Luan Baifeng was about to take charge of the surviving Open Heaven cultivators of the Heavenly Sword Alliance when, from within the massive encirclement formed by over a thousand Void Land Open Heaven cultivators, a Sixth-Order Open Heaven aura suddenly surged.
Immediately after, a figure wreathed in demonic energy burst through the layered blockade and charged straight out. In its wake, countless Void Land Open Heaven cultivators were sent tumbling in disarray.
Luan Baifeng's beautiful eyes went wide. "A breakthrough in the heat of battle?"
She knew exactly how many Sixth-Order cultivators the Heavenly Sword Alliance had — after all, she had spent several years on their side and was intimately familiar with every one of them.
Yet at this very moment, someone had actually broken through to the Sixth Order in the midst of fierce combat.
The shock that flooded Luan Baifeng's heart was overwhelming.
In the path of martial cultivation, aptitude, opportunity, and fortune were all indispensable. Below the Open Heaven Realm, warriors would occasionally achieve a flash of insight under tremendous pressure, breaking through to a higher realm and turning the tide to slay their enemies. That was what it meant to break through in battle.
Setting others aside, Luan Baifeng herself had experienced it once.
She couldn't remember exactly how many years ago it had been. Back then, she was only at the Saint King Realm. A lusting brute who coveted her beauty had pursued her relentlessly, and she had fled in wretched desperation for an entire month without ever shaking him off.
Then, during a desperate battle — in the razor-thin space between life and death — she had suddenly broken through to the Return Void Realm on the spot, and with a single strike defeated that brute.
She still remembered it clearly. She had severed all four of his limbs, cut off his manhood, and stripped away his flesh little by little. It had taken three full days and nights before he finally died.
From beginning to end, she never even learned the brute's name. All she recalled were his wails and pleas for mercy as death claimed him.
Such a beautiful, pleasing sound was truly unforgettable.
Yet in the entire course of her own growth, that had been her only experience of breaking through in battle. She was, after all, a prodigy of heaven — otherwise she wouldn't have achieved her current cultivation of Sixth-Order Open Heaven.
For someone with her level of aptitude, even a single breakthrough in battle was exceedingly rare. One could only imagine how extraordinary such an experience truly was.
And that was only below the Open Heaven Realm.
Once a warrior's cultivation broke through to the Open Heaven Realm, what was needed was the sedimentation of time and the accumulation of long ages. For an Open Heaven cultivator to break through in battle was virtually impossible — without sufficient accumulation, any insights gained might elevate one's state of mind, but not one's order.
Yet now, she had personally witnessed a Fifth-Order Open Heaven cultivator break through to the Sixth Order between life and death! How utterly astonishing!
"That's someone from the Myriad Demons Heaven!" Luan Baifeng's eyes lit up with keen interest in that Myriad Demons Heaven disciple. If she could capture someone like this, cut them open, and study them thoroughly, she might even reap some benefit for herself.
"I'll go seize him!" Luan Baifeng declared, already preparing to rush over. Her expression was practically eager, as though she might miss something wonderful if she delayed.
A long spear suddenly blocked her path.
Luan Baifeng turned her head in surprise. She saw Yang Kai narrowing his eyes slightly as he watched the Myriad Demons Heaven disciple who had just broken through to the Sixth Order, saying nothing.
The man charged into the black hole — a portal formed by the Domain — and vanished. Yang Kai showed no intention of intercepting him. With his current peak Open Heaven cultivation and his profound mastery of the Space Dao, he could have stopped the man with ease, yet he made no move.
Luan Baifeng blinked her beautiful eyes, unable to fathom what Yang Kai was scheming.
But Yang Kai's intention to let the man go was unmistakable. How could she fail to see that?
A daring thought suddenly exploded in her mind, and her eyelids contracted sharply.
"If you don't get over there soon, the Heavenly Sword Alliance people will all be dead," Yang Kai said flatly, withdrawing the Azure Dragon Spear.
Luan Baifeng glanced over and, sure enough, saw the Heavenly Sword Alliance's Open Heaven cultivators falling one after another into pools of their own blood. She didn't dare hesitate and immediately streaked toward that side, shouting for the Void Land cultivators to cease their attacks.
Yang Kai turned his gaze toward the three battlefields where Sixth-Order cultivators were engaged. His body transformed into a streak of brilliant light, and he thrust his spear forward.
The Vajra Heaven Lord, who had been barely clinging to life, felt his eyes bulge suddenly. He stood frozen in place, and when he lowered his gaze, he found that at some point a massive hole had appeared in his chest, his heart ground to powder, his vitality draining away.
Before he could recover his senses, a barrage of divine abilities from all sides hammered down upon him. The Vajra Heaven Lord exploded into dust in an instant.
The other two battlefields were no different. The Blazing Flame Heaven Lord and that Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator named Liang Ce had already been burned to their last ember — how could they possibly withstand the might of Yang Kai's spear?
Not to mention that four or five Sixth-Order cultivators surrounded each of them, pressing their attacks.
The three Sixth-Order cultivators fell in quick succession. Enormous amounts of World Force dissipated into the air, and only then did the aftershocks of the battle gradually subside.
On the other side, Luan Baifeng had taken over the battlefield below the Sixth Order. The surviving Heavenly Sword Alliance warriors numbered only seventy or eighty.
In this single battle, the Heavenly Sword Alliance's Open Heaven cultivators had suffered incalculable casualties. Fully five Sixth-Order cultivators had fallen, and below the Sixth Order, the dead numbered in the hundreds.
Such a massive number of Open Heaven cultivators perishing had fueled the World Tree's growth beyond imagination!