Old Bai thought about it and figured that made sense, so he readily agreed on the spot.
The group of several strode boldly into the Star City. This place was ungoverned — not only was order in chaos, but even the shops themselves were built in haphazard fashion, with no discernible pattern whatsoever.
Public brawls on the main streets were a common sight, and the road was stained with patches of long-dried, blackened blood — clearly, many people had died here.
Yang Kai sensed his surroundings quietly, inwardly shocked. He discovered that virtually every warrior passing through this damned place was a cultivator of the Open Heaven Realm. It was rare to find anyone below that stage, like himself.
Then again, it made sense. The Shattered Sky was extraordinarily dangerous — without at least some real strength, how could anyone hope to explore it? The Open Heaven Realm was the bare minimum threshold, and most of the Open Heaven cultivators here looked destitute and ragged. They were likely people so starved of resources that they were willing to risk their lives seeking fortune.
Yang Kai, a half-step Open Heaven, with Zhu Jiuyin, Yue He, and a host of other powerful figures trailing behind him, stood out like a crane among chickens in this lawless place.
Those who made their living here were warriors with sharp eyes, and they could naturally tell that Zhu Jiuyin and the others were not to be trifled with. So as the group moved along, though many eyes turned their way, not a single person dared come within thirty feet of them. Wherever Yang Kai's party passed, it was as though an invisible hand swept the crowd aside.
"Someone is watching us from the shadows," Zhu Jiuyin suddenly murmured.
Yang Kai smiled. "Of course someone's watching. It would be stranger if no one were."
As they walked on, they spotted a tavern. Yang Kai led the group inside. The place was packed with all manner of people, the noise of voices a roaring din. Waiters darted in and out, sweating profusely from the rush.
The tavern keeper had a crooked mouth and a lopsided gaze, and his appearance was downright ugly — but his cultivation was anything but low. A full Fifth-Order Open Heaven.
Yang Kai requested a private room, settled in, and told the staff to simply bring whatever food and drink they had. Everyone took their seats.
The dishes arrived shortly after, splendid in color, aroma, and taste. Yet not a single person touched their chopsticks. Yang Kai sat in his chair with eyes closed, resting in feigned slumber.
Since he wasn't eating, Yue He and the others naturally didn't either. Old Bai, meanwhile, was fidgeting in his seat as though sitting on hot coals, squirming this way and that, visibly on edge. More than half a year had passed since the proprietress's disappearance, and to this day, he still had no idea where she was — of course he felt as though sitting on pins and needles.
After roughly half an hour, Zhu Jiuyin suddenly glanced at Yang Kai. Yang Kai seemed to sense it and opened his eyes to meet her gaze.
Zhu Jiuyin said flatly, "They're here."
Yang Kai let out a soft breath. "Good."
Though he had comforted Old Bai earlier, truth be told, he wasn't certain himself whether the mastermind behind the scenes would agree to meet him. In his original plan, if no one came, he would simply have Old Bai lead them to the place where the proprietress had gone missing and investigate from there.
But now it seemed his guess had been correct.
They had wanted him in the Shattered Sky, and he had come. It was only proper for them to show their hand.
Thud, thud, thud, thud — the sound of measured, unhurried footsteps came from the stairway. Before the person even arrived, a deeply unsettling aura had already begun to spread.
Yang Kai frowned and snorted coldly. "Myriad Demon Heaven!"
That aura was unmistakably demonic qi, and Yang Kai was intimately familiar with it.
The last time the Hundred Sect Alliance had invaded the Void Land, Myriad Demon Heaven had been pulling strings behind the scenes. And now, once again, it was Myriad Demon Heaven. It seemed the enmity between them was only growing deeper.
A moment later, the door to the private room was pushed open without preamble. Yang Kai raised his eyes and saw two figures step inside from the hall. Sure enough, both were from Myriad Demon Heaven — their entire bodies were shrouded in pitch-black demonic qi, churning and writhing so that their features were impossible to make out.
Yet Yang Kai had a distinct impression that behind that dark demonic haze, a pair of sharp eyes was fixed squarely on him, carrying the weight of scrutiny.
Yang Kai met that gaze head-on without the slightest hesitation. In the next instant, he felt the pitch-black demonic qi surrounding that figure transform into a vortex, seeking to draw his mind and spirit into its depths.
Completely beyond his control, Yang Kai felt both his eyes grow faintly hot. The Demon Eye of Annihilation in his left eye and the Black Pupil of Hell in his right activated on their own, and in a flash, one eye blazed gold and the other turned to abyssal black — the gold brilliant, the black profound.
It was at that exact moment that Zhu Jiuyin gently flicked a finger against the wine cup before her. A clear, delicate clink rang out, sending ripples cascading through Yang Kai's mind — like a sliver of dawn tearing through the darkness, pulling him free of that eerie state in an instant.
He hastily ducked his head and clamped his eyes shut. All he felt was searing pain in both eyes, as though they had been pierced by needles.