The stone cavern was very large and there were some other things besides the magma pool.
Before Yang Kai could take a careful look, Liu Yan’s voice suddenly rang in his ear, “Master!”
Having heard her shout, he promptly let Liu Yan out with a thought.
Liu Yan didn’t take the human form but maintained her Firebird form, quietly hovering before Yang Kai. Her eyes were completely glued on the magma pool in front. There was actually a sliver of longing in her gaze.
“Is there something down there that’s useful to you?” Yang Kai immediately asked, noticing this.
Liu Yan promptly voiced out her desire, “There seems to be something there, and it’s not small. I will go check it out.”
As she spoke, she spread her wings and flew straight to the magma pool and plunged inside.
“Be careful,” Yang Kai in the back hurriedly exhorted, but Liu Yan had already disappeared.
He couldn’t help but shake his head. Only then did he finally begin looking around.
The stone cavern might be big but it was empty. So, the surrounding situation was clear at a glance.
Very soon, Yang Kai’s attention was drawn to a certain place.
There, a humanoid figure seemed to be sitting cross-legged. Yang Kai furrowed his brow and immediately spread his Divine Sense. After a bit of scanning, he finally confirmed that the humanoid figure was just a skeleton. It had not even a bit of vitality and aura. Obviously, it should have died a long time ago.
[If I’m right, this should be Gong Sun Mu’s corpse.]
[An Alchemy Grandmaster of his generation, the third disciple of one of Ten Great Emperors, Wondrous Pill Great Emperor. He was supposed to be an outstanding master who had everyone in the Star Boundary at his beck and call. But then, he had met a tragic end in an insignificant place like the Yuan Furnace Mountain.] Yang Kai couldn’t help but sigh again and again. He had no idea how Gong Sun Mu offended the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor so much that the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor expelled him. His end was so bleak and lonesome that he had no one to even collect his body.
Having set his mind, Yang Kai walked to the skeleton and cupped his fists and bowed slightly.
In any case, Gong Sun Mu was an elder, and most important of all, an Alchemy Grandmaster. Even if he died here, he deserved this bow from Yang Kai.
After standing straight, Yang Kai’s gaze was immediately attracted by what was in front of Gong Sun Mu.
Gong Sun Mu must have stayed here until he died. There was a small pot-like object not too far from him. This small pot looked like a wok used by ordinary people for cooking but it was much smaller in size. And underneath the small pot was the Earth Fire which was burning below the pot. It was drawn using an Array.
What Yang Kai cared about wasn’t this pot but the thing inside the pot.
Surprisingly, a pot of thick medicinal soup was boiling in this pot. There wasn’t much of it; it was only about a bowl, covering just the bottom of the pot.
From time to time, a bubble would appear in the medicinal soup. And whenever it burst, it would emit a colourful glow. At the same time, a strange fragrance would permeate the cave.
Yang Kai’s expression changed as he smelled this fragrance.
He was very familiar with this fragrance because it happened to be the very same fragrance he smelled outside the Yuan Furnace Mountain.
Back then, outside the Yuan Furnace Mountain, many cultivators were lured over by the appearance of a phenomenon. Whether the sudden colourful glow and the wonderful fragrance filling the world, everything was very similar to the scene before him.
A pondering look immediately appeared on Yang Kai’s face.
[In that case, the phenomenon of the Yuan Furnace Mountain isn’t because some precious treasure is about to mature but because of this pot of medicinal soup.]
Yang Kai immediately became interested in this pot of medicinal soup. Even though he was eighty percent sure that this thick medicinal soup was not poisonous and could even bring great benefits to the cultivator, he did not dare to take it rashly before he properly understood the thing.
He looked around and soon found a jade slip before Gong Sun Mu’s skeleton.
The jade slip seemed to have been placed by Gong Sun Mu himself before he died. From one glance, it was extremely clear that he had prepared it for the later generations to read.
Yang Kai first checked it with his Divine Sense. Only after he was sure that there was no danger, did he finally reach out to pick the jade slip.
The moment he grabbed the jade slip, things suddenly changed.
Gong Sun Mu, who should have been dead for years and had been reduced to nothing but a skeleton, suddenly moved. Immediately after, his eye sockets flickered with a pair of green glowing orbs that suddenly flew out and gathered into a ball of light that shot straight at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was taken aback. He quickly jumped back, and at the same time, circulated the energy in his body to defend himself.
But what horrified him was that the ball of light actually ignored his defensive energy and went straight into his chest, disappearing in a flash.
In an instant, Yang Kai was frightened out of his senses and he broke into a cold sweat. He quickly scanned his body with his Divine Sense, but strangely found that he hadn’t suffered any injuries. There seemed to be nothing wrong with his body.
And after doing this, Gong Sun Mu’s skeleton crumbled down on the ground, as if it had exhausted its last strength. The bones were incomparably fragile, many of them broke apart.
After a short while, everything returned to normal. Yang Kai, holding the jade slip in his hand, stood rooted in his place with an ugly look on his face.
Just now, he had definitely triggered some kind of seal laid by Gong Sun Mu. And since he couldn’t detect it with his Divine Sense, so this seal was obviously very well hidden. He couldn’t dispel it either.
After pondering for a long time, Yang Kai, gritting his teeth, sat down and poured his Divine Sense into the jade slip, reading it carefully.
He felt that since Gong Sun Mu had intentionally left this jade slip, he must have left some clues that might help him know what happened just now.
As his Divine Sense scanned through the jade slip, the content of the jade slip immediately became clear to him.
“I, Gong Sun Mu, the third disciple of the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor, met the Great Emperor in my young and ignorant days, when I used to beg for a living. The Great Emperor didn’t look down upon me and even took me as his disciple, teaching me the Alchemic Dao…”
As expected, the jade slip was really left by Gong Sun Mu, so this cave mansion indeed belonged to him. The information in the jade slip was very complicated. At first, it just had a memory of Gong Sun Mu. He was a very unfortunate person. When he was young, he tasted the cold bitterness of the world, almost starving to death. At the same time, he was also a very lucky guy. He actually caught the notice of the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor. He was then taken as a Low-Ranked Disciple, staying by the Great Emperor’s side while cultivating and learning Alchemy skills.
“My aptitude was far better than my two Senior Brothers and the Great Emperor loved it very much. He taught me everything without hiding anything. My Alchemy skills quickly surpassed the two Senior Brothers, and as I rose to fame at a young age, I grew proud and arrogant. I was out of control. When my Senior Brothers tried to mediate, I ridiculed them, creating discord between brothers…”
“At the age of three hundred, I advanced to the Emperor Realm and became an Emperor Grade Alchemist as well. I became renowned in the Star Boundary, but that wasn’t enough for me. I want to surpass the Honored Master in Alchemic Dao. So, I started researching the way of the Human Pill, eventually hurting my life and Heaven… First Senior Brother informed the Honored Master, and he was furious. He stopped me from researching it, but I couldn’t accept it. I agreed on the surface but continued as before in private. I was beyond control…”
“At the age of three hundred fifty, my secret was exposed by the First Senior Brother again. I attacked Senior Brother in my anger, heavily injuring him. The Honored Master couldn’t take it anymore and expelled me from his tutelage. I then found Yuan Furnace Mountain and lived here in seclusion…”
Almost all of Gong Sun Mu’s life was recorded in the jade slip. According to his own statement, his aptitude was almost comparable to the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor. Unfortunately, he seemed to be a little eager for success. In order to surpass the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor, he studied the way of the Human Pill.
As for what the way of the Human Pill was, Gong Sun Mu didn’t say. But judging by the meaning in between the lines, Yang Kai felt that it should be a very cruel Alchemy technique.
Obviously, the reason why he was kicked out of the tutelage had a lot to do with the way of the Human Pill. Of course, a part of the reason was that he attacked his Senior Brother, even severely injuring him.
After he was kicked out, Gong Sun Mu settled down in Yuan Furnace Mountain. After this life-changing experience, his temperament seemed to have changed a little, and he realized his mistake.
He wanted to return to the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor many times but he never met the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor. Finally, he died alone in this cave mansion.
Apart from this, the jade slip also had Gong Sun Mu’s own understanding of the Alchemic Way. It could be said that this jade slip itself was Gong Sun Mu’s notes of Alchemy, which was of great value to any Alchemist.
It had all kinds of pill recipes, Spirit Arrays used during refining pills, Pill Condensing Techniques… it had all kinds of stuff. Every Alchemist would go crazy for its contents.
However, Gong Sun Mu also stated in the jade slip that everything was the crystallization of his own life’s wisdom. It had nothing to do with anything taught by the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor.
Without the permission of the Wondrous Pill Great Emperor, he didn’t dare to leave that knowledge in the jade slip.
