"Tsk, giving up already?" Jiu Feng glanced sideways, clearly disappointed. Two masters of the Space Laws clashing was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle — she'd expected the heavens to tremble and the earth to split. Yet Yang Kai had conceded after barely two or three exchanges, which left her feeling thoroughly unsatisfied. She looked him up and down. "Did he hit you?"
Yang Kai nodded faintly, offering no explanation.
Though Jiu Feng's strength was formidable, she hadn't been able to track Li Wuyi's last strike at all. The punch had twisted and turned through the void several times, pursuing Yang Kai like a maggot burrowing into bone, and no matter how he dodged or twisted, he couldn't shake it. It had ultimately landed on him with a light touch — just enough to make contact, then immediately withdrawn, controlled with perfect precision. In this contest of spatial arts, Yang Kai had lost without question. His own techniques were useless against Li Wuyi, yet Li Wuyi could strike him at will. The gap was self-evident.
"I'm truly grateful for the elder's guidance today," Yang Kai said, clasping his fists with a solemn expression. "I will continue to work hard, and I hope that one day I'll be able to defeat you."
Li Wuyi threw his head back and laughed. "Good — I'll be waiting for that day."
Yang Kai smiled. "With matters here concluded, I should take my leave. I'll visit Spirit Beast Island another day to pay my respects to you both."
Li Wuyi raised a hand. "No rush — don't leave just yet. There's something I need your help with."
Yang Kai looked puzzled. "What is it?"
"Give me a moment," Li Wuyi said. His figure blurred and he vanished without a trace.
Yang Kai extended his spiritual sense but couldn't detect any trace of him. He realized Li Wuyi must have used that spatial beacon technique to teleport somewhere unknown.
He turned to Jiu Feng with a questioning look. She shook her head. "Don't look at me — I have no idea what it's about either."
Yang Kai nodded. If Jiu Feng said she didn't know, then she truly didn't. There was no point asking further, so he settled in to wait patiently.
Sure enough, within half the time it took to finish a cup of tea, a distinct fluctuation of spatial power rippled beside Jiu Feng. Li Wuyi's figure reappeared, and he wasn't alone.
A young girl with a butterfly-shaped mark on her face came with him. Her features were breathtakingly beautiful, and her bearing was innocent and carefree, but the enormous butterfly mark covering half her face marred what would otherwise have been perfect beauty. She wore a well-fitted green dress that showed off every curve of her slender figure.
The moment she appeared, the girl looked around with a bewildered expression — and her gaze met Yang Kai's.
"Xiao Qi?" Yang Kai looked surprised.
"Brother Yang?" Mo Xiaoqi's eyes lit up, joy spilling across her face. She dashed out from Li Wuyi's side and ran over to Yang Kai, then suddenly seemed to catch herself, skidding to a stop a full ten feet away. Her cheeks flushed pink as she asked, "Is it really you, Brother Yang?"
"It's really me." Yang Kai smiled and even raised both hands to push the hair back from his forehead, as if letting her get a better look.
"What are you doing in the Eastern Region?" Mo Xiaoqi asked, her delight mingled with astonishment as she pressed her red lips together.
"I came here on business and happened to run into Senior Li and Senior Jiu Feng."
Mo Xiaoqi looked him up and down, then pouted. "You came all the way to the Eastern Region and didn't even visit Spirit Beast Island to see me. Brother Yang, have you already forgotten about me?"
"Hardly," Yang Kai laughed. "I fully intended to visit Spirit Beast Island, but I didn't know the way, so I ended up putting it off."
"Oh…" Mo Xiaoqi nodded, clasped her hands behind her back, and gave him a look that was half-pleased, half-pouty. "Fine then. But next time you come to the Eastern Region, you'd better come to Spirit Beast Island first thing. Promise?"
"I promise, I promise," Yang Kai nodded repeatedly.
Not far away, Li Wuyi and Jiu Feng watched the exchange in silence, and both couldn't help but sigh.
Jiu Feng transmitted through her spiritual sense: "This doesn't look good. Why did you bring that little girl here?"
Li Wuyi replied: "A few days ago, when I sent word to the Great Emperor, I mentioned that Yang Kai was heading to Dragon Island. The Great Emperor instructed me to bring Xiao Qi back with me — said she should go with Yang Kai to Dragon Island to meet the Matriarch."
Jiu Feng understood then, and sighed again. "She should see her. Twenty-odd years — since the day she was born, she's never laid eyes on her own mother. Poor thing. When she was little, she kept asking whether the Great Emperor had picked her up from somewhere outside."
Li Wuyi said, "The last operation was too dangerous to bring her along, and she threw a tantrum for ages over it."
That remark jogged Jiu Feng's memory of events from over a decade ago, and she couldn't help but shudder. She nodded. "Well, it can't hurt to go and meet her. But isn't the Great Emperor worried about how Dragon Island might treat her…? Ah, but right — with the Matriarch there to look after her, Dragon Island won't do anything to Xiao Qi. And on top of that, Yang Kai will be there. Dragon Island is going to have its hands full dealing with him — they won't have time to worry about Xiao Qi. Ha! The Great Emperor really has it all figured out. He's sending young Yang Kai out as the lightning rod so that Xiao Qi can have a nice heart-to-heart with the Matriarch."
While the two of them conversed quietly via spiritual sense, Yang Kai and Mo Xiaoqi were whispering together nearby. After chatting for a while, something came up that made Mo Xiaoqi press her lips together in a sweet giggle, while Yang Kai shook his head with a helpless laugh.
Li Wuyi strolled over and spoke. "Yang Kai, since you're going to Dragon Island this time, take Xiao Qi with you. There's someone over there who wants to see her."