Yao Jun had just put away his sword when Peyton's chest suddenly started to bulge, a light cracking sound resounding from his chest as several of his ribs seemed to shatter. Yao Jun's eyes narrowed slightly and he took half a step backward, preparing to deal with anything that might suddenly pop up. Mere moments after it started bulging, Peyton's chest exploded outwards, a finger-sized gray spire flying out from his chest and attempting to fly into the distance.

Yao Jun's eyes locked onto the spire the moment it shot out of Peyton's body, he could only think of one thing that this item could possibly be. His right hand immediately reached out and twisted slightly, space around the spire starting to twist and spin, forming a transparent vortex to trap the spire. The spire increased its speed, the vortex of space around it starting to tremble and crack. The corners of Yao Jun's mouth turned up into a slight sneer, the veins on his arm bulging slightly as he gathered up all his energy.

"Don't think too highly of yourself!"

The vortex around the spire started to grow darker in color as any shadow present in the area was drawn into it and coiled around the tower like wires, miniature spatial rifts opening within the vortex and producing a suction force that pulled on the spire from all directions. Yao Jun took advantage of this moment where the spire was forced to stop, dashing forward as fast as a bolt of lightning and grabbing hold of it.

The spire struggled in his grasp, but it fell silent when it came into contact with the energy of his God Gate, its struggle turning into nothing more than a faint trembling. Yao Jun tossed the spire, Peyton's Supreme Law fragment, into his God Gate, muttering quietly while the vortex that had trapped the spire started to dissipate.

"I'll deal with you later."

Yao Jun's gaze returned to Peyton's lifeless body, moving away from the gaping hole in his chest and onto his right arm, landing on the silver ring he was wearing. Considering how high Peyton's status was within the clan, he should be carrying quite a few good resources, right? Yao Jun walked over to the corpse and bent down to slide the ring off of Peyton's finger.

But the ring suddenly started to crack the moment Yao Jun's finger touched it, a slight suction force seeping out from the cracks as they swiftly spread across the ring. What's more, Yao Jun could feel his points rise rapidly as the ring was cracking and shattering, swiftly approaching the top ranks once more. The ring fell apart into a small spatial rift a mere second after Yao Jun came into contact with, a few spread Demonic beast parts visible for a short moment before they were sucked up by the spatial rift.

The spatial rift drew most of Yao Jun's attention, but he was still able to detect a very small item quickly burrow through space as it attempted to flee. Yao Jun's lips once again curled into a light sneer as his gaze shifted onto the small item burrowing through space.

"So this is your final curse, huh? But I will deny you even that!"

Yao Jun ignored his rising points and clenched his right fist, space in the surrounding two-kilometer area shattering and collapsing, turning into a single large spatial rift. Of course, as Yao Jun was standing in the middle of this spatial rift, he too was subject to its suction force as well as the sharp fragments of shattered space that whizzed around in it. But the small object was simply moving too fast, this was the only way to stop it in time before it managed to get away.

Yao Jun tilted his head to the side just as a small fragment of space blew past him and cut a deep wound into his left shoulder. He ignored the gushing blood and the wound, which was already starting to heal itself thanks to his body cultivation, and headed directly for the small item, which had now revealed itself to be a drill-shaped jade talisman.

Yao Jun snatched the talisman, which was unable to move now that space around it had collapsed. Sinking his mind into it allowed him to see the information stored within it, all of the memories that Peyton had seen when he went through Yao Jun's mind. If this had managed to reach the intended target, all of Yao Jun's secrets would end up being known and likely spread around. Yao Jun clenched his fist around the talisman, a deep blue flame swallowing and melting it.

The spatial rift that covered the surrounding area started to close up under Yao Jun's control, vanishing after a few seconds and only leaving behind the ravaged area that had once been a beautiful hill covered in flowers. Peyton's corpse had been torn apart by the spatial rift, but Yao Jun's gaze still landed on the place where the corpse had just been laying, glancing at his palm while clicking his tongue.

"Tch, even in death you are doing your best to fuck with me. Shame about the items that were destroyed though."

The symbol in Yao Jun's palm had once again turned golden-purple, his ranking in the competition shooting up to the fifth spot, his position once again transmitted to everyone in the competition. He could easily guess at what Peyton had done after seeing the Demonic beast parts that were swallowed by the spatial rift that appeared when the ring collapsed.

Peyton must have owned a spatial ring that could hold living beings, and expecting that he might die in the upcoming battle, had filled it with Demonic beasts and possibly other living beings, setting it up so that it would collapse when someone tried to take it from him. The death of the Demonic beasts was attributed to Yao Jun, as he was technically the reason the ring was destroyed, resulting in those points mixing with the ones he got for killing Peyton, pushing him back towards the top once again. While Yao Jun was somewhat annoyed at losing so many good items when the ring was destroyed, Xuhuan's voice drifted out from his God Gate.

"Master, the items likely weren't destroyed but rather sent to the Lost God galaxy, only living beings should be unable to survive the trip there after an interspatial ring is destroyed."

Yao Jun's eyes shot open after he heard Xuhuan's explanation, quickly bringing her out of the God Gate. His gaze carried a mixture of shock and excitement as he intently looked at her, the strength of his emotions causing her to be somewhat confused and caught off-guard.

"Could you repeat that? Items inside an interspatial ring aren't destroyed alongside the ring?"