The Soul Slaying Saber was an Emperor Treasure, designed specifically to harm Divine Souls. Its power was immense.
Heaven Shattering Strike was a secret technique Yang Kai had learned from Tian Yan in the world within the Divine Traversal Mirror. The Divine Traversal Mirror was the Qingyang Divine Temple's most treasured Sect Artifact — a self-contained world whose inhabitants had no physical bodies, existing solely as Divine Soul spirits.
Tian Yan had been the strongest being in the Divine Traversal Mirror's world, and the strength of his Divine Soul spirit had reached the level of a Great Emperor.
He had spent his entire life studying Divine Soul secret arts. The Heaven Shattering Strike came from his hand — how could its power be anything less than extraordinary?
Combined with an Emperor Treasure like the Soul Slaying Saber, the resulting power was far more than just the sum of its parts.
Moreover, to be safe, Yang Kai had pushed his Divine Soul power to the absolute limit, straining himself beyond what he could bear. His face had gone pale, his entire body was cold, and his head throbbed with a splitting pain.
Tan Junhao, who had taken the strike head-on, fared even worse.
The violent Soul Slaying force tore through the defenses of his Sea of Consciousness in an instant, surging in and wreaking absolute havoc — churning his Sea of Consciousness into a tempest, its waters roiling and his Divine Sense thrown into total disarray.
Tan Junhao let out a scream of agony. His entire body was drenched in sweat, as if he had just been fished out of a lake.
Such devastating damage to the Sea of Consciousness — barring a handful of long-extinct miracle spirit pills, it was virtually irreparable. Even a Great Emperor acting personally would be powerless to heal it.
"Lotus Birth!" Yang Kai roared, intending to press his advantage and take the old man's life. He steeled his spirit, and the Lotus Birth technique was already primed to strike.
But just at that moment, the Golden Armored Heavenly Book above Tan Junhao's head began flipping its pages again with a loud rustling, then suddenly froze on a particular page.
In the blink of an eye, two beams of golden light shot from the pages.
At such close range, Yang Kai had no way to defend himself. The two beams pierced straight through his body.
"Pfft..." Yang Kai spat out a mouthful of golden blood as a tremendous force sent him hurtling backward. He tumbled across the ground and couldn't get up for a long time.
Searing pain erupted from his lower abdomen. Yang Kai looked down, and his expression turned as dark as a pot's bottom. He cursed aloud: "Old dog! I will never rest until you're dead!"
Two finger-width holes had appeared in his lower abdomen, punching clean through his body. He had no idea what kind of attack those golden beams had been — even his Dragon Transformation technique had been unable to protect him.
He channeled his Emperor Yuan, flooding the wounds to stem the bleeding.
At that very moment, the hundreds of fierce birds and bizarre beasts surged toward him again, blotting out the sky. Startled, Yang Kai could only deploy his Teleportation technique to escape.
Without Tan Junhao holding him in check, these fierce beasts would find it rather difficult to wound him — a single teleport was enough to shake them off.
"AARGH!" A scream tore from Tan Junhao's throat as he threw his head back and howled at the sky. His robes billowed without any wind, and his hair whipped about wildly. His appearance was truly grotesque and terrifying.
"Heh heh heh..." Yang Kai clutched his abdomen and hid to the side. Watching the other man's state, he felt a sudden sense of balance.
Sure, he'd been careless and taken a nasty hit, but Tan Junhao's injuries had to be far worse. Even if he couldn't kill the old man today, Tan Junhao probably wouldn't survive much longer.
He retrieved healing and restorative spirit pills from his Space Ring and stuffed a handful into his mouth like candy.
A cornered beast would still fight to the death, let alone a Third Stage Emperor Realm powerhouse like Tan Junhao. The next phase would likely involve a life-or-death struggle, and there was no harm in building a foundation with some pills.
Rustling...
The pages above Tan Junhao's head turned again.
Yang Kai froze, wondering what trick the old fox was up to now. He gathered his strength covertly, ready to dodge at any moment.
The pages froze. Golden light shot forth, twisting and transforming in midair, coalescing into a golden longsword that tore through the void to strike. It cracked the very fabric of space, and several flying beasts that couldn't dodge in time were slashed into nothingness.
"Hmm?" Yang Kai watched in astonishment.
Rustling...
The pages turned again, and this time a massive seal flew out, slamming into the ground and smashing a huge crater into it.
Rustling...
The pages kept flipping ceaselessly. Each time they froze, a different attack would shoot forth — sometimes an Artifact of varying form, sometimes a secret technique of tremendous power, and other times it would summon vivid, lifelike demon beasts.
Yang Kai even spotted a demon beast that rivaled a Third Stage Emperor Realm cultivator. The creature was covered in countless eyes, its entire body resembling a fleshy ball — he had no idea what kind of monstrosity it was.
However, the mysterious light that shot from the eyes covering its spherical body seemed to possess the peculiar effect of petrifying anything it hit.
The moment this fleshy beast appeared, the eyes on its body opened and closed incessantly. With each cycle, beams of mysterious light shot out — dozens at minimum, over a hundred at most.
The hundreds of fierce birds and beasts that Tan Junhao had summoned first were all wiped out by it. Each one froze rigid in place, as if struck by an immobilization spell.
What's more, those fierce beasts seemed utterly terrified of the fleshy ball. They simply took the beating without fighting back, letting it rage and rampage until they were all wiped out in short order.
The battlefield was utter chaos. Attacks of every kind rained down indiscriminately. Yang Kai hopped and darted about, dodging in the most undignified manner.
Especially when facing the fleshy ball's attacks — if he was careless and took even one hit, his reaction speed and agility would plummet. He had to desperately channel his Emperor Yuan just to neutralize the effect.
A chill ran through him. If Tan Junhao had seized the opportunity to strike just now, he feared that even with his Space abilities, he wouldn't have been able to dodge.