Atop the ocean, an iceberg the size of a small room drifted along with the waves. Atop this iceberg, Yang Kai sat comfortably cross-legged.
After having found Su Yan and learning that Meng Wu Ya and Little Senior Sister were safe and sound, he felt a lot easier.
Although he had not taken Su Yan away with him and instead left her in Ice Sect, with the help of Qing Ya, Su Yan would only grow stronger. The next time they met, Yang Kai figured Su Yan’s strength would have noticeably increased.
Feeling happy, Yang Kai didn’t hurry along and simply let the iceberg drift wherever it wanted to, pushing his True Qi only enough to make sure it stayed upright.
Now that he had no immediate worries, Yang Kai figured he should return to Soaring Heaven Sect and quickly improve his Alchemy proficiency so he could refine the Saint Pill needed to free the Ancient Demon Clan before finally returning to Coffin Slave Senior’s hiding place in the Snow Mountain Range.
After receiving guidance from Old Man Li, Yang Kai’s understandings and insights into the Alchemic Way had improved notably. He also fully realized the superiority of using his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea to perform Alchemy rather than his True Qi.
On top of that, after having dual cultivated with Su Yan, his Soul had undergone a kind of sublimation, coupled with the various experiences he had absorbed thanks to the Demon Eye of Annihilation, Yang Kai had gained some new and significant insights.
Sitting atop the iceberg, Yang Kai immersed himself in comprehending the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, various thoughts and ideas flitting across his consciousness.
As these thoughts intertwined and combined together with his own experiences, Yang Kai’s expression and mood gradually became reflective.
The sea was vast and boundless, and Yang Kai did not encounter any interruptions, so he gradually forgot the passage of time and even where he was or where he was going and became immersed in his own thoughts.
Beneath the iceberg, gigantic marine animals would swim by now and then, but Yang Kai had completely concealed his aura so all these beasts could sense was a small floating chunk of ice; naturally they didn’t cause him any trouble.
In the sky up above, scattered clouds drifted about, down below, the ocean waves undulated rhythmically. This was the first time since arriving in Tong Xuan Realm that Yang Kai truly felt content and connected with this world.
After a month or two, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath, a big smile upon his face.
This period of enlightenment had brought him an improvement to his strength that was not small, while also allowing him to realize just how difficult it was to break through to the next Order of the Transcendent Realm.
It could be said that every Transcendent Realm master had experienced all kinds of hardships and struggled on the edge of life and death. Only after overcoming all of these challenges had they achieved a cultivation level that separated them from mere mortals.
Those who had failed to surpass these challenges had either been forever unable to break through that barrier or had died trying.
Among the new improvements Yang Kai had achieved this time was the various magical uses of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea.
His Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was a type of mutation or evolution of an ordinary Knowledge Sea and was superior in almost every way, whether it was regarding offense, defense, or even investigating and deceiving others.
Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy was powerful enough that once he covered his body in it, he could fool outsiders who tried to investigate him regarding his strength, thus causing them to underestimate or ignore him. This ability was an unexpected harvest that made Yang Kai pleasantly surprised.
After a little experimentation, Yang Kai found that this new ability was quite convenient to use, he only needed to restrain the flow of his True Qi and then use his Spiritual Energy to create some illusionary auras to deceive others.
However, Yang Kai estimated that this method would only be effective against those with weaker Spiritual Energy than him, those who had significantly more powerful Divine Senses would be able to see through this camouflage.
Still, Yang Kai was quite satisfied with his newfound ability.
Standing up atop the iceberg, Yang Kai stretched lazily before sweeping his eyes over the surrounding ocean.
Seeing nothing in every direction he looked, his expression immediately became grim as he cursed silently.
Although he had unconsciously avoided the dangers from sea beasts while he was in his state of enlightenment, Yang Kai had also been so completely absorbed in his contemplations that he had lost track of where he was.
Originally, his intention was to go back to Water Spirit Temple and see Shui Ling. This time, Shui Ling had helped him a great deal, and as one of Yang Kai’s few friends in this world, he had intended to thank her personally.
Afterwards, Yang Kai had planned to use Water Spirit Temple as a transit point on his journey back to Soaring Heaven Sect.
But now, he obviously couldn’t use that plan anymore.
Standing on the iceberg, after venting his annoyance for a while, Yang Kai eventually regained his composure and calmed down.
As long as he came across someone and obtained directions from them, he could understand where he was and where he needed to go. Considering this point, Yang Kai simply sat down, made himself comfortable, and stared out across the rolling sea.
The schools of fish swimming beneath the surface seemed full of vigor and vitality.
Yang Kai also spotted some colourful coral clusters as he swept his eyes around.
Three days later, as Yang Kai was staring lazily up at the clouds, he suddenly detected some life auras at the extreme range of his released Divine Sense.
Immediately perking up, Yang Kai stood up and stared off in the direction he had sensed the auras.
On the far horizon, a small black spot several kilometers away seemed to be slowly traveling forward.
Naturally, this black spot was a grand sea ship and even though it was far off, Yang Kai could still see the extraordinariness of it.
This grand ship was not solely comprised of wood and metal; instead, it also seemed to be refined from many precious ores in a manner similar to that of an artifact and obviously had impressive offensive and defensive abilities. Only such a vessel could withstand the violent attacks of giant sea beasts.
Yang Kai had seen many such boats back at Water Spirit Temple.
However, this particular ship was the most magnificent one Yang Kai had seen yet, its bow like a great dragon head that rose above the rough seas, breaking through the waves as it sailed forward at incredible speed.
Atop the big ship, many brightly colored flags fluttered in the wind.
Yang Kai estimated the speed and direction of the ship as well as that of the iceberg beneath his feet, soon figuring that the two would soon pass within a dozen kilometers of each other at this rate.
Increasing the output of his True Qi, Yang Kai sped his iceberg up in order to intercept the ship.
A moment later, Yang Kai took back his Divine Sense. Although he didn’t dare probe too much, he had basically confirmed that there were no Saint Realm masters on board the ship, there were however several Transcendents including a few Third Order masters.
With his Soul Devouring Insects in hand, Yang Kai stood atop his iceberg without any fear, calling out to the approaching ship, trying to attract the attention of the other party.
Sure enough, a short time later, a few figures appeared at the bow of the ship, staring and pointing in his direction, apparently having noticed Yang Kai’s presence.
However, from their indifferent demeanors, it was apparent they did not intend to pay Yang Kai any mind nor alter the speed or course of the ship they were riding.
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled and watched as the big ship passed by him. Of course, he did not give up so easily. He was now lost at sea so he really had to find someone to ask directions from.
Hesitating for only a moment, Yang Kai made his decision and pushed his True Qi once more, rapidly increasing the speed of his iceberg and charging straight towards the ship.
The people on the ship’s deck immediately reacted, calling out in alarm.
Atop the big ship, the crew who were alerted by these calls ran up on deck to see what the matter was, including a Transcendent Realm powerhouse.
After learning what was going on, the Transcendent master angrily shouted, “A mere brat from who knows where acting so recklessly. Destroy the iceberg under his feet this instant! Actually daring to have ideas about my Holy Land’s ship? He really must not know the immensity of Heaven and Earth! En, don’t kill him yet, capture him so we can interrogate him first!”
With the order of the Transcendent Realm master being given, the disciples also struck out with righteous indignation, several of them standing at the ship’s bow immediately displaying their Martial Skills and artifacts.
*Shua Shua Shua* Several beams of light shot from the ship’s bow in the next instant.
Yang Kai was stunned, never having expected the other party to react so violently, quickly leaping off his iceberg to avoid the barrage.
With a loud bang, the iceberg that had carried Yang Kai across the sea for the past two months was reduced to dust.
As they watched small chunks of ice scatter across the surface of the sea, all the people onboard the boat looked around carefully for Yang Kai’s figure, but no matter where they looked they saw nothing put blue ocean.
“Where did he go?” The Transcendent Realm master also lost track of Yang Kai at that moment and unable to immediately find where he had disappeared, his expression became ugly.
Everyone else on the deck also shook their heads.
One of the disciples spoke up, “Wasn’t he killed in that explosion? From what I could see, he looked quite young and probably wasn’t very strong.”
“Nonsense!” The Transcendent shouted, “Since he dared to wander the sea alone, he must at least have an Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivation. On top of that, if he was really killed, why is there no blood on the surface? That brat is hiding somewhere, look more carefully.”
“There’s no need for that,” A slightly annoyed voice suddenly came from the side of the ship, and in the next moment, a wet Yang Kai jumped up onto the deck, frowning unhappily at the people on the boat as he muttered, “There is no enmity or grudge between us, so why did you suddenly attack me?”
“We didn’t attack you, we simply destroyed the iceberg you were floating on!” The Transcendent Realm master coldly snorted, “If we really wanted to harm you, do you think you’d still be able to stand here safely?”
Yang Kai frowned and didn’t say anything.
The few attacks a moment ago, he had seen clearly, so he knew they really weren’t aimed at him and possessed not killing intent. Perhaps it was his actions had been misunderstood by these people resulting in this situation.
Of course, Yang Kai never intended to hit their ship with his iceberg.
But there was also no use in explaining this now, so Yang Kai simply didn’t bother saying anything.
“Brat, I’ll ask you a few questions, you answer honestly, if you dare to deceive me, I’ll throw you overboard to feed the fish,” The Transcendent Realm cultivator quickly said.
Yang Kai nodded, circulating his True Qi slightly to dry his clothes before trying to make himself appear as docile as possible.
“Who are you, why are you floating on an iceberg above the sea?”
“This Junior is just a nameless person, I accidentally lost my way at sea and had no choice but the settle down on that iceberg or else it would have drowned long ago.”
“Hmph!” The man coldly snorted, Yang Kai not replying to his question directly obviously made him feel somewhat unsatisfied.
“Then why did you seeking out my Holy Land’s vessel just now?”
“I had no choice; I have been drifting for many days so when I saw your ship, I wanted to ask for directions. En, actually, if it is convenient, could you possibly let me sail along with you until we reach dry land?”
“Rest assured, I can pay you for your troubles,” Yang Kai quickly added.
The cultivators who stood on the deck all looked like they had heard some kind of joke and couldn’t help laughing, all of them turning interested and dismissive looks towards Yang Kai.
Even the Transcendent Realm master couldn’t help grinning, nodding as he asked, “Brat, what kind of compensation can you pay?”
“Is ten Crystal Stones good? That’s all I can afford right now,” Yang Kai cocked his head to the side, perfectly portraying the look of a countryside hick who knew nothing of the world. He had already noticed that whoever owned this ship was fabulously wealthy and naturally wouldn’t care about any reward he could pay them.
Seeing this, the people on the deck laughed even harder.
The Transcendent Realm cultivator nodded lightly at this, “Who would have thought, a brat like you actually has some spare cash on him. However, you should keep those ten Crystal Stones for your own use.”
Saying so, he turned to a nearby cultivator and said, “Give him a boat and make him get the hell out!”
Yang Kai’s previous answers to his questions had made him feel wary. Although Yang Kai’s strength wasn’t high, he was not prepared to have the latter remain onboard; the safest thing to do was to send him away as quickly as possible.
“That’s also fine,” Yang Kai didn’t make a fuss, “Can you also give me some directions then, it doesn’t matter where to, as long as you point me in the direction of land it’d be fine.”
“What use is there in giving you directions?” The other side quipped, “With your cultivation, there’s no way you can reach land, you should just pray to the sea for mercy. In fact, you should already be thanking your luck that you met my Nine Heavens Holy Land, if it had been a vessel from some other force, I’m afraid you’d already be fish food.”
“Nine Heavens Holy Land?” Yang Kai expression became slightly dignified.
Daring to use the words ‘Holy Land’, this force was obviously no small matter. Since coming to Tong Xuan Realm, Yang Kai had seen a variety of forces, large and small, such as Bold Independent Union, Water Spirit Temple, Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, Soaring Heaven Sect, etc.
Among them, Bold Independent Union and Bright Thunder Spirit Religion could be considered weak, Water Spirit Temple’s strength ranked somewhere in the middle, and Soaring Heaven Sect was the strongest; however, Yang Kai estimated that this Nine Heavens Holy Land was even stronger than Soaring Heaven Sect!
As these thoughts flashed across his mind, a few cultivators carrying a small boat came over and began lowering it over the side of the big ship, one of them calling out, “Uncle Qian, the boat is ready.”
The Transcendent Realm cultivator, apparently called Uncle Qian, was just about to nod when his brow suddenly wrinkled, quickly turning around and immediately bowed, “Young Lady, why have you come out?”
The other cultivators standing on the deck also hurriedly bowed, each of them displaying a completely respectful attitude.
Yang Kai also turned around to see who they were looking at, his eyes flashing in the next instant.
