While Yao Jun and Meridus were eyeing each other, the remaining people around them started to slowly move, spreading out in an encircling formation. Some checked the wall of Qi that surrounded them, and others made sure to keep an eye on Yao Jun and Meridus. After all, both Yao Jun and Meridus would have to kill the remaining people if they wanted to complete this trial, so no matter who eventually won the fight, the remaining people would lose out.

Their best chance, and current idea, was to wait for Yao jun and Meridus to exhaust each other, allowing the others to group up and kill them in their weakened state. But how could their actions escape the eyes of Meridus and Yao Jun? Both of them had experienced enough in life to know what the others were planning, but both were confident enough in their own strength, certain that the others would be unable to kill them even if they were in a weakened state.

The tranquil stalemate between Yao Jun and Meridus didn't last for too long, Yao Jun making the first move. Yao Jun had to rely on his Crumbling the Nine Heavens technique if he wanted to fight properly with Meridus, so he couldn't afford to have the battle drag on for too long.

Yao Jun took a step forward, vanishing into his own shadow and reappearing on Meridus' left side, popping out from the shadow that Meridus' arm cast. A sonic boom sounded out as Yao Jun stretched out his arm, forming a claw with his hand and aiming to grab hold of Meridus' elbow. Meridus was swift to react, actually slamming his own elbow into Yao Jun's incoming hand.

The moment Meridus' elbow made contact with Yao Jun's hand, his law of penetration pierced through Yao Jun's hand and tried to dig its way up through his arm, blood spewing forth. This was mostly Meridus' way of trying to force Yao Jun to give up on the attack and flee, wasting some of his energy on a fruitless attack. But how could Meridus know that Yao Jun was used to fighting without caring about his own injuries?

Yao Jun completely ignored the pain in his left arm, grabbing onto Meridus' elbow and holding onto it with all his might. Fire, lightning, and ice all coiled around Yao Jun's fingers, turning them into sharp claws that dug into Meridus' flesh and prevented him from pulling his arm away. Now that he had been given some time to actually prepare this attack, his fingers pierced directly through all of Meridus' defenses.

After grabbing onto Meridus' left elbow, Yao Jun exerted all his physical strength, transferring it into his left arm and giving a twist of his hand, forcibly spinning Meridus' arm and threatening to break his elbow and shoulder. At the same time, Yao Jun also kicked out with his left foot, delivering a sideways kick to Meridus' left knee.

Yao Jun's kick was amplified using wind and lightning so Meridus was unable to prevent his legs from being kicked out underneath him. The exchange had only gone on for one second, but in that short amount of time, Yao Jun's left arm had been pierced through all the way up his elbow, his black robe dyed with blood.

But Meridus wasn't in a much better position, Yao Jun's fingers were scraping the bone in his elbow, his shoulder was on the verge of shattering due to the force of Yao Jun twisting his arm, his left knee radiated pain after suffering the kick, and his entire body was currently horizontal in the air thanks to Yao Jun's kick.

It was at this moment that Meridus noticed that he had overlooked something, he was unable to see Yao Jun's right arm. The alarm bells instantly rang out inside his mind when he noticed this and he swiftly decided to give up on his left arm. He used his law of piercing to forcibly pierce through space and move his body to the side, using his law of wood to turn the earth around Yao Jun into small branches that pierced through his right leg.

Just as Meridus forcibly moved his airborne body to the side, his left shoulder finally shattering as a result, an arm appeared from the long shadow cast by his fluttering hair. The black sword that the arm was holding stabbed downwards, a myriad of elements dancing around the blade and raising the strength of the attack to a stage where Meridus felt a horrid sense of danger.

But thanks to his quick reaction, the sword ended up only grazing his right arm. But just that quick moment of contact was enough to cleanly slice through any defense Meridus had set up, leaving a gash on his arm. The sword then stabbed into the ground, unleashing all the elements that were dancing around it and causing a booming explosion that rocked the entire area.

The entire bloody prairie started to crack, the trees that had grown thanks to Meridus' strength either turning to ash, freezing to ice, or torn apart by the strong wind of the explosion. Of the remaining people who had encircled Yao Jun and Meridus, half of them died under the force of the explosion. This was an attack launched with practically all of Yao Jun's might, so even though it was just the residual force of the explosion, some of the onlookers were unable to escape death.

