Chapter 54: Burn the tree and plant it anew. "Do you have any more cloth?"

While they were still flying, Yao Jun turned to Guo Luo and pointed at a wound on his legs as he spoke. The restraints on his legs had been especially tight so they scraped against his skin quite a bit, shaving off a lot of his skin and causing him to bleed a little. The wound wasn't a big problem, but leaving it uncovered wasn't ideal.

"Ah! I have a little bit."

Guo Luo hurriedly nodded her head as she rubbed the interspatial ring on her finger and took out a light yellow blouse. She took the blouse and quickly tore off a long strip from the lower section. Once she had enough to wrap it around his leg, she tightly wrapped it around Yao Jun's wound. She would have preferred to wash the blouse first, but they did not have any water that could be used for that, so it would have to do.

"Thanks. So tell me, what can your power do and what cultivation level are you at?"

Yao Jun made sure that the cloth around his legs was properly secured before he cracked his knuckles, each of them unleashing a loud popping sound. Yao Jun had not given Little Gray any proper directions, only making him fly away from Soaring Cloud City and Great Xian City.

Little Gray would let Yao Jun know when it saw a city or town they could stop at, so there was no need for Yao Jun to pay constant attention to the area around them, giving him time to learn more about Guo Luo. No matter how bad that place was, it was still her home, and Yao Jun had taken her away from it, this meant that he was now responsible for her.

"My power is not very useful in combat. It allows me to create small illusions in the area around me, but that is it. My cultivation level is in the late stages of the rank before the 1st Mortal Earth, so it should be around the 0th rank, 6th grade."

As Guo Luo spoke, she opened her hand, causing several fingernail long animals to appear in her palm. There were several different types of animals one would find in a normal city, each one completely life-like. Yao Jun tried to touch one of the animals in her palm, but his finger just caused it to dissipate and disappear.

"It indeed does not seem suited for combat if it is just that power alone. We will have to wait and see how it evolves after you reach different cultivation ranks."

Yao Jun fondled his chin as he spoke. The power didn't seem too strong, but Yao Jun would not judge it as bad just because of that. When his power was first discovered, it was just an empty gate that did nothing. But once awakened and evolved, it immediately became a ridiculously strong power.

"I don't think I need to tell you this, but while I am not going to mistreat you, that does not mean that I am a good person. I have killed my fair share of people, and I am probably going to get attacked by and kill many more people in the future."

Yao Jun put on a serious face as he spoke. He would not mistreat Guo Luo since they were not enemies, she had also been very kind to him, but since his Demon God's Gate made him seem like someone from the Demon Race, he was sure to get attacked a lot in the future. To defend himself, he would kill anyone that tried to kill him, he had to make sure that Guo Luo understood this.

"This is a world where the strong eat the weak, since they are going to try to kill you, you obviously have the right to defend yourself. Besides, even if I tried to stop you, I don't think I would be able to."

Guo Luo spoke with a bitter smile and shook her head. This world was cruel. The strong lorded over and ate the weak, that was just how it was. She did indeed pity those who were weak and were thus taken advantage off, but she also knew that she was far too weak to change anything.

"Don't worry, I am not so depraved as to just start killing people who haven't done anything."

Yao Jun could tell that Guo Luo was a kind person who cared for most people. He would kill everyone who attacked him, but he did not want to drag in people that had nothing to do with it. He wanted to at least keep that part of his morality intact, otherwise, he would be no more than a mere beast.

After they finished talking, their journey continued in silence, both of them sitting down and focusing on absorbing the Raw Qi in the surroundings. After flying for a few more hours, Little Gray let loose a short screech, letting Yao Jun know that it had spotted a town.

Yao Jun opened his eyes and saw that there was indeed a town in the distance. The houses in the town were made out of normal gray stone that gave the entire town a bleak look, with roofs made out of wood covered with leaves. From above, one could see that the town was in the form of a circle. Two large roads went through the entire town, one vertical, one horizontal, dividing the town into four parts, each road leading to another entrance of the town.

At the very center of the town, where the two roads intersected, stood a large mansion decorated with different shades of gold and red. There were four large towers surrounding the mansion, each tower marking one of the cardinal directions. The towers were made out of a type of white stone that seemed to shine under the sun.

The town itself spanned a rather large area, looking like it could easily house several hundreds of thousands of citizens. The area around the town was completely barren, every tree chopped down and removed, the only thing remaining was a large river that ran right next to the town.

Yao Jun channeled some Qi into his eyes, his eyesight immediately improving. He surveyed the entire town from the back of Little Gray, looking for any cultivators he could find. He could not see any guards standing at the entrances, nor were there any people that looked like guards patrolling the city, the ones he saw inside the houses at the outer part of the town also didn't seem to be cultivators.