“I don’t know who you are, but since you have passed many of my tests and got this jade slip, it means that you are an Alchemist as well. Now, you can be considered as my successor. And since the jade slip is in your hands, it means that you should have also been hit by my Withered Soul Seal. The Withered Soul Seal will not harm you within the next hundred years, but after a hundred years, it will swallow your Soul. There are only two ways to remove this seal: One is to have cultivation better than mine, and the other is to find my Honored Master and ask him to take action. I hope that you can meet my Honored Master in a hundred years, hand him this jade slip, and ask him to take me back under his tutelage!”
“As compensation, you can take the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup for which I have worked so hard on for the rest of my life. You will realize its many benefits in the future!”
After this, there was nothing more mentioned in the jade slip.
After having read it completely, Yang Kai heaved a long and deep sigh, squeezing the jade slip. He was finally free from the worries.
At the very least, he now knew exactly what he was just hit with.
Obviously, the Withered Soul Seal should be a seal laid by Gong Sun Mu before his death. As long as anyone took the jade slip, the Withered Soul Seal would be activated, penetrating into the body of the person who took the jade slip.
This seal was harmless for a hundred years but it would swallow the Soul after that.
A century wasn’t a short period, so Yang Kai wasn’t worried about anything for the time being.
As long as his cultivation exceeded Gong Sun Mu’s within a century, he could remove this Withered Soul Seal. Although Yang Kai had no idea about Gong Sun Mu’s cultivation before his death, he should be in the Emperor Realm for sure.
Yang Kai was confident in reaching the Emperor Realm in a century. What he was afraid of was that Gong Sun Mu might be a Third-Order Emperor. In that case, he would need to become a Great Emperor, and only then could he remove the Withered Soul Seal on his own.
After thinking for a while, Yang Kai solemnly put away the jade slip.
He had a free and easy disposition. So, knowing that it would be useless to mess around with the Withered Soul Seal, he stopped paying attention to it.
He turned his gaze back to the little pot of thick medicinal soup.
According to the information left in the jade slip, the small pot of medicinal soul was the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup that Gong Sun Mu spent the remaining half of his life brewing. What ingredients were used to brew this Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup and what its miraculous effects were, Yang Kai had no idea.
But since it was compensation for the Withered Soul Seal, obviously, it would be quite beneficial to take it.
Furthermore, Gong Sun Mu’s cave mansion had existed for a couple millennia and it had been a very long time since he was alive. In other words, this pot of medicinal soup had been brewing for one or two millennia at the very least!
It was thanks to the Earth Fire drawn by the Array that it could continue to boil. Or else, it would have been reduced to nothing but a waste a long time ago.
The Yuan Furnace Mountain had always been incomparably desolate. No cultivator paid attention to it, which should be Gong Sun Mu’s handiwork. It wasn’t difficult for an Emperor Realm master to cause the people to misunderstand it as a barren mountain with a bit of disguise and some tricks to prevent the Yuan Furnace Mountain’s World Energy from leaking.
The cultivators were finally drawn to this place because of the sudden appearance of intermittent colourful glow and the strange fragrance.
And that phenomenon was obviously caused by this pot of soup.
When a Heaven-defying precious treasure was about to mature, or an extremely high-level artifact or pill was about to be refined, it would trigger a Heavenly Manifestation!
The manifestation at the Yuan Furnace Mountain was obviously due to the successful brewing of this medicinal soup.
Now that it had successfully brewed and was of great benefit to him, Yang Kai had no reason to let it go.
He sat cross-legged before the small pot and used a bit of his energy to cut off the supply of Earth Fire drawn by the Array. Immediately after, he reached out and picked up the small pot, bringing the pot of Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup before himself.
Observing it this closely, Yang Kai found that the medicinal soup was extremely thick and yet crystal clear; it didn’t have the slightest bit of impurities. He could clearly see the bottom of the pot. Meanwhile, colourful bubbles continued to rise from the bottom, making for quite the magical sight.
As the strong aroma entered his nose, Yang Kai felt refreshed.
He had no words to describe the scent at the tip of his nose. Even the charming fragrance of the purest and holiest virgin body couldn’t match this scent and Yang Kai had never smelled anything that could leave such a lasting pleasant flavour.
Along his journey to the Third-Order Origin King Realm, Yang Kai had not had a desire to taste something for a long while. And with his strength and physique, he didn’t need to eat anything. But after this aroma entered his nose, his rare appetite was stirred, as if he hadn’t eaten for many days. He couldn’t wait to swallow this pot of soup.
Gritting his teeth, Yang Kai brought the small pot to his mouth and started drinking.
Strangely enough, the pot of Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soul seemed incomparably hot, but when it entered the mouth, it wasn’t. On the contrary, its temperature was just perfect. Furthermore, its fragrance filled his entire mouth and it was far more delicious than anything Yang Kai had ever eaten.
There was only one bowl of Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup. As such, he raised his head up and downed it in one go, not leaving a single drop behind.
After a while, Yang Kai let out a loud burp, spurting a colourful glow.
Before he could relish the taste of the Ten Thousands Medicinal Treasure Soup, his stomach suddenly became extremely hot as streams of heat quickly flowed through his limbs and bones like it was tangible, giving rise to an itching sensation.
Yang Kai’s face immediately changed. He hurriedly threw that small pot into the Space Ring and closed his eyes, regulating his breathing while silently circulating his cultivation technique.
And after just ten breaths of Yang Kai taking the small pot of Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup from its place, the entire Yuan Furnace Mountain suddenly started quaking with deafening rumbles. The ground started shaking, rocks rolled down the mountain, and the peak fell to one side as the entire Yuan Furnace Mountain suddenly split into countless pieces and quickly sank down.
Inside the mountain, in the countless identical stone rooms, all the cultivators who were still alive had a change in their expression.
Just when they were wondering what the Hell was going on, all the Transmission Arrays in the stone room were activated. In an instant, all the surviving cultivators disappeared from their positions.
In the next moment, figures mysteriously appeared one after another about a dozen kilometres away from the Yuan Furnace Mountain. Everyone looked confused.
“Brother Lian, you were sent out too?” hurriedly shouted Raging Fire Temple Vice Temple Master Zong Qing as he looked around and noticed a frowning Lian Yu Ming.
Hearing the shout, Lian Yu Ming immediately turned his head to look at Zong Qing. He was surprised to find Zong Qing too. He nodded and replied, “Yes! It seems that you were also teleported out!?”
“That’s right!” Zong Qing solemnly looked at the shaking Yuan Furnace Mountain and doubtfully asked, “What happened there? Why is everyone teleported out?”
Lian Yu Ming thought for a while before asking, “Brother Zong, did you come across stone rooms after you entered?”
“Yes! And all kinds of weird tests as well. They seemed to be related to Alchemy. By the way, Brother Lian, you are proficient in Alchemy, those tests shouldn’t be difficult for you.”
Lian Yu Ming slowly shook his head in response and replied, “This old master had only passed the fifth stone room. I have no idea what we would gain after passing all the tests, but judging by the tests, this cave mansion should belong to an Alchemist.”
Hearing this, Zong Qing pondered for a moment and agreed, nodding, “Brother Lian has a point. If that’s the case, you can ask the other disciples if they have gained anything or not.”
While talking, Zong Qing looked around. And when he noticed that only a half of his elite disciples were left, his expression finally changed.
Right then, he focused his gaze on a nearby figure and asked in surprise, “It’s you!?”
Not too far away, a helpless look appeared on Kang Si Ran’s face.
He too was sent out when the commotion of the Yuan Furnace Mountain started. And now, he happened to be caught in the middle of many Raging Fire Temple disciples. He didn’t dare to act rashly so as to prevent other people from misunderstanding. At this moment, he was noticed by Zong Qing. He was left with no choice but to cup his first and introduce himself, “Maplewood City Spirit Pill Plaza, Shopkeeper Kang Si Ran greets the two Vice Temple Masters.”
“Spirit Pill Plaza!?” Lian Yu Ming’s pupil constricted after hearing this. “Violet Source Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit Pill Plaza!?”
“That’s right,” Kang Si Ran nodded and at the same time, he was finally relieved. He was really helpless this time and had no choice but to reveal his identity and origin. After all, his fists weren’t bigger than the opposite party. All he could do was use the awe and prestige of Violet Source Chamber of Commerce to deter the opposite party.
As expected, after having come to know Kang Si Ran’s background, Zong Qing and Lian Yu gazed at each other before withdrawing their previous hostility. The former then said, “This Zong has heard of Spirit Pill Plaza. So Your Excellency is Spirit Pill Plaza’s Shopkeeper Kang. I’m sorry for not recognizing you.”
