Why don't you laugh?

To people of Yao Jun's cultivation level, two days was nothing, it was hardly more than a blink of the eye. So just like that, the day everyone was going to gang up on the Earthly Deities swiftly arrived, the small bead that contained the array fragment lighting up and notifying Yao Jun that he had to begin preparing.

Yao Jun stopped his cultivation and opened his eyes, taking out the green bead and rolling it around on his palm, his lips curving up faintly. The tension on the prairie rose slightly, the other cultivators swiftly making their final preparations. The one who had given Yao Jun the bead, the orange-haired Samantha stood up and headed over to the Earthly Deities, three men standing up and following her. Yao Jun already knew that these three men were Samantha's associates, the center portions that controlled three of the four arrays that everyone here would be using.

Samantha and the three men stopped a short distance away from the six Earthly Deities, who had already opened their eyes and were looking at Samantha and her group with disinterested expressions. The Earthly Deity who had two sharp horns, as well as thick arms and legs covered in black scales, Mordred Caranius, swept Samantha and her group with a glance, standing up and stretching his body as he spoke up in a casual voice.

"So you've finally decided to take action? We had to wait so long that we almost died of boredom. I hope you'll at least be able to entertain us., let us laugh a little for having wasted so much of our time."

They were Earthly Deities, not idiots, of course they would quickly realize that everyone here would gang up on them sooner or later. But as people who had managed to become Earthly Deities, they had so much pride that it bordered arrogance, so even though they knew that everyone here was going to gang up on them, they didn't truly care or worry. Samantha gave Mordred and the other Earthly Deities that had also stood up a courteous bow, her lips forming a somewhat mocking smile.

"You'll have to forgive us for making you wait so long, we wanted to give you a bit more time to enjoy life before we reaped yours."

Samantha and the other people on the prairie simultaneously activated their beads right after she finished her words, the thousands of cultivators splitting up into four groups that all shared their strength with one another. Samantha and the three men next to her quickly utilized this sudden surge in strength before the Earthly Deities had the chance to react, dashing forward so fast they turned into faint blurs.

They launched their attacks the second they got close to the Earthly Deities, razor-sharp strings, a crushing pressure, blazing flames, and a shrill ringing sound bearing down upon the Earthly Deities and spreading out from the area, causing the prairie around them to crack.

As they were caught completely off-guard, the Earthly Deities were forced back by the attack, two of them even having a small streak of blood leak out from the corners of their mouth. They now understood that the surrounding cultivators had prepared better than they had expected, a somewhat solemn expression appearing on their faces. Seeing their expressions, Samantha and the other cultivators around the Earthly Deities let out a light laugh, Samantha mocking them.

"Come on now, laugh a little, isn't this funny?"

Mordred's expression sank slightly when he heard Samantha's mocking words, a terrifying pressure starting to radiate from his body and cracking the prairie beneath him. The other Earthly Deities didn't waste any time either, unleashing all their might as they prepared to fight for their lives. Samantha and the three other men took several steps backward, Samantha making a downward slashing-motion with her arm.

"Swarm them."

Samantha's group of four were the center of the four different arrays, but everyone else who was part of the array could draw upon the strength of the other people connected to the array to unleash the same strength. They couldn't all unleash the strength at the same time, but if they just split up the strength a little, quite a few people could unleash far greater strength than normal, making it easy for them to all swarm the six Earthly Deities.

Over three thousand cultivators dashed forward to swarm the Earthly Deities, attacking in an almost frenzied manner. At this point, they didn't have too many choices, if the Earthly Deities remained alive, everyone else here would die, not attacking with everything they had wasn't an option for them. There was however one person acting somewhat different from the rest, Yao Jun.

Yao Jun tossed the bead he had been given aside, only inputting a tiny amount of Qi into it to make it seem like he had activated the array. He then joined the rest of the cultivators in swarming the Earthly Deities, heading directly for Mordred. Looking at Mordred's appearance, there was a chance he was part of the Merged Heaven clan, he could even be one of Peyton's men.

Mordred was going to die here no matter what, but if he really was one of Peyton's men, Yao Jun had to at least try to get some information from him before he died. Since everyone here was using the array to share their strength, Yao Jun could freely activate his Crumbling The Nine Heavens technique without having his increase in strength look suspicious.

As he was heading for Mordred, he suddenly felt a sense of danger assault him, his body instinctually dodging to the side. Just as he dodged, the area where he had just been turned into a large skeleton arm, six cultivators ending up squeezed to death in the bone as it appeared and another six ending up crushed by the arm's hand. Even if they were swarmed by so many people who shared their strength, they were still Earthly Deities, so fighting back was still something they could easily do.

