Before everyone's eyes, Yang Tai slammed into the crimson gate.
He had poured every ounce of his strength into the collision, offering no protection whatsoever to his own body, so the outcome was almost inevitable.
With a deafening boom, Yang Tai exploded into a cloud of blood mist, just as Wu Kuangyi had before him.
But unlike Wu Kuangyi's blood and flesh, which had splattered across the gate in disarray, Yang Tai's remained eerily organized — as if imbued with some semblance of life, the mist drifted through the air, slowly writhing and coalescing, reassembling itself piece by piece.
Those who had just breathed a sigh of relief now had their hearts clutched in terror once more. None of them knew what this transformation portended, but an overwhelming sense of dread surged through every heart present. Yang Kai's unease was the greatest of all — from the blood mist that Yang Tai had become, he could sense threads of a demonic aura, a presence that made his skin crawl, as though he had been thrust back into the ancient world, staring once more at the fearsome powerhouses of the Demon Realm.
In the blink of an eye, the cloud of blood mist had solidified into form.
"That is…?" Gong Yue's eyes widened as he gasped in a low voice.
"Demonic Script!" Yang Kai ground out through clenched teeth, the unease in his heart ballooning to its absolute peak.
What the congealed blood mist had taken the shape of was nothing other than the Demonic Script that Yang Tai had revealed when unleashing that earlier technique. The crimson runes, driven by some mysterious force, slammed into the gate with a thunderous impact.
No one knew what effect such a blood sacrifice — forged from the very essence of Yang Tai's flesh and blood — would have upon the gate, but since Yang Tai had chosen this path, he must have had some measure of confidence.
A blinding radiance erupted, so intense it nearly seared through their eyelids. And in that moment when everyone lost their vision, a sharp crackling sound suddenly rang out.
Everyone froze. Once they registered what the sound truly meant, every face drained of color.
The crimson gate had been opened!
The prolonged blood sacrifice, though interrupted by Yang Kai, had finally been pushed past the tipping point by Yang Tai's desperate, all-or-nothing gambit — the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Whatever lay within, it would reveal itself in the next instant.
Yang Kai pushed his eyesight to its absolute limit in that fleeting moment, and at last caught a glimpse of what was happening. The crimson gate had indeed been opened — but only just. A narrow crack was all that showed; the gate had not swung wide. The numerous restrictions and runes etched upon its surface still seemed to be functioning, generating a counterforce that opposed the Demonic Script and resisted the gate's opening.
It was then that Yang Kai glimpsed something flying out through the crack in the gate.
The light faded. The gate sealed shut once more. And when everything settled, the entire affair seemed as though it had been nothing more than an illusion.
Everyone stood shell-shocked, exchanging bewildered glances.
But before long, someone noticed something out of the ordinary.
"Wh-what is that?" Shen Bingru's voice trembled slightly as she pointed toward an object hovering before the gate.
All eyes followed her gesture, and every expression turned grim.
No one had noticed before, but there, floating silently before the gate, was a tiny mote of black light no larger than a green bean. It was exceedingly small and emitted no distinctive aura, which was why it had escaped everyone's attention at first — especially given the poor lighting in this place. Shen Bingru had only spotted it by sheer chance.
The black mote drifted motionlessly in place like a dead thing, utterly devoid of anything unusual.
When Yang Kai's divine sense swept over it, his expression changed drastically. He shouted in a low voice: "A demonic thought! Everyone, guard your minds — don't let it seep in. If it does, you'll fall into Qi Deviation!"
The moment those words left his mouth, everyone's faces went pale. But Yang Kai had just pulled them back from the jaws of death, so even though they didn't understand what was happening, they reacted almost instinctively, sealing off their spiritual seas and locking down their minds.
"Brother Yang, this demonic thought… is it the same kind of demonic thought we know of?" Fang Zhuo asked.
What he meant by "demonic thought" was the assortment of stray notions that warriors accumulated along the path of Cultivation — thoughts that could interfere with one's practice. Greed, lust, jealousy, hatred… all of these fell under that category. Under certain circumstances, they could lead a person to Qi Deviation.
Yang Kai shook his head, his gaze fixed on the cluster of black light as though facing a great enemy. His mind involuntarily drifted back to everything he had experienced within the Thousand Illusion Dream Realm. Then he spoke: "There exists a great world called the Demon Domain. The beings there call themselves the Demon Race. In ancient times, they assaulted the Star Boundary several times, but the sages of antiquity repelled them and slew many of their powerful figures. However, the Demon Race possesses a very peculiar nature — their life force is extraordinarily tenacious, and certain things among them are extremely difficult to annihilate. Even those ancient sages could not destroy them completely, so they could only seal them away. I don't know what's sealed behind that blood-red gate, but this demonic thought escaped from behind it. And that demonic thought — it is the remnant soul of a powerful demon."
What he had just seen flee from behind the door was precisely this cluster of black light.
The others listened, their expressions growing increasingly uneasy. This was the first time any of them had heard the name "Demon Domain." They were, after all, Emperor Realm cultivators of extraordinary cultivation — they couldn't claim to know every secret under heaven, but there was very little that was unknown to them.
Yet the term "Demon Domain" was genuinely new to them. They did know of the Demon Race, having encountered fragmentary records in some ancient texts, but those accounts had been far from detailed.
"Brother Yang, are you saying there's a member of the Demon Race sealed behind that gate?" Fang Zhuo asked, frowning.
"As things stand now, I'm afraid that's exactly the case."
Shen Bingru said: "This ancient cave dwelling has been here for tens of thousands, perhaps even over a hundred thousand years. Even if a powerful demon was truly sealed here back then, surely it wouldn't still be alive after all this time?"
Yang Kai replied: "That's precisely why only a demonic thought has appeared. The demons sealed inside have most likely perished — but their remnant souls remain."