“Vice Temple Master Zong, you are being too polite,” Kang Si Ran replied calmly.
“Shopkeeper Kang, do you know what happened inside the Yuan Furnace Mountain?” Zong Qing asked in a deep voice.
Kang Si Ran shook his head and replied, “This Kang is at a loss too.”
“If I remember it correctly, Shopkeeper Kang had a friend with him. Where is he now?” Lian Yu Ming asked, immersed in his thoughts.
Hearing this, Kang Si Ran’s expression darkened. He glanced in the direction of the Yuan Furnace Mountain and sighed, “Since Brother Yang has failed to appear here, he has obviously encountered something unexpected inside. I see that your noble Temple seems to be short of many disciples, this Yuan Furnace Mountain’s tests aren’t that simple.”
He really believed that Yang Kai had fallen inside the Yuan Furnace Mountain. After all, even two Dao Source Realm masters like Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming were teleported out. It was natural to imagine the fate of those who were not teleported out like this.
For a moment, Kang Si Ran could help but feel a little sad. On the one hand, it was because he couldn’t find the much needed Dao Source Pill in the Yuan Furnace Mountain, and on the other, it was because of Yang Kai’s death.
Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming gazed at each other before lightly nodding their acknowledgement.
As they didn’t notice any pretence in Kang Si Ran’s expression, they have no intention of pestering him. Zong Qin said, “In that case, please restrain your grief, Shopkeeper Kang. Please go back. In any case, the Yuan Furnace Mountain is within the domain of my Raging Fire Temple. We will be doing another search.”
How could Kang Si Ran not notice such an obvious order to leave? After a long sigh, he cupped his fists to Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming before turning around and flying in the direction of Maplewood City.
After a while, the entire Yuan Furnace Mountain completely collapsed with an earth-shattering crash.
After everything returned to calm, Zong Qing and Lian Yu Ming led the remaining Raging Fire Temple disciples to search the ruins of the Yuan Furnace Mountain. But unfortunately, even after flipping the entire collapsed mountain for two months, they couldn’t find anything.
All they found were the corpses of a few disciples that had died tragically!
Two months later, the Raging Fire Temple disciples had no choice but to leave.
…
Heaven knows how many feet deep underground, Yang Kai was continuously roaring like a wounded beast in the stone cavern. If anyone heard his screams, they might immediately flee in fright.
The efficacy of the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup was extremely strong and continuous. After he drank it, it transformed into streams of pure energy that surged to every nook and cranny of Yang Kai’s body.
After his meridians and physique were eroded by its efficacy, they continuously grew tougher and stronger. The meridians widened and the physique remoulded. Yang Kai’s entire body was violently shaking. Every inch of his body, his skin, and even his internal organs and marrow, was stinging, as if tens of thousands of ants were gnawing his body. He was feeling as if he was suffering the most painful torture in the world!
Bit by bit, his skin began to crack as Golden Blood flowed out, which slowly solidified into a blood clot.
The outer surface of the blood clot was covered by the Golden Blood that flowed out again.
Gradually, Yang Kai’s entire figure was covered in a golden blood cocoon. His figure couldn’t be seen from outside. Only his strong heartbeat, which sounded much like war drums, could be heard.
Heaven knows how long this lasted. One second, it seemed countless years, but then it seemed just a moment in another.
And with the passage of time, Yang Kai’s roars coming from the blood cocoon gradually weakened before disappearing altogether, as if he had grown accustomed to this painful transformation.
In a flash, half a year had gone by…
The stone cavern remained calm and uneventful over this half-year, and not a single sound was made.
Today, cracking noises started coming from the blood cocoon around Yang Kai all of a sudden. It sounded much like the popping of bones. They were extremely crisp and numerous. Followed by these sounds, a crack suddenly appeared in the blood cocoon.
Immediately afterwards, more and more cracks started to appear on the blood cocoon, giving it a shattered-mirror-kind of look.
Finally, the blood cocoon burst apart into countless pieces with a loud bang as Yang Kai’s stalwart figure emerged in the centre. His upper body was naked and his black hair was flying along with the wind. His white skin was so white and tender that it was better than a newborn’s.
Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes. The gleam in his eyes might be withdrawn but there was a radiant look on his face.
He tilted his head as a weird expression appeared on his face.
At this moment, he was having a very different and strange feeling. He felt that he had gained a new life.
He lowered his head to take a look at his body and was immediately shocked.
He had been running about over the years, going through winds and rains. He went through all kinds of hardships that not only created his staunch character, but also forged him into an outstanding figure. But now, just a pot of Ten Thousand Treasure Soup had made his skin whiter and more tender than a woman’s. He was rather surprised by this.
He got up and exercised a bit, feeling lighter and stronger than before. When he slightly clenched his fist, endless strength continuously gushed out from his body.
He made a simple jab but it immediately resulted in a sonic boom, causing ripples in the air that were visible to the naked eyes.
Yang Kai beamed with joy at the sight of this. He immediately knew that his physical body had gained a significant upgrade. As he scanned himself with Divine Sense, he suddenly realized that his five viscera and six organs had actually changed. They looked like they had been carved from jade and gold while giving an unbreakable feeling.
[It wasn’t like this before.]
Obviously, all of this was because of the Ten Thousand Treasures Soup! The Ten Thousand Treasures Soup seemed to be able to develop the physical potential of the cultivator and temper the cultivator’s physical quality, supplementing his already powerful body. His strength had grown to a whole new level and had become even more outstanding.
But things didn’t just stop there. Yang Kai could clearly feel a large amount of Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup’s efficacy still remaining in his bones and physique. It was stored inside his body to silently transform his body over time.
Yang Kai was very satisfied with this. [So this is the effect of a medicine soup that had been brewed for over one or two millennia. It is far more effective than taking any pill.]
[With my current physique, it’s definitely possible to refine the Dragon Artifact.]
Yang Kai thought as he checked his own strength again.
This check immediately gave him a big surprise.
He found that all the Saint Qi in his body had been transformed into Source Qi. He couldn’t find even the slightest bit of Saint Qi!
Source Qi was a higher-grade energy than Saint Qi. It was the very foundation of Dao Source Realm cultivators to communicate with the World Principles and mobilize the power of Heaven and Earth. It was basically impossible for a cultivator to advance to the Dao Source Realm without the Source Qi.
Yang Kai’s perception of Principles was already good enough. The reason why he couldn’t advance to the Dao Source Realm was that the Saint Qi in his body had not been completely transformed.
According to his previous calculations, it would have taken him one or two years to convert all his Saint Qi into Source Qi, even if he continued taking Source Condensing Pills. But now, these conditions have been fulfilled in advance.
Naturally, all the credit went to the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup.
Yang Kai was inevitably a little ecstatic by this discovery. He was now ready to advance to the Dao Source Realm anytime.
However, advancing to the Dao Source Realm was a very important thing, and this place wasn’t suitable for World Energy baptism. So, Yang Kai had no plans to advance here. He still needed to find a suitable location.
Having thought of this, Yang Kai decided to leave.
He looked around a bit but there was nothing worthy of his attention in the stone cavern. However, Liu Yan had still not returned after she charged into the magma pool. He had no idea about the advantages she might have gained underneath.
As he came to the side of the magma pool and checked, he surprisingly discovered that the temperature of the magma pool seemed to have significantly dropped. It seemed as if someone had sucked away all the internal heat.
Yang Kai tried to communicate with Liu Yan but he didn’t get any response.
However, this only made Yang Kai relieved and joyful. He knew that the reason why Liu Yan couldn’t sense his summon was definitely because she had found her own opportunity.
Considering all this, he simply stopped paying attention to Liu Yan and started looking for an exit.
The stone cavern wasn’t that big, and there was only one passage connected to it. He quickly found a Transmission Array at the other end of the passage. After activating the Spirit Array, he instantly disappeared from the stone cavern.
In a barren ridge somewhere around a hundred miles away from the Yuan Furnace Mountain, Yang Kai’s figure emerged out of thin air.
He promptly spread his Divine Sense, and after making sure that the surroundings were safe, he looked around to get his bearing before his figure shot toward the horizon, leaving a streak of light.
Yang Kai wasn’t planning on returning to Maplewood City. Currently, the most important thing for him was to advance to the Dao Source Realm. Thus, he needed to find a quiet and solitary place.
A few days later, he landed on a barren mountain. After looking around at the surroundings, he lightly nodded, extremely satisfied.
Although it was barren, and the World Energy was also scarce here, it was spacious and deserted; very few people would visit this place.
Unlike other cultivators, who had friends, relatives, and Sects to back them up, he didn’t have anyone to guard him during his advancement. Thus, he had no choice but to use such a place.
The lack of World Energy was nothing. One only needed to place some Source Crystals around himself to get the World Energy needed for advancement.
