The eight massive nails within Liu Mu Divine Monarch's Small World were manifestations of a secret technique, carrying the power of sealing and suppression—and this technique had been cast by Liu Mu Divine Monarch himself.
Before things spiraled beyond control, he had sealed his own power first.
Liu Mu Divine Monarch had sought out the
"Can he be saved?" One of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Supreme Elders turned to look at Yang Kai.
"I will do everything in my power!" Yang Kai replied in a solemn voice. The moment he finished speaking, he flickered toward Liu Mu's Small World.
Others dared not venture recklessly inside, but bearing the World Spring—one of the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth—he had nothing to fear.
Sensing someone's arrival, Liu Mu, who had been sitting with his eyes shut, suddenly opened them. Their gazes met, and Yang Kai saw that his eyes were gradually being swallowed by an ink-black darkness—though a sliver of clarity still remained.
One glance was all it took before Liu Mu hurriedly lowered his head, guarding his mind with everything he had.
Yang Kai did not dare slack off either. At a time like this, he could not afford to be frugal. He immediately retrieved one Eighth-Order Yellow Crystal and one Eighth-Order Blue Crystal from his Small World, gripping one in each hand, and activated the invisible imprints that Brother Huang and Sister Blue had previously inscribed on the backs of his hands.
His left hand burned hot; his right hand felt cold.
The patterns on the backs of his hands surfaced, transforming into bottomless voids that devoured the energy of the Yellow Crystal and Blue Crystal with ravenous hunger.
In merely a dozen breaths, both crystals vanished without a trace. In their place, brilliant yellow and blue light blazed from the backs of Yang Kai's hands.
Under the grave and tense watch of the numerous Eighth-Order Supreme Elders, Yang Kai suddenly pressed his palms together.
"Open!" Yang Kai let out a low shout as his clasped hands violently swept apart.
Pure, immaculate white light—untouched by the faintest impurity—rose like a dawning sun, instantly illuminating heaven and earth.
The white light grew brighter and brighter, quickly reaching the brilliance of the great sun. The Supreme Elders had to squint to see clearly.
The Ink Essence churned like a tide, retreating in all directions as though it had met its nemesis. Wherever the white light touched, the thick, ink-like energy was swiftly purified into nothingness.
The pained expression on Liu Mu Divine Monarch's face gradually softened, and he let out a long, deep exhale, as though a weight of ten thousand jin had been lifted from his shoulders.
A short while later, when the white light dissipated, Liu Mu Divine Monarch's Small World had returned to clarity. The thick, ink-like power that had once saturated it was completely gone.
The assembled Supreme Elders showed visible emotion.
Although Liu Mu Divine Monarch had previously told them about this ability of Yang Kai's, hearing about it was one thing—seeing it with their own eyes was something else entirely.
That pure white light born from the interplay of Yin and Yang was indeed the bane of the Ink power.
The eight colossal nails pinning the Small World world shattered, and Liu Mu Divine Monarch rose to his feet.
Yang Kai asked with concern, "Senior, do you feel anything amiss?"
Liu Mu grinned broadly. "Never been better!" He gave Yang Kai a hearty slap on the shoulder. "I owe you a favor!"
"You flatter me, Senior," Yang Kai replied modestly, though inwardly his heart ached. One Eighth-Order Yellow Crystal plus one Eighth-Order Blue Crystal—those were worth at least several billion Open Heaven Pills at a minimum.
But earning the favor of an Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator was hardly a bad trade.
Liu Mu Divine Monarch turned his head with renewed vigor to face the others and spoke in a deep voice, "So? What do you say?"
A flurry of divine senses exchanged among the group, and several Supreme Elders nodded slightly from time to time.
After a moment, one of them looked at Liu Mu and said, "We'll go along with what you proposed."
Liu Mu burst into hearty laughter. "That's more like it! You old fossils have lived too long—you've forgotten the fire and passion of your youth!"
"However, this matter still requires careful deliberation!" another person spoke up.
Liu Mu's expression soured immediately. "Careful deliberation again? How long do you plan to deliberate—until the Monkey Year and Horse Month? Wait until that Ink Clan member breaks free?"
"If you have ideas, by all means share them. If they're workable, we'll naturally have no objections," the other person said.
Liu Mu immediately found himself scratching his ears and cheeks in frustration. Though his bold gamble had succeeded in convincing the others to wage war against the Ink Clan, he had absolutely no idea how to actually fight. They couldn't all simply charge at the Ink Clan member in a headlong rush for a decisive battle—even he considered that approach unworkable.
The greatest obstacle standing before them now was the influence of the Black Domain's grand formation. Unless that influence was neutralized, no matter how many Eighth-Order Supreme Elders there were, they could not sustain the fight for long.
A battle against the Ink Clan was not something that could be decided quickly. If it were that simple, the ancient mighty beings would not have gone to such enormous lengths to imprison him.
Across this vast expanse of Heaven and Earth, the only person the grand formation could not affect was Yang Kai alone. But how could he possibly be a match for the Ink Clan by himself?