Yang Kai chuckled darkly. "You might want to pull all your clone's power back. Facing a genuine saint, I probably wouldn't stand much of a chance."
"No need!" Mo Duo gave a cold snort. Dealing with an existence that was only equivalent to a Demon King, expending seventy percent of his power was the baseline he could accept. If he were truly forced to use his full strength, that would be a humiliation. He was, after all, a bona fide Demon Saint, and he had his own pride.
As he spoke, a pitch-black iron hook suddenly appeared in his hand. Dense, pure demonic energy seeped from its surface, making anyone who merely glanced at it feel an unease throughout their entire body, as though the deepest, most hidden evil within their hearts was being awakened.
Yang Kai's gaze locked onto the iron hook, and something stirred in his mind.
The hook gave him a feeling remarkably similar to the demonic weapon— the War Hammer — that his Avatar currently wielded. Though the forms were entirely different, they clearly shared the same origin.
A saint-grade artifact! This must be what Bao Qi and the others had spoken of earlier. In the Demon Realm, only Demon Saint-level powerhouses could command such treasures. In other words, this iron hook existed on the same tier as that demonic War Hammer.
Yang Kai's expression grew grim, and he quietly heightened his guard.
Mo Duo had suddenly produced a demonic saint-grade artifact, which meant he was about to make a serious move. Yang Kai had no choice but to bring every ounce of his attention to bear.
Contrary to Yang Kai's expectations, Mo Duo did not immediately launch an attack after producing the artifact. Instead, he raised the iron hook and began slashing at the void — once east, once west, once left, once right. The movements appeared entirely haphazard, as though performed on pure whim.
His manner was utterly casual, yet dripping with arrogance and self-assurance.
But it was precisely this nonchalant, almost lazy display that made Yang Kai's expression darken, for he suddenly sensed the surrounding space entering a state of mysterious isolation. An enormous swath of heaven and earth had been severed from the greater world under Mo Duo's ministrations, carved away into a separate pocket of space.
He could still see every feature of the world beyond, but within this isolated domain, he could no longer teleport at will.
Spatial abilities were an exceedingly troublesome capability for any Demon Saint to contend with, and so Mo Duo had to neutralize that advantage first. What he had just done was precisely his method of breaking it.
Once that was accomplished, Mo Duo finally turned around. His face cold and indifferent, he regarded Yang Kai and slightly raised the iron hook in his hand, then pulled it through the air.
A massive hook-shaped shadow materialized from nowhere, like an implement designed to snare souls. It swept downward toward the spot where Yang Kai stood.
The entire world warped under that single stroke, and a sinister, bone-chilling aura erupted outward in a torrent.
Yang Kai retreated hastily, his expression more solemn than it had ever been. Not daring to show the slightest carelessness, he clapped his palms together. With the laws of space surging forth, an enormous Moon Blade coalesced and swung upward to meet the descending hook shadow.
That was not all. A murmur slipped from his lips as the laws of time began to flow. His hands rapidly formed seals, and the Myriad Years seal hurtled forward in the wake of the Moon Blade.
Space and time — two of the most profound and abstruse laws — surged forward one after another, transforming the already chaotic battlefield into something far more perilous and unpredictable.
A flicker of astonishment crossed Mo Duo's face. He had clearly caught on to something, and his expression turned to one of disbelief. That a single person could cultivate both the laws of space and the laws of time — it was something he had never even heard of.
Since the dawn of ages, the Great Dao of heaven and earth encompassed three thousand paths and countless laws, yet whether spatial or temporal, these were domains that only a tiny handful of the truly fortunate could even touch. A person who had ventured into both domains simultaneously was something that had essentially never occurred throughout all of history. This was no longer a matter that mere fortune could explain. Only those marked by heaven's mandate could possess such peerless destiny. And throughout all of antiquity, such individuals had invariably been powerhouses who reshaped the very fabric of the world.
"Boom…"
A thunderous roar erupted as the Moon Blade and the Myriad Years seal collided with the enormous hook shadow. The impact dispersed into the void, and the violent energies raged in every direction, causing the isolated pocket of space to shudder violently — giving the impression that the end of the world had arrived.
The shockwave rippled outward for hundreds of li. Barbarians and demons alike were sent staggering, unable to keep their footing. Yang Kai was blown back dozens of zhang by the force of the rebound, his face visibly haggard, yet he still managed to rasp out through gritted teeth: "Mo Duo, seventy percent doesn't seem to cut it! You'd better show me your full strength and stop holding back!"
Even as he spoke, he was frantically gulping down pills, looking every bit the part of a man in desperate straits.
The elegant composure that Mo Duo always maintained had utterly vanished. Provoked by Yang Kai's taunting, rage finally surfaced on his face. He cast a glance toward the Evergreen Divine Tree in the distance — in the time he had been entangled with Yang Kai, that bizarre tree had surged upward another hundred zhang. It was positively unreasonable.
"Let's see how many times you can block this!" Mo Duo roared, and once again swept the hook toward Yang Kai.
The colossal hook shadow appeared a second time.
Yang Kai's eye twitched. His mouth was full of curses, but his hands did not slow down in the slightest.
His direct clash with Mo Duo moments ago had driven home the vast gap between them. Even though Mo Duo had only deployed seventy percent of his power, Yang Kai knew full well that he was no match in his current state.
Blocking one strike had been luck. He could hardly count on blocking a second or a third.
"That's your only trick?" Yang Kai said, his face a mask of mockery. "Can't you come up with something fresh?"
Mo Duo sneered. "It doesn't need to be fresh — it just needs to work."