However, just in case, he still spent two days carefully scouting the area of two thousand kilometres. He beheaded some Monster Beasts that had settled here before finally returning.
Advancing by a Great Realm was very important to any cultivator. It was different from when one broke through by a small realm. Once one failed to advance, they could very likely damage their Martial Dao foundation; the cultivator might never recover from it. In severe cases, he or she might get killed under the World Energy baptism.
Naturally, Yang Kai would be careful.
Afterwards, he let the two Blood Beasts, the Queen Monster Insect and Blue Flame Thunder Wolf, out, ordering them to keep a close watch in two opposite directions. [I think with two Blood Beasts keeping guard, there should not be any major problems.]
After doing all this, he finally started to calm himself.
He didn’t try to immediately attack the bottleneck of the Dao Source Realm. Rather, he took out the Black Jade Furnace and the jade slip left behind by Gong Sun Mu. On one side, he was refining the Black Jade Furnace, leaving his Soul and life Brand in it, and on the other, he was going through the Alchemy knowledge in the jade slip.
A long time ago, Yang Kai had tried to stabilize his mind and prepare to break through using Alchemy. This method had been tried and tested time and time again. So, it would still come true this time as well.
Time slowly passed and Yang Kai seemed to have completely forgotten his original intention of coming here. He was completely absorbed in the world of Alchemy knowledge.
The Alchemy information left in the jade slip might be incomprehensible to others, but as someone who once triggered the Grand Alchemic Dao Tone and had seen a glimpse of Alchemic Dao ultimate knowledge, it was very easy for Yang Kai to understand.
He had memorized various pill recipes and the names of herbs in one month.
In addition, the Black Jade Furnace was successfully refined, succeeding the Purple Origin Furnace as Yang Kai’s Alchemy Furnace.
Today, Yang Kai suddenly placed the Black Jade Furnace before him and poured the Conflagrated Knowledge Sea into the furnace.
Suddenly, a scorching heatwave spread from the furnace.
The next moment, a bunch of high-quality herbs flew out from his Space Ring with a flick of his finger, flying into the Black Jade Furnace in an orderly manner. Under the scorching heat of his pure Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, they were slowly reduced into medicinal liquid before congealing into a ball.
After a while, he put in new herbs.
The temperature inside the Black Jade Furnace kept on changing. From time to time, a bit of medicinal fragrance would leak out of it.
Yang Kai looked as calm as an old dried-up well; he wasn’t the slightest bit nervous or impatient. Even his actions when dropping the herbs were slow and steady, but the change in temperature of the furnace was instant. One by one, the Spirit Arrays required for refining the pills rose and fell inside the Black Jade Furnace as he engraved them with his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, producing a magical effect on the medicinal liquid.
Three hours later, a wooden box appeared in Yang Kai’s palm with a flip of his wrist.
Under the push from his Source Qi, the wooden box opened by itself, revealing a longan sized spirit fruit.
Amazingly, it was the Dao Source Fruit that the Zhang Family patriarch had given him back then!
In this world, only one kind of pill could be refined from the Dao Source Fruit: The Dao Source Pill that could make all the Third-Order Origin King cultivator lust over it!
If the Origin King Realm masters knew that Yang Kai was rashly trying to refine the Dao Source Fruit as an Origin King Grade Alchemist, perhaps all of them would want to kill him. The Dao Source Pill wasn’t an ordinary pill. Its main ingredient was extremely rare. Out of the entire Southern Territory and Heavenly Martial Holy Land, there were only a handful of trees that could bear the Dao Source Fruit. Furthermore, the Heavenly Martial Holy Land used it for themselves. They would not sell them outside. So, one could imagine the rarity of this pill.
And all the Alchemists who dared to refine the Dao Source Fruit into Dao Source Pills were all Dao Source Grade Alchemists! No Origin King Grade Alchemist would ever dare to play with this kind of spirit fruit.
But Yang Kai did.
If he succeeded, he would definitely be able to break through his Alchemy bottleneck and advance to the Dao Source Grade in one fell swoop. If he failed, the priceless Dao Source Fruit would be reduced to ashes.
As he took out the Dao Source Fruit, Yang Kai’s face that had been maintaining an indifferent expression finally turned a little solemn. But he still threw the Dao Source Fruit into the Black Jade Furnace without a moment of hesitation.
Immediately afterwards, he shut the furnace lid tightly and started making hand seals with a solemn look on his face.
As he kept changing the hand seals, the medicinal liquid in the Black Jade Furnace kept tossing and turning amidst gurgling sounds.
Meanwhile, invisible Spirit Arrays rose and shattered in the Black Jade Furnace, one after another, continuously.
Beads of sweat started to appear on Yang Kai’s forehead as if refining the pill this time was extremely hard for him.
This situation lasted for a whole five hours. Having been concentrating for this long, Yang Kai had expended a lot of his mental energy. He looked slightly haggard and pale.
After five hours, he finally made the last hand seal and took a long, deep breath. He then quickly took out a few recovery-type pills and threw them into his mouth.
The pill furnace was still humming as several different types of medicinal liquids merged inside and incredible changes were taking place.
At a certain moment, a strange sound rang from inside the Black Jade Furnace, followed by a strong medicinal fragrance that permeated into the surroundings.
As a bit of fragrance drifted into Yang Kai’s nose and made its way into Yang Kai’s body, his Martial Dao bottleneck that had reached a critical juncture showed a slight sign of loosening. The calm Source Qi in his body madly started flowing.
Right then, Yang Kai opened his eyes and smacked the Black Jade Furnace, causing its lid to instantly fly up.
Immediately after, he quickly displayed the Nine Heavens Profound Pill Method that he had developed from the Grand Alchemic Dao Tone. His hands kept forming seals in succession as he continuously poured his energy into the Black Jade Furnace.
After a short while, the noises coming from the furnace became more and more obvious. It sounded like something was rolling inside the furnace.
Later, as Yang Kai withdrew his Pill Condensing Technique, streaks of light suddenly shot out of the Black Jade Furnace.
Yang Kai had been waiting for this moment. He immediately reached out, catching the several streaking things in his palm.
He didn’t have time to take a closer look at the result of his Alchemy. All he knew was that there were a total of six pills.
He promptly placed the newly-refined Dao Source Pills into the jade bottle that he had prepared in advance. Immediately after, he waved his hand as a large number of Source Crystals flew out of his Space Ring and fell on the ground, piling up in circles around him.
Some time ago, Yang Kai had killed many powerful enemies. He had gained no less than ten million Source Crystals from them, but for the sake of his own advancement, he threw out all ten million of them.
After all, the World Energy here was pretty scarce, and to meet the necessary requirement for his own advancement, he could only use these Source Crystals.
As soon as the Source Crystals appeared, a muffled thunder-like sound resounded above Yang Kai’s head. Suddenly, the World Energy became turbulent as the power of Principles started to circle around Yang Kai.
After a short while, a large black cloud appeared over Yang Kai’s head. The cloud started slowly rotating and taking a funnel shape.
Sand and rocks started to fly around everywhere as the sky went dark.
Seemingly under the effect of some mysterious force, the Source Crystals thrown around Yang Kai suddenly burst apart with crackling explosions. They instantly transformed into streams of pure energy that filled the surroundings before converging in the sky.
On the top of Yang Kai’s head, the black funnel vortex was growing at a speed visible to the naked eyes. It was quite a shocking sight.
The originally scarce World Energy in the surrounding grew extremely dense after being supplemented by the Source Crystals. And the place where Yang Kai was sitting was soon shrouded by a white mist. The white mist wasn’t real mist but a scene caused by the dense World Energy.
Yang Kai didn’t seem to be aware of this. He was still sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed. He looked extremely calm and at peace.
He was communicating with his Origin Essence Crystal in his consciousness and feeling the Heavenly Way Martial Dao. Meanwhile, the Star Source of Shadowed Star in his body happened to be regularly pulsating at this moment, as if it was being affected by something. With the blessing of this Star Source, Yang Kai could feel the power of the World Principles around him even more clearly.
He had absorbed many shattered Principle Fragments on the third level of the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda, and at this moment, they were getting incisively sublimated so that Yang Kai could brand his own perception and sublimate his realm.
With time, the black funnel in the sky grew larger and larger, almost covering the entire sky.
Even though Yang Kai had chosen a desolate land for his advancement and had even spent a few days clearing the Monster Beasts within a range of a thousand kilometres, some accidents were bound to happen.
His advancement had caused such a huge commotion that he could still be noticed from a few thousand kilometres away.
When the black funnel that had covered a small part of the sky took shape, many cultivators in the distance had noticed this scene. Naturally, their curiosity was piqued and they rushed to the place where Yang Kai was advancing to check what was going on.