Meridus would have been able to do the same if he used his full strength, but he was a cautious person, so he had reserved some of his strength when he started the massacre. This meant he would need to spend a bit more time killing everyone, but it would allow him to better react to any unforeseen circumstances. There was also the fact that Meridus was more focused on increasing the penetrative power of his attacks, so wide-scale destruction wasn't his forte to begin with.

Since Yao Jun and Meridus were right at the center of the explosion, they were both flung in different directions, blood pouring forth from their wounds. Meridus had his constant defensive layer and Yao Jun had his strong and durable body, coupled with the quick defense they both set up just before the explosion, the wounds the two suffered, while still rather bad, were nowhere near as gruesome as the wounds of the surviving onlookers.

Both of them crashed into the wall of Qi that surrounded the prairie, sliding down to the ground. Both of them had the strength of Earthly Deities, so even though their wounds were bad, they were not enough to knock them out, so both leaned against the wall and stood up, still gazing at each other.

Yao Jun's left arm hung limply at his side, blood pouring forth from a hole at the center of his palm. The entire arm was wriggling slightly, Meridus' law of penetration still digging deeper into his arm, almost reaching Yao Jun's shoulder. His right leg was bloody, small holes pierced through his shin and leaking large amounts of blood. His robe was somewhat tattered, cuts and gashes covering his face. There was a hole straight through his abdomen, the result of an attack Meridus had launched just as Yao Jun's sword stabbed into the ground.

Meridus wasn't in a much better state, his left arm hung at his side, twisted and distorted, with the bones in his shoulder and elbow almost pulverized. The gash in his right arm where Yao Jun's sword had grazed him was slowly growing in size, Yao Jun's law of disintegration having already caused the wound to grow so large that it was eating away at the bone. The entirety of Meridus body was covered in cracks, with some places, where his defense had faltered, being covered in cuts and gashes.

Both were wounded badly, but neither of them flinched at their wounds or made a sound. Yao Jun still held onto his sword, his gaze still completely calm. The cracks on Meridus' skin were slowly healing as his defense was restored, his gaze still observantly keeping an eye on Yao Jun. Meridus turned his head slightly and spat out a glob of blood, the corners of his lips raising slightly.

"I really wanna know how a freak like you came about and where you have managed to hide for so long, I would have loved to hear about it over a few jugs of wine. But this match is still my win, with my law of penetration ins...!"

Blood suddenly started to pour out of Meridus' mouth, so he didn't get to finish his sentence, proclaiming his victory since his law of penetration had already fully entered Yao Jun's body. Meridus looked at Yao Jun with an aghast and shocked gaze, blood and small pieces of organs starting to leak out from his mouth. His mouth curled into a bitter smile when he understood what had happened, doing his best to speak out in a weak voice.

"Ah... You hid..."

Before he got to finish his words, he fell forward and hit the ground, his insides turned into a bloody mess. The reason he had died was that his own law of penetration had suddenly appeared inside his own body and wreaked havoc on his organs. Mixed with the law of penetration he could discern a multitude of different laws, poison, death, wind, fire, ice, lightning, all working together to kill him as quickly as possible.

The instant he noticed the situation, he knew how he had died. Ever since the start of the battle, Yao Jun had hidden one of his laws, the law of space. And the moment Meridus was feeling confident in his victory, his vigilance dropping by only a tiny bit, Yao Jun used the law of space to transfer the law of penetration that Meridus had sent into Yao Jun's body back into Meridus' body. Not confident that the law of penetration would be enough, Yao Jun also sent in his own laws to wreak havoc on Meridus' organs, giving him no chance of survival.

Yao Jun looked at the dead Meridus, his expression not changing in the slightest. He slowly walked forward, stopping in front of Meridus' corpse and poking Meridus' left arm with his sword, a low mutter escaping his lips.

"Guess I didn't end up needing this one after all."

When the tip of Yao Jun's sword made contact with Meridus' left arm, a black seed floated out of the arm and sank into Yao Jun's sword, returning to his body. This seed was an attack that Yao Jun had prepared as a backup plan, it was the strongest attack he was currently capable of using. It was also something he had worked on for quite some time, coming up with the idea for it while he was traveling to Four-Peaks Planet.

After the black seed entered his body, Yao Jun bent over and picked up Meridus' interspatial ring and stored both the ring and his body into his own interspatial ring. Meridus was an Earthly Deity, he would be excellent food for Sirius and the others, so there was no way Yao Jun would just waste his corpse. After he finished storing away Meridus' body, Yao Jun turned his bloody head towards the remaining survivors, his low voice striking fear into their hearts.

"Time to finish up here."