Teleportation was useless here. The laws of this region had been severely disrupted by Black Brilliance, rendering the void extremely unstable. As long as he could find a way out of this giant crater spanning a hundred li in diameter, he could freely employ his most refined techniques.
The hundred-li crater was the key.
He tried to make a dash toward the edge of the battlefield without drawing attention.
But someone noticed anyway.
Among the Demon Kings, one with a pair of wings seemed uninterested in the siege on Wu Dang. He had been standing in midair with arms folded, watching the proceedings with cold detachment.
Yang Kai's unusual movements quickly caught his eye. At first he observed the foreigner's attempt to flee with idle amusement, but that soon soured into anger when he realized this outsider actually had some skill — not a single one of his kin could halt the man's advance. All the way through, Yang Kai had already cut down hundreds of his brethren.
Seeing that the foreigner intended to carve through even more, the winged Demon King could no longer stand by. He spread his wings and dove downward, blocking Yang Kai's path. In his hand he wielded a long spear that gleamed with cold light. He thrust it violently toward Yang Kai, and at the spear's tip a fist-sized sphere of pitch-black energy coalesced.
Yang Kai tilted his body slightly and raised the Hundred Million Sword in a flustered, hurried motion — the very picture of panic.
The clumsiness made the Demon King burst into laughter, his face radiant with smug satisfaction, as though he could already see the foreigner reduced to pulp by his strike.
The result, however, left him stunned. Not only did the foreigner survive the blow, he actually used the force of the attack to drift effortlessly to the side, putting considerable distance between them in an instant. The entanglement was broken cleanly.
The Demon King frowned. "Lucky!"
He chalked it up to the foreigner's good fortune, never suspecting it had been entirely deliberate.
With that, he gave chase. Failing to kill the outsider in one blow was one thing, but he was still a Demon King after all — he couldn't very well let the man slip away right under his nose. Lord Mo Duo was watching this slaughter, and his kin were putting in their utmost effort. If he couldn't even take down a single foreign boy, punishment was certain to follow.
He held nothing back. His wings beat once and he was suddenly hovering directly above Yang Kai. The spear swept down in another vicious strike, but this time the sphere of dark energy at its tip was no longer fist-sized — it had swollen to the width of a basin.
The aura radiating from that sphere had become truly terrifying. Even a fellow Demon King would think twice before trying to take this hit head-on.
The foreigner charging through the ranks seemed completely oblivious. His attention remained fixed on the demonkin surrounding him, ignoring the Demon King overhead entirely. But in the very next instant, as though he had eyes on the top of his head, he raised his sword and struck — dead on the spear's tip.
BOOM! The energy sphere detonated.
The Demon King was caught off guard and staggered several steps backward. By the time he steadied himself and looked again, the foreigner had already fled a hundred zhang, and was accelerating. Nothing could slow him down — every demonkin in his path fell the moment they touched the blade of that broad sword. It moved like a reaper's scythe; his kin died on contact and were maimed at the slightest graze.
Two attacks neutralized in succession, and the foreign brat had used the force of his own strikes to escape even farther. This was no longer something that could be explained by luck alone.
The Demon King's expression shifted, and he bellowed, "Insolent wretch! I'll tear you to shreds!"
He felt as though he was being toyed with — toyed with by an outsider weaker than himself. His face burned with humiliation. With a furious burst of effort, his body broke through the sound barrier, and he closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
He struck for the third time, and this time he held absolutely nothing back. In an instant demonic energy surged in rolling torrents, and the might of his demonic spear was staggering.
Yang Kai had no choice but to turn and face him. In one hand the Hundred Million Sword danced in a blur of light, while the other hand continuously formed different seals. His mouth shifted through incantations, and one after another, formidable sorceries blazed forth in dazzling radiance.
The two clashed and became locked in combat.
For Yang Kai, this fight was extraordinarily grueling — not because his opponent was too powerful. He was now a Grand Sorcerer of the highest tier. Though still a single step removed from the Sorcerer King realm, his foundations as an Emperor were firmly in place, along with numerous divine abilities and techniques that no ordinary Grand Sorcerer could possess.
He had the strength to kill this winged Demon King who clung to him like a bone-aching parasite.
But killing this Demon King might draw the attention of a Demon Saint.
He therefore had to display just the right amount of power — maintaining the appearance of fighting desperately, teetering on the brink of collapse under his opponent's assault, ready to be slain at any moment. Calibrating that precise level was far from easy.
Fortunately, he managed it well. The Demon Saint's attention remained, but without any significant increase in interest. Yang Kai fought while retreating, deliberately making his way toward the crater's outer rim.
Compared to Yang Kai, his current opponent was growing more frustrated with every exchange. A strange, nagging feeling gnawed at him.
This foreign brat was like an immortal cockroach — standing firm under his relentless onslaught. Though the outsider looked clumsy and desperately precarious, he somehow always managed to turn the crisis into safety at the last possible moment.
The Demon King hit harder and harder, yet each time he failed to land the killing blow. Worse, the shockwaves from their collisions were cutting down his own kin left and right.
From afar he could sense his fellow officers standing near the Demon Saint, pointing in his direction and no doubt mocking his incompetence.
He could not tolerate this.
A flash of savage resolve crossed his eyes. He drove his spear forward. Though Yang Kai managed to parry it with visible difficulty, the Demon King wore a frigid, terrifying grin as he snarled, "Die!"