Five hundred li away, Ling Yinqin sighed quietly to herself. "So it really did fail?"
The magnificent celestial anomaly had vanished in an instant — an unmistakable sign of a failed breakthrough. Whether Yang Kai was alive or dead, she had no idea. She felt a pang of sympathy for him inwardly. Though she wasn't close to Yang Kai, having witnessed firsthand a cultivator's path of enlightenment being cut short like this filled her with a sense of shared grief.
Inside the cabin, Liu Xianyun — who had been kneeling on the ground in fervent prayer — also collapsed limply onto the floor, her pretty face drained of all color, completely bloodless.
For a long moment she stayed like that. Then she gritted her teeth and forced herself to her feet, rushing toward the door in a hurry.
Whether Yang Kai was alive or dead, she was going to find him. If he was alive, she wanted to see him with her own eyes; if he was dead, she wanted to see his body. She felt certain that if it hadn't been for her, Yang Kai would never have encountered this kind of misfortune. With his talent, he should have been able to stand proudly in the Star Realm and become a great power in his own right.
Liu Xianyun had barely burst onto the deck when she suddenly spotted an enormous tower ship approaching from ahead. This ship was far larger and more majestic than the one belonging to Ling Yinqin and the others, cutting through the wind and waves without making the slightest sound. No one had noticed when it had drawn near — by the time Liu Xianyun spotted it, the two vessels were already extremely close.
She looked up and saw that the opposing ship's deck was packed with warriors, all glaring down with hostile intent under the lead of a man in purple robes.
Ling Yinqin and the others finally realized what was happening, scrambling out of their cabins one after another. The moment they made out the insignia on the rival ship's sails, their expressions all darkened.
Liu Xianyun was consumed with worry over Yang Kai's fate and had no mind to deal with any of this. She was about to leap into the air when the man in purple on the opposite ship narrowed his eyes, waved his hand, and without moving his body at all, sent a massive palm print sweeping toward her.
…
On the small island, Yang Kai waited until Zhang Ruoxi opened her eyes before slowly flying over and landing in front of her. He asked urgently, "Is anything wrong?"
"Wrong?" Zhang Ruoxi looked blankly at him, then shook her head. "No!" Her face brightened with joy, and she said with a shy smile, "Master, I've broken through to the Dao Source Realm."
A few years ago, she had never imagined that she would one day reach the Dao Source Realm — stand at such a towering height. After all, the strongest member of the Zhang family back in the day had only been at the third level of the Void King Realm. Their declining clan had not produced a Dao Source Realm cultivator in many years. But ever since Yang Kai had taken her away from the Zhang family, her cultivation had surged upward. Growing at an almost inconceivable speed, in just a few short years she had achieved a feat that the ancestors of the Zhang family had never managed.
At this level of cultivation, she could have already secured a firm foothold in the old Maple Forest City.
Zhang Ruoxi was profoundly grateful to Yang Kai.
She knew that without the excellent and stable Cultivation environment he had provided, she could never have accomplished something like this. She also knew that without him unearthing her latent talent for Cultivation, she could have spent her entire life without ever glimpsing the secrets of the Dao Source Realm.
Yet here she was — only seventeen years old — already a Dao Source Realm powerhouse. With so much of her life still ahead of her, there would be ample time. She might even have a chance to aspire to Emperor and peer into the mysteries of the Great Emperors.
Zhang Ruoxi's heart fluttered with excitement.
"Give me your hand!" Yang Kai stepped to her side. Though he hadn't detected anything wrong with her, he still wasn't fully at ease and wanted to examine her thoroughly.
Zhang Ruoxi blushed faintly and extended a delicate arm, white as a lotus root.
Yang Kai placed his fingers on her wrist and channeled a wisp of Source Force into her body, carefully inspecting her.
Moments later, Yang Kai's body jerked. He stared at Zhang Ruoxi in shock and murmured, "Th-this… how is this possible?"
"Master? What's wrong? Is something wrong with me?" Zhang Ruoxi's face went pale at his stricken expression, and a wave of panic washed over her.
"No, no!" Yang Kai shook his head quickly, afraid of scaring her. But his brow furrowed deeper and deeper, his face full of astonishment — as though he were looking at something utterly inexplicable.
Zhang Ruoxi held perfectly still, only able to feel Yang Kai's strand of Source Force coursing through her body. Although he was careful to avoid her more private areas, the sensation still made her blush furrowed. She quickly ducked her head down to her chest.
But she knew Yang Kai was merely examining her internal condition and harbored no improper thoughts.
At last, Yang Kai withdrew his fingers and gazed at Zhang Ruoxi with a strange expression.
"Master… what's wrong with me?" she asked softly.
"You're fine," Yang Kai replied. "So fine it's almost unbelievable."
Yang Kai had assumed that Zhang Ruoxi's breakthrough to the Dao Source Realm in this godforsaken place would inevitably subject her to the corrosive power saturating the environment. He had already been prepared to bring the girl to the Small World for recovery. But after his inspection, he discovered that there wasn't the slightest trace of corrosive power inside her body.
The infinite corrosive force that pervaded this world seemed to have simply evaporated upon entering her system.
That alone was strange, though hard to believe, it still wasn't enough to make Yang Kai lose composure like this.
The real shock was that the power inside Zhang Ruoxi's body was rich Source Force — not Saint Power!