Yao Jun quickly reached Mordred, whose entire body had changed after the battle began. He had grown to become almost four meters tall, his entire body had become covered in black scales, and a thin and whip-like tail had grown out behind him. His body and the area around him were covered in pitch black flames that were very similar to the flames Yao Jun could use by fusing the law of darkness and the law of fire.

The battle had only started a few seconds ago, but there were already tens of dead cultivators around him, their corpses swiftly being swallowed by the black flame and turning into nothingness. Mordred was grabbing a male cultivator by the neck and using him as a shield, his eyes swiftly scanning the entire area before suddenly landing on Yao Jun. Upon spotting Yao Jun, he snapped the neck of the cultivator and tossed him aside, his lips forming a ferocious smile.

"Yao Jun, I was guessing you would come to me the moment you got the chance."

Yao Jun's expression didn't change much upon hearing Mordred's words, he had already guessed that Mordred might be part of the Merged Heaven clan. Since Mordred knew his name, it confirmed that he was one of Peyton's men, it also meant that Peyton had likely told Mordred a bit about the various laws Yao Jun had used when he last fought against one of Peyton's slaves.

Mordred clapped his hands, resulting in everything around him being swallowed up by black flames, all the cultivators close to him quickly ending up scorched. The flames also headed for Yao Jun, but a horribly cold wind billowed out from his body and put out all the flames that came close to him. In the end, a small empty area was created, Yao Jun and Mordred the only ones present within the area. Mordred swiped a chain that coiled around his thigh, a small golden dagger appearing in his hands as he sent another ferocious smile at Yao Jun.

"The Young Master has told me quite a lot about you, the unknown Lord of Demons. You might think that you are strong just because you have a fragment of a Supreme Law, but don't forget that even the complete Supreme Laws were once shattered by someone, they are not invincible. This knife was a gift that the Young Master prepared for me, it was created specifically to deal with fragment lords like you. It contains a small piece of a tooth that came from an ancient Origin Beast from a different universe. With the power of this tooth, even the Supreme Law fragments can be shattered and forced to slumber for several millions of years as they repair themselves."

Mordred explained everything about his weapon with a gleeful expression, clearly proud that Peyton had gifted him this weapon. But Yao Jun simply looked at him with an indifferent expression. What was the point in explaining everything about your weapon? Doing so would only cause your enemy to become even more vigilant, it wasn't just pointless, it was downright dumb.

At the same time as he thought this, Yao Jun was also somewhat interested in what an Origin Beast was. Was it a Demonic beast that had evolved to a specific state, or was it a type of Demonic beast that controlled a specific power? He had no way of getting an answer now, so he could only make a mental note to look it up when he got the chance.

Seemingly somewhat annoyed that Yao Jun was completely ignoring his explanation about the knife, Mordred stopped talking and dashed forward. Each of his steps cracked the earth beneath him, the air around him turning so hot that it started burning. When he arrived in front of Yao Jun, he raised the golden dagger up high and brought it down in an attention-catching manner, as if he was trying to split Yao Jun in two.

Yao Jun looked at Mordred and the dagger, raising his head slightly. He didn't immediately dodge, looking as if he wanted to take the attack head-on in a show of strength. But just as Mordred finished half the swing, the dagger not far from his head, Yao Jun stepped on one of the silver lines that constantly filled his vision, dodging through space.

A spear made from pure darkness shot up from a shadow that had appeared where Yao Jun just stood, piercing through the air where his head would have been. Seeing his sneak attack miss, Mordred clicked his tongue in annoyance, swiftly turning his head and following the faint traces Yao Jun left behind when he dodged through space.

But just as he turned his head, a loud exploding sound rang out right next to his ear, the shockwave the sound produced hitting his head and creating a crack in his scales. Two more attacks landed on him right after, a two-meter-long metal javelin covered in lines of lava stabbing into his left shoulder and a pitch black cloud appearing above him, drops of water as sharp as swords falling down and slicing into his scales. As he focused on blocking the drops of water, Mordred couldn't resist shouting out in a thunderous voice.

"Yao Jun, you coward! Stop hiding behind others and come face me!"

There was no response to Mordred's furious shout, as if Yao Jun had already left the area. More and more rain started to fall onto Mordred's body, a myriad of other attacks launched in his direction. There were over 3000 cultivators who had ganged up on the six Earthly Deities. Even if the cultivators had to constantly shift around who received most of the power from the arrays, there were still so many of them that the rain of attacks was nearly unending.

A hammer made from the law of crushing and a whip made from the law of sealing slipped through Mordred's defense, forcing him to raise his right and left arms to block them. Just as he did this, Yao Jun appeared behind him, stepping out from a small pocket of compressed space that he had created. His black sword appeared in his hand and Yao Jun slashed out with it, his blade cleanly slicing through the scales that covered Mordred's left shoulder, rendering his left arm nearly useless. Right after delivering the attack, Yao Jun took a step backward and dodged through space again, ignoring Mordred's furious shout.

