Yang Kai maintained his dragon form and charged to the side of the massive ore star, driving the Azure Dragon Spear against one flank. "Give me a hand!" he shouted.
Luan Baifeng understood immediately. She shifted her figure forward and pressed her palm against the butt of the Azure Dragon Spear, channeling her strength in concert with Yang Kai's!
The original ore star had already been split in two after passing through the killing formation. Yang Kai paid no mind to the smaller half, letting it drift off into the void—its fate would likely be to fall into some other great formation and be ground to nothing.
The remaining larger half was less than half the size of the original ore star, but it was just the right scale to bring back.
In his half-dragon transformation, Yang Kai possessed immense physical strength, and even so, combined with Luan Baifeng's contribution, it took considerable effort to redirect its trajectory.
After sustained exertion, Yang Kai finally said, "That should do it."
As he spoke, he grabbed Luan Baifeng and flickered down onto the surface of the ore star, allowing it to hurtle forward through the void. He didn't dare increase its speed too much—on the way back, they would almost certainly encounter many restriction formations, and at certain points he would need to change direction. If the ore star was moving too fast, it would be too late to stop once a restriction formation blocked the path ahead.
He retrieved a handful of Open Heaven Pills and swallowed them. While refining them to recover his spent strength, Yang Kai gazed back with a contemplative expression.
Luan Baifeng was also recovering. Although she had only exerted herself briefly at the end, redirecting even a damaged ore star of this size was no small drain on her reserves.
"What are you looking at?" Luan Baifeng followed his gaze into the void behind them, curiosity in her voice.
After the spectacle she had just witnessed, her admiration for Yang Kai's wild imagination had grown to the point of near reverence. If everything went smoothly on this trip, within a month they would bring a damaged ore star back to the outer regions. Once they rounded up the mining slaves they had left behind, they could get to work extracting the black stones in earnest.
But this method was probably something only Yang Kai could pull off. Even a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator would be unable to manage it. Before meeting Yang Kai, she had never seen anyone capable of resisting the eerie aura that permeated the Black Domain.
"You have considerable knowledge of formations—did you notice anything about that killing formation just now?" Yang Kai dismissed his dragon transformation technique, restoring his original appearance, and asked.
Luan Baifeng paused briefly, then spoke solemnly, "What did you notice?"
"If I had figured it out, why would I be asking you?" Yang Kai shook his head slowly. "But I have a feeling that killing formation wasn't as simple as it appeared on the surface… That final beam of light—it looked like a sword strike!"
"A sword strike?" Luan Baifeng startled, her expression shifting between shock and unease. "You're not suggesting that killing formation was man-made, are you?"
Yang Kai said gravely, "If that truly was a sword strike, then it was almost certainly man-made."
"Impossible!" Luan Baifeng shook her head firmly. "The power of that formation was truly terrifying—who could possibly have created it? And even if the formation was man-made, who would go to the trouble? Don't forget, formations like that are found naturally all over the Black Domain."
"Exactly!" Yang Kai nodded. "If all these restriction formations were man-made, that would be far too startling." He paused for a moment. "Also, you've been here for so many years—have you ever figured out what that eerie aura filling the Black Domain actually is?"
"I looked into it when I first arrived," Luan Baifeng said. "But I never got anywhere."
Yang Kai frowned. "Before I came here, I heard that the Black Dungeon is a natural prison. Did that saying start spreading after you took over this place, or has it been around since ancient times?"
"It was an old saying—nothing to do with my taking control of this place." Luan Baifeng's own brow furrowed. "What are you getting at?"
Yang Kai looked deeply contemplative. "I'm not sure myself. But if the idea that the Black Dungeon is a natural prison has been passed down since ancient times, and if this place really is a prison… could there be prisoners locked away here? Could those formations we assume are natural actually be—"
Luan Baifeng suddenly shivered. "Stop. You're giving me goosebumps."
Yang Kai clicked his tongue. "What's there to be afraid of? I'm just speculating. Of course, these are all my own guesses—hardly reliable."
Luan Baifeng's expression darkened. "But if you're right, then who is locked away deep in the Black Dungeon? To need layer upon layer of natural restriction formations shrouding them—what kind of terrifying power would that person possess?"
Yang Kai stroked his chin and considered. "Good point. If someone were really that powerful, they wouldn't have ended up locked away in the first place. Maybe I'm overthinking it."
Luan Baifeng stared at him for a long moment, then suddenly snapped, "You were just trying to scare me!"
Yang Kai chuckled. "You scared yourself—don't blame me."
Before Luan Baifeng could argue further, he issued another instruction. "Enough talk. Keep your eyes on the road ahead. We don't want to stumble into some formation by accident, or we'll be crying before we know it."
"You're the one who'll be crying!" Luan Baifeng huffed. Still, despite her complaint, she activated her eye technique and peered into the void ahead.
Along the way, they encountered numerous restriction formations of all types. But both Yang Kai and Luan Baifeng possessed eye techniques that allowed them to detect the danger early, adjusting their course well in advance to steer the ore star onto a safe path.
The journey was fraught with detours, but in the end they managed to avoid any real peril.
It took a full month before the two of them finally returned to the outer perimeter of the Black Domain. The reason it took so long was that Yang Kai had not dared to push the ore star's speed too high, lest some unforeseen complication arise and they be unable to deal with it in time.