Chen Shi Tao brought good news. The Origin Returning Realm Senior who Chen Fan Lei knew had returned from his mission and when Chen Fan Lei went to ask him this morning about using the Space Array, the other party had readily agreed. Now that Black Crow City’s Space Array was open to them, Yang Kai could travel to Heavenly Fate City at any time.
Moreover, all the expenses accrued by Yang Kai and his group to use the Space Array were paid for by Chen Fan Lei.
Yang Kai was not surprised by this; after all, the Chen Family brother and sister both had a deep sense of gratitude towards him, so a few trivial Saint Crystals were nothing to them. Yang Kai kindly accepted their generosity before he, Yang Yan, and Qian Yue followed Chen Shi Tao to the Black Crow City Space Array.
The Space Array of any city had many layers of protection around it and was overseen by numerous experts, Black Crow City was naturally no exception.
Upon entering the hall where the Space Array was located, Yang Kai immediately noticed that there were at least four Origin Returning Realm masters concealing themselves nearby. Beside the Space Array, a middle-aged man dressed in scholarly robes stood waiting, who, upon seeing Chen Fan Lei, smiled and nodded lightly. Apparently, the relationship between these two was quite good.
Yang Kai immediately understood that this middle-aged scholar was the Senior Chen Shi Tao had mentioned.
Leading Yang Kai and his group over, Chen Fan Lei greeted the middle-aged man before hurriedly saying with a smile, “Brother Yang, it seems everything has been prepared.”
“Thank you for your hard work, Brother Chen!” Yang Kai cupped his fists politely before walking over to the Space Array with him.
Chen Fan Lei pointed to the middle-aged man and introduced him, “This is Senior Jiang Wen Jie. Being able to use the Space Array so easily this time is all thanks to Senior Jiang’s assistance.”
“Many thanks, Senior Jiang.” Yang Kai gently nodded to the middle-aged man.
The other party looked Yang Kai up and down and smiled slightly, “Sure enough, a heroic young man. Nephew Yang looks quite young but like Nephew Chen, is already a Second-Order Saint King. It seems a promising future awaits you.”
Jiang Wen Jie only said this out of consideration for Chen Fan Lei’s face. Yang Kai didn’t have a deep relationship with this Senior, but receiving such praise, he still acted humble.
Immediately, Jiang Wen Jie ordered people to open the Space Array, and after Yang Kai said goodbye to the Chen sister and brother, he led Yang Yan and Qian Yue onto the platform.
In the next moment, the Space Array began to glow and Space Force fluctuations appeared. Just as the figures of Yang Kai’s group of three began to blur though, Jiang Wen Jie suddenly looked at Yang Kai and mouthed something silently.
A ray of light flashed across Yang Kai’s eyes, but it was too late for him to ask anything as a slight dizziness overcame him.
On a Space Array platform hundreds of thousands of kilometres away from Black Crow City, Yang Kai and his group appeared.
Yang Kai had cultivated Space Force, so this long-distance teleportation did not affect him greatly. He could even use this transmission to gain some small insight into the Dao of Space.
However, neither Yang Yan nor Qian Yue could ignore the side-effects of such a teleportation and felt quite dizzy after emerging from The Void. After circulating their Saint Qi a bit though, this fit of discomfort eased.
Sweeping her eyes over their surroundings, Yang Yan’s expression quickly became puzzled while Qian Yue called out in surprise, “Is this Heavenly Fate City? Why is there no one here?”
“This isn’t Heavenly Fate City!” Yang Kai said in a solemn tone, finally understanding what Jiang Wen Jie’s last minute warning to be careful meant.
Looking around, although they were indeed in a grand hall with a Space Array platform beneath their feet, everything seemed quite run down and clearly did not match with the Heavenly Fate City hall in their memory. This place was clearly a deserted ruin!
“Correct, this is not Heavenly Fate City!” An eerie voice suddenly called out from nearby. Qian Yue and Yang Yan were startled and simultaneously turned their heads in the direction the voice came from. There, a familiar person, wearing a look of self-satisfaction upon his face, was strolling over towards their group. However, when this man’s eyes landed on Yang Kai, a look of deep hatred and anger replaced his smug expression.
Seeing this man’s face, Yang Kai understood everything and grinning towards him said, “Brother Wang, we meet again! The world is far too small!”
Wang Yu Han laughed loudly, “I’ve been waiting for you, this is the place I specifically chose for your grave. I hope Brother Yang is satisfied.”
“En, not bad at all, this place is a good spot to make a grave, but whether it will be mine or yours is still uncertain!” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he coldly snorted and shouted, “Manager Wang, since you’ve come as well, stop hiding and come out.”
As he spoke, Yang Kai turned to look at a certain spot in these ruins.
An old man with a dark expression on his face slowly appeared from behind the crumbled walls, followed closely by several other Saint King Realm cultivators, all of them glaring at Yang Kai menacingly while occasionally shooting obscene looks towards Qian Yue.
Seeing this situation, Qian Yue’s face went pale. How could she not understand that these people had been waiting here in ambush for them? Although she did not know much about the specific course of events, she vaguely guessed that these people had somehow meddled with the Space Array they just used.
“Young kids really know how to boast, completely ignorant of how high the Heavens are!” The old man surnamed Wang coldly snorted.
Wang Yu Han laughed wildly as he glared fiercely, “Yang Kai, I bet you didn’t think things would end up like this, but it’s far too late to regret now.”
“Regret? You think far too highly of yourself,” Yang Kai shot him a look of indifference. Not seeing any of the fear he had expected, Wang Yu Han could not help feeling surprised. He thought for sure Yang Kai would break down in a panic, maybe even get down on his knees and beg for mercy, that way he could torture and humiliate him to vent his anger. How could Wang Yu Han have anticipated that even in this situation, it would not cause the slightest bit of change in Yang Kai’s demeanor?
Although Yang Kai knew that Wang Yu Han would not be willing to simply let these matters drop, he hadn’t expected to be redirected to this abandoned city via the Black Crow City Space Array.
Yang Kai had thought that with his group of three teleporting directly from Black Crow City to Heavenly Fate City, even if Wang Yu Han wanted to retaliate against him, he wouldn’t have any opportunity to do so, not that Yang Kai was afraid of him in the first place.
Yang Kai had not expected that his group would be sent here, nor did he expect that this old man surnamed Wang’s status was great enough that he could get the authorities of Black Crow City to cooperate with him. Jiang Wen Jie must have known something like this would happen so he had given Yang Kai a warning at the last moment as a way of giving face to Chen Fan Lei. As for whether Yang Kai and his group lived or died, he probably did not care; after all, there was no friendship between them.
“Wasting time here will just cause more problems later. Go!” Manager Wang saw Yang Kai acting so calmly and inexplicably felt a hint of discomfort in his heart, decisively waving his hand as he shouted, “This little brat is a bit unusual, I’ll deal with him personally, you lot take care of the two women behind him. That Yue’er still has her innocence and has cultivated Joyous Union Pavilion’s special Dual Cultivation Technique, she will be of great benefit to several of you, as for the other girl…”
“I want her!” Wang Yu Han smiled coldly.
“Good, Young Master Wang will have her!” The several Saint Kings behind Manager Wang nodded in agreement before turning their wicked gazes towards Qian Yue, causing her to feel both fearful and angry.
“Since you all court death, I’ll fulfill your wishes!” Yang Kai shouted as he pushed his Saint Qi, condensing a layer of black flame around his body, turning himself into a human fireball as a strange aura pulsed from him.
Immediately after, Yang Kai formed a black sword in his hand and, with a single swing, sent out a powerful sword wave towards the enemy.
“Daring to show off with mere paltry tricks!” The old man surnamed Wang saw Yang Kai dared to take the initiative and flew into a rage, shouting angrily as an invisible power suddenly spread out from his body.
Under the influence of this force, the sword wave which Yang Kai shot off immediately slowed down, as if it had sunk into a quagmire, even some scraping sounds could be heard as it tried to advance through this thickened space.
Although Manager Wang was just a First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivator, he had been immersed in this cultivation realm for many years and had piled up some understanding of the application of Shi. He wanted to use this opportunity to swiftly suppress Yang Kai’s arrogance.
Seeing this, Wang Yu Han and the several other Saint Kings looked overjoyed and were just about to act when suddenly, the black sword wave distorted and transformed into a number of lifelike serpents. These snakes immediately regained their full speed and rushed out towards these Saint Kings.
“Yuan Control Mastery!” The old man surnamed Wang’s eyes bulged as he shouted in surprise, immediately increasing the power he was putting into his Shi by thirty percent.
At the same time, Wang Yu Han and the others quickly assumed a defensive stance.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
With a series of explosions, the blocked black snakes burst apart and Demonic Flames splashed about. Although these flames were unable to cause any harm, they still left all of the enemy Saint Kings in quite a distressed state, many of them wearing terrified looks on their faces now.
Manager Wang had also gone pale!
Taking his status into consideration, and having received a request from Wang Yu Han, Manager Wang had not immediately taken action to kill Yang Kai and was only planning on constraining him slightly, allowing his grand nephew to obtain his revenge personally. How could Manager Wang have anticipated that this brief moment of carelessness had resulted in his grand nephew suffering such a big loss?
Yuan Control Mastery was an extremely profound ability, not something Saint King Realm cultivators were supposed to be able to use at all. Only when one reached the Origin Realm and gained comprehension of Shi would they be able to display Yuan Control Mastery.
But today, Manager Wang had witnessed a mere Second-Order Saint King break this convention; how could he not be shocked?
On top of that, the black flames this little brat used were quite unusual. When Manager Wang used his Divine Sense to investigate these black flames, he felt an aura from them that frightened him greatly and realized that being contaminated with them would lead to very bad consequences.
He did not dare underestimate Yang Kai again and quickly strengthened his Shi, suppressing Yang Kai and his group. Yang Yan and Qian Yue, who were standing behind Yang Kai, both let out a gasp as they felt invisible shackles lock them in place, making it impossible for them to move or even circulate their Saint Qi.
Facing the full might of an Origin Realm master, Yang Kai was naturally affected and his body froze in place. At the same time, a barrage of attacks was rapidly approaching as Wang Yu Han and the other Saint Kings had taken advantage of this opening to act. These Martial Skills and artifact attacks each contained frightening power and seemed intent on killing Yang Kai on the spot.
As long as Yang Kai died, the two women behind him would pose no threat.
With this wave of attacks closing in, Yang Kai’s thoughts made the Purple Shield appear in his hand. The shield’s two attributes burst out and, in a flash, a small sandstorm formed around Yang Kai’s trio, completely shielding their bodies!
A loud noise rang out as the wave of attacks impacted the sandstorm, but none of them were able to penetrate its defences and they were all quickly swallowed up and disappeared.
Seeing this, Wang Yu Han’s expression went cold. In Grand Burial Valley, he had seen Yang Kai use this Origin Grade High-Rank shield artifact and realized how extraordinary it was, but now that he had personally attacked it, he further understood how outstanding its defensive capabilities were.
With such a defensive artifact, as long as the cultivator wielding it didn’t run out of Saint Qi, it would be impossible for the few Saint Kings here to break through its defences. It could be said that wrapped in this sandstorm, Yang Kai and his companions were invincible.
“Excellent!” The old man surnamed Wang’s eyes flashed as a look of greed filled his face, excitedly declaring, “This old master wants that artifact!”
As he spoke, he condensed a huge palm from his Saint Qi and stretched out his hand to grab towards the spot where Yang Kai stood, its five fingers appearing as imposing as mountains, like it could grasp the entire world.
At the same time, an almost imperceptible golden light suddenly flew out from the sandstorm and quickly transformed into several golden threads that began cutting through the air.
The huge Saint Qi palm condensed by Manager Wang lasted less than a breath before it was chopped to pieces by these Golden Threads, disappearing along with them in the next instant.
Before Wang Yu Han and the Saint Kings beside him could react though, these Golden Threads reappeared in front of them and wove together to form a massive net that threatened to engulf them.
“Be careful!” The old man surnamed Wang hurriedly warned as he concentrated his Shi towards these golden threads.
But to his horror, these golden threads seemed completely unaffected by his Shi and instead began cutting it apart before it could completely condense.
“Impossible!” Manager Wang’s expression changed dramatically, suddenly seeming to remember something in the next moment and called out in horror, “Demon Blood Thread! This is the Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique of Demon Blood Temple! You’re from Demon Blood Temple?!”
He finally remembered the origin of this golden thread, but according to what he knew, the Demon Blood Thread was not golden, instead it should have been blood red.
The Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique was famous across all Shadowed Star as it was one of the few techniques that could cut through Shi.
