Jade Rakshasa's flurry of attacks flowed together seamlessly, without a hint of sloppiness, creating a dazzling spectacle. No wonder she had built such a fearsome reputation in the Shura Arena, with a ranking that was terrifyingly high.
With that string of moves she had just displayed, there were precious few cultivators below the Half-step Open Heaven realm who could withstand them. The slightest lapse in concentration would cost one their life.
Yang Kai's blood was boiling with excitement. Since arriving in the Outer Heavens, he hadn't had a proper fight. Every opponent he'd encountered had possessed strength far beyond his own, making any real combat impossible. The few battles he'd had against those at his own level were underwhelming — when he'd hunted down Fang Tai, two Open Heaven Realm cultivators had tagged along as backup, robbing the fight of any real challenge. The same had been true at the Hundred Refinements Hall yesterday.
For someone like him, who had grown stronger through constant battle, going this long without throwing a punch left his hands itching!
So even though he'd taken a minor beating, Yang Kai's eyes were actually brightening with excitement — the thrill of finding a worthy opponent. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, raised his hand, and beckoned at Jade Rakshasa with his nostrils pointed skyward and a look of pure defiance on his face.
Jade Rakshasa's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this. Her typically expressionless face slowly curved into a subtle arc.
No one had ever dared to provoke her like this in the Shura Arena — not even the three ranked above her. Though she was fourth on the Human Ranking, her strength was barely a hair's breadth behind the top three. Any one of them would have to fight at full capacity against her.
Yet today, here was some nameless nobody who wasn't even listed on the Human Ranking, acting this brazenly in front of her. Jade Rakshasa extended her slender crimson tongue and licked her lips, as though she had spotted something delicious, her appetite well and truly whetted.
In the next instant, a cloud of dust erupted. A massive crater appeared beneath her feet as Jade Rakshasa shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow. Several afterimages flickered and vanished mid-flight, and her entire figure drifted behind Yang Kai like a specter. She raised one leg, Imperial Yuan surging wildly through her foot, and swept it toward his head.
The force behind that kick was utterly terrifying — it could have shattered a mountain.
Yang Kai seemed to have grown eyes on the back of his head. He reached up and grabbed for her ankle. In the blink of an eye, he caught it in his hand and let out a low, grim laugh. "Let's see where you run now."
But the words had barely left his mouth before his expression changed again. The delicate foot in his grip had suddenly gone limp and slippery, sliding free from his palm. In the next moment, a warm body pressed against his back — soft and supple, yet sending a chill of horror through him, as though what had latched onto him was not a woman's body but a colossal python ready to strike.
Jade Rakshasa's legs and arms twisted into impossible angles, binding Yang Kai in an iron grip. His prodigious strength was rendered completely useless.
Hot breath washed over his ear, and Jade Rakshasa's low, velvety voice drifted past — a soul-summoning whisper from the depths of the underworld. "How would you like to die?"
Before Yang Kai could answer, she opened her mouth and bit down toward his neck.
For the first time encountering something like this in a life-or-death battle, Yang Kai felt an incredibly bizarre sensation. But that didn't stop him from reaching back and grabbing a fistful of Jade Rakshasa's hair, yanking hard.
Jade Rakshasa grunted. She had been a hair's breadth from sinking her teeth into Yang Kai's neck, but the tremendous force dragging her head back forced her to look up. A cold light flashed in her eyes as her dark hair, infused with Imperial Yuan, snapped taut as iron wires.
Yang Kai hissed and quickly let go, but he was a fraction too late — his palm was crisscrossed with dozens of tiny cuts, dense as a net.
But that brief moment of breathing room was all Yang Kai needed. He finally managed to circulate his Imperial Yuan and violently shook his body.
An irresistible wave of force exploded outward, shaking Jade Rakshasa loose. But the woman refused to disengage — instead she used the momentum to pirouette around Yang Kai, her jade-like palms dissolving into a sky full of palm shadows while her dark hair danced like living tendrils, launching attacks from every conceivable angle.
From a distance, Yang Kai appeared to stand perfectly still while a shadowy figure spun ceaselessly around him, flickering up and down, darting left and right.
The dull thuds of impacts echoed without pause, and Yang Kai's robes were reduced to tatters in an instant.
He appeared to be at a disadvantage, having taken a fair beating from the start, but Yang Kai's expression remained utterly composed. This was where his formidable physical constitution paid dividends. Though Jade Rakshasa could wound him, the damage she dealt was limited — unless she hit a vital point, she simply couldn't do anything meaningful to him.
On the other hand, if Jade Rakshasa took one of his punches or kicks, things wouldn't end well for her at all.
In the private box, Pei Buwan stood with his hands clasped behind his back at the window's edge, watching the battle below with keen attention. The several Hundred Refinements Hall employees beside him were shouting and exclaiming nonstop, finding the whole spectacle thrilling beyond measure.
"All of you, shut your mouths! What are you screaming about?!" Pei Buwan suddenly barked in irritation.
The employees flinched in fright and hurriedly clammed up.
Luo Haiyi asked with a worried expression, "Shopkeeper Pei, can Master Yang win?" With her level of perception, she could only tell that Yang Kai was losing ground — she couldn't make out the true state of the battle at all.
Pei Buwan chuckled low. "Nobody knows how it'll end until the last moment. He'd better win. But looking at things as they are, if he can't shake off Jade Rakshasa, pulling off a victory is going to be tough."
The words had barely left his mouth before Pei Buwan's brows shot up and he broke into a grin. "Well, would you look at that."
In the Shura Arena, a thunderous boom rang out as Jade Rakshasa's entire body went flying backward. Still midair, she spat out a mouthful of blood before stumbling to the ground.
The two combatants who had been locked in their grueling exchange finally separated. Yang Kai's robes were in tatters, making him look utterly wretched. But Jade Rakshasa had clearly fared no better — in the course of their close-quarters grappling, she had inevitably left an opening, caught one of Yang Kai's punches, and failed to deflect it in time. Her internal organs were churning in chaos.