A person capable of regenerating a severed arm could not possibly die so easily. Yang Kai had a nagging suspicion that Lu Ye was far more than he seemed.
But of everyone still alive in Dragon Cave Mountain, aside from the Xie Li standing before him, there was only that middle-aged man from the Demon Blood Sect. If Lu Ye had broken in, there was no way he would have gone undetected — Yang Yan and Wu Yi and the others were monitoring Dragon Cave Mountain's every movement at all times.
That bastard was cunning enough to stay out. Yang Kai ground his teeth in frustration.
"Is that all you wanted to ask?" Xie Li's face showed his impatience.
"Yes." Yang Kai flashed him a grin.
"Then you can die!" Killing intent blazed across Xie Li's face as he let out a deep shout. A torrent of Sacred Yuan erupted from his body, becoming faintly visible to the naked eye. Then a series of crackling detonations sounded from within him, his frame swelling up by a size, muscles bunching one after another, his skin taking on an eerie bronze sheen. He shot toward Yang Kai like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Yang Kai's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't expected Xie Li to want to close in for hand-to-hand combat, but he didn't dwell on it. The man bore a deep grudge against him — of course he'd prefer to settle it this way for greater satisfaction.
At that thought, the corner of Yang Kai's mouth curled slightly. He stood in place, watching his opponent coldly, and flicked his wrist. A strand of golden thread lanced through the air.
Xie Li neither dodged nor retreated. Instead, he slowly extended a fist. The motion appeared languid but was in fact terrifyingly fast — the fist glowed with golden light, as though containing some formidable power — and met the golden thread head-on.
In the blink of an eye, the fist collided with the Golden Blood Thread. To Yang Kai's astonishment, his incomparably sharp Golden Blood Thread was actually repelled by the man's bare fist. Not only that — a mysterious force transmitted through the thread and slammed back into his own body, sending his blood and qi churning.
From this single exchange, Yang Kai realized that Xie Li was far more troublesome than the old man surnamed Du from Ten Thousand Beast Mountain.
As expected of a powerhouse from Shadow Moon Hall — his foundation alone was extraordinary. If Xie Li and that old man surnamed Du were to fight one-on-one, the latter would stand no chance.
Yang Kai's expression turned grave. He was about to deploy another technique to hold the man back when something unexpected occurred.
Xie Li, who had been charging at him with overwhelming momentum and murderous intent, suddenly let out a bizarre shriek as though struck by some unforeseen calamity. His face twisted in pain and confusion, and then his once-gleaming eyes were overtaken by a layer of dullness and blood-red.
Yang Kai furrowed his brow, instinctively assuming the man was pulling some trick. But something felt wrong, and for a moment he couldn't tell what was happening.
At that very instant, Xie Li had already closed to within fifty feet of him. His killing intent — sharp and solid as a blade — was slicing at Yang Kai's skin.
In the next heartbeat, Xie Li's body turned an eerie crimson, his aura erupting into violent, chaotic turbulence. Blood seeped from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. His eyeballs bulged as though about to burst from their sockets — a truly horrifying sight.
"This is...?" Yang Kai stared at the sudden development, alarm and uncertainty warring across his face. Then realization struck. His expression changed drastically as he pointed a finger, and a purple shield flew out at his command, transforming into a raging sandstorm that enveloped him.
At the same time, the artifact spirit Fire Bird dove from the sky above. With a piercing cry, it morphed into a curtain of flames, positioning itself as a barrier before Yang Kai.
He had barely finished when Xie Li plunged into the fiery curtain.
Scorching flames engulfed Xie Li's entire body, turning him into a living torch in an instant. But Xie Li seemed utterly impervious, still charging at Yang Kai with undiminished ferocity, lips muttering incantations, expression savage beyond description.
The fiery curtain contracted, impeding Xie Li's advance and finally slowing him considerably.
But Xie Li's body had clearly reached its limit. Cracks spider-webbed across his skin, blood constantly seeping out and evaporating under the searing heat.
A tremendous explosion erupted. Xie Li's physical body and the vast Sacred Yuan stored within detonated simultaneously, unleashing an unimaginable shockwave that radiated outward from his position in all directions. In its path, sand and stone were torn loose, the earth cracked apart, and the sky seemed to split asunder.
The surrounding space flickered wildly. The illusion array established here could not withstand such a violent surge of energy — it held for only a few breaths before shattering completely, revealing the landscape as it truly was.
The curtain of flames that had engulfed Xie Li's body was similarly torn apart, the shockwave scattering it into formless wisps. Fortunately, the artifact spirit had no physical substance, so even this tremendous impact caused little more than a moment of contraction and distortion before it returned to its original form, its eyes conveying a very human expression of fear.
At that moment, the entirety of Dragon Cave Mountain trembled. The skyward surging waves of energy could not be concealed, despite the layers of grand arrays guarding the mountain.
"Oh?" Fifty li away, both Qian Tong and Fei Zhitu shot to their feet, staring in alarm toward Dragon Cave Mountain.
"Old Fei, that's..." Qian Tong's face was grim.
"Someone self-detonated?" Fei Zhitu blurted in astonishment.
"Mm, and judging by the aura — doesn't that seem like Xie Li?"
"I doubt it. Xie Li is at least Return to Void Stage Two. Even if he'd fallen into the array, it shouldn't have come to that."
"Let's go check. Something's not right over there." With that, Qian Tong's figure blurred as he flew toward Dragon Cave Mountain. Fei Zhitu frowned, let out a bitter laugh, and reluctantly followed.