The Spatial Blade collided head-on with the Void Beast's spatial roar.
Boom, boom, boom—the sounds echoed without end as violent spatial energy erupted. Ten feet in front of Yang Kai, space collapsed abruptly. That patch of reality shattered like a wall smashed to pieces, fragmenting in the blink of an eye as chaotic waves of power rippled outward, splintering across the void.
From within the collapsing space, the Void Beast's massive body emerged with eerie fluidity, its maw yawning open as it lunged to bite Yang Kai.
Seizing the moment his attention was diverted, it had closed the distance in an instant.
Yang Kai seemed to have anticipated this long ago, for he showed not a trace of panic. He shifted his footwork subtly, spatial energy cloaking his body as his form gradually dissolved into an afterimage.
The Void Beast's jaws snapped shut on empty air.
In the next instant, Yang Kai had materialized like a specter directly above the Void Beast's body. A fist brimming with the full force of his cultivation hammered down toward its skull.
Boom…
Fist force erupted, and the Void Beast was blasted into pieces.
Yet Yang Kai felt none of the satisfaction one would expect from a successful strike. Instead, his brow furrowed, and he hastily darted away from his position. The very instant he moved, the Void Beast—which should have been destroyed—reappeared behind him, its blood-soaked maw gape open once more.
The Void Beast Yang Kai had shattered moments ago had been nothing more than an afterimage!
Both man and beast moved at speeds that pushed the limits of perception. Their use of spatial energy to reposition left opponents' vision thoroughly confounded.
A flash of movement, and Yang Kai appeared a hundred zhang away. The Void Beast halted as well, hovering in the void, and zeroed in on Yang Kai's position with unerring precision, its gaze locking onto him.
This brief exchange—the initial probing—convinced both combatant and beast that the other was no soft target to be toyed with.
"In that case…" Yang Kai murmured, a grin spreading across his face. "Don't blame me for fighting dirty."
With those words, he waved his hand in a beckoning gesture.
The next moment, two supreme aids made their grand entrance—Stone Puppet Xiao Xiao and Artifact Spirit Liu Yan!
Stone Puppet carried the Sky-Shaking Pillar on its hunched, diminutive frame, its round eyes spinning about as if bewildered by its surroundings. Liu Yan, upon appearing, immediately turned to Yang Kai: "Does Master have instructions?"
"Kill it!" Yang Kai pointed at the Void Beast a hundred zhang away.
Liu Yan's beautiful eyes fixed on the Void Beast. Her expression turned solemn as she said in a grave tone, "It seems quite powerful."
Yang Kai laughed. "If it weren't, I could handle it alone—why else would I summon you both? It's proficient with spatial energy, so you'll need to coordinate with me."
"Master's orders, understood!" Liu Yan nodded. A flame suddenly ignited on her slender, jade-like hand—purplish-red in hue, with arcs of lightning flickering within, radiating a violent, overwhelming force.
"Then let's get to it." Yang Kai grinned, his body flickering as he charged at the Void Beast once more. Fighting alongside his two greatest assistants required no extra words—whether Stone Puppet or Artifact Spirit, both shared a psychic bond with Yang Kai. They could perceive his thoughts with perfect clarity and respond with flawless coordination.
The moment Yang Kai moved, Liu Yan transformed into a streak of fire and surged forward right behind him.
Stone Puppet, meanwhile, abruptly expanded into a stone colossus. Dragging the ten-zhang-long Sky-Shaking Pillar, it walked across the void with measured, unhurried strides, closing the distance at a leisurely pace.
The Void Beast was undoubtedly possessed of considerable intelligence, for upon seeing Yang Kai suddenly bolstered by two new allies, a look of wary uncertainty—strikingly human in its expressiveness—flickered through its small eyes.
When it then saw Yang Kai and Liu Yan charging in tandem, it actually leaped straight up, vaulting forward. The void before it transformed as though it had become the surface of a lake, and the moment the beast passed through that barrier, it vanished entirely, concealing its body from view.
Yang Kai's eyes gleamed as he felt the spatial fluctuations around him. In the next heartbeat, he sent a silent command to Stone Puppet, which was still advancing with its characteristic lack of haste.
Stone Puppet did not hesitate for a fraction of a second. A thunderous roar erupted from its throat as it swung the Sky-Shaking Pillar and smashed it toward its left.
Weighing hundreds of thousands of jin, the Sky-Shaking Pillar combined with Stone Puppet's apocalyptic strength produced a blow capable of shattering space itself. And at the instant Stone Puppet's attack detonated, right where the pillar was sweeping, the Void Beast's head materialized precisely in its path.
It looked as though the Void Beast had deliberately thrown itself into Stone Puppet's strike.
The beast had clearly intended to ambush Stone Puppet first, only to have its stratagem seen through and turned against it by Yang Kai.
At such close range, in the face of such a sudden attack, the Void Beast—no matter how skilled it was with spatial energy—could no longer evade.
Had that blow landed squarely on it, even if the Void Beast's strength rivaled that of the Void King realm, it would have been utterly obliterated—Stone Puppet's full-power strike was no joke.
Yang Kai's eyes lit up, secretly anticipating the spectacle of blood and flesh spraying through the air.
But what left him utterly stunned was this: facing what should have been a killing blow, the Void Beast violently contorted its body. A dense surge of spatial energy rippled outward from within it, transforming into a void vortex that materialized directly in the path of Stone Puppet's attack.
The Sky-Shaking Pillar shattered the void vortex to pieces. The residual force swept across the Void Beast's body, and with a spray of fresh blood, the beast was hurled a thousand zhang away by the immense impact!