The grieving demon god.

Little Gray brought Yao Jun directly to where his house was and dropped him off. The entire town was on fire, so making Little Gray land was out of the question. Once he landed on the ground, Yao Jun ignored the flames and ran into the burning building his parents lived in.

"Father! Mother!"

Yao Jun shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran into the building, but all that greeted him was silence. The interior was already charred black and completely unrecognizable, but Yao Jun used his memory to navigate the remains. He entered the part that used to be the living room, only to find it completely deserted. After quickly checking the other rooms in the house and not seeing neither his parents nor their corpses, he left the burning building.

"Little Gray, find these two!"

Yao Jun raised his head and shouted to Little Gray who was circling above him. Little Gray had never seen Yao Jun's parents, but Little Gray was tied to Yao Jun by the Demon God's Gate, sending him a mental image was no problem. Little Gray let loose a loud screech and started flying higher, surveying the burning town.

After waiting for a short while, Little Gray returned to the air above Yao Jun and let loose another screech, telling Yao Jun to follow him. Yao Jun didn't waste any time, immediately breaking into a sprint, following behind Little Gray.

Along the way, Yao Jun was either begged by people who were wounded or trapped to save them, or attacked by the people clad in red robes or the bandits. Yao Jun ignored the people begging him to save them and murdered every one of the attackers.

The people clad in leather armor used a myriad of different abilities, some not even using abilities at all. But the people clad in red robes all used different varieties of fire powers, explaining how the town was set on fire in the first place.

The attackers Yao Jun faced were all either below the 1st Mortal Earth or had just entered the 1st Mortal Earth, allowing Yao Jun to easily kill them. But Yao Jun did not get cocky. He knew that there were people in this town that had reached the 2nd Mortal Earth, so if all the attackers were this weak, there was no way the town would fall like this.

Yao Jun continued to follow Little Gray for a few minutes, quickly reaching the center of the town. When he reached the center of the town, his robe was already ruined, burnt black and covered in blood, a crazed and desperate expression on his face. He looked more like a demon that had crawled out from hell than a human.

The center of the town seemed to be where most of the battling was taking place, there were several small battles taking place all around, with a few larger battles taking place in the house that belonged to the city lord.

Yao Jun didn't have to spend a lot of time scanning the area, quickly finding his parents. His parents were besieged by a mixture of bandits and red-robed people. His father was missing an arm and there was a large gash going from his mother's shoulder to her abdomen, blood pouring out of it. They were heavily wounded, but the ground around them was littered with the corpses of their enemies.

«No!»

Seeing another group of around five people heading towards his parents, Yao Jun's mind almost went blank with worry. He threw away all other thoughts and charged forward, Little Gray following from above him.

Yao Jun recklessly charged into the group of five people before they had any time to react. Purple lightning discharging from his body and into the surrounding area, like a vengeful lightning god had descended upon the group.

He didn't think as he fought, he just acted on instinct. Before the group had time to react, he beheaded one of them with a single sweep of his sword, his other hand grasping towards another member of the group. Lightning charged out from his hand and surrounded the person he aimed at, charring him into a black corpse before he could scream.

Little Gray swooped down from above, grabbing at another person and dragging him up into the air. After dragging the person into the air, Little Gray exerted strength into his legs and tore the person in two, both halves falling to the ground.

The last two people were already scared witless. Before the even managed to react, three of their people had been horribly slaughtered. They didn't give it too much thought, immediately choosing to flee in different directions. Yao Jun narrowed his eyes and put strength into his right arm.

Lightning flowed out from his arm and into his sword, the sword quickly becoming so hot that it almost started melting. With all his strength, Yao Jun threw the sword after one of the fleeing people. While the sword was flying, Yao Jun turned around and chased after the last person.

He didn't need to look, he was confident that once he threw the sword, his target would die. His confidence proved to be correct, the sword flew in a straight line, piercing directly through the fleeing man's chest with enough force to leave behind nothing but a hole.

While the fleeing man fell to the ground, Yao Jun caught up to the last fleeing man. He had thrown away his weapon, but Yao Jun was still confident. After entering that forest of blades in the tomb of the Nine Heavens Sword Empyrean, his body had been strengthened. Not even Yao Jun knew just how strong his body was compared to a normal cultivator.

Yao Jun reached out with his arms, grabbing onto the head of the last fleeing man. He clenched his hands, his fingers digging into the head of the man. He placed his foot on the man's back and pulled back his arms while kicking out with his leg. With a single pull, the man's head was separated from his body, pieces of skin and flesh dangling from his neck.

Yao Jun threw away the head and turned around and started running once more, heading towards the place where his parents were. Deaths were common on this battlefield, so barely anyone had noticed Yao Jun's entrance. But his parents did.

They had noticed Yao Jun from the moment he shouted out. While they were thrilled at how strong he had become, they worried more than they were pleased. They had been to many battlefields, they knew when a battle was lost. This town would not be able to last much longer, neither would they.

Seeing Yao Jun charge towards them, they shared a look with each other for a brief moment. After their eyes met, they both gave each other a soft smile. They had only been fighting for so long without retreating because this town was the place where their son would eventually return, they had to protect it. Now that their son had returned, there was no longer a need to protect the town, now they had to protect their son.

They both charged out, ignoring their wounds and the attackers around them, their eyes locked onto their only son. Yao Xun charged out in front of her husband, blocking all the attacks that were coming at him with her own body. Yao He used the cover that his wife provided to charge up as much energy as he could, manifesting a small silver ball in his hand.

Yao Jun saw his parents charging towards him, ignoring all their injuries, and shouted out loud, putting more strength than he possessed into his legs. The energy he himself couldn't conjure up, came out from the gate, from that massive black tree that was planted in the center.

As Yao Jun got closer to them, the energy in Yao He's hand seemed to finish charging, as he was no longer placing any energy into it. Yao Xun behind him sent a proud smile to her son. He had been gone for a while, but he eventually returned to them, stronger than ever before. How could she not be proud?

Yao He followed his wife and sent a smile towards his son. When their son was younger, they often worried about him, worried that he would be too weak to protect himself. Looking at his son charging towards them, he knew that he had nothing to worry about.

«You must live on son, you are the last of the Yao Family, so live with pride.»

Yao He pushed his hand forward, sending that silver ball of energy flying forward. While Yao Jun was screaming, the ball hit him in the chest and quickly covered his body. Yao Jun felt the space around him congeal and knew that he was about to be sent away. Away from the town, away from the battlefield, away from his parents.

With the bloodstained smiles of his parents filling his vision, he was sent away from the town. When the space around him stopped congealing, he found himself surrounded by trees.

Yao Jun slammed his fists onto the ground and screamed out, tears and snot running down his face and mixing with the blood. He had seen the attackers descend upon his parents as he was sent away, he knew that they wouldn't make it, but he didn't want to believe it. The fact that his parents died because they wanted to send him away only made it worse for him.