Xu Qi also said, "Yes, he really did want to enter the Wind Eye on his own. I tried my best to dissuade him, but he wouldn't listen. What could I do?"
The corners of Cang Yan's mouth twitched several times, and he forced a cold smile. "It had better be that way. Otherwise, your Thunderlight can just wait to be annihilated."
Xia Chengyin's expression turned cold. "Brother Cang Yan, this is our Divine Cult's territory. Please don't be too presumptuous."
"Enough, both of you." Du Wan barked the order. Having just learned that Yang Kai had entered the Wind Eye, Du Wan was also feeling thoroughly uncomfortable. If he had known such danger awaited, he never would have agreed to let Yang Kai come to Thunderlight as a Guest Elder.
"Right now, Young Friend Yang's life and safety are the most important. Cang Yan, what did you sense just now?" Du Wan looked at Cang Yan and asked.
"He's still alive, but his aura is somewhat chaotic. It doesn't look like he's refining pills." Cang Yan answered calmly.
Du Wan's expression darkened. He glanced at Xia Chengyin. "Cult Leader Xia, it seems entrusting him to your Divine Cult was not a wise choice after all. If he's lucky enough to make it out safely, I'll bring him back to the Alchemist Association. I hope Cult Leader Xia can understand."
Xia Chengyin nodded with a grim expression. Even if he wanted to keep the alchemist after Du Wan had said such things, he probably couldn't. He glared at Duan Hai and Xu Qi, saying through gritted teeth, "Nice work, the two of you. Can't even watch over one person. I don't think you want to keep your Elder positions anymore."
"It was his own—" Xu Qi muttered under his breath.
Duan Hai shook his head and sighed, feeling that their luck had simply been too terrible.
If only Elder Du and Cang Yan had arrived a few days earlier, this situation wouldn't have arisen. But it just so happened that the moment he and Xu Qi had made their move, these two had shown up at Thunderlight Divine Cult. Was it his own bad fortune, or Yang Kai's?
The group waited in silence. No one spoke, and the atmosphere felt oppressive.
Xu Qi and Duan Hai kept exchanging glances, both sensing how thorny the situation had become.
That kid definitely couldn't survive leaving the Wind Eye. The question now before them was: if the kid died, what would Du Wan and Cang Yan's attitude be?
They truly had no idea. Why was Cang Yan getting involved? This had nothing to do with the Xuantian Sect.
---
Inside the Wind Eye, the moment Yang Kai was thrown in, waves of searing pain shot through his entire body. The omnipresent wind blades carved into his flesh, and in an instant, they had sliced him bloody, shredding his clothes to tatters.
His Zhenyuan was sealed. Yang Kai had no way to defend against the wind blades' lethal force and could only rely on the resilience of his physical body to barely hold on.
He didn't rush to activate the Demon God Transformation. Instead, he focused his mind on the scapula area of his back, where the Wind Thunder Wings—obtained from Commander Han Fei of the Demon God Fortress—seemed to have suddenly been stimulated, producing unexpected changes.
The extremely dense wind energy all around surged toward his back, absorbed completely by the Wind Thunder Wings.
Intense pain lanced through him. Yang Kai's expression twisted in agony.
It was a tearing sensation, as if his body were being ripped apart. Violent wind energy raged through every fiber of his being, causing every inch of his flesh to squirm and writhe.
Pain. Agony. Yang Kai clenched his jaw and said nothing, letting the Wind Thunder Wings devour the surrounding wind energy.
He had a vague feeling that this was an opportunity—an opportunity to fully refine the Wind Thunder Wings!
Han Fei and Li Rong had told him before that they didn't know when these Wind Thunder Wings had been obtained, nor where they had originally come from. They had changed hands several times before ending up with Han Fei, and the two Commanders had attempted to refine them multiple times without success.
When Duan Hai and Xu Qi had brought him to the edge of the Wind Eye, Yang Kai had sensed that the Wind Thunder Wings were desperately yearning for the energy here, which was why he hadn't resisted at all and had let Duan Hai throw him in.
Now it seemed he had been right.
The long-dormant Wind Thunder Wings seemed to have received tremendous nourishment, becoming brimming with vitality. The speed of their devouring increased again and again, faster and faster, until even Yang Kai's formidable physical body couldn't keep up.
His flesh was constantly being destroyed, and the wind-attribute energy that poured into his body ran rampant.
Not daring to hesitate, Yang Kai quickly retrieved the Myriad Medicine Spirit Milk from the Black Book's space, placed it in his mouth, and swallowed it.
A warm sensation spread from his abdomen, soon reaching every part of his body.
The Myriad Medicine Spirit Milk's powerful restorative force and the Wind Eye's destructive power waged a grueling tug-of-war with Yang Kai's body as the battlefield.
His flesh was constantly destroyed, then it writhed and grew back, recovering, becoming tougher and more resilient.
Yang Kai endured the hardship. Gradually, he grew numb, no longer feeling any pain at all.
The Wind Thunder Wings' rate of devouring wind energy grew ever more terrifying. At Yang Kai's left shoulder, an invisible vortex seemed to have formed, pulling the dense energy from all around, surging into his body and filling the Wind Thunder Wings. The more wind-attribute energy they absorbed, the more vibrant and vital the Wings became.
From outside, at the enormous Wind Eye, a small vortex had appeared. This tiny vortex was like a black hole, pulling at the Wind Eye and devouring it.
Everyone outside who had been watching for signs of Yang Kai's fate all showed expressions of astonishment, unable to understand how this change had come about.
The Wind Eye was Thunderlight Divine Cult's forbidden ground, the very foundation upon which the sect had been established. No one knew how many years had passed since its appearance. Over all that time, countless disciples who cultivated wind-attribute martial techniques and cultivation methods had reaped unimaginable benefits here. Yet no matter how many people absorbed wind energy here, none had ever caused the Wind Eye to change—it hadn't even weakened.
But now, everyone could clearly sense that the wind energy filling heaven and earth seemed to have been drawn away by someone and was rapidly decreasing.
This discovery made the Thunderlight members' faces change dramatically.