The Moon Blade shattered, and the middle-aged man's brow twitched as his heart skipped a beat. He hastily retreated.
But it was already too late. The Moon Blade exploded, spatial power running rampant as rifts tore open throughout the void.
Those rifts weren't arranged haphazardly — they actually formed three large characters right before his eyes: "FUCK YOUR MOTHER!"
"Space Divine Ability!" the middle-aged man blurted in surprise, his face showing shock. He was far more concerned about the spatial technique than Yang Kai's vulgar insult.
Space Divine Ability was far too elusive and unpredictable to cultivate, and anyone who could wield it to such a degree was certainly no ordinary person.
"Could it be him!" A figure surfaced in the middle-aged man's mind. If the person across from him matched his imagination, this was going to be troublesome. The Beast Martial Great Emperor of Spirit Beast Island was not someone whose reputation could be lightly ignored, and that man was one of Emperor Mo Huang's generals. Confronting him directly would be quite the headache.
But... he had never heard of this person having any connection to a lower-plane star domain. How had he suddenly appeared in the Heng Luo Star Domain?
He suddenly recalled the family of three who had been swept into this world three years ago. He hadn't bothered to pay them any attention back then, but now it seemed like it was time to have a little chat with them — perhaps he could extract some useful information.
Before the darkness, Yang Kai waited with focused attention.
He waited for a full day and night without seeing any signs of retaliation from the other side, and quickly grew bored. He had no idea whether his Moon Blade strike had inflicted any damage, though he figured it probably hadn't. The barrier between the two star domains had weakened enough to allow him to launch a cross-realm strike, but its power would naturally be limited. With the opponent's considerable abilities, it would take far more than that to wound them.
He wondered why the other side had gone silent.
Yang Kai couldn't be bothered to think too hard about it. As long as the other side didn't attack, he could focus on recovering his own star domain.
The darkness continued to recede, revealing the starry sky that had been swallowed.
At one moment, a sharp gleam flashed in Yang Kai's eyes, and he grinned savagely. "Quite bold of you!"
He reached out to grab forward, and a figure suddenly tumbled out from the boundless darkness. Yang Kai furrowed his brow, but upon recognizing the figure, he immediately withdrew his hand, then pulled and drew the figure to his side.
"Yuqin?" Yang Kai looked down at the girl before him, his brow slightly furrowed.
Lu Yuqin wasn't injured, but her face was deathly pale, clearly having been traumatized by something. Her pupils were dilated, and she trembled all over.
Yang Kai called out to her twice, but she didn't respond at all.
Left with no choice, Yang Kai gently channeled some energy to calm her mind.
After a good while, Lu Yuqin gradually came to her senses. Her eyes slowly focused, and upon recognizing Yang Kai's face, she burst into tears before she could even speak.
"How did you come from that side? Where are your parents?" A sense of unease welled up in Yang Kai's heart.
"Lord Yang, please save my father and mother!"
Yang Kai's heart sank. "They're over there?"
"Please, you have to save them!" Lu Yuqin clung to Yang Kai's arm, weeping profusely.
"Tell me slowly. Stop crying." Yang Kai tried to console her.
It took quite a while before Lu Yuqin calmed down enough to narrate what had happened over these past years in broken, halting sentences.
One day three years ago, the Void Corridor connecting the Heng Luo Star Domain and the Great Desolation Star Domain had suddenly erupted. Darkness swept through and engulfed their entire family of three. By the time they came to their senses, they found themselves in an entirely different stretch of starry sky.
Only later did they learn that this star domain was, in fact, the Great Desolation Star Domain.
Still, with Li Jiao and Lu Sanniang — two beings who had transcended the boundaries of star domains — their family hadn't encountered any real danger. They simply could never find the way back.
Then, just a day ago, a middle-aged man had suddenly appeared before them and spoken with Li Jiao at length.
Lu Yuqin had no idea what they had actually discussed. In the end, the middle-aged man seized her, carried her to the edge of the darkness, and threw her in.
"What's that guy's name?" Yang Kai knew there was someone on the other side of the darkness devouring his star domain, and now that Lu Yuqin had confirmed it, he was more certain than ever that his guess had been right.
Lu Yuqin shook her head.
She had never seen the man before yesterday. All she knew was that even her parents were no match for him. When he seized her, both her parents had tried to intervene, but they couldn't so much as touch the hem of his clothes. His strength was almost incomprehensibly deep.
"What did he say?" Yang Kai continued.
Since the man had thrown Lu Yuqin back, he obviously wanted her to deliver a message.
Lu Yuqin said, "He told me to pass along a message — if you want my parents to live, hand over the Star Domain Origin."
"Ha!" The corner of Yang Kai's eye twitched. "Is there something wrong with his head?"
He had gotten along reasonably well with Li Jiao over the years, but that didn't mean someone could use Li Jiao as a pawn to manipulate him. If it were Su Yan and the others who had been captured, Yang Kai might have actually considered it.
Besides, even if he actually handed over the Star Domain Origin, there was no guarantee the other side would keep their promise to release them. And once Yang Kai lost the Star Domain Origin, he would have no capital left to fight back — the Heng Luo Star Domain would ultimately be doomed to be swallowed.
Had the man sent Lu Yuqin back with this message just to disgust him on purpose?
"Lord Yang..." Lu Yuqin gazed at Yang Kai with a look of desperate pleading.