Yao Jun pierced through space hundreds of times after picking up Shan Zhu, locking on to the direction of the land owned by the Pan clan. He had a better understanding of his surroundings after scouring through the memories of the three women, so even though his own map was lost when his interspatial ring was destroyed, he knew where he was and how to return to Guo Luo and the others.

His current location was very close to the eastern edge of the Snowkiss territory, the section where the Lin clan was most prominent. The western edge was where the Shisui clan was located and the central part was where his target, the Pan clan was. The northern part of the territory contained Snowkiss city, the place where Territory Lord Snowkiss lived. As for the capital of the province, the place where the Province Emperor lived, it seemed to be located within the Snow Dragon Territory rather than in this Snowkiss Territory.

Yao Jun didn't plan to pierce through space for the entire journey, it would take him at least a few months to return if he tried to do it like that. He only pierced through space until he reached another Lin clan outpost, this one built more like a sturdy city surrounded by metal walls rather than a fortress up against a mountain.

Yao Jun stood in the air high above the outpost, Qi gathering beneath his feet to keep him in the air, looking down at the outpost and studying it. He now knew that every outpost or village of the Lin clan had been outfitted with space-monitoring arrays so that they could detect him the moment he arrived. The Lin clan had also spread out countless pictures and drawings of Yao Jun, making sure that practically everyone within the Lin clan knew what he looked like just in case he tried to enter a city without teleporting.

Yao Jun's gaze swept over the soldiers in the city, inspecting the various defensive arrays as well as the two middle-stage Earthly Deities that served as the commanders of this outpost. And after he checked out everything they had to offer, he started plummeting towards the earth. He crashed down at the centre of the outpost, a few hundred metres away from the spatial arrays he came here for.

The earth pulverized right beneath him, thick cracks spreading out further away as his landing shook the centre of the city and even caused some houses to collapse. The alarm rang the moment he descended, the two commanders quickly showing their experience by sending out a message the moment they recognized Yao Jun.

But due to the sheer distance of their target, such a message couldn't arrive instantly, it had to shuttle through space for a bit. And the moment it dug into space, Yao Jun swept out his left arm and used the law of slicing to cut space apart, ripping the message, or rather the Qi that composed it, to shreds. The moment he tore apart the message and prevented them from notifying others of his arrival, the soldiers within the city finished gathering together and pooling their energy to launch their attacks. Looking at the multicoloured weapons shaped from pure energy raining down at him, Yao Jun remained apathetic, a faint mutter escaping from his lips.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

It was entirely possible for Yao Jun to use the spatial array without spilling a single drop of blood, he just had to use his mental energy to project illusions into the minds of those within the outpost. But he didn't want that, nor did he feel like he needed to. The Lin clan had killed his closest friend, and the vast majority of them wanted him dead thanks to the patriarch. They were his enemy, and mercy to your enemy was cruelty to yourself. They attacked, so he would retaliate.

He stretched out his right arm, water appearing around his arm and gathering within his palm to form a weapon. Of all the laws he had available to him right now, he found that it was actually the flexible law of water that seemed to be the most suited to working together with the power of the Sword God's Gate.

Just like when he was within the lake and faced the salamander, the weapon that formed wasn't his usual sword but a long and heavy glaive with a slightly curved blade. Yao Jun cast a sideways glance at the weapon that the Supreme Law of Attack had chosen for him, stopping just as he was about to morph it into a sword.

"Might as well test it."

Yao Jun was somewhat curious about this weapon that the Sword God's Gate chose, why did it pick this shape rather than a sword? And if it chose the shape based on what affinity he had for a weapon, wouldn't his particular style of dominating speed and power result in it creating a saber? He didn't know the answers, nor did he particularly care, it wasn't something that mattered much to him.

He tightly grasped the glaive and swept out with it, flooding it with his law of slicing as he did so. And as he completed his slash, the world around him fell apart. The buildings, the incoming attacks, the people and other living beings in and around the outpost, even parts of the flowery plain outside the city, all of it fell apart into tiny pieces. Thin lines that seemed to form a tightly knit net covered them all for a split second before they fell apart, each line equaling one cut.

Compared to the state of the previous outpost, the previous one could only be called even more tragic. The blood that gushed forth from the chunks that used to be living beings turned into a crimson mist that hung over the now ruined city, each building sliced into fist-sized chunks. Looking at the state of the city, Yao Jun couldn't help but look at the glaive and frown slightly.

The power that was unleashed was quite a bit greater than he expected, even the two middle-stage Earthly Deities that he had planned on temporarily keeping alive had died. The power was definitely great, but it felt a bit too rampant and violent, he guessed that he would need to spend some time with this weapon if he wanted to get it under control.

But at the same time, he had to admit that it felt slightly wrong to use the glaive rather than the sword. The sword was the first weapon his father had given him and the first weapon he had trained in, it had followed him through countless battles and helped him defeat his enemies, even his best friends last words were that he wanted to be Yao Jun's sword. Even if it wasn't the weapon best suited to him, the sword was a highly sentimental weapon to Yao Jun.

