In that situation, he'd reckoned there was no way he could escape from Yang Kai's hands. Perhaps, in a death struggle, he could make Yang Kai pay some price, but it certainly wouldn't be significant.
He never imagined that this killing star would toy with him like this before hastily fleeing again!
Why? Why…
The next instant, he understood why.
The moment he steadied himself, a fiercely violent aura carrying overwhelming hostility bore down from behind with terrifying speed. That aura was so powerful it seemed to surpass even Yang Kai, who had already advanced to the Ninth Order.
The Pseudo-King Lord whipped his head around and caught sight of the figure hurtling toward him at breakneck speed. He had felt that aura from afar before, had glimpsed that silhouette in the distance before, and seeing it again now still made his heart clench with dread.
"The Chaos Spirit King!" His face twisted in horror.
In the blink of an eye, the Chaos Spirit King closed the distance. Its fury was like an erupting volcano — violent and overwhelming — yet it paid no heed whatsoever to this Pseudo-King Lord blocking its path. As if casually swiping aside a roadside obstacle, it threw a halfhearted punch in his direction, then swept past him in pursuit of that human killing star.
"Guh—" His body hunched over abruptly, and a torrent of black blood erupted from his mouth. His aura plummeted, and his Ink Force began to scatter uncontrollably.
Even a casual strike, delivered in the Chaos Spirit King's berserk rage, carried devastating force. Compounding that, the Pseudo-King Lord had already been dazed by Yang Kai's earlier whip strike and had been completely unprepared. One blow was enough to leave him gravely wounded.
He raised his head to look. The Chaos Spirit King's figure was receding into the distance. His emotions seesawed wildly, and amid the pain, a glimmer of schadenfreude crept in. He couldn't help letting out a short laugh.
Yang Kai was being chased by the Chaos Spirit King!
No wonder he hadn't had time to deal with him just now. In this moment, he recalled an old human saying:
A villain will meet his match!
You think you're something, Yang Kai? You've already advanced to the Ninth Order? But no matter how formidable you are, when faced with a raging Chaos Spirit King, all you can do is flee for your life.
He silently prayed that the Chaos Spirit King would try harder — that it would actually manage to kill Yang Kai!
But the smile had barely bloomed on his face before it froze solid.
The void ahead suddenly rippled outward in concentric waves, as if a stone had been tossed into a still lake. The ripples spread, and a figure materialized from nothingness.
It was as though he had stepped through from another layer of space, arriving in a single stride.
"You—" The Pseudo-King Lord's expression changed drastically. In that instant, he realized he had misunderstood something.
"You look rather pleased?" Yang Kai, having returned the way he'd come, regarded the Pseudo-King Lord with mild curiosity.
The Pseudo-King Lord offered no answer. He turned and ran.
If, upon first encountering Yang Kai moments ago, he had still harbored thoughts of fighting to the death — of tearing a piece of flesh from Yang Kai even at the cost of his own life — then after being gravely wounded by the Chaos Spirit King, that notion had been entirely extinguished.
Even at his peak, he was no match for this killing star, let alone in his current battered state.
He'd done it on purpose!
The killing star had done it all on purpose!
His earlier actions had been nothing more than using the Chaos Spirit King's hand to weaken his opponent, then exploiting his spatial abilities to double back. He had never intended to let him go.
From the very beginning, he had wanted him dead!
"Where do you think you're going?" Yang Kai frowned impatiently and barked the words. The Chaos Spirit King had sensed his aura and was already changing course to chase after him again. If he didn't want to face the Chaos Spirit King head-on, this needed to end quickly.
The moment the words left his mouth, the laws of space were already activated. The surrounding void suddenly thickened, becoming as viscous as a swamp, and the Pseudo-King Lord found himself struggling to move even a single step.
The spear was already drawn. Yang Kai leveled the weapon and charged.
A piercing killing intent lashed out from behind. The Pseudo-King Lord had no choice but to turn and defend. The last thing his eyes registered was the spear tip, ever expanding within his pupils!
Black blood splintered through the air. The head burst apart. Two figures swept past each other. Yang Kai pressed onward without pause, hurtling into the distance. Behind him, the Pseudo-King Lord's corpse remained standing, still frozen in its defensive posture — a silent testament to his treachery.
A few breaths later, the pursuing Chaos Spirit King passed through the same spot. Again, it casually threw a punch, and this time, the corpse blocking its path was blasted into dust.
Inside the Warm Divine Lotus, Lei Ying murmured to Fang Tianci in a low voice: "The boss is way too devious."
Fang Tianci replied with perfect gravity: "In battle against an enemy, every means is fair game. There's no such thing as too devious."
With the original body's current strength, killing a Pseudo-King Lord wasn't exactly difficult, but it would still have required some exchange of blows. A Pseudo-King Lord was nominally a powerhouse at the King Lord tier, albeit one created through the Ink Race's secret techniques and unable to wield its full strength.
With a pursuer like the Chaos Spirit King bearing down from behind, engaging in a drawn-out fight with the Pseudo-King Lord would have been far from wise.
By borrowing the Chaos Spirit King's power to weaken the Pseudo-King Lord, then doubling back for a surprise kill, the outcome was effortless by comparison.
It was turning a pursuer into an unwitting ally with a deft application of leverage, slaying a Pseudo-King Lord without expending any real effort. What was there not to like?