From the ship’s cabin, a woman dressed in a pale blue dress had emerged. This woman was quite young and incredibly beautiful. Her skin was like fine white jade and her black brows curled at just the right angle. Her eyes were filled with a nimble light and her figure was nothing less than exquisite. She carried herself with an uncommon gracefulness that contrasted greatly with her well alluring figure, instantly causing anyone who saw her to have a pleasant yet reserved impression.
Seemingly aware of Yang Kai’s fixed gaze which was very different from the others around her, the woman couldn’t help frowning slightly towards him.
Noticing this, Uncle Qian turned back and roared angrily at Yang Kai, a thick flavour of warning apparent in his tone.
Yang Kai, of course, ignored him.
“I was a little bored and heard some noise from outside, so I came to see what the matter was,” The woman replied lightly, her voice crisp and sweet, glancing around the deck as she asked, “What happened here?”
Uncle Qian quickly reported what had just transpired, concealing nothing from this young woman.
After hearing the explanation, the young woman turned to look at Yang Kai and nodded lightly, indicating she understood.
“I didn’t expect this little thing to disturb the Young Lady, it is really my grave sin!” Uncle Qian said quite forcefully.
“Uncle Qian is too serious,” The woman slowly shook her head before staring deeply towards Yang Kai, a moment later smiling slightly as she confidently stated, “However, his story really is a lie!”
Yang Kai stared back at this young woman curiously, wondering why she was so confident in her analysis.
“En, he is far too suspicious, so I thought it best to send him away,” Uncle Qian shot a bad look towards Yang Kai.
“There’s no need to drive him away. With his Immortal Ascension cultivation, if we force him to leave, he won’t survive. Although he lied about his origins, he doesn’t have any malicious intent towards us, his circumstances are probably just difficult to talk about. In any case, let him stay with us until we reach our next port before making him leave!”
“Since Young Lady commands so, subordinate will obey!” Uncle Qian replied respectfully.
“I’ll go back first, carry on,” The young woman issued her commands and then turned around and left.
After the young woman left, Uncle Qian turned to Yang Kai and said coldly, “Young Lady is very compassionate, not ordering me to chase you out, so you’d best behave. If you dare try to pull anything, I’ll let you know the meaning of regret!”
Yang Kai grinned sheepishly and nodded, “Rest assured, I won’t make a fuss, I only want to return to land.”
“You’d better!” Uncle Qian nodded firmly before signaling to a nearby Peak Immortal Ascension cultivation, “Cheng Fei, take care of him, don’t let him stir up any trouble!”
“Yes!” A big burly man quickly responded.
After issuing this command, Uncle Qian went back to his own business.
The man called Cheng Fei walked over to Yang Kai and looked him over once, his eyes filled with disdain.
Yang Kai was currently only revealing an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation, and unless a Saint Realm master came and intentionally probed him, no one could see through his real strength.
Such a cultivation at such an age was incredibly common in Tong Xuan Realm and wouldn’t arouse any suspicions.
This Cheng Fei had a Peak Immortal Ascension cultivation so he naturally felt superior.
“Little brat, this Sir doesn’t have time to waste looking after you, so you better not cause any problems or Grandpa Cheng here will break your legs!”
“Yes, yes, I’ll behave,” Yang Kai nodded repeated.
Every one of these Nine Heavens Holy Land cultivators had a sense of arrogance that had seeped into their very bones, probably as a result of their Sect’s supreme status among Tong Xuan Realm’s forces.
It was similar to that other side, where the disciples of the Eight Great Families would feel a sense of superiority, as if no one in the world was worthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as them.
Yang Kai had seen more than his fair share of this and didn’t pay it any mind.
“Come with me, I’ll arrange a place for you to live!” Cheng Fei smiled deviously as he waved to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai quickly followed after him, asking as they walked, “Friend, who was that girl just now? How come all of you seemed so respectful towards her?”
“Little brat, your curiosity is somewhat heavy!” Cheng Fei sneered towards Yang Kai, coldly snorting as he asked, “Why do you want to know?”
“No reason, I just thought she was quite beautiful,” Yang Kai revealed a gentlemanly expression as he offered some words of praise.
“Heh, our Nine Heavens’ Saintess is naturally beautiful,” Cheng Fei said, a hint of fanaticism on his face, obviously quite infatuated with this ‘Saintess’, quickly recovering in the next instant and angrily snorting, “Brat, if you dare to look upon Her Highness the Saintess with such impure eyes again, this Sir will dig out your eyes! You think a mere toad can eat goose meat? You really don’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth! Saintess is so pure and gentle, someone who deserves to be joined with her has simply not been born yet! Her sparing you a single glance is already the result of all the blessings your ancestors left behind for you!”
This big man continued to berate Yang Kai about this subject for a while, seemingly never running out of insults he could levy.
Yang Kai simply rolled his eyes continuously, thinking that although he couldn’t match Di Yao, that little gigolo, his appearance was also extraordinary and heroic. How could he be described as such a wretched person?
However, he had no interest in arguing here so he simply lowered his head and followed behind Cheng Fei.
But that young woman actually being the Saintess of Nine Heavens Holy Land made Yang Kai feel quite surprised.
From what little he knew, a Saintess was supposed to be a noble and sacred existence that under normal circumstances, would never appear in public, so why would Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess be aboard a ship roaming the seas?
Soon, Cheng Fei brought Yang Kai in front of a room at the bottom of the ship.
With a somewhat mocking grin he said, “Get inside. Before we arrive at our destination, you’ll stay here and you’re not to leave without permission. Naturally, meals will be sent to you three times a day. If you dare go out without our explicit consent, we’ll toss you overboard then and there!”
Looking at the small space cramped up beside the ship’s hull, Yang Kai couldn’t help but frown.
However, he didn’t intend to stir up trouble here and simply went inside without saying a word. Seeing Yang Kai’s obedient and docile attitude, Cheng Fei was very content, immediately closing the door after the former had gone in and walking away.
This room wasn’t a room at all; it was probably just a small storage space a few meters across that was filled with a slightly strange smell.
Helpless, Yang Kai could only put up with these conditions. Since there was no furniture in the room to speak of, he simply sat down cross legged and opened the small window behind him, allowing the crisp sea breeze to blow in.
This at least cleaned up the musty air.
The big ship continued sailing on steadily and Yang Kai did not look for trouble. He didn’t even spy on the movements of the people on the ship, instead just sitting in meditation and cultivating in his cabin all day long, waiting for this Nine Heavens Holy Land ship to finally reach land.
During this period, Cheng Fei sent three meals a day to him, all of which were casually made from some kind of fish. Yang Kai ate it but had only one comment. [It is impressive how one can make a fish taste like nothing.]
The Transcendent Realm Uncle Qian occasionally inquired about Yang Kai as well, and seeing Yang Kai honestly remain in his assigned room he was quite satisfied.
Occasionally, some sea beasts stirred up trouble but the masters aboard the ship would always quickly dispatch them.
After spectating several battles, Yang Kai was secretly surprised by the heritage of Nine Heavens Holy Land.
From what he could tell, there were at least six Transcendent Realm masters aboard this ship, two of which were Third Order, Uncle Qian being one of them, and the remaining four were all Second Order.
However, what made Yang Kai slightly confused was that there really was no Saint Realm master aboard. The status of the so called Saintess should be very important, so it would be reasonable for a Saint to be accompanying her when she set out to sea in case something unexpected occurred.
Unable to understand this point, Yang Kai didn’t think too deeply about it.
Inside a giant room, the Saintess of Nine Heavens Holy Land gently rested her head on her hand as she stared out the window, lost in thought.
This room was hundreds of times better than the one Yang Kai was staying in. It was well laid out, illuminated, and filled with a pleasant fragrance, giving it a sense of warmth as well as a kind of noble quality.
Do note. They are called Saints in real life. Please read this and come back to me thanking me or my team for alerting you when you get an A for your English Exams XD
“What is Young Lady thinking about?” A maidservant standing next to the Saintess saw her listless expression and couldn’t help asking.
“I wasn’t thinking about anything,” The Saintess slowly shook her head, a faint trace of sorrow apparent between her brows.
“Was Young Lady wondering if we would successfully find the next Holy Master this time?” The maidservant, Bei’er, grinned and asked.
“I don’t want to find any nonsense Holy Master!” Saintess sighed slightly exasperatedly.
“But that is Young Lady’s most important responsibility,” Bei’er’s expression dampened noticeably.
“I know, and I am looking, but he has yet to appear, so there’s nothing more I can do.”
“It would be best if he didn’t appear for a lifetime, then Young Lady wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
“Shh!” The Saintess quickly lifted a jade finger to her mouth before turning her eyes to the room’s door, quietly whispering, “Saying such things to me is fine, but you mustn’t let anyone else hear them, especially not Uncle Qian or there’ll be problems.”
“I know,” Bei’er spat out her tongue playfully, “But Young Lady doesn’t have to worry too much, there are four Saintesses of Nine Heavens Holy Land, perhaps one of the other three who are out searching right now will find an appropriate candidate.”
“It’s no good no matter which of us find him,” The Saintess sighed slightly before standing up suddenly, “Enough sitting around, I’m going out to get some fresh air.”
“En,” Bei’er nodded quickly.
Exiting her cabin and strolling around the deck for a while, the Saintess’ mood improved noticeably. As she walked about, she suddenly recalled the disturbance Yang Kai’s appearance had caused and casually asked one of the nearby disciples about him.
Upon learning that since his arrival, Yang Kai had actually not left his assigned cabin, the Saintess couldn’t help frowning slightly.
Because of some special reasons, she could basically see through other’s true thoughts, so when she first saw Yang Kai she knew he had no hostile or malicious intent, but she also felt that he was a bit strange, as if he was shrouded in a layer of fog that caused even her, who excelled at reading others, to fail to completely understand him.
But learning that he was not causing any fuss and had essentially faded into the background, the Saintess didn’t see any reason to intentionally associate with him, so after strolling around for a while longer, she simply returned to her room.
The days passed by and before Yang Kai knew it, he had been sailing aboard the grand ship for an entire month. All of a sudden, one day, when he was immersed in his meditation, Yang Kai smelt a nostalgic fragrance waft through the air.
Naturally it was the smell of land.
Quickly turning around and looking out his window, he saw some scattered islands appear on the distant horizon.
His spirit rousing, Yang Kai swiftly got up.
Staying in this cramped cabin for the past month had been quite stifling so now that Yang Kai could see land and knew he would finally be able to escape from this place, he inevitably felt happy.
Half a day later, the big ship docked at one of the island’s ports and soon after, Yang Kai heard footsteps outside his door. A moment later, the big man named Cheng Fei pushed his way inside and bluntly said, “Brat, we’ve arrived at our destination, get out!”
Yang Kai nodded lightly and stepped out of his room.
Up on the deck, the disciples of Nine Heavens Holy Land were disembarking in an orderly fashion while down on the docks, some cultivators who seemed to be local big-shots were respectfully welcoming the former, big flattering grins pasted all over their faces.
Yang Kai saw the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess on the deck and after thinking about it for a moment, walked over to her directly.
His movements immediately caught the attention of many of the cultivators around and even Uncle Qian began pushing his True Qi and staring towards Yang Kai with a grim expression.
It seemed like he was preparing to butcher Yang Kai the moment the latter made any kind of inappropriate move.
As if he was completely unaware of the malicious eyes gathered on him, Yang Kai simply walked over to a spot not far away from the Saintess, cupped his fists and said, “Many thanks for rescuing me, Young Lady, I will remember this kindness in my heart. I wish Young Lady good health and longevity!”
The Saintess’ eyes flashed before wearing a quaint smile, Yang Kai’s words and actions were somewhat different from those she had encountered before and surprised her slightly, nodded lightly as she replied, “No need to be so polite, from now on you should be careful not to fall into the sea again.”
“Many thanks for Young Lady’s concern. I’ll take my leave!”
Saying so, Yang Kai turned around and quickly left the ship.
“Glib tongued brat!” Uncle Qian didn’t seem to like Yang Kai very much and couldn’t help muttering under his breath and coldly snorted.
“I actually think he’s quite sincere,” The Saintess stared at Yang Kai’s disappearing back as she pursed her lips and giggled.
Around the ship, all the gathered cultivators, both young and old, were instantly drawn to this smile, many of them becoming absent minded for a while until Uncle Qian snorted heavily, shaking them out of their daze, many of them blushing as the awkwardly went back to their assigned tasks.
After Yang Kai got off the big ship, he leisurely strolled around the island.
There were many cultivators on this island, coming and going in droves, but the World Energy Aura here seemed a bit thin, at least, not nearly as rich as the islands occupied by Water Spirit Temple.
Moreover, there seemed to be no real masters on this island. Among the local leaders who had come to greet the Nine Heavens Holy Land ship at the dock, the strongest was only a Second Order Transcendent, and he was an old man with long snow-white hair.
