The Divine Sense requirement for laying the foundation of the art of Yuan Control was naturally no difficulty for Yang Kai. This time facing Lu Ye, Yang Kai had deliberately wanted to test out the fruits of his recent comprehension, and the result proved a pleasant surprise indeed.
Those clusters of burning black fireballs, under Yang Kai's mental command, transformed into arrows of flame that converged on a single point, punching a hole straight through the vast red curtain that shrouded sky and earth. They surged deep into the heavens, and the soaring aura of malice and wickedness seemed to gush out through the rupture like a broken dam, its might dramatically diminished.
Yang Kai grinned. Behind him, the roar of wind and thunder erupted. Before Lu Ye could react, he flickered forward in a blur, the Demonic Flame Sword tracing an elegant arc as it cleaved directly toward Lu Ye's body.
Lu Ye had already witnessed the terrifying power of the Demonic Flame. While it wouldn't necessarily incinerate him on contact, he naturally wanted to avoid touching it at all costs. His eerie cackling cut off abruptly as he let out a shrill cry and hastily retreated. At the same time, his hands formed a series of cryptic seals, and the red curtain—which now had a gaping hole in it—shuddered and morphed, actually transforming into an enormous red hand that descended over Yang Kai like the sky collapsing.
He also knew the art of Yuan Control! And the refinement of his manipulation was in no way inferior to Yang Kai's, who had only just grasped this divine ability—it was arguably even more refined.
The instant the red hand slapped down, it felt as though heaven and earth themselves had been sealed. One's breath involuntarily hitched, and even Yang Kai's movements momentarily froze.
Yang Kai grunted, frantically channeling the Saint Yuan within his body to wrench himself free from that swamp-like sensation. Without even turning around, he thrust a palm forward.
A similarly colossal hand appeared—the Heaven-Blocking Palm, one of the Nine Heavenly Divine Techniques—meeting Lu Ye's giant red hand head-on. The two palms collided, and the energy of heaven and earth churned and roiled. The entire valley shuddered as the earth cracked and mountains crumbled.
Seizing the opportunity, Yang Kai closed the distance. The Demonic Flame Sword whirled in his grasp, forming an airtight storm of strikes. Clusters of pitch-black flame, under the command of his Yuan Control technique, morphed into all manner of attacks that rained down on Lu Ye in a frenzied barrage.
He had figured it out—this Lu Ye possessed a slight edge over him in Divine Sense cultivation, but only just. As long as he stayed vigilant enough, Lu Ye would pose no serious threat to his spiritual consciousness. Lu Ye's Saint Yuan, meanwhile, was neither as pure nor as abundant as his own, and his physical strength fell far short.
That was precisely why Yang Kai had chosen close-quarters combat—it was his greatest advantage!
To prevent Lu Ye from fleeing, Yang Kai poured Saint Yuan into his purple shield. Once it had absorbed a sufficient amount, the shield immediately radiated a layer of earthy yellow energy, and within the valley, a massive sandstorm erupted in an instant!
This was one of the latent powers contained within the purple shield—its first time being deployed.
The shield had been forged from the shell of the Scarlet-Tailed Purple Armor Scorpion. Yang Yan had deliberately incorporated the inner core of that ninth-rank demon beast into its construction, granting the shield one of the creature's abilities from when it had been alive.
The sandstorm was that very ability!
As the sand swirled and howled, Yang Kai's figure grew elusive and unpredictable, becoming ever harder to track. Beneath that violent tempest, Lu Ye was forced to divert a portion of his attention to defend against this bizarre assault. In an instant, Yang Kai had turned the tables, pressing him to the point of desperate overextension.
Lu Ye burned with frustration. He had never imagined that the first enemy he would encounter after regaining his freedom tens of thousands of years later—his triumphant return to the world—would prove this formidable, a far cry from the easy prey he had envisioned.
It was a tremendous blow to his pride, and fury began to set in.
The two were roughly evenly matched in Yuan Control. Yang Kai's was imprecise because he had only just grasped it, while Lu Ye's was hampered by the insufficiently abundant and pure Saint Yuan in his current body, preventing him from unleashing his full strength. The Saint Yuan he controlled consistently came out on the losing end against Yang Kai's Demonic Flame.
With his Saint Yuan outmatched, his Divine Sense unable to suppress the opponent, and his physical body no match either—after just a brief exchange, Lu Ye was already covered in wounds and teetering on the edge.
Yang Kai said nothing. He simply pressed the assault relentlessly, the Demonic Flame Sword dealing cut after cut. Yet what frustrated him endlessly was that even his invariably devastating Demonic Flame, upon making contact with Lu Ye's body, was extinguished by a wisp of azure light that flashed from within. He had no idea what that azure light was, but it seemed to be a natural counter to his Demonic Flame. The wounds it inflicted were mere flesh injuries, never touching the core of Lu Ye's vitality.
Having decided to eliminate this baffling enemy, Yang Kai naturally held nothing back.
He had not yet employed the power of Space.
His self-created Space Blade was not yet perfected—it was best reserved as a surprise attack. If he missed on the first strike and gave his opponent time to prepare, it would lose all effectiveness.
He was biding his time, searching for the right opportunity to deliver a devastating surprise. One clean hit with the Space Blade, and Lu Ye would be critically wounded if not killed outright!
Unexpectedly, Yang Kai's relentless suppression stoked Lu Ye's fury to a towering peak. After sustaining yet another wound, Lu Ye let out a low roar: "You insignificant brat—you're courting death!"
As he spoke, a spurt of pitch-black blood erupted from his mouth. The stench it released was nauseatingly pungent, and within it lurked a terrifying degree of power—it appeared to be his essence blood.
The essence blood atomized into a mist of blood, then suddenly condensed to a single point and detonated. Lu Ye raised his hand, and a short, pitch-black ruler materialized in his grasp.
The ruler was merely two palm-lengths long and about as thick as a fist—utterly unassuming in appearance. But the moment it appeared, Yang Kai's heart lurched. A nameless sense of crisis surged upward from the depths of his soul.