Deep into the night, the moon was a waning sliver behind heavy clouds.
In a guest chamber at the rear courtyard of the Five Directions Trading Company, Yang Kai, who had been sitting in meditation, suddenly cracked open his eyes. His fingers formed a spirit seal, and the power of space surged silently around him. The next instant, he vanished without a trace.
Moments later, he reappeared in the darkness near the Inner City.
He had been in Purple Star City for two days now. Though the business with the Five Directions Trading Company had delayed him somewhat, he hadn't forgotten the original purpose of his visit. Tonight, he intended to attempt a covert infiltration of the Purple Star Palace and steal the Star Emperor Token.
If he succeeded, he'd slip away immediately. Whatever undercurrents churned within Purple Star City would become someone else's problem.
As for the people from the Five Directions Trading Company — he could always take them all along. Yang Kai wasn't about to leave them behind to take the blame for him.
Purple Star City was divided into an Outer City and an Inner City. Any cultivator could enter the Outer City simply by paying a certain number of Saint Crystals, but only those affiliated with Purple Star were permitted inside the Inner City. It was the Inner City that formed the most prosperous and wealthy district of the entire metropolis.
Many of Purple Star's Elders, Protectors, and stewards — all manner of important figures — resided within the Inner City, each claiming prime territory and enjoying inexhaustible Cultivation resources.
Guards were posted at every three steps and every five paces throughout the Inner City. The security was formidable.
But against a warrior of Yang Kai's caliber, such defenses were little more than window dressing. He didn't even need to actively harness the power of space — simply wrapping himself in his spiritual sense was enough to stride boldly into the Inner City. The guards, no matter how close they stood, walked right past him as though he didn't exist.
The cultivators within the Inner City were, on average, far more powerful. As Yang Kai made his way through, he took quiet note of his surroundings and felt a mild jolt of surprise — he detected the aura of more than one Void King Realm expert. Each one lay coiled like a slumbering lion atop its own territory, ready to be roused by the slightest disturbance.
Fortunately, Yang Kai's spiritual sense was extraordinarily potent, allowing him to detect danger well in advance and conceal himself with ease.
He moved through the darkness, his pace shifting between slow and swift. His flickering silhouette carried not a shred of energy fluctuation, and before long he was approaching the cluster of enormous palace buildings at the very heart of the Inner City.
The Purple Star Palace!
The symbol of Purple Star's authority — a sacred place revered by hundreds of millions of Purple Star cultivators.
The entire palace complex was constructed from purple jade, gleaming with opulent grandeur. From a distance, the Purple Star Palace looked like a streak of violet qi rising in the east, as though the sun might burst over the horizon at any moment and bathe the land in radiance.
Yang Kai extended a sliver of spiritual sense, observing the activity around the palace grounds. He murmured under his breath, "Qian five, Kun six, Kan ten, Li twelve… Hmm, this way is correct."
He shifted his steps and moved swiftly in a designated direction, arriving quickly at a specific location where the energy barrier was at its thinnest. A satisfied smile crossed his face, and his body dissolved into a streak of light that shot straight through the weak point into the palace.
The fact that he could infiltrate the Purple Star Palace this smoothly was entirely thanks to Zi Donglai.
Though the palace complex was vast beyond measure, it was protected on the outside by a powerful barrier formation. Without a specially crafted token, entry was impossible — forcing one's way in would trigger the barrier's response. But with Zi Donglai's guidance, everything was different. As the Young Master of Purple Star, Zi Donglai had lived in the palace for years and knew its barrier's weak points with intimate precision.
As the old saying went, a thief from within is hardest to guard against. And there was truth to it indeed.
Inside the Purple Star Palace, the formations and prohibitions weren't numerous, but each one was immensely powerful and deeply concealed. Since Yang Kai was trying to operate covertly, the last thing he wanted was to reveal his position — which made Zi Donglai's intelligence invaluable.
Before coming here, Yang Kai had made a point of interrogating Zi Donglai about the conditions inside the Purple Star Palace. The Young Master hadn't dared hold anything back. He had admitted, however, that while he knew of most of the prohibitions and formations within the palace, his understanding wasn't comprehensive — these matters were normally handled by dedicated personnel, and as the Young Master of Purple Star, he had neither the time nor the inclination to involve himself in such details.
Still, the intelligence he'd provided was more than sufficient. Yang Kai was confident that as long as he wasn't extraordinarily unlucky, nothing should go wrong.
He observed his surroundings while sidestepping formations and prohibitions, creeping gradually toward the palace building at the very center of the complex.
That was Purple Star's treasury — the most heavily guarded location in the entire Purple Star Palace. But it was also the place where Yang Kai stood the best chance of breaking in, because Zi Donglai knew its layout inside and out, and Yang Kai possessed the key to opening it.
So as long as he could reach that building, the mission would be accomplished.
Time trickled by. Progress was smooth, and Yang Kai closed the distance little by little.
With only a third of the journey remaining, Yang Kai, moving through the void, suddenly froze. His expression darkened. In that instant, he had the distinct feeling that he had tripped some hidden prohibition — an invisible wave of energy erupted outward in all directions.
Damn it! Yang Kai's face turned iron-grey. He had never expected the prohibitions within Purple Star City to be so cunningly concealed that even his spiritual sense hadn't detected a trace of them.
The next moment, he felt two powerful streams of spiritual sense sweep toward his position.
Both belonged to Void King Realm experts — someone had clearly sensed the disturbance.
Even Yang Kai, bold and skilled as he was, couldn't help but feel a chill race across his scalp. Though he had mastered the power of space and was himself a Void King Realm Stage Two cultivator, this was still the enemy's home turf, brimming with experts, and neither time nor terrain was on his side. If he got entangled, whether he could escape at all was an open question.
He didn't dare hesitate. With a flicker, he attempted to teleport away.
But at that exact moment, a Domain's crushing might bore down from empty air. The Domain was so powerful it seemed to lock down space itself. Yang Kai's body hitched, and he failed to vanish as planned.