“Whether I’m from Demon Blood Temple or not doesn’t matter!” Yang Kai’s figure hidden in the sandstorm called out indifferently. Flicking his finger, which was connected to his Golden Thread, he swiftly captured the several enemy Saint King Realm cultivators together with Wang Yu Han.
At the same time, Yang Kai sent out a faint signal with his Divine Sense, seemingly issuing a vague command.
Wang Yu Han and the others were all at least Second-Order Saint Kings and their strengths were certainly not weak, but seeing the look of panic on Manager Wang’s face, they knew that this Golden Thread was extremely dangerous so each of them immediately put all their strength into defending themselves, with two of them even using secret techniques in order to avoid getting caught.
But to their shock, before they could fully act, a sudden and sharp pain radiated from their Knowledge Seas, disrupting their concentration and movements for a moment and causing them to fail in fully condensing their Saint Qi or activating their artifacts. The result was them only being able to watch as the Golden Thread net enveloped them.
A loud slicing sound rang out as the Golden Threads flickered back and forth before they were swiftly retrieved by Yang Kai.
However, the several Saint King Realm cultivators, Wang Yu Han included, stood motionless, their eyes filled with terror, as if they had just witnessed something impossible.
“Yu Han!” The old man surnamed Wang cried out in alarm.
“Seventh Grandfa…” Wang Yu Han opened his mouth to respond, a look of desperation on his face, but before he could finish his sentence, his body was suddenly torn apart and turned into a pile of minced meat and fresh blood.
The other Saint Kings shared the same fate as Wang Yu Han, all of them shattering like broken mirrors, their wounds all extremely clean and smooth, as if they had been cut by an incredibly sharp weapon.
With just one blow, every Saint King Realm cultivator here had fallen.
The scene was terrifying, and a rich bloody smell quickly filled the air.
The old man surnamed Wang stood in place, staring at the spot where Wang Yu Han had been killed, his eyes flashing with rage as he saw the neatly severed limbs and shredded flesh.
He simply could not accept this scene.
The opponent was just a Second-Order Saint King, so how was he able to kill so many cultivations at or above his realm in an instant? This made Manager Wang wonder if he was seeing some kind of illusion as he simply couldn’t believe his eyes. After staring for a while at this though, he grit his teeth and turned his gaze towards Yang Kai, “Boy, you dare kill my grand nephew! Speak, what kind of dirty trick did you use?!”
“Dirty trick?” Yang Kai sneered as he waved his hand to disperse the sandstorm shielding him, revealing himself again. Shooting a disdainful glance over at the old man, he said lightly, “When you die, you’ll understand.”
“Ignorant child, you think you can kill this old master?!” The old man surnamed Wang roared angrily, his Saint Qi bursting out as a thick murderous intent condensed around him. Obviously, Wang Yu Han’s death had thoroughly enraged him.
As soon as he spoke these words, a yellow bell appeared in Manager Wang’s hand. This yellow bell was small enough to fit in one’s palm and looked quite unremarkable, but when Yang Kai saw it his eyes shrank, and he didn’t dare underestimate it.
The other party was a genuine First-Order Origin Realm master, but in order to deal with him, a Second-Order Saint King, he had actually summoned such a powerful artifact. Although part of the reason for Manager Wang doing this was rage, it was also clear that he realized he had to go all out.
Just as Yang Kai raised his guard against this strange yellow bell, Manager Wang flicked his wrist and the bell rang, its sound penetrating directly into Yang Kai’s ears. Yang Kai felt his heart beat violently and the speed of the blood flowing through his veins rapidly sped up.
“This old master has never used this Soul Burying Bell against a Saint King before, so you should feel honoured to die by it!” Manager Wang grit his teeth and shook his hand gently, continuing to ring the yellow bell.
Every time the bell’s sound rang in Yang Kai’s ear, his heartbeat accelerated. This ringing was quite strange and irregular, and after the second ring Yang Kai could already feel a sharp pain in his chest, as if his heart was about to burst.
Yang Kai’s complexion changed as he immediately realized that no Origin Returning Realm master should be underestimated. This old man surnamed Wang was not young, and although age did not have much relation to cultivation, over a long life one would naturally gain more and better methods of killing their opponents.
Urging his Saint Qi, Yang Kai forcibly suppressed the pain in his heart while simultaneously summoning his Hundred Mountains Picture. In the next instant, sending a phantom peak smashing towards Manager Wang’s head.
A rumbling sound rang out, but the old man surnamed Wang completely disregarded this phantom peak, not even trying to dodge it as it approached. Opening his mouth, Manager Wang spat out a black flag that quickly flew up and expanded to over a dozen metres in length and formed a cover above his head. When the illusionary mountain smashed down, a multitude of eerie shadow-like figures rushed out of the black flag and intercepted it, preventing the mountain from reaching its target.
“Boy, use whatever means you have at your disposal! Today, this old master will let you die convinced!” The old man surnamed Wang clamoured wildly as he glared hatefully towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai sneered repeatedly, “Old dog, haven’t you made a mistake? It’s not just me fighting you!”
“You want to count on those two little girls…” Manager Wang glanced over at Qian Yue and Yang Yan disdainfully, but before he could finish speaking, his face changed dramatically as he saw Yang Yan actually take out an exquisite looking miniature pagoda and toss it up into the sky, allowing it to gently float mid-air.
This pagoda had seven levels to it and each one exuded a different colour. Each of the seven layers of the pagoda began rotating as it floated, each one revolving at a different speed, creating a strange resonant melody that resounded through the air.
This melody was extremely beautiful and sounded as if many different instruments were playing together, creating a harmonious ensemble. This mixed rhythm spread out a mysterious force that dispelled the pain in Yang Kai’s chest and even covered the dissonant sound of the Soul Burying Bell.
“A sound artifact!” Manager Wang stared at this scene in disbelief, his eyes twitching unconsciously.
His Shi had been broken by Yang Kai’s Golden Blood Thread, and the power of his Soul Burying Bell had been neutralized by this seven-layered pagoda, making Manager Wang suddenly feel as if his enemy had been specially put together to restrain him, causing his anger to erupt as well as a tinge of worry to sprout in his heart.
Yang Kai quickly charged, the Demonic Flame sword in his hands cleaving down as he laughed carefreely, “Old dog, just because Wang Yu Han thought of me as his love rival, you actually want to put me to death! Your care as an Elder is truly awe-inspiring! Since you have come to threaten me, don’t dream of leaving!”
“Too arrogant!” The old man surnamed Wang did not put this sword strike in his eyes at all, pushing his Saint Qi as he thrust his palm out to intercept it.
In the next moment though, Manager Wang suddenly felt a sharp pain in his Knowledge Sea, as if something was tearing at it, causing his face to pale and a sense of panic to spread through his heart.
But before he could investigate the situation inside his Knowledge Sea, another blade-like attack sliced towards his head, and he was forced to once again stretch out his palm to intercept it.
The accident in his Knowledge Sea drew so much of his attention that he did not bother investigating this incoming attack, but when Manager Wang’s hand contacted this black blade, he realized it was nothing like the previous sword wave.
Feeling a deep sense of crisis, the old man surnamed Wang tried to pull his hand back but was a moment too late. The black blade-like attack was like the sharpest of weapons and sliced through the palm of his hand as easily as a hot knife through butter, proceeding without any hindrance all the way to his shoulder.
Half of his arm vanished, as if it had been swallowed into the abdomen of some invisible beast, never to be seen again.
The loss of half his arm terrified Manager Wang and he hurriedly retreated several steps before turning to stare at Yang Kai with surprise and anger, clear shock apparent on his face. He was an Origin Returning Realm master, yet in a battle with a Second-Order Saint King, he had actually been seriously injured. If he told this story to anyone else, they would never have believed him.
Quickly condensing his Saint Qi at the severed section of his arm to prevent his blood from flowing out, the old man surnamed Wang took out a pill from his Space Ring and tossed it into his mouth all while keeping a watchful and somewhat fearful eye on Yang Kai. Since this boy could hurt him, he could also kill him!
Only now did Manager Wang have a moment to investigate the anomalies occurring inside his Knowledge Sea. If it wasn’t for the sharp pain in his Soul a moment ago, he would have been able to notice the strangeness of this boy’s last attack, so it was urgent to figure out what was happening to his Knowledge Sea.
After a brief investigation though, the old man surnamed Wang went pale and called out in shock, “Soul Devouring Insects? How is that possible?”
Under his investigation, he discovered that countless tiny insects had, at some point, infested his Knowledge Sea. These insects were so small they were invisible to the naked eye and at the moment they were actually lying dormant, seemingly waiting for orders before launching an attack.
The changes in his Knowledge Sea just now were obviously because these Soul Devouring Insects had begun consuming his Spiritual Energy!
Could the reason his Saint King Realm subordinates had been cut apart so easily by Yang Kai’s golden thread net have something to do with these Soul Devouring Insects as well? After understanding this point, Manager Wang felt cold sweat drip down his forehead. He had heard about Soul Devouring Insects before, but although they had quite an ominous reputation, ordinarily, he wouldn’t place them in his eyes, because with his Origin Realm strength, he should be fully capable of expelling them.
However, these Soul Devouring Insects were obviously different, some kind of mutated or evolved species. When Manager Wang tried to use his Divine Sense to drive them out, they remained completely unaffected, still burrowed deep into his Knowledge Sea, turning into a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. If he wanted to purge them completely, Manager Wang estimated it would take him at least two days of focused meditation!
Realizing this, the old man surnamed Wang suddenly began contemplating retreating.
His Shi and Soul Burying Bell were restrained and he had been seriously injured. On top of that, these Soul Devouring Insects had infested his Knowledge Sea and were just waiting for an opportunity to strike. If he didn’t withdraw now, he might never be able to, that black blade-like attack which cut through his arm frightened him terribly.
“Even able to recognize my Soul Devouring Insects, Old Dog, it seems your knowledge is quite broad! However, your luck has run out. Your Shi is useless against me, so this Young Master is truly your ultimate nemesis!” Yang Kai laughed sarcastically, waving his hand as he spoke, sending out a series of Space Blades that tore through space as they slashed forward. If someone were to probe these attacks with their Divine Sense, they would actually discover that they were composed of nothingness, as if they didn’t even really exist.
In an instant, more than a dozen pitch-black Space Blades silently shot towards the old man surnamed Wang.
Manager Wang’s eyes twitched and his complexion turned extremely ugly as he shouted, “Boy, don’t get too cocky!”
At the same time, he suddenly soared up into the sky and a mass of black mist burst from his body, covering a several dozen metre radius, this strange skill completely concealing his figure.
However, after the dozen or so Space Blades hacked through this black mist, leaving a series of wide, clear passages in their wake, The old man surnamed Wang’s voice cried out as he hurriedly tried to dodge.
“Old Dog, use whatever means you have at your disposal! Today, this Young Master will let you die convinced!” Yang Kai grinned mockingly as he began taunting his opponent, disrupting his concentration while unleashing a flurry of Space Blades towards him.
Manager Wang nearly coughed up blood when he heard Yang Kai’s words as they were exactly the ones he had spoken not long ago; however, the situation had completely reversed since then.
Feeling like he had slapped his own face, Manager Wang’s face turned a deep shade of crimson from both anger and embarrassment. At the same time, his expression filled with unwillingness, as he was forced to continue dodging Yang Kai’s Space Blades, unable to even argue back much less counterattack. When his arm had been severed by these black blade-like attacks, Manager Wang was unable to see the attribute of this attack, but now he had some speculations.
After all, the Space Force fluctuations emanating from the Space Blades was quite obvious. Manager Wang wasn’t a fool, so how could he not detect this?
The old man surnamed Wang was genuinely shocked! He never knew that on Shadowed Star someone had actually cultivated the Dao of Space to the point where they could condense a blade of Space Force and use it in combat with an enemy from a distance.
Even Elder Mo Xiao Sheng from Heaven Battling Union couldn’t do this! It was rumored that Elder Mo was proficient in the Dao of Space and many great forces would need to seek his assistance to repair their Space Arrays when they became damaged or malfunctioned, but even Elder Mo’s use of Space Force was not on the same level as that of this rampant young man.
The other party not only possessed Soul Devouring Insects capable of threatening him, he had also mastered this profound and mysterious skill! Manager Wang no longer dared underestimate Yang Kai and instead considered him an opponent of equal strength.
The stream of Space Blades seemed inexhaustible and each one fierce and unstoppable, cutting through and swallowing anything in their path as easily as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood, making dodging the only action Manager Wang could take.
“Old Dog, do you only know how to flee?” Yang Kai snorted and after releasing a few more Space Blades, a lotus flower illusion suddenly appeared in his eyes as he shouted lowly, “Blossoming Lotus!”
