Sky-reaching rose.

Yao Jun gazed at the now empty spot just past the gash in the array, his expression violently distorted as Yun Yantian's last calm smile flashed in front of his vision, the image already seared into the deepest parts of his mind. He recognized the smile, it was the same smile that Little Thunder wore when he sacrificed his own life to save Yao Jun's parents, a fact that only strengthened the pain stabbing Yao Jun's heart. Why was it that those closest to him always smiled when they sacrificed themself for him, why couldn't they curse and berate him to at least make it a little easier for him?

One of Yao Jun's scorched arms rose unconsciously, his fingers tracing the area around his eyes. He could feel some few drops of viscous blood, but not a single tear ran down his face. Just like when he lost Little Thunder, he was filled with a horrid empty feeling and a gnawing sense of loss and sorrow, but his tears still refused to fall. His cultivation path had twisted him so much that he couldn't even cry over the loss of his friend when he was alone, only when he was surrounded by his other close ones would his tears flow, only then would the walls he instinctually erected to stay vigilant lower slightly.

The act of Lin Jue and Lin Gaozhi rushing over to the opening in the array was just barely perceived by Yao Jun's disarrayed thoughts, space around him warping as he teleported away from the area. He teleported away again and again, the sky above him turning blue as he left the city and saw that it was indeed located within a secret realm opened within a mountain-sized yellow crystal. He didn't stop teleporting after leaving the city, shuttling through space time and time again without any proper location in mind, all he knew was that he had to get away, that was the least he could do for Yun Yantian right now.

The scenery around him changed countless times as he teleported so many times that he actually ran out of Qi, falling to the ground in what seemed to be a forest, several different types of trees shooting to the sky around him. He merged his mind with the surrounding space but was unable to encompass the entire forest, showing that just the forest here alone was larger than many of the planets in his own universe.

A sharp pain assaulted him when he fell onto the ground, he fell with his face down so his body touching the ground had pushed the slightly dim silver sword that stuck in his chest even deeper into his body. It actually stabbed in so deep that the tip of it reached his God Gate and pierced a bit into it, the pain growing so horrifying that it overshadowed the pain coming from all his other wounds.

But even so, the pain barely registered in Yao Jun's mind. He had engaged in many many battles ever since he embarked on his path of cultivation, but not once had he suffered a defeat like this, not once had he been so utterly crushed and broken with not even the chance to fight back.

Normally, even if he was surrounded by two Heavenly deities and an Earthly Deity, Yao Jun would have the chance to put up a bit of a fight and even flee, a fact that in and of itself was already utterly amazing. But very few things about the previous battle had been normal, disadvantage after disadvantage had been stacked up against him, chaining him down until he was no more than a fish on the chopping block.

The first disadvantage was the array all around them, it constantly encroached them, sealed up space so that he couldn't dodge like he normally did, and it even sealed up his God Gate so that he couldn't get into touch with his Demonic beasts. This, in turn, ended up resulting in him only being able to utilize the normal version of Crumbling The Nine Heavens rather than the version improved for him.

And the second disadvantage was the one that was the most painful to admit, it was Yun Yantian. Yao Jun had to protect Yun Yantian, who wouldn't be able to bear the attacks unleashed by Lin Jue and the others. As such, even if he could dodge without using the law of space to teleport, he couldn't move to dodge otherwise Yun Yantian would get hit. He also couldn't properly go on the offensive for the same reason, he simply couldn't afford to go too far from Yun Yantian.

But in the end, all of it had ended up being for naught. Yun Yantian had from the start realized that he was no more than a burden who would drag Yao Jun to the grave, and the moment he saw his chance he made his choice. A peerless Demon God or a sword that was no more than a burden, himself or a dear friend, the choice wasn't hard for Yun Yantian.

Yao Jun knew that all these disadvantages were stacked up against him in the fight and that he didn't really have a chance from the start. But even so, his fingers dug into the earth while he resented and fumed. He hated the Lin clan for their actions and he hated the Divine Emperor for giving them such an array. But above everything else, he hated himself for being so weak that he couldn't protect his friend, he hated the weak him that forced his friend to make the choice he did. And so he burned with resentment and desire, a greedy desire for strength greater than any others, a strength that could have smashed through that array without a problem.

