Yang Xiao clearly realized the gravity of the situation as well, cupping his fists immediately. "Yes! This child will not fail Father's trust!"
"Go!" Yang Kai waved him off.
"Big brother, be careful. And keep an eye on Mother and Father too," Yang Xue urged. With the Demon Race invading, the only thing she couldn't rest easy about was her parents' safety.
Yang Kai smiled and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry. As long as I'm around, no one will so much as touch a single hair on our parents' heads."
Yang Xue nodded and then set off with Yang Xiao and Qiong Qi, rushing toward the hall where the Spatial Laws were housed. Dragon Island was a small world unto itself, which meant the Void Spirit Bead was completely useless there. Their only option was to use the cross-domain Spatial Laws to reach the area outside the island, then make their way in from there.
Watching the three depart, Yang Kai turned his gaze in another direction. Over there, Nanmen Dajun was frantically at work, leading a group of his own disciples in an emergency repair and reinforcement of the formations. The entire Lingxiao Palace's sect-protecting grand formation had been laid by his hand—no one understood its intricacies better than he did. Under normal circumstances, he could have restored it completely without breaking a sweat. But with the demon assault pressing on without pause, even though his repair speed was far from slow, it still couldn't keep up with the damage.
Growing more anxious by the moment, he erupted at several clumsy-footed disciples.
In the middle of his tirade, someone suddenly clapped him on the shoulder. Nanmen Dajun flew into a rage. "Who the hell do you think you—Pa-Palace Master? Palace Master, you're back?!"
His furious expression gave way to one of astonished joy, and the heart that had been lodged in his throat finally settled back into place.
With Yang Kai's return, the crisis at hand would resolve itself like a hot knife through butter. Having followed Yang Kai for years, Nanmen Dajun harbored an unshakable faith in his Palace Master.
Yang Kai's gaze pierced through the formation's shimmering barrier and looked ahead, his eyes cutting through the void. Over there, he could sense a staggeringly powerful aura—like a blazing lamp in the darkness, standing out starkly among the horde of demons.
A Half-Saint!
Among the demon army attacking Lingxiao Palace, a Half-Saint was personally overseeing the assault.
That Half-Saint sensed the probing presence and immediately unleashed a surge of powerful Divine Sense, transforming it into a savage attack that stabbed toward the depths of Yang Kai's Spiritual Sea like ocean waves crashing against the shore.
Yang Kai snorted coldly. His own Divine Sense surged in response—within his Spiritual Sea, the waters spun and coalesced into a colossal vortex. At the same time, he flung his spiritual soul wide open, actively welcoming the Half-Saint's incoming attack.
The invisible, formless power plunged into Yang Kai's Spiritual Sea, and before it could exert a shred of its force, the vortex devoured it whole.
A hundred li away, a demon Half-Saint mounted atop a massive magical beast grunted heavily, his body swaying slightly in the saddle, a look of shock crossing his face.
Having sensed a surprisingly powerful aura suddenly manifest, this Half-Saint had intended to put the newcomer in his place right off the bat—so he had launched a spiritual attack without a moment's hesitation. Who could have guessed his Divine Sense would be inexplicably severed, with the backlash rattling his consciousness as well?
A look of utter disbelief surfaced on his face. He had clearly perceived that the other party's cultivation was merely comparable to a Superior Demon King, yet that spiritual power dwarfed his own. This fact, which defied all common sense, left him completely baffled.
Before he could work it out, his vision blurred. A figure suddenly materialized before him—standing right on the head of his mount, less than three feet away, gazing at him in silence.
Seeing that face, the Half-Saint felt a flicker of familiarity. It seemed to be none other than that Yang Kai who had caused havoc in the Demon Domain. But why was his hair somewhat graying?
In that momentary daze, the other man's hands had already formed a series of seals, shifting rapidly through several configurations, before a palm came crashing down toward him.
As that palm descended, the Half-Saint felt everything around him slow to an impossible crawl—even his own thoughts seemed to freeze. Between heaven and earth, only that palm existed, rapidly expanding before his eyes.
The waxing and waning of time—like a shuttle, like a dream!
Yang Kai had only scratched the surface of the Power of Time, but that didn't diminish the formidable might of the Time Shuttle Seal.
Just as the palm print was about to slam into the Half-Saint, he let out a thunderous roar—face reddening, neck straining—as he forcibly wrenched himself free from the Power of Time's influence. His massive hand clawed through the void, and a long spear materialized in his grip. With a flick of the shaft, the spear lashed out like a flood dragon surging from the sea, thrusting straight at Yang Kai.
Demonic Energy erupted. A deafening boom rang out. Yang Kai grunted, his body tumbling backward like a paper kite caught in a gale.
In a head-on clash, even though he had seized the initial advantage, the final outcome still went against him. His cultivation was simply too lacking. To stand against a Half-Saint with only the body of a Superior Demon King—there was no one else under the heavens who could have even come close to achieving what he just had.
Yang Kai hurtled backward through the air, his face deathly pale and his figure wretched.
The demon Half-Saint, however, pressed his advantage without mercy. He launched himself upward, leaping off his mount, and his spear thrust forward like a dragon. The magnificent spear stance enveloped Yang Kai completely, sealing off even heaven and earth. A savage laugh escaped his lips.
"Die!"
Whether or not the man before him was that Yang Kai who had caused havoc in the Demon Domain—so long as he killed him and brought back the body for those who knew him to identify, everything would become clear.