Run! Flee now, or it would be too late!
Just as these thoughts flashed through the yellow-faced youth and the middle-aged Confucian scholar, Yang Kai suddenly turned his head, his icy gaze sweeping toward them.
Both men drew a sharp breath. Under that frigid stare, their legs went weak, and they couldn't muster even a shred of strength.
"Are you going to come over here and die, or should I walk over there and cut you down?" Yang Kai stood with sword in hand, his figure composed and relaxed, his robes immaculate — as though the fierce battle moments ago had cost him absolutely nothing.
The outcome was completely inverted from what anyone would have expected: it was as though Feng Xi was the one at the Dao Source Realm while Yang Kai towered above as an Emperor Realm master. The reversal was enough to make anyone's head spin.
Monsters! Both the yellow-faced youth and the middle-aged Confucian scholar's upper and lower teeth chattered violently, producing a sharp clicking sound, too terrified to utter a single word.
"Looks like you've chosen the second option," Yang Kai snorted coldly, taking a step toward the pair.
The yellow-faced youth and the middle-aged scholar's breathing froze. They wanted desperately to flee, but their bodies refused to obey, and a wave of despair crashed over them in an instant.
But in the very next moment, Yang Kai's brow furrowed, and he turned to look to the side.
What he saw made his eyes go wide.
Feng Xi — who should have been lying on the ground waiting to die — was slowly rising to his feet. But his state was deeply peculiar: his eyes were closed, his body rigid, as though he were a puppet being lifted by invisible strings, devoid of any consciousness of his own.
The Source Qi within him churned wildly, and beyond that, an aura that made Yang Kai feel a chill of dread was gradually awakening from within Feng Xi's body.
In no time, Feng Xi had straightened fully, and his tightly shut eyes snapped open.
Those eyes were frozen with bone-piercing cold, yet they blazed with brilliant divine light, radiant as twin stars.
Yang Kai was startled.
The instant Feng Xi opened his eyes, the strange aura inside him surged to its peak. A dense, overwhelming Emperor Might crashed outward like a tidal wave, making Yang Kai's breath catch and his blood feel as though it had stopped flowing entirely.
"What the hell?" Yang Kai muttered with a frown. Feng Xi, in this state, radiated an aura of extreme danger. Meeting those eyes, Yang Kai felt the unsettling illusion of being locked onto by a savage predator — deeply uncomfortable.
Feng Xi had undergone a complete transformation, shedding the image of a pampered young master of his Sect. In its place was an air of refined nobility and effortless authority. His gaze was imperious, sweeping and commanding, as though he meant to reign over the world.
Yang Kai's heart pounded. This sensation felt familiar — he had experienced something similar from Emperor Realm Third-Stage powerhouses like Yao Changjun, Chi Ri, and Bing Yun.
But Feng Xi had only just broken through to the Emperor Realm. How could he possibly compare to those three top-tier masters?
Could this be some secret technique of the Wenqing Sect? Yang Kai speculated, even as his hand suddenly swept forward. Two Moon Blades crossed into an X-formation, spinning through the air toward Feng Xi and arriving before him in an instant, sealing off every avenue of retreat.
Feng Xi regarded the two crescent blades crossing before him, and a glimmer of appreciation flickered in his eyes — as though he were seeing Yang Kai's Space Techniques for the first time. His face carried a composure and gravity far beyond his years. He made no effort to dodge. Instead, he simply extended a single finger forward at an unhurried pace.
That one finger struck precisely at the intersection of the X, hitting dead center without the slightest deviation.
And the two Moon Blades crumbled apart under the force of that single point, failing to inflict the slightest harm on Feng Xi.
"What?" Yang Kai was genuinely shaken now. He understood better than anyone where the weakness of his own secret techniques lay. Although this X-formation Moon Blade was something he had deployed for the first time, he had simulated it countless times in his mind, and he had used it with reasonable precision.
And the weakness of this technique was exactly where Feng Xi's finger had landed.
How had he seen through it? Yang Kai's expression flickered between dark and light.
If Feng Xi possessed such perception and ability, he wouldn't have been beaten so badly just moments ago. It seemed that in the brief window between his collapse and his awakening, some earth-shattering change had occurred within him.
"Who are you?!" Yang Kai suddenly recalled a legendary secret technique, and his heart lurched. He barked the question.
Feng Xi regarded Yang Kai with cold indifference, the corner of his lips curling upward. "The junior is indeed impressive. This old man sensed you were no ordinary individual even back then, and it seems my judgment was sound."
"Hss—" Yang Kai sucked in a breath and couldn't help stumbling back several steps.
Feng Xi suddenly addressing him in such a patronizing, elderly tone only confirmed what Yang Kai had suspected.
He swallowed hard and blurted, "Soul Descent! You're Feng Xuan!"
He had long heard that some top-tier masters, in order to protect favored heirs or disciples, would leave a wisp of their soul force within the bodies of those heirs or disciples. Under normal circumstances, this power would never activate — but when faced with a life-threatening crisis, it would erupt forth to fight on their behalf.
However, this secret technique exacted an enormous cost, and once deployed, the damage to the heir or disciple was considerable. For that reason, very few powerhouses resorted to it, and even those who did would never reveal this hidden strength unless absolutely cornered.
But now, this power within Feng Xi had manifested — which undoubtedly meant that Feng Xi had been pushed to the very brink of death moments ago.
"The boy has a sharp eye. It is indeed this Seat!" Feng Xi barked.
"What?"
"The Sect Master?"