Yang Kai let out a muffled groan as blood seeped from his seven orifices, his already haggard complexion turning pale as paper in an instant. His body swayed, as though he might collapse at any moment.
The young man was taken aback for a moment and quickly withdrew all his powers.
He bore no ill will toward Yang Kai — there were simply certain matters he needed to verify. But given his identity, investigating directly would have been far too conspicuous, which was why he had intercepted him here.
He had assumed that dealing with Yang Kai would be as easy as picking something up off the ground, but he never expected Yang Kai to mount such a desperate counterattack — one that actually proved effective.
This left him feeling rather awkward.
With his first attempt having failed, he couldn't very well strike again. His form flickered as he retreated a hundred zhang, as though he had never moved at all.
A hundred zhang away, Yang Kai glared with fury, recklessly driving the power of the Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus and rallying his own divine soul to fiercely guard his Sea of Consciousness. He would not surrender any of the secrets within it — not unless his opponent struck him down first.
His opponent absolutely had the power to do so, but Yang Kai would not submit easily.
The scene was like a rabbit facing a hawk swooping down from the sky — even if it bared its teeth and snarled, it would make little difference. The hawk would still seize the rabbit, carry it high into the air, and then drop it to its death on the ground.
The young man gazed at Yang Kai for a moment, then let out a soft sigh. He raised his head to look at the sky, as though speaking to the air itself: "Nice weather."
After uttering those words, he took a single step and vanished from Yang Kai's sight, just as he had arrived — without trace or sound — and just as unnoticeably did he depart.
Yang Kai maintained his defensive stance for a good while, his spiritual sense sweeping back and forth across the thousand-zhang radius. It took some time before he was truly convinced that the man had left. Only then did he let out a heavy sigh of relief and lower his guard.
An unimaginable wave of exhaustion swept over him like a tide, causing him to stagger involuntarily in midair, nearly tumbling headlong to the ground.
He barely managed to steady himself, reached up to wipe the blood from his face, and furrowed his brow.
The man had come out of nowhere to intercept him, even going so far as to deploy his powers to probe Yang Kai's secrets, yet in the end it was all thunder and no rain. This left Yang Kai both puzzled and surprised.
Had he really come all this way just to say "Nice weather"?
That was obviously impossible.
After thinking a while longer, the gloom on Yang Kai's face gradually melted away, and a slow smile spread across his lips. The more he smiled, the more carefree he felt, and the last remaining worry and burden in his heart was completely cast aside.
He more or less understood what the man had meant.
He had taken the Thousand Illusion Dreamscape from the fifth floor of the Five Colour Pagoda. As the master of the Star Soul Palace, the one who controlled the Five Colour Pagoda, the Great Emperor must have noticed something. But he had been unable to discern the full picture. That was why he needed to investigate.
However, Yang Kai was not a disciple of the Star Soul Palace. He had entered the Five Colour Pagoda only because of a prior agreement. As such, neither the Great Emperor nor those Elders could demand that Yang Kai voluntarily disclose what he had experienced inside.
If Yang Kai had been an ordinary Emperor Realm cultivator, that would have been one thing — the Star Soul Palace undoubtedly had plenty of secret arts that could make him reveal the existence of the Thousand Illusion Dreamscape without his even realizing it. But Yang Kai now held the title of Elder of the Azure Sun Divine Temple. The Star Soul Palace, as the supreme force of the Southern Domain and its guardian, could not very well bully a junior by abusing its superior position.
So the Great Emperor had acted personally. And the location was not within the Star Soul Palace, but outside it — a clear signal that this had nothing to do with the Palace.
He had not revealed his identity for the same reason. Yang Kai had guessed as much but said nothing, and the two had reached a tacit understanding of sorts — one that turned a major affair into a minor one, and a minor one into nothing at all.
Now that the matter was settled — the Great Emperor had personally intervened yet failed to uncover any useful intelligence, or rather, had not forced the issue — the Star Soul Palace would no longer pursue the question of what Yang Kai had encountered or gained inside the Five Colour Pagoda.
In other words, whatever Yang Kai had taken from the Five Colour Pagoda, the Star Soul Palace and Ming Yue would have to swallow their pride and accept it.
It was precisely because he had figured this out that Yang Kai's mood suddenly became incredibly buoyant.
He had been somewhat worried before, after all. Taking something without permission was theft — even if he brought the Thousand Illusion Dreamscape back to the Heavenly Palace, he would have to use it in secret and never reveal it openly. But after what had just happened, he could now display the Thousand Illusion Dreamscape for all the world to see. Even if the Star Soul Palace found out afterward, they would have nothing to say.
Come to think of it, Yang Kai felt he should actually be grateful to the Great Emperor. Moreover, the Great Emperor seemed to be a decent person. With his power and ability, he could certainly have forced his way through Yang Kai's Sea of Consciousness defenses if he had truly been determined to do so. But he had touched upon them and immediately withdrawn — the very picture of a true powerhouse's magnanimity.
This gave Yang Kai a favorable impression of him.
That remark about the nice weather was probably born of the Great Emperor's helplessness and embarrassment.