"Impossible!" Lu Xue blurted out. If someone told her this place had been reduced to its current state by Yang Kai rampaging through it, she could accept that — after all, she had personally witnessed the depths of Yang Kai's terrifying power. But how could a beast tide cause this level of destruction?
The Sword Pavilion had encountered beast tides before, of course. Regardless of their scale, they had always been repelled with ease. The Sword Pavilion's foundation was no trifling matter, supplemented by sword formations and protective arrays. No ordinary beast tide could hope to shake its roots.
Yang Kai said indifferently, "Nothing is impossible."
He had spent an entire day collecting spatial rings and observing his surroundings. He was now virtually certain that the Sword Pavilion had been struck by a beast tide. The ground was covered in the footprints of savage beasts, and within the ruined city there remained scattered corpses of demon beasts.
Furthermore, the spatial rings had not been looted — all of which confirmed his theory.
"Who is this?" Yang Kai asked, gazing down at the corpse of the middle-aged man before him.
"The Pavilion Master!" Lu Xue answered numbly.
"This man was the Sword Pavilion Master?" Yang Kai's eyes narrowed. Though he had already sensed that this person bore an extraordinary bearing and likely came from a prominent background, he had not expected him to be the Pavilion Master himself. "What cultivation level was he in life?"
Lu Xue's voice trembled: "The Pavilion Master was a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator, his cultivation transcendent and sublime. How could he… how could he have died here?"
"Sixth-Order!" Even Yang Kai was somewhat taken aback.
It wasn't that he feared a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator. Within the Great Ruins Boundary, the strength a Sixth-Order Open Heaven master could bring to bear was severely limited. If it came to a direct confrontation, with his current abilities, the outcome between them was far from certain.
What shocked him was that a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator had actually died here.
A Sixth-Order master possessed deep reserves of power. Even against a beast tide, if outmatched, they could always flee by sword. Yet judging by the Sword Pavilion Master's condition and the traces of battle within the great hall, it seemed as though he had barely been able to resist before being killed. In other words, the one who had slain him possessed strength far exceeding his own.
A chill crept up Yang Kai's spine.
Was there truly such a powerful existence within the Great Ruins Boundary?
Moreover, the Sword Pavilion Master bore not a single wound on his body. It was impossible to tell how he had died — it did not look as though he had been killed by demon beasts.
"They're all dead… they're all dead!" Lu Xue turned her gaze around the hall and saw that, aside from the Pavilion Master's corpse, every senior member of the Sword Pavilion had gathered here. Not a single one was missing — the entire upper echelon had been annihilated in this place. Adding those Yang Kai had killed outside Red Star City, she was now the only living member of the Sword Pavilion left!
Rrrip — Yang Kai stepped forward and tore open the Sword Pavilion Master's robes, lowering his head to scrutinize the body. His expression shifted.
He had intended to investigate the cause of death, but what he found instantly revealed the truth.
Right in the center of the man's broad chest was unmistakably a spider-shaped mark. The spider was silver, with a crescent moon inscribed upon its back, rendered so vividly it seemed almost alive. Its eight legs sprawled outward, and countless silver threads extended from them, weaving across the entirety of the Sword Pavilion Master's body.
"This is…" Yang Kai suddenly felt that the spider mark looked strangely familiar.
Before he could recall where he had seen the design, the spider unexpectedly leaped from the Sword Pavilion Master's chest and hurtled straight toward him.
Lu Xue cried out in alarm, clearly frightened as well, and stumbled backward repeatedly.
In the space of a heartbeat, Yang Kai jerked his head back, attempting to dodge the spider's assault — but his soul shook, his vision blurred, and a colossal eight-legged spider filled his entire field of view, its fangs and claws spread wide, dominating his mind. The creature was nothing less than the spider mark on the Sword Pavilion Master's chest, magnified countless times.
Its enormous mandibles gaped open as it plunged toward Yang Kai's head, poised to swallow him whole in a single bite.
This was not a real scene. From Lu Xue's perspective, the moment the spider mark on the Pavilion Master's chest leaped out at Yang Kai, his eyes had gone vacant and glassy. Simultaneously, an aura of pure, refined soul power rippled outward.
The spider was a soul art — a hidden soul technique. The enormous spider Yang Kai had seen was nothing more than an illusion conjured within his own mind.
But even if it was an illusion, being swallowed by that spider would certainly not end well.
At the critical juncture between life and death, a clear, resounding dragon roar exploded through the air. A golden dragon's head suddenly materialized behind Yang Kai, roaring as it lunged toward the massive spider.
Dragon might filled the heavens. The dragon's pride soared above the nine skies.
Boom — his soul shook violently. When Yang Kai's awareness returned, the spider was nowhere to be seen. The soul technique hidden within the Sword Pavilion Master's body had been obliterated by the dragon's might.
"Heavenly Moon Demon Spider!" Yang Kai's expression turned extremely grave.
He had finally recalled why this spider's design looked so familiar — he had seen it before.
On Shan Qingluo!
Shan Qingluo possessed the bloodline of the Heavenly Moon Demon Spider. In some hidden, unknown spot on her body, there existed a mark almost identical to what he had just seen.