Evidently, this island chain was not a particularly good piece of land and was only occupied by some small forces, none of which was even in the same league as Water Spirit Temple.
Having observing the crowd, Yang Kai could faintly determine that, unlike at Water Spirit Temple, there seemed to be a lot of outsiders wandering around here.
After walking around the island for a while, Yang Kai strolled into a local inn, chose a seat by the window, sat down and ordered some food and drink from one of the waiters.
The young waiter took his order and, a moment later, returned with an exquisite spread of dishes, but just as he was about to leave, Yang Kai called out to him to stay.
“What orders does honoured customer have?” The waiter asked with a smile.
Yang Kai said nothing and simply placed two Crystal Stones on the table.
The waiter’s eyes lit up and immediately wore a flattering smile as he respectfully said, “Honoured guest, these dishes are hardly worth two Crystal Stone.”
“I want to ask you some things, if your answers satisfy me, whatever is leftover is yours!”
“Whatever honoured guest wishes to know, feel free to ask, this humble one will certainly not conceal anything!”
Yang Kai nodded, pausing for a moment to arrange his thoughts before continuing, “First off, where is this place?”
The waiter directed a stunned look towards Yang Kai for a moment before asking with a smile, “Honoured guest doesn’t even know where here is? Then how did honoured guest come to…”
However, before he could finish, the waiter saw a flash of impatience in Yang Kai’s eyes and quickly explained, “This is Azure Sea Island…”
“What notable forces are established in this region?”
“Around the local island chain there are the Cheng Family, Wang Family, Hai Family…” The waiter listed off several forces one by one.
After listening to his remarks, Yang Kai realized that the nearby islands were essentially controlled by a group known as the Seven Family Alliance.
There were twenty or thirty islands in the nearby chain and these seven families were the strongest forces present. These families weren’t very powerful, and Yang Kai had already seen most of their strongest masters back at the dock. Each of them had at most a Second Order Transcendent as their leader as well as another three to five other Transcendents serving as Elders.
When Yang Kai asked about how far this place was from Water Spirit Temple, the waiters answer stunned him.
It seemed that Water Spirit Temple was in the opposite direction he had gone while aboard the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s great ship and was at least a few ten thousand kilometers away.
Knowing this, Yang Kai could only shake his head helplessly, it seems he had to put aside his plans to return to Water Spirit Temple and thank Shui Ling personally for now.
The closest port on the mainland was also about a month’s distance by boat from this place!
“Is there an Alchemist Guild branch here?” Yang Kai asked.
The waiter shook his head.
[This really is a backwater place!] Yang Kai thought to himself. There wasn’t even an Alchemist Guild branch here, which showed just how remote this Azure Sea Island was.
“Is honoured guest an Alchemist?” The waiter was a sharp person and instantly became aware of something after hearing Yang Kai’s question.
“Why do you ask?” Yang Kai glanced over at him curiously.
“The Seven Family Alliance is aggressively recruiting Alchemists and are offering extremely lucrative rewards. If honoured guest wants to make some money, you may want to try visiting them.”
Yang Kai silently snickered in his heart, obviously not interested in such an idea.
He didn’t care about what kind of rewards he could obtain, he only wanted to improve his Alchemy skills, but from what he had just heard about the Seven Family Alliance, it was obvious they didn’t have a large supply or rare herbs he could use to practice with.
“Right, why are there so many guests around here? Why are they all dressed up and puffing out their chests like they’re trying to show themselves off?” Yang Kai smoothly changed the topic.
Since he came to the island, he had noticed something odd. Essentially, every young man he came across was dressed up in his finest. Not only that, they seemed to be paying great attention to the way they spoke and acted, as if they were trying to appear like noble, educated scholars.
In fact, it wasn’t just the young, even the middle-aged men appeared to be on their best behaviour, as if they were under the scrutiny of an invisible pair of eyes.
This puzzled Yang Kai greatly and made him wonder if this was some kind of strange local custom.
“Doesn’t honoured guest already know?” Listening to Yang Kai’s question, the waiter showed a sly smile, his expression somewhat ambiguous.
“Should I?” Yang Kai glanced over at him unkindly and reached for the two Crystal Stones on the table, he was somewhat annoyed at this waiter speaking so much nonsense.
However, the waiter acted faster, swiftly snapping up the Crystal Stones and offering his thanks before leaning over and whispering into Yang Kai’s ear, “The Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess is supposed to arrive here today, so everyone is deliberately trying to show themselves off.”
Yang Kai frowned upon hearing this, “That Saintess coming here, what the hell does that have to do with them?”
“It has everything to do with them!” Seeing that Yang Kai really was ignorant of the situation, the waiter felt slightly surprised but quickly proceeded to explain, “The Saintess going out is a sign that Nine Heavens Holy Land is seeking its next Holy Master. If someone can catch her Highness the Saintess’ attention, he’ll be able to leap over the dragon gate and soar into the sky in a single bound!”
“You mean them?” Yang Kai swept his eyes around and could only see a crowd of worthless idiots putting on airs and posturing to the point he felt nauseous, smiling disdainfully as he said, “Only if that Saintess is totally blind will she have a liking for any of these fools.”
“Sh…” The waiter quickly gestured to Yang Kai before vigilantly glancing around and whispering, “Honoured guest cannot say such things out loud or you’ll draw public anger. Besides, who the Saintess will ultimately choose, no one can say. Every time the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess goes out like this it creates a similar storm. Six months ago, when Nine Heavens Holy Land spread the word that their Saintesses would be going out, the entire world shook and countless young heroes began secretly preparing. Since half a month ago, this Azure Sea Island became incredibly lively because word that the Saintess would be stopping here came out. Otherwise, how could there be so many outsiders here in such a remote place right now?”
Although Yang Kai had come to Tong Xuan Realm nearly four years ago, he was still relatively ignorant about its various traditions.
After listening to the waiter, he finally realized that the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess journeying out into the world was actually a big event!
Also, he learned that the Saintess he met from Nine Heavens Holy Land did was not the only one!
There were, in fact, a total of four Saintesses, each of whom had sailed off in a different direction on a voyage that would take them across the entire Human Territory.
These Saintesses had grown up in Nine Heavens Holy Land since birth and after twenty or so years of dedicate cultivation, after undergoing a strict selection based on their innate talent and beauty, they would be groomed to become Saintesses of Nine Heavens Holy Land, training in a special Secret Art.
The purpose of their voyage was to find the next Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land!
The current Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land had grown old and would likely pass on soon, so these four Saintesses had gone out in a grand fashion.
As for what method they used to find the next Holy Master, the world’s populace didn’t know. Only each Holy Master of Nine Heavens Holy Land and his Saintesses knew.
According to historical records though, the first nine generations of Holy Master, before being found by the Saintesses, came from a diverse background.
Some of them were famous youngsters while others had just been ordinary traders, some of them even had below average aptitude but once they had been found by a Saintess and entered Nine Heavens Holy Land, they had all undergone a dramatic transformation!
These nine people ranged in age from their early teens to over sixty years old when they had been discovered!
It seemed the Saintesses had some kind of unique vision which let them find these individuals amongst the crowd of people.
It was for this reason that when a Saintess of Nine Heavens Holy Land arrived, those who had dreams of ascending to the top of this world put on their best and carefully displayed themselves. After all, if they were really to be selected by one of the Saintesses, it would simply be the ultimate blessings of their nine generations of ancestors.
As such, there were so many shameless people now on the island deliberately trying to promote themselves.
None of them knew how the Saintess would choose the next Holy Master or when the Saintess or the masters next to her were even watching, so the only thing they could do was to act to the best of their ability at all times so as not to miss this opportunity.
Hearing all this, Yang Kai was dumbstruck, never had he imagined something so bizarre could actually be possible.
“Brother seems to know a great deal about this matter,” Yang Kai commented.
The waiter grinned meaningfully and replied, “I only know what everyone else knows, on this island, honoured guest is probably the only one who doesn’t.”
“Then you have no hopes regarding this matter?” Yang Kai turned to stare at him. According to this waiter, before he previous Holy Masters were found, many of them had been no better than average civilians, even an ordinary restaurant waiter should have a chance.
“Of course I do, why shouldn’t I?” The waiter nodded frankly, “But regarding someone like the Saintess, I naturally know I have no qualifications to attract her attention. If she happens to take notice of me, then it is this humble one’s blessing, if not, then that’s all there is to it. Given then, I might as well go about my business as usual rather than putting on a useless act.”
“Admirable!” This waiter’s composed and casual attitude really garnered a favourable impression from Yang Kai, the latter cupping his fists and nodding, “En, then I should wish brother waiter here good luck.”
“Then I’ll take advantage of honoured guest’s auspicious words!” The waiter smiled before attending to his work.
After eating and drinking his fill at the inn, and acquiring some useful information, Yang Kai left.
Now that he had nothing urgent to do, he wasn’t about to rush off again. The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess looking for a new Holy Master was something he was also somewhat curious about, wondering just what kind of person that woman would take a liking to.
So Yang Kai decided to stick around for a while to watch the excitement.
The nearby twenty or thirty islands were all quite lively. Since the arrival of the Saintess, all the young men behaved like they had been fed some kind of stimulant and were shamelessly parading themselves around.
Yang Kai spent the next ten days touring around the entire island chain, experiencing the local customs while purchasing a large number of herbs, unfortunately he never found anything he needed or was particularly interested in.
After the Saintess arrived here, it was as if she had gone into hiding, much less searching for a new Holy Master.
Just as Yang Kai was finishing up his tour around the archipelago, in a grand palace atop one of the islands, the Third Order Transcendent Uncle Qian walked over to the Saintess in a respectful manner and hesitantly asked, “Young Lady, is there still no response?”
The Saintess slowly shook her head.
Uncle Qian sighed slightly and muttered, “This is already the eighth place we have visited but it seems the new Holy Master is not here either! After a few days, let us proceed to the next place.”
The Saintess nodded slightly and did not refute. From an early age, she knew what kind of responsibility she was shouldering and worked diligently towards that end. Between her and her three sisters, one of them would eventually find that chosen person among the boundless crowd who would become the next Holy Master.
“Uncle Qian, I have not left the palace since we arrived here, I’d like to go out today with Bei’er to see the scenery, is that alright?” The Saintess asked suddenly.
Uncle Qian paused for a moment before nodding, “Very well! But Young Lady has to disguise herself well!”
“Don’t worry, I know!” With Uncle Qian’s affirmative answer, the Saintess’ mood visibly improved.
After putting on a disguise, the two young women happily left the palace, two Second Order Transcendent masters quietly tailing behind them to guard against any kind of accident.
On one of the local islands, Yang Kai was searching for rare herbs in a medicine shop when he suddenly felt a powerful energy fluctuation sweep towards him from a distant place. A moment later, with a great bang, the entire island seemed to shake from a profound impact.
The faces of everyone on the islands changed greatly, none of them knowing what had happened. Yang Kai also furrowed his brow and quickly left the medicine shop, soaring into the air to see what the source of the disturbance was.
What he saw when he first flew up was a giant column of water shooting towards the Heavens before slowly falling back down, as if something incredible had emerged at the bottom of the sea.
Many people were also rushing over towards that side, each of them curious about what exactly was going on.
At the same time, Yang Kai suddenly noticed an aura that made him feel very comfortable!
A strong Yang Attribute aura! Obviously this aura had appeared as a result of whatever accident had occurred at the bottom of the sea.
His interest immediately being roused, Yang Kai also flew towards.
Above the sea, there would normally be a thick Water Attribute aura, so in general it was impossible for a strong Yang Attribute energy to be present, so whatever was generating this aura was definitely an extraordinary treasure.
Yang Kai very much wanted to know what kind of object was capable of emitting such energy.
However, before he could approach the area in question, he was stopped by a number of people. These people should be cultivators from the Seven Family Alliance, obviously this local overlord had formed a blockade around the area to stop anyone from getting to close.
Although there were a great many foreign cultivators present right now, no one took the initiative to stir up trouble so although the atmosphere was somewhat tense, no full scale battles erupted, most people choosing to stop somewhere close by and observe the situation before deciding how to proceed.
Yang Kai listened to the random chatter around him for a while but didn’t hear any useful information, only that whatever was happening was something completely unexpected.
Soon, a large group of masters appeared.
Yang Kai had seen these people before; they were the group that had been at the dock to welcome the Saintess when the big ship from Nine Heavens Holy Land ad arrived, the masters from the Seven Family Alliance.
This group huddled together and began whispering back and forth, all of them wearing dignified expressions as they occasionally shot glances at the surrounding crowds gathered nearby.
Yang Kai, who had chosen to take a wait and see approach, only noticed that the Yang Attribute energy aura coming from the depths of the ocean was becoming more and more intense, further stimulating his curiosity.
