The journey through the spatial vortex was rather rough and bumpy, but Yao Jun was able to heavily reduce the turbulence thanks to his own control over the law of space. The only thing he really had to pay attention to was that the differences between his law of space and the laws used to maintain this spatial vortex didn't collide too heavily and accidentally tear open a rift that he could fall into, there was no telling where he might end up if that happened.
Then again, when that thought struck him, Yao Jun realized that he didn't actually know where he would end up right now either. According to the jade tokens and Tang Guanyu's own words, he should arrive within the Endless Dawn universe, one of the largest and oldest of the major universes, but there was no telling if that was actually true. But Yao Jun had to head there so he had to do one of the things he found the hardest to do, he had to trust.
The journey through the crimson spatial vortex took far longer than Yao Jun had expected, it still didn't show any signs of ending even after five minutes had passed. He was used to spatial transmissions only taking a few seconds at best, so it was quite an experience to move through a spatial vortex for so long. But Yao Jun wasn't one to waste neither time nor an opportunity like this, he focused his mind on the surrounding law of space the moment he realized that he would be stuck in this vortex for a bit.
Everything Yao Jun knew, he had learned on his own or picked up from his beasts, he had never had anyone to teach him the intricacies of the various laws. With that being the case, how could he stay idle now that he was surrounded by the law of space coming from what was surely a truly supreme powerhouse?
He stabilized himself as much as possible and then focused nearly all of his attention on the laws and energy flowing all around him, studying them as closely as possible. As he studied the laws around him closer, he quickly noticed an anomaly in them, they weren't fused together perfectly. They were all neatly separated just before they merged, making it far easier to study the various laws used within this spatial vortex.
Yao Jun himself wouldn't make such a fatal mistake, which could easily result in the laws being separated and the technique being dissipated, so he didn't believe that Tang Guanyu would make such a mistake either. That meant one of two things, Tang Guanyu had either done it on purpose, or he had yet to perfectly fuse his laws together. Yao Jun guessed that the first reason was far more likely, it might even be used as another test, the tokens were meant to find his new disciple after all.
But whether or not it was on purpose didn't matter too much to Yao Jun, it only made it easier for him to study the various laws used in the vortex. Time passed rather slowly as Yao Jun devoted himself to studying the various laws, quickly picking them apart and figuring out which laws Tang Guanyu seemed to specialize in.
The laws he discovered after spending a further five minutes studying were the laws of space, blood, water, crushing, revolving, and attraction. The fusion of all these laws should come together to form Tang Guanyu's unique law, which in his case was likely called the law of the blood ocean. Most of these laws were currently useless to Yao Jun, but the law of space and the law of water portions contained within the vortex were highly useful to him, he even managed to find a few places where the law of revolving could fit together with his law of wind and water.
Learning more about a law and knowing how to utilize it were different things, but Yao Jun was luckily surrounded by the violent turbulence of the spatial vortex, he had plenty of opportunities to test out what he could glean from the law of space. By the time he had spent 15 minutes in the vortex, he managed to stabilize the space around him so much that he negated over 90% of the turbulence. And by the time 25 minutes had passed, he managed to make space around him so stable that he could walk through the vortex instead of getting flung through it.
But sooner or later, all things would have to come to an end. And the end of this spatial vortex appeared nearly 40 minutes after Yao Jun first stepped into it, a circular gate of bright light appearing in front of Yao Jun. He stepped into the gate of bright light, the laws upholding the spatial vortex suddenly merging into a single seamless whole that turned into a multitude of chains that wrapped around Yao Jun's body.
A violent power that resembled shattered space swept over Yao Jun, the chains wrapped around his body preventing him from being swept away by the outburst of power. When the power finished sweeping over him and the chains dissipated, Yao Jun felt his feet touch soft ground again, a somewhat faint pressure bearing down on him from all around.
