The Soaring Dragon Altar in the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda was actually nothing but a big scam.
The hundreds of Origin Kings who had gathered around really couldn’t accept this reality right away.
Near the Soaring Dragon Altar, everyone looked gloomy, especially as they glanced around at all the dead and broken bodies lying on the ground.
If the Soaring Dragon Altar was just a fraud, what had these people died for? Some of these people had relatives and friends among those who were still alive.
“Young Lady Qin, don’t you think you should give us an explanation about this?”
Suddenly, from the crowd, someone turned to look at Qin Yu, who was quite far in the rear, and asked coldly.
Qin Yu had also stopped in place a while ago, and because of her low strength, she had not advanced very far. At this moment, along with her guards, she was quite a bit behind the crowd, at least two hundred meters from the next closest person.
Hearing this accusation, Qin Yu frowned, raised her head, and said lightly, “What does this friend mean…?”
“Hmph, is Young Lady Qin not clear what I mean? You were the one who told us about this Soaring Dragon Altar, and we all believed you, but now it turns out to be nothing but a fake! After so many people were killed and injured here, does Young Lady Qin still want to feign ignorance?”
The speaker was filled with righteous indignation, as if Qin Yu had really cheated them and was responsible for the ones who had died.
What he said was in line with what many cultivators believed and there were not just a few who were staring towards Qin Yu with unkind expressions, seemingly wanting to vent their grievances on her.
Qin Yu’s brow furrowed even more severely, but before she could speak, the guard next to her couldn’t help coldly snorting and snapping, “This friend, would you mind thinking a bit before you speak? What does this matter have to do with my Young Lady?”
“What does it have to do with her? If it weren’t for Qin Yu Young Lady saying all that nonsense about this Soaring Dragon Altar, we wouldn’t have…”
“Wouldn’t have charged forward without hesitation?”
Before this man could finish speaking, Duan Tian Ci suddenly cut in and sneered, sending him a murderous glare, “Don’t be ridiculous. All of you know full well that even if Young Lady Qin didn’t say anything, with such a huge opportunity in front of you, you wouldn’t have just let it go.”
Duan Tian Ci was the son of the City Lord and his strength was not weak, so among the cultivators of Maplewood City, he enjoyed a very high status and popularity. Hearing what he said, many people lowered their heads and began to ponder, finding that what he said was indeed the truth.
Even without Qin Yu’s explanation, none of them would have just ignored this Soaring Dragon Altar. Just as they had now, they would have swarmed towards it and wound up in the exact same situation.
In other words, with or without Qin Yu, nothing would have changed.
“Young Lady Qin was kind enough to advise you, yet now you try to place the blame on her, have you no shame?” Duan Tian Ci looked at the cultivator who spoke before with a cold expression.
Naturally, this man didn’t dare disagree with Duan Tian Ci, and for a time, his eyes began to swim.
“Good, Young Lady Qin is not at fault. If anyone dares to accuse her again, they will become enemies of my Raging Fire Temple,” Zong Zi Jin added indifferently.
“My Jiang Family also agrees!” Jiang Chu He chimed in with a smile, not missing this chance to take the righteous stance and improve his Jiang Family’s reputation.
“Naturally, we won’t blame Young Lady Qin. What just happened was some irresponsible rhetoric by a few disgruntled miscreants. Young Lady Qin doesn’t have to care about such trivial whining.”
“Yes, if it were not for Young Lady Qin, we would not even know what this thing was, but instead of offering thanks some people actually dare make accusations. These people are simply a disgrace to my Maplewood City’s cultivators. It is embarrassing to even stand among them!”
…..
As the crowd swiftly took a stand, the face of the man who had just been accusing Qin Yu flushed a deep red, like he could not wait to find a hole to crawl into and never come out again.
Not far away, Qin Yu smiled and said elegantly, “Many thanks for all your understanding, but… this Mistress did not speak incorrectly, this Soaring Dragon Altar really has a very precious treasure.”
“Where?” Duan Tian Ci and Zong Zi Jin’s expressions became hot as they hurriedly asked.
Yang Kai’s heart sank as he stared at Qin Yu fixedly, praying she would not say anything unnecessary.
Qin Yu smiled slightly and replied, “This Soaring Dragon Altar itself… is a treasure. Perhaps the things placed on it were merely illusions, but the Soaring Dragon Altar itself is refined from authentic Dragon Bone, an Artifact Refining material coveted even by Emperors.”
With just these words, everyone’s expressions became fierce again.
Qin Yu, however, quickly sighed, “But… with just our paltry strength, there is no way we can destroy this Soaring Dragon Altar or take it away, otherwise, it would not still exist inside this Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda. If that were possible, it would have been taken away by a powerful master long ago, and if we were to try to attack it, it would likely trigger a very powerful restriction, so this Mistress advises everyone to not act rashly.”
Hearing what she said, the expressions of Zong Zi Jin and Duan Tian Ci gradually calmed down as they turned to look at the huge Soaring Dragon Altar and sighed.
A giant treasure was right in front of them, but they were unable to seize it, leaving them with complicated expressions.
“By the way, Young Lady Qin,” Yang Kai, who had not spoken until now, suddenly cupped his fists and asked, “Since Young Lady Qin seems to know something about this Soaring Dragon Altar, dare I ask… when will we be able to leave here? After all, those who tried to retreat earlier… Everyone saw their end. We won’t be trapped here permanently, right?”
“Yes, Young Lady Qin, please advise us!” Many people also suddenly realized this problem and turned their attention to Qin Yu.
Qin Yu took a deep glance at Yang Kai before smiling and saying, “You can leave now. Once the treasures on the Soaring Dragon Altar have disappeared, the restriction will also lose its effect. What’s more, this Soaring Dragon Altar will disappear within half an hour. As for when it will re-appear, no one knows. However… you can also choose not to leave; after all, the Dragon Pressure still exists, and the benefits of cultivating here… this Mistress need not explain.”
Yang Kai felt quite uncomfortable under her gaze, always feeling like she could see through him, but he still knew how to express his gratitude, “Many thanks for your instruction, Young Lady Qin.”
Having said that, he did not move.
One should always learn from other’s mistakes. He did not want to be killed inexplicably by the light shot out from the Soaring Dragon Altar.
As such, he simply sat down cross-legged, took out a Source Condensing Pill, and swallowed it, using it in combination with the powerful Dragon Pressure here to further transform his strength.
Yang Kai was not alone in his approach, as none of the other cultivators moved either, all of them waiting for someone to take the risk first. Most cultivators followed Yang Kai’s example, sitting down cross-legged, obviously not wanting to waste this great opportunity.
As for the remaining people, they were eager to leave here and search for treasures elsewhere, but none of them had the guts to move, so their eyes continued to wander about, hoping for someone to make the first move.
Seeing this situation, Qin Yu smiled lightly, turned around, and walked outwards a few steps.
“Young Lady!” The guards around her were shocked and hurriedly called out, cold sweat dripping from their foreheads.
However, they soon relaxed as Qin Yu did not encounter an attack from the Soaring Dragon Altar. It seemed that what she said before was true: Once the treasure on the altar disappeared, the Spirit Array keeping them here also lost its function.
With Qin Yu setting an example, many cultivators also turned outwards and flew off.
Soon, there were only a few dozen cultivators left near the Soaring Dragon Altar.
Yang Kai was among them.
He had withdrawn the power of his Golden Divine Dragon Source and was now using his body alone to bear the terrifying Dragon Pressure. Under the catalysis of the Source Condensing Pill’s medicinal efficacies, he felt his Saint Qi rapidly being transformed into Source Qi.
A quick calculation allowed Yang Kai to estimate that half an hour of cultivation here was worth about ten days of effort outside.
Just as Qin Yu said, half an hour later, accompanied by a rumbling sound, the Soaring Dragon Altar sank back into the ground under the influence of some inexplicable force.
Another half cup of tea’s time later, the Soaring Dragon Altar was gone.
Even the Dragon Pressure had disappeared without a trace.
Yang Kai sighed and stood up.
Turning his head to look around, he saw the few dozen remaining cultivators also stand, some of them alone while others were in groups, but each of them lived in peace with one another at this moment.
Soon, the few dozen people flew off in different directions.
Yang Kai also arbitrarily picked a direction and left to continue looking for the Five Coloured Light Pillar that led to the second layer.
A short time later though, as he flew forward, he suddenly frowned and increased his speed.
After an hour, Yang Kai’s expression had turned ugly, and he came to a halt before turning around and staring behind himself.
Initially, there was no one behind him, but soon a streak of light appeared in the distance.
As this light drew closer, Yang Kai could see that it was actually a flight-type artifact similar to the ones he had previously seen.
On the deck of this ship, a slender figure stood looking in his direction. After seeing Yang Kai, this graceful figure turned around and seemed to issue some kind of order.
Soon, the ship arrived in front of Yang Kai and landed slowly.
“Young Lady Qin!” Yang Kai looked at Qin Yu and the few Origin King Realm guards who were accompanying her with a gloomy expression, “What are Young Lady Qin’s intentions? Did you think I would not notice you following me all this time?”
Qin Yu heard the meaning behind his tone and quickly apologized, “Please don’t misunderstand, Your Excellency, this Mistress was not intentionally trying to follow you. Your Excellency’s speed was simply too fast, and my Qin Family’s ship was unable to catch up, leading to the current situation.”
Yang Kai’s frown relaxed slightly as he asked, “Young Lady Qin means she has something to discuss with me?”
“Yes,” Qin Yu nodded when she heard these words.
“I do not believe Young Lady Qin and I have ever met before, so what is it that you are looking for me for?” Yang Kai looked confused, but instinctively rejected this frail-looking woman. In front of her, Yang Kai always had an inexplicable sense of insecurity.
“While it is true we have never met before, this Mistress simply had a question she wished to ask Your Excellency.”
“A question?”
“Good, may I ask Your Excellency’s surname?”
“That’s what you wanted to ask?” Yang Kai was stunned.
“Naturally not,” Qin Yu smiled before suddenly coughing slightly, taking a moment to compose herself before explaining, “What this Mistress wanted to ask was not this question…”
Yang Kai nodded and said, “My surname is Yang.”
“So, it is Brother Yang,” Qin Yu nodded before immediately moving her lips lightly, her delicate voice sounding directly into Yang Kai’s ears.
“Dare I ask Brother Yang, was there really no treasure on that Soaring Dragon Altar?”
“Dare I ask Brother Yang, was there really no treasure on the Soaring Dragon Altar?”
Qin Yu’s voice clearly rang in Yang Kai’s ears.
“Why would Young Lady Qin ask that?” Yang Kai looked at Qin Yu in amazement, looking extremely surprised.
Qin Yu stared deeply into Yang Kai’s eyes with a clear and flawless gaze, as if trying to see into the depths of his heart.
Yang Kai stared back flatly but soon frowned and asked in a low voice, “Young Lady Qin means… Could it be that among the dozen or so treasures on the Soaring Dragon Altar, some weren’t illusions?”
“Haha…” Qin Yu smiled, “This Mistress cannot say for certain and was just asking casually. At that time, only Brother Yang, Brother Duan, and Brother Zong were near the Soaring Dragon Altar, so only the three of you were able to check all the items carefully.”
Yang Kai shook his head and said, “I did not see any real treasures there, and according to my observations, neither of the other two obtained any benefits.”
“So that’s how it is, this Mistress simply thought too much,” Qin Yu nodded apologetically.
“Is this what Young Lady Qin wanted to ask?”
“Yes, it seems I have wasted Brother Yang’s time. I apologize.”
“It’s fine. If there is nothing else, then this one will take his leave,” Yang Kai cupped his fists and turned to go.
“Brother Yang, please wait!” Qin Yu suddenly called out.
“Is there something else?” Yang Kai frowned, a little displeased. If it were not for the fact that the other party was a weak woman who had a gentle and forthright temperament, he wouldn’t have bothered even speaking to her; after all, he and Qin Yu were strangers who had only just met.
“Please calm yourself, Brother Yang, this Mistress simply wanted to ask Brother Yang if he was seeking the entrance to the second layer?”
“What of it?” Yang Kai didn’t try to deny it.
“Then does Brother Yang know where that entrance is?”
Yang Kai shook his head. He only knew that the entrance was a Five Coloured Light Pillar, but where exactly that pillar was, he had no clue. Kang Si Ran had not mentioned anything about it at the time.
Nonetheless, since a giant Five Coloured Light Pillar was quite a dazzling sight, it should not be difficult to find. As long as he was close enough, he should be able to discover some clues.
