But this fellow was cunning beyond measure—there was no telling whether she was pretending to be weak on purpose. Yang Kai had no intention of releasing her. Instead, he silently channeled the Purifying Light.
After a moment, different-colored lights flared from his left and right hands. The two colors converged and merged, transforming into a blinding white radiance that completely enveloped the two of them, pressed close together.
The Ink Disciple, who was on the verge of losing consciousness, suddenly contorted with pain, a guttural choking sound escaping her throat as she instinctively thrashed. But Yang Kai had her firmly restrained, and no matter how she struggled, it was all in vain.
A sharp hissing sound rang out as billowing plumes of black energy visibly streamed from her body, dissipating into nothingness. The pain on the Ink Disciple's face gradually faded, her expression softening.
After a while, no more black energy leaked out, and only then did Yang Kai release her, finally able to confirm that this woman truly had no strength left to resist.
Utterly spent, Yang Kai collapsed flat on the ground, limbs splayed in every direction, gasping for air. The woman beside him remained unconscious, her brows still tightly knit as though tormented by nightmares.
It took a good while before Yang Kai struggled to his feet. He stuffed a few spirit pills into his mouth to recover, then silently refined them.
The woman showed no sign of waking. She had been relentlessly pursued by Yang Kai for days, sustaining multiple injuries, and afterward she had lurked in the shadows to ambush that Eighth-Order Open Heaven master, expending a powerful secret art in the process—which only made things worse. On top of all that, Yang Kai had proceeded to beat her senseless. Though she had now regained her own consciousness, both her energy expenditure and her injuries were considerable.
Yang Kai sat cross-legged beside her, placed a few spirit pills in her mouth and helped her swallow them, then activated the Evergreen Secret Art. Thick waves of life force enveloped her.
Fortunately, no Ink Clan had shown up in this area; otherwise, another fierce battle would have been unavoidable.
The woman slept for a full day. At one point, her long eyelashes trembled, and then her eyes snapped open. Her petite body sprang upright in an instant as her hand reached out and grasped at the empty air—the towering longbow, taller than she was herself, materialized in her palm.
With practiced ease she drew the bowstring, a streak of golden light aimed straight at Yang Kai, poised to fire.
Yang Kai remained seated where he was, utterly motionless, not even bothering to raise his defenses. He simply regarded her with a look of sympathy and spoke gently, "Don't be nervous."
The woman stared at him for a long moment, her expression shifting slightly. At last, the events before her loss of consciousness came flooding back. She furrowed her brow, slowly lowered her bow, and said with a measure of astonishment, "Senior Brother... saved me?"
Yang Kai smiled and nodded.
Even having lived through it herself and remembered every detail, the woman still could not believe it. "How could Senior Brother possibly save me? What kind of power was that?"
Since ancient times, once a human had been tainted by the Ink Force and transformed into an Ink Disciple, there had been no means of reversal. From that moment onward, they stood on the opposite side of humanity, destined to fight to the death on the battlefield.
Many of their people had not died at the hands of Ink Disciples—they had *become* Ink Disciples, turned into weapons wielded by the Ink Clan against their own kind. It was humanity's agony across all the ages.
And now, what had happened to her undoubtedly proved that their people had mastered a miraculous technique—a method for *saving* Ink Disciples!
Even with her exceptional composure, she could not conceal her shock.
Yang Kai smiled and said, "I possess a secret art that can purify and dispel the Ink Force."
The woman considered briefly. "That white light?"
"Exactly."
Understanding dawned on her face. "No wonder!"
"What do you mean?" Yang Kai asked, puzzled.
The woman explained, "In the battle ten years ago, something puzzled the Ink Clan—the number of Ink Disciples converted that time was far too few, and from a certain point onward, not a single new Ink Disciple appeared. The Ink Clan always suspected that our people had developed some means of countering the Ink Force, but they never figured out what it was. Thinking back now, it must have been the secret art Senior Brother just used."
Yang Kai nodded. "That's right."
The woman's expression grew solemn. She stowed her longbow and clasped her fists in a salute. "Bai Yi thanks Senior Brother for saving my life."
Only now did Yang Kai learn her name. He rose and returned the courtesy. "You're too kind. My name is Yang Kai. And I'm no senior brother, really—I only recently advanced to the Seventh Order. By seniority, you might even be my martial aunt."
Bai Yi shook her head. "You are Seventh Order, and your strength surpasses mine. That makes you senior brother and junior sister—period." At that, she recalled her recent entanglement with Yang Kai and regarded him with suspicion. "Senior Brother only *recently* advanced to the Seventh Order?"
Yang Kai nodded. "After the last great war between our two races."
Bai Yi's expression shifted. He had only just reached the Seventh Order, yet he had chased her until she had nowhere to run—what kind of terrifying foundation did that imply? If Yang Kai were given more years to cultivate, how could she ever hope to match him? She herself was a prodigy, confident that she was no weaker than any other Seventh-Order Open Heaven master. Once she created distance and leveraged her strengths, most Seventh-Order cultivators could never get close to her.
But after her prolonged struggle against Yang Kai, she finally understood—there were always people beyond people, heavens beyond heavens.
"Junior Sister Bai... are you feeling all right?" Yang Kai asked with concern. Since she insisted on calling each other martial siblings, he decided to play along.