After these cultivators figured out that someone was advancing by a Great Realm and was about to welcome the World Energy baptism, most of the cultivators stopped, spectating from a few hundred kilometres away.
The cultivation of these cultivators wasn’t that high. After all, the overall strength of the cultivators in the vicinity of Maplewood City wasn’t that good. Most of them were Origin King or Origin Returning Realm masters, while there were even weaker ones as well.
Sensing how strong and violent the energy in the sky was, how would they dare step forward? After having come to join in the fun, they gathered around and started discussing, pointing in Yang Kai’s direction.
Among the crowd, there was a weak little girl in her twenties. She was only in the Second-Order Origin Returning Realm. Furthermore, she seemed to be suffering from some chronic disease and she was wearing a lot of clothes despite the warm weather. There were several Origin King Realm cultivators around her, guarding her. While the girl’s pretty eyes were focused into the distance, she suddenly started coughing.
The Origin King Realm masters around her immediately looked at her with concern but everyone seemed to be accustomed to this scene. So, they didn’t look too panicked. After the girl’s breath stabilized, they finally withdrew their gazes.
After a short while, a First-Order Origin King cultivator hastily flew over from the distance and arrived before the girl in a few flickers.
“Young Lady, I am back,” the cultivator quickly said.
“Did you find out who is advancing?” the girl asked in a gentle voice, parting her lips.
The cultivator shook his head and reported, “I’m sorry Young Lady. The World Energy there is too violent, and as that person is at a critical juncture of his advancement, I didn’t dare to get too close. So, I couldn’t see who it was. But according to my observation, this person should be breaking through to the Dao Source Realm!”
“As I’ve expected, he is indeed breaking through to the Dao Source Realm!” The girl in purple seemed to have expected it. She gently nodded. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she spoke, “Since that person decided to break through to the Dao Source Realm here, it means that he or she doesn’t have friends or relatives, or a Sect to back him. Obviously, that person is a lone master. He or she can be roped in!”
The Origin King Realm cultivators around the girl in purple slightly nodded in agreement after hearing this.
If one had the backing of a Sect or had friends or relatives, who would be willing to break through a Great Realm in this wilderness? Only a lone wolf would be forced to do this.
“That being said, Young Lady, with all due respect, this person might not be able to successfully break through,” another solemn-looking middle-aged man looked toward them and said with a serious look on his face.
“Why do you think so?” The girl in purple turned her gaze at him.
The middle-aged man wryly smiled. “The movement caused by him is just too great. It’s not something a peak Origin King Realm cultivator can bear. I should not say this, but if he is unable to bear the baptism of the World Energy, he simply has no hope of surviving. He will die for sure!”
All the other Origin King Realm repeatedly nodded their agreement after hearing this. They looked at the enormous black funnel in the sky with a look of fear. Obviously, if they were to take the baptism of such energy, it was absolutely impossible for them to succeed.
The girl in purple furrowed her black brows. “So to say, this person has very little hope of succeeding?”
The middle-aged man said, “Of course, that’s just my opinion. If, and only if, he really survived this catastrophe and crossed this juncture, his future achievements will be probably beyond our imagination.”
The girl in purple nodded after hearing this. She pondered for a while and said, “Anyway, let’s just protect him first. If he really advances, he will definitely remember our favour. At that time, we can try to recruit him. Now that the geniuses of my Qin Family are declining, we can only rely on just Old Ancestor’s support. We are hitting rock bottom, but if we can get this person’s help, my Qin Family can finally take a breath.”
Hearing this, the Origin King Realm cultivators nodded together and said, “If that’s what Young Lady wants, then Young Lady’s wish is our command.”
Just as this group of people were about to disperse and protect Yang Kai, the previous middle-aged man furrowed his brow and he suspiciously gazed toward a direction and shouted, “Dammit, someone is going to interfere with him!”
“Who is it?” The girl in purple was taken aback when she heard this. She looked along with the middle-aged man’s gaze and saw a streak of light shooting toward Yang Kai’s location. Not only were they not hiding their figures, but also had no intentions of hiding their goal. Each and every one was displaying an aggressive stance and malicious intention.
By a rough count, there were at least a dozen people in that streak of light. And the leading figure in that light was particularly bright.
The girl in purple hesitated for a while before she stomped her feet and said, “Come with me, let’s see if we can negotiate with them or not!”
While speaking, her tender figure flew toward that side with a jolt.
The middle-aged man was greatly shocked. He hurriedly chased after her with others.
Not far away, among the group of cultivators rushing toward Yang Kai, someone soon discovered the Qin Family group’s movement. They immediately shouted to the front, “Honored Master, someone is coming toward us.”
At the forefront, an almost bald old man with a short and fat stature suddenly stopped after hearing this. His pair of triangular eyes focused into the distance before quickly locking on to the Qin Family group. He then let out a cold snort and rebuked, “Several Origin King Realm cubs want to ruin this old master’s good deed? I have to hand it to their courage!”
“Honored Master, do you want us to…” the man made a gesture of beheading while he spoke this.
A grim smile immediately appeared on the old man’s face as he said, “Let’s see what they want to say first. Since they dare to come here, they probably have something to rely on. This old master wants to see what is making them this courageous.”
“Honored Master is wise!” that middle-aged man immediately flattered.
After a short while, the Qin Family group, led by the girl in the purple, arrived before the old man and the others.
The girl seemed to have expended a lot of her energy for this rush. She immediately broke into a fit of cough and couldn’t speak a word.
The middle-aged man and the others, who were closely following after her, gathered around the girl like the stars around the moon. And when the middle-aged man noticed the leading short and fat old man and his iconic bald head, he cried in shock as his face turned pale as if he was facing an enemy, “Ghost Hand Shen Tu!”
As soon as he shouted ‘Ghost Hand Shen Tu,’ the Qin Family cultivators turned pale. They unconsciously tried to explain themselves while they started mobilizing the energy in their body to be ready to make a move at a moment’s notice.
A trace of panic also appeared in the pretty eyes of the girl in purple as well.
She might be young but she was extremely knowledgeable and experienced. Not to mention, every cultivator in the vicinity of Maplewood City was aware of Ghost Hand Shen Tu.
Ghost Hand Shen Tu was a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator. Heaven knows what evil arts he was cultivating, but he was extremely vicious and committed outrageous crimes around Maplewood City all year round. Relying on his powerful Dao Source Realm cultivation, he robbed and killed the weaker cultivators.
For many cultivators, the four words ‘Ghost Hand Shen Tu’ were tantamount to a disaster. Once they encountered this guy, it meant that their death wasn’t far from them.
Furthermore, this guy was not alone. Heaven knows where he got a bunch of powerful subordinates but each and every one of them was an Origin King Realm master. Most weren’t their match; all they could do was stretch their necks out to be beheaded.
And this guy wasn’t just vicious but was also extremely clever. The City Lord’s Mansion had sent a team of masters, led by City Lord Duan Yuan Shan, to encircle and catch this guy many times, but it was all in vain; they couldn’t catch him. They could only inflict serious injuries to him but ultimately let him escape.
Since then, Ghost Hand Shen Tu seemed to have become honest and law-abiding for a while. But well-informed people knew that he was far from being law-abiding. However, he was no longer as unscrupulous as before. Now, his targets were people with no background and support. He no longer antagonized the members of families in Maplewood City and the disciples of the nearby Sects.
So to say, the masters of those families and sects were too lazy to care about him, and City Lord’s Mansion couldn’t focus their forces on Ghost Hand Shen Tu forever. Besides, he was as cunning as a fox. All these reasons helped him run scot-free up until now.
It was just a coincidence that Yang Kai’s choice of location for his advancement wasn’t too far from Shen Tu and his men’s turf. So, just as Yang Kai’s advancement caused the commotion, they immediately came to check.
So after figuring out that Yang Kai was a cultivator with no backing and was on the verge of breaking through, how could this group sit still? Naturally, they immediately moved out, preparing for a big fight.
But here, they ran into a group of people from the Qin Family.
Hearing the shocked cry of that middle-aged man, the bald old man sneered. “So, you know all about this old master, and yet you dare to come here. Are you looking to die?”
Just as he said this, the Origin King Realm cultivators by his side stared at the Qin Family’s group with a malicious gaze. By the looks of their stances, it looked as if they would promptly attack them with just an order from Ghost Hand Shen Tu.
The middle-aged man’s expression changed slightly. He gulped loud in terror. He had no idea how to answer for a while.
The girl in purple seemed to have regained her energy after catching her breath for a while. She smiled and spoke in a gentle voice, “So, it is the famous Senior Shen Tu. Junior had eyes but failed to see and rushed to Senior. I hope that Senior will not blame us!”
