Kai glanced at Abigail from the side, his eyes still on the execution platform while the crowd around them continued shouting, laughing, whispering, and waiting for blood like this was some grand city festival instead of a man being murdered for revenge that should have been celebrated. The chained man on the platform stood weakly beneath the heavy suppression talismans, his shoulders low and body covered in old wounds, but there was still something stubborn in the way he held his neck straight, like even if they cut off his head, they would not make him regret what he had done. Kai watched him for another breath, then leaned slightly toward Abigail and whispered, “Do you want to destroy this whole place and save him?”Abigail’s eyes shifted toward him immediately. She didn’t look shocked, not really, because with Kai, that kind of question was already too normal to surprise her anymore. What worried her was how casually he said it, as if flattening a city square and snatching a co

Just as expected, a man walked out.He emerged from the tallest tower behind the City Lord’s viewing platform, dressed in long black robes with silver patterns running along the sleeves. His hair was tied neatly behind him, his hands rested behind his back, and his chin was raised in that calm, irritating way weak men used when they had spent too long being worshipped by people weaker than them. The moment he appeared, his aura rolled across the square, making many of the citizens gasp and step back, while the guards instantly looked relieved as if heaven itself had answered them.The City Lord’s eyes lit up with desperate hope. “Protector!”The man ignored him at first and only stared at Kai with cold arrogance. “You are the one disturbing the order of this city?”Kai studied him for one breath then chuckled.“So this is the weak-ass man you wanted to use to kill me?”The whole square froze.Even Abigail, still standing among the crowd, slowly lowered her eyes like she had expected

Abigail froze, not quite believing her ears.For a moment, the powerful wind around them seemed to quiet in her mind. The thunder bird was still cutting through the sky at frightening speed, its massive wings tearing through the clouds while the three hatchlings remained tucked safely into the nest behind them, yet all Abigail could focus on was what Kai had just said.They were being followed.She slowly turned her head toward him. “What did you say?”Kai leaned against the bird’s neck with that relaxed expression that always made serious situations feel even more ridiculous. “I said we’re being followed.”Abigail stared at him, then looked back toward the sky behind them. At first, she saw nothing but clouds, distant mountain lines, and the faint spiritual mist that drifted naturally through this world. There were no obvious figures, flying swords or beasts. Nothing that looked like immediate pursuit. But she knew Kai well enough by now to understand that when he said something lik

Soon enough, they arrived at another place.The first thing Kai noticed was the Qi.It was abundant, heavy and alive.It pressed against the skin like warm water, slipping into the pores naturally without needing to be pulled too hard, and the quality of it was not much different from the place they had just left. In fact, if he closed his eyes and ignored the absence of frozen wind, the environment still carried that same oppressive richness of a higher cultivation land, the kind of Qi that made Earth feel like a starving field beside a spiritual ocean.The only difference was that there was no ice or strange terrifying pressure sleeping somewhere deep in the white wilderness.Instead, they stood in what looked like an ordinary but vast cultivation land. Tall mountains rose in the distance, green valleys stretched between them, rivers flowed with faint spiritual mist, and ancient trees covered the land like a living sea. The sky above was clear but strangely deep, almost too perfect

Hearing Kai talk about compensation made Abigail sigh.Not a small sigh either.It was the kind of tired sigh that came from spending too much time around someone whose first reaction to danger was not fear, caution, or even proper planning, but wondering how much profit could be squeezed out of the situation before it killed him. She looked at Kai’s face, saw the faint excitement in his eyes as he stared at the vast world ahead, and for a moment she genuinely pitied this place.The array world did not know what had entered it.Zora had created it to train, pressure, sharpen, and force them into becoming stronger through repeated battles, death, recovery, and cultivation. It was meant to be a furnace. A terrifying place where everything they faced would be at least two times stronger than them, and where comfort would be punished as soon as it appeared. Yet Abigail had the strange feeling that Kai was not looking at it like a prisoner looking at a torture chamber.He was looking at i