After Yin Sudie asked those two questions, she made no move to defend herself, her delicate body as fragile as if a gust of wind could topple her.
But the moment Yang Kai caught sight of her face, his expression changed drastically. He immediately waved his hand and recalled all the phantom mountain peaks he had been hurling at them, and the Hundred Peaks Map reappeared in his hand.
He stared in disbelief toward where Yin Sudie stood, his eyes brimming with tenderness. His lips trembled several times before he blurted out, "Su Yan?"
The woman now blocking the burly Hou-surnamed warrior was no longer Yin Sudie — she was unmistakably the woman Yang Kai had hidden deep in his heart, the one who haunted his dreams and weighed upon his very soul.
His expression froze instantly, and he gazed with lovestruck devotion at that longed-for face, the tenderness in his eyes enough to melt stone.
Across from him, Su Yan returned his gaze with equal, infinite tenderness, but almost imperceptibly, the corner of her mouth twitched slightly, as if this unfamiliar name had startled her.
Just when she thought Yang Kai had already fallen under her bewitchment, his expression suddenly turned ice-cold. The tenderness in his eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by deep revulsion and chilling contempt.
The moment Yin Sudie saw the shift in Yang Kai's expression, she knew something was terribly wrong. With a startled cry, she grabbed the pale, swaying Hou-surnamed warrior — who had overdrafted too much blood — and prepared to flee.
But Yang Kai's low voice suddenly rang out: "Lotus Bloom!"
Yin Sudie, who had been locking eyes with Yang Kai, stiffened abruptly. She caught a faint glimpse from his eyes of a lotus bud on the verge of blooming — a phantom of extraordinary beauty radiating seven-colored light that seized all her attention, compelling her to study it more closely.
And then, in that very moment, the lotus phantom vanished from Yang Kai's eyes and reappeared with uncanny suddenness within her Sea of Consciousness.
A spiritual sense attack! Yin Sudie's face drained of color as she immediately grasped the trap. She moved to raise her defenses, only to feel the spiritual power within her Sea of Consciousness rushing madly toward a single point, as though a colossal vortex had opened there. It was siphoning her spiritual power, drawing it in and consuming it all. And the source of that suction was none other than the lotus bud on the verge of bloom.
Yin Sudie let out a muffled groan. She crumpled limply from midair. Looking inward, she saw the seven-colored lotus bud slowly unfurling its petals, and with each fraction it opened, an inexorable amount of her spiritual power was devoured. It was as though its blossoming required her very spiritual essence as fuel.
Horror seized Yin Sudie. She hastily activated several soul-defense secret arts, but no matter how desperately she struggled, she could not slow the rate at which her spiritual power was being devoured.
In the blink of an eye, her Sea of Consciousness had withered by more than half — and the lotus bud had barely begun to open!
Just that tiny fraction had consumed so much of her spiritual power. If it fully bloomed, wouldn't it drain her Sea of Consciousness completely? Even if she survived, the damage to her soul would not heal in a single day or two.
At that thought, Yin Sudie's face turned deathly pale. She had never truly believed Yang Kai would dare use such a lethal technique against her. Now, in her eyes flickered a desperate, boundless yearning to live, rendering her pitiful and helpless.
Thud…
Yin Sudie crashed to the ground, her delicate body coated in dust, the seductive allure she had worn moments ago completely gone. Her face was ashen, and she seemed to be suffering a splitting headache, groaning ceaselessly. Great beads of sweat seeped from her body, soaking her clothes in an instant.
She could not even open her mouth to beg for mercy!
The agony of having one's soul drained was worse than any pain she had ever endured. She could only clench her teeth and cling to the last shred of clarity in her Sea of Consciousness.
Even so, she knew with certainty that once the seven-colored lotus fully bloomed, she was finished.
Swish, swish…
A slow set of footsteps approached from the distance. Yin Sudie barely managed to turn her head toward the sound and saw Yang Kai, his face dark as a storm, standing over her. He looked down at her with cold detachment, utterly devoid of emotion.
Yin Sudie opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came.
With a snap of his fingers, Yang Kai halted the operation.
The seven-colored lotus slowly unfurling inside Yin Sudie's mind abruptly ceased its blooming, then dissolved into motes of faint light and vanished without a trace.
Relief flooded Yin Sudie's face, and she immediately examined the state of her Sea of Consciousness. What she found left her both startled and horrified — her Sea of Consciousness had nearly been completely drained. Had Yang Kai not stopped that bizarre technique at the last moment, the consequences would have been catastrophic. Even so, fully recovering would require a tremendous price and a very long time.
From the moment Yang Kai had unleashed the Lotus Bloom secret technique until he released it, barely three breaths had passed.
In those three breaths, the burly warrior who had been shielded behind Yin Sudie had no idea what had transpired, but he understood with sickening clarity that the three of them had provoked an enemy far beyond their depth.
Noticing that Yang Kai's attention was no longer on him, the warrior glanced at the wretched, crumpled form of Yin Sudie. Gritting his teeth and steeling his resolve, he circulated his Saint Yuan and prepared to flee the scene.
He could not even be bothered to take Yin Sudie with him.