A series of crackling sounds rang out, like bones snapping. The Force Demon was sent hurtling backward, and Yang Kai's figure couldn't help but retreat over a dozen zhang. Where his feet landed, deep craters formed, the ground cracking outward from each footprint like a spiderweb.
"Senior, the rest is up to you—leave one alive!" Having steadied himself, Yang Kai didn't press his advantage to finish the Force Demon off. Instead, he called out urgently, crouching slightly before launching himself toward the Blood Demon like a shooting star with every ounce of his strength.
From the moment the silver giant wolf had appeared and launched its ambush, the Blood Demon's finger had been obliterated, Yang Kai had materialized like a ghost, and his spear had lifted the Force Demon—all of this had unfolded in the span of a heartbeat.
The turn of events came too quickly. The Blood Demon hadn't even had time to rescue his companion before the Force Demon was already gravely wounded. It wasn't that the Force Demon was weak—his entire focus had been on Bing Yun, and how could he have anticipated that Yang Kai would burst from nowhere and launch a sneak attack? The sharpness of the Azure Dragon Spear had already been proven with the life of the Stone Demon half-sage from the Star Spirit Palace who had fallen to Yang Kai's hand. How could the Force Demon's body withstand it?
One misstep, and he had already lost the greater part of his combat power.
The rest Bing Yun could handle on her own. She was a Pseudo-Emperor, after all—there was no reason she couldn't deal with a grievously wounded Force Demon.
The Blood Demon was still stunned when Yang Kai was already upon him. A dragon's roar issued from the Azure Dragon Spear, a sound that shook the soul. His jade-like face was cold, the spear glinting like a dragon, and he thrust it straight at the Blood Demon.
With a single thrust, the Blood Demon stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning, his entire body rigid. A hole had been punched clean through his chest by the Azure Dragon Strike, his face contorted in shock.
"Gold cicada shedding its shell? Dream on!" Yang Kai showed not a trace of satisfaction at his apparent success. He pulled back his spear, didn't even spare the Blood Demon a glance, and flickered off in pursuit of another direction.
Behind him, the Blood Demon whose body had been pierced suddenly collapsed into a puddle of blood that seeped into the shattered earth and vanished without a trace. This clearly hadn't been the Blood Demon's true body—it was an illusion created through a secret art.
The Force Demon was beyond saving. With Yang Kai and Bing Yun joining forces, the Blood Demon wouldn't dare face them head-on, so fleeing first was the sensible choice. Unfortunately, Yang Kai had seen through his scheme at a single glance.
A streak of blood light hurtled through the sky at tremendous speed. Within it radiated unmistakably the aura of a half-sage—fluctuating wildly, as though something had terrified it, fleeing in abject panic like a stray dog.
The blood light abruptly halted, revealing the figure of the Blood Demon half-sage. His crimson eyes stared with warship into the void ahead.
Ripples spread across the void, and Yang Kai's figure slowly emerged, gazing coldly at his target. "You think you can run from me? Still dreaming, are you?"
The Blood Escape was a secret art without peer across the entire Demon Realm and even the Star Boundary. Few escape techniques could compare to it, and in terms of sheer speed, it could absolutely rank among the top three of all movement arts.
The Blood Demon clan's experts had relied on the Blood Escape time and again to shake off pursuit from powerful enemies and survive by the skin of their teeth.
But this time they had run into Yang Kai! Before spatial teleportation, no escape technique could hold a candle in terms of speed.
His path was blocked, and from behind came a faint chill—likely the human woman had already dispatched his companion and was heading this way to reinforce Yang Kai. A flash of ferocity crossed the Blood Demon's face. "Yang Kai, if you have any sense, let me go. Otherwise, when I fight to the death, don't expect to come out of this unscathed!"
Yang Kai flashed him a grin. "A stray dog's howl is truly grating to the ears!"
The last word had barely left his lips when only an afterimage remained where he'd stood. His true body, Azure Dragon Spear in hand, had already materialized before the Blood Demon and thrust the spear forward. The Blood Demon roared, his body exploding outward into a vast sea of blood that engulfed Yang Kai.
"Hmm?" Yang Kai's brow furrowed. He clenched his teeth. "Cutting off your own arm to save yourself—gutsy, I'll give you that!"
The spear swept outward, its countless afterimages seeming to fill the sea of blood entirely. At the tip of the spear, black orbs flickered in and out of existence, and massive swaths of blood vanished without a trace...
By the time Bing Yun arrived at the scene, she happened to see Yang Kai sweeping away the last remnants of the blood sea. A glimmer of astonishment flickered through her beautiful eyes. "You... killed him?"
For a Blood Demon, that sea of blood was his very foundation. Now that even the blood sea had been obliterated by Yang Kai, there was no way the Blood Demon could still be alive—his soul should have scattered on the spot.
But that was simply too unbelievable.
Yang Kai had been able to grievously wound the Force Demon in a single strike earlier, but that had relied on surprise and the enemy's carelessness—a case of calculated ambush against an unprepared opponent. To have killed a Blood Demon half-sage head-on in such a short time was genuinely shocking. Even Li Wuyi himself wouldn't be capable of that, would he?
For a moment, Bing Yun felt as though she were caught in a dream.
Yang Kai understood what she was thinking and slowly shook his head. "It was a trap. This wasn't his true body—some kind of doppelgänger or similar construct, I don't know for certain."
As half-sages, how could they lack some means of preserving their own lives? This Blood Demon's doppelgänger had been flawless enough that even Yang Kai hadn't spotted the deception. He'd chased it all the way here, thinking he'd cut off the enemy's escape. He hadn't actually intended to fight the Blood Demon one-on-one—recent memories were still fresh in his mind, and he had no desire to spend another stint in seclusion recovering from injuries.
Bing Yun shouldn't have much trouble dealing with the Force Demon. All Yang Kai had needed was to stall until she could arrive as reinforcement. With two against one, he was supremely confident he could take down the Blood Demon, and the price to be paid would have been negligible.
But the moment he'd engaged, Yang Kai had sensed something wrong. This Blood Demon's strength was far weaker than what he'd displayed earlier.
Even having noticed, it was already too late.
He let out a long, soft sigh. "What a waste."