Feng Ming and Gao Xueting, upon hearing this, also desperately surged their Source Power.
"Why must you three lords be so ruthless?" Yang Kai suddenly spoke up.
All three Emperor Realm cultivators were stunned.
From the start of the battle until now, Yang Kai had spoken only a handful of times, and his previous words had been nothing more than the incoherent roars of a man who had lost his mind. Yet now, his voice was perfectly calm and steady, clearly possessing independent thought.
"Enough out of you, demon! Today, one of us dies!" Chen Wenhao roared, thrusting his longsword forward as three thousand sword dao laws bore down on Yang Kai.
Feng Ming and Gao Xueting attacked simultaneously.
Yang Kai's breath hitched. Only after recovering his senses did he truly grasp the terrifying might of Emperor Realm powerhouses.
The combined force of these three was far beyond anything he could resist.
The fact that he had been able to hold them off for so long before was entirely due to the demonic will driving his survival and killing instincts.
Now, facing the devastating combined strike of three Emperor Realm cultivators, Yang Kai immediately felt a lethal threat.
He tapped his feet rapidly, drifting backward. At the same time, he gritted his teeth and growled, "Dark Eye Purgatory — Darkness Without Bounds!"
As the words left his lips, the pitch-black demonic eye in his right socket erupted with dark arcane light. All three Emperor Realm cultivators met that obsidian gaze, and their movements involuntarily faltered. Within that dark pupil, it seemed as though oceans were turning into mulberry fields and back again, as though stars and suns were rising and setting in an eternal cycle.
A desolate, primordial aura suddenly spread outward.
The sky went black!
Not a hand could be seen before one's face.
That absolute darkness shrouded heaven and earth, transforming into a cage that enveloped an area of a hundred li in every direction.
No matter how dazzling the sword light or spear shadows, no matter how the Nine Suns shone together in the sky, none could pierce through this wall of darkness.
The three linked Emperor Realm cultivators felt a jolt of alarm. Their companions, who had been right beside them moments ago, had suddenly vanished from sight. When they sent out their divine sense, it was thrown into complete disarray by the endless power of darkness.
That darkness seemed to stretch to the very ends of the world, dragging heaven and earth into an abyss.
After the initial panic, the three Emperor Realm cultivators quickly regained their composure. Almost in unison, they began forming spiritual seals.
Tens of millions of sword lights flew forth together, and the Goose Thunder Spear transformed into a lightning dragon soaring through the sky. The Nine Suns burst with dazzling radiance and shattered simultaneously.
The boundless darkness revealed a sliver of light.
That sliver of light rapidly expanded until it completely dispelled the darkness.
The three hovered in midair, scanning the area. Only they remained here now. As for the demon, he had long since vanished, his whereabouts unknown.
They exchanged glances, their expressions exceedingly grim. One by one, they spread their divine sense across the land, yet they could not pin down the demon's escape route at all.
"What kind of technique was that?" Feng Ming's face was so dark with gloom that frost could practically be scraped from it. He demanded in a low voice.
Chen Wenhao shook his head. "I have no idea."
"This must be reported to the Sect as soon as possible. And… we need to make our way to the Star God Palace. An ancient great demon's will has emerged — the Star God Palace may know something." Gao Xueting put away her Blazing Sun Mirror, stroking its surface. Threads of dark power clung to the mirror like maggots burrowed into bone, impossible to remove, and her face showed a pained expression.
"Junior Sister Gao speaks wisely. We should leave immediately for the Star God Palace — hopefully the Great Emperor will have some insight!" Chen Wenhao said, producing a jade token. After pouring his divine sense into it, he crushed it. An intricate and bizarre formation immediately materialized before him, flickered once, and drifted away on the wind.
Feng Ming and Gao Xueting each employed their own secret techniques to relay everything they had seen and heard back to the Sect's headquarters.
Then, the three immediately set off for the Star God Palace, intending to seek an audience with Emperor Bright Moon and beg for answers.
As for whether the fleeing demon would go on to wreak havoc in the nearby Maple Forest City, that was no longer their concern. The demon was cunning and powerful; even the three of them combined could not slay him. The barrier technique he had unleashed at the end had chilled them to the core.
If the demon had used that moment to launch a sneak attack, at least one of them would surely have been killed or wounded!
The insignificant Maple Forest City was not worthy of their attention. Had it not been for the news of the ancient great demon's seal breaking, people of their standing would never have come to a place like this.
After a short while, the plains returned to silence.
Meanwhile, in Maple Forest City, a cold-faced beautiful young woman quietly entered the city, dressed in blazing red robes that resembled clouds of dawn.
Countless warriors who had survived the recent ordeal couldn't help but turn their gaze toward this beautiful woman.
However, some of them vaguely sensed something unusual about her — a spiritual quality that set her apart from ordinary people, ethereal yet wild, impossible to fathom.
Before long, the woman produced a voice pearl and infused it with divine sense, appearing to communicate with someone.
After a moment, she put the voice pearl away and slipped into an empty alley.
After waiting for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, a graceful figure suddenly appeared in a bizarre manner.
The woman seemed to sense something and turned around. Seeing the young girl, she smiled behind her hand. "You must be Little Sister Xiaoqi?"
Mo Xiaoqi's delicate brows were tightly furrowed. She peered behind the woman but didn't see a familiar figure, and couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Who are you? Did Big Brother Yang send you to find me?"
"That's right!" The woman nodded, and with a flip of her hand, the voice pearl appeared in her palm.