The lake water was frigid, but still within tolerable limits. Yang Kai ventured deeper without incident, the only sound around him being the faint thumping of his own heart.
Suddenly, he sensed something and fixed his gaze in a certain direction.
Over there, the sound of splashing water echoed through the depths.
And what he saw with his own eyes was an utterly inconceivable sight.
At the very center of the lake, a woman was bathing in the water. Her ink-black hair was sleek and smooth, her features delicate as if painted, her face exquisitely beautiful. Her bare shoulders glistened above the surface, and where the warmth of her body met the icy lake water, a thin veil of mist formed, making her appear thoroughly unreal — as though she were shrouded in a hazy dream.
The lake surface shimmered with dancing light, and the crystal-clear water refracted the image of her submerged form, enough to quicken the blood and set the imagination racing.
At this very moment, the woman held one delicate hand slightly raised, while the other scooped up clear water from before her, slowly washing her snow-white, flawless skin — seemingly utterly oblivious to Yang Kai's arrival.
However… the moment Yang Kai's gaze fell upon her, the woman apparently sensed it too, and hastily turned her head to look.
Those beautiful eyes blazed like brilliant stars, radiating a unique and mesmerizing light. One glance, and you could not bear to look away, as though you might sink into their depths forever.
Their eyes met. Yang Kai's expression went blank. Yet it was the woman who smiled coyly, a soul-stealing grin rippling across her lips.
An invisible halo of light spread outward from her direction, enveloping Yang Kai.
His expression grew even more vacant…
The woman's smile widened — and then suddenly twisted into something hideous and grotesque. She opened her mouth, and what had been a dainty, cherry-red pair of lips stretched apart into a massive, monstrous maw that lunged at Yang Kai.
Despite the distance of over a dozen zhang between them, that enormous mouth swallowed Yang Kai whole in a single gulp, along with a considerable amount of the surrounding lake water.
The mouth snapped shut. The scenery around where the woman had been shimmered and warped — and where a stunning beauty had once bathed, there now stood a bizarre creature, ceaselessly chewing on something.
The creature was impossible to describe. Its overall shape was roughly spherical, around three to four zhang in diameter, its surface pitch-black. Across that surface were more than a dozen pairs of eyes and seven or eight tentacle-like appendages, writhing and undulating constantly.
On the shore, Liu Yan — who had been closely monitoring Yang Kai's movements — saw this and her delicate face darkened, though she did not show too much concern, because she could sense that Yang Kai was unharmed.
Little Snowflake, on the other hand, was badly startled, zipping around in frantic circles at high speed, as though it wanted to rush in and rescue Yang Kai but didn't quite dare.
"Heh heh… a demon beast skilled in soul attacks — now that's a rare sight!" Yang Kai's voice drifted ghostlike from some empty stretch of space. The next moment, his figure materialized, standing directly above the spherical creature's head, looking not a scratch on him.
The instant that vision of the bathing woman had appeared before his eyes, Yang Kai had known something was off.
In a place like this, which Sect's female disciple would feel at ease bathing? The Dao Source Realm cultivators who had entered the Four Seasons Realm hardly had the leisure for such things.
At first, he had assumed that woman-shaped being was some demon beast in disguise. It was only after being attacked that he abruptly realized this was actually a soul shock — the beautiful woman bathing was nothing more than an illusion conjured before his eyes after the attack took effect.
Only, the illusion had been so perfectly realistic that even Yang Kai had failed to see through it immediately.
Now that he understood the true nature of the attack, dealing with it was simple. At the moment the real lethal strike arrived, a single short-range teleport carried him out of harm's way.
The moment Yang Kai finished speaking, the creature that had been chewing ceaselessly froze mid-motion. More than a dozen pairs of eyes on its spherical body all turned toward Yang Kai at once. Then its maw gaped wide, spewing out the lake water it had been holding. At a spot on its front side, something resembling a mouth split open, bristling with fangs. A furious roar erupted from within.
The sound converged into a visible shockwave, spreading outward in all directions. The previously tranquil lake surface erupted into violent ripples.
At Yang Kai's body, Source Power surfaced, intercepting the sound wave's invisible assault. Arcs of light deflected outward.
"Dao Source Realm, second stage…" A sweep of his Divine Sense and Yang Kai had ascertained the creature's rank and strength.
The beast, seeing that its sonic attack had proven ineffective, seemed to fly into a rage. Those dozen-plus pairs of eyes contracted simultaneously, and an invisible wave of force blasted outward.
Yang Kai raised an eyebrow and barked, "Soul power comparable to the peak of the Dao Source Realm!"
His expression turned grave. His Spiritual Sea churned, and his Divine Sense surged forth in its entirety, forming a matching invisible shockwave that hurtled forward to meet the incoming force head-on.
BOOM…
A thunderous impact rang out. Yang Kai's body shuddered, and he stumbled back several steps, a piercing agony flaring through his mind.
The creature fared no better — its rotund body convulsed violently, its tentacles flailing wildly, and a blood-curdling wail of agony tore from its mouth.
Clashes of Divine Sense were notoriously the most dangerous and unpredictable of all confrontations. The creature had relied on its mastery of soul attacks and hadn't taken Yang Kai seriously. Naturally, Yang Kai could not afford to appear weak either.
He possessed the Warming Soul Lotus, a treasure of heaven and earth — he feared nothing in a head-on contest of Divine Sense!
After this exchange, neither man nor beast had gained a clear advantage.
But Yang Kai had the Warming Soul Lotus to repair the damage to his Divine Sense, so after only a brief moment, he had stabilized. The creature, on the other hand, was still trembling uncontrollably, unable to regain its composure — the collision had evidently dealt it tremendous harm.
Seeing this, Yang Kai wasted no time. The Million Sword materialized in his hand, Imperial Might radiating outward. His figure transformed into a streak of rainbow light as he slashed forward with a single strike.
*Shk shk shk shk…*