Yang Kai was secretly shocked at this moment. He discovered that this artifact refining furnace actually contained incredibly fierce and pure fire essence spiritual energy, making it impossible for him to freeze it shut for the time being.
When the wave of heat surged toward him, he didn't dare move an inch. After all, his intentions had already been exposed, and this artifact spirit was quite intelligent. Once he moved away from the furnace, it would be nearly impossible to rush back again.
Staring at the towering wave of heat, Yang Kai's expression turned solemn. He extended both hands once more, clawing fiercely at the void, then pulled them apart to either side.
A pitch-black spatial rift twice as large as the previous one appeared, stretching across the space directly in front of Yang Kai.
The wave of heat arrived at precisely that moment, surging en masse into the spatial rift and banished to some unknown void, failing to so much as graze Yang Kai.
However, the spatial rift appeared somewhat unstable. Although Yang Kai's understanding and comprehension of the laws of spatial power had improved greatly compared to before, he still hadn't reached the realm of mastery. Forcing open such a spatial rift in battle was already at the very limit of his capability, and when the pure fire spiritual energy hidden within the heat wave struck it, the rift immediately began fluctuating wildly, as though it could collapse and vanish at any moment.
Yang Kai's face darkened. He pressed one hand against the spatial rift, struggling to maintain its stability and buy as much time as possible, while his other hand rested on the artifact refining furnace as he desperately channeled his own Saint Qi into it.
In an instant, his Saint Qi surged forth like water bursting through a dam, flowing out violently, while the pitch-black cold flames on the surface of the furnace grew more and more numerous, and the black ice that formed became thicker and thicker.
The artifact spirit had initially seen the spatial rift on the verge of collapse and was already showing delight in its small eyes. But upon seeing Yang Kai go all in, seemingly determined to freeze the furnace even at the cost of his own life, its expression suddenly panicked. Even more heat poured from its mouth, as though it was prepared to fight Yang Kai to the death.
It seemed the spirit knew that after this battle, either it would be frozen or Yang Kai would be destroyed, so it held absolutely nothing back.
The battle in the stone chamber reached a stalemate in an instant. The heat waves spat ceaselessly from the artifact spirit's mouth, turning the space around it scorching hot, while at Yang Kai's position, an unstable spatial rift stood as a barrier before him. It devoured and banished all the heat waves, and behind him, the artifact refining furnace emitted faint cracking sounds as layers of thin black ice gradually spread from the outside in, from top to bottom. The speed was not fast, but it was certainly not slow either.
As time passed, that spatial rift grew increasingly translucent and unstable.
Finally, under the relentless onslaught of the artifact spirit's heat waves, it suddenly collapsed, exposing Yang Kai's figure behind it.
Seeing this, the artifact spirit's small eyes lit up with ecstatic delight. Without this strange rift that could devour heat waves, it was absolutely certain it could blast Yang Kai to death in a single strike and melt him.
A cruel and violent look surfaced in its eyes. The artifact spirit opened its mouth wide, and a mass of glowing crimson light rapidly formed within, sending heaven-shaking ripples of fire spiritual energy in all directions, making the entire stone chamber tremble.
Just as it was about to unleash this devastating strike, a strange smile appeared on Yang Kai's face, which had been stern all along. He gave the artifact spirit a faint glance, then let out a loud laugh.
Along with his laughter, a series of cracking sounds suddenly emanated from the enormous artifact refining furnace — the entire thing had been sealed in pitch-black ice, not even a wisp of spiritual energy able to escape from it.
The artifact spirit froze. Then, as though struck by lightning, its massive body suddenly seemed to lose all strength and plummeted from the sky. Before it even hit the ground, the immense fire spiritual energy stored in its mouth backfired and exploded with a deafening boom, blasting its entire head apart.
However, this didn't take the artifact spirit's life. It wasn't a physical being and was naturally adept in the laws of fire; that backlash alone was far from enough to destroy it.
Even so, its massive body rapidly shrank. By the time it landed, it had returned to the same size Yang Kai had first seen it, and the newly regrown head was noticeably dimmer. It staggered to its feet, looking thoroughly feeble.
It stood there quietly, watching Yang Kai with a mixture of wariness and hatred, its two small eyes darting back and forth as though contemplating something.
Suddenly, it spread both wings, transformed into a streak of flame, and shot toward the artifact refining furnace.
It actually intended to return to the vessel from which it was born.
Yang Kai would never let that happen. Through this battle of wits and will, he had finally forced the artifact spirit into a completely disadvantageous position. If he still couldn't subdue it now, then everything he had done before would have been for nothing.
Pitch-black demonic flames surged from Yang Kai's body, one ball after another, hovering before him. They looked utterly unremarkable — just black fireballs with a slightly odd color — but under the command of his divine sense, they all radiated an astonishing cold.
Watching the crimson light charge toward him, Yang Kai flicked his finger, striking one of the black fireballs dead center. The fireball immediately shot forward, trailing piercing cold, to meet the crimson light head-on.
Whether it hadn't recovered yet or was truly gravely weakened, the crimson light transformed from the artifact spirit failed to dodge, and the cold flame struck it dead on.