Monanye racked his brains but couldn't figure out how Yang Kai had so effortlessly formed an Eight Trigrams Formation.
Before this fellow had summoned that Blood Crow, everything here had been firmly under his control—the siege of Xiang Shan, the suppression of Yang Xiao and the others. Yet the moment the Eight Trigrams Formation took shape, his hold over the situation shattered.
This fellow… always managed to pull off the unexpected and do the unthinkable.
With Yang Kai serving as the formation's core, the Seven Star Formation assembled by the various powerhouses was already enough to contend with him on equal footing. Now that the Eight Trigrams Formation was complete, its might far surpassed what had come before. How could he possibly match it?
He could barely restrain himself from unleashing the trump card he had been secretly holding in reserve.
That trump card had been laid out by Xiaoyou in advance, reserved for a critical moment—the key to ensuring this operation would not fail, and the very foundation of Monanye's confidence in eliminating both Xiang Shan and Yang Kai in one fell swoop.
But if he activated it now, while Xiang Shan could certainly be dealt with, Yang Kai would escape. All his prior waiting and restraint would have been for nothing.
If his only goal had been to deal with Xiang Shan, he could have triggered that trump card long ago. The reason he had kept fighting a drawn-out battle against the humans was precisely because he had been waiting for Yang Kai to show himself.
He was certain Yang Kai would appear.
Sure enough, Yang Kai had come—albeit a little late. Everything was still within plan.
Compared to Xiang Shan, Monanye wanted to eliminate Yang Kai even more urgently. He had a persistent feeling that letting Yang Kai live would bring even greater catastrophe to the Mo Race than Xiang Shan's advancement to the Ninth Rank.
Everything had been under control until the appearance of the Eight Trigrams Formation introduced the one variable that threw his plans into disarray.
After only a brief moment of hesitation, Monanye suppressed the anxiety in his heart. It was not yet time to unleash that trump card. As a Demon King, even with the power of the Eight Trigrams Formation behind him, killing Yang Kai would not be so easy. That meant there was still a chance to set things right!
Moreover, how long the Eight Trigrams Formation could be sustained was anyone's guess. Even Yang Kai, serving as the formation's core, could only maintain such a formation for so long. Once he could hold on no longer, the Eight Trigrams Formation would collapse on its own.
With this thought, Monanye abruptly shifted from his previous fierce offensive to a defensive stance. Faced with the torrential onslaught of the human powerhouses, he was driven back step by step—looking wretched and beleaguered, though in truth he was not suffering significant damage.
Across from him, Yang Kai couldn't help but silently commend the move. Monanye had made an exceptionally wise choice. When facing a superior foe, one should avoid the brunt of their strength. If Yang Kai were in Monanye's shoes, he would have made the same call. Sometimes, using defense as offense was more effective than blind aggression.
It didn't matter that the enemy was powerful. All one had to do was stall—even the strongest foe would eventually exhaust their strength and morale…
Channeling everyone's vital energy and directing all of that accumulated power into himself, the Eight Trigrams Formation placed an enormous burden on Yang Kai. Even with a physical body as formidable as his—one mere step away from the Sacred Dragon—he could not sustain it for very long. Monanye was employing a stalling tactic, and if Yang Kai could not break through and drive him off within half a shichen, the current advantage would be completely wiped out.
It seemed like he would have to take that gamble after all…
If the Eight Trigrams Formation could not defeat Monanye, then Yang Kai's only remaining option would be the fusion of his three bodies—an attempt to break through to the Ninth Rank.
But the Three Parts Return to One Art had been passed down to him by Wu Kuang. It was a technique that Shi had once devised to break through the shackles of the Opening Heaven method. Since its creation, no one had ever cultivated it before, and naturally, no predecessor could offer Yang Kai any useful experience.
How exactly were the three bodies supposed to merge? And after the fusion, could he truly break through his own shackles and advance to the Ninth Rank?
Yang Kai had no answers to any of this. So even though both his human body and beast body were right beside him, he had not rashly chosen to fuse the three. He had originally planned to wait until this battle was over, return to the Three Thousand Worlds, and then find an appropriate time and safe place to attempt it.
That way, if something went wrong, he could find a way to mitigate the damage.
But to fuse the three bodies in the middle of this battle—if something went wrong, not only would he likely be doomed beyond salvation, but the entire human camp would be plunged into dire peril along with him.
Yet at this moment, the formidable tenacity and strategic choice Monanye had displayed left him with no choice but to prepare for it.
Better to be prepared than caught off guard. He only hoped he wouldn't have to resort to it.
His mind racing, he sent a voice transmission to Fang Tianci and Lei Ying. The man and the leopard understood immediately and began their work in silence.
Previously within the Eight Trigrams Formation, the human body and beast body had only merged their vital energy and power into Yang Kai's body. But after receiving his transmission, they not only continued channeling their energy and power but also allowed their mental and spiritual strength to spread outward, silently resonating with the main body.
The Eight Trigrams Formation suddenly began flowing more smoothly and naturally, but Lei Ying and Fang Tianci's eyes turned vacant and hollow, as if they had lost all independent thought. Only their intertwined vital energies remained, weaving through the formation as power flowed ceaselessly into Yang Kai.
The reason this Eight Trigrams Formation could run so smoothly was not because Yang Kai, as the formation's core, was so extraordinary. It was because among the formation's participants, there were two particularly special existences.
The human body Fang Tianci and the beast body Lei Ying had both originated from Yang Kai himself. They were a kind of existence similar to clones, yet different from clones in the conventional sense—they had developed their own life experiences, their own thoughts and perspectives.