However, seeing the look on Qin Yu’s face, Yang Kai suddenly realized that things might not be as simple as he thought so he could not help raising his brow and asking, “Does Young Lady Qin know where the entrance is?”
“I don’t know the exact location,” Qin Yu shook her head apologetically.
Yang Kai was stunned speechless at once.
Qin Yu smiled and followed up though, “But, while this Mistress doesn’t know the specific location, she has a general idea…”
Lowering her voice further, she whispered, “Between the mountains, beyond the misty banks of fog, surrounded by a clear river spring, the pillar of light appears.”
“Between the mountains, beyond the misty banks of fog, surrounded by a clear river spring, the pillar of light appears?” Yang Kai repeated with a frown.
“En!” Qin Yu nodded, “The Five Coloured Light Pillar is the only entrance to the second layer, but if one does not arrive at exactly the right spot, they will never be able to find it. Even if one passes right by it, there is a chance they will not notice.”
“Is this something you learned from your ancient books as well?” Yang Kai looked at her in surprise.
Qin Yu nodded.
“Young Lady Qin’s knowledge is truly profound!” Yang Kai admired sincerely.
Qin Yu’s pale face showed a slight blush, and for a moment seemed to be a bit more energetic, but she soon shook her head and said, “Brother Yang is too polite, this Mistress simply knows some superficial things while being unable to ascend to gain true understanding. In truth, this Mistress is now on her way to search for the entrance to the second layer. If Brother Yang does not mind, would he like to accompany me?”
She had invited Yang Kai.
Yang Kai heard this and could not help glancing at the ship behind her, a hesitant look appearing on his face.
If he had such a ship, he could save a lot of energy and could even rest and recuperate onboard while still advancing forward, which was a distinct advantage.
However…
“This Yang appreciated Young Lady Qin’s kind offer, but he is more accustomed to travelling alone,” Yang Kai thought it over for a moment but eventually declined Qin Yu’s proposal.
Qin Yu wore a look of disappointment, but did not try to force the issue, simply nodding and saying, “In that case, this Mistress will not disturb Brother Yang any further. I wish Brother Yang good fortune.”
“To you as well, farewell!” Yang Kai cupped his fists before turning away and flying off.
“Hmph, can’t appreciate kindness!” After his figure disappeared, a guard next to Qin Yu stared in the direction Yang Kai’s flew off and coldly snorted cry, a look of dissatisfaction filling his face, apparently incensed on behalf of Qin Yu.
Qin Yu simply smiled and said, “He’s simply acting cautiously, how could that be the same as not appreciate kindness? I think it is normal for him to have made such a choice.”
“Young Lady, you are far too generous,” The guard looked upset, “By the way, Young Lady, why did you ask him that before? Weren’t all the treasures on that Soaring Dragon Altar fake?”
“Perhaps… but… from what I saw in the ancient records, things should have been a little different. I don’t know what happened.”
After saying a few words, Qin Yu suddenly coughed violently.
The guard became panicked and quickly said, “Young Lady, let us return inside, the wind is quite strong outside.”
“En,” Qin Yu nodded lightly before turning around and heading into the ship.
…
At the same time, somewhere in the first layer, there was a petite woman with a striking crescent-shaped birthmark on her face. It was none other than Mo Xiao Qi, who had been with Yang Kai at the entrance of the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda.
At this moment, Mo Xiao Qi was riding a Monster Beast that resembled a lion and a tiger. The Monster Beast had a fierce look, and its fur was a mixture of snow white and silver. It possessed a giant body and when it breathed, the heat from its nose seemed to contain a mysterious force that caused the ground before it to melt slightly.
If anyone else was here, they would be incredibly shocked.
Because the creature Mo Xiao Qi was riding was the famous Silver Maned Liger. Although this Monster Beast could not trace its lineage to the Ancient Divine Spirits, it was still an extremely powerful creature that was born as a Fifth-Order Monster Beast. As long as this Monster Beast’s aptitude and fortune weren’t bad, it could easily grow to the Tenth-Order and possibly even reach the Eleventh-Order at its peak.
In other words, a fully matured Silver Maned Liger could compare with an Origin King, or even Dao Source Realm, master.
Some legends even told of Twelfth-Order Ligers which were as strong as Emperors!
This Silver Maned Liger was obviously not comparable to a Dao Source cultivator as it only exuded a peak Tenth-Order aura, but it was still not to be underestimated.
Silver Maned Ligers were famous for their wild ferocity, not something an ordinary cultivator could subdue. Even if an Emperor Realm master took action, they might not necessarily succeed in taming one. The most likely result would be that the Liger would fight to the death, choosing to die rather than submit.
But now, this majestic Silver Maned Liger was being used as a simple mount by Mo Xiao Qi. What’s more, it didn’t seem the least bit dissatisfied, obeying all of the young girl’s orders without question, a stunning sight to behold.
In front of Mo Xiao Qi, there was a strange beast about the size of a palm flying about. This strange beast looked like a bat and was quite unremarkable at first glance; but judging from the aura fluctuations coming from its body, it was apparently a Tenth-Order Monster Beast.
This Heaven Escaping Bat, like the Silver Maned Liger, was another extremely rare species.
It was a wonder where Mo Xiao Qi had acquired these two precious Monster Beasts and how she had gotten them to obey her so loyally.
It was not even clear if these two Monster Beasts had been subdued by Mo Xiao Qi before she entered the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda or after.
“Xiao Fu, quickly find the entrance! If you do, I’ll give you something delicious… Xiao Yin, you also walk a bit faster, don’t be sluggish now,” Mo Xiao Qi sat on the back of the Liger and gave out orders, obviously looking for the entrance to the second layer.
The Heaven Escaping Bat named Xiao Fu by Mo Xiao Qi seemed to have some special abilities and was leading her across a certain mountain range covered in fog and lined with streams. These mountains were quite strange, seemingly stretching up into the Heavens and out to the horizon, making it impossible to see what lay beyond them.
Amidst these mountains, the babbling of mountain springs seemed to echo all around in a disorienting manner.
The Heaven Escaping Bat flew directly past a certain mountain spring before stopping and fluttering in place.
Mo Xiao Qi quickly had her Liger follow and when she arrived on the other side of the stream, she looked up and laughed, “That wasn’t too hard to find… En, I must be the first one here hehe.”
Just as she was about to go forward though, she suddenly remembered something and said, “Right, I should see where Big Brother Yang is first.”
Saying so, she took out a bead from her Space Ring and sent her Qi into it. A moment later though, she showed a look of disappointment and shook her head, “This place is really too big, the Sound Bead can’t reach. Could it be because the World Principles are too fragmented here as well? Forget it, Big Brother Yang will certainly come here eventually. Xiao Fu, you wait here, and when you see Big Brother Yang, bring him to find me on the second layer.”
After leaving this command, she took out a jade slip, poured her Divine Sense into it, and left some information in it before hanging it around the Heaven Escaping Bat’s neck and rushing forward happily.
A moment later, in a brilliant flash of light, Mo Xiao Qi and the Liger disappeared.
The Heaven Escaping Bat circled around for a moment before it suddenly dove into a pile of rocks and vanished into the ground.
…
On the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda’s third layer, Lan Xun wandered around surveying the surrounding environment. She was exuding a faint glow that seemed to be capable of repelling all dangers from her.
At a certain point, she arrived at a secluded mountain valley and after scanning it carefully, she smiled happily and nodded, “Here.”
Saying so, she took out some Spirit Array equipment from her Space Ring and got to work.
Two days later, she had finished arranging everything and took out a large amount of Source Crystals, creating a big pile nearby. Only after this was done did she sit down cross-legged and begin circulating some kind of mysterious Secret Art while impacting the bottleneck to the Dao Source Realm.
As time passed, Lan Xun’s tender body began to emit a faint suction force that drew in many firefly-like wisps from nearby. These wisps looked similar to the starlight wisps Yang Kai had absorbed in the Starlight Corridor some time ago.
However, if one examined them carefully, they would discover that these wisps were completely different in nature.
The starlight in the Starlight Corridor was a kind of catalyst that could promote the transformation of Saint Qi into Source Qi.
But the wisps here were actually shattered World Principles.
As these wisps entered her body, Lan Xun was able to more clearly grasp Principle Strength, and her aura began to slowly increase in intensity.
Five days after entering the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda, somewhere in the first layer, Yang Kai landed indifferently from the air besides two other cultivators who were staring at the fresh corpse of a Monster Beast.
Unlike Yang Kai’s indifference, the two other cultivators were extremely excited.
These two cultivators, one wearing blue, the other white, were both men and Third-Order Origin Kings.
The group of three had not exchanged given names and only knew one another by their surnames. The reason for this was because they were just a temporarily gathered alliance.
After separating from Qin Yu, Yang Kai had been constantly searching for the entrance to the second layer, but after arriving at a certain spot, he had come across these two cultivators and heard an interesting story from them.
Yang Kai learned that the two of them had discovered some rare Golden Crystal Grasses, but these Golden Crystal Grasses were guarded by four Iron Arm Spirit Apes. Iron Arm Spirit Apes had extremely tough skin and amazing natural defence, so when the two of them had fought against these four previously, they were unable to gain any advantage and were forced to withdraw. As such, they were now looking for another helper to deal with these four Monster Beasts.
Yang Kai happened to pass by at this time, so the pair invited him to cooperate.
After listening to their story, Yang Kai immediately decided to join the group.
Although he did not know what Golden Crystal Grass was, since it could draw the attention of two Third-Order Origin Kings, it would certainly be of great value.
It was just four Monster Beasts, so it would not cost Yang Kai much time.
Furthermore, he did not put these two Third-Order Origin Kings in his eyes. Even if they were plotting something, Yang Kai felt that he could handle whatever they threw at him with his current strength.
After some inquiries, Yang Kai learned that the Golden Crystal Grass was actually a rare spirit grass that could aid one’s Body Tempering. Even if it was directly swallowed and refined, it could increase the strength and toughness of a cultivator’s body. If it could be refined into Golden Crystal Pills, the effect would be even better.
It was for this exact reason that the four Iron Arm Spirit Apes had decided to live where these Golden Crystal Grasses grew.
With their group of three, they launched an attack.
Of the four Iron Arm Spirit Apes, the largest one had a cultivation at the peak of the Tenth-Order, which was equivalent to a peak Origin King. If it was given a few more years, breaking through to the Eleventh-Order would not be a problem. As for the other three, they were equivalent to Second-Order Origin Kings.
If they were ordinary Monster Beasts, two Third-Order Origin Kings would have been able to deal with them somehow.
But Iron Arm Spirit Apes had astonishing defensive and offensive power. What’s more, they were a tenacious species that did not seem to fear death, so in the previous fight, the pair had suffered quite a bit but gained nothing in the end.
However, after Yang Kai joined, the situation was completely different.
Although Yang Kai held back, he still had no problem entangling the big Iron Arm Spirit Ape.
The other two teamed up to use their artifacts to kill the three small apes before joining Yang Kai and launching a concentrated attack, causing it to fall after a short struggle.
“Brother Yang’s methods are profound, tying down that evil animal with ease and emerging unscathed, this Zhao is impressed,” The man in blue smiled in a somewhat forced manner as he praised.
“En, this slightly longer Iron Arm Spirit Ape made Brother Zhao and I almost suffer serious injury before. I didn’t expect Brother Yang would be able to deal with it for so long. This Sun is ashamed of his inferiority,” The man in white also spoke.
“Two friends are too polite, this Yang’s Movement Skill is just a bit more flexible. Although this beast is indeed strong, as long as I could distract it while not letting it hit me, its strength doesn’t mean anything,” Yang Kai said lightly.
The men surnamed Zhao and Sun looked at each other and didn’t say anything, instead just laughing awkwardly and glossing over the matter.
After all, when the three of them teamed up to deal with the last Iron Arm Spirit Ape, they had witnessed Yang Kai’s performance up close and knew that it was not just his Movement Skill that was extraordinary…
At this moment, both of them felt a little fear towards Yang Kai.
“Now that these four beasts are dead, we should first harvest their Blood Essence, fur, and fangs. All of it is good material that should not be wasted,” Zhao Peng suggested.
“Indeed, especially their pelts, they can be used to refine high quality defensive artifacts,” Sun Qian continued happily.
Saying so, the trio did not waste any time and used their own methods to process the four Iron Arm Spirit Apes.
