"Momma, run!" The Miao family's three Separation-Union Realm guards had all been killed in less than thirty breaths — how could the surviving Qi Movement Realm warriors dare to stay? Screaming in terror, they bolted for the exits all at once.
"Hehehe… not a single one of you escapes — stay right here, all of you!" Earth Demon cackled wildly, the Soul-Breaking Cone shuttling back and forth, each sweep claiming a life. In less than a moment, over a dozen Qi Movement Realm guards lay dead on the ground.
Corpses littered the yard, the stench of blood thick in the air. Yang Kai's Yuan Qi churned with ever-increasing ferocity, evil energy surging from every inch of his body. Clad entirely in black, he looked every bit like a demon.
Bang! A door ahead burst open, and Miao Huacheng rushed out from the room. The moment he took in the scene in the courtyard, his expression shifted dramatically.
He had heard the commotion the moment Yang Kai had stormed into the Miao estate. Unfortunately, he had been about to enjoy himself with two beautiful maidservants and had just stripped himself bare. Even knowing a fierce battle raged outside, he had to get dressed first — running out naked would have been absurd.
The screams of his guards had left Miao Huacheng flustered and panicked, so much so that he had fastened two buttons wrong.
He hurriedly threw on some clothes and rushed out, only to find that not a single one of his guards remained — they all lay on the ground.
About a dozen zhang ahead, a black-clad figure whose features he couldn't make out was walking toward him step by step. The man's Yuan Qi was wildly turbulent — fierce, yet at the peak of the Qi Movement Realm at most.
This discovery allowed some of Miao Huacheng's panic to ease.
"Who are you?" Miao Huacheng bellowed, eyeing Yang Kai warily.
The other party did not answer. Instead, his pace gradually quickened.
"Looking for death!" Miao Huacheng's fury ignited, and he strode toward Yang Kai as well. The distance between them closed rapidly.
When they were roughly three zhang apart, Miao Huacheng suddenly thrust a finger toward Yang Kai. A sharp blast of finger energy shot forth with a piercing whistle.
Yang Kai instinctively turned aside. The finger energy grazed his shoulder, leaving a bloody trail.
Miao Huacheng let out a surprised grunt. He hadn't expected the other to dodge at such close range, but he didn't panic — with a cold sneer, he flicked another finger.
Though this technique wasn't high-grade, its strength lay in its speed and low Yuan Qi consumption, making it nearly impossible to defend against.
The finger energy shot out, but Yang Kai vanished from sight. The next instant, Miao Huacheng felt a surge of heat behind him.
"Trick of a minor skill!" Though startled by Yang Kai's speed, Miao Huacheng was, after all, a peak Separation-Union Realm warrior — he certainly had some tricks of his own.
Some unknown movement technique sent his body drifting several zhang forward in an eerie fashion, causing Yang Kai's attack to strike empty air.
Spinning around, Miao Huacheng leapt into midair, both palms striking out in rapid succession, driving his Yuan Qi to its absolute limit as he roared, "Tempest Kill!"
A faint howling of wind could be heard. Miao Huacheng's palms blurred into afterimages as invisible gusts of razor-sharp wind lanced toward Yang Kai without pause.
Though these attacks were invisible to the naked eye, Yang Kai's sharp perception allowed him to discern the trajectory and movement of each wind blade.
His figure flickered as he scrambled to evade.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh — one wind blade after another slashed past Yang Kai's clothes and struck the ground, carving numerous cracks into the earth. Yet Yang Kai remained unscathed, with nothing more than a few fabric scraps fluttering through the air.
Miao Huacheng's face turned cold, and his speed abruptly increased. "Let's see how you dodge this!" he snarled.
A dozen wind blades struck simultaneously, sealing off all of Yang Kai's escape routes.
Yang Kai's expression darkened. Abandoning futile evasion, his Yuan Qi erupted into a blazing inferno. His entire body became blindingly bright, like a miniature sun, and he crossed both arms before himself to shield his vital points.
A string of muffled impacts rang out as the wind blades struck — slicing into Yang Kai's torso, his arms, his thighs — leaving gashes that bled freely, a shocking sight.
But Miao Huacheng was stunned. Though his attack had wounded the other, it hadn't taken his life. In fact, those wounds were nothing but superficial flesh wounds — they hadn't even touched the bones.
Just how vast and pure must his Yuan Qi be to withstand the techniques of a peak Separation-Union Realm warrior?
Seeing Yang Kai taking hits, Earth Demon flew into a rage and was about to rush in to help, when Yang Kai called out to him in his mind.
This fight — he would handle it alone!
Not only to test how far his strength had grown, but also to use this battle to break through his bottleneck. With Earth Demon's help, killing Miao Huacheng would not be difficult — but that wasn't what he had in mind.
Sensing Yang Kai's resolve, Earth Demon quietly told him to be careful and restrained himself, concealing himself to the side with the Soul-Breaking Cone, watching over the fight.
Only now did Miao Huacheng finally see Yang Kai's face clearly. It was the face of a youth who appeared no older than fifteen or sixteen — resolute, stern, frenzied, bloodthirsty, composed — all these emotions converging in his expression, blending together in a way that was somehow both perfectly fused and violently contradictory, giving one a decidedly unsettling feeling.