With a soft pop—like a bubble being burst—the woman's Inner World shattered behind her, crumbling to nothing!
Washed over by the Sixth-Order Yuan Magnetic Divine Light, her Inner World had simply disintegrated.
Her aura from the Open Heaven Realm plummeted in freefall, brutally forced down from a Second-Order Open Heaven cultivator to the Emperor Realm.
The next instant, her flesh was flayed layer by layer as though carved by an invisible deboning knife. Blood, muscle, and viscera all disintegrated into the finest dust, leaving behind only a skeleton—white and stark—that still held its defensive posture, standing before Yang Kai.
By the time Yang Kai withdrew the Yuan Magnetic Divine Light, even the skeleton collapsed with a clatter, falling apart completely.
Bei Limo stood frozen in place, her gaze locked on the gourd in Yang Kai's hand, her face pale with horror.
She had no idea what the seven-colored radiance that had erupted from that gourd was, but she was certain it had to be an incomparably fearsome killing weapon—otherwise it could never have slain a Second-Order Open Heaven cultivator in such a short time.
When that Second-Order Open Heaven fell, the battle between Guo Ziyan and Yu Rumeng had also reached its conclusion. Both fights had been resolved almost simultaneously.
Without a moment's hesitation, Guo Ziyan, Yu Rumeng, and Yang Kai flickered forward, charging toward the Dharma Body's battlefield. Bei Limo snapped out of her daze and hurried after them.
The Dharma Body had been fighting one against two—a Third-Order Open Heaven and a Second-Order Open Heaven—struggling to hold his own, barely keeping his head above water. His body was riddled with craters, stone fragments flying in every direction.
The Dharma Body's connection to the Demon Realm was much like Yang Kai's bond with his Small World. Within this world, he was its sovereign, capable of wielding power far beyond his own.
It could be said that the strength the Dharma Body could command in the Demon Realm was vastly greater than what Bei Limo or Chang Tian could muster. Without that advantage, he could never have held off two opponents for so long.
The moment Yang Kai and the others appeared, the Dharma Body's two opponents naturally noticed. They were startled, unable to tell who these newcomers were.
Then, in the span of barely a dozen breaths, all of their companions had been killed! The revelation sent ice through their veins. Watching Yang Kai's group charge down like tigers descending a mountain, the two had no wish to stay and fight. They exchanged a glance, each thrusting a palm strike at the Dharma Body, then bolted toward the sky.
The Dharma Body roared, neither dodging nor yielding. He endured the combined force of both strikes head-on, frantically channeling the Demon Realm's world power to form an invisible cage that enveloped the two.
In an instant, the two Open Heaven cultivators found every step agonizingly difficult, despair creeping across their faces.
Before they could break free, Yang Kai and the others had already arrived, severing any hope of escape.
What followed was a one-sided affair.
Guo Ziyan alone was more than capable of handling the Third-Order Open Heaven, and the remaining Second-Order Open Heaven stood no chance against Yang Kai and the rest combined.
After the time it took an incense stick to burn, the battle was over. Bei Limo panted for breath, her face still lined with lingering fear. This had been her first time facing Open Heaven Realm cultivators in combat. Even with the full power of the Demon Realm bolstering her, she had still felt nothing but despair.
During the great war between the two Realms, Yang Kai had knocked her unconscious very early on, so she had never clashed directly with the Great Demon God and had never truly experienced the might of the Open Heaven Realm.
If her opponent hadn't merely been trying to pin her down without any intention of fighting to the death, she would have crumbled long before now.
Even now, she still couldn't grasp exactly what realm these people were at—how they could possibly be this powerful.
Yu Rumeng's face had gone slightly pale. She had used her illusions against a Third-Order Open Heaven, and when they had been shattered, the backlash had been severe.
Yang Kai and Guo Ziyan, however, were largely unscathed. The former had a deep and vast foundation, the latter possessed overwhelming strength—neither had been troubled by such an engagement.
But after a battle that had raged for months across this region, the natural laws of the world within a million li had been torn to shreds. Mountains had collapsed by the countless, and the entire territory had been reduced to a wasteland of devastation.
Such a battle had inflicted tremendous damage upon the Demon Realm's foundations. Recovery would not come easily—it would take centuries, even millennia, of accumulated effort.
The Third-Order Open Heaven had already been slain by the combined efforts of Yang Kai and Guo Ziyan. Only the Second-Order Open Heaven remained, barely clinging to life. At this moment, his power had been sealed, his face ashen as he knelt on the ground with Guo Ziyan's great axe resting against his neck, gleaming with a cold, menacing light.
Yang Kai strode forward with measured steps, gazing down at him from above.
The man trembled from head to toe and cried out in panic, "Mercy, Lord! Mercy, please! I was forced into this—I had no choice! Have mercy!"
Yang Kai kicked him flat to the ground, planted his foot on the man's chest, and pressed down lightly. The sound of cracking bone rang out immediately as the broken ribs pierced into his lungs, contorting his face in agony.
"You will answer every question I ask. If I hear a single word of nonsense, I will make you wish you had never been born," Yang Kai snarled, his expression as menacing as a savage brute, twisted and terrifying.
The man forced himself past the fear and the pain, nodding frantically.
Moments later, Yang Kai had pieced together the full story.
The owner of that tower ship was indeed—as Lu Xue had guessed—a mid-tier Open Heaven cultivator, though not Sixth-Order. He was Fifth-Order!