An unstable world.

When space stopped distorting around Yao Jun and he regained his vision, he found himself on a rocky plain. The ground was dry and barren, with jagged rocks of various sizes and shapes jutting out of the ground around him, resembling the sharp teeth of a buried Demonic beast.

"Alone once more, huh? But there seem to be people in the area at least."

Yao Jun muttered to himself as he swept the surroundings with his gaze, checking for signs of any other people. When he swept the surroundings with his eyes, not only did he see signs of other humans, but he also spotted signs of Demonic beast activity in the surroundings. There was one rock that had its top shattered and splattered with blood that was still dripping, so someone had clearly been fighting here recently.

"That should be the unstable space, avoiding it is probably the best option. The resonating feeling has also become strange, so following it is no longer possible."

Yao Jun could see several places around him where the air was shimmering and distorting, a low grinding noise sounding out from the distorting air. It did not take him too much thought to realize that the shimmering air was the unstable space inside the ruin. Another thing he had noticed was that the resonating feeling that came from his Demon God's Gate seemed to have become unstable as well, the location it was pointing in constantly changing, or even vanishing completely at times.

"Guo Luo was seen in the area close to the corpse of the Demonic beast, and the corpse of the Demonic beast seems to be the cause of these spatial distortions, so heading in the direction with the strongest spatial distortions should bring me in the right direction."

Yao Jun fondled his chin and muttered to himself, turning towards the west after a bit of thinking. He did not care about the corpse of the Demonic beast, nor did he care about who acquired it in the end. All he cared about was meeting up with Guo Luo and making sure that she was safe.

Even though there were spatial distortions in the air all around him, there were clearly more of them to the west, and they only got stronger as they moved into the distance. Yao Jun did not waste any more time after making up his mind, bringing out his sword and heading towards the west. There was no telling what he would encounter here, so he felt that it was best to immediately bring out his sword and be ready for battle.

Every step Yao Jun took caused the earth beneath him to crumble and turn to dust, leaving behind clear footprints where he had stepped. Yao Jun saw several similar marks spread around the area, with most of them seemingly heading in the same direction as him. What caused him to furrow his brows was that he could see a large amount of Demonic beast footprints also heading in the same direction.

"Sounds of battle? And it seems like the ones fighting are a group of people."

After traveling for a few minutes, Yao Jun stopped walking, furrowing his brows and straining his ears. He could hear people fighting ahead of him, but since their battle seemed to be obscured by rocks and distorted space, he was unable to see exactly what was going on, forcing him to rely on the sounds to try and figure out what was going on.

"It's on the way, so I might as well check it out. Maybe I am lucky and it's Wei Zhong Jun."

Of all the five future rulers that Yao Jun had met, he felt that Wei Zhong Jun was the one that was the most trustworthy. Zhuang Shao Ju paid attention to him and could be considered kind, but he felt that she had several schemes of her own. The other three disregarded him so he had not interacted much with them, but he felt that they were all people that hid their own schemes beneath every smile. Wei Zhong Jun was the only one that he felt was refreshingly honest and open.

Yao Jun took a step forward, his body sinking into his own shadow as he started moving towards the area where he had heard the battle. Every 100 meters he would jump out of the shadows for a short second before sinking back into the shadows, rapidly making his way into the distance.

The area where he had heard the sounds of battle was surrounded by jagged rocks, with only enough space for a single person between each of the rocks. Thanks to this, one could make it so that they were not seen from the outside if they positioned themselves correctly. When Yao Jun reached the area and observed it from inside the shadows, his face turned cold, his eyes narrowing.

The fighting inside the circle of rocks had already ended, the losing party being a group of people clad in a large variety of robes, showing that they came from several minor sects and clans. The winning party consisted of two men clad in the robes of the Yao clan, one of them looked like a middle aged man with a short stubble and short black hair. The other one looked a bit older, wrinkles starting to appear on his face and his graying hair starting to fall out.

