He raised his spear, plucked the space ring off Fang Tai's hand, then passed it to Jiang Sheng. "I don't know if there's anything good inside. Both senior brothers went through all the trouble of coming out here with me. Consider this my way of thanking you for your hard work."
"Oh, how can we accept this?" Jiang Sheng said the words, but his hand wasn't polite at all—he took the space ring straight away and chuckled. "Then thanks, junior brother!" He secretly thought that Junior Brother Yang really knew how to handle people. No wonder Senior Brother Du held him in such high regard. He'd really have to learn from this in the future—maybe he could ride the wave and rise. He shot Ma Liu a look, pocketed the space ring without checking its contents, and figured they'd split everything evenly regardless.
"Now that this business is settled, let's head back," Ma Liu said. Jiang Sheng and Yang Kai had no objections. Yang Kai would have liked to stay and experience the local customs of this world, but right now he really wasn't in the mood.
The three of them soared into the sky.
But before they had flown very far, the space above them suddenly darkened.
Ma Liu looked up. "What's that?"
The moment the words left his mouth, the man vanished without a trace—as if he had never existed at all.
Yang Kai and Jiang Sheng were both horrified. They halted immediately, standing back to back without a word, each sweeping their divine sense outward to monitor all directions. Jiang Sheng kept calling Ma Liu's name, but received no response whatsoever.
After a moment, Jiang Sheng whispered, "Junior Brother Yang, did you see anything just now?"
Yang Kai shook his head slowly. "Nothing at all."
Hearing this, Jiang Sheng felt his heart sink. Discovering nothing was the worst possible outcome. Ma Liu had just disappeared right under their noses, and neither he nor Yang Kai had detected a thing. It was deeply unsettling.
"Move!" Jiang Sheng wasted no more time. He shouted to Yang Kai and shot upward at full speed. Yang Kai didn't hesitate either, following right behind.
In the next instant, the sky above darkened again.
Yang Kai looked up quickly and saw something descending over them like a canopy. At the same time, Jiang Sheng bellowed, "Split up and run!"
Before Yang Kai could even react, Jiang Sheng had already fled in a different direction. But the dark object ignored Yang Kai entirely and chased after Jiang Sheng instead. It flickered once and was gone—Jiang Sheng had followed Ma Liu into oblivion, vanishing without a trace.
Yang Kai's scalp went numb, and every hair on his body stood on end. In that brief instant, he had caught a glimpse of the dark shape's outline.
It looked like an enormous burlap sack…
When the sack had come down, Jiang Sheng was taken. Presumably Ma Liu had met the same bizarre fate.
To easily capture two Open Heaven Realm cultivators—the power of such an artifact was beyond imagination. Yang Kai was fairly certain he couldn't dodge it either. What chilled him even more was the master wielding this artifact!
Until now, he hadn't seen who was behind this at all!
Standing in the void, Yang Kai looked around, clasped his fists, and called out, "Which venerable expert is here? I, Yang Kai of Qiaodi, respectfully invite you to show yourself!"
There was no answer. The sky darkened above him once more.
Yang Kai, already prepared, immediately activated his Space Laws and attempted to flee from where he stood. But an invisible aura had locked onto him from somewhere in the unseen, leaving him with nowhere to run.
His vision went black, and in an instant he felt himself entering a strange, confined space.
Before he could even adjust, he felt someone pressing against him. Not only that—there were sounds of punching and kicking nearby, and a sharp fist strike came hurtling toward him.
Yang Kai raised his hand to block it and cried out, "Senior brothers, stop fighting!"
The commotion ceased in an instant, and two voices shouted in unison:
"Yang Kai?"
After that, they both called out again.
"Ma Liu?"
"Jiang Sheng?"
Ma Liu let out an "oh" and said in sudden realization, "So you two got dragged in here as well. I thought someone was ambushing me."
Jiang Sheng asked, "Who attacked us in the dark, and what is this place?"
Yang Kai replied, "I didn't see who it was, but this should be the interior space of an artifact. When Senior Brother Jiang was taken just now, I caught a glimpse—it was a sack-shaped artifact."
Ma Liu said gravely, "A sack-shaped artifact? Old Jiang, do you recognize what it might be?"
"Never heard of it." Jiang Sheng shook his head slowly, his voice heavy. "But to get the two of us in here without anyone noticing—this expert is at minimum a Fourth-Order Open Heaven cultivator."
"Fourth-Order Open Heaven…" Yang Kai was surprised. "Why would he bring us in here?"