After waiting for half a day, while Yang Kai was debating whether or not to sneak into the depths when night came around, the Seven Family Alliance’s masters seemingly came to a decision.
A yellow faced Transcendent Realm masters emerged from their group and walked towards the crowd of foreign cultivators that had by now congregated together in one spot not far away and lightly coughed, “All of you gathered here now must be aware of the incident that took place earlier today, some of you probably even witnessed the fallout from it. My Seven Family Alliance does not intend to conceal anything here and hopes that, together with our foreign guests, we can work together in a cooperative manner. As such, I am here to inform you that down below, an Ancient Ruins has appeared!”
Cries of shock immediately burst out!
Yang Kai’s expression also changed greatly.
Ancient Ruins, these two words were like resounding thunder in everyone’s ears, dazing all of them.
The yellow-faced old man glanced around at the crowd’s reaction and nodded with satisfaction, smiling as he continued, “There’s no need for suspicion, there are truly Ancient Ruins down below. For some time now, my Seven Family Alliance has been aware of these ruins and has frequently been sending people to investigate the situation down below. The great disturbance earlier was a result of one of our investigation teams triggering some kind of restriction, this has been confirmed by the disciples who returned afterwards.”
“Old man, what kind of scheme are you plotting, do you want use to go down and help you explore the road so your Seven Family Alliance can reap the benefits while we face all the danger?” Immediately, some smarter individuals began to call out.
Listening to these voices, the crowd of foreign cultivators all became slightly wary, many of them turning vigilant looks towards the yellow-faced old man.
The Seven Family Alliance wouldn’t be telling them about such a big treasure trove without some ulterior motive reason, it was quite likely they were trying to temp these outsiders into exploring these Ancient Ruins so they could treat them as pathfinders and reduce the risk their Seven Family Alliance had to face.
The yellow-faced old man however smiled and unexpectedly nodded, “We indeed had such an idea, but that is not main reason we are telling you all this! My Seven Family Alliance knows its own strength, we know well enough that we cannot block all of you from exploring the situation here for long!”
“Old man, you indeed have some self-awareness!” Some people laughed.
Because of the appearance of the Saintess, there were currently many more outsiders here than normal, and although most of them weren’t that strong, it was really impossible for the Seven Family Alliance to blockade all of them.
Perhaps while they were seeking for treasures in front of them, someone would be sneaking up behind them.
The yellow-faced old man so frankly admitting everything had won a favourable impression from many of the foreign cultivators present.
“After some lengthy negotiations, my Seven Family Alliance has decided to make you all a proposal, I hope each of you will listen and consider it seriously!”
“Old man, if you have anything to say, hurry up and say it!”
“My Seven Family Alliance will coordinate an exploration of the Ancient Ruins down below. If any of you wish to join us, we will hold a registration and organize you into teams. If we discover any benefits down there, my Seven Family Alliance and all those who participate in the exploration will share them equally. This proposal has advantages for both sides and can also avoid any unpleasant results from us acting in an adversarial manner.” The yellow-faced old man then let out a snort as his tone grew colder, “But this old master must first remind you that the situation inside these Ancient Ruins is unknown. Where there are benefits, there are also risks, those friends who want to work together with my Seven Family Alliance should be aware of this point. If any of you suffers injuries or dies, that will be solely your responsibility!”
The yellow faced old man finished speaking and stared out across the crowd, stroking his long beard as he waited quietly.
Although they knew they couldn’t fully believe his words, the mere mention of an Ancient Ruin still managed to firmly grab everyone’s attention.
If there really was an Ancient Ruin down there, then there would definitely be treasures as well and whether they fought or cooperated with one another, it was ultimately for those unseen benefits. As such, all the foreign cultivators gathered on the shore were inevitably tempted.
What’s more, the great movement when the Ancient Ruin’s barrier was disturbed had already been noticed by all of them, making the yellow-faced old man’s story seem more credible.
Many of these outsiders gathered together frowning and deliberating, while others, like Yang Kai, stood alone, observing the situation vigilantly.
The Seven Family Alliance was definitely forced to make this decision, but they were also likely trying to take advantage of the situation to reduce their own losses by roping in all these outsiders to serve as pathfinders.
From this, it could be easily understood that although they knew something about the Ancient Ruins down below, it likely wasn’t much.
Yang Kai’s thoughts turned quickly in his mind as he quickly evaluated the options before him.
Should he join the exploration team?
Going down there definitely carried risks, but the source of that rich Yang Attribute aura was something Yang Kai was interested in.
Now that he had reached the Transcendent Realm, he had no decent artifacts on hand. His Bone Shield had been destroyed during his trip to the Starry Sky so the only usable artifact he had at the moment was the small sword currently floating in his Knowledge Sea.
However, that soul type artifact was only Heaven Grade Top-Rank. While it had some value back in the Central Capital, it wasn’t of much use to Yang Kai anymore.
If it was a powerful artifact exuding that potent Yang Attribute aura, it would be a perfectly fit for Yang Kai; after acquiring it, his combat strength would increase dramatically.
Even if it wasn’t an artifact and was instead just some precious material, it would still be incredibly useful to him.
Considering all this, Yang Kai quickly made a decision.
At the same time, there were many other outsiders who had come to the same decision as him. After the yellow-faced old man finished speaking, it wasn’t long before someone stepped out of the crowd and flew over to the registration place the Seven Family Alliance had set up.
Soon, some scattered cultivators began coming forward, including Yang Kai; however, the majority were still standing by, looking suspicious and uncertain.
Seeing this scene, the yellow-faced old man who has been silent for some time now suddenly said, “Right, there is one more thing I must tell all of you. Although my Seven Family Alliance is willing to cooperate with all of you, it is impossible for us to allow each and every one of you to participate. En, each of our Families will only recruit thirty outsiders to join their respective exploration teams. Naturally, the higher your strength the better. Those who have not yet broken through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary need not bother applying to join.”
“Hey, old man, why didn’t you say something so important sooner?!” A series of dissatisfied roars erupted from the crowd and many of those who had still been hesitating broke out into a sprint, rushing to register with the Seven Family Alliance lest all the available spots be taken up.
The yellow faced old man simply continued stroking his beard in response, his mouth curled into a slight smirk, a triumphant look upon his face.
All of the Seven Family Alliance’s teams stood apart from one another and any cultivator who wanted to join in the undersea exploration could choose which one they wanted to work with.
Soon, seven big groups had formed with a little less than two thousand people in total.
Yang Kai was among the first to sign up and after casually reporting his name, he displayed an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation, intentionally disguising himself but still easily qualifying and being directed to a waiting zone.
Time passed by slowly as all of the gathered outside cultivators applied to the Seven Family Alliance’s masters. Most of these foreigners were rejected because their strength was too low but still others, like Yang Kai, passed the screening relatively easily.
After an hour or so, the teams had been finalized.
However, the number of cultivators who had passed the Seven Family Alliance’s scrutiny was greater than the yellow-faced old man’s expectations. There were nearly three hundred foreign cultivators, the weakest of which was still an Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage maser, remained. There was also a not small number of Transcendent, making up nearly a tenth of the population.
The Seven Family Alliance powerhouses gathered again to hold a discussion, the same yellow-faced old man soon emerging and announcing, “This old master has felt the enthusiasm of all of you, so all of you who have passed my Seven Family Alliance’s test will be allowed to join us. As for the rest of these friends, please remain on the coast line, if you dare not listen to my advice, don’t blame my Seven Family Alliance’s disciples for not being merciful!”
The remaining foreign cultivators didn’t possess very high strength to begin with, so with the unquestionably unfriendly words the yellow-faced old man delivered, none of them had any thoughts of stirring up trouble; this was, after all, still the Seven Family Alliance’s territory.
Seeing the yellow-faced old man’s attitude go from friendly to menacing so quickly, the cultivators who were excluded could only utter a few curses under their breath.
After finishing this brief episode up, the masters from the Seven Family Alliance came together and seemed to be making some final preparations.
Yang Kai stood in a remote corner, indifferently observing the strength of the people around him. Most of the others gathered here were doing the same, each of them apparently seeing all the others as competitors rather than allies.
Perceiving this, Yang Kai couldn’t help chuckling. They hadn’t even found any treasures yet, but the tension was already so thick. If they really were to find something good down there, Yang Kai figured that a big fight would immediately break out, likely resulting in a large number of casualties.
The Seven Family Alliance really had some sinister methods!
They knew they couldn’t stop all these outsiders from diving into the sea to treasure hunt, so they adopted what, on the surface, appeared to be a compromise strategy. On its face, this arrangement shared the secrets of the Ancient Ruins with outsiders but in actual fact, even if the Seven Family Alliance brought a large number of foreigners down with them to explore the ruins, these individuals were by no means united and would instead mutually constrain each other. Such a group of loose sand wouldn’t be able to stir up much trouble down in the Ancient Ruins and when the time came, the Seven Family Alliance cultivators only needed to sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight before reaping the fishermen’s benefits. Everything was set up for the Seven Family Alliance to gain the most profit while exerting the least amount of effort!
Yang Kai secretly shook his head in admiration.
As he was observing his surrounding ‘allies’ though, a whiff of fragrance suddenly drifted over from his side, its aroma somewhat familiar to him.
Wrinkling his brow slightly, Yang Kai turned his head to discover a woman standing next to him with a light smile on her face
After staring at this seemingly unfamiliar woman for a moment, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly changed as he called out in amazement, “You…”
“Shh…” The woman quickly placed a jade finger on her lips and silenced Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s eyes flickered before quietly releasing his Divine Sense and scanning the area around them. After confirming no one was listening in on them, he turned to the somewhat delicate featured woman with a strange smile and whispered, “Girl, how come you’re here?”
“Why are you so sure it’s me?” The woman smiled faintly, a touch of surprise apparent in her eyes.
Yang Kai laughed slyly and shook his head before replying, “There’s a saying that to know a woman you must know her scent! Every woman has a unique fragrance so although you’ve changed your appearance… En, and by some method I can’t quite understand, even covered up your original aura, you still can’t disguise your scent!”
“Dog nosed bastard!” The woman’s face blushed bright red as she glared half mad half embarrassed towards Yang Kai, “You seem like quite the expert in this field, you must have hooked up with a lot of women, right?”
“Nonsense,” Yang Kai shook his head in a serious manner, “I have always been a pure and incorruptible paragon, I would never do such shameless things.”
The woman pursed her lips and trembled slightly, trying to stop herself from giggling out loud before flatly stating, “I don’t believe you.”
Yang Kai squinted towards her for a moment before directing his eyes towards two Second Order Transcendent masters who were flying over from the distance. These two men were releasing their Divine Senses unscrupulously, seemingly anxiously looking for someone; however, after sweeping this area and apparently not finding anything, they turned around a left in a clearly exasperated state.
“Isn’t this bad? Regardless of anything else, you are a Saintess, what exactly are you doing here?” Yang Kai quietly glanced in the direction the two masters were leaving, “Those two seem to be looking for you.”
“Don’t look at them directly! They’re quite alert, if will really be bad if I’m discovered by them,” The woman quickly pulled on Yang Kai’s sleeve.
Yang Kai was really shocked when he realized the true identity of this woman.
She was actually the one he had met back on that big ship, the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess!
Yang Kai didn’t know what kind of strange technique she had used to conceal her aura but it had apparently also allowed her to disguise her appearance.
If she hadn’t taken the initiative to approach him, Yang Kai estimated he wouldn’t have even noticed her.
This Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess’ skills were really profound! No wonder she was able to escape the detection of those two Second Order Transcendents and secretly hide here.
“You still haven’t told me, what are you doing here?” Yang Kai wrinkled his brow.
“Of course I came here to join the excitement.”
“This excitement isn’t something good to join, if you’re not careful the price will be your life!” Yang Kai muttered as he directed a stern glance towards her.
The Saintess immediately became annoyed at his words though, “Do you think I’m someone ignorant who would just die in vain? Hmph, even you with your Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivation can go, so why can’t I? My true strength is a lot higher than yours.”
“You know, like this, you don’t have any of the etiquette or demeanor of someone raised as a Saintess,” Yang Kai couldn’t help commenting. The woman in front of him right now was very different from the gentle and quiet Saintess he had witnessed before, and it seemed this was her real temperament.
“What’s it to you? I won’t be choosing you as a Holy Master anyways!” The woman sneered.
“I don’t want to be any nonsense Holy Master!” Yang Kai spat disdainfully.
The woman’s expression suddenly became somewhat pleading, “Don’t expose me… please… I believed in you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have approached you.”
“Rest assured, I don’t have a hobby of meddling in other people’s business,” Yang Kai nodded, but soon became somewhat confused, “You’re an honoured Saintess, so why are you bothering to approach a nameless junior like me?”
