"Just you wait. Sooner or later, I'll settle this score with you."
Yang Kai's expression was dark. Li Jiao hovered at his side, too terrified to utter a word.
He had no idea what was going on. A month after departing from the Northern Territory, Yang Kai's temper had suddenly grown foul. His face was so gloomy each day that a layer of frost could have been scraped from it, and he muttered curses under his breath at no one in particular.
Li Jiao was anxious, wondering what he could have done to provoke this. He hadn't provoked the man at all these past days — so why the sudden change in mood?
Fortunately, even though Yang Kai was in high dudgeon, he hadn't taken it out on Li Jiao. The latter treaded carefully each day, terrified of lighting the volcano simmering inside the man.
Of course, Yang Kai's sour mood had nothing to do with Li Jiao. It was all because of Luan Feng!
That damned woman had destroyed the spatial transmission array he'd once set up in the Barbarian Ancient Land. If she hadn't, he could have gone directly from Lingxiao Palace into the Ancient Land and then transferred to the Eastern Sea.
The distance wouldn't have been short either way, but that route would have been far superior to what he was doing now.
Because Luan Feng had wrecked his array, he was now forced to fly all the way to the Eastern Territory. Even if the journey was smooth, it consumed an absurd amount of time.
The thought made his mood plummet. He silently vowed that next time he saw Luan Feng, he would settle the account properly. Infuriating.
The Cloud Stream Shuttle was fast. Yang Kai and Li Jiao took turns piloting it, working together seamlessly.
When there was nothing else to do, Yang Kai sat in meditation. His Cultivation had hit a bottleneck, but that didn't affect his practice of the Dragon Transformation Art. After his dragon transformation, he stood four and a half zhang tall, and continuing to refine the Art would allow him to fuse the Golden Holy Dragon's origin power even more deeply into his body, further strengthening his transformed state.
Occasionally he also contemplated the Space Laws.
The spatial techniques he had mastered were mostly ones he'd comprehended on his own, each one unfathomably powerful. If he could gain insight into one or two more, it would be a tremendous help.
This trip to Dragon Island had been partly reckless impulse, but it was also the product of careful deliberation.
Yang Kai knew full well that this journey would be fraught with peril. A conflict with Dragon Island was entirely possible, and at his current level of strength, entering Dragon Island meant a one-in-ten chance of survival. But Zhu Qing was on Dragon Island, and he could not simply stand by and do nothing.
Zhu Lie's words in the Samsara World still echoed in his ears. He didn't know what awaited Zhu Qing after she returned to Dragon Island, but it couldn't be anything good.
The supreme among all spirits, foremost of the Sacred Spirits — she had entered into an intimate relationship with a human. Yang Kai didn't need to think twice to know that Dragon Island would never permit such a thing.
If Zhu Qing couldn't bear the pressure and was willing to sever ties with him, that would be one thing. But if she refused — she would surely suffer.
Would Zhu Qing be willing? Yang Kai had never once entertained that question, because he already knew the answer without needing to ask.
Time slipped by, and the days passed uneventfully.
The Dragon Transformation Art had shown little progress. Yang Kai had only been practicing it for a short while, after all. Reaching four and a half zhang was thanks to the Dragon Blood Pill and the nourishment of Zhu Qing's pure yin energy. Further advancement would require the slow accumulation of time — a great deal of it.
The Eastern Sea.
The vast ocean stretched endlessly in every direction. Not a cloud marred the azure sky, clear and pristine as if freshly washed.
Even with the Cloud Stream Shuttle's help, it had taken Yang Kai and Li Jiao a full two months to travel from the Northern Territory to this place — a testament to the immense distances between the major territories of the Star Boundary.
Once they entered the Eastern Sea, Li Jiao took sole control of the shuttle. Yang Kai had absolutely no idea where Dragon Island was located, whereas Li Jiao at least knew a rough bearing.
His knowledge came from the very thing Yang Kai had guessed before — he was a dragon descendant, carrying the bloodline of the Dragon Clan. That blood gave him an almost instinctive, deeply personal connection to Dragon Island. Even though he had never once set foot there, that connection had only deepened over the years.
He wanted to enter Dragon Island, but he knew that with his thin trickle of dragon blood, he had no qualifications to approach it.
Five hundred years ago, he had searched the Eastern Sea for a long time, trying to locate the island's position.
It had taken him three full years to find even a sliver of a lead, and all he had learned was a rough direction.
According to him, he had inadvertently followed someone into a stretch of ocean. Once they entered that region, the person he'd been tracking had vanished without a trace.
The person he'd followed, it seemed, also carried dragon bloodline.
That discovery had thrilled Li Jiao to no end. He had continued searching the area for a long time afterward but never found another clue, and ultimately had to give up.
It wasn't until Yang Kai had come looking for him, digging up the wish buried deep in his heart, that he had followed without hesitation.
"I lost track of that fellow right in this stretch of sea." The Cloud Stream Shuttle had been stowed. On the boundless expanse of ocean, with no landmark in sight, Li Jiao drew a circle in the air before them with his finger and spoke to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai scanned both directions and frowned. "Are you sure it's here? There's nothing to use as a reference."
Li Jiao replied, "There are no landmarks, but I'm certain of this. I've had this stretch of ocean burned into my memory."
Yang Kai nodded. If the man was that sure, it had to be right. "This area is enormous, though — tens of thousands of miles in every direction. And we still don't have much to go on."
"Should we just give up?" Li Jiao looked at Yang Kai warily. All throughout the journey, he had been holding fast to his determination, resolved to enter Dragon Island and see it with his own eyes. But now that they had actually arrived, he was starting to lose his nerve.
He was afraid — not of death, exactly. What he feared was this: if they actually found Dragon Island, would he have the courage to step onto it?
He asked himself honestly, and found no answer.