"Just wait, Young Master,"
"Mm, well said!" Xie Hongwen was delighted and immediately widened his eyes to stare in
Xie Yong and Xie Jun exchanged a glance, each seeing the helplessness and mockery in the other's eyes. Only a fool like Xie Hongwen could be so easily manipulated by them. With anyone else, pulling off such a ruse wouldn't be nearly so simple.
The three of them continued to lie in ambush in silence. Deep within the encirclement of Fire Spirit Beasts, Yang Kai's expression was as dark as a thundercloud.
He had no idea he was being tracked—and that his pursuers had followed him right into the valley, now lying in wait beneath a nearby hill, ready to seize their opportunity.
All of his attention was focused on the Fire Spirit Beasts. He had no mind left to worry about anything else.
After nearly a full day of slaughter, he had advanced less than ten li. At this rate, to fight his way out of this valley purely through killing, Yang Kai estimated it would take at least half a month!
Half a month—the elites from the great Sects and great clans would have long since blasted through the Scorching Flame Region and entered the Heavenly Treasures Region to gather spirit herbs and medicines. By the time he got there, what would be left for him?
He knew there was no use getting anxious. The strangeness of this valley had far exceeded his expectations.
The Fire Spirit Beasts were endless—killing them without number was bad enough, but to make matters worse, none of them contained Fire Crystal Stones.
Still, he had finally spotted a flaw in these creatures. Although they surged up from cracks in the earth in every direction, tracing them back to their source, they all seemed to originate from the same direction, creeping inward stealthily along hidden paths.
That direction appeared to be the source from which the Fire Spirit Beasts were ceaselessly born.
Yang Kai extended his Divine Sense toward it. In any other location, given his mastery over the power of space, finding the source would have been trivially easy. But within the Flame Phosphor Sand Region, his Divine Sense was severely suppressed, and even searching required tremendous effort.
After half a day of probing and observation, Yang Kai finally pinpointed the origin of the Fire Spirit Beasts.
It turned out to be an enormous rift in the earth. When his Divine Sense probed into it, streaks of firelight like writhing serpents shot upward from within, raced along the interconnected web of smaller cracks to reach Yang Kai's position, then transformed into Fire Spirit Beasts that launched themselves at him wave after unending wave.
Now that he had identified both the target and the source, Yang Kai had no patience left to keep entangling with the beasts. With a thought, he recalled all eight phantom mountain peaks he had summoned, then hurled them forward with devastating force. The purple shield continued to guard his back while Demonic Flame surged along his arm and condensed into a long sword. Shrouded in sword light, he forced his way forward toward the rift.
The Fire Spirit Beasts were thrown into complete chaos. Although Yang Kai's charge came without warning and achieved significant results, the sheer number of beasts was too great. Some sixth- and seventh-rank Fire Spirit Beasts still managed to reach him, shredding his robes to tatters and even leaving shallow wounds across his body.
For reasons he couldn't fathom, the moment the Fire Spirit Beasts saw Yang Kai charging toward that particular direction, they all erupted into a frenzy, displaying even greater ferocity than before. Seventh- and eighth-rank ones threw themselves into his path without regard for their own destruction, desperately trying to halt his advance.
Yang Kai poured every ounce of strength into the assault. The eight phantom mountain peaks blazed a trail ahead, the purple shield protected his rear and freed him from worrying about attacks from behind, and in his hands the Demonic Flame sword carved out streaks of pitch-black sword light that split the sky. Everything in his way was cleaved apart, and he tore through the ranks of beasts like a hot knife through butter.
At last, he arrived before the massive earth rift. Just as his Divine Sense had revealed, he could see streak after streak of spirit-laden firelight shooting up from somewhere far below, each one transforming into a Fire Spirit Beast that materialized to block his path.
Yang Kai's figure flickered and plunged into the rift. Behind him, tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts surged after him in relentless pursuit.
This scene left Xie Hongwen and his two companions frozen in stunned silence on the nearby hill.
They had no idea why Yang Kai had suddenly leapt into an earth rift, but the entire valley had now gone eerily quiet. The dense horde of Fire Spirit Beasts that had filled the landscape moments ago had vanished—only from within the rift came earth-shaking roars that echoed upward.
"What is he doing?" Xie Hongwen furrowed his brow.
"No idea. But he should come back out. If he doesn't, that means he's dead." Xie Jun considered for a moment, then pointed toward another hill farther ahead, closer to the rift. "Let's move our ambush to that position. If he doesn't come out, so be it. But if he does, we'll be perfectly placed to strike him down. From that spot, even if he were at the Return Void Stage, he wouldn't be able to dodge my killing blow!"
"Good!" Xie Hongwen saw how proactively Xie Jun had volunteered and saw no reason to refuse. He nodded eagerly, and the three of them silently shifted their positions to the new hill.
Meanwhile, far below in the enormous rift, Yang Kai plummeted a thousand zhang. His objective was clear—he simply needed to follow the firelight downward to find its origin. He desperately wanted to know what secret lay hidden in this valley that could give rise to such an endless torrent of Fire Spirit Beasts, none of which contained Fire Crystal Stones.
He had already wasted an entire day here and expended an astronomical amount of Saint Power. If he couldn't reap some reward, it would be an catastrophic loss.
Whatever the secret was that could birth Fire Spirit Beasts endlessly, it had to be something extraordinarily rare.
After plummeting for a long while longer, slaying countless Fire Spirit Beasts along the way, Yang Kai's eyes suddenly blazed with bright light.