The artifact shield had saved this warrior at the third level of the Entering Saint Stage from certain death more times than he could count. He regarded it as his strongest defense.
With the shield deployed, he felt a measure of reassurance. But just as he was about to counterattack, a sharp crack rang out. He looked down in disbelief and watched as the demonic flame spear punched a hole clean through his artifact shield. Its spiritual energy drained away in an instant, the glow on its surface flickering out.
He couldn't suppress a shrill scream.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Three Heaven-Slaying Spears followed one after another in a relentless barrage. The artifact shield exploded into fragments. The spears pierced straight through his physical body, and his powerful frame at the third level of the Entering Saint Stage crumpled like paper—fragile beyond belief.
The spark of life in his eyes rapidly faded, his gaze dimming as he plummeted headfirst toward the ground.
In an instant, of the three warriors who had surrounded Yang Kai, one was dead and one was wounded!
The dead man bore several bloody holes in his torso. Before he even hit the ground, his flesh was burned to ash by the demonic flame. Even his soul, which had fled from the corpse, couldn't escape the conflagration—its writhing spiritual form was like a snowflake beneath a blazing sun, vanishing in moments.
The wounded man was still screaming on the ground, but the demonic flame had swallowed him whole. His cries grew fainter and fainter until they faded into silence.
Only a single warrior remained—at the first level of the Saint King Stage. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Yang Kai, his expression grim beyond measure.
He couldn't believe it. A young man at merely the second level of the Entering Saint Stage had killed two warriors a full level above him with such casual ease, without so much as breaking a sweat—as simple as crushing two ants.
And now, a flicker of surprise had appeared on the young man's face too, as if even he was somewhat taken aback by what he'd done.
A violent, savage, bloodthirsty aura surged quietly from within Yang Kai, causing his presence to spike to a terrifying height in an instant.
Looking into those cold, indifferent eyes, the Saint King Stage warrior felt an involuntary tremor in his heart. A strange illusion crept over him—that he wasn't facing a second-level Entering Saint opponent at all, but rather a powerhouse far beyond his own strength.
Before the fight had even begun, the urge to flee had already taken root! He wasn't sure he could win.
"Profound Heaven Sword!" Yang Kai suddenly barked, and a demonic flame longsword coalesced in his hand. The blade flashed like a startled swan, black light streaking through the air as a massive arc of sword energy cleaved downward toward the last man.
The opponent finally snapped back to reality, a choked roar escaping his throat. Within his sea of consciousness, a surge of energy suddenly erupted—a peculiar fluctuation that shot out from between his brows, manifesting as a colossal creature.
It was a Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion, five or six zhang long, its entire body encased in a hard shell—one of the most fearsome creatures in the entire Star Domain.
The moment the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion appeared, it released a thick virulent green miasma, fouling the air for dozens of li in every direction. Its powerful twin pincers snapped together with a sound sharp enough to cut metal and jade, sending a chill straight through the bones.
The demonic flame sword energy struck the scorpion's hard shell head-on but failed to leave so much as a scratch—only a faint shallow line marked where it had hit. The burning demonic flame was consumed by the green poison miasma and extinguished in short order.
Seeing that the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion could withstand the demonic flame, the Saint King Stage warrior burst into raucous laughter. "Boy," he sneered harshly, "you've got some nerve—killing people from the Trade Association right here on Shuiyue Star? Your time is up!"
"You're from the Hengluo Trade Association?" Yang Kai's eyes narrowed.
"Enough talk—die!" The man had no patience for further conversation. He pointed a finger, and the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion shot toward Yang Kai like lightning, pincers snapping, while its tail lashed out, firing streaks of eerie green light that concealed a power capable of corroding souls.
This venomous scorpion was extraordinarily terrifying. Drenched in lethal poison from head to tail, anything it touched died. What cultivators feared most was that its toxins could not only destroy flesh and blood but also erode Divine Sense. For that reason, areas where such scorpions dwelled were universally regarded as forbidden zones, and only cultivators of considerable strength dared to hunt them.
This Saint King Stage warrior had clearly killed a Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion in the past and refined its soul into a combat weapon.
Against Yang Kai, he hadn't even hesitated before unleashing it.
It was the spiritual soul of the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion, possessing every ability the creature had in life. Though it lacked a physical body, its formidable soul power could withstand a great deal of punishment.
Yang Kai's Profound Heaven Sword proved utterly useless.
As the scorpion lunged toward him with blinding speed, ready to tear him open, Yang Kai's sea of consciousness erupted with force, concentrating its power into a single point and blasting it at the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion.
Seeing this, the Saint King Stage warrior was delighted rather than alarmed. Instead of trying to intervene, he watched with keen amusement.
This young fool clearly didn't know the scorpion's true terror. Seeing that it was a soul entity, he'd tried to counter it with Divine Sense—never realizing that the scorpion's toxins were something Divine Sense couldn't hope to withstand.
He had already foreseen Yang Kai's fate.
Invisible forces collided. The Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion's hurtling body lurched to an abrupt halt. Its pincers thrashed wildly, its razor-sharp tail whipped through the air with sharp hissing sounds, and beams of eerie green radiance radiated outward from the tail tip in all directions, piercing deep into Yang Kai's Divine Sense.
Yang Kai's expression darkened as a strange numbness spread through his consciousness.
He immediately realized this scorpion was far more dangerous than he'd assumed.
Without hesitation, the fire of his Divine Sense erupted at full force.
The air suddenly blazed with searing heat, and around the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion, space itself warped and twisted, obscuring all vision.
The Saint King Stage powerhouse who had been watching with the air of a bystander enjoying a show stared in shock. Sensing the bizarre nature of Yang Kai's soul power, his expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly tried to recall the Golden Armored Venomous Scorpion.