Not long after, the three showed looks of satisfaction. Splitting the materials amongst themselves, they only left behind some useless pieces of meat and bone.
“Now, it’s just the Golden Crystal Grass left. I don’t know how many there are, but I hope there are many,” Zhao Peng looked at a nearby cave with a fiery gaze.
“We’ll only know after we take a look,” Yang Kai smiled slightly and took the lead as he walked towards the cave.
The men surnamed Zhao and Sun exchanged a glance before hurriedly following.
The cave was dark and damp, and there was a foul smell in the air which made people want to vomit. The bones of many other Monster Beasts were piled up near the entrance of the cave that when stepped on made an unnerving crackling sound.
The four Iron Arm Spirit Apes had obviously made this place their home for some time now.
After a short walk, the trio arrived at the back of the cave.
In front of them, there was a stone block roughly twenty meters across on top of which there were a dozen or so small golden blades of grass about the size of a finger that exuded a metallic lustre.
Three Divine Senses swept out and after confirming that there were no hidden dangers, the trio approached the stone pier.
“Haha, there are thirteen stalks!” Zhao Peng said with clear joy.
“We can’t divide them evenly though,” Sun Qian frowned as he thought of another matter.
Yang Kai just chuckled, “Since there are thirteen stalks, we can each take four then convert the last one into Source Crystals. The one who wants it most can take out those Source Crystals and compensate the other two.”
“En, Brother Yang’s suggestion is good,” The men surnamed Zhao and Sun naturally had no reason to refuse and nodded quickly.
The trio split twelve Golden Crystal Grasses amongst themselves before discussing an appropriate price for the last stalk. Yang Kai eventually bought it for five thousand Source Crystals.
Everyone was happy.
“It has been a rewarding cooperation, I hope there will be another chance in the future,” The man surnamed Zhao smiled and said to Yang Kai, cupping his fists politely.
“Yes, Brother Yang is very capable. I do hope we can work together again,” The man surnamed Sun added.
“If there is a chance,” Yang Kai said in a perfunctory manner. “Since our business is concluded, I will take my leave.”
“May we meet again, Brother Yang!” The men surnamed Zhao and Sun quickly cupped their fists and replied.
Yang Kai nodded and turned to walk out of the cave.
When he reached the entrance, however, he turned around and asked, “Aren’t you two going to look for the entrance to the second layer?”
Zhao Peng chuckled and said, “Naturally, we are planning to do that, but during the previous battle, this Zhao expended quite a bit of strength, so he is going to restore himself first. Please do not mind me, Brother Yang.”
The man surnamed Sun nodded, indicating he would do the same.
Yang Kai showed a look of understanding before nodding and turning around to leave while the other two sat down and took out some restorative Spirit Pills from their Space Rings and stuffed them into their mouths, closing their eyes to adjust their breathing.
For a time, the cave was silent.
Only after a long wait did the man surnamed Sun suddenly open his eyes and whisper, “He should be gone now.”
“It’s been so long already; do you think he’d linger around?” The man surnamed Zhao commented.
“Brother Zhao, why did you tell me not to act rashly just now? Golden Crystal Grass is extremely rare, so letting him just take five of them away is really not worth it. Also, judging from the way he bid for the last one, he seemed to have a lot of Source Crystals on him. If we could kill him…”
“Do you think the two of us are his opponents?” The man surnamed Zhao heard this and coldly snorted.
“Why not? Although his performance just now was quite good, and he was probably still concealing some of his strength, isn’t it the same for us? With the two of us acting together, why would we need to fear him?” The man surnamed Sun looked unconvinced.
“That’s only because you don’t know how terrifying he really is!” The man surnamed Zhao scoffed, “Remember how I told you before that I encountered the Soaring Dragon Altar? During that incident, I saw a man kill Kui Sha with a single strike, with Kui Sha being unable to put up any kind of resistance.”
“Kui Sha? Kui Sha of the Blood Transformation Sect?” Sun Qian was startled.
“En, how do you think we compare to Kui Sha?”
“Naturally, we’re not as strong. Although Blood Transformation Sect isn’t a powerful Sect, it is still on par with Raging Fire Temple. Even I have heard of Kui Sha as he is a young talent with a promising future.”
“That’s why I didn’t let you act just now. I didn’t remember where I had seen that guy surnamed Yang at first, but after watching him fight, I remembered that he was the one who killed Kui Sha! Even if both you and I acted together, we would definitely not be his opponent and our end would be disastrous.”
“So that’s how it is! Many thanks, Brother Zhao, for your prompt reminder. Otherwise, if I had torn face with him…” The man surnamed Sun shivered slightly as sweat dripped from his forehead.
“Forget it, let’s not talk about it anymore. Fortunately, this person seems to be a bit ignorant, not even knowing the details about Golden Crystal Grass, even going so far as to ask us about its uses.”
“En, he’s a strange one. With such great strength, how could he not know anything about Golden Crystal Grass?” The man surnamed Sun wondered.
“It’s best that he knows nothing, it allows us to pick up a bargain. Since he did not know about Golden Crystal Grass, he naturally wouldn’t know that Golden Crystal Grass will only grow above rare ore deposits. In other words, there is definitely some valuable ore vein below here!” The man surnamed Zhao smiled slightly.
“Alright, now that he’s left, we should get to work. If we can find a piece of Emperor Grade ore, you and I will become rich.”
“How could Emperor Grade ore be so easy to find? It is rumoured that Emperor Grade ores only appear above the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda’s third layer while we’re still just on the first, but… a piece of Dao Source Grade ore is still quite good.”
After the two spoke, they no longer hesitated and each began using their own methods to excavate the area beneath the stone pier. It was not long until a big hole was blasted open in the stone and the pair began using different methods to dig down into the ground.
“Sure enough, they hid something!” Not far away, using his Secret Technique Nihility to conceal himself, Yang Kai coldly snorted.
Previously, Yang Kai had felt that these two had been hiding something from him.
After all, this cave where the Iron Arm Spirit Apes lived was dark, humid, and smelt terrible, yet the two of them had actually chosen to stay here to meditate after acquiring the Golden Crystal Grass. Obviously, they had other intentions.
If it were not for there being significant benefits to doing so, how could they have chosen to remain in such an environment?
So, Yang Kai pretended to leave, but had gone into hiding nearby to quietly investigate.
As soon as he felt signs of the two people using their strength, he affirmed his judgment.
However, in this situation, Yang Kai felt somewhat awkward simply appearing and killing them; after all, although the pair surnamed Zhao and Sun had concealed something from him, they also had not acted against him. If anyone was to blame, it was him for being ignorant and uninformed.
[Seems like… after this time, I have to study up on the various materials and herbs of the Star Boundary, otherwise, I’ll continue to suffer similar losses in the future.]
Yang Kai did not know what was buried underground that was worth Zhao and Sun digging up, but since it wasn’t convenient for him to appear directly, he simply chose to continue to hide.
The movement inside the cave continued for some time and soon a large hole was dug up. However, the pair surnamed Zhao and Sun just continued to dig and dig without pause.
After a full half a day, at the mouth of the cave, the pair surnamed Zhao and Sun walked out one after another, their expressions filled with frowns and frustration rather than happiness.
“Such bad luck, wasting a whole half a day like that,” The man surnamed Zhao grumbled.
“En, who would have thought that things would turn out like this. If I had only known before, I would have just left directly,” The man surnamed Sun also sighed.
“Forget it, there’s nothing we can do about it anyway, let’s just hurry up to find the entrance to the second layer. We don’t know when this Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda is going to close, so we have to hurry to obtain more benefits, especially those Dao Source Fruits!”
After exchanging a few words, the pair showed no intention of idling and summoned their flight type artifacts and flew off.
A short time later, Yang Kai’s figure appeared mysteriously, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face as he stared in the direction the two had left.
Judging from the previous conversation between the two, it seemed they have failed to obtain any benefits from the cave. If that wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t have seemed so annoyed. However, the two clearly had expected something but seemed to have obtained nothing.
This puzzled Yang Kai greatly.
With a flicker, he returned to the cave again and when he arrived at its deepest point, he laid eyes on a giant hole where the stone pier once stood.
Yang Kai didn’t hesitate to jump in.
Not long after, he landed at the bottom of the pit and after a sweep with his Divine Sense, he immediately understood the situation.
The efficiency of the two surnamed Zhao and Sun was commendable, as could be expected of two Third-Order Origin Kings. In just half a day, they had actually dug out a pit almost five hundred metres across and a few hundred metres deep.
There were no signs of this hole collapsing either.
Yang Kai looked around and couldn’t help admiring the pair’s methods.
However, inside this pit, there was only a single, giant ore!
Yang Kai did not recognize this ore which had a light green hue to it that made it look like it was covered in moss.
The edges of this ore had been excavated out so Yang Kai could clearly see its irregular shape, but in terms of size, it was at least as big as ten houses.
In front of Yang Kai, there were also some traces of this ore being attacked.
There were many marks and scratches a few inches deep on the surface of this ore that were clearly freshly made.
These marks were obviously left behind by the pair surnamed Zhao and Sun just now.
Yang Kai suddenly understood why those two had shown such annoyed expressions when they left the cave.
It turned out that underground, there were indeed benefits to be had, but… the two of them were unable to take this ore away with them and could only sigh in frustration!
Such a large piece of ore was not something an ordinary Space Ring could accommodate. Obviously, the pair surnamed Zhao and Sun knew this and wanted to try to break off pieces of this ore to take away, the scratches left here being the best evidence of their thinking.
Unfortunately for them, this ore seemed to be extremely hard, and even with their strength, they were unable to break it into pieces. In the end, the pair could only give up to avoid wasting more time.
Yang Kai, however, just stared at this ore with bright eyes and smiled happily.
His Space Ring was no different from others, and naturally could not hold such a big piece of ore, but he also had his Sealed World Bead!
Many years ago, he had managed to stuff his thousand-metre tall Embodiment directly into the Sealed World Bead, so retrieving this piece of ore would be no issue.
In any case, it was much smaller than his Embodiment from that time.
Since this ore had appeared in the first layer of the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda, it was definitely not Emperor Grade. Yang Kai estimated it was some kind of Dao Source or Origin King Grade mineral.
Even so, being this large had to make it quite valuable.
The Embodiment now cultivated the Heaven Devouring Battle Law and needed to swallow a massive amount of material to strengthen itself. This giant ore would be a good resource for this process.
Considering all this, he no longer hesitated, sat down cross-legged, and began wantonly spreading out his Divine Sense, trying to envelop the entire ore with it.
Soon after, Yang Kai let out a low roar as his Divine Sense erupted at full strength.
The next moment, the huge ore in front of him disappeared and reappeared inside his Sealed World Bead.
After completing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help shaking somewhat as his face turned pale and a sharp pain pierced through his head.
Yang Kai did not panic, though, and just quickly took out a Spirit Pill used to restore Spiritual Energy and stuffed it into his mouth.
Time passed slowly, and after another half a day passed, Yang Kai let out a long breath and opened his eyes.
His Spiritual Energy had been mostly restored now. Fortunately, with the help of his Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy recovered several dozen times faster than ordinary cultivators. If this weren’t the case, with his current realm and his previous effort, it would have taken him at least ten days to recover.
Scanning the Sealed World Bead with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai found that the huge ore had already been moved to where his Embodiment was.
At this moment, his Embodiment was also a little different than before.
Although it was still a giant as high as a mountain, it was undoubtedly much smaller than the last time Yang Kai saw it. What’s more, around his Embodiment was a ten-metre thick pile of impurities scattered around.
As Yang Kai waited and watched for a while, he saw more and more gravel falling from his Embodiment, making for quite the spectacular sight.
Yang Kai was very satisfied. According to this speed, in as short as half a year or as long as a year, his Embodiment would be able to provide him with assistance again, and not simply need to remain on the sidelines due to its extreme size.
Retracting his Divine Sense, Yang Kai jumped out of the pit, walked out of the cave, picked a direction, and flew off.
…
Seven days later, Yang Kai frowned as he stared at a mountain range in front of him with a somewhat anxious look on his face.
He had been searching for the entrance to the second layer all this time but had not found any trace of it so far.
What Qin Yu said that day to him still rang in his ears, and Yang Kai did not believe she had been deceiving him, so he had followed her instructions and searched through all the mountains he came across.
Yang Kai had scoured several locations already but so far found nothing.
He also didn’t know if the mountain range ahead was the target he was looking for.
Regardless, he had to take a look to know.
