Zhou Yi said, "Fellow Brother jests. I, Zhou Wu, am completely legitimate — the real deal. How could I possibly have been possessed? It's you, Fellow Brother, who spouts wild accusations and slander. What scheming are you really after? Trying to sow discord so you can hog all the treasures here for yourself?"
Pei Wenxuan had been studying Yang Kai with suspicion, but after hearing those words, he suddenly turned his head, a flash of shock crossing his eyes.
"Ha ha ha ha!" Yang Kai burst into laughter. "You still dare claim you haven't been possessed? Let's see how you talk your way out of this now!"
Zhou Yi's brow furrowed. He glanced at Yang Kai, then at Pei Wenxuan, and quickly caught on. "Where did I give myself away?" From Pei Wenxuan's expression alone, he could tell his cover had been blown. Since that was the case, there was no point continuing the charade.
Pei Wenxuan smacked his lips and said, "The original owner of this body was called Zhou Yi — not Zhou Wu!"
Zhou Yi's eyes lit up in understanding. He nodded slightly, regarding Yang Kai with approval. "This junior has a cunning mind and sharp wits. Truly, new talent rises with every generation!" That little performance just now had been airtight. In the final moment, the boy had dropped the name Zhou Wu, leading him to believe the possessed body was truly called Zhou Wu, and he'd taken the bait without thinking. Who could have guessed it was nothing more than a probe?
It seemed that even after his ambush, Yang Kai hadn't been entirely confident in his own deduction, which was why he'd set this trap. It was only a simple sentence, but pulling it off required lightning-fast thinking.
This boy possessed formidable divine soul strength and even carried the Warm Divine Lotus, a supreme treasure of heaven and earth. If he were allowed to grow, he would become truly terrifying. Killing him would have to be done sooner rather than later — wait too long, and he might become impossible to deal with.
"Your affair has nothing to do with me. I have important matters to attend to — I'll be taking my leave." As Pei Wenxuan spoke, his figure flickered and he shot toward the palace entrance.
The sudden appearance of Black Crow Divine Lord had set off every alarm in his head. Though the other party was merely a remnant soul who had only just seized a body, and the extent of his power remained uncertain, the fact remained that he was a Divine Lord. Staying here could only end badly, so he made his exit without hesitation.
Yang Kai was dumbfounded. The people from Myriad Demons Heaven were completely unreliable — at a time like this, the man still wanted to stay out of it? He called out urgently, "Brother Pei, do you really think you can stay out of this now? If I were Black Crow Divine Lord, everyone here would have to die today. Otherwise, how could he possibly keep his secret hidden?"
"Young man, you understand me well!" The former Zhou Yi — now Black Crow Divine Lord — nodded in approval, as though they'd arrived at the same conclusion. He swept his hand lightly, and the entire great hall hummed, its doors slamming shut.
Pei Wenxuan's steps faltered. His expression turned unsightly as he tilted his head toward Black Crow Divine Lord. "Old thing, you should be glad when I'm not making trouble for you. Push your luck like this and I'm afraid you're heading for a tragic end!"
Black Crow Divine Lord let out a low, sinister chuckle. "Are all the young ones so brazen these days? Good, very good — a world like this is interesting. It won't let me grow bored!"
As he spoke, his body shuddered, and an inexplicable attractive force rippled outward. One after another, muffled groans rang out. The several people still seated in meditation near the skeleton saw blood mist churning across their skin, transforming into dragon-like streams of blood energy that surged straight into Black Crow Divine Lord, flooding into his body. Zhou Yi's form had become a bottomless pit, devouring every last drop.
A look of bone-deep ecstasy crossed his face, as though he were savoring something impossibly pleasurable. And as he continued his technique, the vitality of those people plummeted — their flesh and blood withered away one by one.
They were already trapped in Qi Deviation and had no capacity to resist whatsoever. Black Crow Divine Lord was clearly executing some secret art of the Blood Radiance Scripture. How could they possibly withstand it?
Yang Kai and Qu Huashang watched, their scalps tingling.
Though they had previously comprehended the upper section of the Blood Radiance Scripture, that had only been the cultivation method itself, not its secret arts. Seeing Black Crow Divine Lord's technique now, they finally understood the viciousness of the Blood Radiance Scripture.
This was unquestionably an evil art! Though that wasn't hard to understand — Blood Demon Divine Lord had been no saint in life either, so the Blood Radiance Scripture he cultivated was naturally anything but a gentle technique.
What made Yang Kai even more uneasy was that Black Crow Divine Lord's aura was climbing steadily with each passing moment. Though Zhou Yi had been an elite Disciple of the Great Thousand Blood Grounds, he hadn't been particularly strong in his own right. Yet after being possessed by Black Crow Divine Lord, Yang Kai could instinctively feel a suffocating pressure radiating from him.
Anyone capable of reaching the level of Divine Lord was no ordinary figure. And now, with the Blood Radiance Scripture added to his arsenal, his array of inconceivable methods had become all the more formidable.
He couldn't let this continue. This moment was undoubtedly the best chance to strike. Black Crow Divine Lord had only just seized the body — the fusion between his divine soul and the physical form was likely far from smooth. Combined with Zhou Yi's limited foundation, this was arguably his weakest point. If he was allowed to finish draining the blood energy of those people, he would only grow stronger.
"Attack!" A low shout rang in Yang Kai's ear — Pei Wenxuan had struck first. Clearly, he'd reached the same conclusion. The instant the word left his lips, his hands slammed forward, and a massive black cone tore through the space between them, hurtling toward Black Crow Divine Lord. The cone was composed entirely of pure demonic energy, spinning with such force that it seemed capable of shredding the very fabric of space.
But that wasn't all. Right behind the cone, Pei Wenxuan lunged forward like a hunting leopard, his hands curled into claw shapes as he raked them through the air toward Black Crow Divine Lord. Each of his five fingers carried a different elemental force — metal, wood, water, fire, and earth — forming a simple Five Elements cycle of mutual generation and overcoming on his hands, amplifying his power enormously.