The situation had shifted far too quickly. Yang Kai's manor, which had seemed utterly powerless, had suddenly produced experts of such caliber and such numbers that the Huang family and Bright Manor's people simply couldn't react in time.
Even if they could have reacted, they wouldn't have been able to withstand the savage assault of the nine Blood Warriors.
Since their promotion to the Transcendent Realm, this was the first real battle for these nine Blood Warriors, and they fought with exceptional ferocity, showing no mercy whatsoever.
The moment Huang Xiao and Jiang Zhe took the Blood Warriors' first strike, they knew something was terribly wrong.
By the time the two of them steadied themselves and got a clear look, they froze like statues.
The elites from both their factions were falling like wheat being scythed under the relentless assault of Yang Kai's nine Blood Warriors, utterly unable to fight back.
From the moment Huang Xiao had ordered the attack to the end of the battle, no more than ten breaths had passed.
Six or seventy elites from the Huang family and Bright Manor had been completely wiped out, leaving behind only Huang Xiao and Jiang Zhe, two Transcendent Realm experts, staring dumbfounded at the carnage.
The elites from the Lu family were trembling as well.
Originally, since Lu Si had refused Huang Xiao's invitation and they'd missed their chance to earn merit, they'd been somewhat disappointed. But after witnessing what had just happened, they couldn't help but feel relieved. They secretly acknowledged that Elder Si's judgment had indeed been sharp and foresighted.
If the Lu family's elites had also joined the fight, their fate would surely have been no different from the Huang family and Bright Manor's people — collapsing into pools of their own blood without the ability to resist.
A chill rose from the depths of their hearts, and every last one of them felt as though they'd plunged into an icy cellar.
The so-called elites of a first-rate faction? They were absolutely nothing before nine Transcendent Realm powerhouses.
Huang Xiao and Jiang Zhe were momentarily dazed. They could barely believe their own eyes, and even less could they believe that the elites their families and sects had painstakingly cultivated had just been wiped out in such a bewildering fashion.
Nine silhouettes were flying toward them — the nine Yang family Blood Warriors, all wearing expressions of cold indifference.
Sensing the crisis bearing down on them, Huang Xiao and Jiang Zhe let out strange cries, not daring to linger a moment longer as they fled in panic.
"Young Master Yang, please show mercy!" Lu Si called out urgently. "After all, they are still part of the coalition fighting the Cangyun Evil Land!"
"Yang Kai..." Qiu Yimeng also called out.
Hearing Qiu Yimeng's voice, the nine Blood Warriors slowed their actions, awaiting Yang Kai's new instructions. In that brief moment of hesitation, Huang Xiao and Jiang Zhe had already fled beyond sight.
Seeing that Yang Kai had not spoken to stop them, Lu Si finally let out a breath of relief.
The Huang family and Bright Manor's elites had died here. The losses were significant, but there was always the chance to rebuild. If Huang Xiao and Jiang Zhe had also perished, then these two great first-rate factions would truly have been destroyed.
"Many thanks, Young Master Yang!" Lu Si hurriedly cupped his fists in gratitude.
Yang Kai's expression was strange, his brows tightly furrowed. He looked thoroughly displeased and said nothing.
Lu Si felt a knot of anxiety in his chest, the pressure enormous, and could only wait in silence.
Yang Kai's attention was no longer on what was happening around him.
The moment the nine Blood Warriors had charged out and killed the first Shenyou Realm expert, he had suddenly discovered that an enormous suction force had appeared within his sea of consciousness, drawing some kind of mysterious energy into it.
As the elites of the Huang family and Bright Manor fell, one after another, the mysterious energies were continuously sucked into his sea of consciousness.
Yang Kai immediately settled his mind, sending his Divine Sense diving into his sea of consciousness for a closer inspection.
It took him a good while before he realized that these mysterious energies being drawn into his sea of consciousness were actually the residual Divine Sense power left behind after the death of those Shenyou Realm experts.
Every Shenyou Realm expert possessed their own sea of consciousness, and within it was stored the Divine Sense power they had cultivated over the years.
When such a Shenyou Realm expert died, their sea of consciousness would collapse at the very moment of death. Once the sea collapsed, the Divine Sense power contained within would rapidly dissipate into the void and vanish without a trace.
Just like a cup full of water being shattered — the water inside would simply spill out and evaporate.
Unless there were some rare and extraordinary treasures capable of preserving the Divine Sense power of a Shenyou Realm expert after death.
The Warm Divine Lotus, for example.
When Yang Kai had first obtained the Warm Divine Lotus, it had been enveloped by an immense amount of Divine Sense power — the remnant left behind by its previous owner.
But back then, Yang Kai had been too weak to do anything about that power, and the Earth Demon had reaped all the benefits.
Now, however, the Divine Sense power that had dissipated from the seas of consciousness of these dead Shenyou Realm experts was being drawn entirely into his own sea of consciousness.
The source of this attractive force was unmistakably that closed golden vertical eye.
Yang Kai's expression grew peculiar.
He had personally witnessed the terrifying power of that golden vertical eye. He had once contemplated its uses and had even secluded himself for an entire month, attempting to refine and assimilate it.
Unfortunately, he had failed. All he had achieved was a subtle, tenuous connection between his own Divine Sense and the eye.
He had long since stopped paying much attention to it. Yet now, quite unexpectedly, it had suddenly begun to serve a purpose.