With a flicker, Yang Kai’s figure moved forward.
After a short while, Yang Kai landed at the base of a certain mount, looked around, and flashed a happy smile.
Because this place, surrounded by mountains and covered in mist, actually fit the first part of Qin Yu’s description perfectly.
Just as he secretly felt that he was on the right track, a small black shadow suddenly shot out from nearby. Yang Kai instinctively stretched out his hand and palmed towards this approaching shadow.
The black shadow’s reaction was extremely fast, though, and the moment it was attacked, it turned straight up to dodge this blow before falling back down at an equally quick speed while letting out a stream of squeaks.
Its tone was that of a one who had been wronged.
Yang Kai froze on the spot upon hearing these cries and stared at the black shadow which had suddenly pounced on him.
It wasn’t until now that he was able to clearly see that this dark shadow was actually a palm-sized Monster Beast which looked like a bat. Flapping its wings quickly, it seemed to be quite nimble, and judging from its reaction just now, its speed was nothing to scoff at.
At that moment, this bat-like Monster Beast flew up to Yang Kai and circled him a few times while using its small eyes to seemingly evaluate him.
Yang Kai was quite surprised by all of this.
Before he could figure out what this Monster Beast wanted to do though, he heard a series of squeaks coming from it as it opened its mouth and spat out a jade slip towards him.
“For me?” Yang Kai frowned as he guessed the little beast’s intentions.
The little beast squeaked again, seemingly responding to Yang Kai before it flew up to him and let the jade slip fall from its jaw.
Yang Kai caught the jade slip and poured his Divine Sense into it. A moment later he let out a chuckle as he muttered, “So you were sent here by Xiao Qi…”
It was only now that he understood that this little beast in front of him was a Heaven Escaping Bat raised by Mo Xiao Qi, and that she had left it here to help guide him.
Yang Kai could not help feeling some warmth in his heart.
It seemed… he had not found the wrong place, and that Mo Xiao Qi had entered the second layer much earlier than him, which amazed Yang Kai quite a bit.
“Lead the way then,” Yang Kai put the jade slip away and smiled at the little bat.
The Heaven Escaping Bat seemed to be able to understand people, so after hearing this, it immediately turned and flew off in a certain direction.
At that moment though, a loud shout suddenly came from the distance, “Friend, wait!”
As this voice called out, the sound of clothes swishing drift over on the wind.
Yang Kai’s face sank. Just now, all his attention had been fixed on the actions of the small bat and he had failed to notice someone approaching him until he heard this voice.
After sweeping the surrounding with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai realized that there were actually six cultivators nearby, all of them Origin Kings.
When Yang Kai turned his head and looked, he confirmed that six Origin Kings were approaching.
The leader of this group had a haughty air about him and a jade carved face, clearly indicating he came from a powerful background.
Also… it turned out to be someone Yang Kai knew.
The Young Palace Master of Flying Saint Palace, Ning Yuan Cheng!
In the black market that day, Ning Yuan Cheng and Mo Xiao Qi had gotten into a small conflict because of a Monster Beast Egg. At the time, Yang Kai had concealed his appearance and used some clever deception to frighten off Saint Palace’s group.
Now, he had unexpectedly run into these Flying Saint Palace cultivators again in the first layer of the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda.
However, at this moment, the Second-Order Dao Source Realm master Liu Yi Zhi was nowhere to be seen. This was not a surprise though as the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda was only open to those below the Dao Source Realm this time, so Ning Yuan Cheng could only bring along some Origin Kings with him.
It was unknown how he had managed to gather together his guards or why he was now trying to confront Yang Kai.
Although he knew who this person was, Yang Kai did not show any signs on his face at all.
He had hidden his appearance that day, so he believed that Ning Yuan Cheng would not recognize him at this moment.
“Do you need something?” Yang Kai turned his head and asked Ning Yuan Cheng faintly.
“Are you daft, boy? How could we have called for you to stop if we didn’t need something?” One of the Origin Kings behind Ning Yuan Cheng snapped in a cold tone.
Yang Kai sneered as he cast a cold glint towards the speaker.
“Don’t be rude,” Ning Yuan Cheng snapped, seemingly reprimanding his guard, immediately turning his eyes back to Yang Kai and cupping his fists while saying with a proud smile. “This friend, this one is Flying Saint Palace’s Young Palace Master, Ning Yuan Cheng. How many I address this friend?”
“If you have something to say, just say it, I have no interest in wasting time,” Yang Kai’s expression remained indifferent.
He had understood the personality of this Ning Yuan Cheng and knew that he was only showing politeness now because he had yet to confirm what Yang Kai’s background was.
Perhaps… it had something to do with what happened in the black market that day; after all, once bitten by a snake, one would fear ropes for ten years.
Yang Kai’s reaction and demeanour caused Ning Yuan Cheng’s brows to furrow and he was clearly quite unhappy, but pressing that rage down, he continued, “In that case, this one will speak frankly. Just now, this little beast seems to have delivered something to Your Excellency, yes?”
“What of it?” Yang Kai immediately understood. Clearly this Ning Yuan Cheng regarded that jade slip as some kind of treasure and had come here in hopes of snatching it.
“What was it?” Ning Yuan Cheng’s eyes lit up as he continued to probe.
“What does it have to do with you?”
“Wild boy!” The guard who had spoken before suddenly became furious and exploded in anger, “Young Palace Master asked you a question, all you need to do is answer obediently! What thing are you to dare ask questions?
Ning Yuan Cheng waved his hand to stop the guard’s next action, but his expression gradually turned cold as his patience was also wearing thin, “This one is very interested in your little beast, I don’t know whether Your Excellency is willing to part with it? This one can offer…”
“Not interested,” Yang Kai refused without waiting for him to finish.
Without even mentioning that this little bat was a Tenth-Order’s Monster Beast, not a creature which could be casually cultivated or something Yang Kai would sell casually, it was not even his in the first place as it belonged to Mo Xiao Qi.
After speaking, he turned to leave.
“Friend seems to want to refuse a toast! Good, then you must drink a loss! Capture him for me!” Ning Yuan Cheng saw Yang Kai being so disrespectful and no longer bothered keeping up appearances, ordering his guards to act.
The five Origin Kings heard this order and immediately took action.
However, at that moment, the Heaven Escaping Bat which had been lightly hovering nearby suddenly opened its mouth and let out a series of sharp cries.
Sound waves visible to the naked eye spread out like ripples, covering the Flying Saint Palace cultivators in an instant.
All of a sudden, the five Origin Kings and Ning Yuan Cheng couldn’t help going pale as they felt their eardrum ring and their vitality tumble. Even their Source Qi began to riot inside their meridians.
Each of them wore a look of horror as they quickly roared and pushed their strength to resist their discomfort.
By the time they had recovered, Yang Kai and the little bat had already flown far away, becoming just a dot in the distance.
“Damn it! Follow him! No matter what, I must have that little beast. It seems able to find precious treasures and will play a big role in this place!” Ning Yuan Cheng angrily shouted.
The five guards did not dare to doddle and quickly used their Movement Skills to pursue.
But soon after, they completely lost sight of Yang Kai and the little bat.
“Where did they go?” Ning Yuan Cheng looked around but was unable to see any clues.
“Reporting to Young Palace Master, somehow, in the blink of an eye, that man and his beast just vanished,” One of the guards said with some uncertainty.
“They must be nearby, quickly search for them! How can this Young Master just watch his treasures fly away?” Ning Yuan Cheng said with a cruel expression.
The five guards immediately dispersed and began to search.
Not long after, a guard called out in pleasant surprise, “Young Palace Master, come quickly, it’s the entrance to the second layer!”
“What?” Ning Yuan Cheng was overjoyed when he heard these words but quickly snapped back, “Nonsense! The entrance to the second layer is a giant Five Coloured Light Pillar, an extremely obvious sight, you think this Young Master is so blind he cannot see… see… huh?”
As Ning Yuan Cheng was angrily shouting, he moved forward and suddenly raised his head to look up at the sky. Sure enough, the Five Coloured Light Pillar was standing right in front of him.
Frowning, he took a few steps and the Five Coloured Light Pillar in front of him disappeared just like that. Stepping forward again, the pillar of light reappeared.
“So strange?” Ning Yuan Cheng was shocked.
“En, Young Palace Master, this entrance seems to only be visible if one stands within a certain distance of it, otherwise it is impossible to detect even if one passes right by,” The guard who discovered the entrance said with enthusiasm.
“Those bastards from Star Soul Palace are really treacherous. Fortunately, this Young Master is one of Heaven’s favoured, otherwise, how could he have found this entrance? Hahahaha, what are we hesitating for? Let’s head to the second layer! That bastard from before must have also travelled to the second layer. Hmph, he won’t escape from this Young Master’s grasp!”
“Young Palace Master, that little beast may not only be able to find precious treasure, it most likely also discovered this entrance. It’s truly a strange beast.”
“Then this Young Master wants to possess it even more! Perhaps we can use it to find the entrance to the third layer, allowing us to go up and have a look,” Ning Yuan Cheng’s face was filled with fiery desire as he led his group of six into the Five Coloured Light Pillar, the next moment all of them disappearing.
However, after they reached the second layer, there was no sign of Yang Kai.
At the same time, somewhere in the second layer, Yang Kai was flying forward with the little bat leading the way.
Yang Kai knew that it was looking for Mo Xiao Qi, so he just leisurely followed after it while taking in the sights and scenes of the second layer.
It seemed to be no different from the first layer. The World Energy was still extremely thin, not suitable for cultivation. Moreover, the World Principles were still shattered and fragmented.
However, the second layer seemed to be much more dangerous than the first layer.
Yang Kai had explored the first layer for quite some time but did not encounter too many powerful traps and barriers.
But after arriving on the second layer, he could feel many hidden power fluctuations under the surveillance of his Divine Sense.
It was difficult to tell if these Spirit Arrays were man-made or naturally formed, but it was obvious that they would be triggered if he approached too close.
However, with the Heaven Escaping Bat leading the way, Yang Kai was not worried about whether he would encounter danger as this little beast seemed to have an innate ability to sense danger and was thus able to lead him along a safe path.
Half a day later, one beast and one person arrived at a windy gorge approximately a thousand metres across.
Yang Kai checked left and right to confirm that there was no danger before proceeding.
However, the moment the little bat flew over the canyon, it suddenly began squeaking in panic.
Yang Kai was shocked by this but before he could figure out what was wrong, he suddenly began to sink.
At that moment, there seemed to be a terrifying suction force coming from below, causing him to plummet uncontrollably.
Yang Kai’s face changed drastically.
Quickly pushing his strength, he tried to resist this downward suction.
But soon, Yang Kai discovered that his efforts were in vain. Even with his Third-Order Origin King cultivation, he was unable to slow his descent. As for the little bat, despite it being extremely agile in the air, it too failed to escape this force and spiralled down into the canyon below.
The wind whistled as the speed at which Yang Kai fell got faster and faster, the pressure even starting to sting his face.
Yang Kai finally began to panic.
He immediately understood that he had encountered some kind of extremely powerful trap, one that not only he couldn’t find, but even the Heaven Escaping Bat was unaware of.
Such a powerful restriction was unlikely to be man-made and instead had a high chance of being naturally formed.
Such Natural Spirit Arrays were generally incredibly difficult to detect until it was too late.
If his speed of descent continued to increase, even with Yang Kai’s powerful physique, Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art, and Dragon Transformation Secret Technique, he would definitely die on impact.
This would be an incredibly miserable death.
The sharp squeaking sound of the Heaven Escaping Bat continued to sound in Yang Kai’s ear, but the tone was quite distorted thanks to the incredible speed they were falling at.
Yang Kai struggled to sweep his eyes around but was unable to see anything. As a last resort, he released his Divine Sense widely and after some probing, finally gained some awareness of his surroundings.
Locking onto the little bat with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai flicked his wrist and sent out a Golden Blood Thread towards it; however, his accuracy was affected greatly by his current situation and failed to catch his target.
With no other choice, Yang Kai sent out a couple dozen Golden Blood Threads, forming a big net that finally managed to catch the little bat and bring it back to him.
The next moment, he hugged the little bat and escaped into the Sealed World Bead without hesitation.
A short time later, at the bottom of the canyon, a soft thud occurred as the Sealed World Bead bounced just once before coming to a stop.
It was not until a while later that Yang Kai dared to release his Divine Sense outside to check his surroundings.
