The battle raged on. The Sacred King realm powerhouse pushed his power to the absolute limit, unleashing secret techniques and artifacts he would normally never resort to, yet he still could not defeat or kill Yang Kai.
Throughout the fight, Yang Kai showed no sign of shrinking back in pain from his wounds. Instead, his eyes blazed with brilliance, and his face wore an expression of pure enjoyment and delight!
He was reveling in it.
Battling an opponent of comparable strength, both fighting with everything they had in a life-or-death struggle where only one could survive — that razor's edge between life and death sent an electric thrill through him.
His expression did not go unnoticed. The Sacred King realm powerhouse finally betrayed a flicker of fear.
In that instant, he seemed to grasp Yang Kai's true intention — to use this battle to test his own true strength! The two Sacred Realm, Third Layer cultivators he had killed earlier were nothing more than casual warm-ups.
Realizing this, he finally panicked. A silent scream echoed in his heart as his body instinctively tried to put distance between itself and this terrifying, monstrous youth.
Boom... boom... boom...
Amid the clash of power, Yang Kai and the first-layer Sacred King realm warrior separated, each breaking free of the other's domain. Both panted heavily as they stared at each other from dozens of zhang apart.
A rapid series of cracks echoed from within Yang Kai's body. His bones and flesh writhed as the Sacred Yuan within him churned with restless energy. His face still wore an expression of wanting more.
The Sacred King realm warrior across from him, however, had dull, lifeless eyes. Blood streamed from every wound, and he was utterly spent — at the end of his rope.
He stared at Yang Kai in terror, watching as the wounds across Yang Kai's body healed under some inexplicable power, watching him drenched in blood that gleamed with a dazzling golden light under the blazing sun.
Those were actually golden blood!
The warrior's eyes went wide, his face a mask of utter disbelief.
He had no idea what kind of cultivation technique could turn a person's blood this color, but from that blood he sensed a surging vitality and an astonishing recovery ability.
It was precisely because of this blood that his opponent's wounds healed so quickly.
He immediately realized he was no match for this youth. He didn't possess that freakish ability to recover. If the fight continued, he would truly die.
He still had his trump card. He still had forbidden techniques. He knew that if he was willing, he could use a forbidden technique to boost his power further and continue the fight.
But he didn't dare.
Because once he used that forbidden technique, his condition would deteriorate even further — he might even fall from his current realm and never have the chance to advance again. This fight had already left him half-dead. Even if he won by resorting to the forbidden technique, the price he'd pay would be catastrophic.
Most importantly, even with the forbidden technique, he had no absolute confidence in winning.
Who on earth was this kid, and why was he so terrifying?
He was completely baffled, his heart cold with dread, staggered by the power Yang Kai had displayed.
So he stared back at Yang Kai while subtly retreating, putting more and more distance between them. His expression was haggard, yet his face remained vigilant, terrified that Yang Kai would pursue him to the death.
Only when he had retreated to what he considered a safe distance did he hastily summon his star shuttle and shout, "Kid, you'll pay for what you did today! There'll be no place for you on Water Moon Star!"
His voice drifted from afar, but he had already vanished from sight.
Yang Kai's expression was indifferent, showing no intention of giving chase. He simply stood in place, gazing at the spot where his opponent had disappeared.
Yet a single thread of his consciousness had broken free of spatial constraints, leaping forward to cling to that man like a parasite burrowing into bone.
Then, he reached out and tore open the void.
A hundred li away, the Sacred King realm warrior fleeing for his life was desperately circulating his power, trying to extinguish the clusters of demonic flame clinging to his body.
During his fight with Yang Kai, those demonic flames had consumed a vast amount of his Sacred Yuan just to resist them. Had that not been the case, he wouldn't have fared so poorly.
This demonic flame was a power he had never heard of — cold and heat existing simultaneously, Yang and darkness merged together, a paradoxical combination he couldn't extinguish no matter what he tried. All he could do was continuously channel his power to resist its erosion and burning, pushing his speed to the absolute limit in hopes of reaching that valley as quickly as possible and finding that lord to help him.
Not seeing the eerie youth anywhere behind him, he believed he had escaped with his life and focused all his thoughts on how he would explain this failure once he returned.
Just as he was lost in thought, the space directly in front of him suddenly rippled. He attributed it to his depleted energy causing him to see things.
When he focused to look again, the spatial distortion had grown far worse. It shattered like a broken mirror with a deafening crack, and the next moment, a rift yawned open before him — like an invisible beast opening its massive jaws, terrifying and horrifying.
Within the rift stood a figure, a mocking smile hanging on his face, waiting patiently for his arrival.
When he saw the man's face clearly, his expression shifted wildly — as though he had seen a ghost. He simply could not believe his own eyes.