After a moment's hesitation, Ying Fei asked, "Which word?"
The girl's words had left him puzzled — he had no idea what he'd said that had angered her. But Ying Fei wasn't the type to be easily intimidated. He was one of the Thirty-Two Monster Kings of the Ancient Land, after all. Even if the girl was somewhat skilled, was he someone she could push around?
If it came to a real fight, Ying Fei wasn't afraid of her.
As he spoke, he sent out his spiritual sense, sweeping it over the girl to get a read on exactly how strong she was.
Yang Kai was doing the same thing, but what left both of them stunned was that despite the girl clearly standing right there, their spiritual sense passed over her and found absolutely nothing — forget about discerning her cultivation, they couldn't even detect her presence at all.
Only two possibilities existed for this. Either the girl's cultivation far surpassed both Ying Fei and Yang Kai, or she possessed some extraordinary treasure that blocked outside detection.
The first possibility was unlikely. Ying Fei was a Monster King after all — anyone stronger than him would either be a Holy Spirit or a Great Emperor. A girl this young simply couldn't have reached that level. Which meant she had some remarkable treasure protecting her.
This girl's background is no joke, Yang Kai thought to himself. He had no idea which sect or faction she came from.
"You'll understand when you say that word," the girl said with a cold laugh, sidestepping Ying Fei's question entirely. With an air of utter disregard for him, she turned her gaze to Yang Kai. "What's your name?"
She seemed fixated on Yang Kai's name, determined to get an answer no matter what.
But before Yang Kai could respond, she suddenly waved her hand. "Never mind, never mind. Don't bother answering."
"You're messing with me?" The veins on Yang Kai's forehead were twitching. He was beginning to think this girl might be unhinged — cutting them off for no reason, spouting nonsense out of nowhere. A surge of irritation rose unbidden in his chest.
The girl snorted coldly. "What kind of person do you think you are, that I'd bother messing with you?"
Yang Kai's face darkened. "Then perhaps you could tell me who you are."
He'd seen plenty of arrogant and overbearing people in his time, but never anything quite like this. This went beyond mere haughtiness — she was so self-centered that she seemed utterly indifferent to what anyone else thought or felt.
"Someone who's going to take your life," the girl replied, her voice ice-cold.
Yang Kai was genuinely taken aback. "You want to kill me? We've only just met for the first time! What grudge could you possibly have against me?"
The girl furrowed her brow in serious thought, then nodded. "It may be our first meeting, but… you have things on you that don't belong to you. You shouldn't have refined those things. Once you refined them, you had to die!"
"What things?" Yang Kai said, completely bewildered.
"You'll find out after I crack your bones open," the girl said. Then, without warning, she threw a punch straight at Yang Kai. That tiny fist was exquisitely small, pale as jade, translucent and crystalline — when it moved, it almost looked like a lover's playful tap.
But the sheer force behind that punch made Yang Kai's expression change drastically.
A pitch-black scar was carved across the void. Space shattered in an instant, and the violent punch force churned like a colossal whirlpool, dragging Yang Kai toward its center, threatening to grind him to dust.
When the girl had thrown her punch at Ying Fei earlier, Yang Kai hadn't been able to feel it all that clearly — he'd only known that this seemingly petite girl actually possessed terrifying strength. But now, facing it head-on, he realized he had seriously underestimated her.
This kind of power was simply impossible for a girl like this to possess. If it had been Xilei, the Rhino Thunder Monster King, who needed to reveal his true form to unleash such force, Yang Kai wouldn't have been too surprised. But this power was coming from a girl who couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen years old.
Yang Kai's heart tightened. Indeed, heroes emerge from every corner of the land — even this random girl who had suddenly appeared was this formidable. How many other extraordinary individuals must exist in such a vast world?
"Young Master Yang, watch out!" Even as Ying Fei's face changed, he reached out with his clawed hand toward the girl's fist.
"Don't block it!" Yang Kai's face sank as he surged his full power and met the blow with a punch of his own.
A sky full of fist shadows erupted at once. Accompanied by a muffled grunt, Ying Fei was sent stumbling back more than ten zhang, his eagle claw slightly twisted and trembling. Yang Kai felt his blood and qi churn violently in his chest, and a crackling sound of fracturing bone rang through his arm.
The two of them had joined forces, and they still couldn't withstand that savage power.
The girl didn't stop after landing one punch. Instead, she shifted her waist and hammered out a second devastating blow, aimed straight at Yang Kai's forehead. The momentum suggested she intended to end his life in a single strike. Yet despite the ferocity of her attack, her expression remained as calm as still water, with barely a trace of killing intent — utterly bizarre.
That wasn't to say the girl didn't want to kill Yang Kai. It was simply a display of casual indifference.
When a butcher slaughters cattle and sheep, does he need to wear a murderous look on his face?
The whirlpool of force swept through once more. Ye Jinghan and Du Xian both cried out as their bodies were pulled involuntarily toward the girl's fist, as though they were charging forward of their own accord to seek death.
This was the last thing they wanted. The girl's cultivation was far too high, and when she threw her punches, she never spared a thought for their survival. They were nothing more than fish caught in the crossfire.
Their Source Power was utterly impossible to circulate. In that tide of overwhelming force, they were like drowning children — no matter how hard they struggled, they couldn't break free.
Just as their bodies were about to crash into that tiny fist and be obliterated in the next instant, another fist suddenly rose from behind to meet it. Five-colored light bloomed across that fist, and wave after wave of fierce sword qi surged outward in every direction.
Yang Kai had pushed his Immortal Five Elements Sword Qi to its absolute limit, his entire store of Emperor Qi erupting in a violent torrent.
Boom…