Silence. A deathly, eerie silence.
Then — boom! The void erupted into chaos. Everyone was shaken to their core, eyes wide and vacant. That Dao Source Realm youth had actually survived Liang Qiu's ferocious strike unscathed?
"No way… he blocked it?"
"My eyes can't believe what I'm seeing!"
"How the hell is he only in the Dao Source Realm? This kid's been hiding his true cultivation!"
"Ha! Liang Qiu just made a complete fool of himself!"
Liang Qiu's palms went numb, a chill spreading through his entire body, his head swimming with dizziness. He stared blankly at his long spear, then at Yang Kai, and managed through gritted teeth: "Kid… are you even human?"
His voice carried an unmistakable tremor of shock. Even now, he couldn't bring himself to believe that Yang Kai had truly gone fist-to-fist with him and held his own. How was that even possible? And the kid was only in the Dao Source Realm!
"Don't like the sound of that. If I'm not human, am I supposed to be a ghost?" Yang Kai snorted coldly.
The surrounding Dao Sovereigns were all reassessing Yang Kai now, as though seeing him for the first time.
A Dao Source Realm cultivator going toe-to-toe with a Dao Sovereign — they had never even heard of such a thing. Even back when they themselves had been at the peak of the Dao Source Realm, none of them could have done what Yang Kai just did.
Just how tough was this kid's body, to go head-to-head with Liang Qiu's spear like that? And his recovery speed… it was frankly staggering. Moments ago, the flesh on his fists had been shredded and bloodied, yet in the blink of an eye they were completely restored. Moreover — the blood flowing from his wounds wasn't red. It shimmered with a pale golden hue, and within that blood pulsed an unimaginable vitality and surge of life force!
Yao Si's gaze trembled ever so slightly. All his life, as the son of a Great Emperor, he had considered himself above his peers — beyond comparison. No one in this world could surpass him in talent, strength, or background. When Liang Qiu had struck earlier, he too had assumed Yang Kai was as good as dead and hadn't bothered watching.
But now he realized how wrong he'd been.
There might be people in this world whose lineage he could never match. But when it came to talent and combat prowess among those at the same level, he absolutely could not claim to stand alone above the crowd. The youth standing before him — a Dao Source Realm cultivator — was living proof.
"You're… really something else," Liang Qiu said, studying Yang Kai with newfound seriousness before shaking his head.
Yang Kai snorted. "Want to go again? If you do, I'll go as many rounds as you like."
"No, no, no!" Liang Qiu shook his head like a rattle. "You've earned the right to stay!"
The only reason he'd attacked Yang Kai in the first place was that the kid's cultivation fell short of the Dao Sovereign Realm. Everyone else here was either a Dao Sovereign or had a Dao Sovereign companion — except Yang Kai's group, who were all Dao Source Realm. They stuck out like sore thumbs.
He'd naturally wanted to make an example of Yang Kai, to show the others who'd been turned away what happened when you lacked the strength but tried to linger.
Instead of asserting his dominance, he'd been the one left stunned.
If the fight continued and he won, it would be an unconvincing victory. And if he lost — well, he wouldn't be able to show his face in the Star Boundary ever again.
Liang Qiu simply had no confidence that he could beat Yang Kai.
"You flatter me!" Yang Kai cupped his fists with a casual grin.
Just then, Liu Yan suddenly called out in alarm: "Master, something's wrong with Little Seven!"
Yang Kai turned to look immediately. Mo Xiaoqi's beautiful eyes blazed with a bone-piercing frost, her gaze sharp beyond compare. A terrifying aura radiated from her delicate frame — and that aura bore a strange resemblance to the Mountain and River Bell, as though it hailed from the primordial wilds.
Everyone who sensed it felt their expressions shift.
Whatever it was, anything connected to the word "primordial" was bound to be extraordinary.
At this moment, Mo Xiaoqi was staring straight at Liang Qiu. Her killing intent was so dense it had become almost physical, crackling and splitting the void around her until it hissed and screeched. Her sharp gaze turned suddenly remote — a look that belied all living things, a look that looked down upon the world itself. It sent chills down the spine of anyone who saw it.
At the same time, the ugly butterfly mark on her cheek began to flutter and dance as though it had come alive, its wings trembling as if ready to take flight.
With each flutter of those wings, an extremely violent and oppressive aura spread outward. Everyone felt their breath catch, as though a mountain had been slammed onto their chests.
"What's going on?" Yang Kai's face went pale with alarm.
He had no idea why Mo Xiaoqi had suddenly gone into this abnormal state — there hadn't been the slightest sign before. It was only after hearing Liu Yan's shout that he'd noticed.