While desperately dodging all of the Space Blades, Manager Wang’s figure suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Even if his gaze wasn’t meeting Yang Kai’s at this moment, a lotus bud still appeared in his vision and in an instant, the entire world seemed to disappear, leaving only the radiant seven coloured bud.
In the next moment, the old man surnamed Wang felt the Spiritual Energy in his Knowledge Sea madly draining towards the strange lotus bud, a phenomenon he was completely incapable of controlling.
As the Spiritual Energy of his Knowledge Sea was consumed, the lotus bud actually began to quickly blossom.
Although he didn’t understand what mysteries this blossoming lotus bud held, the old man surnamed Wang knew that he mustn’t allow it to fully bloom, otherwise the consequences would be dire.
With a great shout, Manager Wang bit his tongue and forcibly withdrew his attention from the blossoming lotus, causing his Knowledge Sea to tumble violently.
*Hong…*
A loud explosion resounded from the depths of Manager Wang’s Soul and his face instantly went pale white. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, his body staggered and he instantly felt several dozen years older.
Manager Wang had used some Secret Technique to burst the lotus bud, but doing so had clearly caused great damage to his own Soul.
Qian Yue was dumbstruck as she stood to the side and observed this battle, her eyes flashing brilliantly as her expression was filled with both joy and shock.
When she first noticed that they had fallen into an ambush, Qian Yue thought that all hope was lost, but how could she have imagined that the enemies she felt were impossible to defeat were actually easily routed and killed off by Yang Kai? Even Manager Wang wasn’t Yang Kai’s opponent.
If Qian Yue didn’t know Manager Wang, she might have thought that he was just another Saint King Realm cultivator, but she was well aware that he was a genuine Origin Returning Realm master. When she saw him, she was also trembling and talking carefully, but now, Manager Wang was panicking like a stray dog, no longer holding the swag of a former senior expert.
For a time, Qian Yue felt quite complex in her heart, staring at Yang Kai in something of a daze while thinking that Su Yan’s vision was really profound. When she had first met Yang Kai, she had looked down on and despised him greatly, but it seemed that Su Yan was the one who really stood high and saw far.
At this moment, she finally relaxed and took the opportunity to glance over at Yang Yan, but what she found was that the other party’s expression was completely indifferent, as if she hadn’t felt any tension at all. Qian Yue now realized that, from the start, Yang Yan had complete confidence in Yang Kai’s ability to win.
“Seems Origin Returning Realm masters really aren’t much!” Yang Kai sneered sarcastically, “In all honesty, I have no interest in Chen Shi Tao at all, nor did I have any intention to get in Wang Yu Han’s way, it was all your grand nephew’s petty insecurity that brought about his own destruction, even implicating his Elder in the process. If I were you, after acting so stupidly, I would get it over with and just kill myself. Why bother struggling to maintain your worthless existence?”
After listening to sarcastic ridicule, Manager Wang felt immense regret and annoyance. If what this boy said was really true, what was the point in coming here in the first place? To be humiliated and then die?
At this moment, Manager Wang wished he could drag Wang Yu Han back from hell so he could kill him a dozen times over. Although he continued wearing a fierce look on his face, in truth, he was already beginning to weaken.
He realized that even if he was in his peak state, he couldn’t defeat this strange boy. If he did not find an opportunity to escape soon, he might really never be able to leave here again.
A ruthless light flashed across Manager Wang’s eyes as he lifted his hand and pointed a hand sign towards the giant black flag he was using to resist the Hundred Mountains Picture, causing an unstable energy fluctuation to burst out from it. In the next instant, a loud explosion rang out as countless illusory phantoms flew out uncontrollably.
This artifact actually had the power to self destruct!
Yang Kai was shocked by this unexpected development and quickly withdrew the Hundred Mountains Picture before once again summoning his Purple Shield in front of Qian Yue and Yang Yan to protect them from the explosion fallout.
By the time Yang Kai finished this, he suddenly discovered that the old man surnamed Wang was already a thousand metres away.
[To think he is really trying to flee!]
Yang Kai coldly snorted as he unfurled his Wind and Thunder Wings, his figure flickering and disappearing in a storm of wind and thunder.
So far, he had not killed an Origin Returning Realm cultivator, so with such a rare opportunity in front of him, how could he possibly miss it? Moreover, after observing the various methods used by this old man surnamed Wang, it was obvious the other party’s understanding of Shi was quite deep. As long as Yang Kai could kill him and absorb his remnant Soul along with his understanding of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, it would be possible to begin comprehending Shi, preparing him for his eventual breakthrough to the Origin Returning Realm.
Although Manager Wang’s cultivation was higher than Yang Kai’s, he was still quite heavily injured, so with the assistance of his Wind and Thunder Wings, Yang Kai was able to move much faster.
Yang Kai was quickly closing the thousand-metre gap between himself and Manager Wang, but just as he was about to catch up, Yang Kai felt a shocking energy fluctuation rapidly approaching from behind. In the next instant, a stream of light shot past him and impacted the old man surnamed Wang’s back.
A pitiful scream rang out before Manager Wang fell to the ground, struggling for only a moment before lying still.
Yang Kai raised his brow as he looked back in surprise only to see Yang Yan in her black robe holding up a crossbow-like artifact.
Yang Kai recognized this artifact as one of the prizes he had looted in the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
He had obtained it from a cultivator from the Xie Family. The other party had used this artifact to sneak attack him but had ultimately failed to kill Yang Kai. In the end, Yang Kai had ended the Xie Family cultivator’s life. This artifact’s power was quite impressive, but the cost to use it was equally high, even requiring a blood sacrifice from its wielder, a truly evil artifact. As such, Yang Kai had not paid much attention to this crossbow after obtaining it and had simply tossed it into his Space Ring.
Now it seems that Yang Yan had improved and enhanced it, allowing her to use it against enemies in combat.
The old man surnamed Wang dying like this saved Yang Kai some trouble so he didn’t mind either way. Immediately walking over the body, Yang Kai urged the power of his Demon Eye of Annihilation and soon, Manager Wang’s Soul remnant was sucked into Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea and purified. Finished with this, Yang Kai removed Manager Wang’s Space Ring before turning around and returning to Yang Yan and Qian Yue.
Inside the abandoned hall, Qian Yue stared at Yang Kai, as if she was having trouble recognizing him.
After Yang Yan used the crossbow artifact, she had nearly collapsed, and her face had gone quite pale. It seemed even after her special refinement and improvement, the cost of using this artifact was still quite high.
“Let’s rest here for a while before setting out again, there should be no further ambushes,” Yang Kai said before handing Yang Yan a bottle of pills then walking over to the Space Array.
He wanted to completely destroy this Space Array to ensure that any further arrangements his opponents might have made couldn’t be implemented, and to ensure that no clues about what happened here were left behind.
Taking advantage of this time, Yang Yan quickly adjusted her breathing while Qian Yue went to clean up the remains of the other fallen Saint King Realm cultivators.
While Yang Yan sat in meditation, both Yang Kai and Qian Yue finished their respective work and Qian Yue handed over the Space Rings she had collected to Yang Kai, the look of shock still lingering on her face, as if she was unable to believe the scene she had just witnessed, even now.
Yang Kai glanced at her and naturally understood what she was thinking. Waving his hand lightly, he said, “Keep those Space Rings for yourself, there’s probably nothing good inside them, but there are probably some resources which will be suitable for you to use. Don’t reject, when you reach Dragon Cave Mountain, you’ll understand what true riches look like and how worthless these things are.”
Qian Yue froze for a moment, but eventually did not object, simply happily replying, “Then I’ll look forward to it.”
She really could not help anticipating arriving at Dragon Cave Mountain now. Since wandering about destitute through the Star Field and arriving at Joyous Union Pavilion, Qian Yue had never met anyone she knew or found a place to rely on. She felt like a rootless tree, a river without a source, suffering through each day.
But now, Yang Kai had appeared in front of her, allowing her to find a pillar of support for her weary heart and giving her hope for the future. Although Yang Kai was her Junior, this Junior had now exceeded her cultivation, so depending on him a little was not something to feel embarrassed about.
While waiting for Yang Yan to restore herself, Yang Kai sat down and began reviewing his gains and losses from this battle.
This was not the first time Yang Kai had battled an Origin Returning Realm master, but it was his first time killing such a cultivator. If not for the interference from his Soul Devouring Insects and his mastery of the Dao of Space, however, Yang Kai estimated he would not have been Manager Wang’s opponent.
Nevertheless, this battle allowed him to understand that his Golden Blood Thread could cut apart Shi, a pleasant surprise. When Deng Ning of Demon Blood Temple handed him the Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique, he had not mentioned anything about this particular ability.
Facing this old man surnamed Wang, a First-Order Origin Returning Realm master, Yang Kai had to go all out, so what about a master at the Second-Order or Third-Order?
Yang Kai suddenly realized that his cultivation realm was still too low. After returning to Dragon Cave Mountain, he decided to enter retreat to break through to the next realm. Only when his cultivation reached the Origin Returning Realm would he not have to fear anyone on Shadowed Star.
Half a day later, Yang Yan had restored herself sufficiently, so Yang Kai summoned his Star Shuttle and left this deserted city with the two women.
After flying for two days, the trio arrived at a small town and Yang Kai flew down to ask for directions. After learning that this place was only half a month away from Heavenly Fate City, he finally relaxed.
He was really afraid that the deserted city was actually farther away from Heavenly Fate City than Black Crow City, but it seemed his luck was good and Wang Yu Han had chosen to set up this ambush in the same direction as Heavenly Fate City.
On top of that, they had arrived inside Shadow Moon Hall’s territory, so with his friendship with Qian Tong, Wei Gu Chang, and Dong Xuan’er, they were basically safe.
Along the way, Yang Kai remained silent as he was immersed in planning what to do in the future, while Yang Yan and Qian Yue chatted a bit from time to time. Like this, half a month passed by and the group of three arrived at Dragon Cave Mountain. As soon as she saw this place, Qian Yue fell in love with it.
Although Dragon Cave Mountain was not as grand and imposing as the foundations of a great Sect, it had its own unique style. The mountains and rivers here were all incredibly beautiful, making it seem like an untouched paradise.
After letting Yang Yan help Qian Yue settle in, Yang Kai went to see the Divine Tree and learned that it was currently in good spirits. On top of that, the Golden Sun Fruit Tree Yang Kai had transplanted was now doing well, its vitality slowly growing stronger with no possibility of it perishing anymore.
After giving the Divine Tree a drop of Golden Blood, Yang Kai immediately announced he was entering retreat.
Inside his cave mansion, Yang Kai played with a small, crystal-clear bead in his hand as tenderness filled his eyes.
This bead was Su Yan’s Ice Soul Bead. As long as this bead remained intact, the person who condensed it was certainly still alive. Although he did not know where Su Yan was right now, as long as this Ice Soul Bead remained, it meant she was still fine.
Feeling Su Yan’s aura gently wafting from this bead made Yang Kai feel nostalgic.
After watching it for a long time, Yang Kai smiled warmly, held it tightly, closed his eyes, and silently cultivated, attempting to break through.
Back in Joyous Union Pavilion, Yang Kai had touched the threshold of the Third-Order Saint King Realm, but at that time, he was too anxious to hear news about Su Yan, so he had firmly suppressed his breakthrough. Now that he had returned to Dragon Cave Mountain, his first order of business was to attempt a breakthrough again.
The Ten Thousand Year Incense burned in the background, its mellow and calming fragrance filling the air. The place where Yang Kai chose to meditate was also right beside the Nine Branch Jade Crystal Tree, and with his thorough comprehension of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, this breakthrough posed no problem to him.
With just a trivial ten days worth of effort, and without the assistance of any pills or Saint Crystals, Yang Kai successfully broke through to the Third-Order Saint King Realm.
His breakthrough did not cause any spectacular scene as the cave mansion was completely isolated by powerful Spirit Arrays, so not even the other residents of Dragon Cave Mountain knew Yang Kai had made a breakthrough.
After taking another month or so to consolidate his cultivation, Yang Kai began taking inventory of his harvest from his latest trip.
With a thought, Yang Kai summoned another bead into the palm of his hand. This bead was different from Su Yan’s Ice Soul Bead, it had an inconspicuous grey appearance. It was the Coloured Glass Bead Dai Yuan had given him.
As Dai Yuan cultivated her Thousand Illusion Coloured Glass Art, taking a small amount of Thousand Illusion Coloured Glass into her body, she was able to condense this bead which was equivalent to the Monster Core of a Monster Beast. It was extremely valuable.
Dai Yuan had said that if he could refine this Coloured Glass Bead, he might be able to comprehend the mysteries of Coloured Glass Divine Light!
