Some of the hunters even knew Yang Xiao and immediately offered enthusiastic greetings.
Yang Xiao smiled and returned each one.
Nearby, Li Ziyu and the others looked ashen-faced.
They had thought that with Yang Kai's arrival, they might have a chance to escape this place. But now it turned out Domain Lords were pursuing them? What was the point of fleeing? Not only were they finished, but Yang Kai and his people would likely be finished too.
All of them felt a pang of anguish.
Inside the cave heaven, Li Ziyu and the others were downcast, but Yang Xiao wore an expression of complete indifference. Hunters continued to pour in one after another. Those she recognized she greeted warmly, then guided them to the side to wait.
Quite a large number of hunters had come to provide support this time—a thousand in all. Although the gateway was wide open, it still took some time for everyone to pass through.
Outside the gateway, Yang Kai channeled the Space Laws to keep it operational, occasionally striking out to slay enemies.
He secretly congratulated himself. Fortunately, he had bought enough of a time buffer. If these hunters had suddenly burst out all at once, it would have been truly difficult to manage. They had come to help, after all. He couldn't very well charge through the gateway himself to take shelter and leave them behind. They had to be given priority to enter the gateway first.
The six Ink Clan Domain Lords hadn't caught up yet, but they would be there soon. Yang Kai could already faintly sense their powerful auras closing in.
The hundred thousand Ink Clan soldiers had been beaten into a sorry state. Given enough time, it would have been entirely possible to slaughter them all.
But it looked like time had run out.
One after another, the hunters charged into the gateway and vanished. Before long, all of them had departed.
In the distance, Yang Kai could just make out the silhouettes of the six Domain Lords.
They had arrived at the perfect moment.
"Go!" Yang Kai barked.
The moment the words left his lips, the group of youngsters from the Star Boundary charged into the gateway without the slightest hesitation. After they had gone, the Dawn team began withdrawing one by one, followed by Yu Rumeng and her group.
But before Yu Rumeng's team had all made it through, from far away amid the roiling ink clouds, Monaye's furious voice rang out: "Stop them!"
He was issuing the order to the surviving Ink Clan soldiers. Of the original hundred thousand, fewer than twenty or thirty thousand remained. In this brief span of slaughter, the Ink Clan army had suffered devastating losses. Every surviving soldier was terrified to the core of their being. Within a thousand zhang of where Yang Kai stood, not a single soul remained.
Monaye's command had been given, and no matter how terrified the Ink Clan soldiers were, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and charge at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai snorted coldly, and the void shattered like a mirror. Countless slender spatial rifts danced through the air, and the Ink Clan soldiers rushing toward him were sliced to pieces before they even got close. Only a few Lords managed to escape by sheer luck.
But Yang Kai himself seemed to be at the end of his rope. At the same time he deployed the Mirror of the Void technique, the gateway itself began to waver unsteadily.
"You're courting death!" Monaye was simultaneously enraged and delighted. He was furious because this group of Domain Lords had been spun around by Yang Kai like fools. He was delighted because the fellow truly did seem to be reaching his limit.
As the words left his mouth, he struck with a palm from a great distance toward Yang Kai.
The might of a Domain Lord swept across the surroundings. Under its residual force, even the spatial rifts around Yang Kai's body were smoothed away.
Yang Kai's expression turned grave. Not daring to be careless in the slightest, he raised a palm of his own to meet the blow.
A violent burst of power erupted. Yang Kai's body swayed, golden blood spraying from his mouth, his face pale as parchment. Monaye's figure also came to an abrupt halt, inwardly startled. This fellow was heavily wounded and still fought with such ferocity—no wonder he had been able to slay Domain Lords.
This was the first time Monaye had clashed with Yang Kai head-on. Though it was only a strike exchanged across a distance, it had been enough to gauge Yang Kai's true depth.
This man was terrifying!
If they couldn't kill him here today, who knew how many Domain Lords would suffer in the future.
Over at the gateway, Yu Rumeng's rear-guard team had nearly all withdrawn. The last to leave was Yu Rumeng herself. Seeing that the six Domain Lords were almost upon them, she shouted anxiously, "Husband, go quickly!"
Yang Kai nodded, then shot a vicious glare at Monaye. His eyes were cold, as though searing the man's appearance into his memory. Only then did he slip through the gateway.
And as he entered, the open gateway slowly began to close.
Monaye roared: "Chase!"
That final look from Yang Kai had sent a chill through his heart, strengthening his resolve to kill the man. With the gateway on the verge of shutting, his urgency only mounted.
Yang Kai was at the end of his rope—that much Monaye could tell. After all, the fellow had slain Domain Lord after Domain Lord in succession. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn't keep going indefinitely.
This was the best opportunity to kill him. If he managed to escape into the cave heaven and recover his strength, he would be far harder to deal with.
Under no circumstances could they allow him time to heal!
Had Monaye not been delayed by his long-range exchange with Yang Kai, he would have been the first to charge through the gateway. But because Yang Kai's counterattack had slowed him by a single instant, the other five Domain Lords had surged ahead.
Hearing Monaye's roar, the three leading Domain Lords charged forward without hesitation, plunging into the gateway.
The next instant, the gateway that had been slowly closing slammed shut with a thunderous boom and vanished into nothingness.
The two Domain Lords trailing behind passed straight through empty air.
Seeing this, Monaye's heart sank. No—he had fallen into a trap!