The warriors who had attacked Yang Kai were even more terrified, their faces drained of all color. Each of them possessed decent strength—otherwise they wouldn't have ventured this deep into the Dragon Bone Wasteland—yet despite striking first, they'd been sent reeling in an instant.
Who on earth was this person?!
Filled with dread, they widened their eyes and stared up at the wooden boat.
"You're… Yang Kai!"
A short, stout man among them recognized Yang Kai's features and let out an involuntary cry of alarm.
The others wore expressions as though they'd seen a ghost in broad daylight, staring at Yang Kai in stunned disbelief.
"Hm?" Yang Kai was taken aback. He withdrew his gaze from the spatial anomaly nearby and swept his eyes over the group below, frowning. "You know me?"
These warriors looked completely unfamiliar. He was certain he'd never laid eyes on any of them before—so how did they recognize him? He had long since ascended to the Emperor Transcendence Realm, but he wasn't so arrogant as to believe his reputation had already reached the Eastern Region.
The stout man realized he'd let something slip and clamped his mouth shut, refusing to utter another word. Yet the look in his eyes as he gazed at Yang Kai burned with hatred—raging fury that seemed born from some deep and personal grudge.
"Senior Brother Yang, these are all personal disciples of Ju Tianqing from the Brahma Heaven Sacred Land!" Lu Wen suddenly whispered from behind Yang Kai.
Her role in the Eastern Region was primarily intelligence gathering, so she was quite familiar with the backgrounds of these individuals. She recognized their origins at a glance.
A sharp light flashed through Yang Kai's eyes, and he nodded. "Ju Tianqing's personal disciples, good, very good!"
If Ju Tianqing's personal disciples were here, it meant Ju Tianqing himself was likely nearby. And according to the intelligence Jia Si had revealed, Ju Tianqing was most likely together with Zu Hong.
Find those two, and Yang Kai believed he would be able to locate Gao Xueting. His spirits soared at the thought.
Suddenly, as if something had clicked into place, he flashed a grin at the group. "My identity—was it Yin Lesheng who told you about me?"
That fellow Yin Lesheng had suffered greatly in the Shattered Star Sea, but he hadn't died. He'd struck a deal with Yang Kai, signing a Soul Contract, and in exchange for revealing a small piece of information, Yang Kai had brought him out of the spatial rift.
With the Soul Contract binding them, Yang Kai couldn't kill Yin Lesheng even if he wanted to. He could only watch the man leave.
Of all the Eastern Region powerhouses Yang Kai had encountered in the Shattered Star Sea, there were only a handful.
Yao Si and Chi Gui wouldn't have been so bored as to spread his image and identity everywhere. Only someone like Yin Lesheng would pull a stunt like that.
He had probably guessed that Yang Kai would come to the Eastern Region to search for Xiao Xiao, so he'd tipped off the Brahma Heaven Sacred Land in advance—ensuring that the moment Yang Kai showed his face, he'd be recognized by their people.
That bastard really was despicable, trying to use someone else's blade to do his killing!
Though he probably hadn't expected that Yang Kai had already ascended to Emperor Transcendence.
Having been exposed by Yang Kai, the stout man no longer denied it. He gritted his teeth and snorted, "That's right. It was Brother Yin of the Yellow Spring Sect who told us about you."
"What else did he say?" Yang Kai asked with a smile.
The stout man growled, "He also told us that the two Saint Sons, Chang Hao and Chang Xian, were both brutally killed by your hand!"
Yang Kai nodded. "In that case, your Brahma Heaven Sacred Land has been searching everywhere for me?"
The stout man huffed, "Those two Saint Sons were the future hope of our Brahma Heaven Sacred Land, and you slaughtered them both. Do you really think our sacred land would let that go? If you have any sense, you'll come with us peacefully to face the elders and the Sacred Lord. You might even receive a lighter punishment. But if you stubbornly refuse, our Brahma Heaven Sacred Land will hunt you to the ends of the earth—no matter where you hide, you won't escape death."
Yang Kai replied flatly, "Whether I die or not, you probably won't be around to see it. But whether you die or not… that rests on a single thought of mine."
The moment those words left his lips, the stout man and the others all changed dramatically, their faces turning pale as they glared at Yang Kai with heightened wariness.
But Yang Kai's gaze had already drifted past them, settling on a patch of void not far behind them. He spoke in a low voice, "Is Ju Tianqing over there?"
The stout man's face went blank with shock. He bellowed, "What are you talking about—"
Panic was written all over his face, as though he were desperately trying to conceal something.
Yang Kai let out a cold snort, took a single step forward, and appeared directly above the group's heads. His hands quickly formed a series of seals, and the law of space surged violently around his body.
The stout man and his companions turned deathly pale. Each of them felt as though an enormous mountain had been pressed down on top of them—they couldn't breathe, their blood flow ground to a halt, and the very notion of resistance was beyond them.
"Emperor Transcendence Realm!"
Only now did they realize that Yang Kai was already an Emperor Transcendence powerhouse. The stout man began to tremble violently, struck by the chilling realization that he had just been spouting bold words in front of such a being. A wave of ice-cold terror swept from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, and his entire body shook.