However, it was different now. Since Yang Kai bought Origin Grade ores, it meant that Qian Tong’s previous conjectures were true. He had to discuss this matter with Grandmaster Ge Lin immediately to see if he could make a personal trip to speak with Yang Kai’s master. After all, Artifact Refiners shared a common language amongst themselves. Perhaps Ge Lin would have more success in forming a relationship with that person.
Qian Tong rushed to the palace to speak with Ge Lin, and it wasn’t long before Ge Lin too, became a little excited. The two of them discussed whether Ge Lin should speak to Yang Kai about the Artifact Refiner behind him the next time he came, not just to recruit him but also because Ge Lin himself was interested in having a discussion with a peer.
When Yang Kai arrived back at Dragon Cave Mountain, he found that Yang Yan was not in the cave, which made him feel a bit surprised. Rushing into the cave to investigate, the scene caused Yang Kai’s face to sink and a thick murderous intent to flash across his eyes.
Yang Yan was an innocent woman, so it was impossible for her to have disappeared for no reason, and even more impossible for her to rob his precious materials and escape.
However, there were some clear traces of fighting in the cave, so it was quite obvious that Yang Yan had encountered some kind of danger.
Yang Kai immediately became furious!
Without even mentioning the fact that he had handed over the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion materials to Yang Yan and he had just purchased a lot of rare ores so Yang Yan could refine him an Origin Grade defensive type artefact, Yang Yan was a genuine Original Grade Artifact, she was his dedicated Artifact Refiner, Yang Kai refused to allow her to have any accidents.
Who did it? Was it the Hai Ke Family?
There weren’t many traces of battle left in the cave, so Yang Yan should not have gotten caught up in a struggle with the enemy here. Although she was an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner, through his observations over these past few months, Yang Kai discovered that she did not seem to possess much combat power.
If the Hai Ke Family really did this, Yang Kai would not even consider Wu Yi’s face and would definitely charge straight in and create a mess.
Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai swept his surroundings and a moment later, his raging anger subsided greatly. He found that the situation was not as bad as he had thought. Yang Yan was currently safe, but she was seemingly being chased by someone. Right now, she was fleeing through the mountains and rivers a couple dozen kilometres away from the cave.
After discovering Yang Yan’s location, Yang Kai immediately left the cave and quickly rushed towards her, quietly condensing his Saint Qi as a cold look spread across his face.
A moment later, Yang Yan’s cries reached his ears, and Yang Kai’s heart sank.
“Yang Yan!” Yang Kai called out to her and flew over.
Hearing Yang Kai’s voice, Yang Yan, who was fleeing in panic, froze for a moment before a look of pleasant surprise flashed across her eyes and she tightly gripped her black robe and hurried over to his side.
Around her body was a fiery red flowing halo of light that gave off an astonishing heat.
This was clearly a very high-grade defensive artefact, and from the energy fluctuations it gave off, Yang Kai estimated that even if he used his full strength to strike it, he may not necessarily be able to hurt Yang Yan.
Yang Yan’s condition was not bad. In fact, besides being a bit flustered and looking a little pitiful, there wasn’t even a scratch on her, allowing Yang Kai to put down the last of his worries.
“Wu wu wu… Yang Kai save me! Someone is bullying me!” Yang Yan cried as she quickly ran behind Yang Kai and hid.
“Don’t be afraid!” Yang Kai comforted her before turning a cold glare forward.
Several figures quickly flew over towards them, with one of them shouting angrily, “Cheap slut, you dare hurt me? I want you dead!”
Before the words even finished leaving the man’s lips, a huge sword wave flew out, splitting the air and cracking the earth around it, exploding the trees it pass through as if they had been thoroughly rotted.
The sword wave was filled with cold and gloomy murderous intent and obviously wasn’t just meant as a threat but as a true killing blow.
Yang Kai coldly snorted, pulling Yang Yan along with him as he dodged this sword wave.
Five figures landed in the next instant, surrounding Yang Kai and Yang Yan tightly. Yang Yan’s tender body trembled as she clung to Yang Kai’s clothes tightly, an expression of pure fear on her face.
Even if her Artifact Refining skills were astonishing, Yang Yan was still just a little girl less than thirty years old with minimal combat experience; she had never once encountered a life or death fight so it was only natural that this experience frightened her. Although Yang Kai was now beside her, when she saw the fierce look on the faces of the five men surrounding them, Yang Yan couldn’t help feeling scared. She didn’t know if Yang Kai could cope with this situation; after all, he was just a Third Order Saint.
On the other hand, as Yang Kai glanced around at these people, he couldn’t help feeling a bit stunned.
Because he found that while the one being chased, Yang Yan, was completely unharmed, these five men who were doing the chasing all looked quite miserable, especially the young man who seemed to be about the same age as him. This young man had at least a dozen cuts on his face which gave him a particularly terrifying and bloody look.
The other four also had blood stains on them from multiple injuries, the worse off of them having a severe burn on his abdomen and seemed to be in great pain, his forehead dripping with cold sweat. It was obvious he had been hit with some kind of scorching hot flame.
“What’s this all about?” Yang Kai was confused and turned to Yang Yan for an explanation.
Yang Yan’s face was still pale and her teeth were chattering as she cried, “I don’t know… I was just resting inside the cave when they broke in. That guy said he wanted me to accompany him and when I said I didn’t want to, he tried to drag me out so I summoned my Burning Sun Halo then sent out my Frost Bone Nail. After he was injured, those four all shouted angrily and attacked me, so I tossed my Dragon Whisker Whip, Ten Thousand Flame Cover, Coloured Glass Ring, and Profound Golden Cloud Wire at them then ran away. They chased after me so I kept running and running… then… then you came.”
Listening to Yang Yan’s words, the five cultivations standing around the pair wore extremely embarrassed and angry looks.
Yang Kai knit his brow and pondered over the situation for a while, imagining how Yang Yan had been thrown into a panic and kept summoning one high-grade artefact after another inside the cave, smashing these five men with them until they cried for their mothers and begged for their fathers…
Yang Kai almost couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
Worthy of an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner! Yang Kai had never known that Yang Yan actually had so many good things on her. Although her combat effectiveness and courage were quite small, she was not someone who could easily be bullied. With her luxurious collection of artefacts, if she had intended to kill these five people, they would likely have already been pounded to death.
Although it turned out there was nothing to worry about, Yang Kai was still quite annoyed.
It was clear that Yang Yan had a near-endless supply of these artefacts, yet these five had still persisted in pursuing her. If it had just been some kind of minor dispute, they would have long ago withdrawn. Since they continuing to chase her, it either meant they fancied Yang Yan’s beauty or her treasure trove of artefacts.
The latter possibility was much larger.
Considering all this, Yang Kai’s look became even colder.
After realizing that Yang Kai was just a Third Order Saint, the bloody faced young man who had originally worn a frightened look immediately relaxed and became arrogant again, shouting rampantly, “Brat, I don’t care who you are, or what kind of relationship you have with this woman, none of that matters any more, hurry up and scram if you don’t want to die. Otherwise, don’t blame Father here for killing you!”
Yang Kai grinned, “You break into my site, act unruly, attack my friend, yet claim it’s none of my business?”
“Your site?” The young man suddenly showed a look of enlightenment, “Are you from the Hai Ke Family? Good, that makes things easier.”
Suddenly his expression became extremely relaxed as he put on a high and might act and pointed to his face while declaring, “My name is Xu Tian Ze.”
After introducing himself, he proudly waited for Yang Kai’s response, seemingly thinking that his name would be enough of a deterrent on its own.
How could he have imagined that Yang Kai would just stare at him indifferently, without any response?
Xu Tian Ze froze up for a moment before exclaiming in an exaggerated manner, “Hey, don’t you know who I am?”
“Should I know you?” Yang Kai coldly snorted, “What the hell do you count for?”
Xu Tian Ze turned to his four subordinates with a stunned look before bursting into laughter, “The quality of Hai Ke Family’s people continues to decline it seems, there’s actually someone among them who doesn’t know the name Xu Tian Ze.”
“Young Master, this kid isn’t very strong and doesn’t seem like someone important from the Hai Ke Family. It’s likely he has never had a chance to hear your name!” One man said.
This explanation allowed Xu Tian Ze’s complexion to improve noticeably. An insignificant nobody from a small force like Hai Ke Family really wasn’t someone he could take seriously, the only one to be feared here was this small-statured, big black robe wearing woman.
This lowly whore’s piles of artefacts had just made him and his guards suffer quite a bit. At first he had no idea she possessed such treasures, but now that he did, Xu Tian Ze wasn’t about to just give up. Those artefacts were really too attractive.
On top of that, this woman didn’t seem to know how to fight. She only knew how to run away. In this case, as soon as he grasped this woman, he would obtain both her body and wealth. This woman was of the highest quality; even her black robe is unable to hide her abundant peaks or full moon.
Xu Tian Ze could already imagine what she would look like after stripping her clothes away, causing him to become even more eager to seize her.
He had never thought that after simply passing through this area, noticing that the aura was quite good, then coming down to investigate, he would be able to obtain such big benefits.
Seeing Xu Tian Ze staring at her with such an obscene look, Yang Yan subconsciously grabbed Yang Kai’s clothes tighter and hiding behind him while whispering softly, “Yang Kai, they have four Saint Kings, we need to run.”
“Are Saint Kings something special? More than one or two Saint Kings have died in my hands,” Yang Kai patted Yang Yan on the shoulder.
“You, kill a Saint King?” Xu Tian Ze seemed to have heard a joke and laughed aloud, “You really doesn’t know the immensity of Heaven and Earth. Do all people from the Hai Ke Family speak without thinking? Xu Wei, go teach him a lesson, let him understand the difference between him and a real Saint King is.”
“Yes, Young Master,” The cultivator who was named snickered and walked forward step by step, smirking as he cracked his neck and said, “Boy, daring to provoke my Young Master, your end will be very miserable.”
“It’s him who annoyed me, but you won’t get a better end than him. After you die, you can regret it in Hell!” Yang Kai stared at him lightly, and as soon as he spoke, a pitch-black flame suddenly appeared and rushed out towards the cultivator called Xu Wei.
The billowing Demonic Flame that suddenly appeared surged towards the Saint King Realm cultivator called Xu Wei with an imposing momentum that made it seem as if it could burn all things in existence.
Xu Wei stared at this flame for a moment before letting out a laugh, “A Fire Attribute cultivator? What I fear the least is the Fire Attribute!”
Saying so, a faint layer of mist appeared from the surface of his body and began spreading out in a seemingly endless series of ripples, as if a lake had instantly been formed around Xu Wei. These ripples overlapped and merged together to form a flexible mass that contained a gentle yet potent force which Xu Wei fearlessly pushed forward to meet the Demonic Flame. Xu Wei wanted to completely extinguish the Demonic Flame then strangle Yang Kai to death as punishment for running his mouth a moment ago, letting this brat know just how great the gap between the two of them was.
As soon as he saw Xu Wei use his strength, Yang Kai realized that he was facing a Water Attribute cultivator. Yang Kai also understood where Xu Wei extremely self-confidence was coming from. Since ancient times, water and fire had always been incompatible. His strength obviously restrained Yang Kai’s, and with the difference in cultivation, in Xu Wei’s opinion, if he could not win this confrontation, he would have spent his entire life cultivating in vain.
Xu Tian Ze and the remaining Saint Kings clearly understood Xu Wei’s background and bottom line, so they all just stood back with their arms crossed, preparing to watch the good show as they directed looks of disdain towards Yang Kai.
In their opinion, Yang Kai would surely die as it was absolutely impossible for him to escape from Xu Wei’s water field. When this exchange of blows was over, perhaps this kid wouldn’t even be left with a complete corpse.
Xu Wei was sneering, but Yang Kai was doing the same. Both of their eyes were filled with complete confidence, staring at the other as if they were a dead man.
As the water ripples surged forward though, the extremely hot Demonic Flames suddenly underwent a great mutation and became extremely cold. The spreading water ripples were instantly frozen and became completely fixed mid-air.
The sneer on Xu Wei’s face went stiff as he stared blankly at the weird scene in front of him, unable to understand why this strength was actually being restrained by the flames. Although this flame was pitch-black and extremely eerie, in the end, it was being displayed by a mere Third Order Saint.
How could it possibly stop his power from moving forward?
In that moment of absentmindedness, a shattering sound suddenly rang out, nearly frightening Xu Wei out of his wits. The frozen waves of water suddenly burst into flames and were being consumed at an extremely rapid pace as the black flames spread towards him.
The pitch-black fireball that was constantly alternating between hot and cold; Yin and Yang, two auras that absolutely weren’t supposed to coexist, slammed towards Xu Wei.