The Saintess’ long eyelashes fluttered lightly as she smiled, “How should I put this, I feel like there is something unusual about you. It’s like everything about you is covered in a mysterious barrier that I can’t fully comprehend. I have a strong sense of curiosity towards the unknown.”
Yang Kai’s expression dimmed as he snickered back, “I could say the same about you.”
What kind of cultivation did this woman have? Yang Kai couldn’t tell! Even though the two of them were close enough he could smell the scent of her hair, it seemed like some kind of mystifying force surrounded prevented him from probing her.
“Your laugh looks a bit evil,” The Saintess commented as she stared back at Yang Kai, “I grew up in the Holy Land since I was a child. This is actually the first time I have left, but no matter where I go, there are always people following me, watching me, restricting my movements. All of this is boring me to death! I figured that in this backwater place I can take care of myself so I decided to ditch my escorts and have a little fun.”
“You don’t need to explain it to me,” Yang Kai said lightly, “I have no interest in hearing the sob story of some stranger. En, after we arrive at the Ancient Ruins, don’t pester me, if you encounter any danger, do your best, don’t expect anyone to come save you!”
Seeing Yang Kai’s attitude suddenly become so off-putting, the Saintess couldn’t help grumbling, “I never expected you to come save me! You should just worry about yourself!”
After saying so, obviously somewhat annoyed, she was not willing to keep talking with Yang Kai.
Seeing her like this, Yang Kai breathed a sigh of relief.
During this exploration, he didn’t know what would happen; perhaps there would be great danger. If this Saintess was to latch on to him, it would severely restrict his movements. He preferred to act alone without having to concern himself with other people’s wellbeing.
Although this woman had indeed granted Yang Kai passage on her ship, they were essentially still strangers, so Yang Kai felt no obligation to protect her safety.
In Yang Kai’s opinion, she was just another flower that had grown up in a greenhouse who thought she could prove her ability by showing off a bit of her skill. Once she suffered some real pain, she would come to realize the world was not such a friendly place.
After waiting for what seemed like a long time, the Seven Family Alliance’s cultivators finally finished their preparations and selected outsiders gathered into seven teams under the directions of the yellow-faced old man.
When Yang Kai was signing up before, he had simply chosen one of the seven families at random and it wasn’t until now that he learned he had joined the Hai Family’s team which was actually led by the yellow-faced old man.
There were roughly forty people in this team, each of whom looked like they were not weak, one or two of them having even reached the Transcendent Realm. As for the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess, she was with a different family’s team.
The yellow faced old man came forward and cleared his throat before addressing the crowd gathered before him, “This old man is Hai Wang Gu, a Protector from the Hai Family of the Seven Family Alliance. For this time’s expedition to the bottom of the sea, this old man will be leading you. Once we enter the Ancient Ruins, I hope you will all obey this old man’s orders and not act on your own so as to avoid unnecessary accidents! En, in addition to all of you, my Hai Family will be sending more than a dozen masters. Let us all act together. Since you’ve chosen to accompany my Hai Family, this old man will try his best to maintain each of your safety, but I will say this up front, if any of you does anything to disrupt the harmony of the group, don’t blame this old man for acting ruthless.”
Saying so, he swept his eyes over the crowd coldly, but received no challenge from any of the foreign cultivators.
Hai Wang Gu nodded with satisfaction, “That being the case… may the Heavens bestow good fortune on us, let’s go!”
Finishing his speech, Hai Wang Gu immediately took off, the forty or so foreign cultivators and the Hai Family’s masters following soon after, all of them flying over to the sea.
At the same time, the other six families began moving as well.
As they sped along, Yang Kai secretly spied on the number and strength of the people the Hai Family had dispatched. There were only a dozen or so of them, but in addition to Hai Wang Gu, there were actually two other Transcendents while the rest were all at the Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary, which meant that although their numbers were smaller, their overall strength was actually greater than the outsiders.
Obviously the Hai Family had sent all of its elites and were in full control of the situation.
The other six teams also had a similar configuration.
After a short time, everyone arrived above the ocean and Hai Wang Gu tookout a disc-shaped artifact. This artifact gave off a glittering silver radiance and emitted a strong energy fluctuation. It was at least a high quality Spirit Grade artifact.
“Gather around, this old man will use this to bring us to the seabed,” Hai Wang Gu beckoned to the crowd.
Everyone obediently moved towards him.
Hai Wang Gu then poured his True Qi into the disc-shaped artifact, and suddenly, a silver light curtain roughly ten meters in diameter appeared and wrapped everyone up. Soon after, the silver bubble began sinking into the sea.
Seeing him reveal such a method, many people’s expression became solemn.
Although Hai Wang Gu had not used too power an artifact or Martial Skill, simply being able to lead a few dozen people into the depths of the sea was still quite impressive.
Watching the changes in everyone’s mood, Hai Wang Gu couldn’t help showing a somewhat smug look on his face.
Surrounded by the blue ocean, the deeper they dove, the darker it became. This deep darkness gave many people a creepy feeling, most of the cultivators here had never dove into the sea before after all so they were understandably somewhat nervous, some of them even quietly shuffling closer to Hai Wang Gu, as if looking for some sense of security.
Yang Kai swept his eyes around the area and quickly spotted size other bright lights in the water, obviously the other six families were using their own means to rush to descend to the bottom of the sea.
The silver light barrier created by Hai Wang Gu was extremely tough, not allowing a single drop of sea water from the outside to penetrate it. Staring outside the light shield, the cultivators could see various colourful fish swimming about, adding a slight bit of brightness to the otherwise dreary scenery.
As they continued to dive, the expression on Hai Wang Gu’s face gradually became somewhat strained.
The sea in this area was unfathomable deep and the lower they went the higher the pressure became. Even though he was a Transcendent Realm master, using an artifact to maintain such a large-scale barrier required a massive amount of his True Qi.
The silver light curtain seemed to be under a great deal of stress and slowly began to deform, becoming less rounded than before as the space inside even started to shrink somewhat.
The cultivator who perceived this couldn’t help turning towards Hai Wang Gu and wrinkling their brows, wondering whether this old man would be able to insist until they reached their destination.
After diving for a while, Hai Wang Gu suddenly said, “Everyone, the old man must ask for your help, contribute some of your True Qi to help this old man maintain the operation of the artifact or we may not be able to reach the bottom of the sea.”
Hearing his request, many people silently cursed in their hearts.
This old fox clearly had plenty of spare capacity and was simply acting as if he was having a difficult time. Clearly he didn’t want to use too much of his own True Qi so he could maintain his peak state and had thus asked everyone else instead.
Seeing the silvery light barrier continue to shrink towards them though, even if they knew the old man was lying, the gathered cultivators didn’t have any choice and quickly began pushing their True Qi towards Hai Wang Gu’s artifact.
Hai Wang Gu smiled and nodded, quickly guiding this influx of True Qi into his the appropriate spirit arrays inside his artifact.
Yang Kai also contributed, supply a stream of True Qi reasonable for someone at the Immortal Ascension Seventh Stage, secretly sneering in his heart as he did so. Everyone here had the same idea about preserving their True Qi and were only willing to contribute the minimum necessary, hoping that others would pick up the slack so they could gain an advantage in the coming exploration.
Before they even reached the bottom of the sea, everyone was already playing such games, so when they got there, it could only be imagined how chaotic things would become.
After accepting everyone’s True Qi, the silver light curtain really did stabilize and expand back out.
But after a while, Hai Wang Gu once again made a similar request.
This process repeated itself several times yet there was still no sign of the so-called Ancient Ruins. Everyone had burned through a large amount of True Qi and were slowly becoming impatient, some of them even opening complaining.
Hai Wang Gu however just stated calmly, “There’s no need to become anxious, we’ll be there soon, the depth of the seabed here is not something you can imagine.”
This continued for another stick of incense worth of time before someone suddenly pointed below and shouted excitedly, “Look, it’s the bottom!”
Everyone quickly turned their eyes in the direction this man was pointing and suddenly felt their spirits rise. Down below them, there were a number of colourful lights shimmering, and amongst these lights was a massive set of ruins.
“Ancient Ruins!” Everyone could not help but exclaim.
“It looks like we’ve finally arrived,” Hai Wang Gu smiled slightly, increasing the silver light curtain’s rate of descent.
A short time later, the group arrived at the periphery of the Ancient Ruins. Even from the outside, it was obvious to all that these Ancient Ruins occupied a vast expanse of land, at least several dozen kilometers in each direction. Amidst the ruins were several deserted palace-like structures as well as numerous houses arranged in neat rows; of course, many of these buildings had already collapsed, leaving behind only the wreckage.
Most impressively, around the outer perimeter of this huge Ancient Ruin was a transparent barrier that, even though they were on the seabed, kept the inside ruins perfectly dry.
Outside this barrier, countless pieces of coral grew and swayed in the flowing sea water, many of them giving off a soft glow, providing a kind of eerie illumination.
Seeing all of this, everyone couldn’t help feeling somewhat nervous, wondering what kind of dangers lay inside.
Hai Wang Gu actually had a leisurely expression as he continuing to maintain the operation of his artifact and directly led everyone into the ruins.
The outer barrier which was blocking the sea actually didn’t provide any resistance to their intrusion and the group of several dozen people easily passed it and entered the Ancient Ruins.
Hai Wang Gu took back his artifact and let out a light breath before lifting his old face, his eyes flickering with anticipation.
“Since we’ve arrived, we should move quickly, the other six groups should also be here by now!” Hai Wang Gu said.
Everyone’s expression turned black as they stared at his calm and relaxed appearance, all of them realizing this old fox had really been using them before.
In order to maintain the operation of the artifact, most of the people had experienced fairly heavy consumption, but Hai Wang Gu was still bursting with energy.
Proposing they immediately move out was obviously because he didn’t want to give them any time to restore themselves.
As he spoke, from positions not far away, the other six groups also arrived.
Without even enough time to curse, the foreign cultivators all took out some restorative pills and swallowed them down, quickly following after Hai Wang Gu while circulating their Secret Arts to supplement their consumption of True Qi.
In order to avoid other people’s suspicions, Yang Kai also followed suit, casually tossing a pill into his mouth.
After entering this Ancient Ruin, Yang Kai felt that a rich flow of Yang Attribute energy coming from a certain direction. This abundant Yang Attribute energy seemed to flood the entire ruin, causing the ambient temperature to actually be somewhat warm.
However, he did not immediately leave the team and head in that direction. This Ancient Ruin was filled with unknown dangers so he planned to follow along with this group to first explore the situation before setting off on his own.
The crowd was dazzled as they walked forward.
At first glance, it was obvious the age of these ruins was quite old, at least several thousand years. Who knows what kind of great force this once was that, for some unknown reason, had wound up being sunk into the depths of the ocean.
Everyone was paying close attention to their surroundings, fully releasing their Divine Senses, searching for any place there might be hidden treasures.
As Hai Wang Gu was walking at the front of the crowd, he suddenly said, “If anyone discovers anything, please first hand it over to this old master. Don’t worry, after leaving these ruins and returning to the surface, this old master will ensure that everyone gets their fair share, my Hai Family absolutely won’t take everything here for ourselves. Of course, the more you contribute, the more benefits you will get in the end. This policy also applies to my Hai Family!”
He spoke righteous words and made solemn vows, but after eating a big loss at this old fox’s hands, no one here was willing to believe him again.
As the group walked forward, a few people rushed towards a couple of rows of collapsed houses. This sudden burst of movement obviously caught everyone’s attention and they all realized that there must be something in these houses as they could feel slight energy fluctuations coming from them.
Hai Wang Gu lifted his hand to indicate everyone to stop and wait.
Those that continued to move were all Hai Family’s cultivators. Naturally, this being the area they stake their claim to, none of the outside cultivators dared to act as they pleased.
If it turned out that there was something good here, allowing the Hai Family to eat the meat while collecting some soup afterwards wasn’t a problem, and if there was any danger, allowing the Hai Family to test the waters was also good; everyone here had such thoughts.
A short time later, the Hai Family’s cultivators quickly returned. The two who had gone to search the left row of houses both had downcast looks and were shaking their heads, apparently not having found anything.
The pair that had searched the right set of houses however had faces filled with smiles, the two of them quickly handing a small object over to Hai Wang Gu.
Everyone’s eyes lit up as they stared towards this object.
Hai Wang Gu accepted the object and carefully wiped the dust off of it before using his Divine Sense to investigate. A moment later, his brow loosened as he nodded, “Good, it’s an artifact, unfortunately it seems to have degraded to the point where it can only display a Mysterious Grade Low-Rank prestige! Truly unfortunate, if it were in good condition, it would probably at least be a Spirit Grade Top-Rank artifact!”
Listening to his words, everyone couldn’t help showing a look of regret.
