Yang Kai ran for dozens of miles before he finally began to relax.
But before he could catch his breath, his expression suddenly changed. He whipped his head around to look in one direction. There, amid a swirl of gray mist, a handkerchief-shaped artifact was hurtling toward him at breakneck speed. As the handkerchief spun, the images of exotic beasts etched upon its surface seemed to come alive, roaring and charging forward in savage ferocity.
Hot on its heels, a streak of rainbow light erupted, its piercing aura making every hair on Yang Kai's body stand on end.
Not daring to hesitate, Yang Kai immediately unleashed the Haotian Shield — one of the Nine Heavenly Divine Skills.
A brilliantly golden shield rapidly materialized before him.
The exotic beasts charging out of the handkerchief couldn't stop their momentum, crashing into the Haotian Shield one after another and dissolving into motes of light before vanishing completely.
The rainbow light that followed struck the Haotian Shield dead center, producing a crisp ring before being deflected back.
The Haotian Shield shattered simultaneously. Yang Kai grunted, his gaze turning cold as he looked toward the source of the attack.
There, Zhang Ao laughed heartily. "Kid, you actually dared to come out? Heavens themselves are smiling on me today!"
Cao Guan caught the rainbow light in his hand, revealing a brilliantly shimmering long sword. Wu Jie drifted behind the two like a specter, silently sizing up Yang Kai.
The three had believed there was no hope of capturing Yang Kai this time and were about to withdraw and regroup when they spotted him striding boldly out of the Nine Peaks.
They were overjoyed and immediately attacked, hoping to subdue him in one fell swoop.
But what none of them had anticipated was that even without the power of the Nine Peaks to draw upon, Yang Kai had blocked the first wave of attacks from Zhang Ao and Cao Guan without a scratch.
Only then did they realize that everyone had underestimated Yang Kai's own strength.
"Let's see where you run this time! We're a hundred miles from your Nine Peaks — even if you wanted to beg that Venerable of the Demon Race for help, it's impossible now!" Cao Guan crowed with glee.
"You guys are really something," Yang Kai said, eyeing the three with undisguised irritation.
He hadn't expected them to still be lurking here.
Yang Kai had assumed that after the Demon Race intervened, they would have slunk back to their sects with their tails between their legs, never showing their faces again. Yet everyone else had left, and these three powers were still here, waiting like hunters beside a tree stump.
Three Saint Realm cultivators. One of them had even reached the second level of the Saint Realm — Yang Kai knew he was no match for them. With his current cultivation and abilities, at best he could trade blows with a first-level Saint Realm expert, and even then, victory was far from certain.
The Saint Realm and the Transcendent Realm — there seemed to be a fundamental difference between them. Having encountered so many people and witnessed so many things, Yang Kai had keenly grasped this.
However, capturing him wasn't exactly realistic for them either, so Yang Kai remained composed — confident and unafraid.
"Heh heh, kid — there are roads in heaven but you won't take them, no gates in hell but you barge right in. Surrender quietly and you'll suffer less!" Zhang Ao hissed coldly. As he spoke, invisible threads of Divine Sense crept toward Yang Kai, attempting to infiltrate his mind and crush his will to fight.
Yang Kai stood utterly unmoved, treating Zhang Ao's Divine Sense like a light breeze against his face.
Zhang Ao's expression stiffened. Something felt wrong — the kid before him, merely at the second level of the Transcendent Realm, seemed to have transformed into a bottomless black hole. No matter how much Divine Sense he poured in, he couldn't gauge the depth of his strength.
"You think just the three of you can take me down?" Yang Kai grinned broadly, looking at the three as though they weren't even worth his attention. "Go ahead and try. Let's see if you can actually catch me."
"Don't refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!" Cao Guan snarled through gritted teeth. "Work with us now and we'll treat you fairly. But if we actually have to drag you in, we won't be so gentle."
"Come at me then! If you fail to catch me this time, just wait — I'll wipe your sects off the map!" Yang Kai's expression turned vicious. His patience had run thin. These three clung to him like maggots on a bone, and it was making him furious.
He silently swore that once he grew stronger, he would kill all three of them.
"I don't think you'll get that chance!" Zhang Ao spread his hand, and the handkerchief artifact suddenly generated an immense suction force. The space around Yang Kai instantly became sticky like a swamp, warping and shifting — like the moon reflected in water or flowers in a mirror, unreal and elusive.
A look of absolute certainty spread across Zhang Ao's face. He was convinced that no matter how capable Yang Kai might be, there was no way he could break free.
Yang Kai merely smiled coldly, a dark, chilling gleam shimmering in his eyes as he stood completely still.
The suction force suddenly intensified, and the handkerchief swelled rapidly, wrapping around Yang Kai in the blink of an eye and enveloping him completely.
Cao Guan was overjoyed and burst into laughter as he rushed forward.
But Zhang Ao let out a cold snort. The handkerchief flew back on its own. After a careful inspection, his expression darkened.
Yang Kai, who should have been trapped inside the handkerchief, had vanished without a trace — it was completely empty!
"Looks like he slipped away a long time ago," Wu Jie said coldly, his eyes flickering like ghostly flames.