The black hole had initially been extremely small, but in the blink of an eye, it expanded with a thunderous boom, seeming poised to devour heaven and earth, filling everyone with a terrifying illusion that the end of days had arrived.
Darkness descended in an instant, plunging the entire world into a pitch where one couldn't see one's own hand before one's face.
Within the boundless dark, something was rapidly growing and multiplying in the shadows...
Gaoshan and Liushui bore the brunt of it. They felt the dark emotions lurking in the depths of their hearts surge upward and solidify, making their eyes tremble and emanate an utterly sinister glow. The darkness seemed capable of devouring one's very soul, dragging people into eternal damnation on the demonic path.
"No good!" Gaoshan bellowed. He bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of vital blood, forcibly steadying his mind to suppress the dark thoughts writhing within him, barely holding on through sheer will.
Liushui did the same, but both wore expressions of extreme strain and anguish. It was doubtful they could endure much longer under this divine ability before their minds were corrupted and they were reduced to demonfolk.
At that critical moment, a deep and solemn voice suddenly resonated through heaven and earth.
The voice was infinitely intricate and wondrous, seeming both near and far, ethereal and traceless, impossible to grasp. And as this voice rang out, a ray of light suddenly bloomed within the darkness.
That light enveloped a figure, quietly hovering in midair. The figure's hands formed spiritual seals while their lips moved in a continuous murmur, chanting some unknown incantation.
Every martial artist who heard this incantation felt as though an invisible small hand had brushed across their soul, cleansing the surging darkness within and restoring clarity to their minds.
"It's her!" Yang Kai stood not far away with an odd expression on his face, gazing at the faintly luminous figure in the sky. To his surprise, it turned out to be Ye Qinghan.
He had no idea what divine ability she had deployed, but it possessed an extraordinary effect of calming the mind and purifying the spirit, immediately pulling numerous martial artists back from the brink of the abyss.
Once they had recovered their wits, none dared linger in place. They all executed movement techniques and fled from the darkness's reach. The two elders, Gaoshan and Liushui, catching a glimpse of a narrow chance at survival, also fled at full speed. Before leaving, they did not forget to grab Ning Yuanshu and bring him along.
Ye Qinghan's cultivation was only at the second stage of the Dao Source Realm. Even though the divine ability she practiced had a restraining effect on the darkness, she could not maintain it for long. After only ten breaths, her delicate face turned pale, and the light around her body vanished in an instant. But she seemed to have exhausted all her strength—she had no power left to flee. Her head drooped, and she began to tumble sideways from the air, on the verge of perishing in a most pitiful fate.
At that critical juncture, Hua Qingsi flung out a length of red silk ribbon, wrapping it around Ye Qinghan. With a tug and a pull, she hauled Ye Qinghan out of the darkness's reach, then she and Liu Yan took her and Zhang Ruoxi and fled without looking back.
Seeing this, Yang Kai didn't hesitate for a second. He spun around and, bolstered by his spatial secret arts, blinked away in an instant.
Every martial artist here was of no use to him now—he could only rely on himself. The top priority was to recover his strength as quickly as possible.
Shortly after Yang Kai departed, the artifact spirit finally set down its war hammer, and the darkness dissipated. It turned its head and surveyed the surroundings, finding the area utterly empty—not a single soul in sight. However, it quickly locked its gaze onto the direction Yang Kai had fled, hoisted the war hammer, and with a flicker of its figure, gave chase.
Yuqing Mountain was only about ten thousand li from Maplewood City.
The sacred spirit Luan Feng had once appeared here, and a single breath of its World-Ending Black Flame had incinerated vast swaths of the mountain forests. Even though nearly two years had passed, the World-Ending Black Flame showed no signs of extinguishing. It continued to blaze fiercely upon the mountain.
That area had become scorched earth, with not a blade of grass growing within a hundred li. All that existed was the black flame raging across the sky.
Though desolate and ruined, this place had become a blessed holy ground for many martial artists who cultivated fire-element divine abilities.
Countless martial artists who focused on fire-element techniques or cultivation methods traveled tens of thousands of li to come here, seeking to comprehend the wondrous power contained within the World-Ending Black Flame. After all, this was the lifebound sacred fire left behind by an ancient sacred spirit—its power was boundless, and if one could refine even a thread of it, the benefits would last a lifetime.
Yang Kai had long heard that many fire-element martial artists gathered at Yuqing Mountain. He had even considered finding a time to bring Liu Yan here to try absorbing the flames. Liu Yan had managed to refine even a single Luan Feng feather into her body—there was no reason she couldn't handle this World-Ending Black Flame.
But thinking was one thing; he had been far too busy lately to find the time.
Through successive applications of his spatial secret arts, it took him only a short while to arrive at Yuqing Mountain, reaching the very spot that had been ravaged by the Luan Feng.
A sweep of his gaze revealed that a considerable number of martial artists had indeed gathered here. Every one of them radiated a violent, scorching aura from within—the unmistakable sign of people who had cultivated fire-element techniques or secret arts.
Sensing Yang Kai's arrival, several of them cracked open their eyes, gave him a brief glance, and paid him no further attention.
Yang Kai swept the area with his spiritual sense, and his expression darkened.
He discovered that there were hardly any decent martial artists here. Most were Void King Realm or even Return Void Realm cultivators. Dao Source Realm martial artists were exceedingly few, and even among those, they were all merely at the first stage of the Dao Source Realm—not much use at all.
He had been counting on the martial artists here to help him stall the artifact spirit, but it was clear now that this plan had fallen through.
However, Yang Kai's eyes soon lit up as he fixed his stare on a particular spot near the center of the black flame's expanse.
There, of all places, was a safe zone roughly ten zhang in diameter where the black flame had not spread.
After a moment's thought, he called out: "Everyone, danger is about to arrive at this location. If you don't want to die, I suggest you leave immediately."
The moment these words left his mouth, the numerous martial artists snapped out of their meditations, opened their eyes, and turned to gaze at him with undisguised displeasure.