What Hai Wang Gu said was the truth, everyone here had their eyes on the artifact and were probing it with their Divine Senses, so him lying would be pointless.
However, finding an artifact so soon after arriving could be considered a good start, raising everyone’s expectations even higher.
“This artifact will be taken care of by this old master for now. After we return to the surface, I will find an Artifact Refiner to repair it, perhaps some of its former strength can be restored, increasing its grade,” Hai Wang Gu said frankly before storing the artifact in his Universe Bag.
From the start, Hai Wang Gu had said that all treasures their group found would be kept by him and only after the exploration was over would they be distributed according to everyone’s individual contributions; since this artifact was found by his Hai Family cultivators, no one expected him to share it even after they got back.
Having already gained some small benefits, everyone became more passionate in their search.
In order to expand the scope of their search, Hai Wang Gu divided everyone up into three small teams, each of them led by a Hai Family Transcendent Realm master, and sent them off in three different directions.
Yang Kai was still following behind Hai Wang Gu. The small team he was part of now consisted of only twenty or so people and with the exception of Hai Wang Gu, only Yang Kai had reached the Transcendent Realm. Everyone else was an Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator.
Amongst the many ruined houses on either side of the road they were traveling, people would occasionally find something of value. Most of these things were artifacts, but there were occasionally Secret Arts and Martial Skills as well. However, these Secret Arts and Martial Skills generally weren’t well preserved, and the moment they were touched, they crumbled into dust, depressing a great many.
There were also some pills, but because of the long passage of time, their medicinal efficacies had completely passed, leaving behind only some worthless dregs.
After half a day, Yang Kai’s group had only managed to harvest some damaged artifacts, causing most of them to feel somewhat unsatisfied as these gains were far from what they had been expecting.
Yang Kai stayed at the back of the group, neither showcasing nor hiding himself, only working as hard as an average Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivator should, not attracting anyone’s attention.
Among the couple dozen artifacts that had been found, he had also made some contributions, but nothing of noticeable significance.
Silently though, Yang Kai felt somewhat doubtful. This Ancient Ruin should be the remains of a large Sect from long ago. Such a Sect should have a lot of internal barriers and restrictions guarding their more valuable locations, this point could easily be inferred from the barrier that was blocking the sea from flooding this place. But until now, their group had yet to encounter any such barriers, much less any kind of danger.
This instead made Yang Kai even more vigilant.
As they were walking, a man with a thin frame suddenly approached Yang Kai, causing the latter to frown as he glanced over curiously. Yang Kai immediately noticed that this thin man was grinning towards him silently.
“Do you need something?” Yang Kai asked.
“Boy, you seem like a smart one!” The man whispered, glancing over towards Hai Wang Gu who was leading the way, making sure that the latter wasn’t paying attention to them.
“Is that so?” Yang Kai suddenly felt things were becoming interesting. This guy was also a foreign cultivator who had joined Hai Wang Gu.’s group. He had a Peak Immortal Ascension cultivation and didn’t seem very old, only in his early thirties. His pair of small and narrow eyes resembled those of a poisonous snake, always revealing a somewhat sinister light.
Him suddenly calling out for no reason made Yang Kai somewhat curious, wondering what the former was plotting.
“Of course, I saw all of it!” The man replied lightly, “While you basically kept silent, your eyes were constantly flickering. It was quite a shrewd performance; you’re trying to hide your true strength in order to snag something big, aren’t you?”
“No, you’re thinking too much,” Yang Kai slowly shook his head.
“You don’t have to deny it, everyone is thinking this way anyways,” The thin man sneered, “That old guy keeps putting everything into his Universe Bag, who here can’t see what he’s trying to do? After all of this is over, he’ll probably give us nothing, or maybe he’ll give us some petty profits just to shut us up, this is his Seven Family Alliance’s site after all, we simply don’t have any say in the matter!”
“They eat meat, I drink soup!” Yang Kai smiled, “I’m content with just that.”
“You don’t look like someone so easily satisfied!” The thin man spat disdainfully, lowering his voice even further, “How about it? Any interest in teaming up with me?”
“Teaming up, what for?”
The thin man stared at Yang Kai like he was staring at an idiot before saying, “There’s no danger in this place, we just need to find a way to sneak off and search for treasure on our own, why should we bother staying with them?”
“Oh? Not a bad idea!” Yang Kai’s expression became bright, a look of interest appearing on his face.
“Isn’t it?” The thin man saw the look on Yang Kai’s face and quickly struck while the iron was hot, “If we really find anything good, we can split it between the two of us, fifty-fifty, I’m a person who believes in being fair!”
“Although your suggestion is tempting, I’d still rather follow the group, there’s safety in numbers after all,” Yang Kai seemed to hesitate, slowly shaking his head.
The thin man hurriedly comforted his worries though and continued his sales pitch.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t buying, so the other side couldn’t help but swear, “You dumbass, if you keep following them blindly you’ll suffer a big loss sooner or later!”
Yang Kai was too lazy to care about him though.
At first glance it was obvious this guy wasn’t anything good, him trying so hard to rope Yang Kai in was clearly because the latter didn’t have enough confidence to go it alone and wanted to find someone to help explore the way for him. When they really encountered any danger, it would be easier to deal with if there were two of them.
But once they obtained something of value, with his Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary strength, dealing with the young and weak Yang Kai should be easy.
Or at least the thin man thought so!
[Since when did I become such an easy mark to prey upon?] Yang Kai coldly snorted in his heart.
“There’s a few houses in front, some of you go check them out!” Hai Wang Gu suddenly stopped and pointed towards a cluster of houses.
Everyone nodded, and the team quickly dispatched a couple of people to search the houses.
Yang Kai also went this time, walking towards one of the houses on the right.
There were a total of five people in Yang Kai’s group and while three of them stayed outside and rummaged around, Yang Kai stealthily used his Divine Sense to confirm there was nothing of worth outside before walking into one of the houses. But before he could enter the house, a shadow quickly appeared next to him and the thin man who had just spoken to Yang Kai entered one step ahead of him.
Yang Kai simply shook his head, didn’t pay him any mind, and casually walked into the house.
Most of the items inside had already been reduced to dust but in a corner of one of the rooms there were a few jade bottles scattered on the ground.
By the time Yang Kai arrived, the thin man was already picking his way through the jade bottles, a look of helplessness on his face as he opened them at random.
This type of jade bottle was incredibly common and was usually used to hold pills; however, since arriving in the Ancient Ruins, due to the long passage of time, nothing but useless dregs had been found in such bottles.
However, all of a sudden, the thin man’s expression changed greatly as a look of excitement flashed across his eyes.
“Find something good?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
The thin man suddenly remembered that there was someone else inside with him and nodded towards Yang Kai, “See for yourself!”
As he spoke, he handed over the jade bottle.
Yang Kai took it and looked inside, but upon seeing the pill at the bottom of the jade bottle, he too couldn’t help feeling shocked.
This pill was very different from an ordinary pill, there was a thick layer of mist gently billowing across its surface, like a dense cloud. This cloud was composed of pure World Energy and formed a kind of translucent protective film that enveloped the entire pill.
Although Yang Kai didn’t know how many years had passed since this pill had been refined, he instantly knew that its medicinal efficacies had not only not been lost, but had instead become significantly more intense.
The aroma that wafted from this pill was incredibly rich and fresh.
After only sniffing it slightly, Yang Kai knew it was a Saint Grade pill!
However, the pill’s grade was only a secondary concern, what was truly shocking was the cloud-like layer surrounding it!
“Pill Cloud?!” Yang Kai exclaimed.
Yang Kai could already be considered an excellent Alchemist and when he refined pills, a good number of them would form meridian like patterns on their surface, commonly known as Pill Veins.
Once Pill Veins appeared on any pill, its value would be multiplied several times over, and no matter how many years it was saved for, as long as it was preserved in reasonable conditions, its efficacy would never fade!
Every outstanding Alchemist pursued the refinement of Pill Veins, trying their best to allow Pill Veins to appear. Unfortunately, there was no effective way to ensure that every pill one refined would give birth to Pill Veins.
In the end, the appearance of Pill Veins involved a lot of luck.
Above Pill Veins was the legendary Pill Cloud!
Pill Veins would frequently appear when Yang Kai performed Alchemy, but until now he had never once produced a pill with a Pill Cloud.
Today was actually the first time he had ever seen a pill with a Pill Cloud!
According to legend, when a pill gave birth to a Pill Cloud, not only were the effects of the pill strengthened several times over and its medicinal efficacies would never weaken, the Pill Cloud would automatically gather the surrounding World Energy to nourish the pill.
It could be said that the longer a pill with a Pill Cloud was stored, the greater is efficacy would become, and the higher its value will be!
As for Omni-Magician and WeChat, those two novels are kinda kinks I guess. They are also hosted on this website but they require a particular taste to enjoy.
It was impossible to know how long the Saint Pill in the jade bottle had been stored here, but suffice it to say, the Pill Cloud had been gathering World Energy and nourishing this pill for countless years.
Such a pill could no longer be considered a mere Saint Pill! Its value now is simply incalculable!
Especially for an Alchemist like Yang Kai, it had immense research value. If he was able to comprehend even a fraction of the mysteries of this Pill Cloud, Yang Kai would also have a greater chance of one day refining a similar pill.
All kinds of thoughts quickly intertwined in Yang Kai’s head and his expression rapidly changed back and forth.
Inside the jade bottle, the Pill Cloud seemed to exude a subtle attraction, drawing the surrounding World Energy into the pill.
Yang Kai lifted his eyes from the pill reluctantly and stared at the thin man solemnly.
The other party was also scrutinizing Yang Kai, and the moment their eyes met once again, a green light flashed from the thin man’s hand and in the blink of an eye, the room was filled with a poisonous mist.
“Heh heh, you dumb brat, don’t blame me for being ruthless, blame your own stupidity for being so naive,” The thin man sneered as he watched Yang Kai’s figure become wrapped up in poisonous mist.
As he spoke these words, the thin man’s True Qi surged as he summoned a dagger into his other hand and thrust it straight towards Yang Kai’s chest.
In this instant, the thin man had brought out his full strength to kill Yang Kai!
A Saint Pill with a Pill Cloud that had been stored for several millennia, such a treasure wasn’t something just anyone could just simply take. Both Yang Kai and the thin man were aware of this fact and had to act.
As long as Yang Kai could obtain this Saint Pill, this trip to the bottom of the sea could be considered a resounding success, there wouldn’t even be a need to keep searching for other treasures and could simply leave right now.
Shrouded in the green poisonous mist, the thin man wore a half-crazed expression.
“Clank”
Yang Kai didn’t move and as the dagger struck him, a spark erupted from his chest, but that was all, even his skin wasn’t broken as he stared back at the thin man coldly.
The smile on the thin man’s face quickly converged as his eyes filled with surprise which soon turned to horror as his expression warped.
He had not held anything back when he attacked, yet not only did he fail to kill Yang Kai, his own hand had instead been bloodied from the recoil. When he stabbed Yang Kai, it was as if he had been trying to stab a wall of steel. This strange youth’s body was incomprehensibly hard.
“Idiot!” Yang Kai brushed his chest and smoothed out the wrinkles on his clothes before turning his eyes to the thin man, “If you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have had a reason to kill you. You brought this upon yourself, friend!”
“Impossible, how did you… Even a Transcendent shouldn’t be able to resist the effects of my poison, how are you completely unaffected!?” The thin man trembled fiercely, a sense of fear and terror filling his heart.
“Nothing is impossible,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, his figure flickering just as the thin man was about to make a run for it, blocking the latter’s path of retreat as he swiped his hand towards the other side’s throat.
The thin man’s eyes bulged as his hands quickly tried to cover his neck, his voice failing to escape from his throat. After stumbling a few steps backwards he fell to the ground dead!
A Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivator was no more difficult to kill than an ant for the current Yang Kai.
After the thin man died, Yang Kai swiftly collected the remaining jade bottles, hurriedly opening them to see if there were no other pills with Pill Clouds before quickly moving towards the exit.
“What happened? What the hell happened?” The three cultivators who had been rummaging around outside the house all rushed inside, almost colliding with the stumbling Yang Kai and hurriedly asked.
Although the confrontation between Yang Kai and the thin man had taken place out of sight, the sudden burst of True Qi just now had not been missed by them, so they naturally had come to investigate.
“Run, a trap was triggered!” Yang Kai shouted, his face turning slightly blue.
The three men glanced behind Yang Kai quickly and when they saw the green poisonous fog billowing towards them, they couldn’t help feeling stunned. None of them dared stay any longer, all of them hurriedly running out with Yang Kai following close behind.
“What happened inside?” Hai Wang Gu saw the four people run out in a hurry, each of them with a shaken look upon their face, and hurriedly asked.