“Oh!?” Shen Tu narrowed his triangular eyes, glancing at the girl in purple. He let out a burst of weird laughter as he said, “Wow, you can still remain so calm in front of this old master, I have to hand it to your courage. Which family are you from?”
Shen Tu had been wandering around Maplewood City all year round. Naturally, he could tell at a glance that the girl in purple was someone with a background, otherwise, she would not have such etiquette. Had it not for this reason, why would he talk to the girl in purple? With his personality, he would have already killed her.
“Junior’s surname is Qin!” the purple-robed girl gently replied.
“Qin!” Shen Tu curled his lips as he indifferently continued, “This old master had heard that there is a little girl in Maplewood City’s Qin Family who is young and ill, but is very clever and quick-witted. Even Qin Zhao Yang, that old fart dotes upon her. For this reason, he even went to the depths of the Black Blood Swamp to find a Pure Yang Fruit to extend her life. Could that be you?”
The girl in purple coughed a little before nodding. “Senior is quite knowledgeable and experienced. This Junior is indeed Qin Yu, who could only survive thanks to Old Ancestor’s pity.”
“Haha…” Shen Tu broke into a peal of weird laughter, “Little Girl, you are really outstanding. You can face this old master with no change in your expression. No wonder that old fart, Qin Zhao Yang dotes upon you. But little girl, what can this old master do for you?”
Qin Yu furrowed her black brow and pondered for a moment before replying, “Senior, since you have asked, this Junior will be honest with you. Senior, are you going to bother that person?”
Shen Tu narrowed his eyes and said in neither rude nor polite manner, “So what?”
Qin Yu asked, “Senior, can you let that person go?”
Shen Tu pursed his lips and said, “Give me a reason.”
“That person is my Qin Family’s Honored Guest. So…” Qin Yu replied in a low voice, “So, I hope that Senior can show mercy. My Qin Family will definitely thank you for this someday.”
“Your Qin Family’s Honored Guest!?” Shen Tu pursed his lips into a playful smile as he said, “Little girl, you might be smart but don’t treat others as fools! If this person was really the Honored Guest of your Qin Family, why would he choose to break through here? If he really is your Qin Family Honored Guest, wouldn’t that old fart, Qin Zhao Yang, be personally protecting him? Do you really think this old master is such a fool?”
Even after having been exposed to her face, Qin Yu still didn’t look even the slightest bit embarrassed. Rather, she smiled and said, “Senior’s eyes are as bright as a torch. Junior’s little trick can’t fool you. However… Although that person isn’t my Qin Family’s Honored Guest now, it doesn’t mean that he will not be in the future. Can I beg Senior to raise his high hand in mercy…”
Before Qin Yu could finish herself, Shen Tu interrupted her by raising his hand.
Shen Tu looked at her coldly. His triangular eyes radiated a chilling aura as he said, “Little Girl, this old master will not haggle over this because of Qin Zhao Yang’s face. But if you dare to pester again, don’t blame this old master for not showing mercy.”
While speaking, he reached out as he shot a large amount of energy straight at Qin Yu.
Qin Yu’s expression changed as she hurriedly retreated.
Seeing this, the vigilant Origin King Realm masters gathered around her and rushed forward to block the wave of energy for her. They immediately let out muffled groans as several people backed away a fair distance before they could regain their footing.
When they finally turned their gazes ahead, Shen Tu had already flown away with his group of men.
Fear could still be seen lingering on the middle-aged man’s and others’ faces. The middle-aged man looked back at Qin Yu and said, “Young Lady, you didn’t get hurt, did you?”
Qin Yu shook his head and said, “Thanks to everyone’s protection, I am alright. But unfortunately, that person…”
She gazed into the distance with a gloomy look on her face.
The middle-aged man immediately tried to comfort her, “In fact, you don’t need to feel sorry for him. That person might not be able to survive the World Energy baptism. There is no difference between dying a bit earlier or dying a bit later. Young Lady has tried her best. Next time, it would be best if you don’t try to provoke the Ghost Hand Shen Tu. He let us go because of our Old Ancestor, but we might not be lucky next time.”
“I see! I have caused everyone trouble,” Qin Yu gently nodded.
In the distance, Yang Kai appeared to be completely oblivious to this. He was still immersed in comprehending his own Martial Dao Heavenly Way, immersed in his attempt to break through the barrier of the Dao Source Realm.
*Swish Swish Swish…*
A series of swishing sounds rang as Shen Tun, leading a dozen or so Origin King Realm, appeared next to Yang Kai.
When he sensed the violent energy fluctuations and looked up at the huge black funnel in the sky, Shen Tu’s expression couldn’t help but slightly change.
He too had gone through this before. But back when he was advancing to the Dao Source Realm, even if he had caused such a big commotion, it couldn’t even be compared to one-tenth of this! Even if he was asked to go through this level of World Energy baptism now, he wasn’t that sure that he would be able to safely go through with it.
“Honored Master, it’s very terrifying here. Let’s just do it and get out of here.” A nearby Origin King Realm cultivator seemed to have been overwhelmed by the mighty pressure of Heaven and Earth. He was trembling and his forehead was drenched in a cold sweat.
The others also didn’t look relaxed. When they stepped in here, they felt that something was wrong here. The Principles lingering around here were so dense and chaotic that they were finding it difficult to circulate their energy.
Shen Tu nodded his agreement and immediately rushed to the cross-legged Yang Kai on the ground and said, “Kid, if you want to assign blame, blame your bad luck, why do you have to choose this kind of place for your advancement? Be careful in your next life.”
After having said his piece, he raised his hand and fiercely smacked it down.
Seeing him making a move, the other Origin King Realm cultivation immediately displayed their Martial Skills one after another, launching their attacks at Yang Kai.
But before their aura from their attacks could even touch Yang Kai, a dazzling light suddenly appeared about ten metres away from Yang Kai’s body. The light seemed to be oval-shaped and enveloped Yang Kai’s entire figure.
*Bang Bang Bang…’
All the attacks fell on this light screen, creating ripples after ripples. But all of these attacks couldn’t crack this shield.
Everyone was stunned at the sight of this.
Right then, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes and indifferently gazed at everyone before saying, “Why do some people always think that they have lived too long and are eager to die? Why?”
Every Origin King Realm cultivator, who was being stared at by him, had their hearts gripped with a chill. They felt as if something bad was about to happen.
Just as everyone was in a daze, Yang Kai raised his hand.
Suddenly, Moon Blades flew out in succession, swishing through the air.
“Dammit, quickly hide!” someone shouted.
But the Moon Blades were so fast that they didn’t give these people the time to react and struck them.
Although some cultivators instinctively activated their defensive skills, these defensive skills couldn’t even stand the power of the paper-thin Moon Blade.
The pitch-black Moon Blades instantly cut through the cultivators as they let out muffled groans.
Surprisingly, no blood splattered, but when the cultivators looked around, their faces turned pale in horror.
Because they saw crescent-shaped holes in different places of the bodies of the companion next to them. The wounds were completely flat. Heaven knows where the parts of their bodies that should have been there went. They couldn’t find any pieces of flesh or broken bones anywhere. It seemed as if everything had been exiled into the void.
And through these wounds, the squirming internal organs left a horrifying image in their eyes.
The intense visual impact caused the several cultivators to scream in horror.
*Squish Squish Squish…*
Finally, the blood squished out of their wounds. In an instant, several cultivators around Yang Kai fell down on the ground with a look of incredulity on their faces. The gushing blood was mixed in with broken internal organs. The sight was too ghastly and bloody to look at.
Shen Tu and the others barged in with an aggressive bearing. They believed that Yang Kai would be powerless to fight back, owing to his advancement, but how could they have known that more than half of the Origin King Realm cultivators would die when they finally went against the opposite party? This kind of accident had naturally made the remaining people lose their wits.
But Yang Kai wasn’t done yet. Immediately after the Moon Blades, a large number of five-coloured lights shot over. Just the fearsome Qi emanating from the oncoming attacks had already sent chills down the spine of the surviving cultivators as they broke into a cold sweat.
“Sword Qi!” Shen Tu’s expression changed. At a glance, he could immediately tell that these colourful streaking glows were hiding extremely sharp Sword Qi inside them. Furthermore, they were actually filled with the five elements. Under the mutual restraint and promotion of five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, they seemed to be harmonizing with each other, strengthening each other’s might.
His expression suddenly became solemn. He promptly let out a war cry as his short and fat figure grew bigger all of a sudden. Immediately after, a dark aura suddenly started to spread from his fat body, enveloping him inside.
Countless black tentacles grew out of his body, waving around him. He was counterattacking the oncoming Sword Qis with his own attacks.
