Beside the Domain Stone Mountain, Zhang Qing of the Fire Radiance Sect released a savage glare as he unleashed his Domain intent, sweeping it over Yang Kai and his two companions.
His Domain intent seemed to carry some special underlying force. The moment it spread outward, it gave the impression of standing at the mouth of a volcano — searingly hot, as though it might roast a person alive.
Qian Tong and Lin Yurao's expressions shifted slightly, and they each released their own Domain intents to counter the pressure.
Yang Kai raised an eyebrow, a look of interest crossing his face.
Zhang Qing really did have good reason for his arrogance — his Domain intent had clearly reached the Small Completion stage!
Domain intent was a special kind of power. Any warrior who broke through to the third level of the Void Return Realm could condense one, and its strength would grow in tandem with one's cultivation level.
But to temper one's Domain intent to the Small Completion stage, one had to infuse it with a unique personal power to enhance its might.
Yang Kai, for example, could integrate the Space Force he had cultivated into his Domain intent.
And this Zhang Qing had clearly achieved the same — his Domain intent harbored the power of fire.
Among all third-level Void Return Realm warriors, roughly only twenty percent could manage this feat of raising their Domain intent to Small Completion. Zhang Qing was undoubtedly one of them.
Qian Tong and Lin Yurao belonged to that same group, which was why they could withstand the crushing weight of Zhang Qing's Domain intent. This was also the fundamental reason Zhao Tianze had acknowledged himself to be inferior to Qian Tong and the others.
An invisible barrier seemed to materialize before the three of them, holding Zhang Qing's Domain intent at bay and refusing to let it advance a single inch.
Zhang Qing's face changed in spite of himself, shock flooding his eyes.
He could understand if Qian Tong and Lin Yurao could stand against him — after all, they were fellow third-level cultivators. But what about this young man? His cultivation was clearly only at the second level, yet he had also raised his Domain intent to Small Completion? He seemed to withstand the pressure even more effortlessly than the two behind him!
The violent wave of Domain intent bore down on Yang Kai like a gentle breeze brushing against his face, unable to so much as budge him.
Zhang Qing stared at Yang Kai in stunned silence, his mind reeling.
"Small Completion Domain intent." Yang Kai nodded lightly, a playful smile tugging at his lips. "Not bad!"
As he spoke, he glanced casually around. Ever since Zhang Qing and his group had arrived, countless eyes had been glancing their way, waiting for a major clash to erupt. Some among the onlookers wore indecisive expressions, their minds clearly turning over some scheme or another.
Reading their faces, Yang Kai understood that if he didn't come across as sufficiently domineering this time, even if he drove Zhang Qing's group off, someone else might come looking to cause trouble. It would never end.
After all, their biggest weakness was their small numbers.
With a cold laugh in his heart, Yang Kai pointed at one of the warriors behind Zhang Qing and asked, "I heard you mention earlier that you ran into a demoness?"
The warrior blinked, caught off guard that Yang Kai would bring this up at a time like this. His face darkened, and he replied in a low voice, "So what if we did?"
"Was she wearing red?"
"That's right!"
"You hurt her?" Yang Kai narrowed his eyes, a dangerous glint flickering within them.
"Wrong — *I* hurt her. Pity it was only a single palm strike and wasn't enough to finish her off!" the warrior said with a cold sneer.
"Good." Yang Kai nodded.
The words had barely left his mouth when his figure blurred. The next instant he had vanished entirely, as though he had melted into thin air.
Though the sudden move caught everyone off guard, Zhang Qing and his group were not slow to react. To have cultivated to the third level of the Void Return Realm, not one of them had not survived countless life-or-death battles. Startled, they all widened their eyes, searching for Yang Kai's whereabouts.
They found nothing. Not a trace of Yang Kai anywhere.
Yet Yang Kai's figure materialized like a specter right in the midst of Zhang Qing's group. His expression cold and lethal, he spread five fingers and seized the head of the warrior who had spoken moments ago.
"Watch out!" someone nearby shouted in alarm.
The warrior flew into a rage and was about to counterattack, but Yang Kai had already clamped a hand around his skull. Saint Force erupted from his palm, flooding madly into the man's body. It smashed through layer after layer of his internal Saint Force defenses with irresistible force, penetrating his organs. Then Yang Kai pivoted on his foot and swung his arm with full power.
The warrior was flung away as though he were nothing more than a ragdoll.
While still hurtling through midair, he let out a harrowing shriek, as though undergoing some unspeakable torture. The next moment came a muffled *bang*, and his entire body detonated.
Blood and viscera scattered in every direction. The stench of gore surged skyward.
"I forgot to mention — that demoness is my woman!" Yang Kai said, his expression ferocious.
Everyone was frozen in place.
Their trembling gazes drifted from the blood and shredded flesh raining down from the sky to Yang Kai himself — a man who had plunged into the tiger's den with no apparent concern for the danger, radiating an aura of absolute dominance. In that moment, they even forgot to breathe.
A single strike, and he had instantly killed a third-level Void Return Realm warrior. There was probably not a single third-level cultivator in existence who could pull that off.
The only ones capable of such a feat were Void King Realm experts!
And yet the young man who had just committed the killing was, in fact, only a second-level Void Return Realm cultivator — lower in cultivation than every single warrior present.