Chapter 1044, Somewhat Different Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain When Xin Rui first shouted, Yang Kai was still immersed in studying the Star Chart above his Knowledge Sea. Noticing something was wrong from the sudden shout and subsequent panic, he withdrew his consciousness just in time to feel the intense energy fluctuations crash towards him from all directions, the overbearing force they carried with them giving him the feeling of impending death. The communication type artifact in his pocket vibrated and Xue Tong shouted, “Young Master Yang, quickly...” Before he could finish his words though, the communication was cut off. The room around him suddenly collapsed, and the debris that was created quickly disintegrated and vanished into nothingness. Yang Kai’s body was then directly exposed to the Starry Sky. Rapidly sweeping his eyes around, Yang Kai saw bursts of blood all around him as the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce cultivators one after another desperately tried to escape but were swiftly overtaken by the destructive waves and pulverised. The ripples in space acted like the sharpest of blades, shredding these cultivators to dust. Yang Kai realized he was in the midst of a life or death crisis and immediately condensed his strength and slashed his hand forward in an attempt to tear space and escape from this place. However, what made him feel desperate was that at this moment, he was unable to accomplish the familiar task of tearing space. The explosions that had occurred all around him had greatly destabilized the surrounding space. So, he was unable to tear space! Twenty black hole-like cracks appeared around the Starship, like the mouths of giant fish that were engulfing everything nearby. Yang Kai went paled and swiftly activated his Demon God Transformation in an attempt to maximize his strength before attempting to escape in the opposite direction of the spreading ripples. Behind him, the aura of death pursued him like a relentless tidal wave, the space around him seemingly transforming into the sharpest of weapons, shredding Yang Kai’s body, causing great spurts of golden blood to fly out. Resisting the pain, Yang Kai madly circulated his Saint Qi and condensed out a series of Grand Heavenly Shields while simultaneously summoning out the Silver Leaf artifact he had not used for so long, transforming it into a light curtain that tightly wrapped around his form. *Chi chi chi...* The disintegrating space swiftly cut into Yang Kai’s defences, ripping apart the silver light halo in an instant and causing the Silver Leaf Grade High-Rank artifact to lose its spirituality in the next moment before it ultimately collapsed. The artifact had actually been directly destroyed. The destructive onslaught did not abate and the Grand Heavenly Shields condensed by Yang Kai were unable to resist their might, shattering faster than he could form them, leaving no margin for Yang Kai to even catch his breath. Bearing the terrible pain directly with his body once more, Yang Kai did not doubt he would soon die if he didn’t do something. Raising his speed to its limits, Yang Kai let out a desperate roar as he shot in a random direction, trying to seek a way out from this disaster. Just then, another shout rang out from nearby. “Young Master, run quickly! I will buy you some time!” Even while busy fleeing, Yang Kai shot a glance towards the source of the voice and discovered an old man standing nearby, his arms spread wide open as if he was trying to embrace something, staring towards the approaching waves of destruction, a strange energy fluctuation spreading out from his figure. As the unique aura of an Origin Returning Realm spread out, this old man used all his strength to wrench open one of the cracks in space before him and expand it as wide as he possibly could. As the violent waves crashed towards him, the old man wore a fearless look upon his face as he stood his ground, allowing the Heaven shaking destructive force to wash over him, disintegrating his clothes, then rending the flesh from his bones. However, because of this old ma’s efforts, a large portion of the destructive energy had been led into The Void. Yang Kai felt the surrounding pressure on him drop noticeably and joy filled his heart. Not far from the old man, an incredibly handsome young man with long hair draped over his shoulders stared at the old man who was sacrificing his life for him and desperately wished to help him, but was powerless to do anything. Clenching his teeth, the young man summoning a set of flame-coloured armour that tightly wrapped around his body, making him appear even more gallant and valiant. He and Yang Kai exchanged a single glance before both fled in the same direction. Xue Yue! Yang Kai groaned, wishing he could stop right now and choke this guy to death! In that brief glance, Xue Yue had also recognized Yang Kai’s identity, but in this life or death crisis, he had no time to care about him. Frustrated, Xue Yue simply clenched his fists together while suppressing the feelings of helplessness and anger inside his heart, glancing back once more just in time to see the old man’s bones rupture before turning around and fleeing as fast as he could. The Origin Returning Realm old man had only delayed the destructive onslaught for three breaths of time before the space crack he had forcibly opened was destroyed and the deadly waves expanded outwards once more. These overlapping waves of destruction quickly spread to the location of Yang Kai and Xue Yue. Yang Kai felt as if he had been punched by thousands of fists, every bit of his skin cracking open while his Knowledge Sea was thrown into chaos before he swiftly lost consciousness. Just before he passed out though, he saw that the set of armour and the clothes Xue Yue wore beneath them tear apart, revealing a white, flawless body. Yang Kai’s eyes bulged at that moment as he swore he saw something unbelievable... In that instant, the two pectoral muscles