"Your Sun Destruction Pavilion's headquarters are no worse than this place. There's no need to make such a fuss, is there?" Senior Brother Kou narrowed his eyes, a sharp gleam flickering within them, as he regarded Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun, who were still reeling in shock.
Yang Kai turned his head and said in a deep voice, "I told you—we're not from the Sun Destruction Pavilion, and this is our first time here. Believe it or not, that's up to you!"
Senior Brother Kou gave a faint nod and said nothing more, standing on the deck with his hands clasped behind his back, carrying an air of breezy nonchalance as though he were riding the wind.
When the flying ship reached the airspace above the Jade Feather Sect, Senior Brother Kou tapped his foot, and the vessel descended straight down.
Below, quite a few cultivators who had spotted the flying ship came approaching. Upon discovering that it was Senior Brother Kou and his party, they all cupped their fists in greeting.
This Senior Brother Kou evidently enjoyed considerable prestige within the Jade Feather Sect, as many of the disciples recognized him.
There were also people curiously sizing up Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun, wondering how Senior Brother Kou had come back with two prisoners in tow. Yang Kai caught snippets of their conversation mentioning the Sun Destruction Pavilion—they seemed to suspect that he and Liu Xianyun were spies from that organization.
There was clearly a significant grudge between the Sun Destruction Pavilion and the Jade Feather Sect!
Yang Kai came to that conclusion immediately.
At the same time, he and Liu Xianyun were covertly sizing up the surrounding cultivators, and what they saw gave them quite a fright.
Around seventy or eighty cultivators had gathered, and of those, more than half were Void King realm cultivators. Third-stage Void Kings were especially common, and there were a good dozen or so who gave Yang Kai the impression of being even more powerful than Yin Lesheng.
In a one-on-one fight, without resorting to that Dao Source grade Artifact, the Yellow Springs Nether Domain Cover, Yang Kai was absolutely certain that Yin Lesheng would be no match for them.
Drawing on the intelligence he had previously gathered from Liu Xianyun, Yang Kai immediately understood that these dozen or so individuals had likely already succeeded in fully converting their Saint Qiang into Source Energy. The reason they hadn't been able to advance to the Dao Source realm was that their comprehension of the power of laws was insufficient—that was the bottleneck blocking their path of advancement.
And this bottleneck was the enormous chasm that separated the Dao Source realm from the Void King realm. It was also the most fundamental reason why Senior Brother Kou commanded such respect from others.
This was the first Sect Yang Kai had encountered since arriving in the Star Boundary. Everything he saw left him profoundly shaken.
Dozens of Void King realm cultivators gathered in one place—inconceivable to any warrior of the Star Domain. In the Star Domain, the Void King realm was the absolute pinnacle of existence. Setting aside those ancient monsters who rarely showed themselves, even a first-stage Void King was considered lofty and untouchable, someone ordinary cultivators would seldom encounter in their lifetimes.
Yet here, they were as common as wild grass in a field. Everywhere he looked.
And this was merely the tip of the iceberg. Heaven only knew how many disciples the Jade Feather Sect truly had, how many Void King realm cultivators, how many Dao Source realm cultivators, or even how many Emperor realm cultivators.
Of the seventy or eighty people, aside from the majority who were Void King realm, there were also those at the Returning Void stage and the Holy King realm. However, the lower the cultivation level, the fewer people there were.
In the Star Boundary, a cultivator's strength was not built in a single leap. Although the cultivation environment was immeasurably better than the Star Domain, a warrior's cultivation realm and strength still grew incrementally—even here in the Star Boundary. The cultivators here had all started from the very bottom and worked their way up, so the presence of those at the Holy King realm or the Returning Void stage was nothing strange.
While Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun were quietly stunned by all of this, Senior Brother Kou pointed to a cultivator who had been following at his side and said, "Cui Jing. Take these two to the Bone Prison. I'm going to report to Protector Bian and see how they should be dealt with."
"The Bone Prison?" The cultivator named Cui Jing looked taken aback, as though this arrangement for Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun was somewhat unexpected. But he didn't ask further questions, simply nodding. "Understood!"
With that, he beckoned to Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun with a cold expression. "Get off, you two. How long do you plan to stay on this ship?"
Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun exchanged a helpless sigh and had no choice but to leap down from the flying ship.
"Follow me!" Cui Jing said, then took the lead and walked off.
Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun trudged after him in silence.
Both of them knew that explanations were useless at this point. Since Senior Brother Kou had distrusted them from the very beginning, there was no way he would believe them now. The only option was to take things as they came.
Fortunately, while their power had been sealed, they hadn't been harmed in any way.
The path they followed seemed to lead down toward a mountain peak.
Halfway there, Yang Kai ventured cautiously, "May I ask, sir, what exactly is this Bone Prison?"
Cui Jing turned his head and shot Yang Kai a cold, mocking look. "Hmph. Who's your friend?"
Yang Kai furrowed his brow slightly and cupped his fists. "My apologies for the offense. May I ask this Senior Brother to explain to us what the Bone Prison actually is?"
Yang Kai's respectful attitude seemed to satisfy Cui Jing, who adopted a magnanimous expression and said flatly, "You can tell from the name—it's obviously a place for locking people up. As for what it's like... heh heh heh... you'll find out once you get there."
A string of low, sinister chuckles made both Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun's expressions change subtly. They instinctively felt that the Bone Prison was no pleasant destination.
The Bone Prison was indeed located beneath a mountain peak, with Jade Feather Sect disciples standing guard at the entrance. Cui Jing handed Yang Kai and Liu Xianyun over to the guards and departed immediately, without so much as a glance back at them.
The disciple who received them was also a third-stage Void King realm cultivator, his aura vast and deep as an abyss. He looked thoroughly imposing and not someone to be trifled with.