Four gathered together.

Everyone gathered outside the territory of the Nine-Tailed Fox looked at Yuri Jahad and Berius Daeman with rather complex emotions, not quite sure how to feel about their arrival. A surprising number of the people who held Supreme Law fragments did not belong to any clan or sect, Xiao Yan was one of the few exceptions. They had friendly relations with many of the clans and sects, but they had not joined them as members, unless they were born in them of course.

The reason behind this was rather simple, joining a clan or sect would turn most other clans into your enemies. No clan would feel good if a different clan got a disciple which had a Supreme Law fragment, they would eventually become a huge risk that could threaten the entire sect. As such, they would often try to kill them before they could reach that point.

By not joining any clan or sect, the holders of a Supreme Law fragment could prevent this from happening, as trying to kill an unaffiliated holder of a Supreme Law fragment could easily end up pushing them to join a clan that opposed the ones that tried to kill them. So most Supreme Law fragment holders skirted the line between being too friendly and being too antagonistic with the various sects and clans. The sects and clans, on the other hand, were doing their best to win over the various Supreme Law fragment holders, presenting them with gifts whenever they could.

The group of five quickly arrived over in the air over the camp, each of them looking down and checking all the various factions that had arrived here. The three people following behind Yuri and Berius bid them farewell and flew down to join up with their own factions. Berius turned his head slightly, looking behind him as if he was waiting for someone. While he was doing so, Yuri looked at the various people gathered below them, snickering slightly.

"Heh~ The lot of you are still gathered here? I guess you were hoping for that fox to get weaker before you entered, but doing so might have cost you your chance you know? A real nasty one is coming, so who knows if any of you slowpokes are going to get anything out of this trip."

The various people gathered in the campsite didn't quite understand what she meant, but Yao Jun's expression suddenly twisted as he turned his head, looking in the same direction as Berius. Thanks to his close connection to space, he could sense someone coming closer. Not only did the person move incredibly fast, but they also contained so much power that Yao Jun could feel his skin prickling.

Yao Jun didn't use his control over space to inspect the incoming person, they were likely so strong that they would detect his probing, and there was no telling what that might cause. But even then, it didn't take long before the person entered his vision, his expression changing from twisted into one of curiosity and even slight excitement.

The person who was flying over was a graceful woman with waist-length hair as golden as the rays of the sun. She had a curvaceous figure, warm and smooth features, eyes as blue as the sky, and her entire body radiated a feeling of pride and power. First, it had been Yuri Jahad and Berius Daeman, contenders for the top 10 ranks that had arrived, and now even a contender for one of the top 3 ranks, Lusoho Li, had arrived.

The reason her arrival caused Yao Jun's expression to turn to curiosity and slight excitement was simple, a single Nine-Tailed Fox was not enough to arouse the interest of someone like Luosho Li. For not only her but also Yuri and Berius to arrive, it was clear that there was likely something else hiding within the forest as well. Yao Jun quietly observed the three, murmuring to himself.

"Seems like things are going to get very interesting now. But really, why can't it ever just be nice and simple?"

He was likely not the only one who realized that the arrival of Luosho Li meant that things weren't as simple as they seemed, the original plan of just charging into the lair of the Nine-Tailed Fox would likely change quite a bit. There was also the fact that, counting him, there were now four people here who carried a piece of a Supreme Law, this fact alone was enough to guarantee that this place would turn chaotic.

Luosho Li stopped flying when she reached the campsite, nodding at Yuri and Berius and some of the other people she was familiar with. She then walked through the campsite and entered the forest on foot, an act that caught the attention of quite a few people.

Luosho Li was one of the three strongest people in this competition, why wouldn't she just fly directly to the lair of the Nine-Tailed Fox and start fighting it? She was strong enough to fight the weakened Nine Tailed-Fox one-on-one, she might even be so strong that she could fight it when it wasn't weakened. So for her to not fly above the forest and head directly for the beast's lair, it likely meant one of two things, she wasn't here for the Nine-Tailed Fox, or there was something else in this forest that could actually threaten her.

Of course, those who realized this didn't share the information with many others, they certainly didn't make it public, worried that someone else might find it before them. Luosho Li entering the forest became the signal that there was no longer a need to wait, the people in the campsite storing their tents away and flooding into the forest.

Yuri and Berius also landed and joined up with the people entering the forest, waiting for around half of them to enter before they themselves entered the forest. Yao Jun did much the same, he waited for the people from the Merged Heaven clan to enter the forest before he himself entered it.

Stepping into the forest was like entering an entirely new world, the sound of the raging blizzard was completely shut out, not a single snowflake able to even touch the crown of the trees, which seemed to form a dome above them. The enticing scent of the flowers and mushrooms grew even stronger, now so thick it almost turned noxious. The verdant grass beneath their feet was so soft that it almost felt like silk, it was an exceedingly strange place.

