Hissing filled the air — the ceaseless sound of blood serpents flicking their tongues, their bodies writhing as they closed in on Yang Kai's position.
Can't hide any longer! Yang Kai shut his eyes, steadied his breathing, and suppressed his heartbeat and aura, remaining as motionless as a stone.
Things had come to this. He could only go all in. While he could still use the Space Laws to flee, the old bastard clung to him like maggots on bone — eventually, that would prove an inescapable nuisance.
The overwhelming swarm of blood serpents drew ever closer. Ten zhang. Five zhang. Three zhang.
Yang Kai's eyes snapped open. He reached into the void and grasped, the Azure Dragon Spear filling his palm. Light blazed from his Dao Seal as he channeled the might of the Golden Crow True Fire into the spear shaft. Raising the spear, he stepped forward, leveled it ahead, and unleashed the Space Laws in a single devastating thrust — roaring, "Take this spear, you old dog!"
The instant Yang Kai moved, Black Crow Divine Lord sensed it. The face within the blood cloud whipped its gaze toward him, and countless blood serpents lunged upward from every direction, fangs bared, striking at Yang Kai from all sides.
The serpents thrashed wildly, but Yang Kai's figure shattered — nothing but an afterimage.
His true body had already surged to the front of the blood cloud, the spear thrusting forward like a dragon!
BOOM.
The enormous face was pierced clean through by the spear, a massive hole torn straight through it. The face contorted, barely able to hold its form. Pitch-black Golden Crow True Fire spread in every direction, searing through the void without restraint.
Sizzle.
The blood cloud evaporated in vast swaths, but Black Crow Divine Lord remained composed and unperturbed, his voice drifting over: "The junior's courage is commendable, but it's nothing more than a fool's bravado!"
The portions of blood cloud tainted by the Golden Crow True Fire were quickly severed and discarded by Black Crow Divine Lord. The endless blood cloud surged forward and swept Yang Kai into its midst.
"Now let's see where you'll run!" Black Crow Divine Lord laughed. What troubled him most wasn't Yang Kai's Azure Dragon Spear or the Golden Crow True Fire — it was the Space Laws.
If this kid truly wanted to flee with all his heart, he honestly couldn't be caught. While he could use his own secret arts to roughly pinpoint his position, that spatial teleportation was simply too elusive to pin down.
Who would have thought that instead of fleeing, the boy had walked straight into the trap — playing right into Black Crow Divine Lord's hands.
Shrouded in his blood cloud with heaven and earth sealed off, Yang Kai — Space Laws notwithstanding — could forget about using that teleportation technique. He was effectively trapped within the blood cloud, and the outcome was decided.
Hiss hiss hiss.
The bloody energy within the blood cloud brimmed with a potent corrosive force, eating into Yang Kai's flesh and blood, instantly reducing him to a bloody mess.
He looked wretched, yet his eyes blazed with aggression. "Who said I was running?"
Black Crow Divine Lord was momentarily stunned, but before he could react, he heard Yang Kai shout: "Now comes the Golden Crow to forge the sun — heaven and earth, none but I stand supreme!"
A blazing sun suddenly rose from within the blood cloud, like a newborn celestial body. Within that sun, a three-legged Golden Crow frolicked and leaped, its faint cries echoing through the void.
Its resplendent might overturned heaven and earth and made the four corners tremble. Yang Kai's aura exploded upward.
Black Crow Divine Lord cried out in alarm: "A Divine Ability Manifestation!"
He was a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator, after all — a man who knew what he was looking at. At a single glance, he recognized that this Golden Crow Forge Sun was no ordinary divine ability, but an ultimate profundity that had already condensed into a personal manifestation.
To condense a Divine Ability Manifestation, two conditions had to be met. First, one had to possess Upper-Order Open Heaven power. Second, one had to comprehend that power to its absolute limit. Only then was there a chance of grasping one's own Divine Ability Manifestation.
Beyond that, Upper-Order Open Heaven cultivators also had a chance of comprehending a Divine Ability Manifestation.
But those were merely the most basic requirements. In truth, within his knowledge, every cultivator who possessed a Divine Ability Manifestation was an Upper-Order Open Heaven master. He had never heard of anyone comprehending such a killing technique while still at the Emperor Realm. Many Upper-Order Open Heaven cultivators didn't even have one.
Even he, back in his day as a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator, had only comprehended a single Divine Ability Manifestation.
This kid before him was merely a half-step into Open Heaven, still firmly within the Emperor Realm, yet he already had his own Divine Ability Manifestation?
Black Crow Divine Lord could scarcely believe his eyes, but his senses confirmed it without doubt — this was indeed a Divine Ability Manifestation.
Tricked again! Black Crow Divine Lord's heart lurched. The boy had appeared to charge forward in a blind panic, but in truth he had been waiting for this exact moment to strike with full force.
Damn it! The fellow was truly patient — back in the palace at the heart of the lake, when they had been fighting tooth and nail with all their trump cards laid bare, he had somehow managed to hold this technique in reserve the entire time, making him think the boy had nothing more to offer. And now, having chased him here, he'd been hit with a rather unwelcome surprise!
The great sun hung in the sky — it looked like a true, genuine sun, merely shrunk countless times over. Around it, the blood cloud had no power to resist and rapidly evaporated, quickly clearing a vast expanse of open space.
Black Crow Divine Lord let out a shrill cry as the blood cloud contracted violently, spinning and condensing into the form of Zhou Yi. But before he could steady himself, a blinding radiance flooded his vision. Looking up, he saw Yang Kai with the great sun balanced atop his spear, thrusting straight at him.
If he couldn't block this — he would die!