There were two reasons Yang Kai was willing to spend his time here. The first was that this environment was hard to come by, and he didn't want to let the opportunity slip. The second was a sense of crisis that gnawed at him from deep within.
His current strength was more than enough to handle Sacred King Realm cultivators, but when it came to the Return to Void Realm, he fell short. Even that cold, indifferent man he had run into in the stalactite cave—Yang Kai couldn't honestly say he was certain of beating him.
On the Dark Star, in the Star Field, Yang Kai had no one to rely on. Everything was up to him alone.
Qian Tong treated him well, but that was only because Qian Tong was paying respects to the face of the completely fictitious Artifact Master who supposedly stood behind Yang Kai. If Qian Tong ever found out that the so-called master didn't actually exist, who knew whether he'd immediately turn hostile.
So Yang Kai had to make himself as strong as he possibly could. That way, when dealing with others, he wouldn't find himself at a disadvantage, getting led around by the nose.
He wasn't alone in this world. There were still many people he cared about.
At the far end of the gorge, a flash of red light streaked past. Yang Kai, who had been tempering his Space Blade, sensed it instantly and looked up. His eyes went wide.
Another Flying Scorching Flame!
It was exactly the same as what he had seen three days ago. The Flying Scorching Flame was hurtling toward him from the end of the gorge at tremendous speed, and the moment Yang Kai spotted it, it was caught within the seal of that bizarre space.
Its monstrous speed dropped in an instant, and the Flying Scorching Flame drifted through the dozen or so zhang of space at an eerie pace.
Drawing on his experience from a few days ago, Yang Kai immediately sprang into action, laboriously shifting his body while calculating the trajectory the Flying Scorching Flame would take.
His luck seemed to be against him this time. The Flying Scorching Flame that appeared would pass three chi to his side. Yang Kai had to reach that position before it flew past, or there would be no hope of catching it.
Though Yang Kai had grown accustomed to the viscous, solidified nature of this bizarre space and was becoming more adept at manipulating spatial forces, moving through it remained incredibly difficult.
By the time he finally struggled to the predetermined spot, the Flying Scorching Flame had already sailed past once more.
Yang Kai furrowed his brow, gazing at the treasure that had eluded him for the third time, a contemplative expression settling on his face.
According to Wei Guchang, Flying Scorching Flames were extraordinarily precious yet equally rare within the Scorching Sandflat. Many people entered the area without ever encountering one.
And indeed, that was true. When Yang Kai had been traversing the first layer of the Scorching Zone, he had only stumbled upon one by sheer chance. Had his Divine Sense not been powerful enough, the Flying Scorching Flame could have flown right past him without his even noticing.
But Wei Guchang's words applied only to the first layer!
The position Yang Kai was in now was in the third layer of the Scorching Zone. Would the Flying Scorching Flames be more common here? And were the two he had seen the same one? Was its flight path fixed?
If it was the same one, then its flight path was very likely fixed—otherwise, how could Yang Kai have encountered it again three days later?
If it wasn't the same one, then did this gorge have some peculiar quality that attracted Flying Scorching Flames, drawing them inside to pass through?
A tangle of questions churned through Yang Kai's mind, his expression shifting again and again. For a time, he entirely forgot about cultivating his spatial power.
Before long, Yang Kai shook his head. Regardless of whether the two Flying Scorching Flames were the same one, or whether this gorge was a fixed route they all traveled, waiting a few more days should reveal the truth.
He resumed tempering his spatial power, but he also began paying deliberate attention to any stirrings at the far end of the gorge, wanting to determine which of his theories was correct.
Time slipped by, and three more days passed. Preoccupied with the Flying Scorching Flames, Yang Kai turned his gaze toward the end of the gorge early, waving his Space Blade while keeping watch on that direction.
But to his surprise, after observing for half a day, the end of the gorge remained utterly still. Not a single trace of a Flying Scorching Flame appeared.
This frustrated him greatly.
However, this did let him confirm that the two Flying Scorching Flames he had seen before were not the same one. If they had been, the appearances wouldn't have been so irregular—one should have flown past from that direction by now.
Since the appearances were this unpredictable, they couldn't be the same flame.
On the fourth day, Yang Kai suddenly felt a stirring in his heart and immediately looked toward the end of the gorge. What he saw filled him with both elation and astonishment.
The elation came from the fact that one of his theories was correct—this gorge was indeed a path the Flying Scorching Flames traveled, because at that very moment, a red glow had appeared at its far end.
The astonishment came because the red light was not one streak, but two—one trailing behind the other. They arrived at the bizarre space almost simultaneously, then slowed dramatically and drifted gradually toward him.
Yang Kai immediately moved into action. His two previous failures had given him ample experience, and he was certain he wouldn't fail this time.
But what gave him pause was that two Flying Scorching Flames had appeared at once, separated by a distance of over a zhang. It would be impossible to catch both simultaneously.