To stand on equal footing with the Holy Master meant at least being a Third Order Saint.
An Lingâer didnât believe Yang Kai was capable of this and only thought he was an overconfident youth.
âBelieve what you like,â Yang Kai smiled, his face filled with confidence.
âYou really wonât reconsider?â
âNo,â Yang Kai shook his head, âBut I have to say, the way you choose your Holy Master is too sloppy. How can you decide the next leader of such a big force so casually?â
âItâs not sloppy!â An Lingâer retorted vigorously, âOur Secret Art is based entirely around finding the next Holy Master. As long as there is a suitable candidate within a certain radius, we Saintesses can perceive them. A situation like yours is the actually the alternative method to finding a candidate. If we Saintesses cannot find an appropriate candidate within the allotted time, we can only let the Holy Land recruit as many young people with high aptitude and pass them knowledge of the Holy Landâs Divine Skills to see if they can comprehend them. Although todayâs event was an accident, you have indeed passed my test and are eligible to enter the Holy Land. En, in fact, your performance is exemplary, so youâre definitely qualified!â
Yang Kai laughed back at her, âCan you guarantee that the person you choose is loyal to your Holy Land and doesnât have any ulterior motives?â
âWe can!â An Lingâer nodded firmly, âAfter entering the Holy Land, the new Holy Masterâs mindset will change.â
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes at this comment. Although he wasnât quite clear about the details, from what he could gather, it seems the Nine Heavens Holy Land would use some special method to brainwash their new leader.
âFine fine, letâs put this aside for now,â Yang Kai didnât want to continue inquiring into the secrets of Nine Heavens Holy Land. The more he knew, the less helpful it was to him. Having said so, Yang Kai released a subtle stream of Spiritual Energy from the Soul Avatar and before An Lingâer could respond, wrapped her in it.
âWhat are you doing?â An Lingâerâs pretty face changed as she suddenly found herself unable to move. Yang Kaiâs Spiritual Energy was far stronger than she had estimated before and also contained a burning hot aura that caused her Soul Avatar a fair amount of discomfort.
Yang Kai looked her over, a complicated look flashing across his eyes as he nodded slightly, âEn, considering everything thatâs happened, the safest course of action would be to kill you.â
âKill me?â An Lingâerâs beautiful face paled slightly, âYou think Iâve seen too much?â
âThatâs one of the reasons,â Yang Kai nodded calmly, âWith the things you know, I can imagine that once you go back, your Nine Heavens Holy Land wonât leave me alone and will try to force me to go back with you, either to force me to take the position of Holy Master or to kill me in order to protect the secrets of your Holy Land. I donât want to deal with either of these situations.â
âArenât you being a bit paranoid?â An Lingâer frowned as she stared at him faintly, âAs long as I donât tell anyone, who will know what happened here today? And donât forget, I saved you once before, donât tell me youâre going to repay that kindness with enmity.â
âYou donât need to remind me,â Yang Kai spat disdainfully, âIn fact, I donât know what I should do with you right now. If I killed you, I would definitely regret it for the rest of my life, at worst it may become a kind of heart demon, but if I just let you go, I wonât be able to feel relieved.â
Listening to him, An Lingâer nervousness couldnât help diminishing greatly as she quietly asked, âSo what do you need me to do?â
âNothing much! But this was something I wished to avoid as well.â Yang Kai sighed as he reached out his hand and grabbed towards her Soul Avatar.
An Lingâer was frightened and wanted to struggle but was still unable to move.
Yang Kaiâs hand hadnât even touched An Lingâer before he clenched his fist and pulled it back towards himself.
An irresistible attraction seemed to emerge all of a sudden and An Lingâerâs vision became hazy, her Soul Avatar collapsing to the ground softly a moment later.
Struggling to raise her head, she directed a hate-filled glare towards Yang Kai and spat angrily, âSo you learned more than just two Divine Skills!â
âSorry, I actually learned three of them!â Yang Kai smiled, âThis one is called Great Heavenly Attraction, right?â
An Lingâer bit down hard on her lips and refused to answer.
âProfound Heavenly Sword, Imprisoning Heaven Chain, Great Heavenly Attraction...â Yang Kai muttered, âYour Nine Heavens Holy Landâs Divine Skills are really quite convenient and practical.â
âConvenient? Practical?! Youâre only able to use them because of my ten years of hard work!â An Lingâer listened to his evaluation and suddenly couldnât help snapping back at him.
Yang Kai simply ignored her and instead stared at the small piece of Spiritual Energy in his hand. This thread was something he had pulled out from An Lingâerâs Soul Avatar and actually looked like a miniature version of her, sitting cross-legged atop Yang Kaiâs palm, solemn and motionless.
This was An Lingâer Soul brand!
With this brand in hand, Yang Kai could control whether An Lingâer lived or died at will.
âAs a safety precaution, Iâll be accepting your Soul brand, and I hope from now on our paths will never cross again. En, well, when one day I am able to match your Holy Master, Iâll go to your Nine Heavens Holy Land and return this brand to you,â Yang Kai said, storing away her Soul brand into his own Avatar.