A series of shock waves spread into the surrounding area as the tentacles extending from Shen Tu’s body were torn apart by countless Sword Qis. At the same time, those fierce Sword Qis were also blocked by him and couldn’t kill anyone.
All the Origin King Realm masters who had been saved gratefully looked at him. One of them even tried to kiss Shen Tu’s ass even when his heart was pounding in fear.
“Kid, you actually dare to attack this old master when you are advancing. I think you have grown tired of living. If that’s the case, let me take your life,” Shen Tu screamed as a small shield with a ghost head suddenly appeared in his hand. The small shield didn’t look that big but the ghost head on it was quite vivid and lifelike. It had fangs and its face was blue. It was extremely hideous and terrifying.
He then poured his Source Qi into the ghastly shield. Suddenly, the small shield transformed into a real ghost head and grew into the size of a house all of a sudden, flying straight at Yang Kai.
While rushing at Yang Kai, the ghost head opened and closed its mouth, shooting balls of silver ghost fire, one after another. The balls of fire shot straight at Yang Kai like arrows. They seemed extremely powerful.
Yang Kai’s pupils involuntarily shrank at the sight of this but he still remained cross-legged.
In the blink of an eye, the silver balls of ghost fire were already upon Yang Kai. In the next moment, they landed right on Yang Kai’s body, wreaking havoc at Yang Kai’s position.
“Hm!?” Shen Tu was taken aback. His eyes were filled with surprise. He hadn’t expected Yang Kai to be killed this easily. He had a pretty good idea of how powerful his artifact was. From the get-go, its attacks were very strong and mysterious, and coupled with the Secret Technique he was cultivating, not to mention an Origin King Realm master, even a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator would be burned by the ghost fire, and would have a layer of his or her skin and flesh burn if not end up dead.
However, Yang Kai was just a Third-Order Origin King and was just on the cusp of breaking through. How could he still be alive after having suffered so many ghost fire attacks?
Having thought like this, Shen Tu lightly nodded, believing that he had succeeded.
And seeing Yang Kai swallowed by the ghost fire, the surviving Origin King Realm experts let out a series of sneers, seemingly mocking Yang Kai’s overconfidence.
But their laughter hadn’t even stopped before a figure appeared out of thin air right where Yang Kai was.
It was none other than Yang Kai!
By the looks of his appearance and state, he didn’t seem to have been burnt by the Ghost Fire at all, and he hadn’t even moved an inch from his position.
No one knew how he avoided those Ghost Fire attacks.
Everyone’s laughter abruptly stopped.
Shen Tu’s eyes bulged in shock as a look of incredulity took over his face.
Right then, Yang Kai’s left eye suddenly flickered with a golden speck of light as the Demon Eye of Annihilation slowly emerged. The golden speck of light seemed tangible. It quickly took the shape of a lotus flower in Yang Kai’s left eye.
Shen Tu’s heart was suddenly gripped with a chill at the sight of this lotus flower. He instinctively knew that something was wrong, but somehow or other, he was unable to look away. The lotus flower seemed to have a mysterious allure, which drew in his complete attention.
The lotus slightly trembled before it disappeared from Yang Kai’s left eye. Instead, a budding lotus was slowly blooming in Shen Tu’s Knowledge Sea. The nutrient for this bloom was his Soul energy.
Shen Tu let out a miserable scream. He felt like his mind was being pierced by tens of thousands of needles. This pain went deep into the soul, and he was almost unable to stand it.
When Shen Tu started screaming, the remaining Origin King Realm masters jumped back in fright. They immediately focused their gazes at Shen Tu to see what was going on.
And right then, sounds of something ripping through space rang as untold Moon Blades, thicker than before, shot straight at them.
They might have learned the lesson from the actions of those people before, but how could they still not be clear about how fearsome the Moon Blades were. Immediately, a series of miserable screams rang. But just as they were about to scatter…
“Solidify!” Yang Kai shouted aloud. Immediately after, the power of Principles suddenly started undulating as the space within a thousand metres of him seemed to have heard some kind of order, it instantly surrendered to him and turned extremely solid in the next moment.
Those Origin King Realm masters became as slow as turtles all of a sudden.
*Pu Pu Pu…*
The Moon Blades easily went through their bodies, dividing them into halves. Everyone had a crescent-shaped gap in their bodies, and the parts they were missing were exiled into the endless void.
The mutilated corpses slid down on the ground. Everyone’s eyes were bulging as they died dissatisfied.
“So these are Space Principles?” After everything went smoothly, Yang Kai seemed to be immersed in thoughts. He forgot that there was still a powerful enemy he had not dealt with and fell straight into a kind of mystical epiphany. His mind was filled with inspiration as the true meaning of Space Principles poured into his mind in a flash.
His figure jolted. He was momentarily stunned. His eyes were gleaming brightly. Various ideas flashed in his mind at lightning-fast speed as he comprehended the Space Principles.
*Kacha…*
One after another, the spatial cracks started to appear and disappear around him as they continued to improve under the supplement of World Principles…
Where he was sitting, the space seemed no longer stable and vision had already started to distort…
“Ahhh~!” A wailing scream suddenly rang nearby. It was Shen Tu, whose tossing and turning after having been struck by the Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique started to slow down.
As expected from a Dao Source Realm master. Although he was struck by Yang Kai’s Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique and his Soul’s energy was mostly drained, he woke up at the last minute, avoiding a tragic death.
Even so, his foundation was severely damaged.
So much of his Soul energy had been drained that his Soul was damaged. Such an injury could not be restored with ordinary elixirs. Shen Tu would need to find some top-grade pill that could repair the Soul, or cultivate some special Secret Art. Even then, it would take him several dozen to over a hundred years before he could finally recover from the damage to his Soul.
Somehow enduring the pain in his mind, he immediately looked around, but his heart involuntarily started pounding in the next moment.
He found that all the Origin King Realm cultivators he had brought were completely dead. Not a single cultivator was alive.
And the murderer was still sitting cross-legged in his original place. His eyes were gleaming with a radiant glow as if he had caught in some epiphany. Some incredible changes were taking place in the space around him. Spatial cracks were slithering around like snakes, covering an area of several dozen feet around Yang Kai.
“Dao of Space!” Shen Tu’s pupils shrank as he cried out in horror.
This might probably be the best moment for him to make a sneak attack because Yang Kai was already immersed in his epiphany. He couldn’t react! But Shen Tu wasn’t sure that he could rush through that strange space. Each of those space cracks was sharper than the best blade in the world. They weren’t something he could block with his physique, so if he really launched a sneak attack, he might be cut into pieces by the countless space cracks around Yang Kai.
“It’s actually the Dao of Space! This kid…” At this moment, Shen Tu finally understood what kind of enemy he had provoked. Beads of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. He cast a final glare of hatred at Yang Kai before he turned around and flew toward the outside, wanting to escape from here.
He didn’t want to stay here any longer. He just wanted to escape as far as possible.
But before he could even reach thirty metres away, crystal snowflakes suddenly appeared in the sky. The snowflakes strangely appeared beautiful. They were completely white and flawless.
The surrounding temperature started to plummet.
Shen Tu started shivering for no reason as an aura of death blew on his face.
As a veteran in battle, Shen Tun instantly realized that things were far from good. He promptly let out a war cry as thick black Qi gushed out of his body again, wrapping him and resisting the chill invading his body.
After doing all this, Shen Tu finally got a clear sight of the initiator of all this. It was a huge Monster Insect that was two feet tall and whose entire body was white and crystal clear.
Shen Tu had no idea when this Monster Insect appeared in front of him. It seemed to have been here all the while, but he somehow failed to notice it.
The Monster Insect was exuding a daunting ice-cold aura.
The strangest thing about this beast was that there were actually two long swords on the two pincers on the front of this Monster Insect, one blue and one purple. They were crossed horizontally in front of the Monster Insect, posing an extremely strange posture. It gave the appearance of a mighty human swordsman, the bearing of a master.
“What the heck is this?” Shen Tu couldn’t help but cry in shock. His eyes were bulging wide.
What he had seen today had gone beyond everything he had seen and known his entire life.
First, he encountered an Origin King Realm who was proficient in Dao of Space. Well, that was still fine and okay. Although it was difficult to cultivate the Dao of Space, some people in the Star Boundary had succeeded in doing so. Only, they weren’t as horrifying as that kid.
And now, a powerful insect had appeared in front of his eyes. What Shen Tu found it harder to accept was that the Monster Insect also knew how to use artifacts. And it was a twin-sword-type artifact!
[That artifact should be of High-Rank Origin King Grade!?]
Shen Tu was completely shocked.
