The faded engraving, the empty spot.

Ren Shuren felt like cursing out loud when he saw how adamant Yao Jun was, it was clear that no amount of persuading would work in this situation. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, a dim light covering his hands and feet, quickly covering them in a pair of metallic gloves and boots that looked like they were made from tiny interlocking chains. Ren Shuren moved his fingers in a rolling motion, his knuckles producing cracking sounds while he was looking at Yao Jun.

"The winner will end up badly wounded no matter who wins, so I really don...!"

Ren Shuren's eyes shot open before he finished his sentence, his body quickly taking a step back and then one to the left, his movements so fast that not even Yao Jun was able to follow them properly. Yao Jun appeared directly in front of the spatial distortion just as Ren Shuren stepped back, blocking him so that he couldn't head directly into the spatial distortion. Ren Shuren raised his left arm to block Yao Jun's sword, which he had slashed out the moment Ren Shuren moved to block him, cursing all the while.

"Come the fuck on! If you're going to reject my offer like this, you could at least have the fucking courtesy to hear me out when I talk!"

Ren Shuren's left hand curled into a fist that smashed into the sword from below and pushed it up, he then slid his fist down the side of the blade and opened his hand once he got to the hilt of the weapon. He grabbed onto Yao Jun's hand and pulled both it and the sword to the side, his right arm punching out at the same time, his hand forming a spear.

Time and motion, these were the two laws that Ren Shuren specialized in, only Mascheny Materius, who had fused the laws of light and time, might be faster than him in this competition. Yao Jun barely had time to recognize the attack before the tips of Ren Shuren's fingers made contact with his chest.

The warning bells in his head rang in alarm, but his eyes remained as cold and calm as always. Space around him rippled slightly as his body teleported a few centimeters upwards, Ren Shuren's hand piercing through Yao Jun's abdomen rather than his chest. Despite the fact that his hand formed a spear, Ren Shuren's attack seemed to work more like a drill, with Yao Jun's own flesh and blood twisting around the hand and becoming part of the drill.

Ren Shuren's expression didn't relax after his hand pierced through Yao Jun's body, it had been far too easy. Fights between people of their level often ended quickly, but even he felt that this was too fast, especially since Yao Jun had the law of space and clearly had enough time to utilize it just now.

Ren Shuren's nagging sense of unease was immediately proven correct when Yao Jun's left arm grabbed onto Ren Shuren's right arm, which was still piercing through his abdomen. Yao Jun grabbed Ren Shuren's wrist so hard that the bones within it started to release slight creaking sounds under the pressure. Ren Shuren's eyes quickly opened wide as he understood Yao Jun's plan, his pupils trembling slightly as he locked eyes with Yao Jun.

"You insane motherfuc...!"

Yao Jun unleashed all his might before Ren Shuren could finish his sentence. He kicked out with his right leg and simultaneously pulled on Ren Shuren's right arm with all his might, the bones within his own arm creaking slightly thanks to the exertion. Ren Shuren's hand was still stuck inside Yao Jun's body, so no matter how fast he was, he had no place to escape.

The sole of Yao Jun's foot connected with Ren Shuren's abdomen and tried to push him back into the spatial distortion, meanwhile, Yao Jun pulling on his left arm tried to yank him forward. Thanks to Yao Jun's great strength, the two competing forces ended up putting a massive strain on Ren Shuren's right shoulder, a strain Yao Jun made worse by flooding Ren Shuren's shoulder with the law of death and assaulting it from the outside using all his elements.

All of Yao Jun's power concentrated on a single point, with the express purpose of ruining it beyond repair, just how was Ren Shuren's shoulder supposed to bear that strain? The bones in his shoulder shattered and the flesh was torn, Yao Jun completely tearing off Ren Shuren's right arm at the base.

Yao Jun knew that he wasn't perfect, there were definitely countless cultivators who were better than him even in the aspects that he took pride in. But Yao Jun was hungry, he was like a gluttonous god lusting for victory, willing to bring himself to the very brink of death if it meant that he won and could keep moving forward.

So what if Ren Shuren was faster than him, he just had to create a situation where none of that speed would matter. So he used himself as a piece of irresistible bait and struck the moment Ren Shuren was forced to bite down on the bait.

Yao Jun pulled Ren Shuren's severed arm out of his stomach right after tearing it off and took advantage of the fact that Ren Shuren needed half a second to react thanks to the intense pain of losing his arm. He swiped out with the severed arm, smashing the jagged base of it into the side of Ren Shuren's head and unleashing an intense explosion of deep-blue flames that sent Ren Shuren flying a few meters to the side.

Yao Jun didn't even turn to look at Ren Shuren as he dropped the severed arm and spat out some blood, stepping into the spatial distortion. His goal was not to kill Ren Shuren, it was to rush to the side of Guo Luo and the others, everything else took a backseat right now.

Yao Jun felt like he stepped into a tornado as he entered the spatial distortion, his sense of direction being thrown out of order as he span around so fast that everything turned into a white blur. The white blur only lasted for a short moment before he crashed into something hard, the smell of damp moss entering his nose.

His vision quickly stopped spinning and allowed him to check his surroundings, he was currently sitting on top of a large boulder covered in moss, a vast stone forest stretching out all around him. A light drizzle of lukewarm rain was pouring down around him, the air ripe with water and stone Qi.

Yao Jun took several deep breaths and popped a few pills, covering up the hole in his abdomen using scaly bandages that he coated with some medicinal paste. These were all items he had found in the interspatial rings of people he had killed, so while he knew their general use, he had no idea how effective they were. But they aided his body cultivation in healing his wound, so right now they were better than nothing.

Yao Jun stood up and spread out his senses, discovering a rather large city located a few thousand kilometers to his west. The city seemed large enough that it should contain a branch of the Heaven's Secrets Company, they should be able to send him towards the battlefield where the World Tree clan was currently fighting their war.

He was still unable to connect with Little Gray and the others so he had no idea what their current states were, nor could he teleport directly to them using his God Gate. Yao Jun felt like cursing himself for not having Leylan or Arthurius give him a communication jade he could use to talk with them, at least then he could contact some of their clan men to learn a bit more.

Yao Jun turned towards the distant city and started to maneuver his Qi, but just as he was about to teleport through space, a horrid pain assaulted his chest. His body couldn't help but crumple to the floor, his fingers instinctively clawing at his chest, his God Gate floating out from his chest. And as the horrid pain continued to assault him, Yao Jun could only watch as the tiger engraving representing Little Thunder started to fade away from the God Gate, leaving behind an empty spot.