Yao Jun's breathing was ragged and shallow as he clutched at the ground, blood spurting forth with every single exhalation. He didn't notice the pain he was experiencing due to the burning desire and resentment, but when he felt a strange sliding sensation on his chest his gaze couldn't help but lower slightly, his stomach lurching slightly from what he saw.

The flesh on his chest was sliding down his torso, a few chunks of it had fallen off and splattered onto the earth beneath him, moistening the earth with his blood. His fractured ribs and pulsating organs were all laid bare as the flesh on his chest slid off, revealing the strange scene taking place right next to his heart.

His black gate hovered there as normal but there was now also a small silver sword stabbed into it, both items pulsating fiercely as veins extended from one into the other. The gate was being covered in silver veins and the sword was being covered in black veins, it was as if the two fragments were trying to either swallow the other or merge together.

It wasn't too strange that they would try to do that, they were after all just pieces of a greater whole, the Origin Heart of Yao Jun's own universe. But neither of the pieces he had here were whole, they were just the core fragments of the shattered pieces. And if that alone wasn't enough to make this scene strange, Yao Jun clearly remembered that the Nine Heavens Soul Emperor said that the God Gates could only be gathered into a single whole within the All-God's Gate, a God Gate Yao Jun had yet to even encounter.

But whatever the truth behind the current situation was, it was clear that it was not something Yao Jun could bear, especially not in his wounded state. More and more of his flesh started to slide off as invisible waves of energy radiated off of the intertwining God Gates, even his organs and bones slowly starting to get affected and softening.

Yao Jun grit his teeth so hard that they started cracking and shattering, his eyes bulging as he forced himself to fight against the faint sensation that started to encroach on his mind. He couldn't faint, fainting here meant dying, it meant rendering Yun Yantian's sacrifice as nothing more than a waste. His body might be giving out on him now, but he still had one card up his sleeve that he could bet on, a bestial growl rumbling forth from his throat.

"Yama, come!"

Yao Jun had a very close bond to his Demonic beasts thanks to his God Gate so all of them were slightly affected by his immense emotions, by the ferocious inferno burning deep within him. But none of them asked and none of them pried, they simply prepared themselves so that they could be ready for orders at any time, so that they could be ready to charge out for a massacre at any time. And right now, the one called forth by their deity was Yama.

Roots immediately started extending from Yao Jun's body and burrowing into the earth as they expanded outwards, taking Yao Jun as their centre. A stem covered in thorns quickly grew up from the roots, a large crimson rose appearing within the forest out of nowhere, its roots and vines extending out further and further while Yao Jun curled up within the maze of roots. All the lifeforce Yama absorbed got channelled into his body to regrow the flesh that was constantly falling off, supporting his bones and organs so that they wouldn't fail him while the two God Gates continued acting up.

Yao Jun forced himself to remain conscious while enduring this process of constantly falling apart and sticking himself back together but his consciousness still grew so faint due to his immense focus that he simply didn't notice anything else around him. His focus was fully placed on staying conscious and staving off the darkness, even the passage of time turning so blurry that he wasn't certain if it was minutes or hours, or even days that were passing as the rose above him continued to expand and grow.

The rose looked delicate and beautiful, but its appearance spelt the death of the forest and every living being within it. Yama was a Devil Vine, a horrible plant-type Demonic beast that lived by feeding on the lifeforce of the living being in its surroundings. Left unchecked, a Devil Vine could even grow to absorb any kind of lifeforce and render entire stretches of land barren and devoid of life. And right now Yama was aiming to become just that, a useful subordinate of its deity, a calamity to all life.

His deity had called him forth and he would answer with his all, he would drain all life he could find and channel it into his god to aid him in what would surely serve as a rebirth. That was the special strength of the one they all took as their deity, every fall he experienced only served to push him to greater heights, not even the darkness of the abyss could shackle him down.