"You're asking for death!" Yun Feibai flew into a towering rage. On his own territory, his own women had been injured — if word of this got out, where would his face be?
He had originally planned to capture Yang Kai and then deal with that woman called Lan Youruo, but now murderous intent surged within him.
The aura of a Sixth-Grade Open Heaven cultivator billowed outward. He raised a palm skyward and slammed it downward with a thunderous roar.
Above Yang Kai's head, a massive green-tinted palm print materialized out of thin air — formed entirely from exquisitely pure World Force.
If this palm struck down, it would be no different from an entire Small Universe world bearing down on him. And not just any Small Universe, but one belonging to a Sixth-Grade Open Heaven cultivator.
Yang Kai suddenly felt a flicker of pressure. Since his breakthrough to the Open Heaven realm, his fight with Ma Tianyuan had been exhilarating, but it hadn't forced him to reveal everything he had. Now, facing a furious Sixth-Grade Open Heaven cultivator, even the slightest carelessness could prove fatal.
A fiercer fighting spirit surged to the fore. Yang Kai showed no fear and rocketed upward to meet the colossal palm head-on.
A vicious glint flashed in Yun Feibai's eyes. His giant hand clenched violently, and the descending palm abruptly closed like a cage, seizing Yang Kai's tiny silhouette in its grip.
But in the very next instant, Yun Feibai's expression changed.
World Force rippled outward as countless streaks of brilliant light erupted. The giant hand, now formed into a fist, shattered with a deafening explosion, and a figure burst from within, hurtling straight toward him with the speed of lightning.
Yun Feibai let out a cold snort. His body seemed to move nowhere, yet he drifted toward Yang Kai with a ghostly swiftness. As his robes billowed, one powerful and concealed attack after another rained down on Yang Kai, each one containing a terrifying amount of World Force.
Yang Kai parried blow after blow, his body shuddering from the impacts as he was forced to retreat again and again.
He silently marveled — worthy indeed of a Sixth-Grade Open Heaven. He himself was a Fifth-Grade cultivator of considerable strength, but a single grade of difference meant a clear gap in power.
This fight had to end quickly. This was Xuanyang Mountain, after all, with four Sixth-Grade Mountain Lords presiding over it. If things dragged on and the other Mountain Lords and Xuanyang Mountain's experts realized what was happening, his situation would turn dire. He hadn't grown so arrogant as to think he could face multiple Sixth-Grade Open Heaven cultivators at once.
"Not bad, kid — to think you'd be this capable." Despite his boundless fury, seeing Yang Kai actually manage to block his attacks again and again, Second Mountain Lord Yun Feibai couldn't help but voice a note of admiration.
Fifth-Grade and Sixth-Grade Open Heaven — though separated by only a single grade, beyond the Open Heaven realm, the gap between each grade was enormous. The divide between Fourth-Grade and Seventh-Grade was an even more insurmountable chasm.
Had any other Fifth-Grade Open Heaven cultivator been standing in Yang Kai's place, Yun Feibai was confident he could have subdued them within ten moves. Yet Yang Kai was holding his ground!
A flicker of doubt stirred in his heart — had this kid truly just broken through to Fifth-Grade? Could he be feigning weakness to lure him into a false sense of security? But if he hadn't just advanced, then what explained the unmistakable aura surrounding him?
While his thoughts raced, Yang Kai — who had been driven back again and again — suddenly came to an abrupt halt.
In that split second, Yun Feibai's heart lurched, as though something terrible was about to happen.
The next moment, Yang Kai reached out and grasped at the void, and a long spear materialized in his hand.
A low hum reverberated through the air.
Heaven and earth shuddered.
A phantom dragon's roar echoed through the Small Universe, and an imposing draconic might spread in all directions.
With spear in hand, Yang Kai's entire presence transformed. He drew a slow breath and swept the spear in a graceful arc. Man is at ease, heart is at ease — the Grand Freedom Spear Technique blazed with resplendent light.
The spear came streaking toward him, and Yun Feibai's face drained of color. In his field of vision, it appeared as though a monstrous, terrifying dragon was lunging at him, its head thrashing and tail whipping as it tried to swallow him whole. Before this dragon, he couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of insignificance, like a mere ant.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, steadied his mind, and refused to be cowed by the dragon's might. With a low shout, Yun Feibai produced a calligraphy scroll. Within it, several characters soared and danced in bold, sweeping strokes — the handwriting was hasty and crude, yet each hook and slash resembled a sword of a different form.
A chilling sword intent pervaded the air.
World Force poured into the scroll, and the characters within decomposed — each hook and slash transforming into a stream of immaculate sword qi that tore through the void. The hissing of tearing air was unceasing.
Humiliation. Absolute humiliation.
A Sixth-Grade cultivator pitted against a Fifth-Grade, and he'd been forced to deploy his Artifact? For Yun Feibai, this was inconceivable. Before today, he had never imagined that a Fifth-Grade Open Heaven cultivator could be this powerful.
When he himself had been Fifth-Grade, compared to this young man before him, he would have been utterly defenseless.
Off to the side, the trembling Wei brothers were struck dumb.
They weren't in the thick of the fight, so they couldn't fully appreciate how formidable Yang Kai was, but seeing their Second Mountain Lord driven to the point of producing even the Calligraphy Scroll Artifact — they realized he'd been pushed to his absolute limit. Horror washed over their faces.
A face like jade, a spear like a dragon. Under the Grand Freedom Spear Technique, there were no set forms to speak of — every thrust came with effortless spontaneity. The Calligraphy Scroll blazed with light as streaks of sword qi crisscrossed through the air, and yet Yang Kai deflected every single one without missing a beat.