"You coward! Is a coward like you really the one that the Young Master somewhat fears?!"

Yao Jun couldn't be bothered with Mordred's shouts and thoughts. With so many people here, there was no need for Yao Jun to exhaust and wound himself to deal with Mordred, just weakening him occasionally while he focused on defending against other attacks was enough. At some point, he would be so weak that he would no longer be able to resist, and that would be the time Yao Jun would make his move.

The hammer made from the law of crushing landed on the left side of Mordred's shoulder, his ribs cracking under the force of the attack. As an Earthly Deity, he would normally be able to just ignore all these attacks that rained down on him, but with everyone supported by an array, the attacks were strong enough to wound him.

The same was true for the other Earthly Deities, which were growing weaker and weaker as more time passed on. And since this prairie was part of the trial of this inheritance, they couldn't even flee, they could only do their best to dodge around and survive for as long as possible.

But they would only get weaker and weaker as time passed on and they suffered more attacks, and there was only so much that pills could do for them. And because of this, a day after the battle started, the first Earthly Deity died. The one that died was the Earthly Deity from the Primordial Sea clan, the only Earthly Deity here whose name Yao Jun had yet to learn.

This made it so that the cultivators that had focused on this Earthly Deity were able to shift their focus on the remaining Earthly Deities, causing even more attacks to rain down upon them. Yao Jun ignored the other Earthly Deities, putting his full focus on Mordred, sneak attacking him at every opportunity he saw.

Two days after the battle started, two more Earthly Deities died. This time it was the twin brother of Meridus, Mortier, and the normal looking Radager that died. In just two days, three Earthly Deities had died, something that would normally be quite shocking. But this was the Ascending Dragon competition, a grand competition that spanned the entire universe, for a few Earthly Deities to die was not too shocking here.

Shortly after Radager died, Yao Jun decided that Mordred had become weak enough, it was time to finish it. Mordred was already completely ragged and worn, his shimmering black scales cracked and bloody, his left arm had been torn off and there was a large hole in his abdomen. Yao Jun waited for a moment where Mordred was forced to block several attacks that aimed for his head, choosing this as the time to move in.

He once again stepped through space, appearing right behind Mordred, his black sword already in hand. Mordred noticed Yao Jun's arrival, his expression distorting fiercely as he realized the danger he was in. He grit his teeth and quickly decided on the course of action he had to take. He ignored the attacks that were aiming at him, giving his body a quick spin and sending a sideways stab at Yao Jun's head, black flames forming a thick layer around the golden dagger he was holding.

Like this, the attacks that were aimed at him would definitely end up hitting Mordred's spine, crippling him and making it incredibly easy to kill him. But in turn, he would be able to kill Yao Jun, removing a possible threat for his Young Master, so he didn't hesitate in his choice. Mordred had already noticed that even though the array was strengthening the power of the cultivators, it couldn't increase their defense. So since Yao Jun was only someone who had reached the Immortal Rebirth realm, Mordred was certain that he would die if he chose to take his attack head-on. Even if he tried to block the stab, Yao Jun's arm would shatter and the dagger would continue into his head

But this was where Mordred miscalculated, thinking that Yao Jun was a normal cultivator. He should have been more wary, especially since he knew that Yao Jun held a fragment of the Supreme Law of Demons.

Yao Jun slashed out with his sword, raising his left arm at the same time. Yao Jun grabbed onto Mordred's dagger, allowing the blade to pierce through his palm. Mordred thought he had succeeded, but then his arm became unable to push forward, Yao Jun holding onto his hand and holding him back.

It was only now, now that he saw Yao Jun block his attack with what could only be called ease, that Mordred realized he had been mistaken from the start. There was no way the array would let Yao Jun block Mordred's attack, so that could only mean that Yao Jun had never relied on the array to begin with, this was his own strength. Only now did Mordred realize why the ever-confident and composed Young Master said he somewhat feared the man known as Yao Jun. Of course, Peyton knew nothing of Yao Jun's actual strength, what he feared was the speed at which Yao Jun grew, the speed at which his strength increased.

Mordred tried to open his mouth to say something, but he never got to speak the words, Yao Jun's sword cleanly slicing through his abdomen and separating his torso from his lower body. Yao Jun then used the hold he had on Mordred's right hand to slam his torso into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust that obscured the vision of anyone around him.

Using this cloud of dust, he threw the still-living Mordred into his God Gate, even throwing his lower body into the God Gate. As he threw him in, he sent a quick message to Little Gray and Du Xiao, telling them what to do.

