Inside the Blood Arena, Yang Kai let out a low whistle and glanced down at his feet. At some point, a withered, skeletal hand had appeared at his ankle, demonic energy churning in its palm as it made a grasping motion. But the owner of that withered hand seemed to sense something was off, and now it froze rigid beneath Yang Kai's foot, motionless.
The moment Yang Kai's gaze fell upon it, the hand made a decisive retreat, sinking back into the earth and vanishing without a trace.
Yang Kai bared his teeth in a savage grin and stomped his foot down hard upon the ground.
Crack—
A massive fissure split open at the point of impact, spreading forward like a serpent slithering from its hole—twisting and winding, but moving at tremendous speed.
A muffled groan came from beneath the earth. Immediately after, at the very tip of the crack, a gaunt figure shot skyward, wreathed in swirling clouds of sand and dust that obscured its features.
This was a Sand Demon. No one knew when it had buried itself beneath Yang Kai's feet, apparently lying in wait for the chance to deliver a killing blow. But those five Demon Kings had died far too quickly before, never giving it an opening. Now forced to reveal itself, its greatest advantage had evaporated entirely.
The Sand Demon broke into a frantic sprint the instant it appeared, the sand swirling around its body violently pulsing outward. Under the surge of its demonic energy, an all-encompassing storm of grit and gravel swept toward Yang Kai. Every single grain had been tempered with its own demonic energy over countless years, making them devastatingly lethal—not a whit weaker than a peak Demon Commander's full-power strike.
With that countless multitude of sand grains attacking simultaneously, even a Demon King would have to retreat.
The sharp hissing of projectiles cutting through the air was incessant. The Sand Demon glanced back in the midst of its desperate attack and immediately furrowed its brows—because behind it, there was nothing but empty space. Its all-out counterstrike had struck nothing but air.
Just as confusion set in, a chilling aura abruptly materialized ahead, blocking its path.
The Sand Demon's face went pale with shock. It whipped its head around, and there was Yang Kai—who should have been behind it—standing in front of it at some unknown point, wearing an amused smirk and no more than ten feet away.
When had he—?
There was no time to think. Instinct took over. Its body shuddered as it slammed to a halt, then it burst forward in a flash, attempting to dart past Yang Kai's side.
Yang Kai extended one hand and made a casual grasping motion in its direction, as though pinching a fly.
In the next instant, the Sand Demon felt a massive hand clamp around its throat. Its breath cut off, and its entire body was lifted involuntarily into the air before Yang Kai, feet dangling high above the ground.
It struggled with all its might, but as a torrent of Emperor Qi flooded into its body, it lost all capacity to resist in a single heartbeat.
"You—" Only now did the Sand Demon realize that Yang Kai's power seemed fundamentally different from what it had expected. What was pouring into its body was not demonic energy at all, but rather what was rumored to be the Emperor Qi of the human race. Its eyes went wide, staring at Yang Kai in utter disbelief.
Could this fellow actually be a human?
Before the thought could even finish forming, the power raging through its body boiled over, ravaging its organs, destroying its flesh and bones. An expression of excruciating agony twisted the Sand Demon's face, and after just a few breaths, it detonated with a deafening boom.
In this brief span of time, the Demon Kings that had fallen to Yang Kai's hand now numbered six.
A faint sense of something stirred in Yang Kai's awareness, and he suddenly turned his head to gaze into the distance.
Upon a mountain peak far away, a graceful figure stood quietly at the summit, her gaze fixed in his direction.
Yang Kai's expression turned peculiar.
What the hell? The ultimate prize of this free-for-all was Li Shiqing—so why was a female Demon King participating? Could this female Demon King have some unusual tastes? It wasn't impossible, after all. The world was vast, and all manner of birds could be found in the forest.
Their gazes met across the distance, and Yang Kai quickly determined that this female Demon King was a Feather Demon—she had a pair of exquisitely shaped wings on her back. He flashed a grin at her, but the female Demon King simply turned and departed, a deep look of wariness shimmering in her eyes.
She had clearly witnessed the spectacle of Yang Kai's overwhelming power and classified him as a formidable enemy. Otherwise, she would never have withdrawn so decisively.
In the spectator stands, Xiao Wu covered her red lips with both hands, her eyes glazed over as she stared at Yang Kai's figure.
She hadn't seen the moment when Yang Kai killed those five Demon Kings, but she had witnessed the entire scene of him slaying the Sand Demon with crystal clarity. That Sand Demon had been a full-fledged Demon King, yet in Yang Kai's hands, it had been as helpless as a three-year-old child.
This gave her a bit more confidence in Yang Kai, making her feel that it wasn't impossible for him to survive to the very end. She immediately fixed her gaze on Yang Kai's movements without blinking. Behind her, that Demon Commander chuckled and said, "See? Your master really is powerful. I didn't bet wrong this time."
…
It seemed that to accommodate this large-scale free-for-all, the Blood Arena—which was already not small to begin with—had expanded into an even more vast space. After killing those six Demon Kings, Yang Kai strolled casually through the arena with unhurried steps.
For him, the ultimate objective was to win Li Shiqing. Every demon in this Blood Arena was an enemy, and every one of them was fair game to kill.