There were several paths that led through the forest, looking at how stomped down the grass was it was likely that the paths were made by animals or Demonic beasts. The cultivators started to spread out the moment they entered the forest, some choosing to follow Luosho Li while others decided to follow the paths. The Nine-Tailed Fox could not escape without any of them noticing it so none of them saw a need to head directly for its lair, they also realized that they alone wouldn't be enough, they had to wait for more people to head over there first.

Yao Jun joined up with a group of three other people, the tall and rugged brown-skinned, blue-eyed and black-haired Rigur, the somewhat short and slender blue-haired and yellow-eyed Oliviera, and the somewhat short and muscular black-haired and yellow-eyed Jesob. None of them had much of a relationship with each other, except for Jesob and Oliviera, which were a married couple, the simply decided to travel together to find safety in numbers.

They set up an oath to make sure that they didn't betray or attack each other, and then they came up with a simple manner in which they could split up any resources they found, the one who grabbed it first would be the one who got to keep it. None of them had a problem with this agreement so they all agreed to the oath and then started their journey.

The three others wanted to first check out the outskirts of the forest before heading deeper, something Yao Jun didn't mind too much. The Nine-Tailed Fox was unlikely to give him any of his blood even if he asked her, it was best to wait for the time where she was under attack and needed help, at that point Yao Jun would be the one with all the leverage. They quickly started to explore the surrounding area, Jesob stopping them after only a few hours.

"Wait, I can smell something. Over there, a few kilometers away at best, there should be quite a large amount of Demonic beast blood. We haven't heard any sounds of battle coming from over there so I'm guessing that it might be a pool used by a Demonic beast."

The best way for Demonic beasts to increase their strength was to eat cultivators or other Demonic beasts, absorbing the energy in their bodies. Smarter Demonic beasts, however, might choose to drain a Demonic beast or cultivator of all their blood, gathering the blood in a large pool and tossing in other resources, forming a large bath they could use to cultivate. It was a technique that was also very common among humans, especially those that liked to cultivate their body.

The two others agreed to check out the pool, and Yao Jun would of course not say no. He was simply waiting for the siege on the Nine-Tailed Fox, and for the thing Luosho Li was here for to reveal itself, anything prior to that was just him wasting some time and testing his luck, checking if he could find any other resources in this forest.

The group of four quickly made their way to the place Jesob had noticed, discovering a few meters tall hill covered by silk-like grass and flowers as tall as a grown man. There was a human-sized cave dug into the hill, a one-meter wide basin filled with blood and a few flowers and fruits just barely visible inside the cave. There were no Demonic beasts in the area, but looking at the tracks around the cave they could see that whatever had been living here had fled quickly just recently, most likely going into hiding because of how many people entered the forest.

The four were eager to drain and split up the blood in the pool, but they weren't so foolish as to just rush forward the moment they saw treasure. They slowly and carefully made their way forward, keeping a close eye on their surroundings and making sure there weren't any monsters hiding in ambush.

Yao Jun didn't use his control over space to check his surroundings ever since he entered the forest, there were too many people here that might discover him at that point. As such, he could only use a few different techniques, such as sensing changes in the wind, changes in the surrounding moisture, or the electric signals flowing within peoples bodies. Of course, neither of these techniques were as effective as using the law of space, but he would have to live with it for now.

The four slowly approached the pool, the scent it unleashed getting stronger and stronger. The pool wouldn't be as useful to Yao Jun's body cultivation as the body of a strong cultivator, but it was better than nothing. The four reached the cave after a few minutes, but there were still no signs of Demonic beasts hiding in the area. Rigur glanced at the others for a short moment before stepping forward and stretching out his arm to check if the pool was safe to touch. But before he could touch the pool, a voice sounded out from behind them.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You should probably just leave this area to me."

The four quickly turned around, their expressions somewhat solemn as none of them had noticed anyone approaching them. Their expressions twisted further when they saw who it was that had come up behind them, Yuri Jahad, followed by four other people, one man and three women.

The four people locked eyes for a short moment, Rigur and the others wearing bitter smiles. Faced with Yuri Jahad, there was nothing they could, they would have to give up these free resources. They should even be thankful that she hadn't just attacked them the moment she saw them.

Jesob raised his arms to show that they understood, the four of them stepping away from the cave and starting to leave the area. Yao Jun glanced at Yuri Jahad as they were walking away, he was somewhat curious about her strength, curious about what he could learn from fighting her, but he had no interest in fighting her when there was no need to, no point in needlessly stirring up trouble. Sadly, it seemed like he was the only one who thought so. Just as the four of them started to walk away, Yuri furrowed her brows, her gaze landing on Yao Jun.

"Actually, you, stay here. You feel rather fun, so how about you stay here?"