Cold light flickered and spear shadows danced. Every thrust sent a chill of dread through the Stone Demon Half-Saint. To onlookers it might have appeared to be merely dazzling spearwork, but within his vision, a snarling ancient dragon was lunging at him, whipping its tail and snapping its jaws. Those soul-penetrating dragon roars carried some kind of uncanny power, unsettling his spirit and making it impossible to focus his full strength against the onslaught.
Hissing cuts rang out in an endless stream. Wounds opened across the Stone Demon's rugged body one after another. In the blink of an eye, he was drenched in his own blood. Pain stoked his ferocity—his eyes burned crimson as he suddenly raised one hand, extended a thumb, and pressed it downward toward Yang Kai with crushing deliberation.
His speed was not fast; if anything, it seemed sluggish, as though some invisible force was impeding the motion.
But the instant that thumb pressed down, Yang Kai's expression changed. He pulled his spear back into a defensive stance, whirling the Azure Dragon Spear into a blur of afterimages that formed an impenetrable wall before him.
Clang-clang-clang! Sparks erupted in front of Yang Kai. No weapon had come anywhere near him, yet the sound of metal clashing against metal rang through the air.
In the next moment, the sky full of spear shadows collapsed inward. Yang Kai held the spear horizontally across his chest as a vast, irresistible force surged toward him head-on, carried by the Stone Demon Half-Saint's descending thumb.
He glanced down. A slight depression had formed over his chest.
"Die!" the Stone Demon Half-Saint roared, thrusting his thumb forward with explosive force.
Yang Kai coughed up a spray of golden blood and was sent hurtling backward.
"Senior Brother Yang!" Lan Xun cried out in alarm. With a flick of her wrist, a green vine shot from her sleeve and caught the flying figure, pulling him back. Taking a blow from a Half-Saint—even with Yang Kai's formidable physique—had left his insides churning. An ordinary Emperor Realm cultivator would have been killed outright by such a strike. He had spat blood, but his life was not in danger; he was merely momentarily short of breath.
He leaned against Lan Xun, and the soft sensation against his back made her cheeks flush faintly. Though she and Yang Kai had known each other for many years and were on reasonably good terms, they had never been this close before. On a battlefield, under the gaze of everyone present, it sent a wave of shy mortification through her.
Concern won out over embarrassment, and she asked tensely, "Senior Brother, are you all right?"
"Not dead yet." Yang Kai turned his head and spat out a mouthful of blood with defiant contempt. He shook himself, steadied his stance, and fixed the Stone Demon Half-Saint with a savage grin.
The Stone Demon Half-Saint, having delivered that strike, could not help showing a look of lingering fear. Recalling Yang Kai's ferocious assault moments before, even from an enemy's perspective he had to admit this fellow was no ordinary opponent. A mere High-Order Demon King wielding such power—if he ever advanced to Half-Saint, what chance would the rest of them have?
His resolve to kill Yang Kai only hardened. He stepped forward and snorted coldly, "Don't think you can do as you please just because you have a little skill. Before, in the Demon Realm, that sluts Yu Rumeng shielded you. Now that she's gone, let's see who has your back. Kneel down and beg for mercy—perhaps I'll spare your life!"
Yang Kai held the Azure Dragon Spear in one hand and pointed it at the Stone Demon Half-Saint from a distance, chuckling darkly. "The one who should die is you!"
"Bold words from a dead man—" The Stone Demon Half-Saint's face turned cold and severe. Then his expression suddenly shifted, eyes widening in horror as he looked down at his own palm. His gaze trembled violently.
He was a Stone Demon, born with extraordinary natural defense—and powerful defense meant powerful recovery. Ordinary wounds were nothing to him. Even the injuries Yang Kai had dealt him moments ago, he had dismissed without a second thought; those flesh wounds, with his regenerative ability, would have healed in the time it took to speak a few sentences.
But only now did he realize with terror that his injuries showed absolutely no sign of healing. More than that, they were actually spreading.
In his palm, where Yang Kai's spear had punched through, a strange energy wafted from the bloody hole, ceaselessly corroding the surrounding flesh. His once-proud regeneration was completely useless here, and as the energy ate away at him, the wound slowly widened.
The Stone Demon Half-Saint's face went pale. He hurriedly channeled his power to resist—but it was utterly ineffective. Worse, his own demonic energy became nourishment for that mysterious force. The harder he resisted, the stronger it grew, and the faster it consumed him. He couldn't help but demand in a low voice, "What is this? What in the world is this?"
"A dead man doesn't need to know that much!"
With Yang Kai's abilities as a High-Order Demon King alone, achieving something like this would have been impossible. The Yang Kai of the past could not have done it either. But he had spent several decades cultivating in the ancient battlefield of the Small Sealed World, absorbing the martial Dao true intent of the Great Demon God and the Great Emperor of Time, glimpsing the ultimate mysteries of heavenly power. Those decades of bitter cultivation had not raised his realm, but his gains had been immense.
Drawing upon the legacy of those predecessors, Yang Kai now possessed his own martial Dao true intent—one that had been born from two supremely powerful figures, the Great Demon God and the Great Emperor of Time. It was wondrous beyond compare; even a Demon Race Half-Saint could not hope to dissolve it. And until that martial Dao true intent was unraveled, how could the wounds ever heal?
"I told you—I'm going to use you to consecrate my spear. I've always been a man of my word."
As the last syllable fell, Yang Kai surged forward, the long spear thrusting straight for the Stone Demon's chest. No matter how many Demon Hearts the Stone Demon had refined, there would certainly be one in his chest. Destroy that first, and everything else would follow.
At the same moment, Mo Xiaoqi channeled the power of the Phantom Sky Butterfly. Amid a shimmer of fluorescent light, the Stone Demon's expression froze for an instant—his soul had been disrupted.