However, the attractive force here was simply too terrifying, causing even his Divine Sense to warp the moment it left the Sealed World Bead.
Pondering for a moment, Yang Kai comforted the Heaven Escaping Bat for a bit before leaving it in the Sealed World Bead and moving outside.
The next moment, Yang Kai shrunk as he was sucked down towards the ground, finding it difficult to even lift a finger.
“A natural gravity field?” Yang Kai’s expression contorted.
The Star Boundary was incredibly vast, and the number of strange places that existed was beyond countable.
Not just in the Star Boundary though, natural gravity fields existed even in the Star Field.
In certain places, the gravity was several times, even tens of times greater than ordinary and they could often catch people off guard and cause them to suffer big losses.
But the natural gravity field here was even more terrifying than that. Even with Yang Kai’s Third-Order Origin King cultivation, he was immobilized, so one could imagine how strong the gravity here was.
The gravity here was definitely thousands of times higher than ordinary.
Natural gravity fields were extremely rare, and the conditions for their formation were quite stringent, so although Yang Kai had encountered some before, he was able to break free of them with just a little effort, but here…
His face gradually became dignified as he constantly pushed his strength, but he could only lift his arms slowly at best, so wanting to fly was absolutely impossible.
Looking up, Yang Kai could not even see the sky, it was so far away. So, if he couldn’t fly up, it would be impossible to escape from here.
Looking around again, Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed slightly.
This gorge was not very big, only a few thousand metres long, but its entire floor was actually covered in white bones, some from Monster Beasts while others were human in shape. Most of these bones had already crumbled and scattered about while only a handful of them barely maintained their original shape.
There was even a fresh corpse nearby, one that had apparently died not long ago, the blood still not even completely dry and the hashed meat and internal organs splattered out in a terrible display.
This person was obviously a Maplewood City cultivator who entered the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda this time, and just like Yang Kai, when flying over this gorge, had been pulled down into it, but unlike Yang Kai who had a means of survival, this man had simply fallen to his death.
Before this person died, he must have been extremely unwilling…
Yang Kai silently offered tribute to this man; after all, who could have thought that after cultivating to the Origin King Realm, they would actually die by falling to the ground one day? If word of this kind of death was spread around, most people wouldn’t be able to stop laughing at it.
But how could there be such terrifying gravity here? Yang Kai was quite puzzled. He had encountered natural gravity fields before, but none could compare with this place.
Yang Kai was eventually forced to use his Five Element Indestructible Sword Qi and display his Dragon Transformation Secret Technique in order to slowly walk around at the speed of a turtle.
After a half cup of tea’s time, though, Yang Kai dispersed his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art and Dragon Transformation Secret Technique before sitting down and panting heavily.
Maintaining these two Secret Techniques for extended periods of time would consume a lot of his strength, but the progress it brought was minimal, making the gains not worth the loss, so Yang Kai simply gave up wasting his power.
[I won’t be trapped in this damned place forever, will I?] A sad thought emerged in Yang Kai’s heart.
Soon after though, he frowned as a look of surprise filled his face.
“That’s not right, the aura here…”
He suddenly discovered that the World Energy in this place was actually extremely rich.
Regarding the Star Boundary, Yang Kai did not know how rich the World Energy could be in the best cultivation paradises; after all, he hadn’t been here for very long and had never visited the headquarters of any big Sect.
However, the World Energy at the bottom of this gorge was completely incomparable to the headquarters of Blue Feather Sect and the secluded home he had rented in Maplewood City.
The richness of World Energy here was beyond anything Yang Kai had imagined possible.
Even just sitting there, without moving, the surrounding aura would sink into his body spontaneously, and in short order, the strength Yang Kai had consumed before was restored once again.
[This is incredibly strange!] Since Yang Kai entered the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda, he found that the ambient World Energy was extremely thin everywhere he went. This was the case for both the first layer and second layer, yet now, in this strange gorge, the World Energy was simply rich beyond imagination, an oddity that was difficult to ignore.
Moreover, because of the terrifying natural gravity field here, all the World Energy seemed to be concentrated in the metre or so above the ground, unable to spread out.
This created a spectacle where at the bottom of this gorge, a dense mist covered the ground, with signs of Spirit Qi Wisps floating about within it.
Yang Kai had previously been absorbed in the crisis he was facing and had not had much time to pay attention to other things, so it was only now that he realized this shocking reality after a careful observation of his surroundings.
[Down here… Is there some kind of treasure?]
A thought emerged in Yang Kai’s mind as this was the only explanation he could think of to explain this phenomenon.
Considering this, Yang Kai could not help getting a little excited.
Bracing himself, he struggled to his feet then stretched out his palm, summoning several dozen Golden Blood Threads and moulding them into a drill-like shape.
With a shout, Yang Kai started the Golden Blood Thread drill spinning and struck towards the ground.
The next moment, a loud bang resounded.
Golden light exploded…
The several dozen Golden Blood Threads collapsed, revealing their original form as they could not maintain their transformed drill shape. At the same time, sparks flew out from the spot on the ground which had just been struck.
A moment later, Yang Kai looked down at the rice-grain-sized pit he had made and exclaimed in shock, “So hard?”
He confirmed at that moment that there was some kind of extraordinary treasure down here.
Because the dirt beneath his feet was clearly just ordinary dirt; however, for some reason, something was hardening it so much that even his Golden Blood Threads could not cause it much damage. A full-powered blow was only able to chip away an insignificant speck and in the blink of an eye, this pit had already disappeared.
The ground had restored itself and become level again!
Whatever inexplicable force was at work here actually had the ability to repair this terrain!
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed brilliantly, but he was also quite helpless.
Because if he couldn’t dig up the ground here, there was no way for him to take away whatever treasure was hidden underground. But if he couldn’t take away the treasure underground, he couldn’t dig up this ground…
This was an endless loop, like trying to figure out which came first, the chicken or the egg.
[If only Xiao Xiao was here!] Yang Kai suddenly missed Xiao Xiao’s innate talent of being able to devour any kind of ore to strengthen his body, and more importantly in this case, his ability to travel through the earth like it was air.
If Xiao Xiao hadn’t been separated from him, Yang Kai would be able to use his power at this moment to extract whatever treasure was underground.
Unfortunately… Yang Kai didn’t even know where Xiao Xiao was now.
As for his Embodiment, which was inside the Sealed World Bead, although it could also be regarded as a member of the Stone Puppet Race… its size was far too great, and it was still in the process of expelling the impurities from its body. Yang Kai was fairly certain that it would be unable to burrow through the earth freely in its current condition!
Just as he was wallowing in disappointment, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly brightened as he thought of something.
He immediately took out the Sealed World Bead and swept its interior with his Divine Sense to find the Heaven Escaping Bat.
Since this little bat was one of the rare Heaven Escaping Bats, it should have no trouble using an Earth Escape technique, and if it could…
This little fellow was a Tenth-Order Monster Beast, so even if its sentience hadn’t quite reached the level of a human cultivator, it wasn’t a mindless creature and it could even have some simple communication with Yang Kai.
A moment later, Yang Kai carefully lifted up the Sealed World Bead.
A light flashed, and the little bat suddenly appeared beside Yang Kai.
Yang Kai’s expression turned solemn as he kept his Divine Sense firmly wrapped around the little bat. Once he noticed the slightest problem, he would immediately take it back into the Sealed World Bead; after all, the pressure in this place was simply too terrifying, and it was not clear whether this little Tenth-Order Monster Beast could withstand it. If something were to happen, there was no way he would be able to explain to Mo Xiao Qi.
Fortunately, the situation was not too bad. The little bat showed a strained expression on its face after it appeared, its body seemingly sinking as its bones creaked, and its small eyes turning somewhat bloodshot.
However, it soon began to adapt and let out a couple of squeaks towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was overjoyed to hear this and quickly said, “Then it’s up to you. If you think something is wrong, come up immediately, don’t force yourself!”
The little beast squeaked again before immediately turning and diving into the ground like it was jumping into a pool of water.
However, its speed was not fast by any means, taking a full breath before its figure finally sank into the ground.
Yang Kai stood in place anxiously, constantly trying to use his Divine Sense to track the little bat, but it was useless in the end. As soon as his Divine Sense left his Knowledge Sea, it would begin to warp under the extreme gravity and was unable to accurately scan what was happening underground.
Soon, a cup of tea worth of time passed…
Then a stick of incense worth of time…
Then an hour passed…
Yang Kai’s expression gradually became ugly.
Just when he thought that the little bat had suffered misfortune, a small head suddenly appeared at his feet and while letting out an extremely laboured squeak, it tried to lift itself up out of the earth.
Yang Kai was overjoyed and hurriedly responded.
Urgently pushing his Divine Sense, he tried to envelop the little bat and bear most of the pressure for it.
After the little beast’s body was completely exposed, Yang Kai stretched out his hand and grabbed it before his figure flickered and one human and one bat disappeared into the Sealed World Bead.
Somewhere in the Sealed World Bead, Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the ground while the little bat lay down on his knees, panting as if it had experienced a great battle and was now thoroughly exhausted.
“You’ve worked hard,” Yang Kai combed its fur lightly and said comfortingly.
The Heaven Escaping Bat raised its eyes towards him lightly and stared at him weakly for a moment.
After a while, it managed to get up, open its small mouth, and put out a pigeon-egg-sized, yellowish-brown object.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand to catch this object, but deceived by its size and appearance, he almost tripped during his attempt to hold it as this tiny thing actually seemed to weigh ten thousand kilograms or more.
In shock, he quickly circulated his strength to stabilize his figure and somehow managed to not embarrass himself.
The little bat squeaked happily, seemingly taking pleasure in his misfortune.
Yang Kai did not care about its teasing and stared solemnly at this yellowish-brown object instead, his brow furrowing and relaxing a few times before he finally called out in alarm, “Heavy Earth!?”
What this Heaven Escaping Bat had brought back from below ground was actually a piece of Heavy Earth!
Heavy Earth and Weak Water were both first-class treasures that shared the characteristic of being extraordinarily heavy among other varied traits. Ordinary cultivators, and even true masters, would rarely encounter these exotic treasures.
Mo Xiao Qi’s Weak Water Bead, which seemed to be refined from Weak Water, was even able to allow her to restrain an infant Luan Feng back in Clear Jade Mountain.
The Luan Feng was a true Ancient Divine Spirit, and even a baby was not a creature to be provoked easily. The death of so many people in Clear Jade Mountain that day was the best proof. After being imprisoned by the Weak Water Bead, that baby Luan Feng wasn’t able to break free though, so it was obvious just how powerful it was.
Mo Xiao Qi’s background was enormous so it wasn’t too surprising she possessed an artifact like that Weak Water Bead.
Heavy Earth was a treasure on par with Weak Water.
To a certain extent, it was even rarer and more precious than Weak Water.
Because Heavy Earth was not only extremely dense and able to create natural gravity fields wherever it formed, which created an excellent cultivation ground for certain cultivators, but could also be refined into various different types of artifacts. With the addition of just a small portion of Heavy Earth, an artifact’s weight could be dramatically increased, and its sturdiness would be enhanced greatly.
Moreover, if used to refine an Alchemy or Artifact Refining Furnace, Heavy Earth could increase the chance of successful Alchemy or Artifact Refining.
As such, Alchemists and Artifact Refiners would kill to obtain Heavy Earth.
Perhaps most importantly though, because Heavy Earth was extraordinarily rich in Earth Attribute Energy, if one planted any kind of spirit medicine or grass into soil infused with Heavy Earth, those herbs would have their growth cycle drastically reduced.
In other words, if a spirit grass ordinarily took a hundred years to mature, if it was planted atop Heavy Earth, it could mature in just ten years, five years, or possibly even less!
Such a precious effect was not only sought after by many cultivators, but also by big Sects.
Which Sect did not have its own medicine garden? Each Sect’s medicine garden would be used to cultivate many rare and precious spirit grasses and medicines, but generally, the more precious an herb, the longer its growth cycle was. Dozens, or even hundreds of years, was considered short for some rare herbs while some of the most valuable ones could take thousands of years to reach maturity.
With such long growth cycles, many spirit medicines simply could not be cultivated by ordinary cultivators as they would not have the time or energy to nurture and care for them. Only powerful Sects would be able to dedicate the time and resources to such pursuits.
However, once a piece of Heavy Earth was in hand, the situation was completely different.
A thumbnail-sized piece of Heavy Earth was enough to enhance a medicine garden an acre in size to continuously produce all kinds of rare and precious spirit grasses. As such, even such a small amount would be enough to spark a war between great forces!
