This was what everyone wanted to figure out. The proprietress wasn't someone you could just probe for answers, so Yang Kai was the breakthrough point — the easy target. But before, the First Inn had shielded Yang Kai too well, leaving them no way to dig. Now that the First Inn had made its stance clear, they had no more reservations.
Yang Kai naturally wouldn't answer such a question honestly. He was just about to deflect again when he found that he couldn't even summon the thought of lying. Before this young man shrouded in demonic energy, every thought in his mind seemed to have nowhere to hide — laid bare for the other to read, crystal clear.
So this was the might of a Supreme-grade Open Heaven cultivator? When he had faced Situ Kong before, the other party hadn't exerted this much pressure. But now, facing this young man, Yang Kai realized that even breathing felt like a luxury!
Cold sweat slid down his forehead. Yang Kai struggled to raise his head and look. The young man across from him wore a faint smile on his lips, gazing at him casually. But behind him, there seemed to lurk a fierce and terrifying beast, ready to swallow him whole.
His flesh squirmed and his bones creaked. A deathly aura enveloped him.
He would die! He would absolutely die! The sinister, vicious aura radiating from the young man made it crystal clear — if his answer didn't satisfy the guy, this fellow would truly make a move on him.
In the span of a heartbeat, Yang Kai had no choice. Gritting his teeth with a furious roar, he darted into the Ruyi Bag in a flash.
He truly had no other option. He couldn't expose the Mysterious World Bead, and teleportation was out of the question. Hiding inside the Ruyi Bag might at least buy him a moment to catch his breath. But doing so made him a turtle in a jar — it was really just drinking poison to quench his thirst.
The very instant Yang Kai's figure vanished, the young man raised an eyebrow. "Golden Crow!"
He reached out and grabbed toward the Ruyi Bag. The instant the bag's mouth gaped open, he clearly sensed the Golden Crow's aura emanating from within, immediately confirming that the Golden Crow was indeed still in Yang Kai's possession.
His movements were undeniably fast, but someone was even faster. Before the Ruyi Bag had even traveled halfway through the air, several phantom palms materialized out of thin air, all lunging toward the bag simultaneously.
The young man burst into laughter. "What a bunch of shameless bastards!" With a thunderous surge, demonic energy swept through the room, reducing every table to fine powder. The young man lunged forward like a flood dragon bursting from the sea.
Boom, boom, boom... The power of worlds collided. In the void, who knew how many powerhouses exchanged blows in that instant, interspersed with the occasional muffled grunt.
With a deafening crash, the First Inn — which had stood in this void for thousands of years — shattered apart. Dozens of figures shot out in every direction from the wreckage, and many more were locked in fierce combat, unleashing their own unique techniques and secret arts in an all-out brawl.
Madam Lan stood in a spot in the void, her face ashen with rage, staring at where the First Inn had once stood. Her silver teeth ground together so hard they cracked. In one hand she gripped Bai Qi, and in the other, the accountant. The bone-chilling cold radiating from her body cut straight to the heart.
Bai Qi's mouth hung so wide open a fist could have fit inside. The whole ordeal had unfolded too suddenly — he still hadn't processed what was happening. It was only now that he finally screamed, "Proprietress! They tore our inn apart!"
The accountant's eyes were equally bulging. "What are we going to do?!"
Since the First Inn had first opened its doors, not many had dared to cause trouble here. Those with that kind of nerve usually didn't live long. But the troublemakers this time were different — several of them didn't fear the First Inn's background one bit. The inn had probably been demolished for nothing, and there was no way anyone would be asked to pay compensation. After all, one of those who had taken part in the destruction was the First Inn's own proprietor.
"That little brat — I'm going to skin him alive!" Madam Lan seethed.
If Yang Kai hadn't kept the Golden Crow's corpse hidden away all this time, how would the First Inn have suffered such a disaster? If he had just handed it over early, none of this would have happened. Now that things had spiraled out of control, nobody knew how to bring it to an end.
Six Supreme-grade Open Heaven powerhouses clashed in the void, the Ruyi Bag changing hands again and again among them. At this level of combat, even Madam Lan couldn't intervene — she could only watch from afar.
The mid-tier Open Heaven cultivators from the various second-rate factions were in the same boat. Many had joined the scramble for the Ruyi Bag earlier but had taken serious losses. Now they had all backed off, knowing that the Golden Crow's corpse was destined to end up in the hands of those Supreme-grade Open Heaven cultivators. No sense wasting any more time and energy.
Looking on the bright side, while a Golden Crow's corpse was invaluable, it wasn't worth risking their lives for.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai — hiding inside the Ruyi Bag — was quite safe and sound. Though the attacks from those Supreme-grade Open Heaven cultivators shook heaven and earth, they were all being extremely careful to protect the Ruyi Bag itself. After all, they all knew that if the bag were destroyed, the contents could easily be lost in the cracks of the void, and none of them would ever find it again.
He quietly opened a tiny crack and extended his spiritual sense to probe the outside. Before he could sense anything, a sharp pain shot through his head — his spiritual sense had been torn to shreds by the violent energies.
In that fleeting glimpse, he seemed to see several powerhouses locked in combat!
The situation left Yang Kai somewhat dazed. He had been forced into the Ruyi Bag by the young man's overwhelming pressure, and he had no way of knowing what had happened after that. His best guess was that the powerhouses gathered at the First Inn were now fighting over the Ruyi Bag.