Coloured Glass Divine Light had the incredible ability to suppress others’ Souls and it was very difficult to guard against. Yang Kai had even suffered a small loss to this Coloured Glass Divine Light, so he had a deep interest in it. If he could really achieve what Dai Yuan said, it would give him another powerful card to use in battle.
Moreover, Coloured Glass Divine Light shared some similarities with his Demon Eye of Annihilation; both had the function of suppressing other’s Souls, so if he was able to combine the two of them, Yang Kai couldn’t say what kind of mutation would happen.
After quietly contemplating for a while, Yang Kai decided to put aside this Coloured Glass Bead for now and instead take out his Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace.
Inside the Corpse Cave, in order to collect the Sun’s True Essence, the Firebird Artifact Spirit had suffered some injuries, but Yang Kai had learned afterwards that this had actually been a blessing in disguise because the Artifact Spirit had ingested a wisp of Sun’s True Fire and was assimilating it inside the Artifact Refining Furnace.
Now, more than a month had passed, yet the Firebird showed no signs of awakening as it was still refining that wisp of Sun’s True Fire. However, when he observed it, Yang Kai discovered that the wisp of Sun’s True Fire had diminished greatly while the Artifact Spirit’s aura had become significantly more powerful.
Yang Kai immediately understood that the Artifact Spirit had truly obtained huge benefits from that incident.
Leaving it alone, Yang Kai put away the Artifact Refining Furnace.
Next, Yang Kai checked on the Stone Puppet. The Stone Puppet was the same as the Artifact Spirit. Some time ago, when the Stone Puppet spat out the Sun’s True Essence, Yang Kai had told it to absorb as much mineral essence as it needed to repair itself, but upon seeing it now, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit surprised.
The Stone Puppet’s injuries were now completely healed, and after being released by Yang Kai, its pair of eyes sparkled somewhat, its spirituality having obviously increased greatly.
However, what shocked Yang Kai the most was that the Stone Puppet’s body now seemed to contain an extremely intense Fire Attribute Energy. Even with his powerful Divine Sense, Yang Kai was unable to probe this Fire Attribute Energy as it was burnt the moment it tried to make contact with it.
Sun’s True Fire!
Unexpectedly, the Stone Puppet had absorbed some Sun’s True Fire! And it had finished refining this Sun’s True Fire even before the Fire Attribute Artifact Spirit. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise and made Yang Kai realize just how powerful the Stone Puppet’s innate talent was. Even the Artifact Spirit born from pure Fire Attribute Energy could not compare to it.
The Stone Puppet had an innate ability to quench and refine minerals, and now it seemed that the Sun’s True Fire was no exception, in the future this pure Fire Attribute Energy would only become purer and more potent.
Unfortunately, Yang Kai had yet to find another Blood Essence Stone; after all, there was another Stone Puppet in his Black Book Space, but without a Blood Essence Stone, that Stone Puppet couldn’t be hatched from its black shell.
After confirming that the Stone Puppet was alright, and even gained some unexpected advantages, Yang Kai sent it a Divine Sense command.
The Stone Puppet opened its mouth a moment later and began spitting out a massive amount of refined ores, soon creating a massive hill in front of Yang Kai.
These items were all from the Corpse Cave and had been swallowed by the Stone Puppet. At that time, Yang Kai and Yang Yan had been busy trying to collect the Sun’s True Essence, so they hadn’t had any time to deal with the mountains of materials and Saint Crystals lying around. Therefore, they had let the Stone Puppet handle this matter.
There had been seven or eight hills of various ores and a few more of pure Saint Crystals, so although the Stone Puppet only had time to swallow about half of them, they still added up to an amazing amount.
Some of the ores had their essence absorbed by the Stone Puppet to strengthen it and make up for the damage caused by the Sun’s True Fire, but the vast majority was now piled up in front of Yang Kai.
Up until now, Yang Kai had too many things on his mind, so he wasn’t able to take inventory of this harvest, but since they had been piled up out in the open, Yang Kai figured these materials weren’t as high in quality or rarity as the ores he had found in the four Space Rings atop the Ice Jade Pedestal. Sweeping them with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai confirmed his speculations.
However, he did not need to worry about such things as all these minerals would be handed over to Yang Yan to process.
While preparing to stuff these ores into Space Rings, Yang Kai’s eyes suddenly landed on one of the hills of materials. He reached out, and picked up a fist-sized, perfectly round, flawless and pure white object.
Staring at this sphere in amazement, Yang Kai soon had a thought and a look of surprise filled his eyes. Circulating his Secret Art, he noticed the huge amount of pure energy flowing from the sphere in his hand into his body and his expression turned strange, glancing over at the Stone Puppet in amazement and asking, “You can even purify this kind of thing?”
The Stone Puppet looked at him with a tilted head and did not say a word.
Yang Kai smiled slightly, knowing that it might not be able to express its thoughts; after all, the Stone Puppet’s sapience was limited.
Taking out the token Yang Yan gave him to control the cave mansion’s arrays, Yang Kai poured his Divine Sense into it and sent out a message.
A moment later, the barrier around the cave mansion was opened from the outside and Yang Yan walked in quickly, asking curiously, “Didn’t you say you were going to enter retreat? Why suddenly call me over?”
“Look at this!” Yang Kai said as he tossed the white sphere in his hand over to her. Catching it, Yang Yan looked at him suspiciously for a moment before taking a closer look at the sphere.
Soon after, Yang Yan’s beautiful eyes widened as a look of pleasant surprise filled her face, as if she had just discovered something incredible. Quickly turning to Yang Kai, she eagerly asked, “Where did you get this thing? Are there any more?”
Yang Kai simply pointed his finger to a hill in front of him.
Yang Yan turned her head in the direction he pointed and was immediately dumbstruck as she saw many similar spheres lying in that hill.
After a few breaths, Yang Yan let out a cry of joy as she rushed over to the hill and began stuffing everything into her own Space Ring.
“Leave me a few,” Yang Kai stared at her with a depressed expression.
“What do you want them for?” Yang Yan snorted as her small hand covered her Space Ring, hiding it from view.
“Cultivation. You can see what these things are formed from, right? I just finished breaking through so using these things will help better consolidate my realm,” Yang Kai said while his face twitched slightly.
“Of course I can see what this is! These things should have been condensed by Xiao Xiao, right?” Yang Yan picked up the Stone Puppet and kissed it repeatedly, causing Yang Kai to wear a dumbfounded look while the Stone Puppet wore a helpless one.
“I didn’t expect that Xiao Xiao could even purify and compress Saint Crystals. This is perfect! One of the worries I had has been solved, hehe!” Yang Yan stared at the Stone Puppet with her beautiful eyes, seemingly wishing she could kiss it a few more times.
“Can Stone Puppets even purify and compress Saint Crystals? Did you know about this before?” Yang Kai asked curiously.
Yang Yan shook her head, “I tried before, but Xiao Xiao didn’t have this ability then. Stone Puppets have an innate ability to absorb and temper various ores and mineral essences, refining them into their bodies to strengthen themselves. Xiao Xiao being able to do this now might have something to do with it absorbing some of the Sun’s True Essence, although I’m not completely sure.”
Hearing this, Yang Kai gently nodded, the Sun’s True Essence was said to be the source essence extracted from a Sun Star. The Stone Puppet had refined a little Sun’s True Fire, so it wasn’t surprising that its abilities had undergone some changes.
However, being able to purify and compress Saint Crystals, transforming their essence into the shape of a ball was quite a sensational development.
Throughout the Star Field, the highest quality Saint Crystal known so far was High-Rank Saint Crystal, but the existence of this sphere completely went against that norm, creating a brand-new precedent.
The energy contained in this sphere was both denser and purer than an equivalent-sized piece of High-Rank Saint Crystal. Yang Kai had only absorbed a small part of it, but he estimated that the energy contained inside this sphere was five to six times greater than High-Rank Saint Crystal.
That was not to say that the value of this sphere was only that of five or six High-Rank Saint Crystals of equivalent size; in fact, its value was far greater than this.
In theory, the exchange ratio between High-Rank Saint Crystal, Mid-Rank Saint Crystal, and Low-Rank Saint Crystal was one to ten, but every cultivator knew that in truth, the higher the rank of Saint Crystal, the greater its value was.
With higher quality Saint Crystals, a cultivator would be better able to impact their bottlenecks, restore their Saint Qi, or restore themselves while meditating. At a critical moment, such an advantage may even mean the difference between life and death.
Although the energy contained in this sphere was only equivalent to the sum of five or six High-Rank Saint Crystals of equal size, if it were to be circulated in large quantities, it would likely be valued at ten or even twenty High-Rank Saint Crystals.
Of course, that was only assuming a massive amount of them entered the market. If this sphere were to be auctioned off as a single treasure, it could likely sell for 100,000 High-Rank Saint Crystals or more.
After all, rare things were always more expensive.
Of course, Yang Kai didn’t have any intention of releasing these things into the market. From Yang Yan’s reaction just now, this Saint Crystal sphere which had unintentionally been compressed by the Stone Puppet was of great use to her.
Most likely, this was related to whatever secret project she had been working on. Yang Kai did not ask any questions though. Since Yang Yan had said she wanted to give him a surprise, he decided to patiently wait until she was ready to reveal it to him.
After confirming that these spheres were something the Stone Puppet had created after refining the Sun’s True Fire, Yang Kai set the matter aside and asked Yang Yan about Qian Yue. Apparently, since coming here, Qian Yue had quickly gotten close to the other residents and Wu Yi had provided her with a lot of cultivation resources and a good cultivation environment. Right now, she was also in secluded retreat.
After about the time it would take to boil a cup of tea, Yang Yan happily walked out of Yang Kai’s cave mansion, taking with her not only the strange Saint Crystal spheres and all of the various ores, but even the Stone Puppet as well.
According to her, even if Yang Kai had not called her over, she would have come looking for him to ask for the Stone Puppet’s help. With the Stone Puppet beside her, the efficiency of her Artifact Refining would greatly increase, which was essential to bringing her grand plan to fruition.
After Yang Yan left, Yang Kai opened the cave mansion barrier again while touching the special Space Ring Yang Yan had refined for him with a smile on his face. There were only two things inside this ring, the Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal and the Sun’s True Essence; however, these two things were without a doubt the most valuable and precious treasures he had obtained on this trip. If any news were to leak of their existence, it would create a stir across all of Shadowed Star.
Pondering for a while, Yang Kai’s expression became dignified as he took out a certain ancient book.
This ancient book had also been obtained from the Corpse Cave and had once belonged to the Ancient Yang Sect. At first, there were too many of these ancient books and Yang Kai did not have time to investigate them carefully. Later, while Yang Yan was refining the special Space Ring to store the Sun’s True Essence, Yang Kai casually browsed through these ancient books and this one in particular had caught his attention.
Because this ancient book was not some ordinary Secret Art, but rather one that was specifically for Body Tempering.
Yang Kai’s physical body was already much stronger than average cultivators in the same realm, but this was a result of various opportunities he had come across over the years rather than intentional cultivation. Secret Arts specifically for Body Tempering and Soul Cultivation were extremely rare, and even if some were occasionally widely circulated outside, they were generally trash that couldn’t enter the eyes of truly powerful masters. Yang Kai naturally looked down on these generic methods as well.
Yang Kai had never expected that in the underground Corpse Cave of the Ancient Yang Sect he would obtain this Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art.
When Yang Kai first saw it, he thought that this Secret Book was an art related to swordsmanship, but after careful investigation, he learned it was actually a Body Tempering Secret Art.
Yang Kai had a rough understanding of this Secret Art from the last time he browsed through and knew it was extremely profound and mysterious. If this Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art worked as described, once someone cultivated it to the extreme, they would be able to obtain a near immortal and indestructible physique; moreover, even at the minor accomplishment stage, one would be able to use their vitality and Blood Qi to condense Five Elements Profound Heavenly Sword Qi, which had incredible offensive and defensive power.
Reading about this Secret Art’s possibilities made Yang Kai excited, but the requirements to cultivate it were also extremely high.
The physical strength of anyone who wished to cultivate this Secret Art had to already be at least twice as high as an average cultivator in the same realm just to withstand the pain involved in the tempering process. This condition was no problem for Yang Kai.
Secondly, one needed to possess extremely strong vitality because cultivating this Secret Art would cause a great deal of harm to oneself. If one did not possess tenacious vitality, not only would they fail to cultivate this Secret Art, they may end up losing their life in the process. Yang Kai felt that this requirement would also not be an issue for him. Although he did not dare claim he had the strongest vitality of any cultivator in the Star Field, with the astonishing restorative power of his Golden Blood, he was confident that only a few people could surpass him in this aspect.
