Having been exposed by Yang Kai, Bo Ya had no choice but to approach with a reluctant smile, forcing out a greeting: "What a coincidence, you're here too."
Yang Kai stared at her steadily, then pointed at Li Shiqing and said: "From now on, stay away from her. If you dare bother her again, I'll break your legs."
Bo Ya's face went pale at his words, and she erupted in anger: "Don't go too far! This is my freedom—what right do you have to control me?"
Yang Kai let out a cold laugh without saying a word. Instead, he casually produced the Soul Puppet, curled a finger, aimed it at the puppet's forehead, and made a flicking motion—
Bo Ya immediately raised her hand to cover her forehead and stumbled back several steps, her eyes filled with panic. "Don't be rash! Let's talk this out calmly."
"Did you remember what I said?" Yang Kai asked in a firm tone.
Bo Ya looked deeply resentful but could only nod.
Only then did Yang Kai turn to Li Shiqing and say: "If anything comes up in the future, come find me."
Li Shiqing let out a soft "oh" and showed a grateful expression.
Yang Kai waved his hand and left on his own, leaving Bo Ya staring after Li Shiqing with a look of deep grievance, her gaze desperate and on the verge of tears. All she received in return was an apologetic smile.
Back in his room, Yang Kai studied the Demon Realm map once more, paying particular attention to the locations connected by the World Gates on the Zhoutian Continent. He then summoned Lao Ke to ask a few questions before finally gaining some clarity.
The next day, he set out alone.
Having already agreed to help Yu Rumeng handle the World Gate matters across her territories, Yang Kai had no desire to delay. The war at the Two Realms Battlefield had already escalated, and an all-out confrontation between the Human and Demon races could arrive at any moment. The time left to him and Emperor Ming Yue was running dangerously short.
The continents under Yu Rumeng's control numbered fifty or sixty, with roughly half of them hosting a Half-Saint. In other words, Yu Rumeng alone commanded twenty to thirty Half-Saints—Bai Zhuo and Yue Sang were merely two among them. If one ruler possessed such forces, the other eleven Demon Saints were no different. Across the entire Demon Realm, there were close to three hundred Half-Saint-level powerhouses—an absolutely terrifying number.
Yang Kai didn't know how many Pseudo-Emperors the Star Boundary had, but it was inconceivable that the numbers could match this. Having even half as many would be a stroke of extraordinary luck.
And every Half-Saint was the master of a continent. Of course, among all these continents, there were also unclaimed territories like the Cloud Shadow, making up nearly half the total.
However, these unclaimed continents would always have the chance to produce new Half-Saints eventually. That was precisely why Bai Zhuo had said that the size of one's territory was directly tied to a Demon Saint's strength—it wasn't solely because more territory meant more Demon Pills to harvest, but also because of the competition in the number of subordinate Half-Saints.
Yang Kai finally understood why Bai Zhuo had been so friendly toward him, even going so far as to turn against Yue Sang just to keep him safe.
There was certainly the matter of Yu Rumeng's involvement, and the fact that he and Yue Sang were already on bad terms. But the greater reason was that Bai Zhuo needed Yang Kai's Space Laws. As a Half-Saint, Bai Zhuo had his own continent, and its situation was similar to the Cloud Shadow—most of its World Gates had already vanished, with only two remaining, one of which was extremely unstable. For the past century, no one had dared pass through that gate.
When you need someone's help, you naturally have to treat them with special regard.
The Cloud Shadow was an unclaimed territory, which was why Yu Rumeng had sent Yang Kai there as his first stop. There was undoubtedly an element of using the Cloud Shadow as a testing ground—if Yang Kai could truly repair the World Gates, that would be ideal; if he couldn't, or even destroyed the last remaining gate in the process, it wouldn't be much of a loss. After all, that final gate in the Cloud Shadow was going to disappear within a century regardless—whether it happened sooner or later made little difference.
Now that Yang Kai had delivered such stunning results in the Cloud Shadow—not only maintaining the stability of the last remaining World Gate but actually restoring two that had already vanished—Yu Rumeng was finally confident in letting him work at full scale.
Among the dozens of continents under her command, nearly a fifth were experiencing problems with their World Gates to varying degrees. In severe cases, the gates had vanished entirely; in milder cases, they had become unstable. All of them required Yang Kai's assistance.
Yu Rumeng had provided him with the locations and names of all these continents before her departure, and had also stated that each territory would fully cooperate with him and fulfill any request he made.
As a result, Yang Kai's journey proceeded with remarkable smoothness. Every continent he visited rolled out an exceptionally warm reception, and along the way he even made the acquaintance of several Half-Saints presiding over their respective lands.
Since they needed his help, these Half-Saints naturally wouldn't adopt the lofty airs that Yue Sang had. Moreover, Yu Rumeng clearly held Yang Kai in extremely high regard—Yue Sang had merely had a minor spat with Yang Kai and had already been banished to the Two Realms Battlefield, forbidden to return without imperial decree. With Yue Sang's cautionary tale before them, how could they dare be careless?
Some were even speculating that this human who commanded the Space Laws might be the Saint Sovereign's kept lover!
Their Saint Sovereign may have been born a Succubus, but over the years her reputation had been impeccable—there had never been any unusual rumors linking her with the opposite sex. For her to suddenly show such extraordinary favoritism toward a human was bound to invite speculation.
But as it turned out, this only made things more convenient for Yang Kai.