After briefly sorting through the contents of the three Space Rings, Yang Kai produced the Shadowless Veil and held it in his palm, silently refining it. It had originally belonged to Du Rufeng and still bore the latter's Soul Imprint, but with Du Rufeng dead, the imprint could be wiped away with ease.
No one spoke along the way. Having been through such a upheaval and narrowly escaped with their lives, none of them seemed to have the inclination for conversation. They followed quietly behind the Great General, letting it lead them in a single direction.
Time passed. Yang Kai had no idea how long they had been flying, though he estimated it must have been at least two or three months, and the Great General showed no sign of stopping.
Along the way, they did not encounter any major dangers. The occasional natural hazard — a Star Burst or something of the sort — was avoided by the group well in advance.
Then one day, a tiny black speck appeared at the edge of their field of vision. At that moment, Yang Kai distinctly sensed something off about the Great General's mood — it seemed to have grown considerably more excited, and its flight speed surged abruptly.
The speck was too far away to make out clearly. It was only after a long while that Yang Kai finally saw it for what it was: an enormous world remnant. He had no idea which Heaven and Earth World had shattered to leave it behind. Its size was truly considerable, but it was utterly barren.
The Great General led the group straight toward the world remnant.
A day later, the four of them landed upon it and looked around. As far as the eye could see, the landscape was desolate beyond measure — not a trace of life anywhere.
The Great General flapped its wings and continued leading the way. Old Fang looked around curiously. "What did the Great General bring us here for?"
"No idea," Yang Kai shook his head. "We'll find out if we follow." Setting everything else aside, the Great General had thrown itself in front of Du Rufeng's attack to shield him — that alone meant Yang Kai wouldn't stand by if it needed help.
The Great General seemed thoroughly familiar with this place. Once they arrived, it headed straight in a specific direction, and before long they stood before a barren mountain. Between its slopes there was a deep, dark cave that plunged into who knew what depths. Standing at the entrance, they could faintly hear the howl of wind. A sweep of divine sense revealed no end to the passage — the cave was clearly extremely deep.
Upon reaching this place, the Great General finally stopped. It turned its head to look at Yang Kai and let out a series of clucks.
Yang Kai understood. He turned back to Old Fang and the others. "I'll go down with the Great General to take a look. You wait here for me." Though he trusted that the Great General wouldn't lead him into a trap, caution was warranted in an unknown place. If he went alone and encountered danger, he still had a chance to flee. Bringing Old Fang and Die You along would only slow them down.
Die You said, "Let's go down together."
Yang Kai shook his head. "Wait for me here."
With that, he grabbed the Great General and flickered into the cave. Behind him, Old Fang and Die You exchanged a glance and had no choice but to remain where they were.
The cave was extraordinarily dry. The terrain was initially gentle, but after a short distance it suddenly plunged steeply downward, clearly leading deep underground. The farther they went, the darker it became, until no light remained at all. Fortunately, Yang Kai's current cultivation was more than sufficient — the absence of light posed no real problem.
They descended for a full two hours. Yang Kai was beginning to suspect they had reached the deepest point beneath the world remnant when the space around them suddenly opened up.
It was a vast underground cavern. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the cavern itself, but once they entered it, the Great General visibly perked up. It burst from Yang Kai's arms, flew forward, and clucked ceaselessly — the sound carrying an oddly poignant quality, tinged with something like grievance and something like longing.
Yang Kai frowned slightly, uncertain what could be so special about this place as to provoke such a reaction from the Great General.
But before he could dwell on the thought, he suddenly detected a presence emanating from deep within the cavern.
There was a living thing here? He hadn't sensed a thing when they first entered. Yang Kai was startled. He immediately held his breath and peered forward, straining to see.
He could see nothing, yet he could distinctly feel a presence ahead that was stirring to wakefulness — as though it had been slumbering before and the Great General's clamor had roused it.
What made Yang Kai's blood run truly cold, however, was the fact that this presence was overwhelmingly powerful — far more dangerous than anything he had felt from Elder Xu. That could only mean its owner possessed strength that surpassed even Elder Xu's.
In the darkness, two points of light suddenly blazed to life.
Yang Kai's blood turned to ice. He felt as if someone had cast a immobilization spell on him — frozen in place, staring blankly at those two dazzling points of light.
They were no mere lights. They were eyes. Two colossal eyes, each one the size of an entire house.
As those eyes opened fully, a layer of golden radiance began to shimmer through the pitch-black cavern. The glow strengthened rapidly, soon flooding the entire space until the cavern blazed with golden brilliance.
Yang Kai's jaw dropped and could not close for a long time. The shock in his heart was beyond anything he could express.
Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it. There, filling his vision, was an enormous golden rooster, crouching within the cavern. It looked exactly like the Great General Dawn-Crier — only its size dwarfed the Great General by countless orders of magnitude, as though it were an magnified version of the creature.
The presence that had stirred to life, the blinding golden radiance, the house-sized eyes — all of it belonged to this colossal golden rooster.