Chapter 171: Yao Jun discovers the laws. Despite deciding on what he would do next, Yao Jun had no intention of leaving just yet. He focused his gaze on the battles taking place in the distance, enhancing his vision as much as he could. Most of the battles were fought using the formations, everyone pooling their Qi together to perform large attacks or to defend. But there were a few people who strayed from their squads, engaging some enemies in single combat, it was these people that Yao Jun focused on. With his vision enhanced to its current limit, Yao Jun was even able to see how the people fighting were moving their Qi, nothing able to hide from his sight. What he was trying to learn from them was not how they used their Qi, but rather how they used their laws, that way he could learn how he himself should use the laws. He had heard a lot about the might of the laws, but he had yet to properly see them used, so he had no idea how they actually worked. His vision kept sweeping over the few people he had picked out as targets, carefully studying every move they made. Every time one of them swung their weapons and caused various shapes of flame or wind to shoot forth, he made sure to make a mental note of what he had observed. But as he continued to observe them, the hours slowly passing, he could not help but furrow his eyebrows, a slight mutter escaping his lips. “It can't be that easy, right?” Yao Jun was still uncertain, so he continued to observe the few people. When one or two of the people he had chosen died, he would simply switch targets, observing someone else. This allowed him to see a larger variety of laws used in action, his thoughts slowly becoming clearer and clearer. Without someone like Yao Jun, someone who could break into the enemy formations and crush their core, it was clear that the battle would drag on much longer. So even after Yao Jun had observed various people for an entire day, the battle had not shown the slightest sign of stopping, only a single squad ending up somewhat wounded. But after an entire day of observing, Yao Jun felt quite certain that the conclusion he had come to was correct. He stopped observing the battle, quickly dashing further away from the battle. He stayed within the shadows as he dashed away from the battle, only occasionally jumping out when he had reached the end of his range. As he moved through the shadows, they continuously kept changing, his way of moving through them changing as well. At times he would run through the shadows, the shadows acting like a flat surface, at other times, the shadows would act like water, Yao Jun swimming through them, while at other times they would act like thin air, Yao Jun flying through them as if he was a bird. Yao Jun ran as far as he could, only stopping when he reached a small lake that was so far away from the battle he was unable to see the two armies. The small lake was surrounded by a beach filled with deep red sand, the smell of sulfur coming from the murky water. Yao Jun jumped out of the shadows for a short moment, quickly jumping into the shadow cast by one of the kernels of sand, perfectly hiding. Once he felt safe in the shadows, he sat down and crossed his legs, his eyes turning serious as he raised his arms and held them in front of him. He focused his eyes on his right hand, enhancing his vision until he could see every little detail of what was happening on and above his hand. Once he felt certain that he would see everything, he tapped into his control over lightning, a violet arc crackling into existence as it danced around the fingers on his right hand. Yao Jun carefully studied the lightning, paying more attention to it than he ever had before. Only now did he notice that the arc of lightning acted somewhat different from a normal bolt of lightning, spiraling slightly as it moved around. Yao Jun moved the arc around his hand, having it form a few different shapes and performing a few small maneuvers. After he spent several minutes moving it around, he narrowed his eyes slightly, his thoughts moving as he tried sending a mental order to the arc. Shortly after receiving his order, the lightning stopped spiraling, acting like a normal bolt of lightning. But when it stopped spiraling, Yao Jun's eyes lit up with a bright light. Its speed had increased! The increase was a bit hard to notice, but the arc of lightning had clearly gotten faster! He tried sending another mental order to the bolt of lightning, and it quickly slowed down, moving even slower than it had when it was spiraling. But as it slowed down, it became more compact and concentrated, the heat it was radiating growing stronger as its color grew a bit deeper. A smile spread on Yao Jun's face, quickly dismissing the lightning. Once the lightning vanished, a small flame flickered into existence above his right hand, blazing strongly as it released a crimson light. Yao Jun stared intently at the flame, slowly starting to notice that the flame was flickering strongly as if it was bursting forth with all its energy at every single second. He tried sending a mental order to the flame, the flickering stopping as the flame started to shrink. But as the flame shrank, space around it started to distort slightly, its color turning somewhat blue as the heat it released grew frighteningly fast. The smile on Yao Jun's face had already turned into a grin as he dismissed the flame. The next thing to appear above his hand was a small orb of ice. The orb of ice was quite clear, but Yao Jun could see that there were a few impurities within it. An idea appeared within his mind, his body quickly jumping out from the shadows and appearing on the beach around the lake. He stared at the ball of ice, transmitting an order to it. The few impurities present within the ice started to slowly vanish, the orb turning as clear as polished glass. Once it was perfectly clear, Yao Jun clutched it tightly and threw it at the ground a short distance away. The orb crashed into the ground, a loud sound resounding as the earth cracked and shattered, a small hole appearing. Yao Jun beckoned with his hand, the orb shooting out from within the hole and returning to his hand. He checked the ice once, but it didn't even have a single scratch after shattering the earth. He sent another order to the orb, its color slowly turning a murky white as if it was filled with a fine smoke. Once the entire orb was white in color, he once again threw it at the ground not far from him, a short distance away from the hole he had made earlier. The moment the ice came into contact with the earth, it shattered with a light sound, as if it was made from the most fragile glass. But the moment it shattered, the earth around the orb instantly froze, a terrifying chill spreading as the frozen earth started to crack under its own weight. Yao Jun grinned like a small child that had received a new toy when he saw the frozen earth, a faint