After Ba Qingyan finished giving his orders, Wu Yi remained silent. Yu Feng snorted coldly, seemingly realizing for the first time just how shameless his family's elder was—his face flushed with indignation.
Yang Kai chuckled darkly. Ba Qingyan truly deserved his reputation as an old fox. Every word dripped with the implication that Yang Kai was the guest and the Haike family was the host—he was practically saying, "This is my turf; since you're living here, the least you can do is show some face."
Ba Qingyan knew he had probably lost whatever authority he had in front of these two. After speaking, he didn't bother with their attitudes. He simply cupped his fists toward Yang Kai in a friendly gesture and turned to leave.
The man called Wu Ke had a complicated expression, glancing between Wu Yi and Yang Kai, jealousy practically spewing from his eyes. He hadn't expected that Wu Yi, who had just broken away from the family, had already latched onto two such powerful friends.
The several young women following Ba Qingyan gazed at Wu Yi with undisguised envy, looking back three times with every step as they kept shooting covert glances at Yang Kai, as though a single word from him would be enough for them to throw themselves at him.
After a long while, only Yang Kai, Yang Yan, Wu Yi, and Yu Feng remained on the scene. Not a single bird or beast could be seen anywhere on Dragon Cave Mountain.
Wu Yi's eyes were slightly red. She forced a smile. "Yang Kai, sorry you had to see that."
"How could they act like this?" Yu Feng muttered. Before, the two of them had taken pride in being part of the Haike family. But the things that had happened this time—the family's attitude toward it all—had completely overturned the sense of belonging and pride they had built up over the years. Wu Yi would have much rather Ba Qingyan forcefully dragged her back to face family punishment after she declared her departure—even if it meant being beaten to death—than see him, as an elder, being so slippery and opportunistic.
This weak, spineless family was nothing like what she had imagined.
Yang Kai knew what she was thinking and said flatly, "In this world, strength reigns supreme. Without strength, all you can do is grovel and accommodate others. Survival isn't easy."
Wu Yi seemed to gain some insight from his words. She looked up at him, a trace of confusion flickering in her beautiful eyes.
Yu Feng didn't overthink things the way she did. He said with some worry, "Yang Kai, you killed Xu Zhishen today. The Xu family definitely won't let this slide. They didn't know you were this powerful before, so they only sent one person. Once the survivors go back and report, I expect the Xu family will send more. Shouldn't you all leave quickly? Delay could bring trouble."
Before Yang Kai could respond, Yang Yan said, "Leave? We're not leaving. Just give me some materials and I'll set up a few formations here."
Yang Kai didn't want to leave either, and he certainly wouldn't. Setting aside the fact that he'd dragged Wu Yi and Yu Feng into this mess today, there was still a massive Ethereal Crystal mine beneath Dragon Cave Mountain. If he was going to leave, he'd wait until the Stone Puppet had finished extracting every last crystal from that vein.
He cultivated spatial power and needed a huge quantity of Ethereal Crystals. If he missed this opportunity, there wouldn't be another.
Yang Kai hadn't previously known the extent of Yang Yan's formation expertise, but her performance today had been quite impressive, which put him much more at ease.
Besides, he was now at the Saint King Realm. While he wasn't sure if he could go toe-to-toe with a Return Void Realm fighter, as long as the Xu family didn't have anyone at that level, he wasn't afraid of however many they sent.
"What materials do you need?" Yang Kai asked.
"Ores, and cultivation resources. Anything that isn't alchemy herbs will do."
"I have some," Wu Yi said, checking her space ring.
"I do too, but not much. And the grade isn't high," Yu Feng added.
"It's fine. Just have Yang Kai buy them," Yang Yan giggled. Others might not know how wealthy Yang Kai was, but she did. The artifacts he'd refined these past few times had all been traded away for Sacred Crystals, and on top of that, he had all those Ethereal Crystals—selling even one would net tens of thousands of Sacred Crystals.
"I just broke through, so I need to stabilize my cultivation first. Yu Feng, could you make a trip to Tianyun City?" As Yang Kai spoke, he pulled fifty thousand high-grade Sacred Crystals from the Black Book space, placed them in a Cosmos Bag, and handed it to Yu Feng.
Although Yu Feng had never seen such a low-grade storage artifact, when he took it and swept it with his Divine Sense, his expression changed drastically. "That many Sacred Crystals?"
These Sacred Crystals were almost equal to the Haike family's entire annual income. He couldn't believe Yang Kai had produced them so casually, and it shook him to the core. He couldn't fathom how Yang Kai had amassed such a fortune in so short a time.
After all, when they had first found him, the only space ring he had was confiscated—he had been completely destitute.
On the other hand, Yang Kai handing over so many Sacred Crystals at once made Yu Feng feel deeply trusted. He quickly said, "Rest assured, Brother Yang. I'll make sure to get the most materials for the best possible price."
He glanced at Wu Yi and added, "Please look after the young miss for now."
Yang Kai nodded, and Yu Feng flew off toward Tianyun City.
Yang Kai was quite trusting of Yu Feng. A man who would stand up to his own family's elder for Wu Yi's sake—even if he was a bit hot-headed and reckless—didn't have a scheming bone in his body.
"Wu Yi, get some rest. You don't look well," Yang Kai said, looking at her.