The moment Yin Sudie let out her cold snort, the maidens whose gazes dripped with malice suddenly surged toward Yang Kai all at once. Slender, boneless arms danced like spirit serpents, trailing vast swaths of pink mist that swept toward Yang Kai to envelop him.
Within that mist, the maidens wove back and forth like butterflies flitting among flowers, their figures growing increasingly hazy until they vanished without a trace. Yet the music surrounding them suddenly turned to the clamor of war — clanging and clashing — its melody laced with a dense killing intent that frantically tugged at the violent impulses buried deep within Yang Kai's heart, attempting to destabilize his emotions.
At the same time, the pink mist, as if imbued with sentience, seeped silently through Yang Kai's pores into his body, affecting his judgment and the circulation of his sacred yuan.
Seeing that she couldn't bewitch Yang Kai, Yin Sudie immediately abandoned her previous approach and prepared to force a direct confrontation.
She never expected to actually accomplish anything against Yang Kai — she was merely stalling for time, hoping her Senior Brother Luo could capture Yang Yan.
Within the pink mist, Yang Kai's expression was grave. A ball of pitch-black flame, radiating scorching power, burst forth from his body and blazed fiercely. All the pink mist that neared him vanished without a trace upon contact, as though it had encountered its bane.
But this mist seemed to have no end to its creation — even as the demonic flames scorched it away, it kept pouring in like moths to a flame.
Then, within the pink mist, several ethereal silhouettes suddenly launched surprise attacks. These shadows were the very same young maidens who had vanished earlier. They emerged from bizarre angles at the most difficult-to-guard-against moments, their bare bodies glistening as they flicked out long pink silk ribbons that lashed toward Yang Kai to bind him.
Yang Kai was momentarily careless and ended up wrapped tight by those pink silk ribbons. What was more, these ribbons were remarkably strange — they remained completely unscathed even under the burning of his demonic flames.
This piqued Yang Kai's interest. Looking more carefully, he indeed spotted something off — the pink silk ribbons were not conjured from the mist at all. They were actually a void-grade artifact that Yin Sudie had released at some earlier point. Only because the artifact's color and shape, combined with this charm technique, created a convincing illusion had Yang Kai failed to notice.
Moreover, with these ribbons wrapped around his body, he could feel them subtly restricting the flow of his sacred yuan. The layer of protective demonic flame around his exterior dimmed considerably.
Giggling laughter echoed from every direction, making it impossible to pinpoint its source. Then the ribbons tightened, as if intending to bind Yang Kai into a cocoon.
Yang Kai snatched one of the ribbons wound around his body with one hand and yanked it hard toward himself. In an instant, a graceful silhouette was dragged out of the mist by the tremendous force.
Before the figure could draw near, Yang Kai's other hand was already clenched into a fist, and he slammed it directly into that shapely form.
A shrill scream seemed to ring in his ears. Amid the churning mist, a young maiden's body burst into a spray of blood, then dissolved like foam before Yang Kai's eyes, merging back into the surrounding mist and turning the pink hue even more vivid.
Seeing that this method worked, Yang Kai's body immediately began spinning like a top. The powerful force generated pulled all the maidens holding the other ends of the ribbons toward him, their delicate cries ringing out as they were dragged to his side.
Balls of pitch-black demonic flame were hurled from Yang Kai's hands, smashing into those phantom figures that were not living beings at all. Screams just like the earlier one rose one after another as all the maidens' shadows exploded into blood mist and vanished in the blink of an eye.
The instant these maiden figures were destroyed, Yang Kai seemed to hear a soft grunt from Yin Sudie.
It appeared that his actions just now had inflicted some backlash on Yin Sudie as she employed her charm technique.
Yin Sudie had indeed suffered a small backlash from her own charm art. She never imagined that Yang Kai would be so ruthless and merciless, showing absolutely no chivalrous sentiment toward beautiful women.
Had any other man been trapped within her charm technique's illusory formation, even knowing those maidens were fake, he likely wouldn't have been so decisively brutal. All she needed was a little time, and she could have unleashed the next variation — a transformation that did far more than just trap an enemy. It possessed devastating lethal power. She was confident that using this variation to hold Yang Kai at bay for the time it took to drink a cup of tea was entirely feasible.
Yet Yang Kai had simply regarded those maidens conjured by her charm technique as nothing at all, dispatching them all cleanly and without hesitation. Yin Sudie couldn't retract her technique in time and immediately suffered a degree of backlash.
Though the backlash wasn't severe enough to affect her upcoming combat, a stubborn, unyielding gleam still surged through Yin Sudie's beautiful eyes as she called out in a low voice: "Senior Brother Hou!"
"Understood!" The warrior surnamed Hou, who had been meditating behind Yin Sudie to recover, rose immediately at her words. His figure flickered, and he vanished into the pink mist.
Simultaneously, within the vast mist enveloping Yang Kai, Yin Sudie sent out another command with her spiritual sense, and once more graceful silhouettes appeared — only this time they were different from before. Each one now wielded a different weapon, and those weapons radiated energy fluctuations of considerable power. Some of the figures even wore gleaming treasure armor.
Yang Kai blinked in mild surprise.
Though he looked down on Yin Sudie for trying to use her charm technique on him time and again, he knew this woman wouldn't be foolish enough to repeat the same mistake. He had just shattered those phantom figures with ease — so why had she conjured more?
What puzzled Yang Kai most were the weapons held by these newly appeared figures.