Recalling the encounter just moments ago, Lu Jing said, "Those two barely counted as Third-Order. You and I split the score equally, so that star only got one-tenth blackened. In other words, to earn one star, you'd have to kill ten Third-Order Open Heaven cultivators solo. What about Fourth-Order or Fifth-Order..."
"Find someone and try," Yang Kai said casually.
"Good point!" Lu Jing nodded. Following behind a Sixth-Order Open Heaven like Yang Kai gave him a tremendous sense of security. If they truly encountered a powerful enemy, he wouldn't need to worry too much—he just had to keep himself safe, and Yang Kai could handle the rest. He quietly made up his mind that next time Yang Kai killed someone, he'd better stay far away so he wouldn't accidentally share in the spoils.
He had only come here seeking a safe return. As for his final score, he didn't particularly care.
"But before that, we need to figure out where on this Sin Star we are." With that, Yang Kai shot skyward.
He had intended to rise to a high vantage point to survey the surroundings, but no sooner had he taken flight than he felt the pressure overhead surge dramatically. And as he ascended, that pressure grew increasingly terrifying.
At roughly a hundred zhang up, he could go no further.
He clicked his tongue in quiet astonishment. The grand array enveloping the Sin Star truly was formidable—it could suppress even a Sixth-Order Open Heaven like himself. Then again, this was where the Yin-Yang Heaven imprisoned the most vicious criminals, including no few Sixth-Order cultivators. If one could so easily break free of the array's restraint, the inmates would have escaped long ago.
Yet even he could only reach a hundred zhang. Any other Sixth-Order would do even worse. Which meant that fleeing the Sin Star was nothing but a pipe dream.
Hovering a hundred zhang above the ground, Yang Kai surveyed the terrain while comparing it against the information recorded in the jade slip.
The jade slip had been handed to him by Qu Huashang at the last moment. It contained a wealth of intelligence on the Sin Star, including a complete map of the entire island and dossiers on the various Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivators imprisoned there.
The Yin-Yang Heaven had operated the Sin Star for countless ages and naturally knew every detail of the place inside and out. It hadn't been difficult for Qu Huashang to obtain this intelligence.
This was, admittedly, a bit of favoritism and cheating on her part, but she had been worried about Yang Kai running into an enemy too powerful to handle.
After some investigation, the information he'd gathered was still too sparse to pinpoint his exact location. He could only press onward.
Lu Jing trailed behind Yang Kai, his expression leisurely.
Their flight speed had been greatly reduced by the Sin Star's grand array. Yang Kai had initially thought the one-year duration of the Grand Discussion Assembly was excessive—the participating cultivators were all Fourth-Order Open Heaven and above, and while the Sin Star was large, it couldn't withstand the scrutiny of several hundred people for long. He'd figured the entire island would be turned upside down within half a month at most.
But now it seemed that with the array's various suppressions slowing their movement, even a year might not be enough for someone to traverse the entire Sin Star.
Every so often, Yang Kai would stop and examine the surrounding terrain.
After half a day of this, he finally confirmed his approximate location. After carefully reviewing the information in the jade slip once more, he turned his gaze in a particular direction.
You'll do!
He led Lu Jing straight toward it. Along the way, they occasionally encountered solitary criminals wandering about, or groups of three to five.
Xu Linggong had been right. Every criminal imprisoned on the Sin Star had been given advance notice that hordes of Grand Discussion Assembly participants would be flooding onto the island. If they killed enough of these visitors and accumulated the required combat merit, the Yin-Yang Heaven would grant them their freedom.
Bolstered by this incentive, the criminals roamed the island with enthusiasm. Many of them had been locked up here for hundreds or thousands of years, or even longer. Without the Yin-Yang Heaven's approval, there had been no way to break free. Now that this rare opportunity had finally arrived, they naturally had to seize it with both hands.
If fortune smiled on them, they might just get a second chance at life!
The number of criminals imprisoned on the Sin Star was considerable, though most weren't particularly powerful. The ones they'd encountered along the way had all been below Third-Order. Yang Kai hadn't bothered to act, but Lu Jing had been killing with great enthusiasm.
Through several trials, the two of them had finally confirmed a rule: as long as they kept a distance of more than thirty zhang from each other, the merit from any kills would not be shared—it would go entirely to the one who dealt the killing blow. But if they were within thirty zhang, the black light that emanated from the dead criminal's wrist would split in two.
The Yin-Yang Heaven had likely designed it this way with the assumption that some participants would travel together, and this sharing method would make it convenient to track each person's individual merit. Of course, there was the question of who contributed more and who less, but that was something travel companions could sort out among themselves.
Three days later, the pair stepped into a dense forest. Mist curled between the trees, reducing visibility to less than three zhang. A faint suppressive force permeated the area, dampening spiritual sense—clearly some sort of array had been deployed here.
Where there was an array, people lived there. And judging by the traces and quality of this formation, whoever resided here was far from weak.
Lu Jing followed close behind Yang Kai, glancing left and right with a tense expression. He didn't know why Yang Kai had come to this place, but throughout their journey, Yang Kai's objective had seemed very deliberate.
Crack.
A soft sound rang out. Every hair on Lu Jing's body stood on end. He looked down to see that he had stepped on a dry branch and snapped it. He let out a sheepish laugh, feeling he might have been getting a little too jumpy.