The two men were currently standing over three young girls, The only ones left alive from the losing party, who didn't look much older than Yao Jun. The young girls were wounded, their clothes tattered and revealing their smooth skin. The girls only had a cultivation at the late stage of the 1st Mortal Earth, while the middle aged man had reached the early stage of the 3rd Mortal Earth and the older one had reached the middle stage of the 3rd Mortal Earth. It was clear that these three girls did not have the strength to resist, so they had probably been kept alive on purpose.

"Senior Brother, I would like for you to give me that one. You know that I have always liked redheads."

The middle aged man spoke out, his voice rather high pitched and even somewhat childish. He pointed at one of the three girls, a girl with red hair and black eyes. The eyes of the middle aged man were filled with desire, while the eyes of the girl were filled with tears and despair.

"Of course, Junior Brother. But the two others belong to me, you are not allowed to touch them."

The older man let out a slight chuckle, patting the middle aged man on the shoulder as he spoke in a cheerful tone. His eyes landed on the two remaining girls, one had short yellow hair and blue eyes while the other one had long black hair and bright green eyes.

The two men were just about to move to grab the three girls, when the hair on the neck of the older man suddenly stood on end, a terrifying feeling of death filling his body. He hurriedly pushed the middle aged man to the side, jumping in the opposite direction as he did so. Just as the two of them moved aside in front of the confused gazes of the three girls, the ground where they had stood was carved up by an invisible blade of wind, leaving a deep scar.

"Who is there?!"

The older man let out a loud shout as he swept the area with his eyes, sweat gathering on the back of his neck. For someone to have snuck up without them noticing, it was clear that the person who had arrived was powerful. After the shout of the old man rang out, the shadows beneath one of the surrounding rocks wriggled slightly, Yao Jun stepping out of with a cold expression.

"This friend, there is no need for such hostility. I am Yao Zinxi, this is my Junior Brother, Yao Xunyue. If you are willing to leave now, I am more than willing to share one of these girls with you. All three are still virgins, so you will even be able to take their vital yin, which is greatly beneficial to cultivation."

The older man, Yao Zinxi, wore a polite smile as he spoke and beckoned towards the three girls. He could see that Yao Jun was seemingly only at the late stage of the 2nd Mortal Earth, but he guessed that he was using a technique to hide his cultivation level.

After hearing the polite words of Yao Zinxi, the middle aged man, Yao Xunyue, wore a nervous expression, seemingly worried that Yao Jun would pick the red haired girl that he wanted. The three girls on the other hand had conflicted looks on their faces. It was humiliating to be treated like an object, but they also figured that it would be better to lose their virginity to someone young and handsome like Yao Jun, rather than to the older Yao Xunyue and Yao Zinxi.

Yao Jun did not respond to the words of Yao Zinxi, raising his arm and sending out a slash with his sword. Wind and lightning gathered around the blade of the sword and was shot towards Yao Xunyue, rapidly moving towards his neck in an attempt to decapitate him.

"Brat, do not believe that we are scared of battling you! There is no need for such hostility, it is only natural that the strong feast on the weak!"

The expressions of Yao Zinxi and Yao Xunyue twisted when they saw that Yao Jun did not respond and instead immediately moved to attack, Yao Zinxi calling out in a loud voice. Yao Xunyue took three steps backwards, the earth in front of him rising up and forming a shield that blocked Yao Jun's attack.

"This really takes me back. Not long after I started cultivating, someone else told me those exact same words. The situation back then was also very similar. I will say the same words now as I did then. If the strong feast on the weak, then I will feast on the strong."

Yao Jun's body stopped after hearing the words of Yao Zinxi, a chuckle escaping his lips as he spoke out. Not long after he met Guo Luo and started traveling with her, he had been told very similar words by two people in a place called Ash Barrens City. They had even been doing something very similar at the time, they had been kidnapping women so that their young master could have his way with them.

Yao Jun had experienced a lot since then, but his response to those words was still the same. Yao Jun took another step forward and slashed out with his sword. Yao Zinxi and Yao Xunyue prepared to block, the earth in front of them wriggling and moving in response to their thoughts. But when the earth in front of them rose up, they were shocked to see Yao Jun's seemingly vanish into his hand.