The Saint Qi barrier Xu Wei surrounding his body with failed to play any protective role, in fact, as he pushed his strength to resist this attack, it was as if he was pouring oil onto the flames, making them burn even more fiercely. Xu Wei was only able to cry out pitifully as his body was engulfed by these black flames.
Xu Wei fluttered about randomly as he displayed his Martial Skills and summoned his artefacts one after another in a panic as he tried to put out these flames. But all of this was to no avail as the black flames clung tenaciously to him, burning more brilliantly with every passing moment.
Xu Wei opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out, as if even his voice was being consumed by the flames.
A mere ten breaths later, Xu Wei fell from the sky like a burning fireball and hit the ground with a thud.
A disturbing stench of burnt flesh filled the air.
The eyes of everyone present bulged. Xu Tian Ze and the remaining three Saint King Realm cultivators had never even dreamed that Yang Kai could be so terrifying, with just a Third Order Saint Realm cultivation, all it had taken was a single move for him to kill a First Order Saint King!
Just what were those black flames? How could they have rendered Xu Wei unable to even fight back?
Only now did everyone realize that Yang Kai had not been idly boasting before when he said that more than one or two Saint Kings had died at his hand. With such astonishing methods at his disposal, killing a few Saint Kings would be absolutely no problem.
Realizing this, the hearts of the two remaining First Order Saint Kings both pounded fiercely as they stared towards Yang Kai in utter horror. Their cultivations were similar to Xu Wei, possibly even worse than his, so if Yang Kai could kill Xu Wei in one move, killing them would be just as easy.
Suddenly facing a life or death crisis, both these men’s legs trembled as their stomachs twisted, neither of them able to move forward or backward for a while, soon turning their eyes to the strongest member of their group for help.
This bald, middle-aged man had the highest cultivation amongst this group, but he was still just a Second-Order Saint King, only a bit stronger than Xu Wei and the others. After witnessing the terrifying might of the Demonic Flames though, this man knew that right now they should be escaping.
Because he had no confidence he could resist these strange black flames; these flames seemed like they were capable of burning all creation, bringing an unimaginable despair to him.
“What are you all standing around gawking for? He killed Xu Wei! Fight! I want his corpse torn into ten thousand pieces! I want him to die like a dog!” Xu Tian Ze, who had the lowest cultivation of his group, suddenly jumped out and scolded. Although Xu Tian Ze was the Xu Family’s Young Master, his aptitude was truly pitiful. The Xu Family had used countless precious treasures over the years purify his body and wash his marrow, but even so, he was still just a Third Order Saint.
Without any aptitude in the Martial Dao, Xu Tian Ze’s personality became twisted and he indulged in all kinds of debauchery. Wantonly abusing his status and the prestige of the Xu Family, no one in the surrounding region dared to provoke him, not to mention he was always escorted by four Saint King Realm guards. Besides colossal forces like Shadow Moon Hall, no one dared to move against him.
Yet suddenly, one of his guards had inexplicably died. Xu Tian Ze had failed to realize how tyrannical Yang Kai’s strength was and only understood that he had lost face, prompting to immediately retaliate.
Listening to Xu Tian Ze’s shouting, all three Saint Kings present shot a difficult look, at this moment praying that their waste of a Young Master would shut his smelly mouth! Could this idiot still not see that the three of them were no more than clay Buddhas crossing the river, unable to even protect themselves?
The bald middle-aged man suddenly yelled at the other two, “You should know what fate awaits you if the Young Master has any kind of accident!”
When they heard these words, the two men both wore looks of pure dread and immediately turned to Yang Kai, summoning all their defensive artefacts without saying a word and flying towards him.
One of them raised his hand and condensed a silver light the filled the surrounding region. This silver light hid a pointed murderous intent and quickly flooded towards Yang Kai.
The other man stealthily appeared behind Yang Kai. A huge phantom tiger appeared above this man’s head and swiftly bit towards Yang Kai’s neck while simultaneously, the man stretched out his hand towards Yang Yan.
As long as they caught this woman, they would be able to use her as a bargaining chip to force Yang Kai to compromise.
Although this woman had a myriad of powerful artefacts, she didn’t understand how to fight at all and shouldn’t be too difficult to catch.
These two men cooperated flawlessly and it was obvious this was not their first time fighting together. Both of them were quite familiar with each other’s strengths and movements.
Yang Kai stood in place, not moving, but just before the silver light engulfed his position, a halo of black flame appeared around him, as if he had been lit on fire. This halo of flame, however, didn’t just surround Yang Kai, but also Yang Yan who was still clinging onto his clothes at this moment.
When the silver light struck the Demonic Flame barrier, it was instantly incinerated. The cultivator who was rushing towards Yang Kai from the front saw this and was stunned, realizing he had greatly underestimated this young man’s ability and hurriedly tried to withdraw.
“You want to run?” Yang Kai sent out a punch that pounded directly onto the man’s chest.
Yang Kai’s punch directly blasted a hole into this Saint King Grade Low-Rank Artifact Armour, as if it was as fragile as paper, then proceeded to crush the man’s torso in.
The man flew out like an arrow from a bow, the black Demonic Flames wrapping around him and his Artifact Armour, burning them all to crisp before his body could even hit the ground.
At the same time Yang Kai’s fist hit his first attacker, a pitiful scream rang out behind him.
The cultivator who wanted to capture Yang Yan to use her as a hostage had only just put his hand on her shoulder when Yang Kai’s Demonic Flame began burning his body.
The man rapidly took back his hand, but the Demonic Flame continued to spread up his arm at a frightening speed. Seeing this, the man decisively took out a sword and cut off his own arm.
He would rather lose an arm than allow the Demonic Flame to reach his body. Both of his companions had been burned to death before his eyes, so he was well aware of how horrifying the Demonic Flame was.
After cutting off his arm, he wanted to immediately run away, but to his despair, another ball of black flame suddenly appeared in front of him and smashed into his face.
Both hot and cold force struck him, making him realize he had been hit. Clawing at his face with his one remaining hand, the man tried to wipe away the black flames but all his attempts proved futile and it wasn’t long until his entire body was on fire and he was sent into convulsions. It was impossible for him to survive.
Yang Kai turned his head towards a spot in the distance where the bald middle-aged man had run away with Xu Tian Ze while his two subordinates had sacrificed themselves. Xu Tian Ze, who was on his shoulder, was still yelling rabidly about making Yang Kai suffer and die.
Just as Yang Kai stepped out and was about to pursue this pair, something behind him held him back. It was only then that he remembered that Yang Yan was still clinging to his clothes, and from the resistance he just felt, it seemed like she was all her force to hold onto him.
Looking back at her, Yang Kai suddenly found that Yang Yan’s face was extremely pale and mind was in chaos. Her tender body was shivering like a quail with nowhere to hide in winter.
“Yang Yan!” Yang Kai was frightened, thinking that Yang Yan had suffered some kind of secretive blow during the fight. Without any time to bother killing the last two, Yang Kai sent out a pulse of Spiritual Energy towards the bald middle-aged man and Xu Tian Ze’s direction before focusing on Yang Yan.
A faint blue light emanated from the waist of Xu Tian Ze, offsetting some of the damage from the Yang Kai Divine Sense attack, but even so, Xu Tian Ze instantly passed out. The bald middle-aged man spit out a mouthful of blood as he felt like his head was being pierced by thousands of needles, the pain so great that he was afraid his Knowledge Sea would collapse and his Soul would be destroyed.
“How is that possible!” The bald middle-aged man cried out in terror.
He hadn’t imagined that not only was Yang Kai’s Saint Qi so frightening, but his Spiritual Energy was just as overbearing. He was two realms higher than Yang Kai, yet he had almost been instantly killed by him. If it wasn’t for Xu Tian Ze’s Soul type artefact which had resisted some of the force of this attack, the two of them might have really died then and there.
Not daring to delay any further, the bald man hurriedly placed Xu Tian Ze on his shoulder and fled as quickly as possible.
“Yang Yan…” Yang Kai nervously held Yang Yan and examined her with his Divine Sense. After a moment though, he calmed down and discovered that things were not what he had imagined. Yang Yan had not suffered some secretive treachery and not even injured, she simply seemed to have been greatly frightened, resulting in a somewhat unstable mental state.
As Yang Kai gently patting her back, Yang Yan looked up at him with difficulty, her face suddenly going white as she struggled free and ran over to the side to repeatedly vomit.
Yang Kai stared at her with a weird expression.
After a long time, Yang Yan whispered softly, “Yang Kai, I feel a bit dizzy…”
As soon as she finished these words, she collapsed to the ground.
[Seriously?] Yang Kai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and quickly stepped forward to support her, discovering that she had fainted, her face still pale and bloodless, and her body unusually cold.
With a sigh, Yang Kai shook his head, carefully picked Yang Yan up, and carried her towards the cave.
The cave itself hadn’t suffered much damage; after all, the fight here had been too short. Even the Seven Coloured Spirit Gathering Flags set up by Yang Kai had not been taken away. Back inside his stone room, Yang Kai put Yang Yan down on the bed and covered her with the sheets, observing her unconscious face with some pity and amusement.
Yang Kai had planned to finish off Xu Tian Ze, but with Yang Yan in this kind of state, it would not be appropriate for him to leave, so he could only remain by her side.
Yang Kai had only arrived on Shadowed Star a short time ago, and had been doing his best to avoid stirring up trouble, but now, trouble had inexplicably found him. Yang Kai was naturally reluctant to allow any witnesses to remain, but even if Xu Tian Ze returned after finding some helpers, Yang Kai wasn’t afraid.
According to Wu Yi, there were no Origin King Realm masters on Shadowed Star while the strongest master in her Hai Ke Family was only a Third Order Saint King. It was obvious that Xu Tian Ze didn’t belong to a big force, so the chances of him being able to bring forward a strong master were also quite slim.
Yang Yan slept for a few days, every now and then calling out in a panic-stricken voice, clearly having nightmares. Every time this happened, it took Yang Kai quite some time to calm her down.
Three days later, Yang Yan woke up quietly.
Yang Kai sat on the bed and looked at her. Staring at Yang Kai for a while, Yang Yan soon averted her gaze shamefully as her cheeks blushed.
“Eat something first,” Yang Kai tossed her a small package.
Smelling the fruit and seemingly in desperate need to replenish her physical strength, Yang Yan immediately got up, unwrapped the package, and after seeing the golden fruits inside, ate up with a smile, her pale face gradually regaining its colour.
Seeing her looking better, Yang Kai asked curiously, “Have you never seen a dead person before?”
The reason why Yang Yan had fallen into a coma was not that she had been injured, but rather because she had been frightened! Several people dying in such a horrific manner in front of her had clearly overwhelmed Yang Yan. Yang Kai always knew that she was timid, but he hadn’t expected it to be so bad that just seeing three strangers die in front of her had caused her to pass out for three days. If she saw a true bloody battlefield, would she have died directly?
However, Yang Kai also understood that anyone who witnessed death for the first time would react in a similar fashion. The first time he had killed someone, although his performance wasn’t as unbearable as Yang Yan’s, his mood had fluctuated greatly. Fortunately, his mental toughness seemed to be quite good, at least much more so than Yang Yan’s.
Hearing Yang Kai’s few words, Yang Yan, who was eating with great relish, immediately put down the fruit and covered her mouth.
“You haven’t?” Yang Kai was shocked, thinking about how she had fainted for three whole days due to such a minor event and wondering how she had survived so far in this chaotic world? With her level of courage and skill, Yang Kai felt it was nothing less than a miracle she had managed to live for so long.
Yang Yan’s face clearly indicated she was in no condition to speak so she simply waved her hand at Yang Kai while taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen people die, but I’ve never seen such gruesome deaths…” Yang Yan looked at Yang Kai, a hint of fear lingering on her face. The scene of those few people screaming as they burned to death was still vivid in her mind, but what was most unbearable to her was the burnt smell that had filled her nostrils.
She never knew that charred flesh would smell so pungent.
“En, next time I kill someone, just close your eyes,” Yang Kai sighed.
“There’ll be a next time?” Yang Yan looked bitter.
“Possibly!” Yang Kai nodded, “Let’s not discuss this anymore, for now just eat up.”
“En,” Yang Yan nodded, picking up the half-eaten fruit and nibbling on it again, a short time later asking curiously, “Where did you get this? It seems to be able to refresh the spirit while restoring strength.”
“It was a gift,” Yang Kai didn’t explain. Although these fruits were relatively rare, they weren’t actually that valuable, otherwise, Qian Tong wouldn’t have given them to him so generously.
“By the way, did you buy the ores?” Yang Yan asked again.
“I bought them, but you need to rest for a few more days, wait until you’ve completely recovered before you start refining again,” Yang Kai did not feel relieved allowing Yang Yan to refine an Original Grade artefact in her current condition. Artefact Refining and Alchemy required an extremely stable state of mind, once there was any external interference, it may cause irreparable losses.
