Tang Long did his best to calm his breathing as he looked at his opponent, the crimson-haired and black-eyed Vong Zetzun. He occasionally cast a sideways glance at Yao Jun, who was calmly and nonchalantly observing him and the two others that were about to engage in battles. Tang Long was a bit different from most people, he was fully aware of what his own position should be, he was also fully aware of just what sort of freakish sect he had joined.

He was very closely attuned to Demonic beasts and could thus easily sense them and their powers, the moment he joined the Demon's Gate he realized that four of its founders were, in fact, Divine Beasts. And if those four weren't enough, a fifth and a sixth one quickly appeared there, even one of the fabled Hydras appeared there. Six Divine beasts and one mythical beast that could evolve infinitely, and yet these beings weren't the true leaders of the sect. In such a situation, how could Tang Long not be curious about just what sort of being could be the true leader of the sect?

And then he finally got to meet Yao Jun and he finally understood everything. He could feel it, Yao Jun was fundamentally different from other people, different from even Divine beasts. He was in a class of his own, above man and beast, he was someone born to be a god who reigned over all beasts, this was something Tang Long felt from the very core of his being thanks to his close ties to Demonic beasts.

At first, he didn't know just what Yao Jun saw in someone like him to personally train him a few times, even helping him reach the late stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm. But even though he didn't know what Yao Jun saw in him, he knew that he couldn't waste this chance, he couldn't betray the expectation within those actions, otherwise, he would regret it until he took his last breath. So he trained as if his life depended on it, engraving each word that Yao Jun spoke into his heart.

He let out a long breath to calm his heart, this would be the first time he fought an enemy this strong, but he had to do it. His left eye suddenly changed as he calmed his heart, turning from blue to nearly completely colorless. A thick and viscous slime started to seep out of his skin when his eye changed color, running down his arm and dripping onto the ground. Some of the slime didn't run down his arm but instead moved up his body and gathered on his left shoulder, forming an apple-sized blob of slime that had one colorless and one blue eye floating around in it.

This was the Demonic beast that Tang Long used to cultivate his law of demons, a Demonic beast that could only be found in the place where he lived. Tang Long was actually born in a small Hollow Waste, a place where the laws of the universe didn't work as they normally would. The effect of that Hollow Waste was that nothing existing within it would decay, the things that died there would simply remain in the same state they were in as they died.

So to prevent the Hollow Waste from becoming filled with corpses and other dead material, a special Demonic beast evolved into existence there, the slimes. The slimes were the garbage disposers of the Hollow Waste, able to absorb and digest everything they surrounded with their slime. They kept the Hollow Waste clean by eating the dead matter but didn't have any combat capabilities so they were easily killed by other Demonic beasts or people, their only other redeeming factor being that they could reproduce quickly.

Tang Long had accidentally gotten into contact with a slime after he was wounded in a battle as a child, resulting in the slime entering his bloodstream and fusing with him. He became able to cultivate the law of demons with great talent as a result, but the only demon he could cultivate the law with was this slime. As such, his role was practically set right there and then, he would be a garbage disposer for the rest of his life.

But his parents died shortly after he turned twenty, and since he had no other ties to his home, he decided to leave the Hollow Waste and wander the planet, eventually joining the Demon's Gate, who didn't push him away despite his mostly useless Demonic beast. And now he stood here and had to use his supposedly useless slime to fight against someone at the Earthly Deity realm.

In truth, Tang Long wanted to run away right now, he could feel his fear prodding at him from within, nagging at his mind to flee. But he couldn't, not with Yao Jun watching him, he wanted to at least show Yao Jun that he hadn't been wrong in giving him some training and the supreme technique of the sect. He also wanted to show that he had managed to ascend above his supposed position, he was no longer a mere garbage disposer.

He let out another deep breath, the slime dripping from his hands gathering together and forming a translucent whip that dragged along the ground. Vong Zetzun also brought out his own weapon, two shortswords that looked like they were made from aged wood, the two people quietly inspecting each other. Tang Long focused his gaze on Vong Zetzun, his aura increasing by a few times as he activated the supreme technique of the Demon's Gate, Crumbling the Nine Heavens. He decided to take the first move, charging forward while keeping in mind the words Yao Jun had told him the first time he started training him.

