Watching Yang Kai stroll about with an air of utter nonchrance, casually collecting the Evil Spirit Origins with a serene expression on his face, Yu Qing couldn't help but laugh bitterly again and again. He opened his mouth, but didn't dare say a word.
The old man's face was equally unsightly, looking as though he were about to vomit blood.
It took a good while before Yang Kai finished collecting all the Evil Spirit Origins in their vicinity. He glanced over lightly and chuckled, "Keep going—I'll come back for more later!"
Those words were practically designed to make people's blood boil.
Four Purification Bottles, still far from full. Yang Kai went for another stroll in the distance before returning.
When he arrived at the elevated platform where everyone had taken shelter, he tossed the four Purification Bottles to the Hu sisters and said, "Keep an eye on things. I need to digest a bit first."
"Mm." Both Hu sisters wore expressions as lovely as peach blossoms, beaming with sweet smiles.
Though the final four Purification Bottles had all been given to Hu Jiao'er and Hu Meier, not a single person from Ghost King Valley or the Treasure Artifacts Sect harbored any complaints.
Each of their factions had already harvested two bottles' worth of Evil Spirit Origins.
The debt Yang Kai had owed Ghost King Valley was not only fully repaid, but had yielded them a tremendous windfall.
As for Tao Yang and the others from the Treasure Artifacts Sect, there was even less to complain about. The four senior and junior brothers and sisters had come here only because their master wanted Evil Spirit Origins to see if they could be used in artifact refining. They had originally intended to kill a few Red Evil Spirits just to fulfill their obligation, but now the haul was massive—how could they not be happy?
Moreover, Hu Meier's earlier reckless dive toward the Evil Spirit Spring to search for Yang Kai had made everyone realize that Yang Kai's relationship with the twins was far more complicated than they had assumed. It clearly wasn't some casual acquaintance.
No wonder Yang Kai had simply strolled over and whisked the twins away from that other platform the moment he appeared.
Thinking of this, everyone looked at Yang Kai, then at the Hu sisters, all wearing knowing expressions with peculiar looks on their faces.
"Confirmed—nothing but a shameless lecher!" Leng Shan gritted her teeth silently, seething with hatred.
Back in that other dimension, that bastard had taken outrageous liberties with her and Zi Mo. If an enemy hadn't attacked at the last critical moment, he and Zi Mo might very well have consummated things already.
If Zi Mo had truly been bedded by him back then, Leng Shan suspected she wouldn't have escaped his clutches either.
And now, having fled all the way into the Evil Spirit Cavern, he still ran into beauties entangled with him in ambiguous relationships—and a pair of twins, no less!
How many women did this man know out there, for him to encounter something this statistically improbable?
The more she thought about it, the more indignant Leng Shan became. She secretly resolved never to have anything more to do with Yang Kai. Granted, the guy was decent enough, but he was far too much of a philanderer. If she kept associating with him, she might lose her virtue without even knowing how it happened.
She still intended to marry into a good family, after all. She cast a sidelong glance at the Hu sisters, and her lips moved silently.
No sound came out, but judging by the shape of her mouth, she mouthed the word "boy-crazy."
The platform was alive with jubilant spirits. Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the ground, channeling the evil energy back into his Proud Bone Golden Body while the True Yang Energy in his dantian refilled his meridians.
The strands of evil energy contained within the Evil Spirit Spring could be directly devoured into the Proud Bone Golden Body, but the Evil Spirit Origins could not. They had to be refined with True Yang Energy first.
He probed his dantian with a slight check—there were at least a hundred clusters of Origins, among which only one could be confirmed as a Special Origin.
It was the one left behind by the Soul Evil Spirit after its death.
After a moment's thought, Yang Kai decided to save it for last.
The best delicacies were always reserved for the finale.
Drawing the other Origins within his dantian into his meridians, Yang Kai refined them with his True Yang Energy while simultaneously probing his own martial dao bottleneck.
A hazy, ethereal restriction imposed by heaven and earth weighed upon him. This binding was imperceptible until one reached a certain threshold, but whenever a martial artist stood on the verge of a breakthrough, they could grasp it with perfect clarity.
Shatter this binding, and one's strength could ascend to an entirely new level. Fail to do so, and cultivation would remain stalled. The stronger one's foundation, the more formidable the binding imposed—and the harder it was to break.
This was one of the reasons why martial artists' growth slowed dramatically in the later stages.
Some would remain stuck at a single realm for years on end, limited by their aptitude and unable to shatter that barrier.
And this restriction became especially pronounced at the peak of the Shenyou Realm.
That was why, in the current world, very few people broke through beyond Shenyou. Those who did were all overlord-level powerhouses of their respective regions! At the very least, they were the helm of a first-tier force.
If there was an exception, it was Ling Taixu alone. After all, Lingxiao Pavilion was merely a second-tier Sect, and one that now teetered on the brink of annihilation at that.
Yang Kai focused all his mind and spirit, continuously battering against the bonds that bound him.
Time trickled past.
He didn't know how long it had been when the restriction suddenly shattered. An inexplicable lightness washed over his entire body, as though he had broken free from a cage. Both mind and body surged with an exhilarating sensation of freedom.
It was as if heaven and earth could no longer obstruct his march toward the pinnacle of the martial dao.
An invisible field of force radiated outward from Yang Kai's body like a shockwave, raising a visible ripple in the air.
The group, who had been chatting and laughing, was startled by the abrupt commotion and immediately turned to look at Yang Kai.