The semicircular gap along the ridge was perfectly smooth, as though carved clean by a sharp blade, giving the mountain peak the appearance of an inverted crescent moon.
Ying Fei and Fu Ling were both somewhat stunned, unable to fathom how Yang Kai had pulled that off.
With Yang Kai's strength, it would have been nothing extraordinary if he had simply obliterated the mountain. But punching a precise semicircular notch out of it? That was harder to make sense of.
"My Lord, could we leave this place first? I'm afraid if we wait much longer… everyone won't be able to hold on." Yuan Wenlong glanced toward the several hundred surviving members of Water Cloud Sect, his face lined with worry.
These several hundred people were all rather weak in cultivation. Having been captured by the Demon Race, their power sealed, and having spent several days in this demonic land, they were already showing signs of deterioration. Most of them were breathing heavily, and a faint aura of violent, sinister energy was seeping from within their bodies.
The demonic land was saturated with demonic intent, silently eroding their minds at every moment. The process wasn't fast, but it certainly wasn't slow either. The fierce battle they had just endured had stirred their emotions further, accelerating the corrosion. If they lingered here any longer, most of them would likely fall into demonic corruption and become demonified.
That was why Yuan Wenlong wanted to get them out as quickly as possible.
Yang Kai naturally understood his concern and nodded. "Relax your minds and do not resist!"
He thrust his large hand forward, and under the sweep of his divine sense, collected all several hundred people into his Minor World.
Moments later, three figures shot into the sky. The passage connecting the two realms had already been sealed by Yang Kai, but the ink spot and the demonic land it had spawned could not be erased.
The situation was exactly the same as what they had encountered in the Western Region a few days ago, which filled Yang Kai with a vague sense of unease.
The demon forces that had fled from Water Cloud Sect hadn't even lasted five days before the pursuing Jizi Army had surrounded and annihilated them. Several hundred thousand demons, if gathered together, might have stood a chance against the Jizi Army. But scattered and separated, they only gave the Jizi Army opportunities to defeat them piecemeal.
There was no meaningful resistance whatsoever. Tens of thousands of demons were killed or wounded, with barely any escaping.
The great army pressed onward without rest, splitting into two columns that crisscrossed and drove deeper into the Northern Region. Along the way, they sealed over a dozen realm passages that Yang Kai had identified.
The Jizi Army was powerful and well-equipped, rarely encountering any force truly capable of challenging them. Only locations where a Half-Saint was stationed could hope to stall their advance. Some places even had more than one Half-Saint, which was a genuine headache.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Region, Southern Region, and even the Western Region, the fifty-five great armies of the Star Boundary had become fifty-five steel blades sweeping across the entire realm. Almost every day, massive battles erupted, and both Human and Demon races suffered devastating casualties. Countless cities and Sects were destroyed, and hundreds of millions of beings were left homeless.
After half a month, the situation across the entire Star Boundary had been thoroughly assessed.
The ink spots—those blight-like anomalies—now numbered a full one hundred and eight across the Star Boundary. They were distributed roughly evenly among the four regions, and the total corresponded precisely to the number of the Heavenly Cycle. It was deeply unsettling.
The Great Emperors still had not been heard from.
However, the Star Boundary side had also confirmed that the Demon Saints had vanished as well.
Back when the ten Demon Saints had crossed over from the Demon Realm, the seven Great Emperors along with Yu Rumeng and the others had pursued them separately. Their battle had been so earth-shattering that it would have been impossible not to take notice. In the final moments, when heaven and earth had cracked apart and a colossal hand had reached through the rift, many had witnessed it firsthand.
So with just a little inquiry, one could piece together what had happened that day.
The Great Emperors, along with the Demon Saints, had all been seized by a colossal hand. No matter who heard such a tale, they would find it hard to believe. Li Wuyi secretly speculated that the hand was probably not the manifestation of anyone's technique—no one under heaven could accomplish such a thing. It was more likely some trap the Demon Saints had secretly arranged in the Demon Realm beforehand, triggered the moment the rift opened.
This speculation was entirely reasonable. Originally, the disappearance of the Great Emperors had sent the populace into a panic. But learning that the Demon Saints had also vanished along with them brought a measure of reassurance.
What everyone truly feared was that the Great Emperors had disappeared while the Demon Saints remained behind in this realm. If that were truly the case, then the Star Boundary would have no one capable of standing against the Demon Saints, and no matter how mighty the fifty-five great armies were, they would eventually be wiped out entirely.
The ink spot in the sky was enormous, and one could faintly discern ripples of dark light radiating outward. Each ripple caused the ink spot to expand imperceptibly. In the short term, the growth was negligible, but if this continued unchecked, the entire Northern Region could eventually be swallowed whole.
Beneath the ink spot, within a radius of three hundred thousand li, everything was demonic land.
Along the outer perimeter of the demonic land, nearly a million troops were encamped, their tents stretching in endless rows as far as the eye could see.
Who could have imagined? When the fifty-five great armies had first converged on the Western Region, the morale had been sky-high. All they needed was the right moment to open a passage to the other realm, and they would deliver a devastating blow to the Demon Race.
And a devastating blow they did deliver. But the realm passage had been opened by the demons themselves. In the Western Region alone, over twenty million demons had been killed or wounded—a devastating loss, no question. Yet the demonic energy released from the corpses of those fallen demons had dispersed across every corner of the Star Boundary. Under the influence of some unknown power, one hundred and eight passages had been torn open throughout the realm, unleashing an unimaginable catastrophe upon the Star Boundary.