"You want me to submit to you and become your servant?" Yang Kai tilted his head to look at the young man. During his earlier seclusion, he had sensed someone from the Azure Nether Blessed Land arrive outside, but hadn't paid much attention. It seemed this fellow was who they'd sent.
The young man smiled. "That would be the greatest honor of your lifetime!"
"Is that so?" Yang Kai replied noncommittally.
Luo Qingyun spoke urgently, "Yang, a man walks through this world with an unyielding spine that holds up the heavens! Better to die standing than live on your knees! Think carefully—don't take a single misstep and regret it for all eternity!"
He genuinely feared Yang Kai would agree on the spot. If that happened, then what would be the point of the Sword Pavilion and Thunder Light arriving together in such force today? How could Lu Xue's grudge ever be avenged?
"When I'm speaking, what gives you the right to interrupt?" The young man from the Azure Nether Blessed Land suddenly shot Luo Qingyun a look of displeasure. "What's your name? If you've got the guts, give me your name!"
Luo Qingyun's face turned ugly in an instant. Under the gaze of the crowd, refusing to answer would make him seem cowardly, but answering invited retribution. He was merely a Fourth-Order Open Heaven cultivator, and before a colossus like a Blessed Land, that meant nothing. Even if this young man couldn't speak for the entire Azure Nether Blessed Land, the forces standing behind him were more than enough for Luo Qingyun to be powerless against. He found himself in an impossible position, and the discomfort was beyond description.
At the same time, a surge of fury rose in his heart. The brat was merely an Emperor Realm upstart—without his backers behind him, how would he dare be this brazen?
Fortunately, the young man didn't press the issue. This was the perfect opportunity to recruit Yang Kai, and all his attention was focused on that single matter. What did anything else matter? If he could bring Yang Kai under his control, then all of Yang Kai's gains from the Yuan Magnetic Mountain would become his. That was many Sixth-Order Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones—a fortune that even the great Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands would covet. Once he returned to the Azure Nether Blessed Land with such a haul, the Ancestor would surely look upon him in an entirely new light.
Moreover, Yang Kai had a Fifth-Order Open Heaven maidservant at his side. Perhaps he could take advantage of the situation to enjoy her charms as well. Ever since the day he had laid eyes on Yue He, he hadn't been able to forget her.
Seeing Luo Qingyun remain silent, the young man let out a soft humph and turned back to Yang Kai. "My patience is limited. Have you made up your mind?"
Yang Kai said flatly, "You want me to be your servant? You don't have the qualifications for that!"
The moment those words left his lips, his body shuddered with a thunderous tremor. A torrent of searing fire power erupted from within him, and his entire figure blazed like a raging inferno, so intense that the void warped and the very heavens quaked.
Amid the towering flames, Yang Kai opened his eyes—they burned like twin miniature suns, scorching the soul. A bone-deep killing intent suffused the air as his commanding voice boomed, "You disturbed my seclusion and unsettled my mind! All of you deserve to die! Today, I'll use your wretched lives to temper my divine arts!"
With a thunderous roar, the power of fire within his Dao Seal surged into motion. Centered on Yang Kai, violent rings of blazing flame erupted outward like ripples, one after another, ceaseless and overwhelming.
Screams pierced the air instantly. The martial artists closest to Yang Kai didn't even have time to react. The instant the rings of flame swept through them, they were reduced to balls of fire, hurtling about like headless flies and crashing into their own formations. Yet in barely two or three breaths, the screams were cut short as the burning fireballs turned to charcoal and plummeted from the sky, falling as densely as dumplings into a pot.
In the span of a single heartbeat, several dozen lives had been snuffed out!
Every pair of eyes stared in horror at the spectacle. Surrounded by three thousand people, with dozens of Open Heaven realm experts watching him like tigers, Yang Kai—the lone man standing—had struck first.
A single attack, and dozens of martial artists had fallen from the sky!
"What kind of fire is that?!" Chen Tianfei's eyelids contracted sharply as he stared fixedly at the pitch-black flames engulfing Yang Kai's body, the shock in his heart simply beyond measure.
If just the rings of flame were this terrifying, it undoubtedly meant the grade of his fire power was extraordinarily high—otherwise those martial artists would have been able to put up some resistance.
Fifth-Order fire power couldn't possibly achieve this level of destruction. Could it be Sixth-Order?
Chen Tianfei's heart jolted. Only then did he realize he had been underestimating Yang Kai all along. To condense Sixth-Order fire power spoke to extraordinary talent and lofty ambition. Such a person could only be cultivated by a Cave Heaven or Blessed Land—there was simply no other way. Once he grew to full strength, he would carve out a place for himself in the Three Thousand Worlds. Yang Kai's background was murky. Could he too hail from some Cave Heaven or Blessed Land?
If not, how else would he dare speak to that Azure Nether Blessed Land youth the way he had?
At the thought, fine beads of cold sweat broke out on Chen Tianfei's forehead, and he silently prayed that this wasn't the case—otherwise Crimson Star was in for a very rough time.
The rings of flame continued spreading outward. Beams of light flared as the Disciples of the Sword Pavilion and Thunder Light activated their secret techniques and Artifacts to shield themselves. The Sword Pavilion disciples, dozens to a group, had already formed Sword Arrays, their sword barriers enveloping the surroundings to hold back the encroaching flames.
The Star Fall Sword Array was no ordinary formation. Though it couldn't unify the power of dozens into one, once assembled it could consolidate scattered strength into a whole that far exceeded the sum of its parts.
Thus, while the rings of flame were formidable, they were still held at bay by the sword barriers. In contrast, Thunder Light's forces, though greater in number, felt somewhat disorganized. Having watched dozens of their companions die horribly before their very eyes, every one of them was stricken with dread and hastily retreated.
After his first strike, Yang Kai had already vanished from his original position, his expression as calm as a still well—devoid of joy or sorrow. He flashed directly into the densest cluster of enemies and threw a punch. Atop his fist, the Golden Crow True Fire blazed furiously, its black flames incinerating the void itself.
Wherever the fist-light reached, over a dozen Thunder Light cultivators were blown to ash, then swept up by the flames and utterly erased from existence in the blink of an eye.