The female Lord quickly understood what Yang Kai meant by not taking advantage of her.
The human had actually put away his Artifact and charged toward her in great strides, slamming down a ferocious fist.
She rolled to her feet, dodging the strike. The undignified retreat set her rage ablaze, and being bullied and looked down upon by a mere Sixth-Order human made her fury unbearable. With a shrill scream, dense Ink Force erupted from her body as she lunged at Yang Kai, both claws transforming into razor-sharp weapons that tore through the void.
Yang Kai threw punches back at her in explosive retaliation, completely ignoring her attacks, fighting with the mentality of trading life for life.
Boom, boom, boom…
Their bodies shuddered violently with each impact, ink-black and golden blood spraying across them in equal measure. Blood even spurted from both their mouths, splashing all over the other's face.
In the span of mere moments, the female Lord's ferocity had been thoroughly crushed, her hard-won momentum dwindling with each passing second.
She had never encountered such a reckless human. While it was true that throughout history, humans had always been ready to face death without flinching — willing to drag the Ink Clan down with them when pushed to the brink — she had never seen one this savage.
This was no man. This was an ancient beast of calamity.
What terrified her even more was that the Ink Force's corrosion seemed to have absolutely no effect on this human. Even the power she had infused into her claws showed no signs of triggering Ink Transformation in him.
She had placed considerable hope in that. Once the human before her succumbed to the Ink Force, she could take him down effortlessly and might even gain an Ink Servant. Capturing an Ink Servant on the battlefield was one of the Ink Clan's proudest accomplishments. But until this very moment, the human across from her still remained clear of mind.
That alone would have been enough to alarm her, but what truly shook her was the power transmitted through his fists — each blow heavier than the last, with absolutely no sign of flagging.
She knew humans inside and out. The foundation of a human Open Heaven realm cultivator lay in their Small Universe. Once the Small Universe began to destabilize, their combat power would decline correspondingly.
In theory, going blow for blow like this against someone whose realm was lower than her own should have caused his Small Universe to waver long ago, his strength falling with each exchange.
Yet the truth was the opposite — not only had his power not diminished, he was growing stronger with every clash.
And close-quarters combat was not her forte.
I'll die! The thought struck the female Lord like a bolt of lightning. If this continued, she would truly die at this human's hands. He certainly wouldn't fare much better, but the moment that thought took root, the desire to retreat took hold.
Seizing the opportunity from one collision, the female Lord's body violently recoiled, attempting to break away from Yang Kai.
"Trying to run?" Yang Kai glared with fury but did not give chase immediately. Instead, his body trembled as the Laws of Space rippled outward, stretching the void to infinity.
Inches Become Distant Horizon!
The female Lord was horrified to discover that under the influence of some mysterious force, no matter how she fled, she could not put distance between herself and the human.
This was a human divine ability! Though she didn't know the intricacies of this technique, her ten fingers danced like wind as powerful energy surged forth, shattering the technique's binding in an instant.
Her realm was higher than Yang Kai's after all, and the Inches Become Distant Horizon could not truly contain her.
But that brief moment of hesitation was all Yang Kai needed. He was already upon her, and a new round of ferocious combat erupted.
On the battlefield, Feng Ying swept through with sword in hand, unstoppable. She had always stood at the very pinnacle among Seventh-Order cultivators, and with no Ink Clan Domain Lords present, who could possibly stand in her way?
She darted across the battlefield, sword qi raging freely. Weaker Ink Clan members were torn apart before they even came close, and even the Ink Clan Lords who stepped forward to meet her could not withstand the might of three of her strikes — they were either beaten back or slain on the spot.
This was all without her summoning her Divine Ability Manifestation. Were she to unleash it, her combat power would rise yet another level.
After all, she was someone who had once slain a Domain Lord. Even if she had seized an opportunity to do so, such a prize would not have been hers for the taking without the strength to back it up.
She did not stop, using the cover of allied cultivators along the way to push through alone, charging straight toward the forefront of the battlefield to the place where the Golden Crow's Blazing Sun had erupted earlier. She looked left and right, sending her Divine Sense sweeping outward, but could find no trace of Yang Kai.
Her expression darkened immediately. Had she arrived too late? Was Yang Kai already dead?
Not far away, a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator was fending off two Ink Clan Lords at once, in a perilous situation. While humans of the same realm were slightly stronger than their Ink Clan counterparts, two fists could not match four hands — a human Seventh-Order was no match for two Lords fighting together.
Feng Ying flashed over and drove the two Lords back with a single sword strike. Before the allied cultivator could press the attack, she seized his collar and demanded urgently: "Have you seen Yang Kai?"
The half-aged man she had grabbed stared blankly. "Who's Yang Kai?"
Feng Ying suddenly realized that not everyone knew Yang Kai by name. Asking like this would likely yield no useful information, so she quickly rephrased: "Then have you seen a Sixth-Order youth?"
The half-aged man's expression cleared. "You're looking for him?"