Honestly, finding a woman like this in the space crack—unable to tell whether she was good or evil—Yang Kai had no idea how to handle the situation.
If this woman turned out to be an irredeemably evil existence, saving her life would only be aiding a villain. But if she had simply wandered into this place by accident and gotten trapped, ignoring her plight would be far too cruel.
He was almost certainly her last chance at survival. If he walked away, she would die without a doubt.
So regardless of everything, Yang Kai decided to restore some of her vitality first. Once he had figured out her origins and character, he could make his decision then.
He stepped forward and offered the spirit pill in his hand. The woman, emaciated to the point of skin and bones, stared at it longingly and tried desperately to take it. Sadly, she didn't even have the strength to open her mouth, and could only look up at Yang Kai with a pleading gaze.
Yang Kai didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He suddenly felt he was being overly cautious—even if this woman truly had been irredeemably evil in the past, in her current state she would need several decades at the very least, if not a century or more, before she could recover.
With no other choice, he reached out, pried open her mouth, placed the spirit pill inside, and channeled his Emperor Essence to help her swallow it.
A flash of gratitude passed through the woman's eyes. She closed them and began regulating her breath.
Yang Kai didn't idle about either. He placed one hand on her shoulder—without bothering to ask her permission—and carefully channeled his Emperor Essence into her body to help her refine the pill's medicinal effects. This gave him a thorough understanding of her internal condition, and what he perceived was rather shocking.
He had no idea what level of cultivation she had possessed at her peak, but right now her flesh and blood were desiccated, her meridians nearly atrophied with numerous blockages. Yang Kai had to concentrate intently, guiding his Emperor Essence with extreme care as it circulated within her—one careless move could have caused her body to explode.
A Void King grade spirit pill was naturally far from enough for a full recovery. Even with Yang Kai's assistance refining all its medicinal power, it merely stabilized her flickering life force. Her skeletal appearance didn't change in the slightest, though a bit of color finally returned to those dead-fish eyes.
Yang Kai sighed with emotion. They said even an ant clings to life, let alone a human. But if a person were truly trapped in a place like this for tens of thousands of years, Yang Kai figured death might actually be preferable—at least it would bring everything to an end. Being trapped here was nothing short of living torture.
Yet this woman had survived. What kind of extraordinary willpower and resilience did that require? Her mental fortitude must have been beyond imagining to endure under such conditions for so long.
Once the Void King grade pill had been fully refined, the woman stared directly at Yang Kai again, her eyes full of obvious desire—clearly hoping he would give her more spirit pills.
Yang Kai pretended not to understand and stood there scratching his face.
When the staring contest yielded no result, the woman didn't push the matter. She closed her eyes once more, rested for a bit, then opened her mouth. A syllable emerged that sounded like it was being torn apart—clearly she hadn't spoken in far too long, and even with a spirit pill sustaining her vitality, she couldn't yet form complete sentences.
After a long bout of grunting and groaning, she finally managed a full sentence: "Th... thank you!"
Just two simple words, yet they seemed to drain every last ounce of her strength. After that, she fell silent once more.
Yang Kai nodded and smiled. "It was nothing. May I ask your name, miss?"
The woman faltered, a look of confusion surfacing in her eyes.
Yang Kai read her expression and couldn't help but wonder—could she really have been trapped here so long that she'd forgotten her own name?
But soon enough, the woman spoke again, slowly, word by word, straining to recall: "Sheng... Yu... Zhu!"
A name was the mark etched upon a person for their entire life. Even if one momentarily forgot it, a little effort to remember would always bring it back.
Yang Kai was momentarily taken aback. The name was rather unusual. Thinking carefully, it seemed none of the people he'd ever interacted with shared this surname—in fact, he'd never even heard of it before.
"This kid is Yang Kai." Yang Kai clasped his fists in greeting. "I currently serve as an Honorary Elder of the Rakshasa Sect. I happened to notice something unusual in the restricted area and followed the traces here. I never expected to find you here. Was the abnormal activity inside the Rakshasa Sect's restricted area your doing?"
Sheng Yuzhu nodded. It was unclear whether she was someone of few words by nature or simply found it too difficult to speak.
"As I thought..." Yang Kai chuckled in spite of himself. The various phenomena he'd observed in the restricted area had already led him to suspect the source lay within this spatial crack. Upon meeting Sheng Yuzhu here, he was now certain—all of it had been deliberate.
Sheng Yuzhu had been trapped here, so she had deployed tremendous mystical means through that hair-thin spatial fissure to leave behind clues. If anyone ever discovered those clues, they would naturally grow curious about the rift and ultimately find her.
But those cryptic signs—apart from Yang Kai, probably only Li Wuyi of Spirit Beast Island could have detected them in the entire world. Only the two of them were proficient in the laws of space and could perceive the existence of such a crack.
Otherwise, the Sect Master of the Rakshasa Sect, Yu Luosha, wouldn't have remained completely oblivious, simply attributing the phenomena in the restricted area to a gift of heaven—a blessing bestowed upon the Rakshasa Sect.
In that case, everything Yu Luosha had comprehended from that smooth cliff face had been intentionally left behind by Sheng Yuzhu. By that reckoning, Yu Luosha could be considered Sheng Yuzhu's informal disciple, and the entire Rakshasa Sect could be said to be made up of her descendants in spirit.
Judging by Sheng Yuzhu's current condition, she clearly wasn't capable of pulling off such feats anymore. Yang Kai estimated that those measures must have been set in motion over a thousand years ago and had been maintained through some inconceivable means all this time—which was why the changes occurred only on nights of the full moon.
"How long have you been trapped here?" Yang Kai asked. He was truly curious about this.
Sheng Yuzhu slowly shook her head. "I... don't quite remember."