“En.”
Yang Yan rested for several more days before taking the large number of ores Yang Kai had purchased and entering a state of retreat to continue Artifact Refining, seemingly forgetting all about what happened before.
This woman’s mind was relatively simple. Although she was as timid as a mouse, she wasn’t tiresome to deal with, because she would quickly move past things and was easy to satisfy.
With his stone room and Seven Coloured Spirit Gathering Flags being requisitioned away by Yang Yan, Yang Kai decided to leave the cave and find a clean place to sit down cross-legged nearby and look out at the surrounding mist-covered mountain, nodding with satisfaction.
It had been several months since the Aura Gathering Spirit Array was laid down on this mountain and was beginning to bear fruit. The layer of fog which lingered around the mountain was becoming thicker and thicker, indicating that the World Energy aura was steadily becoming denser.
Although Yang Kai had left the cave, he kept his Divine Sense locked onto it at all times, worried that Yang Yan would have an accident or that Xu Tian Ze would come to find trouble with him again and disturb Yang Yan’s Artefact Refining.
Yang Yan was currently refining the Origin Grade defensive artefact Yang Kai had requested, so he was not about to let any accidents occur.
Time passed day by day, and everything remained calm and steady.
One day, as Yang Kai was meditating, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind, “I’ve recovered.”
Hearing this voice, Yang Kai was overjoyed and immediately realized that the Divine Tree had awoken.
Back on Rainfall Star, in order to dispel the effects of the Profound Yin Sunflower Water from Xue Yue, Yang Kai had exhausted both his and the Divine Tree’s strength, causing the later to fall into a deep sleep. Now, several years later, the Divine Tree had finally woken up.
“How do you feel?” Yang Kai immediately asked.
“I’m alright, but you don’t seem to have changed much. Was I only asleep for a short time?” The Divine Tree was puzzled. Yang Kai was a Second-Order Saint when he borrowed its power, but today he was just a Third Order Saint, such a small improvement was not in line with Yang Kai’s aptitude.
“It’s been a few years, I don’t know exactly how long.”
“Then why are you …”
“There was an accident,” Yang Kai chuckled and briefly explained about the Body Tempering Divine Pond. Yang Kai didn’t hide anything from the Yang Attribute Divine Tree which had obtained sentience as it was extremely closely tied to him and despite being just a tree, was somewhat like a partner to him who was always with him.
Yang Kai also remembered his initial commitment to find a suitable place to let it out and take root.
But all these years Yang Kai had been constantly running around without any stable place to call home. Although he had visited many places, Yang Kai had yet to find a suitable position and the Divine Tree had never urged him, causing Yang Kai to feel a bit ashamed.
“Oh? You mean that although your realm hasn’t changed, you’ve obtained some kind of profound Golden Blood?” The Divine Tree seemed to be interested in his Golden Blood.
“Do you want to try?”
“Yes!”
Yang Kai immediately squeezed out a drop of Golden Blood and sent it into the Demon Mystic Tome to be absorbed by the Divine Tree.
A moment later, Yang Kai wore a startled expression.
Although he didn’t know exactly what happened to the Divine Tree after absorbing a drop of his Golden Blood, he could feel that the close relationship between them had become even firmer and more stable.
Yang Kai could even feel the joy and excitement of the Divine Tree in his heart. The large leaves were constantly shaking as if they had received great nourishment and a feel of extremely satisfaction was transmitted directly to his Soul.
It took a long time but the Divine Tree eventually let out a refreshing sigh and commented, “The vitality contained in that drop of Golden Blood was incredibly and it doesn’t seem to have the same restrictions as your previous Yang Liquid. This kind of Golden Blood can be used to enhance any living creature with any attribute strength. Any World Spirit Treasure that absorbs a drop will have its vitality and maturity greatly enhanced.”
In the past, Yang Kai’s Yang Liquid could only be used on spirit grasses and spirit medicines of the Yang Attribute, but the Golden Blood was different. There were no attribute restrictions because what the Golden Blood contained was pure vitality.
Dozens of small fruits suddenly appeared on the Divine Tree. Similar fruits had been eaten by Yang Kai a long time ago, each one of them containing a lot of Yang Attribute energy.
These small fruits had budded a long time ago, but their growth cycle was very long, only reaching the size of grapes after all these years, but after absorbing a drop of Golden Blood, these fruits began growing at a rate visible to the naked eye, reaching the size of walnuts before stopping.
“Interesting,” Yang Kai laughed, “It looks like I’ll be able to rapidly mature some spirit grasses and spirit medicines in the future.”
Yang Kai had been constantly exploring the uses of his Golden Blood. Last time, he had sent a drop of Golden Blood out into the Starry Sky and even now it was still flying through the Star Field. Yang Kai could always send his consciousness to this drop of Golden Blood to check out its surrounding situation. Now though, he had discovered that the Golden Blood could provide great assistance to the growth of spirit grasses and spirit medicines, a pleasant surprise.
“Since it’s helpful to you, have a few more drops!” Yang Kai said and without hesitation, sent a few more drops of Golden Blood into the Demon Mystic Tome.
The Divine Tree didn’t even have time to stop him. Although it was a World Spirit Treasure, it already had its own consciousness and knew that this Golden Blood was definitely not easy to come by, but since Yang Kai had delivered so many drops to it, naturally it would not waste them and cleanly absorbed them.
If Yang Kai relied solely on meditative cultivation, it would take him twelve months, or a full year to condense four drops of Golden Blood. This meant that four drops of Golden Blood contained a full year’s worth of Saint Qi accumulation.
However, the Divine Tree was able to absorb that much in a single instant.
Just as Yang Kai was about to ask about its situation, the Divine Tree spoke, “I think… I need to sleep again.”
“What do you mean?” Yang Kai was startled, wondering if the vitality contained in his Golden Blood was too strong for even the Divine Tree to bear.
“This is a good thing. I think I’ll experience some kind of breakthrough after I wake up. Rather than worrying about me, you should spend some time examining those two black stones. Something seems to have changed with them,” The Divine Tree said aloud before falling into a deep sleep and no longer responding no matter how Yang Kai called.
[Could the Divine Tree still grow further?] Yang Kai asked himself with a bewildered look, but since it had told him itself, it shouldn’t be a mistake. Yang Kai was quite looking forward to this development and wondered just what kind of change the Divine Tree would undergo this time.
Now though, he had to concern himself with what the Divine Tree’s said just before falling asleep, shifting his attention to the two black stones.
Yang Kai only now remembered he had not paid any attention to those two strange pitch-black round stones for a long time. Since spending a lot of Saint Crystals on Water Moon Star to buy them countless rare ores, he had forgotten about these two pitch-black round stones.
Immediately, Yang Kai sent his consciousness into the Demon Mystic Tome.
What Yang Kai saw there stunned him.
The mountain of rare ores had all disappeared, with their essences obviously having been completely absorbed by the two pitch-black round stones. Only some impurities were left behind, but amongst all those impurities, there was a fairly obvious life aura that was emitting a strong pulsing sound, like a heartbeat.
What was going on?
Yang Kai swept away the pile of impurities and immediately saw the two pitch-black round stones. However, unlike before, they now have some slight differences. Both stones exuded a vigorous vitality, but one of them was even emitting a heartbeat.
Was this thing alive? Yang Kai found it difficult to believe as he quickly withdrew the two pitch-black round stones and placed them in front of himself.
Looking closely, he was quickly shocked.
The pitch-black round stone that was sending out a heartbeat was wiggling somewhat, as if there was a living creature inside of it that was moving about. The clearly visible lines on the surface of the round stone were as intricate as human meridians.
It was almost like he was looking at a pregnant woman’s belly and the baby inside was kicking just before it was born!
This wasn’t the case for the other stone, however; it gave off an equally strong vitality but had no heartbeat.
Yang Kai stared blankly, not knowing what to do for a while.
Although he had owned these two pitch-black round stones for many years, he still knew next to nothing about their secrets.
Immediately, he remembered what Gui Zu had said to him back on the floating continent.
[‘Take care of them, and one day they will give you a pleasant surprise,’ was it?]
Gui Zu was a master at the Origin King Realm and had lived for over two thousand years. He was very knowledgeable and seemed to know exactly what these two pitch-black round stones were, but at that time, their relationship had not been very harmonious, so Yang Kai had not asked and Gui Zu had not taken the initiative to tell, so until now, Yang Kai was still utterly lost about these two stones.
The two pitch-black round stones were brought by Yang Kai from Tong Xuan Realm, but since Gui Zu recognized them, they should have been products of the Starry Sky that had somehow found their way to Tong Xuan Realm. Was now that time for the pleasant surprise Gui Zu mentioned?
Yang Kai sat cross-legged and circulated his Secret Art while paying attention to the movements of Yang Yan and the two pitch-black round stones.
Ten days passed by in a flash.
The two pitch-black round stones didn’t show any changes, so Yang Kai was beginning to grow impatient. He was very eager to know what mysteries were hidden inside the two stones in front of him, especially if there it was some kind of living creature.
After thinking about it, Yang Kai carefully squeezed out a drop of Golden Blood onto the stone that was giving off a heartbeat.
Since his Golden Blood contained a massive amount of vitality that could put even the Divine Tree into a state of deep sleep to evolve, there was no reason it couldn’t provide some assistance to this pitch-black round stone.
When the drop of Golden Blood landed on it, the heartbeat sound coming from the pitch-black round stone became even louder, and as the drop of blood was absorbed, the entire stone began emitting a brilliant golden radiance.
Some obvious changes quickly appeared on the stone, with the external lines like human meridians becoming agitated and something seemingly trying to break through the shell.
Yang Kai stared without blinking, not willing to miss anything.
*Kacha…*
A crisp cracking sound rang out, causing Yang Kai to unconsciously feel a little nervous.
On the pitch-black round stone, small cracks began to form, and soon those small cracks expanded, covering its entire surface in the blink of an eye and in the next instant, its contents burst out.
Yang Kai stared at this sight and was completely stunned!
Although he had some speculations up until now, when he finally saw what had appeared in front of him, he was still taken by surprise.
Inside the pitch-black round stone, there really was a living creature! It was an egg, one that madly devoured mineral essence! Yang Kai had cultivated it for so many years and the number of rare minerals it had consumed during that time was considerable, but now, finally, it had finally hatched from its shell.
At this moment, a grey thing sat in front of Yang Kai. It looked like a stone sculpture and had a dull grey colour to its body. It had limbs, a head, and clear features on its face.
It was clearly a Stone Man, a Stone Man the size of a palm!
As Yang Kai was observing it, it slowly stood up, seemingly having quite a bit of difficulty, swaying back and forth and nearly falling over.
Yang Kai saw this and quickly reached out to help.
The Stone Man’s arms were strangely long, dragging along the ground even as it stood up, its waist and back were slightly curved, its leg slightly bent, and its body was seemingly composed of a number of pieces of stones. Its looks were angular and highly layered. Although it had clear facial features, its expression was naturally gruff and, in conjunction with its clumsy movement, it appeared a bit silly.
Yang Kai watched it without missing a beat.
It turned its head around blankly for a while but when its grey eyes saw Yang Kai, it stopped for a while.
Because it had absorbed a drop of Golden Blood from Yang Kai, it seemed to be quite curious about him. Similar to the Divine Tree, Yang Kai felt like there was an inseparable connection between him and this Stone Man.
After only looking at him for a while, the Stone Man stopped paying attention to Yang Kai and instead stretched out its two long arms and picked up the black stone shell pieces on the ground, bringing it to its mouth and chewing them.
Seeing it crunch the stone shell with such enthusiasm, Yang Kai was once again astonished.
What the hell was this thing?
Although he had not tested it, Yang Kai was certain the black stone shell was incredibly hard; after all, it had absorbed the essence of so many rare ores over many, many years. With that kind of precipitation, it was likely this shell wasn’t inferior in hardness to an Origin Grade defensive artefact, possibly even stronger.
However, that black stone shell seemed as fragile as tofu in the mouth of this small Stone Man.
After a while, the black stone shell had been eaten clean. After eating the stone shell, the little Stone Man seemed a bit tired and staggered over towards Yang Kai before trying to climb up onto his lap.
Yang Kai figured it was time he tried out its strength and reached out and flicked its forehead.
The small Stone Man immediately tumbled like a bottle gourd and rolled away.
Yang Kai’s face turned black and secretly wondered if this was really the creature he had cultivated for so many years and spent so many precious minerals on. Although it was hard enough, it didn’t seem very strong.
The little Stone Man soon stood up, shook its head, and toddled over to Yang Kai again to continue its climb.
Yang Kai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but this time he didn’t flick it again and simply let it crawl up onto his thigh.