An Lingâer looked as if she had suffered a great injustice, but was helpless to resist.
Although she too was proficient in the Great Heavenly Attraction, her Divine Sense was not nearly as powerful as Yang Kaiâs, so even though she wanted to fight back, she couldnât.
This man was simply abhorrent to the extreme, she had clearly just offered him fame, riches, power, and women, yet not only did he refuse her, but he was also now trying to control her as well.
âHey, Iâm not really trying to act maliciously towards you, stop looking at me like Iâm so kind of monster,â Yang Kai said to her as he shook his head.
âYou bastard!â An Lingâer gnashed her teeth, seemingly trying to vent her anger.
âYes yes yes, Iâm a big bastard, the most hateful person in the world. Anyways, you should calm yourself down and cultivate quietly for a bit,â Yang Kai waved his hand dismissively. Now that he was in possession of her Soul brand, he felt much more relaxed.
Although extracting her Soul brand had caused some damage to An Lingâerâs Soul, it would be fine as long as she cultivated for a while, Yang Kai had made sure of that just now.
An Lingâer pursed her lips and ignored him, wandering a short distance away and sitting down, looking very pitiful.
Yang Kai watched her for a moment before helplessly shaking his head and flying off.
This white world was indeed inside a Soul type artifact. As for this artifactâs purpose, Yang Kai wasnât quite clear. All he knew was that it was capable of forcefully extracting othersâ Soul Avatars and dragging them into this strange space.
This was something quite useful for Yang Kai nonetheless.
His Soul was actually much more powerful than his physical body, so once he encountered a powerful enemy, with this artifact, he could force them into a confrontation between Divine Senses.
In such a battle, Yang Kai would have a lot of advantages.
As such, he really wanted to collect this artifact for himself.
However, the more than a hundred people who had been drawn into this white space had already searched it several times over and found nothing of note. In fact, the only thing that was at all different in this place was the glowing âSoul Battle Hallâ words hanging up in the sky.
Flying up to the position where the words were written, Yang Kai carefully inspected them, his expression turned stern.
As time passed, An Lingâer also recovered from the damage she had suffered and turned her eyes towards the sky, a while later also flying up and standing next to Yang Kai, asking, âAre you looking for an exit, or do you perhaps want to refine this artifact?â
âNot angry anymore?â Yang Kai glanced over at her curiously, he found that this woman was quite forgiving. Before now, Yang Kai had repeatedly pushed her away, but each time, after a short bout of pouting, she would come over to him again.
âOf course Iâm still angry!â An Lingâer firmly stated, âBut Iâve decided to put that aside for now. The most important thing right now is to find a way out of here.â
âClever girl!â Yang Kai grinned meaningfully, âYouâre right, I want to refine this artifact. Since itâs a Soul type artifact, it should be possible to refine it using my Spiritual Energy, but I donât know how I should go about doing that, what do you think? Any suggestions?â
An Lingâer swept her eyes around carefully and thought for a moment before replying, âYou should try refining these three words, it may be the core of this artifact. Pour your Spiritual Energy into these words and you should be able to take possession of this artifact!â
âSeems weâre in agreement,â Yang Kai nodded before saying, âYou should stand farther away.â
An Lingâer narrowed her eyes slightly, and although she felt a little confused by his suggestion, she still obediently moved away, landing back where the two of them had just had their last fight.
Looking up, she saw Yang Kaiâs Soul Avatar sitting cross-legged and motionless mid-air, seemingly concentrating on something.
All of a sudden, an astonishingly hot burning aura spread out from his Soul Avatar as a brilliant, golden light filled the entire white space, the Soul Battle Hall seeming shaking in response.
Instantly, the three words were directly wrapped in blazing flames.
An Lingâerâs jaw went slack as she saw this, her tender body trembling slightly.
Originally she had thought that Yang Kai had cultivated some kind of special Soul Skill or possessed a powerful Soul type artifact which gave his Soul Avatar that faint burning aura, but after witnessing this scene, she realized that neither of these was the case. The truth was that his Soul Avatar gave off a burning hot aura because of its innate nature!
[A Conflagrated Knowledge Sea?] An Lingâer was completely shocked.
Moreover, from what she could tell, Yang Kaiâs use of his Spiritual Energy had reached a very high standard.
No wonder he had taken her Soul brand, it wasnât just because he had learned some of the Holy Landâs secrets from her, but also because he possessed such a secret!
He obviously didnât want her to tell anyone about this.
However, with this, the two of them might really be saved. The power of a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was far greater than an ordinary Knowledge Sea, and it seemed Yang Kaiâs raw strength was also quite considerable. This Soul type artifact, even if its grade wasnât low, probably wouldnât be able to withstand being refined by such hot, violent Spiritual Energy.
An Lingâer suddenly felt a bit joyful as she made up her mind to do whatever it took to convince Yang Kai to return to the Holy Land with her!
A Holy Master with a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea! This was unprecedented even in the Holy Landâs entire history. With such aptitude and capital, as long as he became the next Holy Master, he would certainly be the most powerful one in history!