Thirdly, to cultivate the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, one needed to obtain extremely high-rank precious treasures from the five basic elements. By absorbing and refining the energy contained in these precious treasures, they would continuously temper their flesh and wash their marrow. After many years of repeated accumulation, one would eventually reach the pinnacle of the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art.
What kind of precious treasures were required was only vaguely described in the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art’s ancient book, but essentially, the minimum requirement would be something equivalent to a Tenth-Order Monster Beast’s Monster Core.
This requirement alone basically made it impossible for anyone on Shadowed Star to cultivate this Secret Art; after all, Tenth-Order Monster Beasts were equivalent to Origin King Realm masters, and there were no such things on Shadowed Star.
Yang Kai currently had two treasures he was certain met these criteria: The Sun’s True Essence and the Profound Yin Sunflower Water. The Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal also met the appropriate conditions, but if he were to really begin cultivating this Secret Art, Yang Kai wasn’t prepared to use the Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal as he had other important uses for it.
In addition to the Fire and Water Attribute treasures, Yang Kai also had the Bird Wood, which might satisfy the Wood Attribute treasure.
This Bird Wood was something Yang Kai obtained before arriving on Shadowed Star and was formed from the corpse of a Tenth-Order Thunder Luan Monster Beast. It should be no worse than the Monster Core of a Tenth-Order Monster Beast in value.
As for where he could find appropriate Earth and Metal Attribute treasures, Yang Kai temporarily had no ideas.
However, he wasn’t in a hurry; after all, even if he did manage to gather treasures from all five elements, he didn’t have time to dedicate to cultivating this Body Tempering Secret Art. Right now, Yang Kai had to cultivate his Space Blade and Golden Blood Thread Secret Technique, refine the Dragon Bone and Dragon Bead, and find a way to refine the Coloured Glass Bead.
The Golden Blood Thread was of particular importance to Yang Kai after he learned that it was capable of cutting through Shi. Yang Kai’s evaluation of this Demon Blood Temple Secret Technique had risen dramatically after he discovered this and he couldn’t help praising its creator for their ingenuity once more.
Currently, he had only cultivated a single Golden Blood Thread, and even that had yet to reach the grand accomplishment stage. Yang Kai wanted to cultivate more Golden Blood Threads, but he had no idea how much time that would take. For these reasons, even though Yang Kai was extremely interested in this Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, he didn’t immediately begin cultivating it, planning to wait until he collected all the required treasures first.
Of course, studying and comprehending this Secret Art wasn’t an issue as doing so would allow him to gain twice the result with half the effort once he did begin cultivating it.
After silently making up his mind, Yang Kai temporarily stored the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art back into his Space Ring before clearing his head of distractions and beginning to absorb the Soul remnant left behind by Manager Wang.
This was the first Origin Returning Realm Soul remnant that Yang Kai had absorbed, so naturally, he was quite prudent and careful with it, refining it slowly to ensure he didn’t miss anything.
After three days, the Soul remnant of the old man surnamed Wang was completely refined and Yang Kai opened his eyes to reveal a thoughtful look.
Although Manager Wang’s cultivation wasn’t very high, he had spent many years in the First-Order Origin Returning Realm and had his own unique insights into Shi. Now, these insights had become Yang Kai’s and through this refinement, he had gained a small understanding of Shi.
An understanding was one thing, but Yang Kai realized even more now that if he wanted to try to cultivate Shi, it would be almost impossible unless he broke through to the Origin Returning Realm. However, if he were to face an Origin Returning Realm master again, Yang Kai would now be able to use his understanding of Shi to bolster his resistance to it, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t obtained any immediate benefits at all.
Yang Kai believed that as long as he killed more Origin Returning Realm masters in the future, his comprehension of Shi would continue to increase, allowing many grains of sand to become a tall tower and ultimately reach a height greater than anyone else.
Regarding the process of breaking through, only when an Origin Returning Realm master cultivated their Shi to the grand accomplishment stage would they have a chance to break through to the Origin King Realm, but on Shadowed Star, no person was able to achieve this, so no Origin King Realm masters currently existed here.
The World Principles of Shadowed Star suppressed all the Origin Realm masters’ understanding of Shi. Yang Kai had yet to reach this level but even so, it was impossible for him to remain trapped on Shadowed Star forever. If he really reached the peak of the Third-Order Origin Returning Realm, Yang Kai would find a way to leave Shadowed Star, escape the suppression of its World Principles, and break through to the Origin King Realm in the outside world.
It was too early to be worried about such things, however, so Yang Kai quickly focused his mind and took out the Coloured Glass Bead Dai Yuan had given him, holding it in his palm before silently pouring his Saint Qi into it, attempting to refine it.
After maintaining this process for some time, Yang Kai’s eyes flashed as a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face. Immediately increasing the output of his Saint Qi, a faint multi-coloured light began leaking from the Coloured Glass Bead into Yang Kai’s body, and under his guidance, it began gathering in his left eye.
This Coloured Glass Bead was equivalent to a Monster Beast’s Monster Core, so Yang Kai had thought that refining it and absorbing the energy from a Monster Beast’s Monster Core would be the same. Therefore, he had tried to use this kind of direct method and, to his surprise, it seemed this method was not only effective, but also quite easy to implement.
This made him overjoyed.
No longer holding back, Yang Kai slowly began to refine this Coloured Glass Bead while continuing to cultivate the Golden Blood Threads inside his body at the same time.
Time flew by and soon it had been two months.
This day, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes and glanced down at his empty palm, furrowing his brow.
After two months of absorption, the Coloured Glass Bead Dai Yuan had given him was finally consumed clean and no longer existed. However, although this Coloured Glass Bead’s essence had been absorbed into his body, it would still take some time for Yang Kai to completely refine it. Now, in his Knowledge Sea, the gorgeous glowing light comprised of the Coloured Glass Divine Light contained inside the Coloured Glass Bead was suspended close to the Demon Eye of Annihilation.
However, Yang Kai felt that it was going to take quite some time to fuse this Coloured Glass Divine Light with his Demon Eye of Annihilation, something that slightly differed from his expectations, causing him to feel a bit unhappy.
After all, according to his previous predictions, the Demon Eye of Annihilation and the Coloured Glass Divine Light shared many similarities. So, in theory, they should have easily integrated, but now it appeared that his thinking had been too naive.
But such a possibility wasn’t beyond Yang Kai’s expectations, and as long as there was enough time, the Coloured Glass Divine Light and his Demon Eye of Annihilation could be successfully combined, the only difference now was how long it would take.
Putting this matter aside temporarily, Yang Kai waved his hand casually and two Golden Threads appeared from it.
One of these Golden Threads radiated a brilliant golden light and seemed capable of cutting space itself with unstoppable might. The other Golden Thread was obviously inferior to the first, with not only its coloured being dimmer but the power contained within it also being weaker.
This Golden Thread was the second one Yang Kai had condensed.
When a Demon Blood Temple cultivator cultivated this Secret Technique, even if they spent their entire life they may not have been able to create two Demon Blood Threads because the foundation of this technique was their own vitality. Everyone had a limited amount of vitality and using it excessively endangered their life. In Demon Blood Temple, only Elder-level characters whose strength had reached the Second or Third-Order Origin Returning Realm were capable of cultivating two or three Demon Blood Threads, while those below the Origin Realm would never have more than one.
Even so, these Elders were only able to cultivate multiple Demon Blood Threads after consuming numerous elixirs to nourish their vitality, otherwise, once they used too much of their vital energy they would die.
However, Yang Kai was different as there were several dozen drops of Golden Blood in his body. One drop of Golden Blood could be converted into a Golden Blood Thread, and he could increase the amount of Golden Blood in his veins infinitely. In theory, Yang Kai could condense countless Golden Blood Threads, which was also why he dedicated so much time and effort to this Secret Technique. It was simply tailor-made for him.
More than a month ago, he felt that his first Golden Thread had been cultivated as far as it could be.
It wasn’t that this Golden Thread was refined to its peak though. Because he had only obtained the first half of the Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique, Yang Kai simply didn’t know how to continue enhancing this Golden Thread.
With no other choice, Yang Kai began to cultivate this second thread.
With his previous experience, this second Golden Thread took shape much faster than the first and Yang Kai was certain he could bring it to its limit much faster as well.
Also, while cultivating the second Golden Thread, Yang Kai faintly realized something.
He felt that this Secret Technique wasn’t as simple as he first thought. If he had enough Golden Threads, he may be able to combine them to take on new forms and functions, but none of these were introduced in the first half of the Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique, so Yang Kai could only speculate that they were hidden in the second half!
After cultivating his Golden Threads to their limit, Yang Kai had no idea how to continue enhancing them or how to combine or manipulate them, so everything right now was only his own speculation. It seemed that if there was a chance in the future, he would have to pay Demon Blood Temple a visit. Only by obtaining the second half of the Demon Blood Thread Secret Technique could he continue enhancing his Golden Blood Threads.
During this retreat Yang Kai had gained a lot and, after calculating how much time he had been in seclusion, he decided it was time to go out.
He remembered Yang Yan saying that she would require his power to complete whatever project she was working on last time, but he couldn’t tell if that time had come yet. Since he had been in retreat all this time, Yang Yan had definitely not considered disturbing him.
Having made up his mind, Yang Kai took another look at the Red Candle Fruit piece to make sure it showed no signs of withering under the nourishing of the Red Candle Stalk before opening the cave mansion’s barrier and leaving.
The World Energy aura on Dragon Cave Mountain seemed to have become a bit richer than before, but this was only to be expected as there weren’t very many cultivators living here and their respective cultivations weren’t high. Because of this, the World Energy which was drawn to Dragon Cave Mountain by the Aura Gathering Array would only grow in richness, unlike in big Sects where thousands of disciples would continuously consume it. In such Sects, even if they had high-quality Earth Veins providing a constant stream of World Energy, maintaining a balance was the best they could do.
Dragon Cave Mountain was peaceful and quiet, and as Yang Kai swept his eyes around, he was unable to see anyone at all. This wasn’t a surprise though. Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai quickly found where Yang Yan and the others were.
But what puzzled Yang Kai was that all those who had any authority on Dragon Cave Mountain were gathered together, as if they were discussing something important.
With a slight smile, Yang Kai wandered over to a bamboo tower where these few people were gathered, but before he arrived he heard Hao An’s voice call out, “They’re going too far! They were the ones who set the price in the first place, so why is this happening now?”
Immediately, Chang Qi responded in a calming tone, “Okay, okay! Old Hao, sit down first. The young ones are all sitting calmly, so why are you getting all excited for?”
“Foreign Elder Chang, what do you think of this?” Wu Yi asked.
“Hmph, this situation is clearly a little strange!” Chang Qi replied with a sneer, “Our cooperation with Shadow Moon Hall isn’t something recent. Over the past two years, the number of materials we have purchased from them can be considered to be astonishing, worth in excess of two hundred million Saint Crystals. We’ve always negotiated in good faith and paid in full, but now they are suddenly saying the cost of materials has increased! There’s definitely something more to this than meets the eye.”
“Exactly! Not only that, they even detained Yu Feng, which is also truly unusual,” Hao An seemed to have calmed down and agreed with him.
“On top of that, I noticed another strange matter,” Wu Yi said pensively deeply.
“Oh, what?”
“For the past three months, many of the shopkeepers and shop hands belonging to Shadow Moon Hall in Heavenly Fate City have been replaced and the people we’re all familiar with have completely disappeared. I cannot even find Luo Qing anymore.”
Inside the bamboo tower, the group of people looked around at each other as they suddenly realized that something big must have changed inside Shadow Moon Hall.
Amidst the crowd’s rising suspicions, the main door of the bamboo tower opened, and a single person stepped in.
After an initial period of shock, everyone stood up, having recognized the person who entered. Wu Yi said in joy, “Yang Kai, you came out of seclusion?”
“Mhm,” Yang Kai nodded. Looking around the crowd, his gaze finally settled onto Qian Yue. She was looking much better than when Yang Kai saw her at the Joyous Union Pavillion, a reassuring sign that she was rather happy with her life here.
Off to the side, Chang Qi and Hao An exchanged a glance, a look of awe flashing across their eyes. Both of them made a fist palm salute at the same time. “Congratulations, Nephew Yang, for reaching Third-Order Saint King. Your rate of cultivation is unmatched within the entire Shadowed Star.”
When they went to the Flowing Flame Sand Field, Yang Kai was a mere First-Order Saint King. By the time they made it out of there, he had reached the Second-Order, and now he was already a Third-Order, all within a period of two to three years. This left the duo with not just a sense of awe, but also a slight feeling of inferiority. Compared to Yang Kai’s cultivation speed, they were mediocre at best.