It didn’t seem to have any other intentions, seemingly only wanting to climb up onto Yang Kai. Lying down on its back, it closed its eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Yang Kai looked at it, shook his head, and sighed. He wasn’t repulsed by this little guy just because he appeared useless, it was just that the whole situation was too different from his original expectations. Yang Kai thought he would perhaps obtain two incredibly precious ores which, if he continued to cultivate, would one day be used to refine an Origin King Grade artefact. How could he have anticipated that a tiny Stone Man would pop up?
Frankly, it was a bit disappointing.
Observing it for a while though, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly froze and his eyes fixed on the chest of the little Stone Man where a dark red light pulsed.
Immediately after, Yang Kai sent his consciousness into the Demon Mystic Tome and began searching for something carefully.
A short time later, Yang Kai withdrew his consciousness and frowned.
He finally understood why the two pitch-black round stones weren’t the same. Originally, it was because of the Blood Essence Stone!
The Blood Essence Stone that he had stored inside the Demon Mystic Tome was now implanted in the little Stone Man’s chest, seemingly acting as its heart.
Yang Kai only possessed one Blood Essence Stone, and it was now part of this small Stone Man so obviously the other pitch-black round stone wasn’t able to emit a heartbeat.
Yang Kai firmly believed there was another small Stone Man inside the other pitch-black round stone, but without another Blood Essence Stone to act as its heart, it couldn’t break out of its shell.
Was there some kind of relationship between Blood Essence Stones and these things? Yang Kai became more and more confused, unable to figure out anything even after thinking about it for a while.
Meanwhile, Yang Yan had seemingly reached a critical point in the refining of the Origin Grade defensive artefact Yang Kai requested; he could tell because the energy fluctuations coming from the cave were now much stronger than before. As such, Yang Kai remained outside, not daring to disturb her, feeling a bit bored.
Ever since the small Stone Man appeared, Yang Kai began studying its secrets.
A few days passed but this little guy didn’t seem to experience any kind of growth. He was however quite interested in the place Yang Yan was working. Every time Yang Kai took his eyes off of it, the little Stone Man would run over to the cave, as if it was being drawn in by something. Yang Kai eventually had no choice but to order it to not approach the cave.
After some observation, Yang Kai discovered a problem. Although this little Stone Man had traces of life and was definitely a kind of creature, it didn’t seem to have much of a consciousness. It wasn’t like the Divine Tree that had its own thoughts and wisdom. Instead, it seemed that, aside from Yang Kai’s orders, it was relying solely on its instincts to act.
He didn’t know if it was because it had absorbed a drop of his Golden Blood, but the little Stone Man was absolutely obedient to Yang Kai and would meticulously execute any order he gave it.
However, Yang Kai’s attempts to communicate with it were somewhat fruitless. He had expected it to obtain its own consciousness just like the Divine Tree, but after examining the situation for a while, it appeared that would be impossible. This little Stone Man was closer to a puppet than a sentient creature.
A few days later, Yang Kai discovered that it possessed a very strange ability: Digging holes!
The speed at which it could burrow through the mountain rock was incredible. Yang Kai only learned about this ability by accident. Because of Yang Kai’s order, this little guy didn’t dare to approach the cave where Yang Yan was. Instead, it would constantly drill down into the ground, a breath after disappearing, already travelling hundreds of meters down, moving through the hard mountain rock as easily as if it were air.
Yang Kai also experimented with a particularly firm piece of ore and found that no matter how hard the ore was, the Stone Man could easily drill a large hole through it.
This skill was actually pretty good, but looking at its flat, blockish head, Yang Kai was truly confused as to how it accomplished this.
Originally, Yang Kai thought that there might be some kind of rare ore deposit down below that had attracted it, but after careful investigation, he rejected this conjecture.
Dragon Cave Mountain didn’t possess any rare spirit grasses, spirit medicines, or ores. Before Yang Kai set up the Aura Gathering Spirit Array, this place had simply been a barren mountain with good scenery. Even now, the only noteworthy feature was its slightly richer World Energy aura.
As long as Dragon Cave Mountain didn’t collapse from all this tunnelling though, Yang Kai was too lazy to care about what this little guy did. It was only because Yang Kai had coincidentally owned a Blood Essence Stone that the Stone Man was able to hatch from its shell while the other remained in its original pitch-black round stone state. If Yang Kai wanted to hatch the other Stone Man, he would probably first need to find another Blood Essence Stone.
But this kind of treasure was too rare; Yang Kai had entered the Star Field for some time now but had never come across or even heard of another Blood Essence Stone. It seemed that the Blood Essence Stones were scarce even in the Star Field.
One day, while Yang Kai was meditating, he suddenly felt a shocking energy fluctuation coming from the cave. This fluctuation erupted but quickly settled down, and in the next moment, Yang Yan’s proud laughter rang out.
[She succeeded?] Yang Kai also wore a look of happiness as he got up and rushed over to the cave.
Inside Yang Kai’s stone room, the Refining Furnace that was as tall as a grown man was still emitting an amazing heat and Yang Yan, who was standing nearby, was dripping in sweat. It could be seen at a glance that she had expended a great deal of effort to refine this artefact, her hair wet and dishevelled, making her look somewhat like a lunatic. She had even taken off her trademark black robe at some point and was now only wearing a thin gauze skirt.
Her sweat-drenched clothes tightly clung to her body, and when Yang Kai rushed in, what first caught his eye was not the artefact he had requested, but Yang Yan’s incredibly attractive figure.
Her rounded bottom seemed to float upwards, as if a great pair of hands was holding it up, exaggerating the curve of her waist. Her smooth and flat abdomen was vaguely visible through her wet clothes and Yang Kai could even clearly see the shape and colour of her undergarments.
En, pink panties that were no bigger than the size of a large palm, just enough to cover her most sensitive area while at the same time stimulating one’s basest imagination. There was also an equally small red cloth wrapped around her upper body that was barely able to contain her two massive peaks.
Yang Kai froze for a moment, wondering if he should wait outside for a while.
Before he could make a decision though, Yang Yan ran over in excitement, not even noticing the spring scenery she was putting on display, her delicate hands gripping an oval shield-shaped artefact and shouting, “See, see! An Origin Grade Low-Rank artefact. I didn’t lie to you, I really am an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner!”
Yang Kai took the shield-like artifact, which was much lighter than he imagined it would be, as if it had no weight at all. The surface of the shield was giving off a faint purple glow so Yang Kai was able to tell that it was refined from the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion’s carapace as the two shared the same luster. The shield’s surface wasn’t flat and instead had several sharp barbs on it. As for what the effect was, Yang Kai didn’t know.
However, Yang Kai was acutely aware that two different attribute energies, both of which were extremely potent, were coursing through the interior of this shield.
Seeing Yang Kai observing her work carefully, Yang Yan immediately began explaining its merits, “I integrated the Monster Core of the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion. The primary material for this shield was that Monster Beast’s carapace, so after the core was integrated, it gained the ability to display part of the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion’s abilities from when it was alive. Of course, you’ll have to experiment with it to determine how to bring out this power, because I don’t know what abilities this Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion had during its lifetime.”
“The sandstorm perhaps?” Yang Kai muttered to himself, immediately remembering the time he had been following Gui Che and discover the place where the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion was hiding. Back then, an intense sandstorm several dozen kilometres in radius had been concealing the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion’s figure, making it almost impossible to discover.
“It was able to create a sandstorm?” Yang Yan nodded, “Good good. This shield is the result of my utmost effort, you must make good use of it. Not only can it be used for defence, but the spikes on its surface can also be used as close-range weapons. With this shield, fighting opponents above your realm level shouldn’t be, impossible. No no, definitely won’t be a problem. En, as long as you have this artefact in hand, I guarantee that no Saint King Realm cultivator will be able to hurt you! Unless you stand there dumbly and let them hit you of course!”
Yang Yan struck her chest firmly as she made this vigorous guarantee, completely forgetting the fact that Yang Kai had killed several Saint Kings with his own power just a few days ago.
When her little hand patted her chest, her towering peaks bounced with astonishing force.
Their elasticity was clearly amazing…
Yang Kai couldn’t help staring at this scene, his eyes being drawn into her seemingly bottomless valley.
“If not for you urging me to finish this up quickly, I could have refined something even better, but for now it’s alright. Origin Grade Low-Rank is just its current grade, en, if you can find some better ores in the future, I can continue enhancing it, raising its grade… Hey, I’m talking to you, why do you look like you’re not listening? What are you looking at?” Yang Yan didn’t know why Yang Kai was revealing an absent-minded look on his face but when she directed her eyes towards where he was staring, she immediately understood.
In an instant, Yang Yan’s cheeks, which were already a bit flushed from the heat, became bright crimson red, as if they were being boiled. After three breaths, a high pitched scream echoed throughout the cave as Yang Yan crouched down and covered her chest with her arms, glaring towards Yang Kai with a deeply aggrieved look while cursing loudly, “Shameless bastard! Pervert! I worked so hard to refine a precious artefact for you, yet you actually… you actually…”
She felt incredibly wronged.
Yang Kai just grinned and didn’t make any comments.
After letting her scold him a few more times, Yang Kai cut in and said, “There’s a pool fed from the mountain stream over there, go wash.”
“I already know that!” Yang Yan bit her red lips, hugging her rich capital even tighter as she snarled, “Get out!”
“Good good good, I’m leaving!” Yang Kai nodded quickly but before he could leave, a slight rumbling noise resounded below Yang Yan’s feet and immediately after, a small hole appeared, and a tiny grey head popped up from it. When this little head appeared, its square eyes turned to stare blankly at Yang Yan.
“Yaa!” Yang Yan shouted even louder, sending out a great slap, whacking the little grey head back into the hole before leaping like a frightened rabbit directly into Yang Kai’s arms.
Two warm, soft, elastic mounds pressed up against Yang Kai’s chest strongly as a mind-numbing fragrance filled his nostrils, granting him an incredibly satisfying sensation.
What made him feel the most speechless though was that Yang Yan’s had even wrapped her legs around his waist.
He knew that she was timid, but it appears he had still been overestimating her courage!
She seemed extremely scared, her tender body shivering uncontrollably as she clung tightly to Yang Kai, constantly glancing around, her eyes filled with fear.
Even after discovering that there was nothing in the cave, she still didn’t seem relieved and nervously asked, “What was that, what was that, why did I feel like it was looking at me just now?”
Yang Kai didn’t know how to explain. The little Stone Man, who was normally very obedient, had suddenly ran over to her cave and popped up from the ground. No wonder Yang Yan had been scared to death.
“Did it leave?” Yang Yan asked again.
“It’s gone.”
“Really?” Releasing her Divine Sense, she scanned the cave and found that there really wasn’t anything else there, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Looking back, Yang Yan suddenly discovered that she wrapping her arms around Yang Kai’s neck and literally hanging off of him, their two bodies pressed up against each so tightly that she could feel an astonishing heat pressing up against her lower abdomen.
Yang Yan felt like steam was about to leak from her head.
She had never been so close to a man before, and she didn’t know why, but just being in this position made her blood boil and her heart pound so loud it was like a drum was being beaten. In an instant, she felt as if she was suffocating.
She was anxious to find that small thing, which had appeared and drill down into it, never to emerge again.
The weird smile on Yang Kai’s made her feel particularly ashamed.
“You… you put me down!” Yang Yan almost lowered her head into her chest as she shouted weakly.
“I’m not holding you!” Yang Kai spread his hands lightly.
Yang Yan only became more embarrassed when it was pointed out that she was the one wrapping her arms around Yang Kai’s neck while her legs pressed their hips together.
Quickly unwrapping her arms and legs, Yang Yan directly fell onto her bottom, letting out a small yelp when she hit the ground.
“Are you okay?” Yang Kai looked at her speechlessly, consciously not offering his hand. This woman wasn’t just timid, she was conscious of how she was perceived by those close to her, even if he tried to help her up, she would likely refuse.
“I’m fine,” Yang Yan shrank up into a ball, really not getting up, burying her face in her arms as she whispered, “Can you leave first? I want to dust myself off.”
En,” Yang Kai nodded, smiled, and turned away.
Outside the cave, the little Stone Man wobbly stood, almost as if he was drunk, accidentally tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground.
When he did get up, he raised his head and looked at Yang Kai innocently.
“Good job!” Yang Kai suddenly found that this little guy was quite astute and clever. [To think he made such a plan. Haha. How could I have thought he was simple-minded before?]
Yang Kai waited outside for a while, thinking about how to resolve the embarrassment between him and Yang Yan.
He was a man, being thick-skinned wasn’t a problem, and honestly, he didn’t mind about what just happened, he could simply laugh it off and move on, but Yang Yan was different. She looked like a woman with very little worldly experience and may never have been so close to a man before.
She was the complete opposite of Xue Yue, who could be completely naked in front of him and remain calm and composed, even having the frame of mind to negotiate and plot against him.
What if because of this matter, Yang Yan was too embarrassed to speak with him again, or worse, became angry out of shame and fled?