Unfortunately, Heavy Earth was extremely rare, so most Sects would never be able to acquire some.
The rare times Heavy Earth was acquired by individual cultivators, it would be swiftly refined into powerful artifacts to enhance their personal strength, leaving none behind to use in medicine gardens.
Yang Kai knew about Heavy Earth because he had been cultivating the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art.
The Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art needed supreme treasures from each of the Five Elements in order to cultivate, so Yang Kai had always paid special attention to the rarest of Five Element Treasures. Heavy Earth was undoubtedly a supreme treasure of the Earth Attribute! To some extent, it was even more precious than Sun’s True Essence and bordered on comparable to his Soul Warming Lotus.
This small piece of Heavy Earth the size of a pigeon egg was enough to refine several high-grade artifacts, but Yang Kai would naturally not be satisfied with just this much.
He believed that there was far more Heavy Earth deep underground in this gorge, otherwise, how could the gravity field here be so terrifying?
After taking a moment to sort out his thoughts, Yang Kai put down the piece of Heavy Earth before taking out a number of restorative Spirit Pills from his Space Ring, placing them on the palm of his hand, and lifted it to the little bat’s mouth.
The Heaven Escaping Bat was thoroughly exhausted, and had even lost the strength to fly around, but when it saw these Spirit Pills, its little eyes lit up and it quickly opened its small mouth and swallowed them all.
*Gezhi gezhi…*
Like candy, the little bat crunched on the Spirit Pills before swallowing them down.
“Do you want some more, I have lots,” Yang Kai smiled slightly as he waved his hand and took out a dozen or so jade bottles.
The Heaven Escaping Bat’s eyes lit up when it saw these bottles.
“Good, help me obtain the rest of this stuff from underground and I’ll feed you all the Spirit Pills you want!” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully as he pointed his finger at the lump of Heavy Earth, bargaining with the little bat.
The Heaven Escaping Bat’s eyes turned slightly as it was obviously quite excited. After a while, it let out two squeaks to acknowledge its agreement.
Inside the Sealed World Bead, the natural gravity field obviously had no effect, so Yang Kai and the little bat were able to rest and recover quickly, and with the help of Yang Kai’s abundant Spirit Pills, the Heaven Escaping Bat was back to full strength in just two hours.
Yang Kai took it and reappeared in the gorge.
After another hour, the little beast appeared from the ground and Yang Kai swiftly brought it back into the Sealed World Bead to recuperate.
A short time later, Yang Kai obtained another pigeon sized chunk of Heavy Earth!
This situation then repeated itself over and over again.
Five days later, enough Heavy Earth to cover a small desk had now been piled up three fingers thick in front of Yang Kai.
So much Heavy Earth was an astonishing sight to behold. One had to know that a fingernail-sized piece was enough to create a miraculous medicine garden or to raise the grade of an artifact directly. As for this desk-sized pile of Heavy Earth, it was a treasure precious enough to even cause the Ten Great Emperors to snatch it.
Yang Kai now firmly believed that the inside of this Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda was indeed a shattered ancient land.
If it were not, how could there be such incredible treasures here?
Thankfully, the terrifying natural gravity field of this gorge allowed Yang Kai to obtain all these benefits for himself. If not for the unique terrain and circumstances here, this place would have long ago been cleaned out by others.
Anyone who passed over this gorge and discovered its abnormality had already fallen to their death. It was only thanks to his Sealed World Bead that Yang Kai was even alive at the moment.
In fact, he should have realized what was happening here a long time ago, as what else other than Heavy Earth could create such a powerful natural gravity field?
The Heaven Escaping Bat was still busying itself outside, but by now the gravity field in the gorge had weakened to the point where it could almost be ignored. After all, the Heavy Earth here had basically all been transferred to the Sealed World Bead by Yang Kai, so the natural gravity field generated by it had of course disappeared.
Therefore, Yang Kai didn’t need to worry about the little bat’s safety anymore.
At this moment, his eyes flashed and under the control of his Divine Sense, the pile of Heavy Earth was swept up.
Outside, Yang Kai absolutely would not have such ability. Likely, only an Emperor Realm powerhouse would be able to accomplish this.
However, Yang Kai was the absolute master inside the Sealed World Bead, able to change and affect anything at will.
Even so, lifting so much Heavy Earth still consumed a great deal of his energy.
After finally bringing the Heavy Earth to the medicine garden, Yang Kai stared at the empty plot of land and smiled lightly before sending all of this Heavy Earth into the ground.
In this way, he would possess a Heaven defying medicine garden. If he saw any precious seedlings in the future, he could transplant them here and drastically shorten their growth cycle. As long as it was not the type of herb which would die upon being transplanted, Yang Kai wouldn’t need to worry about anything surviving in this medicine garden.
Of course, Yang Kai also kept a small piece of Heavy Earth to cultivate his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art with.
After checking his work, Yang Kai was very satisfied, and his figure flickered and disappeared.
When he reappeared, Yang Kai was already standing at the bottom of the outside gorge.
Without the intense gravitational field, the rich aura that lingered at the bottom of the gorge had lost its constraint and escaped upward.
Seeing no trace of the Heaven Escaping Bat, Yang Kai figured it was still busy underground.
Heavy Earth was a rare treasure, so Yang Kai naturally did not want to miss a single piece of it, so he simply allowed the little bat to continue searching underground. The more he found, the better, but if some was left behind in the end, it did not matter too much as his harvest this time was already quite astonishing.
Walking out, Yang Kai quickly arrived next to a skeleton, stretched out his hand, and removed its Space Ring.
This cultivator had died many years ago and was now nothing but bleached bones. The only thing of value left was this Space Ring.
Of course, Yang Kai had no reason to let off the wealth of this individual.
After a thorough search, Yang Kai harvested more than fifty Space Rings.
In other words, more than fifty people had accidentally fallen to their deaths here. Most of these people should have been Origin Kings, and besides the one who had died most recently, the rest naturally belonged to Star Soul Palace.
After checking a little, Yang Kai could not help smiling wryly.
Worthy of being disciples of Star Soul Palace, each and every ring was filled with wealth. Not only were there many Source Crystals, there were also good artifacts and pills inside these rings.
Unfortunately, possibly due to age or the unique environment here, a number of these rings had been damaged, the contents either lost or destroyed.
Yang Kai took everything of use and discarded the rest.
All of a sudden, he had harvested more than 300,000 Low-Rank Source Crystals and more than 5,000 Mid-Rank Source Crystals. He didn’t see any High-Rank Source Crystals. As for Origin King Grade artifacts, there were more than thirty, as well as two Dao Source Grade artifacts.
This made Yang Kai feel slightly complicated.
The last time he went to the black market and sold out all of his excess Spirit Pills, he had only managed to obtain 200,000 Source Crystals, but now, after a short stroll around this gorge, he had obtained several times that wealth.
Yang Kai finally felt relieved about the amount of money he had available to him.
After confirming that he hadn’t missed anything, Yang Kai stood contentedly and waited.
Not long after, the little bat poked its head out from the ground at a certain spot before leaping up and flying over to Yang Kai and spitting out a few objects from its mouth.
Yang Kai looked down and found that there was no Heavy Earth, which was a small disappointment to him.
However, after taking a closer look at these objects, he began to rejoice.
“Earth Vein Crystals!? And so many!”
This time, the little bat had actually brought up a number of Earth Vein Crystals!
Earth Veins were produced when the concentration of World Energy reached a certain critical limit and condensed into a physical form. As long as a Sect headquarters was built atop a good Earth Vein, it could ensure that its disciples did not lack World Energy for their cultivation.
The stronger a Sect was, the better the Earth Vein it could occupy. As for small and weak Sects, occupying the lowest quality of Earth Vein was the best they could hope for.
Every year, many Sects and families fought over control of Earth Veins, causing countless casualties.
Earth Veins were immovable and if one tried to shift it, they would only end up destroying it; therefore, if one wanted a good Earth Vein, they could only occupy the territory atop which it sat.
However, there were always exceptions.
Some Earth Veins that had existed underground for countless years, because of some special reasons, would condense their energy into a special existence known as an Earth Vein Crystal!
An Earth Vein Crystal was equivalent to a miniaturized Earth Vein and it contained all the energy an Earth Vein should have.
Earth Vein Crystals were extraordinarily rare treasures.
Yang Kai had wandered his native Star Field for many years and had only ever seen one Earth Vein Crystal in the vault of Purple Star. That Earth Vein Crystal had been placed beneath his medicine garden inside the Sealed World Bead to maintain the aura of the medicine garden and cultivate spirit grasses and herbs.
However, the Heaven Escaping Bat had actually managed to collect four such Earth Vein Crystals from this place.
Yang Kai was overjoyed and quickly accepted these crystals as he began examining them carefully.
Soon, he discovered that these four Earth Vein Crystals were of a higher grade than the one he had obtained from Purple Star. Regardless of the total amount of energy stored inside or the purity of that energy, both were far in excess of the one from Purple Star’s Vault.
If the Earth Vein Crystal he obtained from Purple Star was Low-Rank, then the four in his hand were clearly at least Mid-Rank, with the biggest of the four possibly being High-Rank!
The aura that this Earth Vein Crystal exuded was so rich it shocked Yang Kai.
There being so many Earth Vein Crystals down here surprised and delighted Yang Kai.
However, after thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai felt that this was actually quite natural.
If it weren’t for these Earth Vein Crystals, how could the World Energy here have been so rich? Heavy Earth was indeed precious, but it could not create such rich World Energy, only Earth Vein Crystal could.
However, the existence of Heavy Earth was probably also the root cause of the formation of these Earth Vein Crystals.
The natural gravitational field was so powerful in this place that the nearby World Energy would all be drawn to it and held in place. After countless years of such intense pressure, Earth Vein Crystals had naturally been produced.
The Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda had existed since ancient times, so over many thousands of years, these four Earth Vein Crystals forming under the effects of the intense gravity here was reasonable.
With just a bit of thought, Yang Kai had formed a likely theory in his mind about this matter.
Although the value of these Earth Vein Crystals wasn’t as high as the Heavy Earth, they were definitely not cheap either. Even large Sects would try to acquire Earth Vein Crystals so they could increase the richness of the World Energy inside its borders.
Yang Kai flicked his wrist and sent the four crystals to the medicine garden of his Sealed World Bead.
Now, in addition to the previous one, there were five Earth Vein Crystals here, and with so much Heavy Earth as well, Yang Kai likely had the best medicine garden in the Star Boundary.
Yang Kai could not wait to cultivate some precious herbs to see what kind of effect there was.
Half a day later, Yang Kai let out a sigh and gave up his search.
It seemed that all the benefits from this place had been taken away, and without the Heavy Earth and Earth Vein Crystals supporting it, the special environment at the bottom of the gorge disappeared and the World Energy quickly became thin
Signalling to the little bat, Yang Kai pushed his strength and flew up.
Without the natural gravity field, flying out of the gorge wasn’t difficult.
The Heaven Escaping Bat continued to lead the way ahead, looking for Mo Xiao Qi’s trail, with Yang Kai following behind unhurriedly.
…..
Three days later, Yang Kai passed by a small hill and suddenly glanced down after sensing something. Smiling coldly, he stopped and called out, “Friend, are you going to come out on your own or do you want me to force you out?”
There was no movement below, only the sound of the wind blowing in the leaves.
“Pointless resistance!” Yang Kai snorted coldly as he lifted his palm and a Golden Blood Thread slashed out towards a certain spot below.
The next moment, a blue light flashed as the Golden Blood Thread impacted something.
With a bang, the Golden Blood Thread was bounced back and where there was nothing before, a middle-aged man now appeared sitting cross-legged, his face pale, a look filled with murderous hatred directed towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was startled by this scene.
With his vision, he was naturally able to see that this man was seriously wounded, and with an unusual injury at that. It seemed his very foundation had been damaged.
This situation… was completely different from what he had previously expected.
He thought that this person was hiding here and wanted to sneak attack him, but now it turned out this man was hiding here to heal his wounds while Yang Kai’s actions had exposed him.
For a moment, Yang Kai couldn’t help but feeling a bit awkward.
However, after realizing what the situation was, and realizing he was in the wrong, Yang Kai quickly cupped his fists and said, “I apologize, it seems there has been a misunderstanding, please don’t take offence. Friend should continue to heal his injuries, this one will take his leave.”
