Elder Yu had already arrived three li from the lake as he spoke, casting a casual glance at the mist-shrouded waters before calling out, "If I'm not mistaken, the one inside should be Bai Qi, correct?"
His voice was pitched at just the right volume—loud enough for Madam Lan to hear every word clearly amid her fierce battle. Since they had been able to discover that Old Bai needed Yang Killing Force to advance to Open Heaven, it was hardly a leap to deduce who was inside the grand formation.
"I'm going to take Bai Qi's life right now. Lan Youruo—let's see how you choose!" Elder Yu bellowed.
"Despicable!" Yang Kai clenched his teeth, his eyes reddening with fury.
The old fox had clearly seen through Madam Lan's predicament. She was holding back, reluctant to let the shockwaves of battle disturb Old Bai's advancement. By voicing that threat, he was certain to throw her concentration into turmoil. Moreover, if he actually attacked, no one but Madam Lan herself could shield Old Bai—and the moment she split her focus, her already-disadvantaged position would deteriorate further.
"In a battle to the death, the victor becomes king and the loser a bandit. What's there to call despicable or honorable?" Elder Yu shot Yang Kai a cold look, his hands weaving seals as he drew upon the power of heaven and earth. The aura of a World's Great Force coiled around his body.
His stance made it clear he was about to strike the lake's formation at any moment.
Yang Kai could not afford a moment's hesitation. The crux of today's situation hinged entirely on Old Bai. If Old Bai succeeded in his advancement, Madam Lan would finally be free of her restraints and able to unleash her full strength against those three. Once Old Bai joined the fight as well, even if they were outmatched, he would at least have the ability to protect himself. At all costs, that old dog surnamed Yu had to be stopped from ruining Old Bai's breakthrough.
The thought no sooner formed than Yang Kai's figure blurred, streaking toward Elder Yu like a startled swan.
Elder Yu stood rooted in place, his expression as calm as an undisturbed well, watching Yang Kai charge in. A faint look of mockery crossed his eyes. "A mantis trying to stop a chariot. You're asking for death."
The instant the words left his lips, he thrust his palm forward.
The strike appeared almost languidly slow, yet as the palm advanced, it seemed as though an entire world was compressing and crashing down in its wake. The space around it shattered, everything reduced to dust.
Yang Kai, who had been hurtling forward at full speed, slammed into what felt like an invisible wall, transitioning from extreme velocity to dead stillness in a heartbeat. A deafening boom rang out as his internal organs churned violently and blood sprayed from his mouth.
But he did not retreat a single step. His hand reached out and grasped through empty air, closing around the Azure Dragon Spear. Every last ounce of power surged through his body as he drove the spear forward in a devastating thrust.
At the spear's tip, a profound martial Dao intent swirled, and at the spearhead, a fist-sized black hole flickered into existence for just an instant before vanishing.
"Oh?" Elder Yu raised an eyebrow slightly, caught off guard. He had expected a cultivator at the Emperor Master realm to be obliterated in the next moment, reduced to nothing but powder. Yet Yang Kai had only been injured—and the force behind that spear strike was far beyond anything an Emperor Master should be capable of producing.
Elder Yu's eye was razor-sharp; he recognized instantly that the spear in Yang Kai's hand was no ordinary weapon, and his gaze blazed with avarice.
The Azure Dragon Spear had been gifted to Yang Kai by the Giant Spirit God A Da. Yang Kai did not know who had forged it, but through his own dragon bloodline he could clearly sense that the spear had been refined from the spine of a fully grown dragon.
With a single thrust, the Azure Dragon appeared. Dragon roars shook the heavens and resounded across the world.
A spear of this caliber would rank among the finest Artifacts even beyond the boundaries of this universe. It was a pity that with Yang Kai's current strength, he could only draw upon a fraction of its true power.
Dragon might flooded outward as the Azure Dragon soared through the air. Elder Yu's mind reeled in shock, his eyes widening as he cried out involuntarily, "A dragon Artifact?!"
It was not the power of Yang Kai's strike that shook him—rather, it was the sheer audacity of this brat wielding such a taboo Artifact. If word ever reached the Dragon Clan, they would never let him off!
In that instant, even his flicker of greed evaporated on the spot. A spear like this—he wouldn't dare take it even if it were handed to him. Unless he never used it in front of anyone again, the Dragon Clan would inevitably come knocking. And when that happened, even the Wind and Cloud Blessed Ground would be unable to shield him.
"Only the ignorant know no fear! Only the ignorant know no fear!" Elder Yu clicked his tongue in amazement. Across all three thousand worlds, anyone with the slightest knowledge would never dare use such an Artifact. Yet here was Yang Kai, a mere Emperor Master, flaunting it openly—if that wasn't ignorance, what was?
His spirit shaken, the force of his palm strike weakened ever so slightly.
Yang Kai's spear surged forward, carrying him another hundred zhang, until he was directly within thirty zhang of Elder Yu.
But that was his limit. Elder Yu's hand seals shifted once more, and Yang Kai's advance ground to a halt, frozen in place by an overwhelming force. No matter how desperately he struggled, he could not move a step closer.
"You want to die? Then I'll grant your wish first!" Elder Yu snorted coldly, his gaze dripping with mockery. He raised one palm and brought it crashing down toward Yang Kai's head.
As the palm descended, a massive cyan-tinged hand of Yuan Qi materialized above Yang Kai, descending to crush him.
In that moment of mortal peril, Yang Kai suddenly flashed a grin at him.
A flicker of unease stirred in Elder Yu's chest. He did not know where the feeling came from, but alarm bells screamed through his mind, as though something terrible was about to happen.
And in the very next instant, Yang Kai raised his hand and launched a streak of golden light. Within that radiance, a feather roughly a foot long flickered into view, and a wave of savage, murderous intent crashed toward him head-on.
Elder Yu's eyes went wide. Every hair on his body stood on end as a chill shot from the crown of his head straight to the soles of his feet. Without a moment's thought, he summoned every ounce of his power, forming a solid barrier of protection around his body, and retreated rapidly, putting as much distance between himself and Yang Kai as possible.