Losing some materials or treasures wouldn’t faze Yang Kai, but losing Yang Yan was absolutely unacceptable, she was an invaluable talent. It had not been long since Yang Kai came to Shadowed Star, and he didn’t know many people, if he really wanted to use this place as a springboard to spread his name throughout the Star Field, it wouldn’t be enough to use strength alone. He needed to assemble a great force around himself and superb talents would be required for that.
Should he make an apology with some honeyed words? Yang Kai hesitated; Yang Yan was quite innocent, and he felt that a few sweet words would relax her mood significantly, but Yang Kai was worried she would subsequently misunderstand his intentions, which would only end up hurting her in the end.
[Ah! This is so frustrating!] Yang Kai scratched his head and grumbled.
As he struggled with himself, Yang Yan, wearing her usual black robe after having washed her body, suddenly ran out of the cave and flew straight over towards him.
“Yang Kai, Yang Kai… come with me!” Yang Yan’s face showed a seemingly eager and excited expression as she rushed over to Yang Kai, grabbed his hand, and tried to drag him back to the cave.
“What happened?” Yang Kai suddenly couldn’t keep up with the situation. He hadn’t expected Yang Yan wouldn’t even bother with the awkward situation just now and instead seek him out on her own. He had been prepared for Yang Yan to hide in the cave for a few days without seeing him.
“I think I’ve found something, important, come see quickly,” She didn’t explain clearly and simply kept pulling Yang Kai towards the cave, soon arriving at the position where the two had been just now and pointed to the small hole in the ground, asking, “What did you see appear here a moment ago? Did you see clearly what it was that popped up and startled me?”
Seeing her shining eyes as she stared towards the small hole, even releasing her Divine Sense constantly to examine it, a thought occurred to Yang Kai, “Do you know what it was?”
If Yang Yan didn’t know, she wouldn’t have shown such a big reaction.
“I may know what it is!” Yang Yan nodded, “But it may not be what I think it is. Can you trace the position of that creature through this small hole? If we catch it, I can study it properly.”
“What do you think it is?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
Yang Yan shook her head, her pretty brow furrowing slightly, “Before I’m certain, I wouldn’t dare make any claims. I only caught a glimpse of it, but after thinking about it carefully, it really did seem quite similar to what I have in mind. Can you trace it?”
“There’s no need for that.”
“There is!” Yang Yan misunderstood Yang Kai and instantly grabbed his arm, shaking it while begging “Help me track it, I’m really curious about it! If you can help me track it down, I… I…” Yang Yan stuttered as her face became red again, seemingly remembering something, gritting her teeth and declaring, “I won’t hold you responsible for the matter just now!”
“I’m not responsible for what happened just now,” Yang Kai said flatly, thinking that women really were unreasonable creatures.
Yang Yan pouted miserably. Although she knew that Yang Kai really wasn’t responsible for what happened just now, and that it was clearly she who leapt into his arms and pressed herself against him, in the end, he was the one who had gained all the benefits, so she couldn’t help feeling she was the one who had been wronged.
“Just help me this once, I’ve done so much Artifact Refining for you already…” Yang Yan could only continue to plead.
“There’s really no need to trace it,” Yang Kai shook his head, “I’ll just call it over.”
“Call… Call it over?” Yang Yan froze up and looked at Yang Kai in a stunned manner, not quite understanding what he meant.
However, a moment later, a burrowing sound came from beneath the ground again. Either Yang Yan’s bravery had grown several times, or she was simply looking forward to it that much, but this time she no longer panicked and instead stared towards the spot where the sound was coming from.
A small hole suddenly appeared on the ground, and the square grey head carefully popped out of it.
Seeing it clearly this time, Yang Yan’s expression was even more excited, her breathing becoming rapid.
The little Stone Man seemed to be a bit scared of Yang Yan who had slapped him just now. Although its intelligence was quite low and it basically just followed its instincts, he could still remember who had hit him.
As soon as he saw this face in front of him, the little Stone Man immediately climbed out of the hole, its actions a bit uncoordinated, and quickly ran over to Yang Kai’s feet before climbing up his clothes.
Yang Yan stared dumbfounded at this, her gaze fixed on the little Stone Man as it climbed all the way up to Yang Kai’s shoulder and hid behind him. In the next instant, she let out a shout, “Stone Race!”
Yang Kai noticed that her pretty face was now quite out of shape, seemingly too excited to maintain any semblance of composure.
After screaming once, Yang Yan seemed to realize that she wasn’t behaving appropriately and immediately covered her mouth, releasing her Divine Sense again to carefully examine the little Stone Man.
“Stone Race?” Yang Kai frowned, taking the little guy off his shoulder and placing it on his palm while asking, “Do you recognize it?”
Yang Yan looked up at Yang Kai and nodded rapidly, suddenly realizing something and asking, “Is this Stone Race yours?”
If it wasn’t Yang Kai’s, how could he have caught it so easily? Why would it take orders to come over to him? Suddenly, Yang Yan felt a little dizzy, thinking she had once again underestimated Yang Kai’s heritage. He had so many precious materials and so many high-grade artefacts. He could easily kill Saint Kings while only being a Saint, and now he even possessed a Stone Race, a Heaven defying existence. Just what kind of a freak was he?
Also, why hadn’t she seen this Stone Race before?
“It’s mine. Now, tell me, what is this Stone Race?” Yang Kai asked with interested. He had been studying the secrets of the little Stone Man these days, but it seemed that rather than doing that, he should have just asked Yang Yan.
“Can you let me take a closer look? I’m still not quite sure!” Yang Yan stared at the little Stone Man expectantly.
Yang Kai nodded and tossed it over; he trusted Yang Yan’s character, and he also was depending on her to explain everything to him.
Yang Yan caught the little Stone Man with both hands and shot Yang Kai a vicious glare, seemingly blaming him for being so rough.
Quickly replacing her scowl with a gentle expression, Yang Yan held the small Stone Man in front of herself and examined him closely.
Facing this woman who had inexplicably slapped him earlier, the small Stone Man seemed a bit afraid and stood up several times wanting to return to Yang Kai’s side. Yang Kai eventually ordered him to stay put.
“It’s a Blood Essence Stone. It’s real! It’s really a Stone Race. Heavens! Didn’t this race go extinct already? Who could have imagined there were actually survivors left in this world?!” Yang Yan observed for a while before excitedly talking to herself, holding on tight to the little Stone Man, seemingly unwilling to let go.
Yang Kai’s face turned black and he quickly snatched it back from her.
“I haven’t observed it enough, let me see it again!” Yang Yan no longer cared about the embarrassing situation which had happened just moments ago between her and Yang Kai, all her thoughts now focused on this little fellow, as if he held some kind of extremely strong appeal to her.
“Since you recognize it, explain its origins to me clearly. After you’ve explained, you can do whatever research on it you want,” Yang Kai stated, still waiting for her to give him an answer.
“It’s yours, but you don’t even know what it is?” Yang Yan looked at Yang Kai in surprise.
“Why should I know about it?” Yang Kai looked at her lightly.
Yang Yan’s lips twitched, not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry, gritting her teeth for a long time before muttering, “The Heavens are unfair, why did they give this little thing to him instead of me?”
After a period of indignation, she finally began explaining, “It is a Stone Race!”
“I’ve heard you say that already, but what is the Stone Race?”
“En,” Yang Yan nodded angrily, “It’s also called a Stone Puppet. Since you own it, you should already know that its thoughts are very simple, right? It can be said that it has almost no sentience and its actions depend entirely on its own instincts and the orders of the one who has subdued it. So even if it is a kind of living creature belonging to its own race, it can still be thought of like a puppet!”
Yang Kai gently nodded, already knowing what Yang Yan was saying was correct as they corresponded perfectly with the observations he had made over the past few days.
“They are born only under very special conditions. Their initial form is a small black sphere that emits not trace of vitality, but as long as it is allowed to absorb enough mineral essence, it can slowly mature. En, you can think of it as a slightly different kind of egg.”
“In order to hatch this egg though, you need a special treasure, a Blood Essence Stone! Blood Essence Stones are the hearts of the Stone Race. Without a Blood Essence Stone, no matter how much mineral essence a Stone Race absorbs, it cannot truly come to life. This red stone on this little fellow’s chest is a Blood Essence Stone, so there’s no doubt it is a genuine Stone Race!”
Sure enough, just like Yang Kai had guessed, the Blood Essence Stone was acting at this little guy’s heart!
“The Stone Race is very few in number, but the role they can play is unimaginable. Long ago, as long as a Stone Race appeared, it would cause countless people to chase after it, wanting to obtain it and make it their exclusive Stone Puppet!”
“What kind of use does it have?” Yang Kai asked quickly.
Yang Yan laughed, “They grow by absorbing mineral essences, so they are extremely sensitive to rare minerals. As long as there is any kind of good mine nearby, they will discover it immediately. Is this use good enough? With a Stone Puppet, you can uncover an unlimited number of mineral lodes, even ones Origin Kings are unable to find.”
Yang Kai’s eyes brightened as he took a second look at this little fellow. Originally, he had thought it had no use and was rather dim-witted, but now he realized it actually possessed such an astonishing ability.
Yang Yan added, “Finding mineral lodes is just one of the Stone Puppet’s abilities, there is another one, which all Artifact Refiners can only dream of. It is able to purify and refine mineral essences. As long an Artifact Refiner has its assistance, they no longer need to expend any effort smelting and removing impurities from ore, Stone Puppets can easily and far more effectively accomplish that task.”
Alchemists were required to condense medicinal liquids while Artifact Refiners needed to quench ores, both these processes were for the purpose of removing impurities from raw materials and were absolutely essential to both professions.
The more impurities were removed, the better the refined pill or artefact would be. In many cases, the true calibre of an Alchemist or Artifact Refiner could be judged by how well they could purify their materials.
In this regard, Yang Kai and Yang Yan were leaders in their respective fields.
However, the Stone Puppet was born with the ability to remove impurities and quench ore, and its quenching was far more effective than any Artifact Refiner could hope to be, which was why Yang Yan was so interested in this little fellow.
What Yang Kai didn’t know was that Stone Puppets had another title they were known by, the strongest assistants of Artifact Refiners!
Whether it was their ability to find mineral lodes or their ability to quench ores, both were essential to Artifact Refiners.
Yang Kai, who was not an Artifact Refiner, actually owned a Stone Puppet, causing Yang Yan’s eyes to turn red with envy. This was no different from casting pearls before swine, a complete waste of Heaven’s precious gifts. If this Stone Puppet was hers, how wonderful would that have been?
“Keep going, what else is there,” Yang Kai smiled, the more he looked at this little guy, the more pleasing to the eye he became. Never had Yang Kai expected that the two pitch-black round stones he had brought with him from Tong Xuan Realm would actually contain such Heaven defying existences.
“Since it is a kind of puppet, it can naturally be used for fighting!” Yang Yan sighed, “You know that Artifact Refiners are the same as Alchemists, their combat ability not being very strong. Stone Puppets can make up for this, they perfectly suited for Artifact Refiners.”
Yang Yan wasn’t too interested in fighting, so she didn’t elaborate much on this point.
Yang Kai frowned and looked at the little fellow, wondering how it could possibly be used to fight. This tiny puppet couldn’t even withstand a simple slap, so even if it possessed some combat effectiveness, wouldn’t it be quite limited? Could it be that it fought by digging? Its burrowing skills were actually quite good.
“Big Brother Yang Kai…” Yang Yan blushed and called out in a coaxing voice.
Yang Kai, who was lost in thought, shivered when he heard this voice and shot a cold glare towards here, “Speak properly!”
Yang Yan was not the kind of woman who could act coquettish at all and trying to do so only destroyed her natural charms.
“Your Stone Puppet …”
“No!” Without waiting for her to finish. Yang Kai cut her off.
Yang Yan immediately became distressed, “I haven’t finished talking yet.”
“I know what you want to say. You want it, don’t you?” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully, “Impossible, I’ve already formed a bond with it. Even if I gave it to you, it would still only obey my orders.”
“You actually subdued it already?” Yang Yan’s eyes widened, somewhat unable to believe it, “How did you subdue it? Stone Puppets are extremely difficult to subdue, unless… unless before it was fully grown, you were the one who raised it.”
“The young lady is both smart and beautiful!” Yang Kai grinned, he had cultivated this little fellow for many years and just before it hatched he had even given it a drop of his Golden Blood, establishing a firm connection between the Stone Puppet and himself.
“Ahhh! This is so unfair!” Yang Yan stomped her foot fiercely. Obviously, she had some ideas about this Stone Puppet, but if Yang Kai had already subdued it, those thoughts were completely useless.
Because Stone Puppets don’t have very high wisdom, once it identifies someone as its master, it cannot be snatched by others, only destroyed.
