A ripple ran through space a few tens of kilometers away from Luosho Li, everyone still too pre-occupied by the faint black lotus to notice this small ripple. Yao Jun fell out of the ripple and landed on his back, clutching his waist while heaving heavy breaths.

"Just...Just fuck you...Really..."

Yao Jun's face was ashen and his chest was somewhat sunk in, the result of him making a small mistake in controlling the power of his final attack. There were currently three holes on the right side of his waist, he didn't know how or when, but it seemed like Luosho Li had hit him with three of her hair-thin walls before he fled the area.

The shadow of one of the closer trees stretched out and swallowed Yao Jun's body, dragging it into the darkness before returning to normal. He was practically out of energy right now, he had to hide so that he could heal his wounds and restore his energy. He wasn't capable of creating a separate space with his law of space yet, so hiding within the darkness and erasing all traces of his presence was his best choice.

Yao Jun sat down in the darkness and started scouring his God Gate for any pills or medicines that would be useful to him, sifting through the countless interspatial rings he had accrued as he kept killing others. After swallowing the strongest medicines he could find, he hardened part of the darkness behind him and leaned against it, taking a fang-shaped golden dagger out from his interspatial ring.

"Next time, I should try to get close enough to stab her with this, see how it works."

This dagger was the weapon he had acquired after killing Mordred, one of Peyton's men. According to Mordred, this dagger was able to force Supreme Law fragments to fall into a long slumber to repair themselves. Yao Jun hadn't tested the dagger himself yet so he didn't know if it actually held that power, using it against Luosho Li would be a good way to test it.

Yao Jun put away the dagger after twirling it in his hand for a bit, closing his eyes to focus on his recuperation. His body was strong thanks to his body cultivation and his God Gate, so even though there were three holes in his waist, two or three days would be enough to fully heal them. Restoring his energy would take a bit longer, but with enough pills, even that process could be sped up. While he was recuperating, he could hear loud shouts coming from the surrounding area.

"Flower Boy, where are you?!"

"Garden Boy, don't think that I'll let you get away from me that easily!"

"Oy, Little Lotus, I know that you should be around here, so stop hiding and show yourself?"

Hearing these shouts, Yao Jun opened his eyes for a bit and temporarily halted his recuperation. Only after waiting several hours and making sure that his hiding spot hadn't been found did he close his eyes again, murmuring quietly.

"Can't you just give up already?"

He could tell that all these shouts came from Yuri, it seemed like she had tracked him down immediately after the two fled from Luosho Li. Yao Jun winced slightly at the names she called out but remained completely silent, his eyes closed as he focused on his recuperation. Yuri would certainly try to force him into becoming her sparring partner if she found him, it was best to stay away from her.

After spending five days recuperating, Yao Jun managed to fully heal his wounds and restore all his energy, draining a small portion of his pills in the process. But despite the fact that he had fully healed, he couldn't leave the darkness just yet. She had quited down, but he could sense that Yuri was still hiding in the nearby area, keeping a close eye on everything around her just in case Yao Jun appeared. As such, he could only remain within the darkness and come up with other ways to increase his strength.

Even though he launched his strongest attack, it had only been able to shatter one of Luosho Li's weaker walls, the bubble-shaped one, it had only been able to crack the harder ones that she used to attack. Yao Jun would have to be an idiot to not guess that she likely had walls like that, or even stronger ones, forming a defensive armor around her. Wounding her would be very tough, maybe even impossible with his current strength.

Yao Jun calmly organized the various ways he could currently increase his strength, writing them down in front of him using a bit of fire at the tip of his finger. The first way was to increase his body or his Qi cultivation, he had no soul cultivation manuals on hand so he could forget about doing that in a short time. The second way was to absorb more Demonic beasts with his God Gate, something that would simultaneously work towards the first way.

The third way was to carve another channel for his Crumbling The Nine Heavens technique, something he felt was possible thanks to the fact that his body had grown quite a bit stronger recently. The fourth way was to come up with another attacking technique, one focused on hitting a single person. The two he had right now, his lotus and the currently unfinished one were both attacks that would deal damage over a large area, the unfinished one that he was working on was a domain-type attack, so while it could focus everything on one person it wouldn't be as good as an attack specifically meant to only hit a single person.

He did have the first technique he acquired after carving the first channel of the Crumbing The Nine Heavens, but he found the power of it to be somewhat lacking, a technique created by someone else would never be able to unleash its full strength in someone else's hands after all. After writing down the various ways he could think of to currently increase his strength, Yao Jun fondled his chin, quietly murmuring.

"Carving the sixth channel will require my full concentration and energy, carving it here in this forest is a rather bad idea. Coming up with a new attack isn't done in a day, it'll require quite a bit of time. Increasing my cultivation is viable, but there's no telling how long it will take for me to break through with the resources I currently have on hand. Haah, seems like absorbing Demonic beasts is currently my best choice. Even if it fails, the competition will go on for quite a bit longer, I have plenty of time to play with Luosho Li."

He didn't necessarily have to absorb the Demonic beasts in the same way he had absorbed Sirius and the others, just absorbing them and spreading their energy amongst his current Demonic beasts would also work. After all, his Demonic beasts shared their strength with him, strengthening them would strengthen him.

Yao Jun could still sense that Yuri was hiding in the surroundings so even though he had decided on how to increase his strength, he couldn't leave just yet. He crossed his legs and closed his eyes, calming his breathing to a point where it almost stopped, quietly starting his cultivation. Absorbing Demonic beasts was the best way for him to cultivate, but that didn't mean he couldn't cultivate in the normal manner, it simply wasn't as fast as he wanted it to be.

Half his mind focused on cultivating while the other half started working on his half-finished technique and working on the base concept of his new single-target attacking technique. There was no point in him wasting his time doing nothing while waiting for Yuri to leave, he might as well cultivate.

Yao Jun didn't have to wait very long for Yuri's patience to run out, she left the area a week and a half after he started cultivating. Yao Jun still didn't leave the darkness, continuing his quiet cultivation for another week, making sure that Yuri had actually left the area. Only when he was certain that she was gone did he quietly make his way out of the darkness.

After leaving the darkness, Yao Jun merged his mind into the surrounding space and spread his senses out to cover the entire forest. This would alert people to his presence and the fact that he could use the law of space, but there was no longer any point in worrying about anything like that with things having reached this stage. Luosho Li and Yuri Jahad knew about his power, the people who had been attracted by the sounds of battle might also have seen a little just before he launched his final attack. He guessed that it wouldn't take long for the news to spread, hiding and staying low was no longer an option for him.

He couldn't discover Luosho Li, Yuri Jahad, the Nine-Tailed Fox, the tree-type Divine Beast, or Berius Daeman. They were strong enough to block his senses, just like the turtle-shaped Origin Beast that lived on his home planet. But the other Demonic beasts and cultivators were not able to hide from him, every living being in the entire forest appearing in his vision.

But just as Yao Jun was looking through the various Demonic beasts living in the forest, a new one appeared in his vision. A six-tailed fox appeared in his vision, a wavy line of burning crimson fur running down its back and contrasting its otherwise dimmed orange fur. The tips of the fox's tail burned with soft flames, each tail having a flame of a different color, forming rainbow-colored spectacle. The fox was quite far away from him, but it turned towards his direction, staring at him with its pink eyes as it spoke in a somewhat weak, yet hate-filled voice.

"Young God, I request your assistance."