As he spoke, Wang Gaoyang lunged at Yang Kai with his entire body, the World Force of a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator surging violently.
Yang Kai let out a long sigh. At this point, simply dodging was no longer viable. The Langya disciples had already deployed techniques to seal heaven and lock down the earth — continue retreating, and he would only grow more passive.
Rather than let that happen, it was better to go all out, reveal his true strength, and perhaps make them reconsider.
Yang Kai took a deep breath, reached out into the void, and gripped the Azure Dragon Spear as it materialized in his palm. His voice was low and steady: "Senior Brother Wang insists on a fight, then I'll have no choice but to offend you!"
The moment the words left his lips, he thrust the spear forward.
Wang Gaoyang's eyes lit up: "Come!"
Blade light surged, transforming into a sky full of crescent slashes.
But his excitement quickly turned to gravity, then disbelief. The moment Yang Kai's spear thrust cut through, all those countless arcs of blade light simply dissipated into nothing.
A wave of immense, crushing World Force bore down on Wang Gaoyang, giving him a suffocating sensation.
Boom, boom, boom…
As the deafening crashes rang out, violent energy erupted and a massive halo of light spread outward. Wang Gaoyang's figure was driven back, step by step.
He was completely outmatched.
Wang Gaoyang's face was a mask of disbelief.
He was already at the peak of the Sixth Order, a mere whisker away from the Seventh. Among the Langya sect, those who surpassed him in the Sixth Order were not nonexistent, but they were certainly few. He had assumed his own strength would be more than sufficient to take down Yang Kai — who could have imagined it would turn out like this?
Was this the kind of power a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator could wield?
Every collision sent tremors through his Small World, destabilizing it badly. Before he could catch his breath, the next wave of attacks had already arrived.
Back in the Shadowless Cave Heaven, when Yang Kai had only recently advanced to the Sixth Order, someone of Mao Zhe's caliber had already been no match for him. By now, Yang Kai had grown far stronger than he had been back then — by more than just a little.
Wang Gaoyang's strength was genuinely impressive, roughly on par with Mao Zhe at best, but how could that possibly be enough against Yang Kai?
Below the Upper-Order Open Heaven, Yang Kai was virtually invincible. Even against a Seventh-Order Open Heaven, if he took the form of a giant dragon, he could hold his own. Without that strength, he wouldn't have been able to trade blows evenly with Shi Zheng earlier.
With the Heavenly Spring suppressing his Small World, Yang Kai had no worries about internal instability. In a contest of brute force, Wang Gaoyang quickly began to crumble.
His Small World was in turmoil, his World Force circulation sluggish — the strength he could bring to bear was naturally compromised.
Wang Gaoyang's face was twisted with frustration. He had never encountered an opponent like this.
Under Yang Kai's relentless barrage, Wang Gaoyang was driven back again and again until he hastily shouted: "Wait—"
"Down!" Yang Kai ignored him entirely. The Azure Dragon Spear crashed down with the weight of a mountain, and Wang Gaoyang raised his blade to block. With a thunderous boom, his entire body plummeted downward like a meteorite falling from the sky.
From afar, his voice echoed across heaven and earth: "Yang Kai! How dare you abandon Junior Sister Gu after leading her on! I won't let you get away with this even in death!"
Yang Kai's face turned black as the bottom of a wok. This guy… even after losing, he couldn't resist leaving a parting sting. Yang Kai regretted holding back — he should have hit him hard enough to shut him up for good.
"Bastard! Finally found you!" A sharp shout rang out as a figure wreathed in crimson fire dove toward him. Before Yang Kai could react, a pair of delicate fists, wrapped in terrifying force, hammered straight down at his head.
It was none other than Senior Sister Zhou — the very woman who had crossed paths with Lin Xuan earlier!
She had rushed over from Lin Xuan's direction and had arrived just in time to witness Yang Kai defeating Wang Gaoyang. She had originally planned to confront Yang Kai and get to the bottom of things — if he and Junior Sister Gu were truly in love, that would have been a lovely match.
But the moment Wang Gaoyang's words reached her ears, Senior Sister Zhou had immediately concluded that Yang Kai had done something to wrong Junior Sister Gu. Forget questions — she would beat him first and talk later.
A savage blast of force hurtled toward him. Yang Kai swung the spear across his chest to block.
Boom, boom — two impacts sent Yang Kai flying backward. Terrifying energy rampaged through his body, sending a surge of blood churning in his chest.
Senior Sister Zhou pressed her advantage without mercy, shadowing him closely as her fists transformed into a sky full of afterimages, bombarding Yang Kai in a relentless storm of strikes.
Yang Kai was actually dazed by the assault!
This woman who had appeared out of nowhere was even stronger than Wang Gaoyang, and her fighting style was brutally straightforward.
Her punches were blindingly fast, each one carrying devastating power infused with the World Force of the Sixth Order. Any ordinary Sixth-Order cultivator facing such an opponent would have been defeated in short order.
Having lost the initiative, Yang Kai was reduced to a desperate defense. In the span of a dozen breaths, he took over a hundred blows across his entire body, wincing with each one.
Fortunately, Senior Sister Zhou hadn't struck to kill — she had likely only come with the intention of teaching him a lesson.
After a while, Senior Sister Zhou withdrew and stood tall, fixing Yang Kai with a cold stare. "Come with me to see Junior Sister Gu. Apologize properly, then write a letter to Yin Yang Heaven and break off your engagement with Qu Huashang. Today's matter will end there."
Yang Kai shook his head, and a series of popping cracks echoed through his body. He locked eyes with Senior Sister Zhou and bared a savage grin: "You're the first woman to beat me up like that!"
Senior Sister Zhou's lips curled: "If you don't listen, I'll hit you even harder!"
"Then I'll be looking forward to it!" A surge of vicious energy churned in Yang Kai's chest.
Senior Sister Zhou's expression grew even colder: "Is that Qu Huashang really that wonderful? You'd rather take a beating than break off the engagement?"