The pressure felt somewhat similar to the pressure he had felt when he took part in one of the earlier trials to get his hands on one of Tang Guanyu's tokens, the trial where they had to dive into a deep ocean, all-encompassing and natural. He guessed that this pressure might be innate to a major universe, probably a result of how dense the Qi here was and how stable space was. Such pressure might be a problem to some weaker people arriving from other minor universes, but Yao Jun's cultivation and bodily strength were more than enough to make it so that this pressure was negligible.
Yao Jun didn't immediately bring out Guo Luo and the others, first giving his surroundings a quick glance. He was currently standing on top of a nearly 100-meter tall hill, hundreds of other such hills spreading out all around him and nearly forming an ocean. But rather than calling them hills, calling them dunes would be more correct, the earth so arid that cracks were visible in several places. But strangely enough, the earth felt as soft as mud and there were still plants growing all around, shrubbery-like bushes growing out from the cracks and pale yellow grass covering the ground.
Yao Jun spotted a few rabbit-like animals and various reptiles skittering around the dunes, nothing able to hide from his piercing gaze. He didn't discover any threats or dangerous places in the area around him, heaving a quick sigh of relief that they hadn't arrived in some danger zone as a test. A soft light flashed out from Yao Jun's chest and landed on the ground in front of him, his full attention landing on the light as he brought out the first person from within his God Gate.
The first person he brought out wasn't Guo Luo or Yun Yantian, nor was it his parents, the first person he brought out was Yao Xuelian, his daughter. The reason she was first was very simple, he wanted to have his full attention available when he brought her out and made sure that she could resist the pressure, no distractions could be allowed. Yao Xuelian materialized out of the light, her expression instantly lighting up when she saw Yao Jun.
"Papa! Can we p...Wah!?"
Yao Xuelian fell over before she could finish her sentence, the unexpected pressure catching her off guard and resulting in her falling forward. Yao Jun quickly caught her before she fell on her face, stabilizing her and helping her stand upright. Yao Xuelian stood somewhat wobbly when Yao Jun took back his hands, clearly unable to even stand properly under the immense pressure. She did her best to remain on her feet, puffing out her cheeks and pointing accusingly at Yao Jun.
"Bad Papa! Papa has to warn me next time! Bad!"
Yao Jun could only smile bitterly as his daughter pointed her accusing finger at him and pouted. The corners of his lips pulled up slightly again as he stretched out his arms and grabbed onto Yao Xuelian's waist, giving it a few tickles as he lifted her up and placed her on his shoulders. Just standing in this pressure was hard for her, there was no way she would be able to walk straight away so he would have to carry her as she got used to the pressure.
"Sorry, sorry. Forgive this bad Papa, I'll make sure to warn you twice next time to make up for this one."
Yao Xuelian continued to puff out her cheeks and pout, doing her best to restrain her laughter so as to not give Yao Jun any satisfaction. Yao Jun continued to lightly tickle his daughter, two more lights flashing out from his chest and materializing into Yun Yantian and Guo Luo. He thought about bringing out Tang Long and his parents as well, but Tang Long was cultivating and his parents had bodies weaker than Yao Xuelian's. After all, his parents were only normal humans while Yao Xuelian was the child of two God Gate holders, the difference between their bodies was like the difference in status between a farmer and a prince. Yun Yantian and Guo Luo curiously inspected their surroundings, Yao Jun stopping the tickling he was forcing Yao Xuelian to endure and used his now free right arm to point north.
"This should be the Endless Dawn universe, we've only just arrived. You should take a moment to get accustomed to the pressure before we move out, there's a group of people traveling over there, we should be able to ask them a few questions."
Yun Yantian and Guo Luo nodded their heads and focused on the pressure around them, quickly getting their bodies used to it. Their cultivation had already reached the Earthly Deity realm so neither of them required too long to get used to the pressure. With all of them, except for a sullen Yao Xuelian, having adapted to the pressure, the group started heading for the travelers that Yao Jun had pointed out. Yun Yantian and the others couldn't see these travelers since their eyes were worse than Yao Jun's, but they didn't doubt his words, Yun Yantian resting his hands behind his head while walking and casually asking.
