"Where did they go?" In the starry expanse, Ni Guang, Ghost Ancestor, and Xue Yue scanned the void in every direction.
A quarter of an hour ago, they had already lost sight of Zi Long, his son, and Xu Wei. At the time, they had only glimpsed a flash of an Artifact's radiance in the direction where Zi Long's group was located, and soon after, Zi Long and his companions had fled at tremendous speed.
"What did they use? Why did their speed suddenly skyrocket!" Xue Yue was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. Right now, her only way of tracking down Yang Kai was by following Zi Long — and now she had lost their trail. Where was she supposed to find Yang Kai?
Yang Kai was carrying the Unaging Tree, which was certain to attract endless trouble. She couldn't rest easy letting him wander off alone. If she and the others could catch up, at the very least they could lend him a hand.
"The Sky-Breaking Shuttle!" Ni Guang's eyes gleamed with sharp light. "So the Purple Star really does possess a Sky-Breaking Shuttle. I always thought it was just a rumor."
"Sky-Breaking Shuttle? Is it powerful?" Ghost Ancestor asked.
"It was personally crafted by a Great Emperor. What do you think?" Ni Guang cast him a leisurely glance.
"Personally crafted by a Great Emperor?" Ghost Ancestor's expression changed, and he let out a low exclamation.
"Well, that's not entirely accurate." Ni Guang considered for a moment. "It's more that the Great Emperor passed down the forging method, and Purple Star's Artifact Refiners manufactured it based on those instructions."
"You scared me." Ghost Ancestor exhaled with lingering apprehension.
If it had truly been a treasure personally handed down by a Great Emperor, then no one in this entire Star Domain could hope to stand against it. But if it was merely crafted from a method passed down by a Great Emperor, the threat was considerably less daunting.
"Even so, the Sky-Breaking Shuttle is still the fastest Artifact in the entire Star Domain. Now that we've lost their trail, how are we supposed to chase?" Ni Guang's brow furrowed tightly. The Star Domain was vast — who knew which direction Yang Kai and Zi Long's group had taken? If they were off by even a hair, they would end up thousands of miles from the mark.
"Heh heh, fortunately, this old man had the foresight to prepare." Ghost Ancestor suddenly seemed to recall something and chuckled in a low voice.
"Oh? You have a way?" Ni Guang looked at Ghost Ancestor in surprise, and a glimmer of hope surfaced in his previously disappointed eyes.
"Mm, just wait a moment." Ghost Ancestor spoke and then abruptly flicked his sleeve, summoning the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. Immediately after, his hands moved rapidly through a series of seals. One mystic hand seal after another materialized in the air. After a brief time, his expression grew solemn as he tapped a finger on the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and barked a sharp command: "Go!"
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner trembled slightly, then suddenly transformed into a streak of dark mist that shot off in a particular direction.
"Follow me!" Ghost Ancestor beckoned and gave chase after the banner.
Ni Guang brought Xue Yue along and followed.
Shortly after they departed, in the very stretch of starry void where they had been standing, a faint, ghostly figure materialized with furtive caution. The figure's entire body was semi-transparent, its aura and life force suppressed to the absolute limit — without an extremely close inspection, one would be utterly unable to detect even the slightest trace.
This person was none other than Kong Fa, the Elder of the Spine of the Galaxy!
He arrived at the spot where Ghost Ancestor and the others had paused, gazing in the direction they had departed, an intense war raging in his heart.
Follow, or not follow?
If he followed, with his Void King Realm first-stage cultivation, dangers were sure to abound.
But if he didn't follow — knowing the Unaging Tree lay ahead — there was no way he could bring himself to let it go.
After deliberating for only a brief moment, Kong Fa gritted his teeth and quietly slipped into pursuit behind Ghost Ancestor's group.
The temptation of the Unaging Tree was simply something he could not resist! He could only hope that his luck would hold, and that when these powerful cultivators fought each other to the point of mutual exhaustion, he would be able to fish in troubled waters.
The path of martial arts is boundless. The Star Domain is without end.
This chase through the boundless Star Domain, involving multiple groups, persisted for a full five months.
Yang Kai had remained at the forefront all along, wearing a relaxed and effortless expression as he toyed with Zi Long's trio who were in pursuit. His condition had long since fully recovered, and shaking off Zi Long and the others would have been as easy as pie.
But he didn't do that.
He intended to give Zi Long's group a grand surprise, so he kept traveling at an unhurried pace ahead of them. Whenever he sensed the Sky-Breaking Shuttle behind him slow down, he would deliberately stop for a while to let them catch up.
Behind him, inside the Sky-Breaking Shuttle, Zi Long and his son were so furious smoke was practically billowing from every orifice.
For five full months, they had been unable to catch up to Yang Kai. Zi Long simply could not believe that a Return of the Void Realm cultivator could possess such sustained speed, such terrifying endurance, and seemingly inexhaustible stamina.
He had noticed something was wrong long ago. Yang Kai's behavior gave him the distinct impression of a man fishing — Yang Kai was the fisherman, while he and his companions were the foolish fish.
But even noticing the strangeness, Zi Long could not bring himself to give up.
Things had already progressed to this point. To abandon the chase was to admit defeat, and how could Zi Long accept that?
So he gritted his teeth and continued the pursuit.
Xu Wei, who had already consumed a Great Imperial Blood Pill once before, had once again withered into a skin-and-bones frame. This time, the deterioration was even worse than before. His eyes had grown exceedingly cloudy, flecked with dots of white light, and his emaciated body, seated within the formation, swayed unsteadily — as though he might depart for the Yellow Springs at any moment.
Zi Donglai hurled curses at him from time to time, but Xu Wei no longer had the strength to respond.
In his current state, an ordinary martial artist would have long since been stone dead. It was only thanks to Xu Wei being a Void King Realm powerhouse that he could barely cling to his final spark of life.