The Second Mountain Lord of their own sect had been killed right outside Xuan Yang Mountain, right before his very eyes. How could Mao Zhe possibly tolerate such a thing? If he let this slide, what would become of his authority and prestige?
And so, the moment Yun Feibai fell, Mao Zhe had already launched himself straight at Yang Kai.
Zhou Ya and Geng Qing snapped out of their shock, eyes bloodshot as they gritted their teeth and struck from both flanks.
Yang Kai laughed out loud. "Come then! Let's have a real fight!"
Gripping his spear, he charged forward instead of retreating, meeting the three head-on. In the blink of an eye, the clash of weapons boomed as all four traded blows in a furious melee. Every one of them was Sixth Grade, and the terrifying collisions of World Force sent the entire Shadowless Grotto-Heaven trembling. Deep within Xuan Yang Mountain, pair after pair of eyes turned toward the battlefield, all filled with shock.
Four figures whirled through the air, unleashing all manner of divine abilities and secret arts, forces clashing like fire and water.
Yang Kai was being forced back!
Earlier, when he had faced all three at once, he had actually kept Yun Feibai and the other two suppressed and unable to act freely. The main reason was that Yun Feibai had already been grievously wounded, and Zhou Ya and Geng Qing had been too preoccupied protecting him to fight at full strength.
But now the situation had reversed.
With Yun Feibai gone and no longer a burden, Zhou Ya and Geng Qing could fight without restraint, unleashing their full power. What's more, the First Mountain Lord's strength was something the injured Yun Feibai could never have matched.
The moment they exchanged blows, Yang Kai felt it clearly — even with his Small Universe merged with the foundations of the Miniature Great World, in terms of sheer World Force, he was still inferior to this First Mountain Lord.
Worthy of being an existence on the verge of the Seventh Grade. Such strength was truly formidable.
Yet Yang Kai refused to fall back, relying on the Laws of Space to weave and dart about, his form flickering unpredictably. For a time, even the three Mountain Lords couldn't do anything about him. When they occasionally landed a glancing blow, his physical constitution and regenerative powers shrugged it off as nothing.
The First Mountain Lord burned with fury. "Bouncing around like a monkey — beneath contempt!"
Yang Kai paid him no mind. The Azure Dragon Spear danced in his hands through a thousand variations, a relentless rain of thrusts, each one carrying terrifying might. Geng Qing and Zhou Ya's hearts raced with each strike — they dared not meet his spearhead head-on.
Half a day of fierce combat passed, and Mao Zhe's brow suddenly furrowed. He had noticed that as time wore on, this young man's strength was growing at a remarkably conspicuous rate.
Compared to half a day ago, the improvement was unmistakable.
At the start, the three of them had pinned him down so he could only defend and dodge. But now, between bouts of defense, he could even mount several counterattacks — and this trend was growing more pronounced by the minute.
He couldn't understand it. He had no idea why.
Yang Kai had advanced to the Sixth Grade Open Heaven realm by consuming a World Fruit. But whether it was his leap to the Fifth Grade or the Sixth, both promotions had been rushed, leaving him almost no time to consolidate and stabilize his cultivation.
After reaching the Fifth Grade, Yang Kai had immediately entered the Shadowless Grotto-Heaven. Through the two fierce battles against Ma Tianyun and Yun Feibai, he had managed to somewhat stabilize his Fifth Grade cultivation — but not thoroughly.
Then came his secluded cultivation to refine the World Fruit, which allowed him to break through to the Sixth Grade.
His Fifth Grade realm had never been fully consolidated, and suddenly leaping to the Sixth Grade made his foundation all the more unstable.
But this kind of brutal, high-intensity combat was enormously beneficial — unimaginably so — for stabilizing and tempering his cultivation. The efficiency of such desperate fighting far exceeded secluded meditation by orders of magnitude.
In other words, as time passed, the power he could bring to bear would only grow stronger and stronger, up to a certain limit. That was why Mao Zhe had felt this strange phenomenon.
The four figures danced across the sky, from the heavens to the ground and back again. Wherever the battlefield spread, the earth shattered and the sky shuddered, World Force surging and crashing ceaselessly.
Zhou Ya's beautiful eyes trembled as she stared in disbelief at the figure weaving endlessly between the three of them, her mind reeling with shock.
They were all Sixth Grade Open Heaven cultivators — how could this man possibly be this powerful? She had assumed that with the First Mountain Lord personally joining the fight, the youth would have no capacity to resist at all. She never expected such a grueling, deadlocked battle.
The man's body bore wounds both large and small — perhaps over a hundred of them, and several bones must have been broken as well. Yet he only fought harder the more he was pushed, growing fiercer with every exchange!
She was actually starting to find it difficult to handle his attacks!
Suddenly, the First Mountain Lord's gaze sharpened and he roared, "You're using us to train?!"
After fighting for so long, he had finally caught on. This man must have only recently advanced to the Sixth Grade and was still unfamiliar with his own power — that was why he grew stronger with every passing moment.
Rage boiled over. "Arrogant brat!"
He was an existence on the very cusp of the Seventh Grade, virtually unmatched among all Sixth Grades. If not for the fact that this young man had mastered the Laws of Space — making him impossible to pin down, his movements impossible to track — he could never have held on this long.
Now that he had seen through Yang Kai's intentions, his fury was explosive.
Yang Kai flashed him a grin. "The strongest fighter in the Shadowless Grotto-Heaven, and this is all you amount to?" As his words fell, the overwhelming torrent of spear energy suddenly withdrew. His entire being shifted from motion to absolute stillness, his expression solemn. In a low voice he intoned, "Golden Crow Forges the Sun!"
A piercing cry rang out, and a blazing sun rose into the sky.
Geng Qing's face drained of color. "Brother, watch out! This kid can unleash a Divine Ability Manifestation!"