"You said we could ask them a few questions, but what are the odds that they'll actually answer? I assume they're out here with a purpose, won't they just think we're trying to interfere in whatever they're planning on doing?"
They could of course just force the information out of the travelers, Yun Yantian firmly believed that Yao Jun wouldn't head towards people stronger than him right after entering a new universe. But doing so wasn't exactly Yao Jun's style, it was one thing to do it to his enemies, it was another thing entirely to do it to people he had never met. Yao Jun had already expected this question, using his chin to gesture to the northwest.
"Normally, you might be right. But the strongest person in their group is only at the late stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm and they're about to be ambushed by a group of people containing an early stage Earthly Deity. They'll probably be more than happy to talk to us after we save them."
Yun Yantian slowly nodded his head in understanding, casting a quick glance at Yao Jun. He had seen it quite a few times before, but the way Yao Jun seemingly saw everything going on around him was still able to make him feel a few shivers. Just imagining having him as an enemy was probably enough to give some people quite a few sleepless nights.
The group quickly made their way across the dunes and approached the travelers, who even Yun Yantian and Guo Luo were able to spot before long. The group of travelers consisted of 15 stone wagons that were each drawn by Demonic beasts that looked like pale-gray horses with seaweed-like hair growing as their manes, tails, and around their hooves.
The group of travelers didn't have the opportunity to discover Yao Jun's group by the time they entered Yun Yantian and Guo Luo's vision, they had just been beset by a group of people riding on dark brown bulls or dark gray condors. They were surrounded on all sides and left with no room to escape, not even those proficient in laws that let them fly could escape through the air thanks to the condors.
Space in front of Yao Xuelian's eyes distorted and twisted as the travelers entered their vision, Yao Jun didn't want her to bear witness as the first casualties of battle appeared. As Yao Jun blocked her vision, Guo Luo and Yun Yantian sprang into action, each focusing on a different part of the battle. Guo Luo only strode forward a few steps, her brows furrowing slightly as she cast a backward glance at Yao Xuelian before speaking a short sentence.
"Stop already."
The battle seemed to freeze the moment her words fell, the people riding on condors and bulls suddenly halting. Guo Luo commanded illusions and held the power to turn them into reality, all she had to do to stop these people was to create illusory chains all around them and then have them become real.
She swiftly dealt with the weaker members of the attackers, Yun Yantian charging directly at the sole Earthly Deity present, a slim and graceful woman riding on a large condor. A delicate rapier appeared in Yun Yantian's grasp as he kicked off the ground, swords appearing beneath his feet and practically forming a staircase through the sky that he could use to reach the woman. He didn't waste any time on words or the like, simply grinning widely and challengingly as he stabbed out with the rapier.
"Pierce them all, Ci Chuan!"
The rapier unleashed an incandescent light that briefly flashed at the tip, blinding almost all who dared to look straight at it. By the time the light vanished after a quick second, the condor had a fist-sized hole piercing through its brain and the Earthly Deity had a thick hole stabbed right through her shoulder. The attack had passed directly through her and continued onwards, piercing through some of the taller dunes behind the woman, only stopping after nearly 10 kilometers. The expression of the female Earthly Deity immediately changed as she looked at her shoulder and now dead mount, immediately coming to a decision and calling out an order.
"This raid's a bust, flee!"
She jumped off of her condor and pushed out with her hands, a ripple running through the air in front of her as she and Yun Yantian were pushed away from each other. She rapidly fled into the distance, running through the air while leaving a ripple with each step. The other people accompanying her also fled the moment they received the order, Guo Luo's chains having vanished the moment Yun Yantian unleashed his attack.
Neither sides present were their enemies, and Yao Xuelian was also present, so they were a bit hesitant to just start a slaughter out of nowhere. But they had chased away the ambushers, and Yun Yantian had showcased a dominating attack, it was more than enough to fulfill their goal. As such, Yao Jun joined up with Guo Luo and headed towards the travelers to get some answers.
Lyenel· Dec 25, 2019
