"Gather around me, everyone!" Yang Kai called out.
Feng Ying and the others exchanged uncertain glances. They had no idea what he was planning, but his calm composure was somewhat infectious, and they moved toward him one by another.
"No matter what happens next, please do not channel your own power," Yang Kai added as an instruction.
The group glanced at the Ink Clan Domain Lord hurtling toward them, and the corners of their mouths twitched involuntarily. The Domain Lord was nearly upon them—wasn't refusing to channel their power just asking for death?
"Little brother, are you sure about this?" Ning Qizhi asked in a low voice, his fists clenching and unclenching in restless anxiety.
"Rest assured, Senior. I wouldn't joke with my own life," Yang Kai replied evenly, his gaze fixed straight ahead.
The words weren't wrong, of course—no one would joke with their own life—but Yang Kai gave them no details in advance, which only ramped up their tension.
The Domain Lord closed in rapidly, clearly having noticed something odd. The fact that these several humans had suddenly stopped in their tracks made him suspicious and wary, wondering whether some trap awaited him. But under his formidable perception, he detected no trace of any trap.
Fury gnawed at him. About to die and still playing games! His massive hand shot forward, plunging downward in a grabbing motion. The Ink Force within his palm churned and surged, condensing into a cloud that shaped itself into a colossal claw.
A majestic, crushing pressure bore down on them.
Feng Ying and the others felt their hearts seize, and they very nearly channeled their own power on instinct to resist.
But at that exact moment, a wave of mysterious and profound power fluctuations surged from within Yang Kai's body, enveloping the group in an instant. The next second, the world spun!
The sensation was at once familiar and unfamiliar. Familiar because every one of them had experienced something similar at some point in their lives; unfamiliar because ever since they had come to the Ink Battlefield, they had not felt anything like it again.
By the time everyone's senses returned, they found themselves in an entirely different stretch of void. The Ink Clan Domain Lord who had been charging at them with murderous intent was nowhere to be seen.
They looked around. Not a single Ink Clan member was in sight.
Feng Ying stared at Yang Kai in bewildered astonishment. "Space Abilities?"
The sensation from that brief moment was remarkably similar to her past experience activating the Qiankun Art to teleport via the Qiankun Temple back in the Three Thousand Worlds. Had it not been, she would never have made such a guess. Besides, before that, a strange wave of power had indeed erupted from within Yang Kai's body—looking back now, it was unmistakably the fluctuation of the Space Dao.
Ning Qizhi hastily pulled out his own Qiankun Map, cross-referenced their current position, and once he confirmed the location, his face went slack with shock.
In that single instant, the group had traversed a distance of no less than hundreds of millions of li. Their current location was a place they had passed through several days ago.
Specifically, it was the area the group had passed through when Yang Kai had first suggested that Feng Ying flee toward the rear.
In other words, in the blink of an eye, they had been teleported from the heart of Ink Clan territory to this spot, shaking off the Ink Clan who had been chasing them relentlessly.
How had he pulled that off?
"The junior is well-versed in the Dao of Space," Yang Kai explained, meeting the stunned stares of the four.
Shen Ao still couldn't quite believe it. "I've heard of the Dao of Space, but transporting such an inconceivable distance in a single instant… it's truly beyond belief."
Qi Taichu's eyelid twitched. "Exactly. If you have this ability, what have we been running for all this time? You could have just carried us straight back."
Yang Kai gave a rueful smile. "That won't work. What I just did relied on a particular Artifact—that's how I was able to teleport directly from there to here. There's no Artifact keyed to the Pass on the other end, so I can't teleport straight back."
Though the group only half understood and had no idea what kind of bizarre object this Artifact was, they grasped that if Yang Kai could truly transport them straight back, there would have been no need to take all these risks in the first place.
They also finally understood why Yang Kai had told them not to channel their own power earlier. He needed to use his Space Abilities to perform a group teleportation, and if any external force interfered, the attempt could easily fail or go catastrophically wrong.
Fortunately, all of them had held back despite the Domain Lord's attack. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
"The enemies pursuing us have been shaken off for now, so there's no immediate danger. But we should get moving as soon as possible," Yang Kai said, looking at Feng Ying.
Feng Ying reined in the shock still lingering in her eyes and nodded. "You're right."
With no time to recover, the group set off at full speed toward their destination.