Maple Forest City, inside Yang Kai's cave dwelling.
Yang Kai and Mo Xiaoqi sat across from each other at a table.
After leaving the black market, Yang Kai had hurriedly fled back here with Mo Xiaoqi in tow, carefully checking along the way to make sure no one was following them, and taking a slightly longer route just to be safe.
Only after confirming they were in the clear did he return to the cave dwelling.
"Big Brother Yang, you're so amazing!" Mo Xiaoqi cupped her cheeks in both hands, her face wearing the lovestruck expression of a starry-eyed girl, her beautiful eyes gleaming as she gazed at Yang Kai. She made no effort to conceal the worship and admiration in her voice. "You scared those awful people off with just a few words. How did you do it?"
Yang Kai gave a dry, awkward laugh.
If anyone else had asked him that, he would have assumed they were mocking him. But coming from Mo Xiaoqi, it was genuine praise.
"They just overthought things," Yang Kai deflected casually.
What had happened today was indeed the result of the Flying Sacred Palace people reading too much into the situation, and it had been made possible by the current state of affairs in Maple Forest City. If the city weren't such a chaotic melting pot of factions right now, Yang Kai's little performance today might not have worked at all.
But with so many powerful representatives from various forces currently in the city, the Flying Sacred Palace — though formidable — was far from the most dominant. Liu Yizhi had naturally been cautious.
"Never mind that. What about you, Xiao Qi… what are you doing here?" Yang Kai steered the conversation in a new direction.
"I've been here all along," Mo Xiaoqi replied, looking at Yang Kai with a puzzled expression, clearly not understanding why he would ask such a thing. "Oh, by the way, the cave dwelling I'm renting is really close to yours — just over there. But I never saw you before?"
"I wasn't staying here before. I only just returned today."
"Oh."
"Actually, what I wanted to ask is — back in Yuqing Mountain last time… how did you escape?" Yang Kai eyed her with suspicion.
After all, when he had emerged from the Mysterious World Bead, he had specifically searched for any trace of Mo Xiaoqi and found absolutely nothing. At the time, he had been certain she was dead — burned to ashes with nothing left behind.
Yet here she was, alive and well, and he had run into her again in Maple Forest City.
"That day… I used this to get away." Mo Xiaoqi reached into her spatial ring and produced an item, placing it on the table in front of Yang Kai.
"This is…" Yang Kai's eyes narrowed as he focused on the table. There lay a piece of beast hide that emanated an extremely peculiar energy fluctuation.
The energy was achingly familiar to him — it was unmistakably the fluctuation of spatial power.
The beast hide was roughly the size of two palms. Upon it were inscribed numerous intricate lines and runes, forming an elaborate, arcane pattern.
Yang Kai reached out and touched it, probing carefully with his senses.
After a long moment, he jolted in surprise. "This thing has the ability to teleport through space?"
Mo Xiaoqi beamed at him. "Big Brother Yang really has Cultivated spatial power. You could even sense that."
"You knew I've Cultivated spatial power?" Yang Kai looked at her in surprise.
"Of course! When you were fighting people in Yuqing Mountain, you used spatial power, didn't you? I noticed it back then because the sensation was similar to how Uncle Li fights."
"Uncle Li?"
"I mean Uncle Li Wuyi. He's also Cultivated spatial power, and he's incredibly strong. He made this thing for me to use as a life-saving measure." Mo Xiaoqi held no guardedness toward Yang Kai whatsoever — whether that was because old habits die hard or simply because Yang Kai had never harbored any ill will toward her, it was impossible to tell.
As she spoke, she explained further: "Uncle Li said that at a critical moment, this thing can open a Void Corridor. It's the perfect tool for making an escape. I originally had two of them — I used one back in Yuqing Mountain, so now I only have this one left…"
As she said this, a hint of reluctance crept into her voice.
To think that a simple beast hide bearing an array formation could open a Void Corridor directly?
Yang Kai was stunned on the spot.
His own research and accomplishments in the power of space were considerable, to be sure, but with his current abilities, he absolutely could not create something like this. He could only use his own spatial power to perform short-range teleports, and even those were easily disrupted.
If the ambient spiritual energy became unstable, his teleportation became largely useless.
That was a matter of his strength. It was also a matter of his depth of understanding in spatial power, and the laws of the Star Boundary. The laws of heaven and earth in the Star Boundary were countless times denser than those in his home Star Domain, which meant his teleportation was severely restricted here.
Yet this Li Wuyi had been able to craft a treasure like this beast hide. Clearly, his mastery of spatial power was something Yang Kai couldn't hope to match even if he ran himself ragged trying.
"Big Brother Yang, I'm sorry," Mo Xiaoqi suddenly said, her face filling with guilt.
"Why are you apologizing all of a sudden?" Yang Kai looked up at her.
"When things got dangerous last time, I wanted to take you with me, but the Luanfeng's attack came too fast, and I could only… I could only…" She faltered. "Afterward, I wanted to go back inside to find you, but I couldn't make it deep enough. I thought you must have… died."
Hearing this, Yang Kai chuckled.
On that point, he and Mo Xiaoqi had actually been on the same page — both had assumed the other perished under the World-Ending Black Flame. Yet as it turned out, they each had their own means of escape.