"The only reason you believe your slime to be useless is because you haven't even bothered to look at her properly. Look at her, understand her and she will show you what she is truly capable of, she will show you the extent of her hunger."

Tang Long hadn't even known that his slime was a female until Yao Jun told him, he had indeed never even looked at her properly, he had just cultivated as much as he could and focused on strengthening his body. He had been told this a year and a half ago, and ever since, he had done just as he was told, he looked at his slime and he tried to understand her and what she really was.

And he slowly started to do just that, he understood her power and her relentless hunger, he understood just what the slimes actually were. And then he finally understood why Yao Jun took an interest in him, why he gave him some training despite only having what should be a useless slime.

The distance between the two combatants was closed almost instantly, Vong Zetzun raising his sword high and causing countless hair-thin threads to gather around it, each one vibrating at a tremendous speed. He swung down his sword the moment Tang Long was only three steps away from him, a horrifying feeling of dread and pressure descending on Tang Long as the sword was swung.

He wanted to close his eyes and cower, his instinctual fear almost taking over his movements. But he bit his tongue and resisted, closing his eyes meant death, cowering meant death, and he would not allow himself to die, not now that he was finally starting to understand his own power.

He swung his whip upward to meet the incoming sword, the tip of his whip managing to coil around the blade for a short second before it was torn apart by the vibrating threads. But Vong Zetzun's expression sank slightly after the whip was torn apart, he sensed that all the threads he had placed around his sword had vanished, there was even a new chip on the back of his blade.

Tang Long didn't reform his whip after it was blown apart,
heavily clenching his left hand. The blobs of slime that had been blown away by the vibrating threads suddenly trembled slightly, each one splitting into several equally sized blobs, filling the air in the area. The hundreds of blobs then all flew at Vong Zetzun, who quickly took a step back and was instantly surrounded by countless threads, practically forming a cocoon around him. He had never encountered a slime before, so he had no idea what sort of law Tang Long was using here, but he wasn't willing to risk getting hit by it.

But as the slime landed on them, the threads simply started to vanish, the blobs growing a little larger each time a thread vanished. Vong Zetzun's eyes narrowed as he reacted by snapping his fingers, the sound of it actually as loud as an explosion. Vibrations ran through the air and blew the blobs of slime apart while also pushing them back.

But just like last time, each blob simply split up into several more and then flew at Vong Zetzun again, this time from above so that they rained down on him like a fierce downpour. He immediately snapped his finger again and directed the vibrations upwards, but Tang Long arrived in front of him the moment he finished snapping his finger.

A thin layer of slime coated his entire body so that he could dash directly through the threads still surrounding Vong Zetzun. Vong Zetzun lowered his head just as Tang Long arrived in front of him, his expression remaining neutral as he pushed down with his right hand, a heavy vibration and countless threads pushing down on Tang Long from above.

His knees bent slightly, but the slime on his shoulder opened her mouth and spat out a large tidal wave of slime that mixed together with the now thousands of blobs that were already in the air above them, completely swallowing the threads that threatened to slice them apart. Tang Long had strengthened his body before so he managed to resist the worst of the vibrations, his right arm stretching out and clasping down on Vong Zetzun's throat.

More slime flooded forth from Tang Long's hand and started to spread across Vong Zetzun's body, his skin starting to vanish and revealing his raw flesh. But even that flesh started to quickly vanish beneath the slime, only serving to increase the size and ferocity of the slime covering his body. All of his resistance was eaten up by the slime, his life and body vanishing a mere three seconds after Tang Long grabbed a hold of his throat.

This was what Tang Long had learned about his slime, this was what Yao Jun had seen in him. The slimes weren't garbage disposers, they were insatiable predators who hungered without end, their entire being composed of acid so strong it could dissolve almost everything, the only thing that held them back was their basically non-existent intelligence. They hungered and ate, growing larger and stronger so that they could devour more things, they were bottomless holes born to dissolve entire worlds.