“There was a seal inside one of the rooms and when my friend was inspecting it, he accidentally set off some kind of trap,” Yang Kai quickly explained, his face now a slightly unhealthy shade of green.
“What happened to him?” Hai Wang Gu’s expression changed greatly.
“He’s dead!”
“Dead?” The group of cultivators suddenly became noisy.
After arriving here, they had been treasuring hunting for more than half a day yet had not once encountered any kind of danger, so many of them had thought that this Ancient Ruin was extremely safe, but now that one of them had inexplicably died, they couldn’t help feeling slightly uneasy.
“How come you’re alright?” Hai Wang Gu eyes flashed as he stared towards Yang Kai questioningly.
“I was farther away from the trap when it went off but it seems I was still poisoned…” Yang Kai coughed, the shade of green on his face quickly growing darker as he did so.
As soon as everyone heard him say so, they hurriedly backed away, most of them showing fearful looks as if they were afraid being near Yang Kai would also implicate them.
Yang Kai observed all this and secretly breathed a sigh of relief!
A moment ago the thin man had released a cloud of poisonous mist, probably thinking it was a good strategy. When someone outside asked what happened, he would just give the same explanation Yang Kai currently was.
So Yang Kai just borrowed the thin man’s plan to explain his cause of death.
The house was still filled with poisonous mist so no one would go in to investigate it carefully. Yang Kai even deliberately inhaled a little of the poisonous mist to make his story more convincing.
“There was a trap set up inside…” Hai Wang Gu muttered, suddenly turning a suspicious look towards Yang Kai, “What did you find inside that house?”
“Only these jade bottles, I quickly grabbed them before running out,” Yang Kai said, quickly handing over the jade bottles to Hai Wang Gu.
Everyone showed a disappointed look upon seeing this.
They had already found too many jade bottles throughout the ruins but none of them ever had any useful pills inside.
Hai Wang Gu’s expression was also not very good as he glared towards Yang Kai distrustfully.
They hadn’t encountered any seals of barriers so far yet now they had suddenly come across one, which seemed to indicate that there must be something particularly valuable inside; otherwise, why would the original owner of the house bother setting up such a trap?
“You aren’t hiding something, are you?” Hai Wang Gu stared at Yang Kai and interrogated.
Yang Kai’s face immediately wore a dumbfounded expression, “I don’t have a Universe Bag, where would I hide something?”
Hai Wang Gu’s Divine Sense swept Yang Kai and confirmed that there was nothing else on him before nodding lightly.
Although the Universe Bag was a convenient storage artifact, it was not something everyone in Tong Xuan Realm could possess.
Back when he was in Bold Independent Union, of the people that Yang Kai met, only the captains of Bold Independent Union’s teams possessed their own Universe Bags. For this time’s exploration, most of the foreign cultivators didn’t possess any kind of storage artifact.
“Doesn’t Senior trust me?” Yang Kai stared up at Hai Wang Gu blankly.
Hai Wang Gu hurriedly explained, “Just a routine inquiry, little brother need not pay it any mind!”
Saying so, he no longer paid any attention to Yang Kai and instead helplessly opened the jade bottles.
Originally, he had not expected to find anything in these jade bottles, but upon inspecting their contents, Hai Wang Gu couldn’t help widening his eyes, seemingly having discovered something impossible.
At the same time, everyone smelled a pleasant medicinal fragrance!
“Hm?” Hai Wang Gu was amazed, pouring the contents of the jade bottle onto his palm. More than a dozen round objects came out, most of which were mere scraps, but mixed in with these dregs were two distinctly different pills.
These two pills had Pill Veins, and as a result, had not suffered any degradation even after so many years at passed.
“Spirit Grade Pills!” Hai Wang Gu called out excitedly!
Everyone else in the group also wore excited expressions as they stared towards Hai Wang Gu’s palm, a touch of envy flashing across their eyes.
These two pills were not just Spirit Grade pills, but pills that had given birth to Pill Veins, making them several times more valuable than ordinary pills.
Yang Kai stood to the side, indifferently observing the expressions of the crowd.
He had also checked these jade bottles and knew what was inside, but he intentionally didn’t take them away.
For him, these Pill Vein pills were of little value, he could refine any number of them himself, only the Saint Pill with a Pill Cloud was worth him striving for.
By throwing these jade bottles to the crowd, he had successfully attracted everyone’s attention away from himself.
Hai Wang Gu quickly opened the other jade bottles and sure enough, was not disappointed, finding several other pills with Pill Veins.
There were various Spirit Grade and Mysterious Grade pills, all of which were perfectly preserved!
“There really were some good things in that house,” Hai Wang Gu kept nodding and laughing, their Seven Family Alliance was a small force and couldn’t afford to hire any powerful Alchemists, so they naturally couldn’t obtain pills with Pill Veins easily. Suddenly acquiring several Spirit Grade pills with Pill Veins had made him quite satisfied.
“If you find any jade bottles later, you can’t turn a blind eye to them, there may be other such pills inside them!” Hai Wang Gu swiftly stored these gains away before calling out to everyone in his group.
Everyone nodded in response, none of them had considered this aspect before and only now remembered about the legendary Pill Veins.
“Little brother has contributed a great merit!” One of the foreign cultivators patted Yang Kai’s shoulder intimately and applauded.
No one bothered mentioning the thin man who had died.
Everyone had only just met each other, so even if one of them had died a miserable death, no one was going to shed any tears for him.
Yang Kai kept coughing, his face showing a pained expression as he murmured, “It’s a pity that my friend who went inside with me didn’t come out…”
Hai Wang Gu turned to look at him, and although he didn’t actually think so in his heart, still opened his mouth to say, “Little brother can rest assured, after going back, we’ll make sure there’s something in it for your friend. If we can find any of his friends or relatives, this Hai will definitely send some of this time’s benefits to them. For now though, let’s set this matter aside. Here, take this detoxification pill, it was personally refined by my Hai Family’s chief Alchemist, it should help stabilize your condition!”
Having obtains some unexpected gains, Hai Wang Gu no longer doubted Yang Kai’s story, and instead showed the minimal amount of concern necessary to maintain a good public image, handing over a pill to the latter.
“Many thanks!” Yang Kai took it. He inspected it slightly to determine it really was just a detoxification pill and that nothing sinister had been added to it before throwing it directly into his mouth, sitting down cross-legged as if he was circulating a healing art and said, “All of you can go on ahead, don’t let me hold you back. I’ll catch up soon.”
With his current strength, Yang Kai really didn’t need to put the people who had come to explore these Ancient Ruins in his eye. With his Soul Devouring Insects in hand, anyone below the Saint Realm was not his opponent.
However, because it was useful to have more people to explore the Ancient Ruin’s situation, Yang Kai had kept himself hidden and simply followed the crowd.
Now that he had a decent idea of this place’s dangers, Yang Kai intended to leave the group and act on his own.
He was very curious about the source of the Yang Attribute aura and wanted to check it out as soon as possible.
And now, his opportunity had come!
Yang Kai felt that Hai Wang Gu wouldn’t care about the life or death of an insignificant character like him.
However, to his disappointment, Hai Wang Gu actually shook his head firmly and said, “No no, how could we just abandon you here alone?”
It seemed like because Yang Kai had contributed a significant merit, Hai Wang Gu wanted to make a good impression to the crowd by showing some concern, quickly signaling to a nearby Hai Family cultivator, “Fourth Brother, you stay here and take care of him, after his condition stabilizes, catch up with us.”
The cultivator who was called out to quickly nodded and then stood next to Yang Kai, assuming a protective posture.
Yang Kai could only smile and nod, “Many thanks for Senior’s good intentions.”
Hai Wang Gu gently nodded, “Good, you heal up as soon as possible and then join the rest of us with Fourth Brother. We’ll be waiting for you two up ahead.”
Saying so, Hai Wang Gu turned around and led the others off.
Yang Kai was helpless and could only pretend to circulate a healing art as the Hai Family’s ‘Fourth Brother’ stood like a wooden stake a few meters away from him.
After half an hour or so, Yang Kai stood up again.
“How are you?” Fourth Brother bluntly asked.
“Moving about shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Then let’s go,” Fourth Brother quickly said, his face showing some slight signs of annoyance.
And so the two of them rushed forward, following the path Hai Wang Gu’s left behind and after about as long as it would take to burn a stick of incense, they caught up.
However, when Yang Kai saw the situation of the team, he couldn’t help feeling surprised.
There were originally about twenty people in this small exploration group, but right now, there were actually only thirteen, and each of their expressions was somewhat grave.
During the short time Yang Kai was ‘healing’, this team had obviously suffered from unexpected dangers. As for the seven or people who were missing, it was obvious what their fate was.
[I must be more careful… this Ancient Ruin is a sitting death trap!]
When he saw Yang Kai and the cultivator called Fourth Brother return, Hai Wang Gu simply nodded to them with a slightly ugly expression, not saying anything more.
“What happened just now?” The one called Fourth Brother walked over to another Hai Family cultivator and asked.
The latter, with a touch of fear still lingering on his face, whispered back, “There seems to be a lot of barriers and traps around this area, one of which was accidentally triggered, causing several of our group to die instantly!”
Fourth Brother paled and didn’t dare ask any more.
As they were speaking, a loud cry rang out from the distance.
Hai Wang Gu, who was sitting cross legged nearby, quickly opened his eyes and stared suspiciously in the direction it originated, muttering under his breath, “The Cheng Family’s signal?”
Saying so, he hurriedly stood up and waved, “Everyone come with me, it seems someone has made some kind of discovery!”
After a few minutes of hurrying along, Hai Wang Gu and his team came across a large group of people that had apparently gathered here upon hearing the previous signal.
And under the leadership of the Seven Family Alliance’s master, more groups were constantly appearing.
After they arrived here and saw the scene in front of them, everyone wore a shocked and excited expression.
Before everyone’s eyes was a large transparent ball of light which was constantly emitting a powerful energy fluctuation. It was impossible from this distance to tell what kind of material this ball of light was comprised of, but from the intensity of the energy it gave off, it was clearly a powerful artifact.
What’s more, it was still completely intact!
However, there was an invisible barrier separating blocking everyone’s way, so all the cultivators who were nearly salivating at the sight of the light sphere could only stare greedily at it.
One cultivator after another tried to approach the artifact but all of them were pushed back without exception, none of them even able to step within arm’s reach of the light sphere.
When Hai Wang Gu led Yang Kai and the others over, the scene was already incredibly lively, with at least several dozen people gathered around.
Upon seeing the light sphere, Yang Kai also became interested and secretly raised his alertness.
A familiar aura sudden emerged from the crowd, and upon sensing it, Yang Kai couldn’t help rolling his eyes.
The origin of this aura was none other than the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess, who was currently pursing her lips and staring towards him strangely.
Yang Kai quickly put his vision aside and pretended to not see her.
Not having suffered any harm along this dangerous path, Yang Kai noted that she had some skill. She still had a carefree expression upon her face and her beautiful eyes flashed with excitement and anticipation, apparently quite happy at the moment. It seemed that this adventure to the bottom of the sea had allowed her to experience a kind of enjoyment she had never felt before.
[This silly girl!] Yang Kai silently thought to himself.
“Brother Cheng, what’s going on here?” Hai Wang Gu stepped forward and asked another Second Order Transcendent old man.
The loud signal just now had been sent out by this person. The Seven Family Alliance had long resided on the nearby island chain and had developed some special methods to contact one another, so Hai Wang Gu knew exactly who was calling for help the moment he had heard the previous shrill alarm.
There were a lot of people gathered around who had the same questions as Hai Wang Gu and all the other Transcendents nearby Old Man Cheng were repeatedly raising their voices.
“Hold on for a moment, when everyone has gathered, I’ll explain,” Old Man Cheng spoke.
The crowd hesitated a moment before nodding, settling down and waiting.
Time passed by quickly and more teams arrived one after another. Apparently, all the groups who had been exploring nearby had heard the signal and were converging here.
As more and more teams gathered, the group quickly swelled to over a hundred in number.
After waiting for a while and seeing no one else arriving, Old Man Cheng finally spoke, “Good, it seems no one else will be coming.”
“Brother Cheng, can you explain what’s going on now, why did you suddenly call all of us here?”
“Of course! It’s for that artifact!” Old Man Cheng smiled and pointed towards the light sphere not far away, “This artifact’s power cannot be measured, and its function is also completely unknown. When my team first arrived here, we discovered that there was an invisible barrier preventing anyone from approaching it. About this, all of you must have already clearly seen. With just the strength of my Cheng Family’s team, we are unable to break this barrier though, so I decided to ask everyone nearby to assist us!”
Hai Wang Gu’s brow wrinkled before smiling wryly, “Brother Cheng, there is no problem with us working together, but there is only one artifact after we break this barrier, who gets to keep the artifact?”