He continued to look a the glaive, eventually simply deciding to shelve these thoughts for later. The glaive turned into drops of water that fell to the ground, Yao Jun giving the earth a stomp that caused it to tremble softly. A small pillar of earth rose up in front of him after a few seconds, the interspatial rings that survived his attack gathered on top of the pillar. He pocketed the rings and then moved to the spatial arrays, picking out the one he knew would bring him to the village closest to the Pan clan territory.

He activated the array and was teleported away, white light surrounding him for nearly four minutes until it finally started to fade. The light vanished and Yao Jun found himself standing within a massive square plaza where the earth was paved with dark grey stones. Yao Jun's gaze remained apathetic as it swept over the armoured soldiers that surrounded him, already having formed several groups that each formed a separate array similar to the one he had seen when he joined the World Tree clan in their war. The leader of the few thousand soldiers, a man at the late stage of the Earthly Deity realm, started speaking in a loud voice the moment the light around Yao Jun vanished.

"Identify yourself! Unauthorized and un-notified usage of the Lin clan spatial arrays is forbi... Fuck me, it's you!"

Yao Jun had just been wondering how he was discovered, so the words of the leader helped him guess that it might have something to do with the fact that there was no one left within the previous outpost to send out the usual notice that the spatial array was going to be used. Yao Jun's gaze narrowed as he prepared to cut down any attempt at sending a message, but it seemed like the leader didn't plan on sending out a message straight away, bellowing out his order instead.

"Kill!"

The thousands of soldiers around Yao Jun all launched their attacks at once, filling the air around him with horrific amounts of Qi that bore down on him in various elements. The strongest attack was still the one launched by the late-stage Earthly Deity commander, a long spear made from metal crackling with lightning heading straight for Yao Jun's head. And faced with the incoming attacks, Yao Jun activated his Crumbling The Nine Heavens, even drawing upon the power of the six beasts currently residing within his God Gate.

He then raised his right arm in a casual manner, the incoming attacks simply halting as if they had crashed into an impenetrable wall. And before the soldiers got the chance to react, Yao Jun lowered his hand again, the attacks suddenly getting crushed into faint motes of light while the soldiers themselves were swallowed by the earth.

They sank deep into the earth, it was as if the earth was made from water, but it solidified and completely crushed them once they reached a certain depth. With just a simple motion, the only person left was the commander, whose lips were trembling at what had just happened. Yao Jun didn't give him any chance either, stepping forward and immediately appearing in front of the commander.

Yao Jun's right hand punched forward and pierced directly through the chest of the commander, his heart squeezed tightly in Yao Jun's grasp. A quick clench of his hand and the heart was reduced to paste, the commander already dead by the time his heart left his body. Yao Jun pulled back his arm, a stream of water cleaning away the blood on his arm.

This could be considered a good test of his current strength, or at least how much it had increased. In the past, even when he activated his strongest state, he would need to exchange a few moves with a late-stage Earthly Deity to kill them. But now, a late-stage Earthly Deity couldn't even resist a single move of his when Yao Jun entered his strongest state. If he wasn't wrong, he was now more than capable of fighting and even killing early-stage Heavenly Deities, it wouldn't be like his fight against Lucia where he had to weaken her until he could take over her mind.

He wasn't certain if he could fight middle-stage Heavenly Deities, and he wasn't planning on finding out just yet. Only when he was completely confident that he could massacre a middle-stage Heavenly Deity, or maybe even a late-stage Heavenly Deity, only then would he head to the Lin clan to decimate the patriarch and the previous patriarch. Yao Jun gathered up the interspatial rings of the people he had just killed, only sweeping the village around him with an indifferent gaze before he pierced through space and vanished.

This was a village of the Lin clan, not an outpost, it wasn't filled with just soldiers but also normal citizens. Mortals who had no real ties to the Lin clan and were just living here to provide for their families, some of them might have never even met a Lin clan member. Yao Jun was simmering with rage, but even he wouldn't stoop so low that he would massacre these people like he had butchered the soldiers.

Yao Jun pierced through space time and time again, leaving the land controlled by the Lin clan and entering the land controlled by the Pan clan. And then, nearly ten days after he finished the fusion of his God Gate, he reached a village ruled by the Pan clan. He entered the village and made his way directly to the spatial arrays, using the one that brought him directly to the main city of the Pan clan, the place where Guo Luo and the others were.

The five-minute-long teleportation felt like it lasted an eternity but the white light faded and revealed the familiar city of the Pan clan. He pierced through space and arrived right by the mansion of the pan clan, the sounds of a slight commotion reaching his ears. His expression dropped and turned chilly when he heard the commotion, it probably didn't have anything to do with Guo Luo and the others, not with Little Gray and the others protecting them. But he didn't want to risk anything, stepping forward and piercing through space, heading directly for the source of the commotion.