Before they had the chance to realize what had happened, Yao Xunyue felt a sharp pain coming from his waist. He hurriedly looked down, his face turning as white as a sheet of paper when he saw what had happened. Yao Jun's sword had appeared out of the shadow of his sleeves, piercing through his wrist and into his waist.

The tip of the sword that was stabbed into his waist lit up with a crimson light, a small orb of fire appearing inside Yao Xunyue's body. The orb exploded into a wave of fire, separating Yao Xunyue's torso from his lower body and scorching his severed legs black. The fire rapidly spread upwards, swallowing his torso and turning Yao Xunyue into nothing more than a charred corpse that was slowly turning to ash.

"Please stop sir! We are people of the Yao clan, on the account of the face of our clan, please let us go!"

Yao Zinxi rapidly paled when he saw what happened to Yao Xunyue, hurriedly moving backwards and calling out in a panicked voice. Yao Xunyue was not much weaker than him, so he did not believe that he would fare much better if he faced that attack.

"Haha, once again, so similar! I will repeat the words I said back then. You are not people, you are maggots. You are a filth that taints this entire world, you should not exist!"

Yao Jun let out a loud laugh when he heard Yao Zinxi's words. Once again the situation reminded him of what had happened back in Ash Barrens City, and once again he spoke the same words he had said back then, firmly believing in them. He did not plan on giving Yao Zinxi a chance, dashing towards Yao Zinxi, a trail of violet lightning following him as he turned into a blur.

Yao Zinxi dashed backwards and waved his hand. The earth in front of him wriggled and shot upwards, large pillars forming to block Yao Jun. Once the pillars were formed, Yao Zinxi waved his hands once more, causing the dust on the ground to rise up and form a serpentine symbol in front of him. He bit down on his own tongue and spat some blood onto the serpentine symbol, imbuing it with a strange power.

The symbol rapidly grew, turning into a long crimson serpent that looked like it was made out ruby, shining splendidly in the light. The serpent let out a loud hiss and charged towards Yao Jun, who had just used his control over wind to dash through the air and above the pillars of earth.

Yao Jun merely glanced at the serpent, his lips turning into a sneer. Just as the serpent was about to bite down on him, his entire body suddenly vanished, appearing out of the shadow that the serpent cast beneath itself. Yao Jun dashed forward and grabbed onto the throat of Yao Zinxi, who seemed to weaken greatly after creating the serpent.

"...Please...no...spare us..."

Yao Zinxi let out a weak plea, struggling to get the words out of his throat as he looked at Yao Jun with tears in his eyes. When facing death, most people would quickly grow cowardly, and Yao Zinxi was no exception.

"I have killed you, just like I killed those men back then. And now I will do to you the same as I did to those men back then, something I don't really do that often."

Yao Jun only looked at Yao Zinxi with a cold gaze as he spoke out. After his words rang out, the ancient tree located within his Demon God's Gate started to move, the branches and the leaves rustling beneath an unseen wind. A strange energy came out from the tree and left the Demon God's Gate, entering Yao Zinxi's body.

When the energy entered his body, Yao Jun could see Yao Zinxi's body rapidly withering, the crimson serpent that had gotten closer to Yao Jun withering alongside Yao Zinxi. Once Yao Zinxi's body looked like it had aged several decades in just a few seconds, the strange energy left his body and returned to Yao Jun, slowly strengthening both his and his Demonic beasts' bodies.

This was something Yao Jun had learned he could do all the way back in Ash Barrens City, but this was only the second time he had ever used it. Using this ability gave him an eerie feeling, so Yao Jun did not feel comfortable using it too often. But seeing how similar this situation was to how it was back then, he felt that it was only fitting.

"Take these, they can help with your wounds. You should find a place to hide while you recuperate. Once you are healed, head towards the east, there should be less people in that direction. Try to find an exit and leave this place, you are too weak to be here."

Yao Jun dropped the dried up body of Yao Zinxi and took out some herbs and robes from his interspatial ring, handing them to the three girls, who were looking at him with both shocked and grateful expressions, their eyes moist with tears. After handing them the things, he did not stay around any longer, continuing to move towards the west.