“Isn’t this ‘friend’ here to take my life? If you’re going to do it, just do it, why bother putting on a show?”
What Yang Kai didn’t expect was that after he issued an apology, the middle-aged man didn’t relax his vigilance and instead shouted angrily at him, as if he and Yang Kai really had some kind of absolutely irreconcilable hatred.
Yang Kai frowned and replied, “This friend misunderstands me. I don’t know you, so why would I want your life?”
This matter was caused by a momentary mistake on his end, so Yang Kai didn’t take the other party’s offensive attitude to heart. Having said what he needed to, Yang Kai took out a jade bottle and tossed it over to the other party, “This is a bottle of healing pills, it should be able to alleviate your situation.”
Finished with this, Yang Kai turned to leave.
The middle-aged man was taken aback for a moment. By now, he realized that Yang Kai’s actions really were unintentional, otherwise, there would have been no need to act like this. Yang Kai could easily have killed him, but had compensated him with a bottle of pills instead. Opening the jade bottle, the man sniffed it lightly and confirmed it was indeed healing medicine as a look of hesitation appeared on his face.
Seeing that Yang Kai was about to leave ear-shot, the man finally made up his mind and called out, “Wait!”
Yang Kai stopped his pace, turned back, and sighed, “What does this friend want? Although I made the move and ruined your hiding place, as long as you move a bit that won’t be a problem. I also gave you a bottle of healing pills as an apology so we should just simply part ways here. Don’t try to reach out for a yard after taking an inch!”
The middle-aged man heard this but did not show the slightest signs of anger, instead just smiling mysterious and whispering, “That was not my intent.”
“Then what is your intent?” Yang Kai spoke impatiently.
“Do you want a Dao Source Fruit?” The middle-aged man stared at Yang Kai and said slowly.
“What?” Yang Kai’s face turned serious as he immediately swept his eyes around before eventually gazing towards the middle-aged man’s Space Ring and quickly asking, “Did you just say Dao Source Fruit?”
“Indeed, this friend did not hear wrong, I did say Dao Source Fruit just now,” The middle-aged man nodded.
“You obtained a Dao Source Fruit?” Yang Kai looked at him with surprise.
The middle-aged man nodded again and said calmly, “Heavenly Martial Holy Land put three Dao Source Fruits into the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda this time, and this Zhang was lucky enough to acquire one of them.”
Before Yang Kai could ask where the Dao Source Fruit was, the middle-aged man surnamed Zhang smiled lightly and said, “Friend should not be hasty. Even if you kill me, you won’t get the Dao Source Fruit. Before I came here to heal, I hid it in a safe place.”
Yang Kai could not help lightly coughing as he asked, “Did I look like I would kill you?”
“That’s hard to say,” The man surnamed Zhang chuckled, “This friend does not seem to be a wicked individual, otherwise you would not have left so simply just now. Murdering others and seizing their treasures is a natural thing, but… The Dao Source Fruit is extremely precious, especially for people like you and me, so I cannot guarantee you won’t try to kill me and seize it.”
“Makes sense!” Yang Kai nodded, agreeing with his statement.
Even if the average cultivator did not take the initiative to kill people and seize their wealth, whether they could maintain such moral behaviour when faced with a treasure like a Dao Source Fruit was a different story.
“However… you even took the initiative to call me back and tell me about Dao Source Fruit. What do you really want?” Yang Kai looked at him suspiciously.
“Naturally I want to give that Dao Source Fruit to this friend,” The man surnamed Zhang said with a solemn expression.
“Are you making a joke?” Yang Kai squinted at him with an expression of disbelief.
The man surnamed Zhang shook his head, “Those who are about to die have no need for excess words. Why would I crack a joke with you about this matter now?”
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and said lightly, “It doesn’t look like you’re about to die.”
The man surnamed Zhang gave a wry smile, “In order to escape, I had to use up eighty percent of my Blood Essence. Even if I do survive, my cultivation will fall sharply. What’s more, I was poisoned, and even my Knowledge Sea has been contaminated.”
Yang Kai’s expression changed when he heard this and he quickly released his Divine Sense to investigate this man carefully, only then realizing that he was not lying.
Although he put up a strong front, this man surnamed Zhang was actually only barely clinging to life. Perhaps he had taken some kind of powerful pill just before Yang Kai arrived that was prolonging his life.
With such injuries, even if no one came to kill him, this man would not survive more than two days.
Yang Kai sighed, “If it was just your body that was poisoned, I might still have been able to help you, but with even your Soul contaminated… I am powerless.”
“This Zhang has already made peace with his situation, friend does not need to care,” The man surnamed Zhang spoke casually, even chuckling slightly.
“I don’t know you, and whether you live or die has nothing to do with me, but… You called me back and said you want to give me a Dao Source Fruit. How can there be such a good deal in this world? Speak frankly, what do you want in return?”
“Friend is a smart person,” The man surnamed Zhang smiled and said, “My time is short, so I will be straightforward.”
Yang Kai nodded and assumed a listening posture.
“I can give you the location of the Dao Source Fruit, but after you take it, when you find someone to refine it into pills, you must give one to my Zhang Family’s descendants!” The man surnamed Zhang said, “I am Zhang Gao Xuan, the Patriarch of Maplewood City’s Zhang Family. The Zhang Family is not a big family, but it still has a few hundred years of history. This Zhang knows quite a few people in Maplewood City, so after you leave this place, it should not be difficult for you to find the location of my Zhang Family. If refining the Dao Source Fruit into pills is a failure, then that is simply the Heavens’ will, but if it succeeds, there should be at least three Dao Source Pills. I only ask you to bring one to my Zhang Family while the rest are yours to keep.”
After listening to Zhang Gao Xuan’s words, Yang Kai nodded and replied, “This request is reasonable, so I can agree, but… Are you not afraid I won’t keep my promise?”
Zhang Gao Xuan smiled bitterly, “What use would fear have now? I will die soon, and there is no one here I can trust, so either that Dao Source Fruit remains as a prize to be sought for future generations that enter this Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda and my Zhang Family has no chance to obtain any benefits, or I can take a chance. Unfortunately, I do not have a Soul Contract with me, otherwise, I would not need to worry so much.”
“Then do you want me to swear an oath?” Yang Kai grinned.
Zhang Gao Xuan glanced at him and said lightly, “Forget it, swearing an oath… Hah, what use is that? What’s more, I can see that this friend’s temperament is fairly good, so I’d like to request that friend remains a guest in my Zhang Family for ten years after this place closes!”
“Ten years?” Yang Kai frowned deeply, “Friend, your offer is a bit excessive, is it not?”
“Is ten years too much?” Zhang Gao Xuan looked at Yang Kai with a surprised look, “You must know, what I am offering you is a Dao Source Fruit. To an ordinary cultivator… even if they spend their entire life and fortune, they would never obtain such a treasure. With it, friend’s chances of breaking through to the Dao Source Realm will increase by at least forty percent. As long as friend’s aptitude is not too bad, breaking through is almost guaranteed.”
Yang Kai said lightly, “I don’t need a Dao Source Fruit in order to break through, so it doesn’t have much attraction to me.”
“Friend’s tone is quite bold!” Zhang Gao Xuan was a little shocked, but as he looked up and down Yang Kai, trying to see if he was idly boasting, all he saw was calm and steady confidence.
After a long while, he sighed and said, “It seems friend’s aptitude is extraordinary, even a Dao Source Fruit cannot move your heart. In that case, forget ten years, three years will be enough.”
However, Yang Kay still shook his head.
Zhang Gao Xuan’s expression darkened as he said with some dissatisfaction, “Then what do you want? It is only three short years. For a Third-Order Origin King like you and I, this is but a brief moment. This condition is already quite generous.”
Yang Kai chuckled and said, “It is not a question of ten years or three years, I simply do not want to be fettered, even if it is only a single year, because I do not know how long I will remain in Maplewood City. If, for some reason, I need to leave Maplewood City, fail to comply with this request, and it creates a heart demon, what would I do? I won’t make such a causal agreement.”
“Well.. this is…” Zhang Gao Xuan was startled but soon smiled lightly. “It seems that this Zhang’s decision was correct. Friend should be a man who keeps his word.”
Yang Kai bargaining back and forth with him now was evidence he really planned on abiding by their agreement. If that weren’t the case, why would he even bother arguing? Yang Kai could simply agree then ignore his promise after.
Hearing Yang Kai mention the formation of a heart demon gave Zhang Gao Xuan much more confidence in him.
If Yang Kai was not a man who valued his word, it would be impossible to form a heart demon because he broke an agreement.
“Alright, I can promise you that I will assist your Zhang Family while I remain in Maplewood City, assuming it is within my power. If your Zhang Family asks for something impossible, I will not agree, and… they will only be able to request my assistance three times,” Yang Kai thought about it and proposed.
“Three times…” Zhang Gao Xuan mulled over the idea for a long time before raising his head and nodding, “Good, three times it is. However, in addition, I will need you to bring a message to my Zhang Family. “
“That’s fine.” Yang Kai nodded.
After the two reached an agreement, Yang Kai stood waiting quietly while Zhang Gao Xuan took out a jade slip and poured his Divine Sense into it, obviously recording some last words.
Soon, everything was in order. Zhang Gao Xuan handed the jade slip to Yang Kai and watched him take it away solemnly before letting out a long breath and saying, “I will entrust everything to this friend.”
“The location of the Dao Source Fruit…” Yang Kai asked.
Zhang Gao Xuan smiled slightly and stretched out his hand, “Do you see the hill on the opposite side? The Dao Source Fruit is over there, the exact location…”
At this point, Zhang Gao Xuan’s voice went silent while his lips continued moving, using his Divine Sense to convey the final instructions.
Yang Kai quickly understood.
“Friend, take this Zhang’s Space Ring back to the Zhang Family, I have no need of it anymore,” Zhang Gao Xuan slowly withdrew the Space Ring from his hand and threw it to Yang Kai.
…..
After an hour, Yang Kai came to the opposite mountain and according to the hints given by Zhang Gao Xuan, he found the place where the Dao Source Fruit was hidden.
“He was quite careful about this,” Yang Kai muttered to himself.
The Zhang Family Patriarch had not only hidden the Dao Source Fruit elsewhere but also put up a simple Spirit Array where the fruit was stored. This barrier needed a drop of his Blood Essence to open safely, and it would destroy the Dao Source Fruit inside if it was forcefully broken.
In other words, if someone had really acted against Zhang Gao Xuan and forced him to spit out the whereabouts of the Dao Source Fruit, without him actively cooperating to take out a drop of Blood Essence, it would be impossible to obtain it.
However, Zhang Gao Xuan was seriously injured already, so after taking out a drop of Blood Essence, his situation only became worse.
Yang Kai estimated that he would be lucky to live another day, while he would most likely pass on in less than half a day.
Yang Kai poured the drop of Blood Essence into the barrier and followed the method Zhang Gao Xuan had provided him with to open it.
A short time later, the barrier broke and a beautiful wooden box appeared.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand and lifted the wooden box before he slowly opened it. Before his eyes, a fist-sized golden fruit appeared, a fragrant aroma wasting from it that seemed to contain a kind of magic power that allowed Yang Kai to more clearly sense the World Principles around him.
Dao Source Fruits were the primary ingredient for refining Dao Source Pills which could promote the chance a cultivator had of breaking through to the Dao Source Realm, so it was not surprising that it had such an effect.
However, Yang Kai found that this Dao Source Fruit was a bit dry and seemed to have been picked some time ago. On top of that, the medicinal efficacies had clearly been somewhat depleted.
“Heavenly Martial Holy Land…” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, cursing this great force that ranked in the top echelon of the Southern Territory’s hierarchy.
Previously, the cultivators of Maplewood City heard that Heavenly Martial Holy Land had contributed three Dao Source Fruits to the opening of the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda, which had set off a wave of praise and jubilation, but now that he had actually obtained one, Yang Kai discovered that this Dao Source Fruit was actually a spoiled good from Heavenly Martial Holy Land’s stores.
However, thinking about it logically, if it had been high quality, freshly harvested Dao Source Fruit, Heavenly Martial Holy Land would not have been willing to take it out.
Even if it was a spoiled product though, it was still a genuine Dao Source Fruit and there was absolutely no problem using it to refine Dao Source Pills. The only issue would be that the number of pills produced would be slightly lessened.
After carefully storing the Dao Source Fruit, Yang Kai leapt up and flew off.
Two days later, Yang Kai arrived at a barren valley under the guidance of the Heaven Escaping Bat.
