Jin Hao and the woman were both filled with frustration, hearts aching over Cheng Kun's death. Still, that brat from Lingxiao Pavilion had fallen off the cliff and was surely dead as well — at least Cheng Kun had a companion on his journey, so he wouldn't be too lonely on the road to the underworld.
They lingered by the cliff's edge, wallowing in bitter disappointment for a while before finally departing.
The cliff was far too tall, and who knew what dangers lurked at the bottom. They didn't dare descend to search for Cheng Kun's corpse, so they could only leave him to rot in the wild.
Below the cliff, Yang Kai spread his Yang Flame Wings and touched down gently, then collected the blood pearl that had condensed from Cheng Kun's death.
As expected of a Zhenyuan Realm expert — this blood pearl was twice the size of one from the Separation-Union Realm, as large as a longan fruit, and the energy contained within it was far more vast and rich.
He had already tasted the benefits of refining and absorbing blood pearls before. Now, seeing one this size, his mind began to race. What kind of harvest would it be if he killed every Zhenyuan Realm martial artist who had entered this place?
By that lake, Yang Kai had noticed that the warriors who'd come to train in this foreign land numbered two or three hundred.
Two or three hundred blood pearls… Could he not advance to the Zhenyuan Realm with ease? The moment this thought arose, Yang Kai startled himself, and hastily pulled his mind back, afraid of stirring the hidden killing intent and viciousness buried in his heart.
He tucked the blood pearl into the Cosmos Bag inside his robe, glanced left and right, then swiftly departed in one direction.
This was a vast valley shrouded in clouds and mist, with sheer cliffs on every side rising ten thousand ren high. Ordinary people could never make it down here, and even a Zhenyuan Realm cultivator wouldn't dare venture deep without first probing the situation below.
Yang Kai spent a full day traversing the valley, gradually mapping out the terrain. He couldn't help but feel a bit pleased — this kind of landscape meant he was the only person operating here, and he wouldn't have to worry about running into any opponent he couldn't handle.
Moreover, along the way he had slain several fourth-tier demon beasts. It wasn't a fruitless endeavor.
Given enough time, his strength would grow steadily. Once he left here, those Zhenyuan Realm warriors would pose no threat.
The valley was truly enormous. Yang Kai walked and hunted through it day after day, making gains every time. Occasionally he ran into fifth-tier demon beasts, but he gave them a wide berth and avoided any clashes.
After more than ten days, Yang Kai had collected over thirty demon beast blood pearls.
He found a safe spot and spent a full hour refining and absorbing them all. Combined with the pearl from Cheng Kun's death, he could feel that the bottleneck at the fourth layer of the Separation-Union Realm was right there — just a single step more and he could advance again.
The harvest was plentiful.
However, it seemed the valley held only so many demon beasts left to slay. As time went on, Yang Kai found it increasingly difficult to encounter fourth-tier beasts. Although there were traces of a few fifth-tier ones roaming about, he truly had no desire to fight them.
Having circled the entire outer perimeter of the valley, he gradually returned to the spot where he had originally landed.
After some thought, Yang Kai decided to push toward the center, to see if he could find more demon beasts. If there truly were none left, he would have to leave this valley and find another way.
Yang Kai advanced quickly toward the heart of the valley. He did encounter a few demon beasts and obtained several blood pearls, but as he pushed deeper toward the center, not a single demon beast remained in sight.
There wasn't even the faintest trace of their activity.
A flicker of doubt in his mind, Yang Kai continued forward.
Several days later, while walking, Yang Kai suddenly froze in his tracks, staring blankly ahead. His pupils contracted sharply, and an expression of shock and disbelief spread across his face involuntarily.
He saw an enormous skeleton!
About a hundred zhang away, a bone-white skeleton lay motionless on the ground. Even from this distance, Yang Kai could feel a surge of primitive, savage aura washing over him.
The skeleton stood at least twenty zhang tall, and its length was impossible to determine. Every bone gleamed with an ivory-like luster, still tough and unyielding after countless years. Despite the passage of time, it remained standing here, never crumbling to dust.
A skeleton this massive — it was impossible to imagine what kind of majesty this demon beast had possessed in life.
His mind shook for a long while before Yang Kai finally raised his foot and walked toward it.
When he drew close, he realized this place didn't hold just one skeleton, but two.
The first was the one he had spotted from afar. The other was small and delicate. The two skeletons appeared to be connected, but upon closer inspection they were not — the smaller skeleton was simply embedded within the abdomen of the larger one.
"These are two demon beasts that perished fighting each other!" Earth Demon declared.
Yang Kai nodded in agreement. Through these two skeletons, he could vaguely sense just how brutal and bloody that battle had been. Two demon beasts, one large and one small, matched so evenly that neither could gain the upper hand.
The demonic ferocity of both had been fully unleashed. Neither would yield, neither would concede. In the end, the smaller beast tore open the larger one's belly, but suffered fatal wounds in turn. They collapsed and died together.
Countless years had passed. Wind and sun, drifting sand and dust — all had buried the traces of that earth-shattering battle. But they could not bury these stark white bones, could not bury this unyielding killing intent.
Yang Kai's shock took a long time to subside. His gaze remained fixed on the great skeleton.
He had no idea what kind of demon beast in this world could possess such a colossal body. Lying on its side, it still towered twenty zhang high, and that was only half of it — much of its body remained buried beneath the earth.