, one was to get some rest, the second was to try out a few things he had in mind, and the third one was to gather up one last round of information from his insects.

The insects would not be able to follow him into the frozen wasteland, as the cold would kill them immediately. So he sent them out as far as they could go, as fast as they could go, so that they could gather information in places they had not been yet. Once they returned with the information, then he would enter the frozen wasteland.

But until they returned, he had things he wanted to try out. After meditating and resting for three hours, he opened his eyes and stood up. He had only rested for three hours, but for Yao Jun that was plenty. Ever since he was 5 he had been training, with only a few breaks. The longest break he had ever taken was when he spent five months traveling towards Golden Moon Town with Guo Luo. He had long since become able to act with barely any rest.

Yao Jun gripped his sword tightly, his body standing completely straight. He started striking out with his sword, performing a variety of slashes and stabs. While doing so he was also moving around, dashing from place to place and performing dodges, as if he was fighting an invisible enemy. There were times where his sword would get covered in shadows and almost vanish, but it was only for a short moment.

"It's not quite right, I can't seem to activate it fast enough."

Yao Jun felt that his fighting style was still a bit too simpleminded. He would attack with his sword, or use one of his elements to attack, that was it. But he had so many elements at his disposal, only using them so simplemindedly would be a waste. To fix that, Yao Jun was currently trying two different things.

He continued to strike out with his sword, the shadows covering the sword growing more and more dense. Until finally, his sword completely vanished in the middle of an attack, slashing a tree located a few meters away from him. Another strike caused his sword to vanish into the shadows once more, striking a tree located behind him as the corners of his mouth raised into a smile.

Since he could move his body and other people through the shadows, did that not also mean that he could move his attacks through the shadows? That was what he was practicing right now, activating his control over shadows fast enough to swallow his weapon mid attack and having it re-appear at a different location almost instantly.

He had managed to have his attack be swallowed by the shadows, but he was not quite satisfied with how much time it took. Between the attack getting swallowed and re-appearing, about one second passed. In a life and death battle, that one second delay could end up being his demise. So he continued to train, striking out with his sword and moving around.

While moving around, he also started stepping into the shadows and re-appearing at different locations. If he could manage to do this fast enough, and at the same time mix it with having his attack get swallowed by the shadows, his options in a fight would increase greatly.

He continued training until he ran out of Qi and was forced to take a break and rest a little. Checking the sky he saw that the sun was starting to rise, so he knew that he had been at it for a little over half a day. He had managed to increase the speed at which he and his attack would re-appear, but it was not quite satisfactory just yet, enemies specialized in speed would still be able to dodge. Yao Jun was not like Yun Yantian and the others, he had no other special talents, he was wonderfully bland. Because of that, he wanted to at least perfect the one thing he could do, battle.

After resting for a few hours and restoring his Qi, Yao Jun once more stood up and started training. He did not start training with the shadows again, as he was going to try a different thing. He still dashed around, still struck out with the sword in his right hand, but his left hand was tightly clenched, large amounts of Qi gathering in his hand.

The amount of Qi within his left hand was steadily rising, the air around his fist slightly distorting, but Yao Jun still had a frown on his face. After one and a half minute of dodging around and sending out attacks, he stopped gathering Qi within his left hand.

"One and a half minute if I want to do it during combat, it might even take more depending on how the battle is going. I need to increase the speed at which I gather, condense, and fuse them together. Otherwise it will be nothing but useless."

Yao Jun raised his left arm and opened his clenched fist. Silently floating above his left palm was a grape sized crimson orb. The orb looked completely harmless, but the air around it was violently distorting, showing that it was not as harmless as it looked.

Yao Jun waved his hand, causing the orb to turn into a red blur that shot into the distance. When it reached a place that was around one kilometer away from Yao Jun, it exploded. The grape sized orb rapidly expanded, turning into a large dome of fire that was half a kilometer in size, turning everything within that area to ash.

Just as the dome of fire reached its full size, a violent wind blew out from within the dome, wrapping up all the fire and turning into a violent tornado composed of fire, with blades of wind flying out from the tornado. The earth was scorched and molten, the blades of air becoming so hot that everything sliced by them were immediately incinerated. After half a minute, the tornado of flame died down, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

"The power certainly is satisfactory."

Yao Jun could not help but praise it. He had lightning for piercing power, wind for slicing power, darkness for surprise attacks, mental energy for control, and now he also had fire for area attacks. The attack he had just released was a fusion of his fire and wind power, with the wind stoking the fire, and the fire heating up the wind and increasing its power. The only problem was that it took time to create this attack, so he needed to train and cut down the time it took to create it.

With those thoughts in mind, Yao Jun continued his training. He would train until he was out of Qi, rest, and then start training again. He continued the cycle for several days, waiting for the insects to return and deliver their reports. After training for five days, the insects finally returned and brought with them a report Yao Jun had never expected to hear.

"Guo Jiahao. Guo Zhe. Why are the two of you here?"

Yao Jun read through the memories of all the insects, taking in everything that they had seen. And he had seen someone he had never expected to see. The insects had spotted Guo Zhe and Guo Jiahao traveling together with a group of people from the Peng clan. They were currently traveling around a massive valley where strong winds whipped the rocks around, heading towards a vast plain filled with lakes.

But Yao Jun was certain that he had been one of the last people to enter the hidden realm, and he had not seen either Guo Jiahao or Guo Zhe enter the hidden realm. So how did they show up here?

"It doesn't matter. Since you are here, you cannot escape from me. I will take your heads and take back my ring."

Yao Jun's eyes were cold as he softly caressed the scar on his chest. The only reason he had not gotten rid of the scar yet was because he wanted it to serve as a reminder of how weak he had been and how much pain Guo Jiahao and Guo Zhe had inflicted on him. The day he killed Guo Zhe and Guo Jiahao would be the day he healed the scar.

"All in due time."

Yao Jun took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Even though he wanted to kill the two of them right now, they were too far away from him. They were also accompanied by people from the Peng clan, so Yao Jun needed more strength before he could attack and kill them. Yao Jun's eyes turned towards the frozen wasteland as he stood up and started walking towards it. First he would find out what was calling to his Demon God's Gate, then he would see if he could move to kill Guo Zhe and Guo Jiahao.