Last time Yang Kai had visited Thousand Leaf Sect, the place had still been a towering mountain range blessed with natural spiritual energy. But upon returning today, everything he saw was in ruins — a desolate, wretched sight.
Broken walls and crumbling remnants lay scattered across the hillsides. The pavilions, towers, and halls that had once stood proudly among the peaks had mostly collapsed, bearing the unmistakable scars of fierce battle. Dried bloodstains covered the ground, and a flock of birds swept across the sky over an expanse of bleak wasteland.
Yang Kai drifted slowly through the air, his expression dark as a storm.
His Divine Sense swept outward. The vast Thousand Leaf Sect was devoid of a single living soul. Only a handful of wild beasts and birds could be spotted here and there among the mountain range, and the air still seemed to carry the faint stench of decay.
Thousand Leaf Sect had truly been annihilated.
Though Thousand Leaf Sect had never counted among the great powers, it was still a sect with tens of thousands of years of heritage. At its peak, it had been a dominant force in the Southern Region, boasting countless disciples and a wealth of powerful cultivators. Yet now, the name Thousand Leaf Sect no longer existed in this world.
A nameless fury churned in Yang Kai's chest, suffocating him with frustration. Though it was only instinct, he couldn't shake the feeling that this disaster was somehow connected to him.
But no matter how hard he turned the matter over in his mind, he couldn't figure out what possible link there could be between himself and the destruction of Thousand Leaf Sect.
Perhaps only by finding the Flowing Shadow Sword Sect and asking them directly would he be able to understand the full picture.
Yang Kai abruptly raised his head, his gaze fixing on the location of Thousand Leaf Sect's main hall. A few flickers of living aura had appeared in that direction.
His eyes narrowed, and his figure blurred as he shot toward the spot.
Moments later, he descended before the main hall. In front of the hall had once stood a statue — a likeness of Thousand Leaf Sect's founding ancestor, enshrined for future generations to pay their respects. But the statue had long since toppled. It appeared someone had cleaved it in a single sword strike; the cut was perfectly clean, a testament to the wielder's extraordinary strength. Yang Kai reached out and touched the severed surface, sensing within it the lingering essence of a nimble wind.
From inside the hall drifted the aroma of cooking meat. Muffled voices could be heard within.
Yang Kai pushed open the door and stepped inside, bringing a rush of frigid air with him.
Inside the hall, a handful of people had kindled a fire over which they were boiling some unrecognizable meat soup. They sat on the ground, drinking from large bowls and tearing into chunks of meat — the very picture of carefree revelry.
Hearing the commotion, all of them turned their heads at once. A somewhat older man rose to his feet and glared at Yang Kai. "Who are you?!"
Yang Kai studied them for a moment and realized they were not disciples of Thousand Leaf Sect. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment.
Then again, if any Thousand Leaf Sect disciples had survived, they would surely have changed their names and fled far away by now — not loitered about doing this in their own sect's main hall.
The strongest among them was only at the first layer of the Dao Source Realm, while the rest were still at the Saint King Realm. They seemed to be nothing more than wandering martial artists of no particular origin.
With Thousand Leaf Sect destroyed and such a grand mountain gate left abandoned, this place was naturally an excellent shelter for the likes of them.
Yang Kai had no interest in tangling with them. He simply asked, "Are there any survivors from Thousand Leaf Sect?"
To make sure they didn't fail to appreciate the situation, he released a slight pressure as he spoke.
The group instantly stiffened as though facing a great enemy. The man who had been posturing with a show of authority went pale and seemed to shrink half a size on the spot, gazing at Yang Kai with trembling fear. "We haven't seen any."
As expected. Yang Kai nodded and cast a brief glance around before saying nothing more.
The man's forehead was slick with cold sweat. He stood frozen in place, not daring to move, and it was a good while before Yang Kai turned and walked out.
Only then did the martial artists inside the hall seem to receive a stay of execution. They all went limp. For people like them, a powerhouse of Yang Kai's caliber could snip away their lives with a casual gesture if he so wished — and such powerful figures were notoriously capricious. You never knew when they might decide to kill.
Thus, when venturing out to gain experience, the wisest course upon encountering someone far stronger than yourself was to avoid them entirely and never engage.
Having just escaped death by the skin of their teeth, the group exchanged hurried glances. Forget the nearly-cooked meat soup — they scrambled out of the hall and bolted toward the horizon, running so fast they wished their parents had given them two extra legs.
In the nameless mountain valley, Yang Kai looked around for a moment, then his eyes brightened as he came to stand at a particular spot.
He was very familiar with this valley. The last time he had visited Thousand Leaf Sect, he had been here — because this was the sect's forbidden ground. For generations, no one other than the Sect Master of Thousand Leaf Sect had been permitted to enter.
On the surface, it appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary valley, but in reality it was shrouded by a powerful illusion formation that concealed the spatial gateway leading to Thousand Leaf Sect's own private world.
Emperor Heaven Valley!
Yang Kai finally recalled the name of that private world within Thousand Leaf Sect. It was within Emperor Heaven Valley that he had encountered a powerful Corpse Puppet, and where Liu Yan had obtained her Spirit Puppet body.
This valley must have been the site of a fierce battle, for the surrounding area was covered in traces of combat — dried bloodstains everywhere, bones bleached white. It seemed that many had perished here when Thousand Leaf Sect was destroyed.
At the very center of the valley, where the spatial formation stood, Yang Kai examined the damaged array carefully. Before long, his eyes lit up.
He could tell that this spatial formation had been smashed apart by brute force, and the person who did it had been in a tremendous hurry — acting with urgent haste, as though some dire matter had demanded their immediate attention.
Yang Kai couldn't help but wonder: could the person who destroyed the formation have been Ye Hen, the Sect Master of Thousand Leaf Sect?
If so, then the news wasn't entirely bad. On the other side of the spatial formation, within Emperor Heaven Valley, there was a very real possibility that some Thousand Leaf Sect disciples had survived.
If he were Ye Hen — knowing full well that his sect was about to fall — he would certainly have transferred his disciples and close associates into Emperor Heaven Valley and then destroyed the spatial formation to preserve their lives.
Emperor Heaven Valley was a self-contained private world. Though it wasn't particularly large, once the spatial formation was destroyed, virtually no one in the world would be able to enter it again.