Lan Chudie's eyes shimmered with a strange light as she looked toward Yang Kai.
She had been injured in the battle with the tortoise-type demon beast, her clean clothes stained red with her own blood. Her chest heaved violently as she gazed at the man and woman standing beneath the tortoise demon beast's raised forelimb, their expressions calm and unperturbed, and her heart surged with emotion.
That figure who had charged forward to rescue Su Yan without a second thought, as though courting death itself, had left a deep mark in the hearts of nearly every woman who witnessed it.
Lan Chudie was no exception.
If a man was willing to give his life for her, what did it matter if his strength was a little lacking? A woman's expectations could be vast one moment and minuscule the next—so small that a casual remark or a simple gesture might throw open the doors of her heart, leaving a silhouette and a face etched forever within.
If the woman standing beneath that demon beast right now were her, how blissful that would be!
But the moment she recalled how she had treated him before, a flicker of melancholy crossed Lan Chudie's eyes, and she couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"Do you still have the strength to fight?" From the beast's side, Yang Kai looked at Su Yan and asked.
"No." Su Yan slowly shook her head. "We need to leave quickly. This demon beast is incredibly resilient—I can only keep it frozen for half a cup of tea's time. If we don't leave now, it'll be too late."
"Leave where?" Yang Kai let out a soft chuckle. "It was chasing Xie Hongchen before, but now it'll probably come after you. Unless you leave this place entirely, there's no way to escape."
"Then I'll leave. I can't let all the Lingxiao Pavilion disciples suffer because of me."
"The fault isn't yours—why must you shoulder it?" Yang Kai frowned, his tone sharpening slightly. "You're too tired from playing big sister."
Su Yan looked at Yang Kai in surprise.
He was scolding her? He actually dared to scold her? Even the sect's elders had never scolded her before. Yet Su Yan felt no anger whatsoever, nor did she harbor any impulse to argue back.
"Look at the state the Lingxiao Pavilion disciples are in." Yang Kai turned to look back. The majority of the Lingxiao Pavilion disciples were gasping for breath, and even more had sat down cross-legged on the ground, seizing every moment to recover. "Even if you leave, can you guarantee this demon beast will let them go? Without you, they'll only die faster!"
"Then what do you suggest?" Su Yan shot back.
"Kill it!" Yang Kai flashed a grin, but the smile tugged at his internal injuries and cold sweat beaded on his forehead again.
"Kill it?" Su Yan was taken aback. She hadn't expected Yang Kai's appetite to be this enormous.
Against a demon beast of this caliber, managing to escape with their lives would be impressive enough—how could they possibly kill it?
Just as the two were talking, the ice encasing the demon beast before them suddenly cracked. Su Yan's expression changed. "How is it thawing so fast?"
"No time!" Yang Kai was a man who made decisions in the blink of an eye. He waved his hand at Su Yan. "Get back! We have to try, no matter what. If we really can't kill it, we can always run then!"
Crack, crack, crack... The sound of shattering ice grew louder and louder. The tortoise demon beast trapped within was already rotating its crimson eyes, slowly angling them downward. In its gaze, Yang Kai and Su Yan were as insignificant as ants.
"Get farther back!" Seeing that Su Yan hadn't moved, Yang Kai couldn't help but whirl around and roar.
Su Yan's body shuddered, and for no discernible reason, she obediently took steps back, retreating rapidly.
The injured Lingxiao Pavilion disciples retreated at the same time.
Yang Kai shifted his feet apart and stood firm before the tortoise demon beast like an immovable mountain. His somewhat slender frame, imprinted in everyone's eyes, looked like a colossus holding up the sky and standing upon the earth.
He stood there, blocking the beast's majesty, blocking its massive body, sheltering them from every wind and rain.
His right hand began to move, slowly—so impossibly slowly that it defied everyone's perception. Though his hand was visibly empty, to the onlookers it seemed as though he gripped a hammer weighing ten thousand jin, swinging it with every last ounce of strength in his body.
Crack, crack, crack... The sound of bones popping and shifting echoed from that direction.
At the same time, specks of starlight began to glimmer. A terrifying, surging aura erupted from Yang Kai's position. A fierce wind howled, his robes snapped and fluttered, and his black hair danced wildly.
Yang Kai's roar rang out as he bellowed with every ounce of strength in his body, each word driven out one at a time: "Disciples of the three sects..."
That right hand finally rose. Accompanied by his roar, it clenched into a fist.
A brilliant radiance burst forth. Where Yang Kai stood seemed to transform into a beautiful starlit sky, and amid the flowing starlight, his right fist was being drawn back inch by inch. With every fraction of movement, the pressure it radiated grew stronger—as though he were gathering his force.
"If any among you still have heart..." Yang Kai's eyes were about to split from the strain as he fought to contain the energy erupting from his fist, refusing to let it burst free, still shouting each word with deliberate force.
"What kind of martial skill is this?!" Fang Ziqi's face changed drastically. Even from several hundred zhang away, his Zhenyuan Realm cultivation allowed him to feel the immense destructive power contained in that single fist.
Moreover, a punch like this was still merely coiling up—it hadn't even been truly thrown yet.