"How am I supposed to believe you?" Yun Xuan stared coldly at Yang Kai, disappointment clear on her face. "I was actually considering inviting you to join the Solitary Pride Alliance, but now I don't see the need. My squad operates under my command—I don't need anyone second-guessing me, especially not with unfounded fearmongering."
"I'm not fearmongering..."
"Show me proof, or don't bother speaking," Yun Xuan said coldly.
Yang Kai shook his head helplessly and regarded Yun Xuan with an indifferent expression. "Then I'll excuse myself."
With that, he turned and dashed outward at full speed. He had nothing concrete to offer—his intuition was nothing more than his own word.
"Hey, brother!" Ji Hong cried out in alarm, calling after him.
"Let him go!" Yun Xuan snapped, watching Yang Kai's retreating figure and shaking her head repeatedly.
His current behavior was night and day from his earlier composure. Yun Xuan felt that if someone like him really joined the Solitary Pride Alliance, it could bring nothing but trouble. Her interest in recruiting him cooled entirely.
"Ah..." Ji Hong sighed, looking at Yun Xuan. "Miss, he sounded so certain. Could he really have discovered something?"
Yun Xuan's beautiful eyes flickered. After a moment's deliberation, she said, "Uncle Sun already told us there's no danger here. What could he possibly have found? Besides, I didn't sense anything unusual either. He was probably just making a mountain out of a molehill."
"That makes sense!" Ji Hong nodded. In his heart, he naturally trusted Sun Ying's assessment completely.
Yang Kai's figure raced through the mine shaft at tremendous speed. Each step drove a deep indentation into the ground, long afterimages trailing behind him—he had pushed his velocity to the absolute limit.
The path he had come by was already memorized in his mind. This labyrinth of tunnels was as clearly mapped in his head as a printed chart; he wouldn't lose his way.
Through his Divine Sense, the fluctuations of that mysterious energy were growing stronger and stronger. It had clearly already taken action.
Yang Kai knew full well what he was capable of.
With his seventh-level Shenyou Realm cultivation and his Demonic Frenzy techniques, he was virtually unmatched within the Shenyou Realm.
Against a Transcendent Realm expert, he wouldn't be afraid, but neither did he have any confidence in winning.
His earlier kill of the Spider Mother had relied on the power of the Golden Benevolent Single Eye within his sea of consciousness. Slaying Xing Zong of the Senluo Hall had likewise depended on the void force absorbed into his Bone Shield. Neither had been his own strength.
The gap between Transcendent and Shenyou was a massive chasm.
Moreover, this terrain wasn't suited for intense combat. If the mine shaft collapsed, everyone would be buried underground.
So the moment he had sensed the hidden enemy, Yang Kai's first instinct was to flee immediately and regroup later.
Unfortunately, Yun Xuan hadn't believed him, and that left Yang Kai frustrated.
Staying behind to argue would only waste time. Yang Kai made the decisive choice to leave.
He hoped they would be all right, he thought silently. Besides, the Solitary Pride Alliance did have a Transcendent Realm expert among them—Sun Ying was no weakling, and he might not necessarily lose to whoever was hiding here.
Just then, another powerful wave of energy surged through—from Sun Ying's direction.
From the faint hums and tremors spreading through the surrounding mine walls, Yang Kai could tell that Sun Ying had engaged the hidden enemy.
Yang Kai's expression darkened, and he pushed himself even faster.
At the same time, the battle's fluctuations were detected by Yun Xuan and the others.
Every face turned deathly pale.
"What's going on?" Yun Xuan froze in shock.
Sun Ying had actually taken action!
As the Solitary Pride Alliance's Transcendent Realm powerhouse, he had accompanied them on this mission. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't engage in combat—he was only responsible for ensuring everyone's safety and setting up containment seals to prevent the Gold-Devouring Beasts from escaping.
But now he was fighting. That meant something had appeared that Ruan Xinyu's or Zhou Luo's squads couldn't handle.
What kind of danger could force him to act? Yun Xuan didn't know, but she understood that something truly terrible must have happened.
Thinking of this, she suddenly recalled Yang Kai's earlier warning, and her expression grew complicated. Only now did she realize he hadn't been fearmongering—he had genuinely detected something abnormal.
The ground began to shake violently. The surrounding walls crackled and groaned, as if the entire mine shaft was struggling to hold together under the shockwaves of that distant battle.
The impact of a clash between Transcendent Realm experts was enormous.
"Miss!" Ji Hong cried out.
"Run!" Yun Xuan didn't dare linger a moment longer. Her heart was wracked with regret—if she had known this would happen, she should have listened to Yang Kai's warning and led everyone outward when she had the chance. Had she done so, they would have faced far less danger.
As she spoke, her voluptuous figure transformed into a streak of cyan light, rocketing after Yang Kai's vanished form.
Ji Hong and the others followed close behind.
But they had barely made it a few dozen zhang when a deafening boom erupted from deep within the mine shaft. The entire tunnel collapsed, and enormous boulders rained down from above, sealing off the paths in both directions.
Yun Xuan's face turned ashen. No longer daring to hesitate, she unleashed all her strength and focused her True Yuan into a devastating upward blast, desperately trying to carve out an escape route.
The rumbling was unceasing. Far away, Yang Kai's face was equally grim, knowing his desperate hope had been crushed.
Sun Ying was indeed no match for the hidden enemy. In that exchange, Yang Kai had clearly sensed Sun Ying's aura stutter, and the destructive force generated by their clash had rocked the entire mine shaft.
He cursed silently, quickly summoning his Bone Shield and holding it above himself. The next moment, boulders began pelting down on him like a rain of stones.