"Little Gray, work together with Du Xiao to extract as much information as you can. After you have learned everything you can, feed him to Ba-Shei."

Little Gray had mental energy and Du Xiao had a poison that could work on souls and the mind, if the two worked together it was no problem for them to turn someone weakened into a mindless slave. As for feeding him to Ba-Shei, it was mostly because of what Mordred was. He was a member of the Merged Heaven clan, meaning he had Demonic beast parts fused into his body to increase his strength. The parts fused into his body clearly came from some Demonic beast that could use darkness and fire, if Ba-Shei ate him, he might be able to absorb the parts and allow him to strengthen himself.

After putting away Mordred, Yao Jun dodged the incoming attacks by jumping through space, leaving the area. After doing so, he proceeded to simply keep an eye on the situation and wait, wait for the inevitable.

With four of the six Earthly Deities dead, everyone could focus on the last two remaining ones, Elysa and Selova. Selova was the Demonic beast that had originally found this inheritance, so she could only curse her own fate that had led her to finding the place that would become her own grave. As for Elysa, she was the adoptive sister of the man ranked 189 in this competition, Sixth Heaven Demon King Xiao Yan, but even that terrifying backing wasn't enough to protect her from the countless cultivators here, not with the goal right in front of them.

Shortly after Mordred was taken care of, the last two Earthly Deities fell victim to the countless attacks, dying and being torn to shreds as everyone scrambled to steal their items. With the last of the Earthly Deities dying, the sounds of battle halted, the cultivators stopping and looking at each other.

There had been over 3000 of them when the battle started, but over 1000 of them had died. They had been greatly strengthened by the arrays, but they still ended up losing over 1000 people, showing just how terrifying an Earthly Deity really was.

Yao Jun wasn't certain who started it, but someone started laughing, the laughter quickly spreading to the rest of the surviving cultivators, everyone letting out loud and victorious laughters. They had killed the Earthly Deities, now they finally had a chance to grab a hold of the final reward of this bloody inheritance.

But just as everyone was laughing and feeling victorious, the inevitable happened. The beads that contained the array fragment they had used started glowing with a bright light, the various cultivators shocked to see that their remaining energy was being swiftly absorbed by the beads. The absorbed energy flowed through the bead and followed the array fragment, returning to the core pieces of the arrays, to Samantha and the three men that had followed her.

The remaining cultivators quickly turned towards Samantha's group with furious expressions, forced to watch as the strength of Samantha's group was swiftly restored. They had been prepared to be betrayed once the trial ended, so there were some that made sure to keep several pills and other means ready for when the Earthly Deities were dead. But no one had expected the array they had used to suddenly turn against them, draining all their strength. Seeing their expressions, Samantha tilted her head cutely, smiling at them.

"Won't you laugh? Isn't it funny?"

It was clear that Samantha and her group had planned this one from the start, maybe even the moment they heard about the contents of the last trial. Only four people could complete this inheritance, everyone else had to die to create the road to the peak.

The cultivators wanted to scream and curse at Samantha, even those that had prepared filthy tricks of their own were cursing at her, all the while cursing themselves for waiting so long and missing their chance to implement their tricks. But there was nothing they could do, the beads were draining all their energy and strength, leaving them with no strength to even shout as they collapsed into sitting position, with nothing to do but wait for Samantha and her group to kill them.

But just as Samantha and her group were about to start the clean-up, a low snapping sound resounded over the entire prairie. Everyone felt a slight sting on their neck, a dull pain starting to spread throughout their bodies. Samantha and her group were no exception, their legs giving out under them as they collapsed to the ground, all their limbs swiftly turning numb as even the simple act of breathing grew harder and harder.

While everyone was shocked and confused, they noticed small emerald-green spiders dropping down from their necks, crawling away from them. The cultivators soon saw thousands of spiders crawling over the prairie, all of them heading in the same direction. Following the spiders with their eyes, their gazes landed on the still-standing Yao Jun. The thousands of spiders all swarmed towards him, vanishing into his shadow and leaving only a single spider standing on his shoulder, looking at the paralyzed and dying cultivators with a mocking gaze.

How could they not understand what had just happened, understand that Samantha wasn't the only one who had plotted against them from the very start? Samantha did her best to speak, using all her strength to force her failing lungs to work long enough to let her stutter out a few words.

"You...You...When..."

She wanted to know since when he had planned against them. Had he started this plot when she came to him with her own plot, or had he started before even that? And just how could he control so many spiders, just how had he been able to place the spiders on everyone here without them noticing, just how had the managed to poison them all like this? Yao Jun didn't give her an answer, tilting his head slightly and sending her a smile of his own, the last words she ever heard being her own words sent back at her.

"Why do you look so serious? Why don't you laugh? It's funny, no?"