The man leading the group was the same expert who had previously removed the restriction on Yang Kai. His face was grim and resigned. Once inside, he waved his hand, and several clansmen immediately threw open the cell doors on both sides.
"Kid, your time's up," the man said coldly. "We've kept you fed and comfortable for long enough. Now let's see just how much use you can be!"
As he spoke, he once again sealed Yang Kai's True Yuan, then barked at the clansmen, "Take them all away!"
Gou Chi and his clansmen erupted into curses, only to be met with a flurry of punches and kicks before being dragged out of the cells. Yang Kai and An Ling'er offered no resistance, which spared them from the same fate.
They moved along the dungeon corridor. Gou Chi clearly wasn't cooperating—he kept dawdling and dragging his feet, earning himself no small number of lashings. By the time they emerged from the cells, his entire body was slick with blood. But his backbone was iron-hard; he didn't let out a single whimper. All manner of foul, obscene language kept pouring from his mouth, grating on everyone's ears.
The Yang Clan expert sneered repeatedly. "Keep talking. Soon enough you won't have the chance. I hear you're the son of some demon general? Your old man doesn't sound all that impressive to me—his own son is about to die and he can't even be bothered to come save him."
"If you've got the guts, let me go! I'll go back and bring reinforcements, and my father will wipe every last one of you out!" Gou Chi shouted defiantly.
"Imbecile!" The man curled his lip in contempt.
As Gou Chi spoke, he kept flashing Yang Kai meaningful glances. It looked like he was about to make a move. Yang Kai quickly responded with a subtle signal, telling him to hold off for now.
This was the moment when the expert was most on guard. Even at full strength, Yang Kai couldn't guarantee a successful escape—let alone now, with his True Yuan and sea of consciousness both tampered with.
He had to wait for the right opportunity, find the perfect moment, and release the Soul-Consuming Insects all at once to seize control of a large number of Yang Clan members.
Gou Chi caught on and fell silent, though he eyed Yang Kai with open suspicion, unsure of what the young man had in mind.
Under the expert's escort, they pressed forward. The deeper they went, the more intense the fluctuations of yang-attribute energy became, and the more unstable they felt.
The Yang Clan members seemed to be in a hurry, their pace extremely swift.
Before long, they arrived at a wide-open expanse of ground. Within a radius of several hundred zhang, there was nothing at all—except for a single colossal tree towering a hundred zhang high, its canopy dense and lush, its entire form radiating a golden hue as its roots plunged deep into the earth.
All the yang-attribute energy Yang Kai had been sensing emanated from this very tree.
It was like a massive umbrella. Its enormous canopy spread wide, projecting a field of energy far into the distance, forming a half-dome of visible protective membrane under the sky that shrouded the Yang Clan's living quarters.
The moment Yang Kai set foot here, the True Yuan within his body stirred restlessly, and his flesh began to quiver. The restrictions that had been placed on him were silently dissolving, bit by bit.
Yang Kai's eyes lit up, and he was thoroughly astonished.
He had never imagined a tree like this could exist in the world. This had to be the divine tree the Yang Clan spoke of—the very foundation of their entire race.
Because of the cultivation methods they practiced, as long as this divine tree existed, their strength would rise rapidly. They didn't have to be like Yang Kai, scouring the land for yang-attribute treasures and places where spiritual energy gathered.
This place was quite literally the paradise Yang Kai had always dreamed of.
He looked up and saw that within the canopy of the great tree, numerous fruits hung upside down—the same kind of fruit he had eaten before. There were quite a few of them: some appeared fully ripe and of great age, while others still looked green and unripe.
Not far from the base of the divine tree, the entire upper echelon of the Yang Clan was assembled, waiting. Sensing the group's arrival, they all turned to look. When their gazes fell on Yang Kai, every pair of eyes burned with anticipation.
And the divine tree itself seemed to be undergoing some extraordinary change—it was transmitting an almost desperate sense of yearning. Visible to the naked eye, streams of pure yang-attribute energy transformed into ropes that extended from the tree and wrapped around Yang Kai's body.
Seeing this, everyone's spirits soared.
The leader stroked his beard and nodded with a smile. "It seems the divine tree takes a liking to this human."
"Now we're saved! With this human, the divine tree should stabilize for quite a while, giving us plenty of time to find new nourishment!"
"To be transformed into the divine tree's nourishment—that's an honor!" The expert who had escorted Yang Kai and the others here sneered as well.
"I don't feel particularly honored," Yang Kai snorted, making no attempt to break free from the energy ropes the divine tree had wound around him.
These energy ropes didn't restrict his movements at all. If anything, they made him feel extraordinarily comfortable.
They kept moving forward. Not far ahead, the ground was blanketed with a sea of bleached bones and dark-red bloodstains. These bones clearly belonged to members of the demon race who had previously been dragged here for blood sacrifices.
The sight stretched before them like an ocean of bones—deeply disturbing, truly bone-chilling.
An Ling'er's delicate face went pale. The thought that she, too, might soon end up like this sent terror flooding through her heart.
Crack. Crack...
As the group walked forward, their feet crushed the bones beneath them, producing a series of hair-raising sounds.
Gou Chi's eyes were about to split with fury. He was panting heavily, his gaze gradually turning blood-red, as waves of hatred and explosive rage radiated slowly from his body.