Seeing Yang Yan’s disappointed expression, Yang Kai lightly coughed before commenting, “But although it only listens to my orders, if you want to use it for Artifact Refining, I can lend it to you. I can’t perform Artifact Refining in any case.”
“Really?” Yang Yan immediately let out a laugh and patted Yang Kai’s shoulder, “Great, with it, I can now temper your shield to raise it to the Original Grade Mid-Rank! The artefacts I refine next will also have even better quality. Big Brother Yang Kai, you’re so kind, being able to follow you makes me really happy!”
It was as if she would die of contentment.
“Yes yes, let me see how it quenches ore,” Yang Kai brushed off her praise and asked, he was curious about this point Yang Yan had just made and naturally wanted to verify it with his own eyes.
“That’s simple, here, watch,” Yang Yan took a piece of raw light blue Origin Grade ore the size of a melon from her Space Ring. It was one of the ores Yang Kai had bought back in Heavenly Fate City last time and was meant to be used to refine an Origin Grade artefact.
“Little guy, come here, Elder Sister has some delicious food for you,” Yang Yan held up the blue stone to the Stone Puppet.
The Stone Puppet immediately jumped out of Yang Kai’s hands and rushed over to the blue stone.
Yang Kai only heard a crunching sound and within a few breaths, the stone the size of a melon had been eaten clean by the Stone Puppet; however, its belly didn’t swell at all, it looked exactly the same as before.
Yang Kai was dumbfounded and exclaimed, “So fast?”
Yang Yan was also very excited. Although she knew about the abilities of Stone Puppets, this was still the first time she had seen a living one. After the Stone Puppet finished eating the blue ore, she set it down on the ground.
“Now what?” Yang Kai asked.
“Just wait a moment.”
The two of them both observed the Stone Puppet closely.
Soon, Yang Kai discovered that the lustre on the surface of the Stone Puppet became dim and it seemed like something was leaking from its body, covering its originally smooth surface.
After a while, the Stone Puppet’s body became dull and grey.
It shuddered lightly and the grey stone covering the surface of its body immediately fell to the ground in countless pieces.
Yang Yan explained, “These are the impurity contained in that blue ore, all the essence has been extracted out of it.”
Afterwards, she turned to the Stone Puppet and said with a cheerful smile, “Spit it out.”
This time the Stone Puppet just stood stupidly though.
Yang Yan knew that it wouldn’t obey her words so she could only turn to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai understood and immediately gave Stone Puppet an order.
The next moment, the Stone Puppet opened its mouth far wider than should be possible and spat out a fist-sized, impurity-free ore. Yang Kai’s eyes lit up and Yang Yan reached out her hand to pick it up.
But before she could, the Stone Puppet spat out another piece of ore, and then another, and another, soon spilling out dozens of pieces at a time, all of the clinking together as they rolled out onto the floor of the cave.
Yang Kai gawked while Yang Yan also froze up.
The scene in front of them was far different from what they had imagined would happen.
After ten breaths, a huge pile of ore appeared before them. The pieces of ore were translucent, like fine crystal, and exuded a halo of light. Only one of them had a different, cyan, colour.
The Stone Puppet staggered, as if it was quite tired, and soon fell onto its butt.
However, Yang Kai and Yang Yan were no longer paying any attention to it and instead were completely focused on the great pile of ore.
“Yang Yan, can a Stone Puppet swallow a single piece of ore then produce many others from nothing?” Yang Kai asked dumbly, thinking his question was quite absurd the moment it left his lips.
“Impossible,” Yang Yan didn’t know how to explain it. She stretched out her hand and picked up the only blue piece of ore, feeling it carefully before stating, “This is the purified essence of the ore I just fed it. There’s now no trace of impurities at all.”
Yang Kai also hurriedly picked up a different piece and observed it silently, a moment later a look of shock filling his face as he exclaimed, “This isn’t that blue ore, it’s Space Spirit Crystal!”
“Space Spirit Crystal?” Yang Yan beautiful face filled paled as she too quickly picked up a piece, trembling as she too called out, “It really is Space Spirit Crystal!”
With the stunning performance of the Stone Puppet just now, she had not gone to inspect what kind of ore it had spat out and was only now able to confirm it.
The pair stared at each other silently while a great storm brewed inside their hearts.
No one could give an answer as to what ore was the most precious in this world, but Space Spirit Crystals were undoubtedly one of them!
The collection of Space Spirit Crystal was very difficult because it did not generally collect in large scale mineral lodes like other ores. Usually, it could only be found as a secondary material in Dark Space Stone mines. The value of Dark Space Stone wasn’t very high. Although it was sometimes used in Artifact Refining, overall it wasn’t a high-grade ore. But the accompanying Space Spirit Crystals were different, their value was extremely high. Space Spirit Crystals were essential in the manufacturing of Space Rings worn by cultivators as well as Space Arrays used for instantaneous travel.
Often, if an entire Dark Space Stone mineral lode could produce a washbasin sized amount of Space Spirit Crystal, it would be considered high density. The most likely outcome was that no appreciable amount of Space Spirit Crystal would exist at all. To find Space Spirit Crystal, one needed luck, sometimes one would obtain some, but often they would not.
Because the demand was immense, and the supply was small, Space Spirit Crystal was always increasing in price.
But at this moment, a great pile of Space Spirit Crystal sat in front of Yang Kai and Yang Yan, each crystal about the size of a fist, with at least three or four hundred pieces in total.
Forget about Yang Yan, such an astonishing amount of wealth was enough to move even Yang Kai. This fist-sized chunk of Space Spirit Crystals could be exchanged for at least fifty thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals, the value of an Origin Grade artefact.
It doesn’t make sense that the Stone Puppet had magically acquired these Space Spirit Crystals after eating just a single piece of blue Origin Grade ore, so the only explanation was that it had been storing them in its stomach before.
“Yang Kai…” Yang Yan spoke with a trembling voice, “What mineral lode did this little fellow visit before?”
Yang Kai shook his head, “It was only born a few days ago, before then it was just a pitch-black round stone; however, over the past few days it kept burrowing into the ground nearby!”
Yang Yan couldn’t help gulping as she hesitantly asked, “You mean…”
Yang Kai took a deep breath and answered her with a solemn nod.
Yang Yan covered her mouth, afraid she might accidentally scream. These hundreds of pieces of fist-sized Space Spirit Crystal were enough to thoroughly astound her, but now she was hearing something far more incredible.
Suddenly, tears began dripping from her eyes as she stared at Yang Kai, “Yang Kai, you’re won’t try to silence the witness to the crime, right?”
In this world, in order to keep some secrets, silencing witnesses or exterminating whole families wasn’t an uncommon practice. Yang Yan had experienced Yang Kai’s strength and murderous intent, even First Order Saint Kings weren’t worthy to be his opponents. She was clear that if Yang Kai really wanted to act against her, with his strange Demonic Flame, even with all her precious artefacts she may not be able to survive.
At this moment, Yang Yan deeply regretted learning about this big secret.
Yang Kai however just glanced over at her and asked, “What nonsense are you talking about?”
Yang Yan immediately smiled, “I knew you weren’t like this. Quickly put these Space Spirit Crystals away, it would be bad if anyone else saw them.”
Yang Kai agreed with her and swiftly swept the hundreds of Space Spirit Crystals into his Demon Mystic Tome.
Even now, Yang Kai was feeling somewhat absent-minded. If these Space Spirit Crystals were really found by the Stone Puppet recently, then they could only have come from below Dragon Cave Mountain, because the Stone Puppet was always burrowing beneath this place.
However, what Yang Kai couldn’t understand was that he had clearly and carefully scanned the underground situation with his Divine Sense yet never once discovered anything resembling a mineral lode. If there really was a Dark Space Stone mineral lode here, Wu Yi and her Hai Ke Family should have known about it; after all, they had been rooted here for countless years.
It seemed it was necessary to investigate this matter.
Yang Kai reached out and picked up the Stone Puppet before beckoning to Yang Yan, “Come with me.”
Yang Yan didn’t ask anything, seemingly knowing what Yang Kai wanted to do and simply following after him, her face filled with a look of expectation.
Outside the cave, the pair quickly flew some ten kilometres away and sought a well-hidden spot before Yang Kai lowered the Stone Puppet and told it to start digging.
The Stone Puppet soon disappeared, leaving a small hole behind just big enough for one person to descend through.
Before, the Stone Puppet would only dig holes big enough for itself, but this time Yang Kai had instructed it to make the hole big enough for him and Yang Yan to pass through.
Yang Yan became even more excited, her face flushing as she stood silently, waiting for Yang Kai to head down first.
After half an hour, Yang Kai nodded to Yang Yan and jumped into the hole in front of him.
It had to be said that the Stone Puppet was a natural at digging holes as the passage Yang Kai fell through was perfectly cylindrical and straight, its surfaces completely smooth, as if they had been polished. The whole way down, Yang Kai never felt a single obstruction.
The hole was quite deep, making it hard to imagine it only took half an hour to dig, only further highlighting the Stone Puppet’s ability to Yang Kai.
After about as long as it would take to burn a stick of incense, Yang Kai suddenly noticed that the channel come to an end and he couldn’t help feeling like he was falling from a high altitude. Swiftly stabilizing his body, the next moment Yang Kai’s feet touched ground.
There was a rapid crunching sound ringing in his ears and without even looking, Yang Kai understood it was the Stone Puppet gnawing at some kind of ore. Pulling out a glowing stone for lighting, Yang Kai didn’t have time to examine his surroundings before above his head he heard Yang Yan cry out, “Yang Kai help me! I… I’m stuck!”
Yang Kai looked up and his face quickly turned black.
Yang Yan was indeed stuck, the two towering weapons on her chest lodged tight into the tunnel’s exit as her lower body dangled above his head, constantly pedalling back and forth as she wiggled her upper body.
Yang Kai reached out, grabbed Yang Yan’s ankles, and yanked her down, causing her to let out a great yelp.
“That hurt!” As soon as Yang Yan fell down, she covered her chest with both hands and gently began rubbing them, turning a tear-stained look towards Yang Kai, seemingly blaming him for not showing any delicacy.
Before she could find trouble with Yang Kai though, the glow from the luminous stone in his hand lit up their surroundings, and Yang Yan was stunned silent, her small mouth opening wide as her tender body shuddered, immediately forgetting about the pain she was trying to rub away from her chest.
Yang Kai also seemed to have received a huge shock. He kept turning his head in different directions, so excited he felt his heart just might burst.
The two of them were now standing in an underground cave, one that had probably been mined out by the Stone Puppet over the past few days. The length and width of this mine was only several tens of meters, but all the walls were reflecting a dizzying array of light.
Large and small Space Spirit Crystals were scattered everywhere, as if they were worthless pieces of rock, and among these Space Spirit Crystals were thin veins of Dark Space Stone.
Inside the underground cave, Yang Kai and Yang Yan breathed heavily as the crunching sound of the Stone Puppet echoed in the background.
After a long silence, Yang Yan suddenly let out a yell and rushed over to a plate-sized Space Spirit Crystal and swiftly excavated it from the wall, clutching it with her hands as a look of extreme satisfaction filled her face and silly laughter leaked from her lips.
However, Yang Yan’s reaction wasn’t that strange and Yang Kai’s current mood wasn’t much calmer than hers.
He had never dreamt that a few thousand meters beneath Dragon Cave Mountain, a place seemingly devoid of any valuable spirit grasses or spirit medicines, there would be such a rich Space Spirit Crystal lode!
From a conventional standpoint, this couldn’t be called a Dark Space Stone lode anymore because nearly half of the ore here was actually Space Spirit Crystal. It was now fully qualified to be called a Space Spirit Crystal mine.
Soon, Yang Kai understood why he hadn’t been able to detect this place.
First of all, the location was very deep, and Yang Kai had not checked it too carefully. Secondly, there was just too much Space Spirit Crystal.
This rare ore was the primary material used to create Space Rings, and one of its functions was blocking Divine Sense. If this wasn’t the case, anyone would be able to see what was inside someone else’s Space Ring with their Divine Sense.
The huge amount of Space Spirit Crystals here actually isolating this mine from Yang Kai’s Divine Sense, a near-perfect camouflage.
Something Yang Kai’s extremely powerful Divine Sense couldn’t detect was obviously indetectable to the Hai Ke Family. It was actually quite ridiculous that the owners of this land were completely unaware that they were sitting on such a massive treasure trove and just because Wu Yi was a woman, they had assigned this ‘barren mountain’ to her.
However, if it weren’t for the Stone Puppet’s innate sensitivity to rare ores, this treasure might have gone undetected forever.
Yang Kai hadn’t had any significant dealings with the Hai Ke Family, but because of his relationship with Wu Yi, he didn’t have a very good impression of them.
