It wasn't that he couldn't break free.
It was that Kong Tai didn't want to break free just yet.
The demon king was draining his strength, while he was searching for a way to completely annihilate it.
Trapping the demon king would be simple enough, but destroying it was incredibly difficult.
Much like the true demonic power that had been drawn from the other shore, this entity was fundamentally formless.
His Zan Kong sword techniques could indeed erase a portion of the Song Demon King's power, but only a portion. To obliterate it entirely, even with his ability to cleave through space, was impossible.
It was like a poison lodged deep within the bones, residing in the depths of space. To eradicate it completely…
Looking up, Kong Tai tightened his grip on Zan Kong with his right hand, twirled the blade, and then swung it forward with force.
A chilling blade light, accompanied by purplish-red lightning, like heavenly might shattering darkness, pierced through the gloom, creating an unhealable rift before Kong Tai.
The end of this rift was not the void, nor the Uta world, but a spatial-temporal channel leading to deeper dimensions.
Beyond this channel, the girl's figure flickered, like a seabird under storm clouds. All trace of human emotion had vanished from her, her contorted face filled with madness and ferocity.
To truly kill the Song Demon King, one had to completely sever its connection to the Uta world and reality. Only then could it be truly slain.
As if sensing the youth's intentions, the surrounding darkness intensified, countless heads emerging from the gloom, glaring fiercely at Kong Tai before opening their mouths in a deafening roar.
The sound waves gained power, becoming like blades of space, vibrating the very fabric of reality. Before Kong Tai, a silver mist billowed, akin to the sea under the dawn light.
This silver mist was not true mist, but the chaotic distortion of space vibrating to its extreme.
The distorted space acted like an all-consuming blade, leaving behind a darkness that not even light could penetrate.
"Playing with space before me?"
As the silver mist rapidly approached, Kong Tai's azure pupils flashed with a hint of mockery. He then retracted his right hand, letting it hang loosely by his side.
As the silver mist neared, it disturbed the space around Kong Tai, causing his form to waver with the undulations, like a human reflection in a shattered mirror.
Kong Tai's brows furrowed slightly, and he thrust his right hand forward.
*Crack—!*
A flash of blade light, and the advancing silver mist halted. Then, the unmistakable sound of breaking glass echoed from within.
*Crackle—!*
The space churned by the silver mist was cleaved in two by this single strike, revealing the young man with his sword.
The youth, cloaked in fragments of shattered silver light, took a step forward, emerging from the distorted space and the parted mist.
Ignoring the white musical staffs that lashed out from all sides, and the countless human faces revealed in the darkness,
Kong Tai strode directly towards the girl.
This was a spatial-temporal channel. Though the girl appeared close to Kong Tai, if his current position was the beginning of the Uta world, then her location was its very end.
Thus, despite appearing close, they were separated by an immeasurable distance.
However, this posed no obstacle to Kong Tai.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Kong Tai's figure flickered three times, leaving behind three afterimages. It was as if he had traversed three worlds. By the time he completed these three steps, he had already appeared before Uta.
Seeing the youth arrive at the core of this world within mere steps, the demon king clearly panicked.
A tide of black mist surged, covering the core area and relentlessly compressing, compressing, and compressing further.
Finally, what surrounded Kong Tai were clusters of even deeper darkness.
On each dark face, a pair of blood-red eyes glared.
Their crimson light now had substance, emitting a strange, red mist.
This was no longer mere black mist, nor pure power, nor the previous roars that could shatter space.
The moment the red mist appeared, this space eerily froze, as if time had stopped.
Within this frozen expanse, the red mist moved silently, without a breath, yet exuding the ultimate desires of humanity, rapidly enveloping the youth.
Time stopped?
No, this was merely a sensory illusion, making it *seem* like time had stopped. In reality, time and space remained the same; it was merely the red mist that deceived.
Even so, standing before the girl, the youth couldn't help but look up, his attention drawn to the encroaching red mist.
"Interesting."
A flicker of amusement crossed Kong Tai's eyes.
The power of emotion could influence to this extent. At this moment, time and space, in Kong Tai's eyes, were split into two sides.
One side was frozen, and the other was the original scene of the red mist surging forward.
At this instant, the demon king's power possessed an unbelievable ability to traverse time and space, bypassing the infinite distance around his body and affecting Kong Tai's perception.
He had not yet become a god, and the demon king was not a true deity.
Kong Tai had never witnessed the true power of the other shore, so he couldn't gauge the true might of a god.
But judging by the demon king's current display, it was not difficult to infer the strength of a god.
Truly worthy of being a great being that transcended worlds, whose "individual" existence could rival a planet.
"The reason humans are great lies in this incredible power of emotion."
At this moment, on Kong Tai's right shoulder, a miniaturized version of the other shore materialized. He first looked left and right, then his gaze fixed on the rapidly approaching red mist.
Time seemed to slow down. The moment the other shore appeared, everything here, save for him and Kong Tai, slowed.
It wasn't that time had slowed, but that their thoughts were linked. As if within Kong Tai's mental world, an instant could be stretched incredibly long through the speed of thought.
Beside the other shore, a smaller Kong Tai appeared.
He looked at the other shore and smiled, "Why are you coming out at a time like this?"
"Afraid I can't defeat this demon king, this pseudo-god?"
"No."
The other shore shook his head, then turned to look behind Uta, at the spatial-temporal channel Kong Tai had carved.
"That is its true form. Though it hasn't fully matured, it is an unadulterated demon."
He let out a sigh. "Sometimes, even we gods have to admire the greatness of humanity!"
"This power originating from the most fundamental source of life, emotion, is as wondrous as the world's primordial power. It can create demons, incite gods to battle, and even cross the distances of time and space, traverse reality and illusion, endure the erosion of ages, and remain eternally undying."