Earlier, when using the Mountain and River Bell to trap Yue Sang, Yang Kai had not engaged him in any direct confrontation, yet the massive backlash from the artifact had still rocked him hard. After all, he was only a Second-Order Emperor, while Yue Sang possessed Half-Saint cultivation. Even with the Mountain and River Bell's power, restraining him had cost Yang Kai dearly.
Just moments ago, his mind had been too consumed by the shock of Bright Moon's death to notice, but now, as he fled and activated the Laws of Space, he immediately realized just how bad his condition was. His qi felt hollow and unstable, his entire body ached, and it seemed as though countless bones had cracked.
In this state, forget about fighting anyone—if a Half-Saint caught up to him, death was a certainty.
Fortunately, Zhui Feng had arrived at the critical moment to save him.
A single teleportation had barely widened the gap between him and the Demon Saints behind him, only for them to close it in the blink of an eye and close in even faster.
Yang Kai glanced back, so frustrated he could have spat blood.
This was the first time he had ever been chased by such powerful beings. The sensation of his life hanging by a thread at every moment was utterly wretched. He frantically stuffed a handful of spirit pills into his mouth, bit down, swallowed, then pressed himself flat against Zhui Feng's back, gripping its mane with both hands.
Zhui Feng had clearly sensed the severity of the situation as well. With muscles rippling beneath its hide, all four hooves thundered as it spared no effort carrying Yang Kai to safety. A layer of crimson blood mist gradually rose from its back, hot white breath billowed from its nostrils, and its speed surged a fraction higher.
Even so, after ten breaths, the first Demon Saints to give chase—Xue Li and Fu Yu—were barely a thousand li behind.
A blade-sharp killing intent locked onto him from behind. Yang Kai's face changed drastically. He twisted around to see Fu Yu drawing her bow and nocking an arrow mid-pursuit.
Without a moment's hesitation, Yang Kai activated the Laws of Space once more, teleporting himself and Zhui Feng away.
A sharp whistle pierced the air as a streak of light shot through the afterimages Yang Kai and Zhui Feng had left behind, scattering them to nothing.
A thousand li away, Yang Kai had already reined Zhui Feng into a different direction and fled toward another heading. Running in a straight line was entirely hopeless—Zhui Feng was fast, but not fast enough to outrun the Demon Saints. If he kept going like this, he would be caught long before he reached the passage between realms.
To escape the Zhoutian Continent, he would need to find another way. Fortunately, heaven never seals off every path. His Dharma Body had already departed ahead of him.
When Yang Kai abruptly changed course, the pursuing Xue Li and Fu Yu were mildly surprised, but neither Demon Saint thought much of it. They assumed the human youth had panicked and was fleeing blindly—which was precisely what they wanted to see. This little human was as slippery as an eel, darting about with his mastery of the Laws of Space, making him genuinely difficult to chase down.
Once Yang Kai made it through the passage, things would become far more troublesome. The fact that he was now running away from it instead was welcome news.
Xue Li's cold, sinister laughter echoed across heaven and earth: "Kid, stop right now and I'll grant you a swift death. Otherwise, I'll make you suffer every torture this world has to offer!"
Yang Kai ignored him entirely, whispering only to Zhui Feng: faster, faster still.
Blood mist continued to pour off Zhui Feng's body—it was clearly pushing itself to the limit. Yet rather than exhaustion, the chase seemed to invigorate it. It let out wild neighs from time to time, radiating an almost wild excitement.
Years of peaceful living had nearly made it forget the days when it carried Chang Tian into battle. But Yang Kai's appearance had rekindled that stirring, blood-pumping thrill it thought it would never feel again.
Half an hour vanished in the blink of an eye during the chase.
Xue Li was growing increasingly exasperated. A Demon Saint, chasing after a middle-grade Demon King, and still unable to catch him after this long—the sheer humiliation of it.
That said, half the credit for Yang Kai's elusiveness belonged to that beast Zhui Feng. One bolted like lightning, the other teleported through space—their coordination made them genuinely difficult to pin down. The Half-Saints had long since fallen behind and disappeared from sight, with only the Demon Saints still trailing Yang Kai.
Yet as time wore on, Yang Kai's situation grew ever more dire.
Though the Zhoutian Continent was vast, more than a dozen Demon Saints were converging on him. With even minimal coordination among them, they could form a complete encirclement.
Yang Kai had clearly realized this as well, but there was nothing he could do about it.
After another hour, Zhui Feng finally came to a halt in the void, blood mist steaming off its body as it snorted heavily, its skin flushed crimson and searing hot, as though it had been branded with a red-hot iron. Yang Kai, still astride its back, was pale-faced and gasping for breath, blood trickling from the corner of his lips with every ragged exhale.
It was not that Zhui Feng had exhausted its strength—it was that the Demon Saints had completed their encirclement, sealing off every possible escape route.
Figures materialized in the void all around him, some watching with idle amusement, others with cold indifference.
Xue Li bared his teeth, glaring at Yang Kai with spiteful fury: "Run! Keep running! Why'd you stop?"
Yang Kai turned his head, spat a mouthful of bloody saliva with a defiant sneer, and swept his cold gaze across every figure surrounding him, studying each Demon Saint's face as though searing their features into his very bones.
Xue Li extended a finger and pointed at him: "Kid, I'm going to make you wish you'd never been born—begging for death and finding it denied!"
Yang Kai snorted coldly, turning to fix him with a hard stare: "That depends on whether you're capable of it."
Xue Li's fury twisted into a laugh: "Still mouthing off when death is upon you? We'll see how long that lasts."