This mountain had been given to Yang Kai by Wu Yi for him to live on. Now that he had unearthed such an enormous amount of wealth here, Yang Kai naturally wanted to do something to thank her.
Unfortunately, Wu Yi’s strength was too low and she didn’t have the qualifications to occupy such a mineral lode, if he were to hand it over to her, it would only bring disaster to her and her Hai Ke Family.
As such, Yang Kai made up his mind to look for opportunities in the future to compensate her instead.
“Yang Kai, we’re rich!” Yang Yan shouted, having returned to his side at some unknown point, standing cleverly in front of him as her eyes twinkled somewhat madly.
Yang Kai shook his head, “I’m rich.”
Yang Yan puckered her lips and tugged Yang Kai’s arm, saying coquettishly, “Don’t treat me like such an outsider, with so many Space Spirit Crystals here, can’t you assign me a little?”
“What use do you have for them? All these things are good for is making Space Rings, and if too many Space Rings suddenly flow from your hands into the market, any fool will realize you’ve found a rich deposit of Space Spirit Crystals. That will only cause trouble for us.”
“I don’t want to make Space Rings, what I want these Space Spirit Crystals for is to research Spirit Arrays. I never had sufficient materials before, but with all this here, it will be more than enough. Give me a part of them and I assure you that the Spirit Array I create will be extremely fierce.”
“What kind of Spirit Array are you trying to research?” Yang Kai was startled as he thought of a possibility.
“Have you heard of Space Arrays?” Yang Yan didn’t hide her intentions, stating proudly, “They’re profound Spirit Arrays that can be used to instantly move great distances across a Cultivation Star. En, from the looks of it, you’ve probably never heard of these things before, but you’ll understand in time how important they are as my research progresses.”
“You understand how to arrange Space Arrays?” Yang Kai’s eyes lit up, staring at Yang Yan with some disbelief, “How could you know that? Weren’t such methods lost to history?”
Last time, on Water Moon Star, Yang Kai had used the Space Array under Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce’s jurisdiction together with a Monster Race master named Xue Tong. At the time, Xue Tong had said that all the current Space Arrays were just leftover from ancient times and that currently, no one understood how to build one from scratch.
Gui Zu, with his astonishing strength and decent understanding of the Dao of Space, spent nearly a thousand years researching Space Arrays on the floating continent, but in the end he was only able to create a defective product that aside from killing people, really had no other use.
So Yang Yan saying she understood how to arrange Space Arrays greatly surprised Yang Kai.
He had never asked Yang Yan one very important question, why she was already an Original Grade Artifact Refiner despite being so young. Yang Kai himself was a Saint King Grade Alchemist, but Yang Yan was even younger than himself. At such an age, even if her aptitude was shocking, it should be impossible to reach such a level with just her own efforts.
Now that he knew she understood Space Arrays as well, Yang Kai became even more shocked.
Yang Yan muttered a few words but seemingly wasn’t willing to answer clearly.
“Forget it, there’s no need to explain,” Yang Kai didn’t force her. Who doesn’t have their own secrets? Secrets cannot be shared with others and Yang Kai didn’t have a habit of prying into other’s lives.
“Then… won’t give me some?” Yang Yan expression became pained, as if she was afraid Yang Kai was refusing her request, quickly adding, “I can tell you this, if my research into Space Arrays goes well, we’ll not only be able to teleport around Shadowed Star, there’s a chance we can reach other Cultivation Stars as well.”
“What?” This time Yang Kai was really shocked.
“You don’t want to be trapped on the Shadowed Star all your life, right?” Yang Yan was observing carefully and quickly struck while the iron was hot, “There are many wonderful things in the outside world we haven’t seen before, I’ve heard that there are Origin Kings and Origin King Grade materials out among the Star Field. With those materials, I can refine Origin King Grade artefacts! Once I help you refine such an artefact, even if you just stand there and let your enemies hit you, you won’t be injured!”
This little girl might be a bit simple-minded, but she knew how to negotiate!
However, this proposal was undeniably attractive to Yang Kai.
His heart wasn’t moved because of Yang Yan’s claims about artefacts, but rather because of his friends and family back on Tong Xuan Realm!
If Yang Yan could really create a Space Array capable of connecting different Cultivation Stars, after he established himself in the Star Field, he could bring all his family and friends out into this wider world and allow them to enjoy all its splendours.
Despite the great excitement filling his heart at the prospect of being able to return home, Yang Kai didn’t show anything on his face and just asked lightly, “If you successfully complete your Space Array, how far will it be able to transport someone?”
Yang Yan laughed confidently, “Space Arrays themselves are designed to surmount the concept of distance, so as long as the origin and destination can be accurately localized, how far apart they are is irrelevant.”
“So there’d be no distance limit?” Yang Kai’s eyes brightened.
Yang Yan hesitated a moment before saying solemnly, “This is the case in theory, but implementing it will require careful study… Will you give me some?”
“Take what you like!” Yang Kai laughed, waving his hand boldly. In any case, there were so many Space Spirit Crystals here that he couldn’t possibly use them up. When the time came, his only request would be for Yang Yan to refine a Space Ring for all of his friends and family members.
“Thank you! You’re such a good person!” Yang Yan shouted gleefully, wishing she could rush up and kiss Yang Kai but setting that aside to immediately begin mining. Although she couldn’t collect Space Spirit Crystal at nearly as fast as the Stone Puppet, only things that were in her Space Ring could truly be considered hers.
Yang Yan understood this truth better than anyone.
Yang Kai didn’t mind Yang Yan’s behaviour, but after his initial surprise and excitement, his mood slowly calmed down, focusing his attention on the Stone Puppet gnawing at the Space Spirit Crystal lode, seeing the impurities ooze from its body and flake off in a seemingly never-ending cycle.
After so many years cultivating it, feeding it so many precious ores, Yang Kai was finally seeing a return on his investment, and this return was nothing short of astonishing as the first mineral lode the Stone Puppet discovered was actually a Space Spirit Crystal lode!
According to Yang Yan, the Stone Race was inherently sensitive to rare ore, as long as he had it by his side, Yang Kai would be able to find rare ores that others couldn’t.
Unfortunately, he only had one Blood Essence Stone, if there was one more, the other Stone Puppet should have been able to hatch as well.
With a cracking sound, the fragrant sweat covered Yang Yan quickly mined out the immense wealth in front of her while the Stone Puppet also continued chewing its way through the lode. In contrast, Yang Kai appeared somewhat idle.
Half a day later, Yang Yan ran back over to Yang Kai while panting heavily, taking out a piece of Saint Crystal to restore herself. Looking at her anxious appearance, it seemed she wasn’t done mining yet.
“It’s a pity,” Yang Yan suddenly said.
“What’s a pity?” Yang Kai asked in confusion.
“People only know that Space Spirit Crystals are used to manufacture Space Rings and arrange Space Arrays when in fact it has another use.”
“Oh? What is this other use that people don’t know about?” Yang Kai laughed. Although he hadn’t been together with Yang Yan for long, this little girl was always able to amaze him. This had nothing to do with her beautiful appearance or stunning figure, but rather her profound skill and knowledge. By now, Yang Kai had learned to not underestimate her.
“It can also be used to cultivate,” Yang Yan shook his head. “You didn’t know? That’s not surprising though, many people don’t know, en, in fact, only a select few should know.”
“Space Spirit Crystals can be used to cultivate?” Yang Kai was startled, “You’re saying that one can refine them just like Saint Crystals?”
“En, but we can’t, only some special people can, namely cultivators who have comprehended the Dao of Space. For such people, refining Space Spirit Crystals can deepen their understanding,” Yang Yan said casually, not taking notice of the weird expression creeping onto Yang Kai’s face. “The Dao of Space is a very esoteric field that is not only difficult to enter but even more difficult to master. All Space Arrays in existence right now are relics from ancient times that were arranged by cultivators who were proficient in the Dao of Space. En, the method to manufacture Space Rings also stemmed from their hands and was simply picked up by others along the way. I can confidently say that throughout the entire Star Field, cultivators proficient in the Dao of Space won’t exceed twenty, and of those twenty, only a few can actually use it to fight against their enemies… hey, what are you doing?”
Just as Yang Yan turned her head to the side, she discovered that Yang Kai was holding a piece of Space Spirit Crystal the Stone Puppet had refined in his hand and couldn’t stop herself from laughing, “You’re not thinking of trying to absorb the power inside that Space Spirit Crystal, right? Listen, if you don’t understand the Dao of Space, there’s no way for you to absorb. Only by understanding Space Manifestation is that possible. Do you know why so many people who have managed to gain some understanding of the Dao of Space have such poor achievements in it? It’s because they don’t know Space Spirit Crystals can be used for cultivation. On top of that, because the amount of Space Spirit Crystal is too small, even if they did realize this truth, they’d never be able to find enough to properly cultivate. This kind of cultivation is more wasteful than directly burning money, most people couldn’t afford to do it even if they learned about it.”
After giving this lecture though, Yang Yan’s jaw went slack and her eyes widened as she stared at the Space Spirit Crystal in Yang Kai’s hand.
She noticed that an obscure type of energy was flowing out from the Space Spirit Crystal and was being absorbed into Yang Kai’s hand.
At first, she thought she was imagining things and immediately rubbed her eyes before paying even closer attention.
To her shock though, there was indeed energy flowing out of the Space Spirit Crystal, like a trickling stream that was seeping into Yang Kai. It wasn’t an illusion!
“You…” Yang Yan was thoroughly shocked.
“It’s true?” Yang Kai was pleasantly surprised.
In order to study the Dao of Space, Yang Kai had always had to resort to submerging himself into The Void, but cultivating in that chaotic environment was not only extremely dangerous, it was also quite slow. Since escaping from the floating continent, Yang Kai hadn’t even done this once because he found that his comprehension of the Dao of Space had arrived at a kind of bottleneck, so there was no point in doing so.
After listening to Yang Yan’s words just now though, Yang Kai couldn’t help putting them to the test and was overjoyed that the effect was surprisingly good.
Space Spirit Crystals could really be used for cultivation and doing so would enhance his understanding of the Dao of Space.
“Do you understand the Dao of Space?” Yang Yan called out in shock.
“Yes, I’m one of those twenty people you mentioned,” Yang Kai laughed.
“Heavens, just what kind of monster are you?” Yang Yan’s beautiful face paled, never having expected she could meet such a freak. Yang Kai being proficient in the Dao of Space was even more shocking than her being an Origin Grade Artifact Refiners.
“We’ve just met, so it’s natural we have our secrets,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, “Good, I’m going to cultivate for a while, you can mine the Space Spirit Crystals here at will, whatever you mine is yours, en if you need help refining them, just ask the Stone Puppet.”
Saying so, Yang Kai no longer paid any attention to Yang Yan and focused all of his attention on refining the Space Spirit Crystal in his hand.
Yang Yan was dumbfounded for a while before eventually shaking her head.
The more she interacted with this man, the less she understood him.
However, Yang Kai not shutting her out and even exposing some of his secrets to her let Yang Yan feel relieved and soon, she too didn’t bother with him and instead joined the Stone Puppet to mine the mineral lode.
The energy contained within Space Spirit Crystals was similar to that in Saint Crystals, but just as Yang Yan had said, not everyone could absorb it. Even Yang Kai couldn’t refine this energy without using his own Space Force. As soon as he did apply his own Space Force though, Yang Kai was able to feel a wonderful energy flow out from the Space Spirit Crystal and into his body.
This kind of power wasn’t the same as Saint Qi, and it did not provide any kind of physical enhancement, but as he absorbed more of it, Yang Kai could clearly feel his comprehension of the Dao of Space becoming more profound.
In the past, when Yang Kai was feeling the chaotic flow of space in The Void, it was as if he was sailing in a great storm, making it very difficult for him to comprehend anything. It often took him a lot of time and energy just to grasp a few indistinct clues.
But now it is different. Yang Kai had never experienced such a feeling before, it was as if a door to all the mysteries of the Dao of Space was opened before him, allowing him to step through and spy on all these secrets.
Yang Kai had never known that cultivating the Dao of Space could be so simple and easy. As such, he soon became completely immersed in this world, cultivating without need for rest or sustenance, forgetting everything around him.
But soon, Yang Kai discovered a problem.
It was just as Yang Yan had said before, such cultivation was nothing short of family ruining.
This kind of cultivation consumed Space Spirit Crystal even faster than Saint Crystal. It would take about two hours for Yang Kai to completely refine the energy contained in a piece of High-Rank Saint Crystal.
On the other hand, a fist-sized piece of Space Spirit Crystal that had been perfectly quenched by the Stone Puppet would disappear from his hand in less than an hour.
In one day, he could consume more than a dozen fist-sized pieces of refined Space Spirit Crystal, which would equate to several hundred thousand pieces of High-Rank Saint Crystal!