“Everything is open for discussion!” Old Man Cheng did not respond directly and instead pointed back to the light sphere, “Behind this light sphere is a grand palace, if my guess is correct, this place should be of significant importance to the ancient Sect which once stood here. Otherwise, an artifact of this grade would not have been placed here. As long as we break the barrier in front of us, there will definitely be gains for all of us. Who knows, perhaps there will be even better and more powerful artifacts stored deeper inside.”
“All of that is just your speculations!” Hai Wang Gu frowned.
“But there is definitely value in trying!” Some people agreed with Old Man Cheng.
The many masters gathered quickly entered into discussions and soon reached a consensus.
Hai Wang Gu had raised some doubts just now, but it was undeniable that the attraction of this artifact was quite big.
After reaching an agreement, everyone quickly made preparations.
Each of the Transcendents here was leading a team of between ten to twenty cultivators.
Hai Wang Gu returned to Yang Kai and the others with the resolution the Seven Family Alliance masters had come to just now.
“Everyone needs to contribute their strength to see if we can break this barrier. If we can break it, not only can we harvest that mysterious light sphere artifact, but we will also be able to search the palace behind it. There will definitely be many benefits inside so each of you must not hold back.”
“Rest assured Old Hai, we’ll do our best to live up to your expectations!” Someone immediately shouted out excitedly.
Hai Wang Gu nodded with satisfaction.
A moment later, everyone had been arranged into their positions.
More than one hundred people stood not far from the invisible barrier, each of them holding their breath, secretly preparing.
Old Man Cheng stepped forward and called out, “Everyone must act according to my commands. This defence barrier is somewhat strange, it seems that unless we use all our strength to instantly break it open, it will simply recover and we will have to start all over again.”
Everyone nodded.
Old Man Cheng swept his eyes over the crowd once before slowly raising his hand, his expression solemn. Everyone gathered around all began to condense their True Qi, preparing to attack.
A moment later, Old Man Cheng lowered his hand towards the barrier.
As soon as he waved his hand, a barrage of powerful Martial Skills and artifact attacks flew towards the barrier.
*Hong long long…*
The entire Ancient Ruin shook.
There were only a few Transcendents among the cultivators gathered here, less than ten in total, while the rest were all at least Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage masters. However, with so many powerful attacks being launched at once, the power that erupted was quite substantial and literally shook the earth around them.
Countless attacks landed on the invisible barrier simultaneously, creating a myriad of ripples on its surface, like a thousand stones had been tossed all at once into a calm lake.
The invisible barrier seemed to be extremely flexible thought, so even after being struck by so many attacks, although it distorted quite fiercely, it did not break.
After everything calmed down again, expressions expression became dignified.
The wave of attacks just now obviously was not enough to break this mysterious barrier.
Old Man Cheng clapped lightly to gather everyone’s attention before shouting, “One more time. Please don’t hold back, it is to everyone’s advantage to break this barrier. None of you want to waste time here, right?”
He saw that though the previous attack was indeed powerful, most of the cultivators gathered here had not really used their full strength; obviously, these people had underestimated the strength of this barrier.
Hearing Old Man Cheng’s words, the cultivators that had held back just now didn’t dare repeat their mistake in hopes of getting lucky and prepared to give their all in the next strike.
After waiting for everyone to prepare again, Old Man Cheng once more raised his hand before sweeping his eyes across the crowd pointedly, everyone he stared at fully condensing their True Qi in response.
After giving everyone ample time to prepare, Old Man Cheng swung his hand down again.
A thunderous sound rang out as the violent energy of countless attacks bombarded the mysterious barrier. In order to break this barrier and enter the palace behind it, everyone had done their utmost this time, not concealing their strength. Even Yang Kai used some of his true ability.
If this barrier was in good condition, it would have been impossible for this ragtag group to break open.
But these Ancient Ruins had been around for too long and all the barriers here had weakened significantly, such was the case with the barrier in front of them as well.
As this second wave of attacks landed, the invisible barrier distorted greatly and this time seemed to have reached its limits.
*Kacha…*
Many tiny cracks appeared mid-air and soon began to spread out at a speed visible to the naked eye. Soon, the entire barrier was covered in fissures.
Everyone held their breath, their entire attention focused on the barrier, their eyes filled with expectation.
A crackling sound, like a piece of glass being shattered, rang out, and the invisible barrier suddenly broke open.
The moment the barrier was broken, all the cultivators on the scene seemed to come alive and before the Transcendent Realm masters could even issue any orders, everyone had used their movement skills and rushed forward.
At the same time, the foreign Transcendents and the masters from the Seven Family Alliance all stared towards the light sphere greedily, each of them instantly sticking their hands out towards it, wanting to snatch it up before anyone else could.
In an instant, the group of people who had just been working together, suddenly turned on one another and began a violent struggle.
True Qi surged up as everyone pushed and shoved everyone else, afraid of falling behind.
Yang Kai didn’t move, simply standing in place while coldly observing the situation. The Saintess from Nine Heavens Holy Land also stood in place. In addition, a number of more cautious cultivators stood back and watched.
Perhaps they were aware that their strength wasn’t sufficient and they had no chance to obtain the mysterious light sphere artifact, or perhaps they instinctively thought that there would be other dangers lurking about this place. Either way, none of them dared to act rashly and instead allowed the more eager members here to explore the situation first.
Sure enough, before anyone could actually even reach the light sphere, a burst of white light containing a mysterious energy wave spread out from it as fast as lightning.
The expressions of the cultivators rushing forward all changed dramatically as they were completely caught off guard by this light pulse.
Before anyone could react, they were struck head-on by the light pulse and instantly wrapped up in a stark white glow.
In the blink of an eye, those who had been struck went stiff, their eyes bulging before they fell to the ground, unable to mount even the slightest bit of resistance.
Seeing this, Yang Kai also paled and retreated without the slightest hesitation.
The moment the light halo pulse swept past the now unconscious cultivators, Yang Kai had felt like something had been drawn out of them and was absorbed by the nearby light sphere.
However, even with Yang Kai’s current speed, he still couldn’t escape from the ever-expanding light pulse and before he could go far he had already been shrouded by it.
His Soul shook and the inside of his Knowledge Sea stirred. In that instant, Yang Kai felt as if he had been struck by a mountain and that his Soul was being pulled from his body.
Not daring to neglect, Yang Kai quickly steadied himself and tried to stabilize his trembling Soul.
As he did so, he swept his eyes over the surrounding and, to his surprise, noticed that none of the cultivators who had not participated in the earlier struggle had managed to escape; all of them had fallen to the ground, including Hai Wang Gu.
Even the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess had fallen to her knees.
However, she was still putting up some stubborn resistance and before she completely collapsed, she shot a glance over towards Yang Kai, her lips trembling slightly, trying to say something yet failing to vocalize the words.
[Help!] Yang Kai’s mind filled in those missing words. But how could Yang Kai pay her any mind? Right now, he was having difficulty just trying to keep himself upright. After being covered by that strange light pulse, Yang Kai felt as if his Soul had been caught by a big, invisible hand that was trying to extract his consciousness.
Facing this kind of crisis, Yang Kai didn’t have time to contemplate what kind of mysterious heritage this artifact represented, instead quickly immersing his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea.
There, Yang Kai opened his Demon Eye of Annihilation, but even then, he wasn’t able to avoid his fate.
After less than ten breaths of time, Yang Kai collapsed, his Soul leaving his Knowledge Sea and entering into a world fill with white.
Staring around, Yang Kai saw many figures in front of him, each of them wearing fearful and uneasy expressions, shocked by what had just happened to them and desperately looking around, trying to understand their current situation.
All of these figures were the Soul Avatars of the cultivators who had been gathered outside, more than a hundred of them in total.
“Hey!” Hearing a shout from the side, Yang Kai vigilantly turned around and found the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess beckoning to him from a somewhat remote corner of the space.
Yang Kai wrinkled his brow and only after several urgings did he walk over to her.
She too was now just a Soul Avatar and seemed somewhat illusory. Without access to her physical body and True Qi, she had also reverted to her original appearance.
“Do you know where this is?” The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess looked around while quietly inquiring.
“How would I know that?” Yang Kai frowned, and although he had some guesses in his heart, he truly wasn’t sure.
“I saw how you resisted… whatever this is. You manage to resist longer than anyone else, is your real cultivation actually much higher than Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage?” The Saintess frowned, looking Yang Kai over, her eyes suddenly flashing with fright, “Ah, how come your Soul Avatar…”
As she got closer to Yang Kai, she felt a scorching hot aura radiating from his Avatar.
Yang Kai shot her a cold glance.
The Saintess smiled back at him, “Don’t worry, I don’t have a habit of leaking other’s secrets. Do you cultivate some kind of special Soul Skill?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, not bothering to explain any further. Ordinarily, he could easily hide the secret of his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, even if he used his Divine Sense to attack someone, he could still conceal it so long as he didn’t add any Fire Attribute Spiritual Energy; however, in his Soul Avatar form, separated from his Knowledge Sea, some trace signs would inevitably appear.
As the two spoke, Yang Kai took the opportunity to scrutinize the Saintess in front of him, feeling slightly shocked at what he discovered.
This Saintess’ had a mysterious power that allowed her to conceal everything about her from Yang Kai’s Divine Sense in the physical world, so before now Yang Kai had no idea about her true strength, but now that two were only Soul Avatars, Yang Kai could see through her cultivation at a glance.
First Order Transcendent!
Her age was similar to his own, yet she had already reached such a realm. Nine Heavens Holy Land was truly a force to be reckoned with!
“I think we’ll be safer if we both take care of each other here, what do you say?” The Saintess suddenly suggested. When she first started this little escapade of hers, she had been together with a large group of people so she thought, even if she dove to the bottom of the sea, she wouldn’t be in any great danger. However, along the way, after witnessing various unexpected events, she realized that this Ancient Ruin was not someplace she could casually stroll about.
Now that even her Soul had been pulled out of her body and trapped in this strange space, she naturally wanted to find someone she could depend on for some security.
“I don’t want to drag along an unnecessary burden,” Yang Kai glanced at her and slowly shook his head.
The Saintess curled her lips defiantly and retorted, “You’re quite the arrogant one. You haven’t even seen me take action yet so how can you say for certain I’ll be a burden to you? When the time comes, perhaps you’ll be the one who needs to depend on me?”
“Then why don’t you let me experience your methods,” Yang Kai smiled lightly, his expression still indifferent, “After I see them, I’ll consider whether I want to cooperate with you!”
The Saintess’ pretty face darkened noticeably, snorting coldly as she turned away, apparently not willing to talk to Yang Kai any more.
From childhood until now, although she had not had much contact with males of her generation, she had never thought that there were actually people as hateful and arrogant as Yang Kai.
It was as if he thought he was the world’s fiercest person and everyone else wasn’t even worth looking at.
He was really a repugnant fellow.
As the two of them argued, the Seven Family Alliance and foreign cultivators all gathered together and began discussing the current situation.
“Look at that!” Suddenly, an exclamation came out, and everyone who heard it looked towards the direction the man who had called out was pointing.
High up in the sky, a few golden characters emerged from the white void, giving off a dazzling radiance.
Soul Battle Hall!
Each of the words was written in a vigorous and powerful style, revealing an indescribable charm. These words were not portrayed through ordinary means and were instead written by a profound master’s Spiritual Energy.
Even after countless years, the deep majesty that was revealed from these three words had not faded, startling all who saw them. Everyone quickly looked away, as if they were afraid if they stared too long their Souls would be destroyed.
“Soul Battle Hall? Should we interpret these words to mean this is a place where one fights with their Divine Sense?”
“So, that light sphere was a Soul type artifact?”
“Were all of our Soul Avatars pulled into this place so we could fight one another?”
Everyone began chattering, quickly discovering some clues about their current situation, coming to conclusions similar to the ones Yang Kai had thought of.
Hai Wang Gu waved his hand and gestured to everyone, calling out loudly, “If this is really the interior of that artifact, and our Souls were forcefully pulled into this space, if we want to leave, we must first find an exit. None of us can just sit back and wait, everyone should start exploring this place to uncover its mysteries!”
Hearing his words, everyone quickly took the initiative to split up.
This white space was truly a void, and seemed to go on forever in all directions; however, everyone quickly discovered that something was odd.
No matter how far someone walked, they couldn’t go more than a few kilometres before they found themselves back where they started.
After exploring around for some time yet not discovering anything suspicious or even remotely worth their attention, everyone began to feel somewhat disheartened.
The Seven Family Alliance’s Transcendent Realm masters were also participating in this search, extending their powerful Divine Senses in all direction, but no matter how they probed this white space, they could not discover anything, it was like this space was a completely sealed prison with no way out.
“Did you find anything?” The Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess suddenly came over to Yang Kai and asked, as if she had already completely forgotten the unpleasantness of their previous conversation.