Cang Mo gave a slight nod. "Sharp-minded. Not bad, not bad."
Yang Kai offered a faint smile. "I appreciate the compliment. And I can also tell that your attainment in the power of Space can't be all that impressive. Just… average at best."
"You can tell that too?" Cang Mo looked mildly surprised. Just as Yang Kai had said, he had indeed cultivated the power of Space, but he had barely crossed the threshold. He could just barely grasp a sliver of its profundity — understanding the Laws of Space was still a far cry. That wasn't because his aptitude was lacking. He had reached the Pseudo-Emperor level, so how could his talent be anything but exceptional? It was simply that the Laws of Space were incomparably profound. Great aptitude alone didn't guarantee mastery. Sheng Yuzhu had lived in the gaps between voids, immersed in spatial currents day and night, and even after tens of thousands of years of contemplation she had only just entered the door. Did that mean her talent was poor too?
Yang Kai estimated that his attainment in the power of Space was roughly on par with Sheng Yuzhu's.
"If you were truly proficient in the power of Space, there would have been no need to go through all the trouble of sealing this space and severing this stretch of heaven and earth. No matter what, I wouldn't be able to escape your grasp. But you sealed the heavens in advance, which tells me you lack the confidence to overpower me in the power of Space." Facing such a formidable opponent, Yang Kai's expression hadn't changed in the slightest as he spoke at leisure.
This gave Cang Mo a strangely absurd feeling. After a moment's thought he said, "It seems you're a clever man. A clever man should make a wise decision. So — what will you choose?"
He was turning Yang Kai's own question back on him — the very question Yang Kai had posed to Qi Hai and Chi Gui. When Yang Kai had asked it before, both men had made the wise choice and backed off. Clearly, Cang Mo hoped Yang Kai would do the same.
Yang Kai flashed a grin. "My choice, you ask… Naturally, it's…" His expression turned savage in an instant. "To beat the hell out of you!"
His hand flickered. As the Laws of Space surged, a crescent blade suddenly shot out to the side — not aimed at Cang Mo, but at Xu Changfeng, who was being pummeled senseless by the Stone Fire Avatar, staggering backward without any chance to fight back.
In the time the two had been talking, Xu Changfeng had already been suppressed to the point of near suffocation. His strength was considerable, but the Avatar had inherited the Stone Fire origin and was itself a Stone Puppet — Xu Changfeng was no match at all. That he had held on this long was a direct testament to his power. He didn't even have a spare breath to call out to Cang Mo for help, because the moment he let that held breath escape, his defeat would come all the sooner.
He had clung to the hope that Wu Heng, watching from the sidelines, would lend him a hand, but Wu Heng had been struck by Yang Kai's Years Like an Arrow seal and ravaged by the power of Time, his mind further thrown into disarray by the terms Yang Kai had proposed. He had absolutely no intention of helping.
Xu Changfeng nearly coughed up blood.
At the very moment he was at his most desperate, Yang Kai's crescent blade arrived — the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Xu Changfeng's vision went dark. He barely held back a curse as the pitch-black longsword in his hand trembled, sword qi erupting wildly. By the narrowest of margins he deflected the crescent blade's bisecting force, but before he could recover his wits, the Avatar's barb-covered fist was already smashing straight at him.
It's over…
That thought flashed through Xu Changfeng's mind. He forced what remained of his Emperor Yuan to shield his chest, and then the fist slammed into him with devastating force.
Boom! The protective Emperor Yuan shattered instantly. Accompanied by the sound of cracking bones, Xu Changfeng's eyes bulged from their sockets, blood sprayed from his mouth, and he went flying over a hundred zhang before crashing to the ground, life or death unknown.
The abrupt reversal left onlookers' scalps tingling. Tang Sheng and the others had just watched two Eastern Region third-level Emperor Realm experts fall — one suppressed beneath the Mountain and River Bell, the other sent flying by the Stone Fire Avatar. The former was probably still alive; the latter's condition was anyone's guess.
And at the same moment the Avatar blasted Xu Changfeng away, Yang Kai formed a set of spirit seals with his fingers. A tremendous clang suddenly echoed from within the Mountain and River Bell, which had been suppressing Fu Bo all this while. A ring of light radiated outward from the Bell with a thunderous boom, its heaven-and-earth-subjugating might shaking the very foundations of the world. Tianlang Valley, some ten li away, trembled in its wake.
The Mountain and River Bell rose again, revealing Fu Bo's figure where he had been pinned beneath. But now Fu Bo lay crumpled on the ground like a heap of mud, blood seeping from all seven orifices, his face white as paper, his four limbs convulsing without cease — the very picture of a man on the verge of death.
Simply being suppressed beneath the Mountain and River Bell wouldn't have reduced him to such a sorry state.
The thing was, to deal with a fearsome enemy like Cang Mo, Yang Kai had needed to recall the Bell, and Fu Bo — still trapped inside — had to be dealt with first. Leaving a third-level Emperor Realm opponent on his feet would have been far too troublesome.
By driving the Mountain and River Bell's full power against him, Fu Bo had ended up in this condition. Yang Kai couldn't care less whether it killed him. Either way, Fu Bo was out of the fight for the time being.
The Mountain and River Bell, now airborne, hurtled straight toward Cang Mo. Yang Kai and the Stone Fire Avatar followed close behind, their figures alternating as they surged forward in a killing advance.
Against a foe this powerful, sitting and waiting for death was no way to win. Striking first was the only path to victory.
"Insolent!" Cang Mo was visibly stunned. He hadn't the faintest idea that Yang Kai would actually dare attack him. Did the boy not understand the gulf between them? And that earlier string of profanity had stirred Cang Mo's anger as well. It had been countless years since anyone had dared curse him. And now, today, some brat who didn't know the height of heaven or the depth of earth had done it to his face — and in the crudest language imaginable.
Amid his furious shout, Cang Mo slowly pushed a palm forward.
Heaven and earth shuddered. A deep hum reverberated through everything, as though the entire world were about to collapse. The sheer might of that single palm sent Tang Sheng and the others, watching from afar, into a deathly pallor — the illusion that doomsday had arrived, that they would perish in the next instant.
Tang Sheng and Qian Xiuying went white as sheets. Lan He let out a soft whimper, blood already trickling from the corner of her mouth. Only Chi Gui's fighting spirit suddenly soared to the heavens, his gaze burning as he stared intently in that direction, straining to see the palm's mysteries with his own eyes.