Yao Jun collapsed into a seated position after Luosho Li fell over, wheezing heavily as blood poured out of the wounds on his body. He was feeling completely drained of energy, so weak that he couldn't even keep out the icy wind of the wasteland any longer, allowing it to gnaw away at his bones.

Having gained a bit of experience after killing Peyton, Yao Jun immediately put Luosho Li's body into his God Gate, not giving the fragments within her body a chance to escape his grasp. After putting away her body, he turned around and half-crawled over to the pieces of flesh that had torn themselves off his body, putting them back into the holes they left behind.

He quickly swallowed a few pills after putting the flesh back in place, but he simply didn't have enough energy, or energy restoring pills, to regrow the lost flesh. With that being the case, it would be better to just re-attach the flesh to somewhat stem the bleeding and then use his body cultivation and strong body to heal it over time. He raised his head slightly as he put the piece of his right chest back in place, his eyes sweeping over the surroundings as his mouth twisted slightly.

"Heh, so you've become unable to hold back any longer, huh?"

Without any energy to fuel them, his usually long-range senses were rather heavily obstructed. But even so, the tingling at the base of his neck told him that the people hiding in the area, waiting for the conclusion of the battle, were now coming for him. His instincts were ringing all the alarm bells to get him to flee, warning him that he was in no state to fight. But Yao Jun was in no state to even flee, just standing up would be a challenge to the current him. But Yao Jun's face didn't show any signs of panic, he even let out a weary laughter.

"Hehe, so even the lot of you are coming, you must be quite impatient to be moving that quickly."

Other than the now thousands of people that were hiding in the surrounding area, a few of those in the top ten had started to approach the area. But the one that garnered the most of Yao Jun's attention was the second-ranked Mascheny Materius, who was now approaching the area at full speed. Yao Jun guessed that she would arrive in less than a minute if she continued at her current speed, something that was almost unthinkable considering how far away she was.

Yao Jun looked at the symbol on his hand, it now shone like a resplendent rainbow, the second-highest possible rank in the competition. With this, it was clear that his position as the first ranker was practically guaranteed, coupled with the sudden disappearance of Luosho Li's name from the rankings, everyone would know what he had done, hiding it was impossible. Yao Jun let out a sigh and weakly shook his head, his voice echoing across the area.

"I may be wounded, but I'm not defenseless. I'll only give you all this one warning, turn around and leave me alone, anyone who keeps trying to attack me will die."

If this was enough to dissuade the others from attacking him then it would be nice, but he was also prepared for when it failed. He waited for any sort of response from the people approaching him, but the howl of the frozen wind was the only sound audible. The people that surrounded him were now starting to come into view, fully surrounding the volcano and quickly starting their ascent.

The numbers looked a bit smaller than his original estimate so he guessed that some might have actually chosen to flee after his warning, but those that remained were too blinded by their greed and the fervent desire to win, they would not give up on getting his points now that he was weakened and weary. Yao Jun looked at the ascending people with a calm and cold gaze, giving them another half a minute before opening his mouth again.

"Hah~ so it'll be like that after all. Laying low is no longer an option either it seems. With that being the case, show yourself."

Some of the people closest to him heard Yao Jun's somewhat low voice, an inexplicable shiver running down their spine from the words. But now it was already too late for any second thoughts, a nearly 20-meter tall black gate appeared behind Yao Jun and slowly opened. And as the gate opened, dense darkness rolled out of it and covered the entire mountain, even blotting out parts of the sky.

A thunderous roar erupted from the darkness, two large bat-like wings extending out from the gate, flapping once to allow the creature within the gate to fly out. What came out from the gate was a serpentine black dragon with a body that was nearly 200-meters long, four sturdy limbs, and two jagged horns adorning the side of its head. The lower jaw of the dragon was split down the middle, its mouth opening three ways as it soared into the sky above Yao Jun and roared, its wings spreading wide.

This was the first time Yao Jun had seen Ba-Shei after giving him the body of Mordred, and looking at his current state it was clear that he had underestimated how useful Mordred's body would be to him. No longer was he just a snake that had ended up becoming a Demonic beast, he had become a proper dragon and soared into the sky.

Yao Jun looked at the unfurling darkness around him and saw that it was flickering slightly, parts of the darkness actually having turned into the same black flames that Yao Jun himself used. Ba-Shei couldn't control fire, but Mordred had been able to use a type of black flames so Yao Jun guessed that that's where this newfound control over fire came.

Ba-Shei wasn't the only one to step out of the gate, the next to arrive was a nearly ten-meter long deep azure tiger covered in purple stripes, glittering crystals growing down his entire spine. Accompanying Little Thunder was the rumbling of thunder and flashes of azure lightning so bright that they seemed to compete with the sun. Next was the muscular crimson dragon, Zhuyin, standing at almost 100 meters long, the deep blue flames burning in her mouth causing even the darkness to distort.

The last two that stepped out were Du Xiao and Siwang, one a nearly 50-meter large emerald green spider with a pink skull on her back and the other a nearly 70-meter large black scorpion with a sickly gray stinger swaying behind him, the stench of death hanging around the stinger. Yao Jun didn't have the strength to fight any longer, but he wasn't alone so there was no need for him to fight. He had Little Gray, Sirius, Yong Bo, Zhuanxu, and Xuhuan remain behind to keep an eye on the war that was about to break out, there was no need to bring out all of them.

The people climbing the mountain stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the Demonic beasts that stepped out of the gate, none of them had expected Yao Jun to have so many Demonic beasts at the Earthly Deity realm. Even worse was the fact that two of the beasts that stepped out seemed to be Divine beasts, they couldn't even imagine how Yao Jun got his hands on them.

Yao Jun noticed that Mascheny had also stopped in her tracks and was no longer approaching him, she probably wasn't willing to fight against so many Earthly Deity realm Demonic beasts, two of which were Divine beasts. Yao Jun looked at Ba-Shei and the others, who were excitedly waiting for his order. He turned his gaze back towards those that surrounded him, gesturing towards them with his chin.

"Go, feast freely."

Little Thunder let loose a rumbling roar and charged forward first, azure lightning arcing out from his body and tearing through anyone that got close to him. Siwang and the others quickly followed, a chaotic massacre quickly breaking out, Yao Jun remaining on the ground. But Zhuyin actually didn't follow the others, walking over to Yao Jun and laying down on the ground behind him, shrinking herself to a size where Yao Jun could comfortably sit on her back. She seemed to guess at what he was going to say, interrupting him as he opened his mouth.

"Please don't reject it. You may find it silly and pointless, but it's important to us. The world needs to know."

Yao Jun let out a sigh when he saw Zhuyin's eyes, casting a quick glance at Ba-Shei and the others. Surely enough, they were all glancing back at him while fighting, waiting for him to move. He shook his head with an exasperated chuckle, leaning against Zhuyin and allowing her to use her tail to lift him onto her back. The faint and pleasant heat from her scales enveloped his body, pushing away the freezing cold of the wasteland.

Zhuyin returned to her normal size once Yao Jun sat safely on her back, but she remained lying on the ground, serving as a seat from which Yao Jun could not only easily observe the massacre, but one from which everyone else in the area could easily see him. They wanted to make a point very clear to those that were still watching from a distance, he was their king and they were his subjects, the throne that brought him to godhood.