“You flatter me, Foreign Elders. Luck played no small role in getting me to where I am today. Compared to the true geniuses, this is nothing.” Yang Kai smiled humbly before changing the topic, “That aside, I heard you discussing Shadow Moon Hall and mentioning something about Yu Feng being detained? I want to hear more about this.”
Hearing Yang Kai’s questions, everyone exchanged glances, allowing Wu Yi to take up the role of explaining the situation to Yang Kai.
Listening to her explanations, Yang Kai finally found out about the unfavourable occurrences which had taken place in Heavenly Fate City regarding the order of goods Dragon Cave Mountain had made from the Shadow Moon Hall a month ago.
A few days ago, Yu Feng led cultivators from the Hai Ke Family to Heavenly Fate City to pick up the goods, only to find that they refused to honour the previous terms of exchange, instead raising the price of the goods by more than a good thirty percent.
Such a price was obviously unacceptable, and Yu Feng immediately went to reason with Shadow Moon Hall’s person-in-charge stationed there. However, they refused to back down a single inch. Exasperated, Yu Feng then requested them to return the initial deposit. After all, they were the ones who went back on the contract, and Yu Feng thought that they should at least get the deposit back even if they were not going to purchase the goods.
Nobody expected even that request to be refused. Not only that, they decided to resort to force to settle the conflict, resulting in Yu Feng and the other four disciples being injured.
Obviously, Yu Feng’s group wouldn’t simply sit there and allow themselves to be beaten up, so they returned a few blows, damaging some of the shelves within the shop. They were immediately captured by an Origin Returning Realm master, detained, and stripped of all of the Saint Crystals which they were preparing to use for the exchange.
Only a single disciple was allowed to return to let Dragon Cave Mountain know that they had to prepare a large amount of Saint Crystals as ransom.
Otherwise, Wu Yi and the rest wouldn’t have known about the details either.
Having listened to the explanation, Yang Kai remained calm and expressionless, speaking only after a moment of thought, “Their lives are not in danger, right?”
“According to the disciple who returned, their injuries are not light, but not that serious either. They should be fine after a few days of recuperation.”
“Hm, that’s good,” Yang Kai nodded, directing his next question to the crowd, “What do you think is the problem here?”
“What’s the problem?” Wu Yi looked bewildered. Then she retorted, “Everything’s a problem! We have been working with the Shadow Moon Hall for so long without facing a single issue. We pay the Saint Crystals, they sell us the materials and we all mutually benefit. In the last few years, we seem to have already become the largest buyers of Shadow Moon Hall. Normally, they should be trying to maintain our interest instead of causing rifts like this. Not to mention, they wouldn’t have the courage to do so in the first place. I suspect there’s someone behind the scenes giving the orders.”
“I think so too!” Chang Qi agreed, “Dragon Cave Mountain doesn’t have a strong establishment, only plenty of resources. The precious stone lands its innocent possessor in jail. Perhaps Shadow Moon Hall is no longer willing to continue trading with us periodically and instead wishes to take everything that we have in one go?”
“You suspect this is the work of Qian Tong?” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes.
“It’s not impossible,” Wu Yi nodded.
“The possibility is there, but I don’t think this has anything to do with him,” Yang Kai shook his head slowly. Out of everyone here, he’d interacted with Qian Tong the most. Regardless of his inherent character, Qian Tong wouldn’t turn against Yang Kai, especially considering his relation with Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er, and how he saved them in the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
“I heard you saying that three months ago, all the Shadow Moon Hall’s stores at the Heavenly Fate City replaced all their store owners and employees? Is that true?” Yang Kai asked again.
“Yes, that’s right,” Wu Yi nodded immediately, “I often go to Heavenly Fate City, so I’m quite confident about this.”
“In the last six months, did anything peculiar or significant happen at the Shadow Moon Hall?” Yang Kai furrowed his brows.
“If we’re talking about peculiar things, nothing happened at the Shadow Moon Hall, but there’s something going on here. In recent months, a few unfamiliar faces appeared around Dragon Cave Mountain. At first, they were just loitering around the area, but then some of them started trying to breach into our territory. They were caught in the Spirit Array, and all of them said that it was an accident when we questioned them. We decided to release them after a warning since none of them had high cultivation. As for significant things… well, there was one.”
“What?” Yang Kai’s expression grew serious.
“Grandmaster Ge Lin passed away!” Wu Yi lowered her voice.
“Grandmaster Ge Lin?” Yang Kai thought for a while before realizing, “the Low-Rank Origin Grade Artifact Refiner of Shadow Moon Hall?”
“That’s him. This happened half a year ago. According to rumours, Grandmaster Ge Lin had lost a lot of vitality right after repairing an artifact for Shadow Moon Hall, so much so that he hadn’t refined a single artifact these past few years. But what does that have to do with us?”
“I don’t know about the exact details, but there might be some connection,” Yang Kai pondered, “I heard from Qian Tong that he was on very good terms with Grandmaster Ge Lin once.”
Wu Yi thought for a moment, “You’re saying that Grandmaster Ge Lin’s passing affected Elder Qian Tong, and since he’s the one who’s been looking out for us, we’re being affected too?”
Yang Kai grinned, “It’s just my guess. It could also be Qian Tong turning on us, but if it really has something to do with Shadow Moon Hall’s internal strife, we should try not to get dragged into the situation.”
“That’s right. We definitely can’t mess with the matters of Shadow Moon Hall,” Wu Yi immediately became more cautious. She hadn’t thought about this this deep before, but with Yang Kai’s help, she was starting to see the underlying issue.
“Any news from Wei Gu Chang and Dong Xuan’er?” Yang Kai asked.
Wu Yi shook her head, “All that Shadow Moon Hall said was that they were secluding themselves to break through to the Origin Returning Realm, nothing else.”
“Understandable. Forget it, it’s not good to depend on others anyway. I’ll make a trip to get Yu Feng back. Saint Crystals aside, the people are what’s important.”
“That’s a whole twenty million Saint Crystals gone!” the expression of pain was clearly written on Wu Yi’s face, “So what’s your plan?”
“If they’re not going to be nice, then I’m not going to be nice either. Otherwise, they’ll really think that Dragon Cave Mountain is an easy target,” Yang Kai said coldly.
Wu Yi stared at him, dumbfounded.
Yang Kai merely smiled and waved away her concerns, “If it really is due to internal strife, we have nothing to worry about. They don’t have the time to divert any attention onto us, so there probably aren’t any masters there. Plus, I myself really want to know exactly who is showing such malicious intent towards our Dragon Cave Mountain! What better way to find out than to personally make a trip there?”
“This elder will accompany you!” Chang Qi stood up.
Hao An said, “So will this elder! Even though my and Old Man Chang’s cultivations are nothing special, we’re still Origin Returning cultivators. Ever since we broke through, we haven’t had a single fight yet. This is the perfect opportunity to test our strength.
The two elders looked at each other and smiled.
Yang Kai thought this over before replying, “Alright, then I’m counting on you two Foreign Elders. The rest of you, however, should stay here.”
“Okay, be careful,” Wu Yi warned.
With that settled, Yang Kai exited the bamboo tower with Chang Qi and Hao An, took out his Star Shuttle, and headed straight for Heavenly Fate City.
At Heavenly Fate City, in a room within the inner garden of a store called the Gathering Source Hall, Yu Feng and the rest were tied up. All of them had bruises all over, and not a single strand of Saint Qi could be detected in their bodies. Clearly, they had all been restricted by a strong barrier.
They had been lined up in a single row and forced to kneel on the floor.
In front of them was a malicious looking old man with white hair sitting on a chair of sandalwood and holding a purple teapot in his hands. His eyes were half-closed, as if asleep, but the occasional sparkle of ferocity which could be seen in his eyes proved that he was wide awake.
“Speak. I want to know a safe way into Dragon Cave Mountain. Speak and I will allow you to leave, so you no longer have to suffer.” Beside the old man stood a fierce-looking brute, toying with a long whip with the thickness of three fingers in his hands as he spoke.
“Ptui!” Yu Feng’s reply was a glob of spit mixed with some blood aimed right at the brute’s face, “You want information from me? Dream on! I’d die before handing any information over to you despicable lot!”
The brute stayed still, allowing the glob of spit to run down his face. He smiled viciously, and the whip in his hands suddenly moved, swishing through the air and landing on Yu Feng’s face.
Coupled with a resounding crack, the right side of Yu Feng’s face tore open and a piece of mutilated meat flew out amidst the bloodshed. Yu Feng’s whole body was shaken by the force of the blow, nearly causing him to fall over. However, he quickly straightened back up, roaring with a fierce look in his eyes, “Come on! You can beat me to death today, and you still won’t get anything out of me! Just wait till you rush into Dragon Cave Mountain and get ripped to pieces by the thousands of Spirit Arrays there. Hahahahaha!”
The arrogant laughter caused a look of annoyance to show on the brute’s face, and even the old man seated on the chair was starting to lose his patience.
The old man was a First-Order Origin Returning cultivator. If it weren’t for certain concerns he had, he would have saved himself all this trouble by reading the information from Yu Feng’s mind using a Soul Search.
However, because of said concerns, the old man didn’t dare to kill off anyone just yet. Furthermore, using a Soul Search was exhausting and did not guarantee that one will get the exact piece of information that one is looking for. These factors combined were why he was resorting to these simple methods of interrogation instead.
Seeing how stubborn Yu Feng was, the malicious-looking brute laughed, “Good, good! I like people with guts! You can withstand this torture, but what about them? I’d like to see if everyone is as tough as you are!”
He looked towards the second person, asking the same question as before.
The reply was another glob of bloody spit.
Once again, the whip lashed out, sending the disciple from the Hai Ke Family spinning into the air. He landed heavily on the ground and stayed there for a long while.
Following this, he turned towards the third person, furious to the extreme. He roared, “Make this easy for yourself and give it up! Or else you’ll get what’s coming to you!”
The third Hai Ke Family disciple raised his head and looked him in the eye, expression cold. He had the lowest cultivation out of everyone here, a mere First-Order Saint. With his Saint Qi sealed, a single strike from the whip could mean half a month in bed.
Yu Feng opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but the disciple cut him off, “Don’t worry, Brother Feng. We haven’t spent that much time at Dragon Cave Mountain, but we have all received great benefits. We won’t be ungrateful traitors. To hell with Shadow Moon Hall. Have they got the means to improve the cultivation of so many people by one or two Minor Realms in such a short period of time?”
“Exactly!” Yu Feng felt a swell of pride and nodded. The disciple was right. The fifty or so Hai Ke Family disciples who separated from the family under the leadership of Wu Yi to join the Dragon Cave Mountain had no worries regarding cultivation resources these past two to three years. They were given an endless supply of various pills and medications and each received at least one or two artifacts, all of which were Saint King Grade. This was infinitely better than what they could have gotten back in the Hai Ke Family.
It can be said that every Hai Ke Family disciple had recognised Dragon Cave Mountain as their home, resulting in a strong sense of belonging.
By now, the brute understood that he was wasting his breath with these questions, and simply raised the whip. Just as he was about to unleash a strike, the old man on the chair suddenly opened his half-closed eyes and turned to look outside.
Boom…
A loud noise was accompanied by several violent pulses of Saint Qi. There appeared to be a fight going on outside, but everything died down after a few cries of shock and agony.
“Who dares trespass the Gathering Source Hall!” The old man’s expression stiffened as he rose from his seat and turned to head out. However, he let out a strange cry midair, flying backwards as if he had suffered a serious injury.
A burst of white light followed after him, landing in the room and heading towards the old man with a tremendous aura.
Shocked, the old man immediately took out a defensive artifact in the shape of a small shield, placing it in front of himself.
A huge blast rang out, causing the old man to stumble back several steps before he was able to disperse the immense force. Looking down at his shield, he couldn’t help but wince.
A small flicker of jet-black flame was burning on this Low-Rank Origin Grade Artifact, and its blazing heat was starting to cause the shield to melt.
This sight frightened him greatly. Had he touched this flame just now, he would have suffered a fatal injury even if he didn’t outright die.
Before he could react, two gusts of Shi descended from the sky, enveloping the whole room. He raised his head and saw the imposing figure of a youth clad in a chilling aura entering the room.
Behind the youth were two old people, both who were First-Order Origin Returning cultivators. The two gusts of Shi from earlier were clearly their doing.
The old man’s eyes widened, knowing that the situation had become unfavourable for him. As a lone First-Order Origin Returning cultivator, there was no way he could handle two other cultivators of the same Realm by himself. Realising this, he immediately took out an item from his Space Ring and crushed it, secretly breathing a sigh of relief as he successfully did so.
“Yang Kai! Foreign Elder Chang, Foreign Elder Hao!” Yu Feng and the rest exclaimed in joy when they saw the intruders.