After arriving here, the little beast seemed to be extremely happy and with a flicker it dove into the ground and shot off, only sometime later re-appearing near a slight embankment.
Yang Kai frowned and released Divine Sense to perceive the area carefully, but before he could see any clues, Mo Xiao Qi’s voice reached his ear, “Big Brother Yang!”
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and followed the voice to determine the location of Mo Xiao Qi, but even then, he still could not see her at all. She seemed to have used some kind of powerful Secret Technique to completely hide her whereabouts.
When he was in Clear Jade Mountain, Yang Kai discovered that Mo Xiao Qi had cultivated an extraordinary concealment Secret Technique, but now it seemed he had still underestimated her methods.
The question was, why was she acting so stealthily?
Shaking his head, Yang Kai displayed his Nihility Secret Technique, concealed his aura, and walked forward cautiously.
After a while, Yang Kai arrived at the embankment and after looking around carefully, he finally found what he was looking for and couldn’t help smiling, “Xiao Qi, why are you hiding here?”
“Shhh…” Mo Xiao Qi put a finger to her lips and motioned Yang Kai to look in a certain direction.
Yang Kai felt suspicious as he squatted down quietly and followed the direction of Mo Xiao Qi’s finger.
At a glance, Yang Kai felt quite surprised.
Because in a spot about ten kilometres away was a large group of cultivators gathered around. A rough count put this group’s number at a few dozen with all of them sitting down cross-legged in groups of three to five, using their own methods to pour their strength towards a central point.
“What are they doing?” Yang Kai asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know. It seems that they have found some kind of barrier and are trying to break it open together,” Mo Xiao Qi replied softly.
“Oh?” Yang Kai suddenly became interested, “If there is a barrier, doesn’t that mean there are treasures? Why didn’t you join in the fun?”
Mo Xiao Qi frowned and shook her head lightly, “Something doesn’t feel right. Behind that barrier, there might not be treasure.”
“If it’s not treasure, then what is it?” Yang Kai was surprised.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m just watching for now,” Mo Xiao Qi answered naturally.
Yang Kai was speechless, but he was also curious about what this barrier that required so many Origin Kings working together to crack was hiding.
Generally speaking, the greater the power of a barrier, the more extraordinary the thing hidden inside was. Since this barrier required several dozen Origin Kings to crack it, the treasure inside must at least be Dao Source Grade, possibly even Emperor Grade.
No wonder so many people were willing to work together.
“How do you know something is wrong?” Yang Kai thought for a while and asked.
With just ten kilometres separating them, and with so many cultivators gathered together, Yang Kai didn’t dare to release his Divine Sense to investigate lest his whereabouts be exposed.
“I can’t say for certain, but the closer I got to the other side, the more unsettled I felt, as if there is something dangerous over there,” Mo Xiao Qi replied seriously.
“Are you certain?” Yang Kai’s expression changed.
Generally speaking, cultivators had innately sharp senses. This kind of sense was unclear and difficult to describe, but once it appeared, it was not something that could simply be written off or ignored.
Mo Xiao Qi came from an extraordinary background and had both profound knowledge and ability, so since she felt a sense of foreboding, it was very likely this barrier was actually a seal that was suppressing something dangerous.
“I still feel a sense of crisis even now,” Mo Xiao Qi patted her chest with his small hands, “What’s more, Xiao Fu feels the same way.”
Of course, Yang Kai knew that the Xiao Fu she spoke of was the Heaven Escaping Bat who had led him here. This little thing was naturally sensitive to danger, which had allowed Yang Kai to avoid many barriers and traps along the way.
Since both Mo Xiao Qi and this little bat felt danger, they should not be wrong.
Yang Kai went silent as he and Mo Xiao Qi continued to conceal themselves while secretly observing the situation.
As he was scanning his surroundings, Yang Kai discovered something of interest. It turned out that not just he and Mo Xiao Qi, but others were also using concealment techniques to hide nearby while watching and waiting.
As for the several dozen Origin Kings working together to crack this barrier, they were obviously having a strenuous time. Many of them were frequently taking out pills to supplement their consumption as they continued their attempts.
As the power of a dozen people poured into this barrier, a cross-shaped symbol composed of brilliantly burning flames gradually appeared.
The scorching power of this cross could be felt even from where Yang Kai stood.
“The Raging Flames Cross Seal?” Mo Xiao Qi suddenly whispered after seeing this scene.
“You recognize it?” Yang Kai asked quietly.
Mo Xiao Qi nodded lightly, “I have seen pictures of it in ancient books. It is a very, very old sealing technique, no one alive today should know how to use it. The principle of this kind of seal is quite simple, but it requires an enormous amount of strength to create. Unfortunately, I can’t tell what it is being used to seal.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Yang Kai furrowed his brow.
Ten kilometres ahead, when this Raging Flames Cross Seal appeared, the several dozen cultivators working to crack the barrier suddenly became excited, some of them even calling out, “Everyone, just a bit more, the barrier is about to break and the treasures are about to appear!”
Just these words alone were enough to inspire the gathered cultivators. Their blood boiling, each of these cultivators pushed their strength even harder as they poured it into the centre of the seal.
As time passed, the shape of the Raging Flames Cross Seal became more and more complete and clear. As more and more power flowed into it, the Raging Flames Cross Seal seemed like it was gradually becoming unstable.
The burning flames began to riot and cracking sounds from the seal could be heard.
At a certain point, the flame cross suddenly trembled and distorted before rapidly shrinking back to a central point.
The next moment, a loud bang resounded.
A wave of flames shot out in all directions, accompanied by an intense heat and pressure that swept towards the dozens of Origin Kings nearby. Thankfully, all of them had been prepared for such an outcome and swiftly summoned their defensive artifacts, so although all of them were a bit dishevelled, none of them were injured.
“The barrier has been broken!” Someone shouted, with a pleasant surprise in his voice.
Everyone else also felt a sense of joy as they raced forward to inspect the situation. Where the barrier had once been, the Raging Flames Cross Seal had disappeared and was replaced by a giant pit that seemed bottomless.
The many Origin Kings who had just stabilized themselves no longer restrained themselves and all dove towards the pit as fast as they could, hoping to snatch whatever benefits it held for themselves.
Everyone’s thoughts aligned with each other. Suddenly, many rushed to the gigantic pit as they glared around at everyone else, hostility growing by the breath and soon a giant melee had erupted.
All of them had joined forces earlier because they wanted to break this barrier, but now that it was gone, there was no need to cooperate anymore.
Even some of the cultivators who had been hiding nearby to watch the show decided to make a move and rushed out towards the pit.
Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi remained where they stood, along with a few others who were acting more cautiously.
Not far in front though, flashes of light from powerful artifacts and Secret Techniques appeared as people began dying.
Amidst the chaos, a few people quickly managed to rush down into the pit. When others saw this, how could they hesitate? Giving up on their opponents one after another, everyone dove into the pit.
Soon, there were only a few cultivators left above the pit while the rest descended into it.
“It’s quite lively here.” Suddenly, a voice appeared not far from where Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi were hiding.
Yang Kai was instantly shocked, because although he had been paying attention to the situation beside the pit, he had not relaxed his vigilance of his immediate surroundings. Yet, he still had not noticed anyone approaching until this voice sounded.
Turning his head to look, Yang Kai could not stop his eyes from shrinking.
A dozen metres away, an old man with a shabby appearance and a sloppy goatee had mysteriously appeared and was now stroking his beard while observing the situation.
“Men die for wealth, birds die for food. Why, oh why?” The old man suddenly muttered in a low voice with a forlorn look. At that moment, this old man gave off a profound aura that was laced with the vicissitude of ages past, surprising Yang Kai greatly.
“It’s that old swindler!” Mo Xiao Qi also noticed this person’s arrival, and after seeing his appearance, she immediately flew into a fury as she recognized him as the one who had cheated her out of her Source Crystals.
However, Yang Kai waved to stop her from moving.
Although Mo Xiao Qi did not know why Yang Kai wanted to stop her, she nodded obediently.
The next moment, the old swindler took a step forward and, in a flash, arrived a few kilometres away before squatting down and looking at an Origin King who had lost an arm and a leg in the previous battle.
This cultivator was severely injured in the melee just now and was barely even alive at the moment. Blood was still pouring out of his wounds and it was clear he was not long for the world.
“You’re hurt quite badly, son!” The goateed old swindler stared at the other person with a pitiful expression on his face, like a merciful deity who had descended to rescue people from suffering.
“Old… Old Sir, help me!” The cultivator stretched out his remaining arm and grabbed onto the old man desperately, begging for his life.
“Saving a life is more rewarding than building a seven-story pagoda, this old master will naturally not ignore your plight. Your broken limbs are not easy to treat, if not handled properly, you will be crippled for a lifetime. Tsk tsk, it is truly pitiful, but… Fortunately, this old master has a Nine Revolutions Life Restoring Pill his ancestor obtained long ago and has been passed down through his family until today. This pill can even bring those at the gates of death back to life! This old master seems to share some fate with you, so he will sell it to you cheaply!” Saying so, the old man took out a Spirit Pill from his Space Ring while acting all mysterious.
The cultivator’s eyes lit up, as if seeing a life-saving straw while drowning, and nodded repeatedly while exclaiming, “I’ll buy it! How many Source Crystals do I need to pay?”
“Ho ho, it’s not expensive at all, just give me your Space Ring,” The old man said with a smile on his face.
When these words fell, he pushed the so-called Nine Revolutions Life Restoring Pill in his hand into the mouth of the cultivator without any explanation before snatching his Space Ring without the slightest trace of politeness.
The cultivator had not even reacted yet, much less agreed to this deal, when his eyes rolled back from anger and he fainted directly.
“En, en, just sleep well, when you wake up, it will be like nothing happened,” The old man grinned and chanted, like he was soothing a baby, flashing his yellowed teeth benevolently.
“Big Brother Yang, that old swindler is too much! He’s actually robbing people in this kind of situation!” Mo Xiao Qi was suddenly filled with righteous indignation.
She and Yang Kai, who were still hiding, clearly saw everything this old man did.
She had thought this old man was just a swindler, but now, it seems that he not only cheated others but went so far as to rob them as well. How could Mo Xiao Qi possibly tolerate such wretchedness?
“He’s really going too far!” Yang Kai nodded sincerely.
“I’m going to teach him a lesson!” Mo Xiao Qi declared as she revealed her figure.
But before she could do anything, the earth began to shake and a deep rumbling sounded from the ground, like muffled thunder.
Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi’s expressions changed dramatically but before they could figure out exactly what happened, streams of light shot out of the giant pit ten kilometres away.
Naturally, these streams of light were the cultivators who had rushed in to fight for the treasure before.
When these cultivators went in, there were several dozens, but now, only half that number emerged, all of them carrying serious wounds and looking panicked, as if they had just witnessed something terrifying.
After flying out of the pit, these cultivators did not stop and instead scattered in all directions, fleeing with all their might.
In the blink of an eye, many cultivators disappeared from Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi’s view.
“What happened underground?” Mo Xiao Qi wondered.
“Something’s not right, we need to leave now!” Yang Kai made a decisive decision and tried to take Mo Xiao Qi away, but at that moment, he sensed a powerful life aura rapidly rise up from below the surface.
The speed of this aura was astonishing, and the strength of vitality it radiated was beyond anything Yang Kai had ever sensed before.
*Kacha…*
Suddenly, the surrounding earth cracked and in the blink of an eye, with the giant pit as a centre, innumerable big and small fissures spread out for dozens of kilometres.
Things had not ended yet though as from these cracks, verdant coloured vines shot out.
These vines seemed almost sentient as they constantly twisted and wriggled, growing at a shocking pace, soon covering everything within a dozen kilometres, dancing through the air like a field of demonic tentacles, a terrifying sight to behold.
Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi both leapt up into the air as all this was happening.
A moment later, an arm-thick, razor-sharp vine suddenly burst from the ground right below where Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi had just been standing.
It was conceivable that if the two had been even slightly slower, they would have already been caught by this vine and forced into a dangerous struggle.
“AH!” Suddenly a scream rang out, startling Yang Kai. Turning his head in the direction of the shout, Yang Kai saw that not far away, a cultivator that had been hiding and watching previously was pierced by a sharp vine and was now suspended mid-air.
This cultivator was also an Origin King, but no matter how hard he struggled at this moment, he was unable to escape from the shackles of vines.
In the blink of an eye, more vines shot out and wrapped around him tightly.