Who could possibly bear such an outrageous price? Even a behemoth such as Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce may not be able to withstand such consumption. If one cultivated like this, no matter how wealthy they were, it wouldn’t be long before they went bankrupt.
Fortunately, the Stone Puppet had found such a large Space Spirit Crystal lode, and fortunately, Wu Yi had given this mountain to him, causing Yang Kai to be even more grateful than before.
In a flash, ten days passed, and Yang Kai had consumed almost two hundred Space Spirit Crystals, halving the amount the Stone Puppet had originally brought back.
Fortunately, over the past ten days, the Stone Puppet had been continuously mining, and now the underground cave had become several times larger than before.
Feeling the summon of Yang Kai, the Stone Puppet trotted over and spat out several hundred refined pieces of Space Spirit Crystal in front of Yang Kai.
Yang Yan couldn’t bear to watch this, feeling like Yang Kai was an evil slave master who was forcing the poor Stone Puppet to toil away in this mine while he sat back and reaped all the profits.
Stuffing the hundreds of pieces of Space Spirit Crystal into his Demon Mystic Tome, Yang Kai started cultivating again. He felt that his comprehension of the Dao of Space was on the verge of taking a great leap forward, and although he hadn’t done any experiments yet, Yang Kai estimated that if he were to tear space now, he would be able to travel far further than his previous thousand-kilometer limit.
One day, after another piece of Space Spirit Crystal, disappeared from Yang Kai’s hand, he slowly opened his eyes and saw Yang Yan staring at him with a pained look on her face. She was sitting quietly in front of him, her body covered in dirt and grime, resting her cheeks on her hands as if somewhat lost in thought.
“Why aren’t you still mining?” Yang Kai asked.
Yang Yan spat disdainfully, “I found that me going through the process of mining was pointless, letting Xiao Xiao collect the Space Spirit Crystal here, then asking him for some is far more efficient.”
“Xiao Xiao?” Yang Kai frowned.
Yang Yan pointed to Stone Puppet, who was still working hard to excavate the surrounding Space Spirit Crystal, allowing Yang Kai to understand she had given this little fellow a name without his permission.
Smiling, Yang Kai quipped, “Finally realized?”
“You just sit back and enjoy the fruits of others labour with such confidence, so why should I be one of those labourers?” Yang Yan stood up and patted her clothes, “Let’s go up, we’ll leave the Space Spirit Crystals here to Xiao Xiao, I still need to do some Artifact Refining.”
Yang Kai thought about it for a moment before nodding, “Yeah.”
The pair soon emerged from the hidden tunnel and Yang Yan quickly pulled on Yang Kai’s sleeve, “Wait a moment, I’ll arrange a Spirit Array to conceal this place.”
“Alright.”
Yang Yan was not only proficient in Artifact Refining, but also in arranging Spirit Arrays, far more so than Yang Kai in any case. Taking out several materials from her Space Ring, Yang Yan used her strength to refine them into a few strange looking items before setting them down in a specific configuration around the entrance to the hole.
After Yang Yan finished the arrangement, the hole suddenly disappeared, becoming invisible not just to the naked eye, but also to Divine Sense.
Yang Yan clapped her hands with satisfaction, “Remember this position and just jump into the hole next time.”
Yang Kai was also quite satisfied with her arrangements. Although he may not come here in person again, preventing others from accidentally discovering this place was still of vital importance. Once news got out that there was a mountain of Space Spirit Crystals here, all of Shadowed Star would likely be thrown into a frenzy.
Since ancient times, people were moved by profits, there wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t be interested in a deposit of precious Space Spirit Crystal.
The two flew off towards the location of the cave, but before they even arrived, Yang Kai’s brow furrowed slightly as he discovered that Yu Feng was waiting for them and seemed to have a look of anxiety on his face. At this moment, Yu Feng was pacing back and forth in front of the cave, as if he was looking for him.
Yang Kai couldn’t help picking up his pace and soon arrived in front of Yu Feng, calling out, “Brother Yu!”
“Yang Kai!” Yu Feng, who had been flying about like a headless fly, unable to find a trace of Yang Kai, was immediately overjoyed when he heard the latter’s shout, and quickly answered back, “Where did you go? I’ve been scouring all of Dragon Cave Mountain for some time now. I thought you might have left.”
Yang Kai just laughed lightly, “I went out with Yang Yan to take a walk. If I was going to leave, I would have said something to Wu Yi in advance, I wouldn’t just take off without saying goodbye.”
Yu Feng however shook his head and interrupted him with a solemn tone, “You really should leave now.”
Yang Kai frowned, “What do you mean? Did something happen?”
He knew that Wu Yi wouldn’t drive him away from this place, she had big dreams and because of those dreams she had tried her best to make him remain, even gifting him Dragon Cave Mountain as a place to temporarily stay. These days Wu Yi had also come to visit him several times, she wouldn’t do anything to harm him.
But since Yu Feng was here, he must have been entrusted by Wu Yi to deliver some kind of message. If there wasn’t some big accident, Wu Yi wouldn’t have acted this way.
Yang Kai immediately remembered that he had killed several people before. Whatever was happening was likely related to that Xu Tian Ze. Chopping the grass but failing to remove the roots really had consequences!
Yu Feng quickly urged, “I don’t have time to explain much, if you have anything to pack up, do it quick, I’ll tell you what I can once we’re on the road.
“What’s the matter? I’d like to take a bath right now,” Yang Yan’s pretty face was covered in dirt after spending so long in the underground mine.
“Lady Yang Yan, please bear with it, wait until you arrive at a safe place then you can wash yourself… what are you gawking for? If you don’t have anything to pack, we need to go, now,” Yu Feng saw both of them standing around indifferently and couldn’t help scolding.
Yang Kai suddenly let out a big laugh, “Brother Yu, please calm down. Tell me, what happened?”
Yu Feng stomped angrily, wishing he could knock Yang Kai out to avoid him speaking any more nonsense, “I told you I didn’t have time to explain, I’ve been looking for you here for a long time so I’ve already used up all the time Young Lady could delay the family for. If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late!”
“Well, it’s probably already too late,” Yang Kai expression changed slightly, glancing over towards the distance where a large group of people could be seen flying towards, the blue hues indicative of Star Shuttles impossible to miss.
Yu Feng’s expression became gloomy as a sigh escaped from his lips, realizing that his Young Lady’s efforts had been in vain. Before this group of newcomers could arrive, he quickly asked, “Brother Yang, did you beat the Xu Family’s young Master recently?”
“En.” Yang Kai hadn’t just beat their Young Master, but also killed a number of their people, so why hadn’t Yu Feng mentioned that part?
Yu Feng smiled bitterly and pointed to the distance, “The Xu Family is here for you.”
“How is the Xu Family compared to your Hai Ke Family?” Yang Kai asked.
“About even, we’re both peripheral forces of Shadow Moon Hall; however, our family does quite a bit of business with their Xu Family, so our relationship is quite good. Yang Kai, you’re not a member of our Hai Ke Family, so the family Elders won’t protect you, and the Young Lady can’t protect you. You shouldn’t have acted so reckless,” Yu Feng sighed again.
Although he was chastising Yang Kai, he didn’t make any attempt to draw a line between them and Yang Kai immediately, even going so far as to step in front of Yang Kai and Yang Yan to block the Xu Family from approaching them.
This move made Yang Kai’s opinion of Yu Feng rise sharply. Stepping forward, Yang Kai patted him on the shoulder and comforted, “Brother Yu, don’t worry. They can’t cause me any trouble, and if they try, I don’t mind making sure they remain here forever!”
Yu Feng turned back to look at Yang Kai with some surprise, immediately not knowing whether to laugh or cry, shaking his head and sighing, “Young men, haa…”
He obviously thought that Yang Kai was just spouting crazy words. Although the Xu Family, like the Hai Ke Family, was just a peripheral force of Shadow Moon Hall, it was still a family. Even without an Origin Returning Realm master, they had several Saint Kings. How could Yang Kai, a mere Third Order Saint, even hope to compete against such a force?
Moreover, the Hai Ke Family had no intention to shelter Yang Kai at all. In fact, not only were they not going to shelter him, to preserve the trade relationship with the Xu Family, the Hai Ke Family Elders had forced the Wu Yi to disclose Yang Kai’s whereabouts so the Xu Family could punish him.
If it weren’t for the Young Lady delaying them, Yu Feng wouldn’t have even been able to come here in advance, but now it seemed he had fallen a bit short. Suddenly feeling like he had failed the Young Lady’s expectations, Yu Feng was wracked with guilt.
“Hmph, a young man who can only boast wildly. This old master would like to see just how you make us remain here forever!” A cold snorted rang out as a thin old man fell from the sky and looked towards Yang Kai gloomily.
The words Yang Kai had just spoken weren’t done so quietly, so naturally this old man had heard them.
As this old man’s voice fell, one figure after another landed behind him, numbering twenty in total. Among these twenty people there were young and old, men and women. Their cultivations varied, but the strongest was a Third Order Saint King!
Next to the old man who spoke, a bald middle-aged man stared at Yang Kai with nervous expression, some sweat leaking from his forehead and his complexion pale.
Yang Kai remembered him as he was the bald middle-aged man who had been guarding Xu Tian Ze last time. If it weren’t for this man’s legs being a bit quick, Yang Kai would have been able to eliminate all the witnesses from the previous incident.
Wu Yi also flew over quickly, and after landing, sent an angrily look towards Yang Kai, seemingly blaming him for not leaving in time. She also shot a glare towards Yu Feng, the meaning behind it was obvious to all. Yu Feng lowered his head awkwardly, not daring to meet her eyes.
“Good good good, not trying to flee, very good!” That old Third Order Saint King nodded repeatedly, a malicious look covering his face as he asked coldly, “Chou Yuan, the one who hurt the Young Master last time was him?”
After listening to the old man’s question, the bald middle-aged man standing next to him nodded quickly, “Yes, Elder Zhi Shen, he was the one who injured the Young Master.”
Yang Kai frowned as he stared at the bald middle-aged man named Chou Yuan with surprise.
Last time, Yang Kai had not just injured Xu Tian Ze, but also killed three First Order Saint Kings, but right now it seemed the Xu Family had no idea about this.
Chou Yuan didn’t report everything that happened at that time! Yang Kai instantly understood. Chou Yuan was a Second Order Saint King, and there were three First Order Saint Kings with him, yet he wasn’t even able to protect his Young Master, a severe offence. He probably didn’t dare to report the truth, lest he encounter even more trouble and suffer greater punishment!
Since this matter hadn’t come to light, it meant that Xu Tian Ze either helped conceal it for Chou Yuan, or he had suffered damage to his Soul and wasn’t able to report it. At that time, Yang Kai had hurriedly sent out a Divine Sense attack with enough power to accomplish this.
It was very likely the latter scenario because Xu Tian Ze was the Xu Family’s Young Master and had no need to help Chou Yuan conceal anything.
“Since it’s him, it’s easy to handle. Chou Yuan, I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself! Go cut off this brat’s limbs, I must take him back and stuff him into a medicinal liquid jar so I can torture him until he begs for death!” Xu Zhi Shen yelled furiously, glaring towards Yang Kai with utter outrage.
Many people in the surrounding couldn’t help shivering.
Cutting off ones limbs and soaking them in a vat of medicine meant Yang Kai wouldn’t die for at least half a year. It was very likely that during the next half a year he would suffer the world’s most brutal torture, a fate worse than death.
However, Yang Kai simply stared towards Chou Yuan without the slightest hint of panic.
To everyone’s surprise, Chou Yuan didn’t rush out immediately, but instead wore a grim expression. Although his mouth responded, his feet seemed to be filled with lead, and he didn’t move for quite some time. The look on his face was one of pure terror and beads of sweat continuously rolled down his face and fell to the ground.
Everyone present could see that something was wrong. Chou Yuan seemed to be shaking, but none of them knew whys.
Pain and suffering were filling Chou Yuan’s heart right now. He knew better than anyone else how horrifying the power of this young man was. If someone had told him before that a Saint Realm cultivator could kill three Saint Kings as easily as waving his hand, he would surely have written them off as an idiot, the gap between cultivation realms was absolute, even if someone was capable of fighting above their realm, achieve something of that level was simply impossible.
But Chou Yuan had seen it with his own eyes, the young man in front of them right now had really killed three Saint Kings as easily as if they were ants. At that time, if he hadn’t decisively run away and this youth wasn’t pinned down by that woman, he definitely would not have survived.
The last burst of Spiritual Energy however was what made Chou Yuan truly realize how outrageous Yang Kai was, that kind of power was simply beyond his ability to cope with. Although both he and the Young Master had managed to survive, the latter had degenerated into a vegetable, all day long his eyes unfocused and drool leaking from his lips. Chou Yuan had also suffered severe damage and even now his Soul had yet to recover. His Second Order Saint King cultivation had even regressed as a result.