Yang Kai took a quick look across the room, eyes narrowing as he saw the grievous injuries on several of the detained individuals. Murderous intent welled up within him. He could tell how serious the injuries were, and how they had caused their vitalities to deplete almost to the extent of damaging their foundations. Right now, a few pills and a few days of recuperation could still heal them, but had he come out of seclusion a day or two later, their cultivations would undoubtedly have fallen.
“You’re Yang Kai?” the old man stared at him in shock after hearing their words.
Yang Kai glanced at him, showing no interest in answering his question. Instead, he signalled towards Chang Qi.
Chang Qi immediately walked up, condensing Saint Qi onto his fingertips like knives, cutting Yu Feng and the rest out of their bondage. He then checked the restrictive barrier that was placed within their bodies and furrowed his brows.
Although this was merely the work of a fellow First-Order Origin Returning cultivator, it would still take him two to four hours to undo it. Now was clearly not the best time for that.
He brought Yu Feng and the rest back to Yang Kai’s side, and communicated the situation to him in a hushed voice before standing down.
Yang Kai nodded, then looked towards the old man. Narrowing his eyes, he said, “You sound like you already know me?”
“Hmph! So what?” the old man grunted.
Yang Kai smirked, then asked, “Is your surname Xie?”
The old man’s expression changed immediately to one of extreme shock, “How do you know?”
“I knew it!” Yang Kai nodded, a look of understanding spreading across his face. He had guessed it earlier when talking with Wu Yi and the rest about the situation. If there really was internal strife in Shadow Moon Hall, the Dragon Cave Mountain shouldn’t have been affected to this much of an extent.
After all, Dragon Cave Mountain was a major customer, meaning that there’s nothing but benefit in cooperating with them. No one would make an enemy of them without any reason like this.
Yang Kai instinctively felt that anyone who would stand against Dragon Cave Mountain so brazenly must be someone with a grievance against him. That, together with the criteria of being related to Shadow Moon Hall, narrowed the choices down to a single one: the Xie Family.
Xie Hong Wen had been a disciple of Shadow Moon Hall, while his father, Xie Li, was a Deacon. His status was not as high as Qian Tong, but it did give him some degree of power.
The Xie Family was a faction independent from Shadow Moon Hall, but these two definitely shared some connections.
As for why they would antagonize Yang Kai, there were two reasons. Firstly, out of suspicion that Xie Hong Wen’s death had something to do with him. After all, Xie Hong Wen died in the Flowing Flame Sand Field after a Shadow Moon Hall disciple told him about Yang Kai’s location there, which was enough for the Xie Family to believe that Yang Kai had something to do with his death. They probably refrained from causing Yang Kai trouble so far because they were apprehensive of Qian Tong and that Origin Grade Artifact Refiner.
Secondly, they probably wanted to take this chance to test the waters with Qian Tong!
If Qian Tong still had the time to look after Dragon Cave Mountain, he would have long since done so. It would, therefore, seem that he wasn’t in a favourable situation either.
Yang Kai quickly deduced the possible state of affairs based on his own assumptions. Even though he couldn’t be completely certain whether that was the truth just yet, it shouldn’t be far off. He just had to ask around a little afterwards to make sure.
Suddenly, Yang Kai’s mood improved slightly. As long as it wasn’t Qian Tong acting against him, it was fine. Moreover, since the Xie Family was the main mastermind, it must mean that the strife in Shadow Moon Hall was quite serious. Not only was Qian Tong occupied, but his opponent also didn’t have the time to care about this either.
In that case, Yang Kai had no more concerns. The current Dragon Cave Mountain had no problem handling a mere Xie Family. If they came at him, he would give them a reason to be sorry.
“I am Xie Quan!” The old man realised his slip-up and stopped trying to hide it altogether. He laughed coldly, “You’re quite bold for daring to destroy the Gathering Source Hall even after knowing that I’m from the Xie Family!”
“Xie Family… Hehe…” Yang Kai laughed for a while. Stroking his chin, he asked Yu Feng, “Who beat you up?”
Yu Feng looked stunned for a while, before pointing at the brute behind Xie Quan.
Yang Kai nodded, face twisting into a rage. He flicked his wrist, sending a thin golden thread flying straight at the brute.
Xie Quan’s expression changed, and he exclaimed, “How insolent!”
At the same time, a wave of Shi burst from his body, and he sent several bursts of energy towards the golden thread with flicks of his fingers.
He thought that it would be easy to disperse the attack of a Third-Order Saint King. In fact, releasing his Shi was beyond necessary.
However, his eyes grew wide in shock the next moment. The golden thread tore his Shi to shreds, nullifying the bursts of energy completely.
That’s when he understood that he had underestimated his opponent. He hurriedly took out an artifact in the shape of a top. As it spun, wave after wave of light rays shot out from it, forming a protective layer in front of the brute in the blink of an eye.
As an Origin Returning cultivator, it would be too shameful to allow Yang Kai to capture someone right in front of him.
However, yet another shocking scene unfolded. The protective shield was not able to stop the advance of the golden thread, shattering to pieces as it made contact. In the next moment, the brute shouted in surprise as he was pulled towards Yang Kai with immense force.
“Put him down!” Xie Quan’s face was fuming red. Channelling the Saint Qi within his body, he struck his palm towards Yang Kai, materializing a gigantic palm print in the process, as if trying to flatten Yang Kai completely.
Yang Kai laughed coldly and pushed his own palm forward.
Another gigantic palm print materialized, meeting Xie Quan’s own head on. Not only did it swallow Xie Quan’s palm print entirely, it advanced towards Xie Quan with an intensity that seemed to cover Heaven and Earth.
Xie Quan’s eyes were almost popping out of their sockets. Never had he thought that a Third-Order Saint King could face him head-on, not to mention gain the upper hand in the process!
In a flash, the brute had been captured and brought to Yang Kai’s side, his eyes wide in an expression of horror.
As a Third-Order Saint King, it was terrifying how powerless he was in front of this youth who was at the same cultivation level as him. Only now did he remember to try and resist, but just as he was gathering up his Saint Qi, Yang Kai tapped lightly on his shoulder, causing the brute to turn pale and let out a grunt, the energy he was trying to summon dispersing all over again.
Following that, Yang Kai sent him flying in front of Yu Feng and the rest with a single kick. He grabbed the whip from him and threw it over to Yu Feng, speaking coldly, “Take revenge for your grudges!”
Yu Feng caught the thick whip, looking stunned for a moment before regaining his bearings. He exchanged a glance with the fellow detainees who had been beaten and surrounded the brute while grinning maliciously.
The next moment, the brute’s pitiful cries of pain rang out amidst the sounds of kicks and punches and the cracks of the whip.
Xie Quan’s face was dark with anger while eyes shining with a fierce glow, as if looking for prey to release his anger upon. He looked at Yang Kai, “Youths are reckless indeed. Good, I shall see how long you can maintain that arrogance!”
As he said that, he waved his hand. All of a sudden, numerous figures started appearing from all around the place. There were at least several dozen of them, and they surrounded the now decimated Gathering Source Hall, glaring at Yang Kai’s group with animosity. Although there were no Origin Returning Realm cultivators amidst the group, the large number was enough to cause Chang Qi and Hao An to feel uneasy.
Not only that, but many people from all around Heavenly Fate City were starting to fly towards them, and there was no lack of Origin Returning cultivators amongst those.
In a mere moment, the situation had flipped. Where Yang Kai’s side originally had a slight advantage, it was now completely lost in terms of both numbers and cultivation.
Chang Qi scanned his surroundings, his expression growing sombre as he did. There were seven to eight Origin Returning cultivators here, and they were all reinforcements Xie Quan had called. Reinforcements were within expectations. After all, they were heading deep into the enemy camp with this trip, and it would be impossible to expect there to be no backup. However, the scale of it was completely unexpected.
He stole a glance at Yang Kai, only to find him looking calm and composed as always. This surprised Chang Qi a little but also gave him a bit of confidence. Surely, Yang Kai had some kind of trump card hidden away.
“Brother Xie, is this the brat who destroyed the Gathering Source Hall?” one of the newcomers was an old man sporting a goatee, and he asked this question coldly while staring at Yang Kai after exchanging quick greetings with Xie Quan.
Xie Quan made a fist palm salute, saying, “Regretfully so. I didn’t expect there to be two Origin Returning cultivators with him, and I alone was no match and could not protect this place. I will apologize to Shadow Moon Hall after this.”
The goateed old man laughed and waved his hand in dismissal, “Don’t take this too seriously, brother Xie. With such a grand scale of the enterprise, our Shadow Moon Hall wouldn’t care so much about the destruction of a mere Gathering Source Hall. More importantly, your junior looks to be in quite the predicament.”
He shifted his gaze towards the group who was still beating up the brute. Speaking sharply and coldly, he said, “Are you not being too contemptuous by continuing with your acts of violence even after we have arrived? This old master is asking you to stop!”
With that, a spark of light flashed across his eyes, and an imposing gust of spiritual energy descended from the heavens towards Yu Feng’s group.
At the same time, Chang Qi smirked and channelled out his own spiritual energy, causing the two gusts to clash midair and disperse silently. As a fellow First-Order Origin Returning cultivator, he would obviously have no fear of meeting the attack, and this particular clash hence ended in a draw.
Yu Feng and the rest couldn’t help but stop, and they collectively looked towards Yang Kai. This was the first time they had been surrounded by so many Origin Returning cultivators, and it was making them anxious.
“Go on. Don’t stop until you feel like the grudge has been completely settled!” Yang Kai glanced nonchalantly at the numerous Origin Returning cultivators, the condescending look in his eyes eliciting widespread displeasure from them.
The goateed old man was about to say something, but Yang Kai interrupted him, “You’re from the Shadow Moon Hall?”
“That’s right!” the old man stroked his beard, “This old master, Ma Xin Yuan, is a Lower Manager of Shadow Moon Hall.”
“Lower Manager…” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes, the edges of his mouth rising in mockery, “May I ask where Elder Qian Tong is right now?”
“Elder Qian…” Ma Xin Yuan’s expression changed slightly, as if he were slightly apprehensive. This reaction was shared by most of the Origin Returning cultivators gathered around. Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately realized that this group of cultivators were not under Qian Tong. They were probably on opposing sides within Shadow Moon Hall, otherwise, they would not have shown such expressions.
Looks like his prior deductions regarding the situation have been quite accurate.
“Elder Qian is naturally standing guard within Shadow Moon Hall. Listen up, brat! Not only did you destroy the Gathering Source Hall, you also injured our men. Don’t think that you can get away with this just by saying that you know Elder Qian. You’re not getting away today no matter what!” A middle-aged man towards the right exclaimed.
Yang Kai glanced at him and laughed lightly, “Of course I will not leave until the matter is settled. I came here today for two reasons.”
He pointed towards Yu Feng and the rest as he spoke, “To bring them back, and collect the resources you owe us while I’m at it.”
The numerous Origin Returning cultivators looked at one another, seeing the amusement in each other’s eyes. A few of them couldn’t help but laugh out loud, mocking Yang Kai’s inability to understand the extent of his own powers.
Xie Quan smirked at Yang Kai, “Such arrogance. Did you say you were going to bring them back? Have you asked whether this master agrees to that?”
“If you dare disagree, I will beat you until you change your mind!” Yang Kai exclaimed as he pointed his hand out. An artifact resembling an Artifact Refining Furnace appeared out of thin air, causing the temperature within a thousand-metre radius to rise rapidly. It caused everyone to feel as if they had suddenly fallen into a sea of fire, and even the air was being distorted due to the heat.
The next moment, a sharp shriek sounded out from within the furnace, and a ten-metre long Firebird of bright scarlet flew out. As it spread its wings, all the Fire Attribute World Energy in the Heavenly Fate City seemed to be pulled towards it, gathering within its body.
No one could have expected Yang Kai to be so daring as to make the first move even under such a clearly disadvantageous situation.
It was only after the Firebird absorbed the World Energy, growing to a massive size of over thirty metres, and starting to cover up the sky that the group of Origin Returning cultivators began to regain their senses. Xie Quan, in particular, was staring at the firebird with shaking eyes, exclaiming in shock, “Artifact Spirit! It’s an Artifact Spirit!”
No sooner had he finished speaking, that the Firebird spit a fireball the size of a washbasin at him.
The Artifact Spirit Firebird had awoken a month ago, which was one of the better pieces of news during the period of Yang Kai’s seclusion. After absorbing a strand of Sun’s True Fire, not only did it become more sapient, its strength increased drastically as well.
At the very least, the power of its flames was thirty percent stronger than when Yang Kai first obtained it.
