From the looks of it, the earlier attack that had heavily wounded him must have been transformed from a feather of the divine bird!
Yang Kai's expression grew solemn as this thought crossed his mind. He circulated his Saint Power to forcefully suppress his injuries while simultaneously driving his Golden Blood Threads to weave a Golden Blood Shield behind him.
At the same time, he activated the Indestructible Five Elements Sword.
In an instant, a five-coloured radiance flickered around Yang Kai's body. Within that glow, countless sword qi as fine as ox-hair crisscrossed in every direction, and the faint sound of ten thousand swords humming in unison resonated through the air.
With the sheer toughness of his physical body, he hadn't been able to withstand even a single attack from the divine bird's feather — it had pierced clean through from his chest to his back. Now, facing so many feathers at once, how could he afford to be careless?
In the blink of an eye, he had deployed every defensive measure at his disposal.
He had barely finished when a tearing sound that could rupture liver and gallbladder reached him from behind.
In that instant, Yang Kai felt like a lone skiff caught in towering waves — tossed about, rising and falling without pause, as though it might capsize at any moment. It was the sensation of life hanging by a thread.
Yet in this moment of supreme peril, Yang Kai was surprisingly calm. His senses were sharper than ever before.
He wove and darted through the terrifying barrage of attacks, doing everything in his power to evade the feathers of the divine bird.
*Whoosh whoosh whoosh...*
One attack after another grazed past him, shooting off to the side. Occasionally a feather clipped his body, and each time it did, the five-coloured radiance of the Indestructible Five Elements Sword dimmed noticeably.
Time had never crawled so slowly, yet it also seemed to pass in the span of a single blink. By the time the tearing sounds finally faded, Yang Kai was nearly spent.
*Boom...*
Another attack came hurtling from behind, and from the corner of his eye, Yang Kai caught sight of seven-coloured light.
The Seven Luminaries Treasure Light!
Yang Kai's face darkened as he realized there was truly no dodging this one. He had already expended enormous mental energy and stamina evading the divine bird's feathers, and now, at this critical juncture, the bird spat out the Seven Luminaries Treasure Light — it was as if all hope of continued evasion had been severed.
At the brink of disaster, inspiration struck Yang Kai. He hurriedly brought out the Mysterious World Bead, then his figure flickered and he vanished from the spot.
He had dived straight into the Mysterious World Bead!
The Seven Luminaries Treasure Light enveloped the bead in the next instant! Though the treasure light was incomparably powerful, how could it possibly harm an Emperor Treasure? The Mysterious World Bead merely paused for the briefest of moments before shooting off into the distance like an arrow loosed from a bow.
The divine bird that had been hot on Yang Kai's heels now displayed a remarkably human-like expression of surprise. No matter how Yang Kai had fled before, no matter what spatial techniques he had employed, the bird had been able to pinpoint his location with perfect accuracy and give chase effortlessly. But this time, once Yang Kai had brought out the Mysterious World Bead, it had lost all trace of him.
Still, a divine bird was a divine bird — its intelligence was extraordinary. Though it had no idea what made the bead so special, it understood that Yang Kai's disappearance must be connected to it.
With a sharp cry, it surged forward at tremendous speed, intent on swallowing the Mysterious World Bead whole.
Yang Kai had no intention of letting that happen. After using the bead to dodge the Seven Luminaries Treasure Light, he quickly emerged from it once more. Snatching up the Emperor Treasure, he continued his desperate flight.
Having been toyed with so brazenly, the divine bird was seized with fury. Every feather on its body bristled, as though it intended to tear Yang Kai to shreds in the very next moment.
But then, without warning, an extraordinary change occurred.
Within the Star Domain, a profoundly mysterious power began to permeate the void, growing steadily denser. Strangely, this sudden force clung only to the area around the divine bird — like a tightening headband that could not be shaken off — while Yang Kai, fleeing not far ahead, was entirely unaffected.
This peculiar power intensified at a breathtaking pace.
In mere seconds, a mass of purple thunderclouds materialized above the divine bird's head. Within those clouds, purple arcs of lightning writhed like ethereal serpents, their might unfathomable. The purple thunderclouds hovered sinisterly above the bird, shadowing its every move, and no matter how the divine bird shifted, it could not escape them — much as it had been hounding Yang Kai before.
For the first time, the divine bird showed a look of wariness, its cries growing urgent and frantic.
Yang Kai had no idea what was happening behind him, but he could sense that something was amiss. Still, in this moment he had no mind to glance back — he simply poured everything he had into running.
*Crack!*
A sound that shook the entire Star Domain exploded beside Yang Kai's ears. The instant it rang out, his very soul shuddered, and his already-injured body went deathly pale. He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of golden blood.
Behind him, the divine bird shrieked in fury as a bolt of purple lightning descended from the thunderclouds, striking its massive body dead on.
The acrid smell of char instantly spread through the air. Even a divine bird as powerful as the Seven Luminaries Peacock was made to shudder by the purple lightning, several of its resplendent feathers falling loose.
Its pursuit of Yang Kai slowed dramatically.
*Crack!*
A second thunderclap rang out, and a second bolt of purple lightning descended.
The divine bird took another devastating hit. Its cries of rage grew ever more frantic as it beat its wings with redoubled effort, yet still it could not fend off the harassment of the purple thunderclouds.