After the time it took an incense stick to burn, in the midst of the jungle, Yang Kai—who had been standing in place—suddenly shuddered, his face pale as paper, two trails of golden blood flowing from his nostrils.
His tightly shut eyes snapped open, flickering with a trace of lingering fear. Though the battle of divine sense moments ago had appeared completely silent and uneventful from the outside, its danger far exceeded his life-and-death struggle against Luo Ya.
After all, that was the divided consciousness of a Demon Saint, and the battlefield had been within his own sea of consciousness—one moment of carelessness would have resulted in the complete annihilation of his soul.
However, it was fortunate that the battlefield was within his own sea of consciousness, granting him the advantage of home terrain. Combined with Xue Li having underestimated the strength of his spiritual cultivation, and with the Warm Spirit Lotus assisting from the side, he had finally managed to slay that divided consciousness—though at a considerable cost.
Both his physical body and his soul had suffered extensive injuries. The contest for the Great Dao had only just begun, and this terrible start was truly exasperating.
The injuries to his body had been sustained during his battle with Luo Ya. Every technique he had employed was of the mutually destructive variety—without the true essence of martial arts continuously eroding Luo Ya's strength, winning wouldn't have been difficult, but actually killing Luo Ya would have been nothing short of a pipe dream. This was simply unavoidable; Half-Saints were not so easy to kill. Among the Half-Saints who had died at his hands, the first—Yin Si—had already been severely wounded and was still recovering when Yang Kai infiltrated his territory and launched a surprise attack, seizing every advantage. Even so, Yang Kai had needed over a full month to recover afterward.
The second, the Wind Lord, had strictly speaking not died at his hands, but had been killed by Yang Xiao and Yang Xue.
The third had been the Stone Demon Half-Saint he slew previously at the Star God Palace—a feat made possible thanks to the might of the Azure Dragon Spear and the assistance of Lan Xun and the others.
This time, however, could truly be considered Yang Kai's first instance of single-handedly slaying a Half-Saint at the peak of his power. Moreover, this Sand Demon Half-Saint had been slightly stronger than the Wind Lord had been—he was, after all, an Upper Demon King. How could such a feat come without paying a price?
As for the injuries to his soul, those too were unavoidable. Even though Xue Li's divided consciousness had underestimated his spiritual cultivation and he held the advantage of home terrain, a Demon Saint's divided consciousness fully inherited the main body's experience and wisdom. If the Warm Spirit Lotus had not been constantly nourishing his wounded spiritual consciousness throughout the battle, the outcome would truly have been uncertain.
A chance encounter with Luo Ya had revealed a restriction left within his sea of consciousness by a Demon Saint. One could only imagine that the other Half-Saints who had entered this place were likely in the same situation.
This intelligence needed to be spread quickly. Though in the final stages of the Great Dao's contention everyone was ultimately an enemy, before the Demon Race's forces had been eliminated, it would be best if the Pseudo-Emperors on the Star Realm's side could join hands. If any of them were to accidentally fall into a trap, it would bode ill for the Star Realm's overall situation.
If Yang Kai could think to search Luo Ya's soul for useful intelligence, the other Pseudo-Emperors might very well have the same idea. And this approach was indeed the fastest way to gather information about the Profound Heaven Temple.
At this thought, Yang Kai let out a deep breath and muttered in a low voice, "So there's a Demon Saint's divided consciousness lurking within the sea of consciousness—how insidious!"
A gentle breeze stirred, leaves rustling loudly, the air thick with the scent of blood. Yang Kai leaned on the Azure Dragon Spear, standing in place with his eyelids lowered.
After an indeterminate amount of time, he suddenly raised his head and looked in a certain direction, his brow furrowing slightly. "So it really is one of our own…"
Earlier, during his fight with Luo Ya, he had detected a hidden presence nearby, but at that critical juncture in the battle he had no way to divert his attention to investigate, nor could he determine whether the hidden figure was human or demon.
However, since the concealed person had not made a move even after he had pinned Luo Ya to the ground, the likelihood of them being a Demon Race Half-Saint was very small. If a Demon Race Half-Saint had truly been lurking nearby, they would never have simply watched from the sidelines—they would have jumped out to join forces with Luo Ya.
After killing Luo Ya and fighting the decisive battle against Xue Li's divided consciousness within his sea of consciousness, Yang Kai was too badly injured to identify who was hiding nearby.
He couldn't even be certain whether the person who had been secretly tailing him was still around.
Only now, when the sensation of being watched from the shadows suddenly vanished, could he confirm the truth—that person had been there the entire time and had only just left.
Presumably, the words he had deliberately muttered in a low voice had been overheard. Whether or not that person would relay this information to other Pseudo-Emperors, at the very least he now knew.
This had been Yang Kai's intention all along.
But sure enough—in the contention for the Great Dao, enemies lurked everywhere and no one could be trusted. The situation on the human side was truly grim. They already numbered ten fewer Half-Saints than the Demon Realm, and now, witnessing Yang Kai fighting a Half-Saint to the death, they hadn't even shown themselves to help—harboring only thoughts of sitting back and reaping the rewards.
Yang Kai smiled bitterly to himself. This probably had something to do with the fact that he carried the Will of Heaven and Earth.
Perhaps they all believed that this Will of Heaven and Earth within him would prove immensely helpful during the final stages of the Great Dao's contention. If the battle just now had gone differently—if Luo Ya had managed to kill Yang Kai—then the one lurking in the shadows would certainly have stepped in to slay the weakened Luo Ya and claim that Will of Heaven and Earth for himself.
After all, since the Will of Heaven and Earth had previously been transferred from Great Emperor Mingyue to Yang Kai, then should Yang Kai die, it could naturally be transferred to whoever killed him.
But in the end, only Yang Kai himself knew the truth: thus far, that formless, invisible Will of Heaven and Earth had not proven the slightest bit useful.
Regardless, this battle had left him badly wounded, but it had also yielded tremendous gains. As long as he could digest all the lessons and benefits of this fight, the improvement to his strength would be considerable.