Xie Quan’s face drained of all colour as he stared at the fireball approaching with an earth-crushing force. Completely tense against the imminent threat of death, he hurriedly took out his Defensive Artifact in hopes of mitigating the impact, at the same time turning and running away as quickly as possible.
Boom…
With a loud explosion, the fireball crashed down. The Defensive Artifact was not even able to hold for a single second before becoming badly damaged, losing all its lustre. A large pit appeared on the ground, the edges of which still showed signs of melting.
“This Artifact Spirit is fierce! Everyone, attack it together!” Xie Quan knew immediately that he would be no match for the Artifact Spirit.
Hearing this, the other Origin Returning cultivators all took out their artifacts, preparing to gang up on the Firebird. Everyone had a glint of excitement in their eyes, and no one bothered to direct any more attention towards Yang Kai.
In their eyes, the only reason why Yang Kai would so fearlessly go on the offensive was due to this Artifact Spirit. As long as they subdue it, what was a single Third-Order Saint King to them?
Furthermore, subduing this Artifact Spirit would benefit them greatly. In front of such a precious treasure, who had the time to care about Yang Kai?
Seeing that, Yang Kai laughed coldly and, with a wave of both hands, sent blasts of black fireballs shooting in all directions, causing the rest of the cultivators to fall all over the place. Where the Demonic Flames passed, everything ignited spontaneously. The ones with quicker reactions were able to scatter, while the ones who were too slow were swallowed whole by the flames, not a single bone remaining of them.
In an instant, this region of Heavenly Fate City had turned into a sea of fire, the intensity of the blaze threatening to burn a hole in the very heavens.
“Run!” Yang Kai shouted towards Chang Qi and Hao An.
The two of them took out their Star Shuttles, immediately dragging Yu Feng and the rest onto them. Mobilizing their Saint Qi, they headed straight out of Heavenly Fate City with the ex-detainees in tow.
“Stop them!” How could that goateed old man called Ma Xin Yuan allow them to escape from right under his eyes? With a single flash of the long sword held in his hand, he sent several bursts of Sword Waves towards Chang Qi and Hao Ao.
Yang Kai laughed coldly, immediately bringing out his purple shield and injecting Saint Qi into it. A gust of sandstorm immediately encased Chang Qi and the rest within it, protecting them. At the same time, Yang Kai sent out a hasty message to Chang Qi.
Chang Qi stared back for a moment before flying forward again at full speed, disappearing together with Hao An, Yu Feng, and the rest of the disciples.
The only one left on the ground was the brute who whipped them earlier, now howling in pain. He was mutilated beyond recognition and looked wretched to the extreme.
Yang Kai flicked a single burst of Demonic Flame at him with a single finger, causing him to burn away without a trace from the world. Yang Kai was not going to be merciful to someone from the Xie Family.
“Little Brat! How dare you kill a disciple of the Xie Family!” Xie Quan raged when he saw Yang Kai kill the brute.
“So what if I did? What can you do?!” Yang Kai’s expression was one of ferocity. The Demonic Flame shrouded his body, making it look like a savage god descended from the heavens, thirsting for blood.
As he spoke, he fired a strand of Saint Qi into the Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace floating in the air, causing it to start spinning. As it spun, bursts of flames emerged one after another, transforming into the shape of Firebirds and shooting out.
Those Firebirds were like miniature versions of the Artifact Spirit, looking very much the same, other than the smaller size and lower power. This was the Fire Attribute World Energy stored within the Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace itself. After spending tens of thousands of years burning within the Earth Lung Fire Pond, it was no ordinary item. Usually, Yang Kai only needed to release the Artifact Spirit in order to deal with his enemies, but against so many Origin Returning Realm masters, he didn’t dare to be careless, opting to invoke the force of the Furnace as well.
The Artifact Spirit Firebird spread both wings, causing countless fireballs to form and swarm towards the enemies like a cloud of locusts.
The combination of the two caused the many Origin Returning Realm masters to scramble in fear.
The already blazing Heavenly Fate City suffered even greater losses from this. All the houses and shops within a thousand-metre radius turned to ashes, leaving a seared, pitch-black wasteland where they once stood. Ten or so cultivators were too slow to avoid the attack and died on the spot.
Several gusts of Shi descended from the heavens, and Xie Quan exclaimed in fury, “Little brat! Now that those two old farts are gone, let’s see how a mere Saint King like you can escape!”
The pressure from more than ten layers of Shi stacked together caused Yang Kai to feel like he was completely unable to move. In response, two strands of Golden Thread shot out, furiously cutting away the formless Shi, causing their strength to decrease drastically. With that, Yang Kai took another step forward, his body suddenly blurring away, causing all of the Origin Returning cultivators to be unable to perceive where he went.
He was invoking the Space Force. Although this was not directly tearing space, it was enough to free him from the usual restrictions of space.
When he next appeared, he was already behind Xie Quan.
“Brother Xie, watch out!” No sooner had Yang Kai appeared than the goateed old man shouted.
Xie Quan similarly realized this, his expression changing to shock. A layer of white mist suddenly emerged from his body, wrapping around him and concealing his figure. Yang Kai snorted in disdain, letting a single strand of Golden Thread fly out and wrap around the white mist.
A small bursting sound rang out, followed by Xie Quan’s scream. The layer of white mist condensed, then spontaneously erupted, causing his figure to appear once again.
When the crowd registered the scene before them, they gasped in shock.
Xie Quan was standing at his original position, his face ashen. He stared blankly at the single strand of Golden Threaded passing right through his chest, shock written all over his expression. His eyes were filled with apprehension, and he did not dare move even a finger.
The other end of the Golden Thread was wrapped around Yang Kai’s finger.
He was so easily subdued by Yang Kai! Not only was it unexpected to the rest, but even Xie Quan himself did not imagine that he would fall so easily. All he knew was that the Golden Thread had mysterious properties and was sharp beyond measure. The Saint Qi protecting his body could not block it at all, or else he would not have been pierced by it so easily.
A sharp shriek came from overhead once again, and the gigantic Artifact Spirit Firebird moved to hover over Yang Kai’s head, its eyes scanning the area around it. Every Origin Returning Realm cultivator who met its gaze turned white in fear. Though their fight with it had not been long, everyone had realised how scary it was. One-on-one, not a single one of them was a match for it, and even if they teamed up, it was impossible to subjugate it. Even if this Artifact Spirit was not as strong as a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm, it was close.
“Move and you die.” Yang Kai’s voice sounded to Xie Quan like the cold wind blowing from the ninth pit of hell, sending a shiver down his spine.
Seeing that Xie Quan was obeying his instructions and standing there quietly, a look of satisfaction flashed across Yang Kai’s face. He then turned to the other Origin Returning Realm cultivators, and said, “I told you, I came here for two things. The first is done, now the second.”
“What do you want?” Xie Quan said bitterly.
“Return all of the Saint Crystals that you took from my Dragon Cave Mountain!” Yang Kai said coldly.
“Your Saint Crystals are in my Space Ring. Take it if you want.” Xie Quan said through clenched teeth. He had no choice but to obey Yang Kai right now.
Yang Kai glanced at his finger and sent the other Golden Thread out. It wrapped around Xie Quan’s finger, and in the next moment, both the ring and his finger landed onto Yang Kai’s palm.
Fresh blood spurted out, but Xie Quan could only clench his teeth and bear with the pain, not daring to make a single move.
Yang Kai scanned the contents of the ring with his Divine Sense, a smirk forming on his face, “Isn’t the quantity a little low?”
Not just a little, half of it was gone. The materials that Dragon Cave Mountain had ordered from Shadow Moon Hall this time around were worth twenty million Saint Crystals, yet only ten million could be found within the ring, with the rest nowhere to be found.
Xie Quan remained silent, but he glanced towards the goateed old man Ma Xin Yuan. Immediately, Yang Kai understood that they had already split the Saint Crystals that Yu Feng had brought, and the remaining half was probably on him. He stared coldly towards Ma Xin Yuan.
Ma Xin Yuan’s face was one of hesitation and unwillingness. Obviously, he wasn’t too happy to simply give up the profits he had just obtained. A whole ten million Saint Crystals! If it weren’t for this, why would Shadow Moon Hall assist the Xie Family in fighting against Yang Kai? Especially when the internal strife had gotten so heated that very few people could be sent out to deal with external affairs.
Seeing how he looked like he didn’t want to hand the Saint Crystals over, Yang Kai’s expression hardened, the second Golden Thread flying out once again and wrapping around Xie Quan’s shoulder.
Bathed in blood, Xie Quan’s arm fell to the ground. Everyone paled immediately, looking at Yang Kai in disbelief, not expecting him to be so ruthless as to inflict such a grievous injury without saying a single word.
Xie Quan had the tenacity to stay silent, at least. He didn’t make a single noise when his finger was cut off earlier, and similarly not when this whole arm was chopped off. All he did was to turn towards Ma Xin Yuan in anger, his dry lips cracking as he exclaimed, “Brother Ma! Are you simply going to watch as I get dissected by this little brat?”
At this point, Ma Xin Yuan knew that he could no longer keep the Saint Crystals for himself. The Xie Family still had Xie Li within the Shadow Moon Hall, whose position was even higher than his own. If he really allowed Xie Quan to die at the hands of Yang Kai, Xie Li would definitely come for him.
Clenching his teeth, he took the Space Ring off of his finger, taking out his personal belongings and throwing it over to Yang Kai as he spoke vehemently, “Little brat, the rest of the Saint Crystals are all in there. Now release him, unless you want a fight to the death!”
They initially thought that they had everything in control, only to have the entire plan come undone by the Artifact Spirit. Even this little brat called Yang Kai was extremely strange. Up until now, Ma Xin Yuan still hadn’t figured out how he was able to attack Xie Quan and subdue him.
While cursing Xie Quan’s carelessness, he was also starting to feel a little apprehension towards Yang Kai.
If he was able to subdue Xie Quan just like that, there’s a chance that he might be able to kill him. After all, he wasn’t much stronger than Xie Quan.
[Is he really a Third-Order Saint King?] Ma Xin Yuan had strong suspicions that Yang Kai was hiding his cultivation. Looking at how relaxed he was, it was clear that he still hadn’t played all his cards.
Catching the ring that Ma Xin Yuan threw over, Yang Kai did a quick check to make sure he didn’t lie, before nodding and keeping both rings. He ignored Ma Xin Yuan’s threat entirely, instead saying, “Now that I have the Saint Crystals back for, let’s settle the other grudge!”
“What is there to settle?” Ma Xin Yuan’s expression darkened.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Yang Kai snickered, “detaining the disciples of Dragon Cave Mountain, even going as far as to whip them. After causing them such injuries, did you think I was going to let this go?”
“Injuries…” Ma Xin Yuan roared in anger, “if that’s the case, what about all these shops you destroyed? The disciples you killed? Should I settle things with you as well?!”
“That’s your own fault. Our Dragon Cave Mountain has been fairly trading with you these past two years, never lagging behind on Saint Crystal payments, and yet you abuse our trust in such a way. Just try getting the word out. No one will side with you.”
“Alright then. State your terms!” Ma Xin Yuan seethed.
“Pay up!” Yang Kai went straight to the point, “If not, let’s see if you are prepared to face the consequences!”
“Are you threatening this old master, you little brat?!” Ma Xin Yuan shouted.
“Yes!” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes at him, “I’ll count to three. Disagree, and negotiations are over. One…”
Seeing how unrelenting Yang Kai was, to the point that he was actually starting to count, all the Origin Returning Realm cultivators’ expressions turned cold, a sense of helplessness arising despite their anger. Originally, they thought that their forces were more than enough to take down Dragon Cave Mountain, but things soon got out of hand.
“Two…”
When this number sounded out, Xie Quan started yelling urgently, “Brother Ma…”
Ma Xin Yuan looked at him from afar, an ambiguous expression flashing across his face as he said, “Brother Xie, it was a disciple of your Xie Family who caught and injured them, right? This doesn’t have much to do with Shadow Moon Hall, don’t you agree?”
Xie Quan looked stunned, then immediately felt a pang of anguish. While Ma Xin Yuan was technically correct in that the main perpetrators who engineered this episode against Dragon Cave Mountain were the Xie Family, the way he was shifting all the blame was still too hurtful. After all, they only proceeded with the plan after receiving orders to take the opportunity to test Qian Tong’s response. Either way, Ma Xin Yuan shouldn’t be trying to distance himself completely from this affair.
“Three!” Yang Kai grinned after reaching the last number, “looks like you’re not willing to pay up. Well then, allow me to collect it myself!”
As he said that, the Golden Thread on his hand trembled slightly, and amidst the golden radiance that seems to fill the skies, Xie Quan turned into a pile of mincemeat.
As the smell of blood wafted out, all the Origin Returning Realm cultivators stared in shock.