Hearing this, Yang Kai's heart sank in an instant.
"Then what about your subordinates…?" Yang Kai pressed.
"They'll arrive shortly!" Ban Qing furrowed his brow impatiently. "I prefer to act alone…" After finishing, he eyed Yang Kai with suspicion. "Why are you asking about all this?"
"No reason." Yang Kai took a deep breath and said slowly, "I'm afraid I'll have to offend you!"
The words had barely left his mouth when his entire figure transformed into a streak of light, hurtling straight toward Ban Qing.
Yang Kai had thought this through very clearly. Since Sky Demon Mountain was already sealed, with Ban Qing and three other Emperor Sovereign realm experts searching different areas, and Ban Qing's subordinates hadn't arrived yet, now was the best chance to deal with him.
Running was out of the question. Setting aside the fact that Ban Qing himself was skilled in concealment and assassination arts, with superb movement techniques — could Yang Kai even escape him in the first place? Even if he did, where in this vast Sky Demon Mountain could he possibly hide? One wrong turn and he'd run straight into someone else's hands, caught in a pincer attack with absolutely no hope left.
He might as well fight Ban Qing while the man was alone. If he couldn't win, he could still try to flee. But if he did win… then there would be no need to run at all.
"Hmm?" Ban Qing's brow arched, seemingly surprised that Yang Kai was so audacious. Not just audacious, but actually capable of moving freely under his pressure.
He hadn't taken Yang Kai seriously before because of the absolute gap in their strength. Once an Emperor Sovereign released his aura, a Dao Source realm martial artist couldn't so much as move a finger.
The middle-aged man lying on the ground was proof enough of that.
In Ban Qing's eyes, Yang Kai's cultivation was on par with that middle-aged man — both at the third level of the Dao Source realm. The only difference was that Yang Kai's spiritual soul was slightly more solid, seemingly on the verge of reaching the Emperor Sovereign realm.
But that still meant very little. Without crossing the threshold of the Emperor Sovereign realm, the gap between them was as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.
He assumed that under his pressure, Yang Kai wouldn't even be able to twitch a finger.
Yet the moment Yang Kai actually moved, he was swift as the wind, striking like thunder — as though the pressure had absolutely no effect on him.
This discovery left Ban Qing somewhat surprised and, more than that, humiliated with anger.
With a cold snort, he remained standing in place, unleashing the full force of his aura and sweeping it all toward Yang Kai.
"Urgh…" Mid-charge, Yang Kai grunted, and his figure suddenly stalled. In that instant, he felt the surrounding space had become far more viscous, as though solidifying around him, greatly constraining his movement!
"A commendable display of courage, but… utterly foolish!" Ban Qing gazed at Yang Kai coldly, his eyes brimming with contempt.
"Is it really wise for you to look down on someone so much?" Yang Kai roared, and the full power of his spiritual soul erupted forth, igniting a layer of raging flames across the surface of his body.
The flames burned and danced, making Yang Kai look like a man made of fire. The temperature in the surroundings surged dramatically in an instant — the verdant trees withered to dead husks in the blink of an eye, and the earth became scorched wasteland.
"Divine Sense flames!" Ban Qing's eyes contracted sharply, and he cried out in alarm.
Mutated spiritual soul power was exceedingly rare anywhere, but its overwhelming destructive capability was undeniable. Fire-attribute spiritual soul power, in particular, had always been renowned for its dominance and devastating force.
Crack… crack… crack…
A dense series of sounds echoed through the surrounding space — the Emperor Sovereign's pressure being shattered apart.
With the Divine Sense flames unleashed, the pressure on Yang Kai eased dramatically. He transformed into a streak of fire and lunged before Ban Qing. One hand clenched into a fist wreathed in blazing flames, and he smashed it downward with all his might.
"So that's why you're so arrogant — you do have some skill." Faced with this terrifying blow, Ban Qing showed no trace of panic. He simply offered a calm, measured comment before tapping a foot against the ground and drifting backward.
That single retreat seemed to transcend the bounds of space itself. By the time he reappeared, he was over thirty feet away from Yang Kai.
The fierce, thunderous fist struck nothing but empty air.
"Among cultivators of the same level, there's probably nobody in this world who could be your match. But…" Ban Qing smiled coldly. "I am an Emperor Sovereign. Have you not woken up yet? Hmm?"
The final syllable was practically a roar, and the already crushing pressure suddenly intensified once more.
The flames across Yang Kai's body flickered wildly, and his entire figure sagged as though a mountain had been slammed onto his shoulders.
Under the crushing weight, Yang Kai bellowed, fighting through the pain lancing through every part of his body. He shifted his form once more, forcing his way through the shackles of pressure, and charged before Ban Qing yet again.
"Boy, are you trying to die?" For the first time, Ban Qing's expression turned grave as he spoke in a low voice.
For Yang Kai to disregard the pressure on his body and force his way through like this was actually enormously damaging to himself. One misstep and his soul would be annihilated utterly.
But Yang Kai seemed not to care in the slightest, nor to worry about such consequences — he fought with the posture of a man prepared to trade his life!
Ban Qing had truly never encountered anyone like this. There was a perfect four-word phrase to describe such a person — a desperado!
"If you can't see reality clearly yourself, then I'll make you see it!" Ban Qing snarled in anger, thrusting a palm forward. A torrent of majestic force erupted from his palm, generating a cataclysmic wave of energy that swallowed Yang Kai whole.
Stumble… stumble… stumble…
Yang Kai's figure shot backward, pained groans and stifled grunts escaping continuously from his mouth. The flames across his body dimmed abruptly.
That single strike had clearly wounded him!