of this ‘young man’ appeared somewhat different than he had expected... This strange sight was the last thing Yang Kai saw before darkness took him. ...... Amidst the Ice-Cold Dead Zone, a desolate silence filled the air. The nearby Asteroid Sea had been swept away and was now nowhere to be seen. The massive Saint King Grade High-Rank Starship had also disappeared, along with hundreds of cultivators and all the materials it had been carrying. It was as if none of it had ever existed, no trace left behind at all. Silently, Yang Kai’s bloody figure drifted through the Starry Sky. It was as if he had fallen into a deep sleep and there was no way to tell when he might awaken. Golden rays of light shrouded his figure as the restorative powers of the Demon God Golden Blood once again displayed their formidability, rapidly repairing his damaged physique. His fingers twitched suddenly and his eyes shot open, a dazed look covering his face as he stared blankly into space for a moment. The scene from just before he passed out then flashed before his eyes and the desperate screams and roars reverberated in his ears, allowing him to immediately come to his senses. Upon trying to move, Yang Kai discovered that his body was completely stiff. He felt as if all his bones had been shattered and his body filled with scars. Laying back down again, he quickly inspected his condition with his Divine Sense. The situation was quite bad, his physique had many grievous wounds and many of his meridians were seriously damaged. Yang Kai couldn’t circulate his Saint Qi smoothly either, so his current strength didn’t even reach half of his maximum. Even with Yang Kai’s formidable resilience and the incredible restorative power of his Demon God Golden Blood, if he wanted to completely restore himself from these injuries he would need at least half a month. After clarifying his current state, Yang Kai took out a healing Saint Pill from his Demon Mystic Tome and stuffed it into his mouth. At the same time, Yang Kai couldn’t help rejoicing slightly. If it weren’t for the old Origin Returning Realm master who had been accompanying Xue Yue dampening the destructive wave for a moment back then, his current injuries would be far more serious and the chances of him having died would not have been small. Even a master at the Origin Returning Realm had died, what hope did a small Second-Order Saint like him have? What about Xue Yue? Did he die? Recalling the scene he saw right before slipping into a coma, Yang Kai’s expression became strange. He thought about it carefully and confirmed that it was not an illusion born of his own confusion. The Star Field’s famous Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce Third Young Master apparently had an incredible secret! Yang Kai released his Divine Sense but didn’t notice any life auras nearby. If he hadn’t died, Yang Kai anticipated that Xue Yue’s situation would be similar to his own. He had accidentally seen the other party’s greatest secret, and even before that Xue Yue had intended to kill him, so now it was even more impossible for him to let Yang Kai off. Yang Kai fully regarded Xue Yue as his enemy! Xue Tong... Remembering about the other person who had been accompanying him, Yang Kai quickly took out the communication type artifact from the Demon Mystic Tome and poured his Divine Sense into it, trying to get in touch with Xue Tong. To his disappointment though, no matter how he called out, Yang Kai received no response from Xue Tong. Before the disaster, Xue Tong had used this communication type artifact to try to warn Yang Kai to escape, but he had been cut off before he could even finish his words. It seems that at that time, Xue Tong had already suffered disaster. Yang Kai sighed deeply before stowing away the communication type artifact. He was a bit sad that Xue Tong had fallen. This Monster Race cultivator had been good to him; if Shen Tu hadn’t made Xue Tong accompany Yang Kai, he wouldn’t have been caught up in this disaster. His luck was really bad... Who laid such a trap in that Asteroid Sea though? Why did they want to destroy a Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce Starship? Also, what kind of trap was capable of such immense destructive power? Was it for revenge? Was it an assassination? Yang Kai had no way to know. He only remembered that Xin Rui had said something about Star Breaker Sparks before the disaster occurred, but Yang Kai had no idea what that was. Yang Kai secretly decided that he needed to discover the truth of this matter, not only because he had almost been killed, but also because he need to give Shen Tu an explanation for Xue Tong’s death! From behind Yang Kai, a slight attractive force appeared, pulling his body downwards. Yang Kai turned his head around with great difficulty and discovered that a few hundred kilometers or so away there was a small Dead Star. The force which had caught Yang Kai was the gravity generated by this Dead Star. Yang Kai didn’t resist and allowed the Dead Star to pull him in. Two hours later, when Yang Kai was just about to hit the surface of this Dead Star, he slowly, roughly circulated his Saint Qi to stabilize his figure. Glancing around, Yang Kai felt that this place truly deserved its Dead Star classification. A thick Death Qi lingered about the deserted surface, with no trace of vitality or life anywhere to be seen, only some scattered craters and mountains added variety to the landscape. At the moment, Yang Kai stood next to a huge pit, not a single strip of clothing on his body. All his clothes had been destroyed in the previous incident. After this short period of recovery, Yang Kai felt a bit better and was just about to take out a set of clothes from the Demon Mystic Tome when his expression suddenly changed and he hurriedly released his Divine Sense. He noticed another life aura in a place not far from him. His brow wrinkling slightly, Yang Kai didn’t even bother wearing clothes first before quickly flying over to investigate.