Yang Kai nodded at these words. "I understand what Manager Chen is saying. In other words, Scarlet Star will always have only seven managers?"
"You could put it that way!" Chen Tianfei said with a faint smile.
"Then it's simple enough," Yang Kai replied, grinning. "As long as I can kill one of you and take their place, that'll do."
The moment those words left his mouth, his figure blurred. Like a great roc spreading its wings, he lunged straight toward the Poison Lady!
Yang Kai attacked the instant he spoke, decisive to the extreme.
No one had expected him to be so resolute. They had all assumed that, trapped here in their territory, he would have no choice but to submit to their whims — his life and death entirely in their hands. Who could have guessed that he would be the one to strike first?
"Insolent!"
"How dare you!"
Several furious shouts rang out simultaneously. Figures shot from their seats, and Gan Hong's form flickered once before vanishing entirely, melting into the darkness.
Even the Ouyang brothers, who had been sitting as still as mountains, became wreathed in shifting auras. Their energies intertwined, as though they had merged into a single person — their combined presence was truly formidable.
Chen Tianfei's corpulent body bounced up like a ball and hurtled straight toward Yang Kai.
Boom, boom, boom…
Like an iron tower, Bei Yushan lumbered forward, each footfall shaking the great hall. His body, standing two or three zhang tall, was knotted with bulging muscles teeming with explosive power. He planted himself before the Poison Lady like a small mountain and flashed Yang Kai a grin before throwing a punch.
A deafening sonic boom erupted. Eardrums trembled under the sheer force. That punch was so heavy and powerful that it could have reduced a mountain to rubble.
Under the gaze of everyone present, Yang Kai neither dodged nor retreated. He swung his fist to meet it head-on.
Yue He's face drained of color. "Watch out!"
Her heart hammered like an ant on a hot pan. She had already warned Yang Kai that Bei Yushan possessed extraordinary natural strength — strength enough to uproot mountains. Why would Yang Kai try to match him blow for blow? Was he asking for humiliation?
The others couldn't help but chuckle when they saw this.
Among Scarlet Star's seven managers, Bei Yushan was the one blessed with a unique constitution and monstrous brute force that could rival that of an exotic beast. At the same cultivation level, no one could withstand a direct punch from him — and that was putting it mildly. He was a Fourth-Order Open Heaven master, while Yang Kai was merely an Emperor Realm cultivator. True, within the Void, Open Heaven masters couldn't unleash their full power, but Bei Yushan's foundation was still there. Could an ant wrestle with an elephant?
Impossible!
Only now did Chen Tianfei realize that this Yang Kai seemed to be a reckless fool! All the effort he had gone through to bring him here had been completely unnecessary. If he had known this man was so arrogant, there would have been no need for such elaborate scheming.
Thoughts racing, the Scarlet Star managers all halted their movements and watched in quiet anticipation, each seeming to know exactly what was about to happen to Yang Kai.
Then came a thunderous crash…
A scene unfolded that made every pair of eyes twitch violently. When those two fists collided, the one sent flying was not the smaller Yang Kai but the towering, iron-tower-like Bei Yushan!
His massive body hurtled backward like a tattered sack, slamming straight into the wall and smashing a colossal crater into the solid stone. The entire great hall shuddered from the impact.
Yang Kai, on the other hand, merely paused for the briefest moment before continuing forward without any loss of momentum.
"Impossible!" Chen Tianfei nearly bit off his tongue. His eyes, perpetually squeezed narrow by the weight of his own flesh, were now wider than a bull's. What he was seeing completely overturned his understanding of the world. He simply refused to believe it.
The Ouyang brothers and Madam Qin were equally stunned into silence!
In the span of a heartbeat, Yang Kai had closed to within ten zhang of the Poison Lady, his lips peeled back in a savage grin.
The Poison Lady clearly hadn't processed what had just happened either. By the time she recovered from her momentary daze, Yang Kai's grotesque smile was right in front of her.
Her expression changed. Her cherry lips parted, and she spat a plume of pink mist directly at Yang Kai while simultaneously smashing through her chair and hurtling backward.
That mist was lethally toxic. Even an Open Heaven cultivator would be hard-pressed to survive being doused in it. Without finding a way to neutralize it quickly, the victim would dissolve into a pool of pus.
Yang Kai plunged headlong into the mist. His body swayed slightly — the toxin was clearly having an effect.
The Poison Lady shrieked with laughter. "Not bad, brat — you actually sent that big oaf flying. But my Soul-Devouring Mist isn't so easy to handle. Just take your time enjoying the sensation of having your soul devoured and your bones pared away!"
In the instant after those words, her eyes suddenly went wide. Her face filled with naked terror as she stared ahead.
Within the haze of pink mist, Yang Kai opened his mouth and drew in a massive breath. Like a whale swallowing the sea, he inhaled the entire cloud of toxic vapor into his body. He looked up, and his eyes blazed with a terrifying radiance that made the Poison Lady's soul nearly flee her body!
The Poison Lady let out a piercing scream and fled backward at full speed.
"Where do you think you're going?" Yang Kai snorted coldly. He reached out a hand and grabbed toward her. With spatial laws rippling around him, the distance between them ceased to exist. His fingers closed around the Poison Lady's slender neck, and he hauled her before him.