Time had never crawled so slowly—every breath, every heartbeat of waiting was agony.
Nine figures hovered in the void, watching in silence as the two warring auras within the Great Demon God's body, pinned down by the Azure Dragon Spear, continued their fierce clash.
Gradually, the struggle weakened, then subsided altogether.
No one knew how long passed before the Great Demon God closed his eyes and lay there still, as though truly dead.
Yet under the spiritual scrutiny of Yang Kai and the others, a faint trace of life still lingered within him. The Great Demon God was not dead—he had simply reached the very end of his rope.
The Great Demon God now bore no resemblance to the bold and domineering figure who had first risen to life. His appearance was wretched beyond words, almost too pitiful to look at.
In that instant, he suddenly cracked open his eyes. Though his face was a wreck, his gaze burned bright and sharp. A grin crept across his lips, and a low, rasping laugh escaped his throat—quiet at first, but climbing steadily in volume until it became a full-throated roar of laughter, as if he had encountered something that brought him the greatest joy, utterly unable to stop.
The Great Emperors watched with cold eyes.
Yang Kai turned to glance at Duan Hongchen, whose expression remained as placid as still water—clearly, even he could not determine which soul currently held dominion over the Great Demon God's body.
"Mo Sheng?" Yang Kai called out in a frigid voice.
The laughter cut off. The Great Demon God raised his eyes and looked over. "What do you think?" He then hissed in irritation, "Junior, will you hurry up and pull this damned spear out of me?!"
Yang Kai turned to look at Duan Hongchen again.
He simply had no way to tell whether Wu Kuang's Devouring had succeeded or not. The only one who could make a definitive judgment now was Duan Hongchen, who had coexisted with Wu Kuang for so many years.
Everyone else looked toward Duan Hongchen as well.
Duan Hongchen shook his head. "I can't tell!"
Yang Kai flashed a grin. "Then it's simple—better to kill the wrong one than let the right one go!" It wasn't as though Wu Kuang was any kind of hero either. Back when he had run rampant across the Star Boundary, he had brought untold suffering to countless lower star fields. Consider it justice for all the lives lost in those realms.
The Great Demon God's face twisted in fury. "Old ghost Hongchen, you'd better take responsibility for your words! Believe it or not, I'll expose all your little secrets." He turned to look at the Flower Shadow Emperor. "Hua Linglong, do you remember that year when you were at the Green Sun Divine Temple in the Southern Region—"
"Silence!" Duan Hongchen's expression changed. He raised a hand to cut the Great Demon God off, and under the watchful eyes of everyone present, beads of cold sweat actually appeared on his forehead.
The Flower Shadow Emperor's delicate brows furrowed deeply, her beautiful eyes filled with suspicion.
"Well?" The Great Demon God raised an eyebrow, grinning at Duan Hongchen.
Duan Hongchen glared at him viciously, then swept his gaze over the others, and declared with certainty: "He is Wu Kuang!"
"And Mo Sheng?" Yang Kai asked.
Wu Kuang bared his teeth in a savage grin. "I'm still alive. What do you think happened to him?"
Yang Kai clicked his tongue in amazement. He hadn't expected Wu Kuang to actually pull it off. And this time, Mo Sheng's defeat meant not only that his revived body had been stolen, but his very soul had been devoured. Even if Mo Sheng possessed heaven-defying abilities, he would never be able to stir up trouble again.
Relief washed through him, and an indescribable exhaustion swept over both body and mind. With a long exhale, Yang Kai's body pitched straight downward.
He was not alone. Every Great Emperor still suspended in the sky, the two Elders of the Dragon Clan, and even Zhang Ruoxi, descendant of the Heavenly Execution—all of them, one after another, dropped from the sky like dumplings tumbling into a pot.
The earth-shattering battle had not actually lasted all that long. From the moment the Great Demon God had appeared to the very end, only a few days had passed. The Great Emperors had roamed the Star Boundary for years beyond count and fought in life-and-death battles countless times—a mere few days of fighting was nothing. Some of their battles had lasted months or even years.
But never before had any fight been this grueling, this exhausting.
The instant they confirmed Mo Sheng's death and knew they had won, the tension that had been coiled tight in their hearts simply snapped. The Great Emperors all lost a measure of their composure.
Still, with their cultivation base what it was, they weren't about to literally face-plant. They drifted down unsteadily, their steps wobbly but under control.
Yang Kai was in the best shape of them all. Having refined the Ageless Tree and possessing the Dragon Clan origin, his recovery far outstripped the others—he at least still had some strength left. His spiritual sense swept outward, taking in everything between heaven and earth. He felt those gazes turning toward him, sensed the anxiety still lingering in the hearts of the Star Boundary's people, and exhaled a proclamation: "Mo Sheng is dead. We've won!"
His voice was not loud, but bolstered by the power of heaven and earth, it carried to every corner of the Star Boundary, reaching the ears of every living soul.
A brief silence—then an earth-shaking roar of jubilation erupted. Inside and outside Lingxiao Palace, the crowd erupted in absolute pandemonium. A joy like the clouds parting to reveal the moon, like seeing the light of day after an eternity underground, swept through all.
Yang Kai grinned broadly and simply flopped down flat on his back, arms and legs splayed, gazing up at the sky.
The sky was still shrouded in gloom, demonic energy churning in thick roars. Yang Kai gathered every last ounce of his strength and exhaled in one great breath. The demonic energy that had blotted out heaven and earth was ripped open in an instant, a massive hole torn through the darkness. Brilliant sunlight poured through, banishing the gloom and warming every soul beneath it.