This meant that they could just enter and that the risk of them getting stopped for looking so shabby was also rather low. What surprised Yao Jun was that there were barely any cultivators in the city. He could see that most cultivators lived in the large mansion at the center of the town, but even those people were barely at the 1st Mortal Earth.

"Do you know anything about this town?"

Yao Jun had some maps that told about this continent and the two closest continents, but those maps were just maps about the continent, they did not explain anything about the towns and cities. In this case, asking Guo Luo who was a native was the only choice he had.

"I'm sorry, I was not allowed to leave the compound of the Guo clan, so I know nothing about the surrounding towns."

Guo Luo lowered her head as she spoke. Yao Jun had said that he would not mistreat her, and he did indeed seem like a good person that made her feel safe, but now that she had no one else to rely on, her anxiety was starting to rear its head, her mind filled with worries about getting abandoned.

"Alright, let's head inside and check it out then."

Yao Jun did not mind, simply nodding his head. He directed Little Gray to land a good distance away from the area around the town. After they landed, he returned Little Gray to the gate and started heading towards the town, Guo Luo following right behind him.

After they reached the outside of the town, just like Yao Jun had seen, there were no guards standing at the entrance, allowing them to enter without any delay. Once they entered the town, Yao Jun and Guo Luo couldn't help but scrunch up their noses. The town had an absolutely rancid smell lingering in the air.

After walking a bit further into the town, they immediately noticed why the town smelled so rancid. Looking down a small alley, they could see that the inside of the alley was almost lined completely with corpses, mostly children and women. Most of the corpses had already started to rot, but there were some that were fresher, showing that they had been dumped there not long ago.

Seeing this sight, Guo Luo couldn't help but run to the side and throw up, even Yao Jun felt sick in his stomach as he looked at the spectacle. Yao Jun looked around and saw the other people of the town were simply averting their eyes from the alley, walking around with lowered heads. Yao Jun averted his eyes and walked over to Guo Luo, softly stroking her back as she threw up.

"It's okay, I'm fine now. I'm not just used to seeing things like that."

After throwing up for a bit, Guo Luo's stomach was completely empty, so she simply retched. She dried herself around her mouth and spoke with a pale smile, but her choked up voice and pale face betrayed her true feelings.

Yao Jun was just about to say something when he heard a sound behind him. Turning around, he could see two young men walking out from another alley. The two people held an unconscious woman in their arms. The two young men were clad in silk robes decorated with golden strings, they were clearly very well off.

When the people of the town saw these two men and saw the unconscious woman they were carrying, they hurriedly lowered their heads even further and made sure to give the two men plenty of space.

Seeing the action of these people, Yao Jun couldn't help but feel even sicker. But while he was feeling sick, he also felt something else inside him. A fire was burning within him as he looked at how these people were cowering.

He couldn't help but think, even if he managed to enter the main branch of the Yao clan and give his parents a home there if the people there acted like this, would his parents ever be safe? What if he made some weaker friends one day, and wasn't able to stay by their side at all times. Would they be safe with people like this around? With that thought in mind, Yao Jun's face immediately sank, his grey eyes seemingly alight with a ghostly flame.

"What are you doing!?"

Guo Luo shouted out from behind Yao Jun. She knew that this was a world where the strong ate the weak, but how could she just stand by and watch something like this take place?

"Mind your own business little girl, those two are people working for the son of the city lord, we can't afford to offend them."

Seeing Guo Luo shout out, an old man quickly walked up and tried to quiet her down and explain the situation. The people of this town could not afford to offend the city lord, if they did, there was no telling if they would be targeted next.

"There is no point Luo'er."

Guo Luo was just about to say something when Yao Jun's voice rang out behind her. She turned around to rebuke Yao Jun but saw that he had already started walking towards the two men. A black light flashed in his hand, and a simple black sword appeared in his hand.

"The people of this world are rotten. The common people are too scared to speak out, while the people at the top abuse and torment everyone else. The tree that is the morals and people of this world has already started decaying from the roots and up. The people of this world don't need to be saved, they need someone to burn down the entire tree and plant it anew amidst the ashes."

As Yao Jun spoke, purple lightning started crackling around his entire body and wind started howling around him. As the lightning and wind howled around him, Yao Jun could feel the ancient tree located within his gate tremble and beat, almost like a heart slowly beating faster.

As the tree started beating faster, the aura released from his body started changing. Where his normal aura was that of a normal cultivator, the aura that was released from him now was that of a demon sovereign judging all creation.