Wu Kuang laughed. "Haven't seen you in years, and your mouth's gotten bigger — your confidence too. Looks like you haven't wasted your time."
Yang Kai held his chin high. "I've always been this way!"
The Devouring Great Emperor — hailed as the greatest evil being in all of history — was remarkably even-tempered. Even with Yang Kai's repeated provocations, he showed no anger, merely smiling. "Let's talk this out properly. Hard to have a conversation when every other sentence out of your mouth is a barb. Wouldn't you agree?"
Yang Kai reined in his expression. Though his face still held a trace of indignation, he suppressed some of his irritation and said flatly, "What exactly are you scheming?"
Wu Kuang raised a hand and swept it gently before him. The chessboard and pieces dissolved into motes of starlight, twisting into a nebula that drifted upward to hang in the sky. Then a tea set materialized on the table in front of him. He turned a genial smile toward Mei Jiu'er standing behind Yang Kai. "Girl, do you know how to brew tea?"
Mei Jiu'er hesitated, glancing at Yang Kai. Seeing no objection from him, she nodded. "A little."
She knew the old man before her was no saint, but she also knew he was an extraordinary powerhouse. Regardless of whether his nature was good or evil, the strong deserved a measure of respect.
"I'd appreciate it." Wu Kuang gestured toward the table with his hand.
Mei Jiu'er looked at Yang Kai once more. When he nodded, she walked to the table and settled into a proper kneeling seat, then began the brewing process with practiced, methodical movements.
Wu Kuang watched for a while, confirming that Mei Jiu'er genuinely knew her craft — and not merely "a little" as she claimed. She appeared thoroughly versed in the art. He smiled and nodded in approval.
Looking up at Yang Kai, he said, "This seat does indeed have schemes. What I'm planning concerns the common people, concerns the survival of the Star Boundary… Look at you — you ask, I answer, and now you're looking at me with those distrustful eyes. What would you have me do?"
"Keep talking." Yang Kai jerked his chin at him.
"I'm done," Wu Kuang said with a smile. "That's it."
"You expect me to believe that?" Yang Kai gave him a sidelong look.
Wu Kuang shook his head slowly. "Naturally you won't." He paused. "However, even if you won't believe me, you should believe Duan Hongchen. After the Battle of the Shattered Star Sea, this seat and Hongchen share a dual-soul body. A dual-soul bond is far more complex than you imagine. Suffice it to say that, if both parties are willing, they can lay bare their secrets and see directly into each other's thoughts. What exactly this seat intends to do is not something I can disclose to you — your strength is too low, and knowing would do you no good. But Hongchen knows, and he approves."
Yang Kai's brow furrowed. As Wu Kuang said, he did not trust this old scoundrel. But if Duan Hongchen was backing his words, that demanded serious consideration.
The Hongchen Great Emperor had once severed his own cultivation multiple times to deal with the threat Wu Kuang posed, entering the Shattered Star Sea at the Dao Origin Realm level time and again to track Wu Kuang down. His title was Hongchen — the world of mortals — and he roamed the mortal realm, yet he cherished it and shielded these three thousand mortal worlds.
If Wu Kuang's scheme truly endangered the Star Boundary, Duan Hongchen would never have agreed to it.
Yang Kai stared directly into Wu Kuang's eyes, as though trying to pierce through pretense and peer into the depths of his sea of consciousness. "Senior," he said in a low voice, "is he telling the truth?"
The question was not directed at Wu Kuang, but at Duan Hongchen.
This time, Hongchen did not answer through the shared body. Instead, he transmitted his voice directly into Yang Kai's mind, his tone tinged with resignation. "I'd rather not admit it, but what the old ghost says is correct. If it weren't, I would never have allowed him to run wild like this. The old ghost's strength surpassed all of ours back in the day, and he knows things we never knew. The Battle of the Shattered Star Sea… sigh. Let us simply say that those on different paths cannot make their journey together."
Yang Kai was taken aback — not because Duan Hongchen had corroborated Wu Kuang's claims, but because of the anguish that bled through the Great Emperor's voice. His grief over the outcome of the Battle of the Shattered Star Sea.
That battle had been a cataclysmic war waged by the Great Emperors of the Star Boundary to eliminate the evil known as Wu Kuang. In the aftermath, four Great Emperors had fallen in succession, and Wu Kuang's physical body had been shattered, his soul fleeing into the void.
The battle itself had been justified. Though four Great Emperors had perished and the Star Boundary had paid a terrible price, destroying the Devouring Great Emperor — that cancer — meant the Great Emperors had died with purpose, able to smile even in the afterlife.