laughter unnoticeably escaping from his lips. He quickly jumped back into the shadow of a sand kernel, hiding away again. He crossed his legs and sat down again, his expression turning serious again as he started to organize his thoughts and his new knowledge. To make it easier for himself, he even coated his finger in ice, writing down his thoughts in the air. “Only the act of creating it requires Qi, changing it and controlling it not costing anything. Unless specially ordered, it will merely act on what I first imagined when I acquired it. Changing the properties will allow for a far wider range of options, so I better experiment as much as possible.” Yao Jun kept writing and erasing his thoughts, occasionally muttering to himself, while at other times chuckling to himself. He could not help his laughter, after all, how could he have imagined that the laws were that easy? He didn't even have to study them too much to understand them, he had already been using them from the start. At first, he had thought that it required Qi to produce and control his lightning, but after closely examining it, he found that to be wrong. It only cost Qi to produce the lightning, controlling it cost him no Qi. But then how did he control the lightning, how did it move as he wished to? That was where the laws came into effect. His mind automatically connected with the lightning, telling it where he wanted it to go. Once the lightning got the information, the laws activated, the path Yao Jun had chosen for the lightning turning conductive, allowing the lightning to travel down the chosen path. But the laws were so much more than just an aid to control his powers, they could even help him change his powers. When Yao Jun summoned the lightning, it was spiraling slightly. That was because Yao Jun had always envisioned lightning to be a great piercing force, so it spiraled to support that belief, gaining a greater piercing power. But by doing so, it lost some speed and heat, other traits that were common in lightning. By using the laws to remove the spiraling, he could either increase the speed or increase the heat. It was the same with his fire and ice. He originally believed fire to be like an explosion, a massive amount of energy released in a split second, decimating everything around it. But by unleashing it like that, it lost a lot of its heat, relying more on the repulsive force of the explosion. As for his ice, he had seen how Zhuanxu used it to defend against his attacks, leading him to believe that it was perfectly suited for defense. But forcing it to focus on defense caused it to lose its terrifying chill, its strongest attack. By using the laws, he could freely change the properties of his elements, using whatever was most suitable for the current situation. Only now did he truly understand why the laws were supposed to be so powerful. Of course, what Yao Jun still failed to understand was that he could only do this because he had the Demon God's Gate, one of the nine supreme laws. If it was anyone else, it would require a large amount of Qi and studying to be able to freely change the properties of their element like that. After Yao Jun finished writing down his thoughts, he remembered something he had yet to try. He waved his arm, an orb of fire and an orb of ice appearing in the air in front of him. The orb of fire pulsated, almost like a beating heart, its color changing between crimson and blue. The orb of ice on the other hand continuously changed between crystal clear and murky white, Yao Jun continuously using the laws to change the two orbs. With both orbs in place, Yao Jun opened his hand, a black gate appearing beneath the two orbs. The gate had grown since Yao Jun last summoned it, reaching almost a meter in size. The moment the gate appeared, the two orbs floating above it started trembling, the changes within them slowing down drastically, even showing signs of becoming unstable. Yao Jun ignored the two orbs, focusing on the gate, paying attention to every little detail. He could not see anything, but he could feel that the gate was releasing an invisible energy that pressed down on everything around it as if it was trying to force everything to kneel towards it. Even with his limited experience, Yao Jun could tell that this invisible energy was the laws of the gate, the Supreme Law of Demons. Yao Jun closed his eyes, immersing himself in the invisible energy. He found that the energy was identical to the aura that the ancient tree at the center of his God Gate released, so he guessed that it was the tree releasing the laws, not the gate itself. Yao Jun continued to quietly immerse himself in the laws, trying his best to somewhat control them, or move them to his will. But it seemed like the Supreme Law of Demons was not quite willing to let itself be controlled that easily, Yao Jun only gaining control over a tiny sliver of the laws even after spending an entire day. After he gained control over that tiny sliver, it seemed like he had reached some type of limit, as he found himself unable to gain control over any more, no matter what he tried. But despite only gaining control over a tiny sliver, he was not discouraged. If he could not control more, that was only because he was currently too weak, once he got stronger, even the Supreme Law of Demons would be forced to listen to him. And gaining control over that tiny sliver gave him access to an ability he found quite interesting, the ability to open more entrances to the inside of the God Gate. Up to this point, Yao Jun and others would always have to enter the God Gate through the gate, and the same was true for leaving the God Gate, one had to pass through the gate. But now, after gaining control over a small amount of its laws, he could open several smaller entrances, currently up to three at once. These entrances could not only be used for entering but also leaving, meaning that he could open three entrances during battle and let Zhuyin and the others use them to ambush and surround his enemy. After he finished experimenting with the laws, Yao Jun took a quick trip back to the camp, greeting Reyner and the others. He did not want them to become too suspicious about his long absence, so he told them that he was close to a breakthrough, so he would seclude himself for a little bit. Reyner and the others quickly nodded their heads, pleasantly surprised that Yao Jun would grow stronger. After all, the stronger Yao Jun got, the less they had to focus on protecting him, or so they thought. He did not say anything else to them, delivering a short message to Diana that he would be gone for a little bit. After delivering the message, he left the camp and returned to the lake where he had experimented with the laws. He jumped into the shadows, sitting down and crossing his legs once more, his eyes serious. He had dallied enough, it was time to carve the third channel and increase his strength.