While he was reeling from the shock, the Monster Insect in front of him suddenly started rotating the two long swords on its pliers.
Purple and blue lights flickered as the surrounding temperature started to drop. The snowflakes in the sky grew even larger.
With a flash of white light, an icy-cold Domain suddenly spread through the surroundings.
At this moment, Queen Monster Insect disappeared in front of Shen Tu and appeared directly behind him, still maintaining that weird posture as if it had never moved.
Shen Tu stood there in a daze. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t.
Right then, a piece of snowflake fell on the top of his head.
Next, Shen Tu’s body, with the point where the snowflake fell as the centre, suddenly split into two with a soft pop. Red blood immediately gushed out from his split body as his internal organs fell on the ground.
Ghost Hand Shen Tu, who had been terrorizing Maplewood City for so many years, had died in such a mysterious way.
And in the next moment, Queen Monster Insect’s disappeared into thin air with a slight jolt of its figure. No one knew where it went or where it was hidden!
All the snow falling from the sky melted away as the ice-cold Domain covering the surroundings disappeared into a puff of smoke.
The crowd of onlookers in the distance broke into an uproar at the sight of this.
Everyone’s eyes were bulging wide with shock after witnessing everything from the distance.
Even though they were unable to make out the details clearly and couldn’t tell what exactly happened, they had clearly seen the death of dozens of Origin King Realm cultivators and Shen Tu’s fall.
Such a strong visual impact gave them the feeling of seeing a ghost in broad daylight. No one could believe what they had seen. Some people kept rubbing their eyes as if they wanted to see more clearly.
“Shen Tu… is dead!?”
After a long time, someone murmured this sentence. It sounded like he wasn’t sure.
“Shen Tu really died, killed by that man.”
“No no no, Shen Tu wasn’t killed by that man but by another master.”
“That’s right. A strong Master seems to be protecting him.”
“Fortunately, I didn’t go attack that man, or else…”
Many onlooking cultivators secretly rejoiced. They felt like they had escaped a disaster.
After realizing that Yang Kai wasn’t advancing here alone but was secretly guarded by a master, how could these onlooking cultivators dare to stay there? After discussing for a while, they all retreated by several dozen kilometres, watching everything from a farther distance, fearing that they would annoy the master who was secretly guarding.
On the other side, the Qin Family group was also dumbfounded.
When Shen Tu and the others passed by with an aggressive momentum, no one had ever thought that their entire team would be wiped out at the end.
“Did you see who killed Shen Tu?” Qin Yu asked, a little excited. Her beautiful eyes bloomed with a strange glow as she focused her gaze in the direction where Queen Monster Insect disappeared.
Shen Tu was a First-Order Dao Source Realm master. Anyone who could kill him after just one encounter should at least be a Second-Order Dao Source Realm.
If she could draw this person into the Qin Family, the Qin Family’s strength could instantly rise to the level of the City Lord’s Mansion. In the future, the Qin Family would have a powerful protector.
But unfortunately, Queen Monster Insect was too fast in her attack and even faster in her disappearance. Qin Yu didn’t get the time to see it clearly.
Hearing her question, the Qin Family cultivators looked at each other before they all shook their heads.
The middle-aged man said, “Young Lady, although I didn’t see it clearly, that person seemed to be using twin sword artifacts. Is there a master in the vicinity of Maplewood City using this kind of artifact?”
“Twin swords!” Qin Yu appeared to be immersed in her thoughts before she shook her head and said, “I have never heard of anyone using twin swords. It’s extremely difficult to use them, and if there is a master proficient in twin swords near Maplewood City, I would have definitely heard of him. It seems that this person should be from outside.”
After hearing this, the Qin Family cultivators secretly nodded in agreement.
“It’s not just the protector who is powerful, but the person advancing is definitely extraordinary,” Qin Yu pursed her red lips. Her pretty eyes shone with brilliance as she gazed in Yang Kai’s direction; she seemed to want to see it clearly. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see Yang Kai’s appearance clearly owing to the dense World Energy surrounding him.
The middle-aged man nodded and said after hearing this, “Yeah! This person was able to kill more than a dozen Origin King Realms at a critical juncture of his breakthrough. Obviously, he is quite extraordinary. Moreover… the thing that’s puzzling me the most is why Shen Tu suddenly ran away.”
Qin Yu’s expression changed as she said, “Shen Tu is cruel and ruthless. He would only escape if he had suffered a great loss at that person’s hand!”
“Young Lady, that’s not possible, right? This person is only a Third-Order Origin King, he still hasn’t advanced to the Dao Source Realm, while Shen Tu is a Dao Source Realm master!” The middle-aged man looked shocked.
“Then have you seen any Third-Order Origin King cause such a big commotion while breaking through by a Great Realm? Look there, even space looks like it’s collapsing a little.” Qin Yu pointed in a direction.
The middle-aged man laughed in embarrassment. “I am only a Third-Order Origin King, how would I get the chance to see anyone break through to the Dao Source Realm? But, even without seeing, I don’t think anyone would be able to cause such a huge scene.”
“That’s right. The stronger one is, the greater the baptism created!” Qin Yu’s eyes rolled as she chuckled and said, “I am getting more and more interested in this person. If I can recruit him..”
The middle-aged man, seeing his Young Lady excited, knew that she was really interested in soliciting him. He then reminded, “Then we will have to wait for him to be finished with his breakthrough..”
Qin Yu gently nodded, muttering to herself, “He should succeed.”
At this moment, a clap of thunder suddenly resounded in the sky. It was extremely loud and deafening as if the entire world was about to split apart.
The next moment, the black funnel spinning in the sky suddenly started to come down as if it was attracted by some power.
And the centre of the black funnel happened to be pointed at the place where Yang Kai was.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
The sky shook and the earth quaked as the huge black hole quickly connected with Yang Kai. The next moment, an unimaginable amount of energy of Heaven and Earth flowed down the funnel, crazily pouring into Yang Kai’s body.
“Impossible!” Qin Yu’s pretty face turned pale at the sight of this.
The expressions of the Origin King Realm cultivators gathered around her also changed.
The middle-aged man shook his head with disappointment as he stated, “How Heaven-defying is this guy to make the Heavenly Way do this much to stop him? It seems that he won’t survive.”
When cultivators break through a Great Realm, they would trigger the World Energy baptism. However, every cultivator’s baptism had a regular pattern, which gave the cultivator room to breathe and restore. Never had there been anyone like Yang Kai, who would have the World Energy directly connected to their bodies when he or she advanced.
This way, the funnel-shaped Heaven and Earth energy would be continuously poured into Yang Kai’s body. It would be impossible for him to have a chance to breathe!
How could a Third-Order Origin King take this?
This was not baptism but pure destruction!
Even if a Dao Source Realm tried this, he too might be crushed into nothing in face of this.
The earth seemed to quake more and more severely. Even the cultivators, who were watching from afar, could feel how violent World Energy was. It was not something a human could resist. Each and everyone’s face turned pale.
Suddenly, fierce gales started to blow over from a distance. In an instant, the area within a hundred kilometres had dust and pieces of rocks flying everywhere, covering the entire sky.
Qin Family cultivators surrounded Qin Yu and mobilized their defensive skills to protect against the oncoming pieces of rocks and wood.
Suddenly, someone’s roar resounded amidst the howling winds in the distance. It sounded much like the howl of a wounded beast. Everyone was startled by this.
Naturally, this howl belonged to Yang Kai who was in the middle of that berserk energy.
The moment Heaven and Earth energy baptism fell on his body, Yang Kai realized that he was in big trouble this time.
His clothes were destroyed in the blink of an eye as untold amounts of energy poured on the top of his head, into his body from the acupuncture points, and flowed into every nook and cranny of his body.
His firm and strong body only persisted for less than ten breaths before his skin cracked. His meridians swelled and started aching. He felt as if his entire body would blow up any moment.
The Golden Blood spread around his body, making his entire body shine.
It immediately displayed its strong restorative properties. The cracked skin and torn muscles started to repair themselves but they would often crack again just as they were repaired.
Just when he wanted to burn his pure Golden Blood to maintain his blood and vitality, he suddenly felt a gentle energy emerging from his flesh, blood, and meridians. As soon as this energy appeared, it quickly started repairing his broken body as well. At the same time, his unstable vitality suddenly started rising.
The pressure was greatly reduced!
Yang Kai smiled happily. He hurriedly held on to the slightest bit of clarity he had regained as he opened his mind and body to accept the berserk World Energy while also checking the condition of his body.
The situation of his body was much better than he had imagined. All this was due to the gentle energy that had appeared out of nowhere.
Soon, Yang Kai figured out what this energy was.
Surprisingly, it was the leftover efficacy of the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup that he had taken before!
He might have entered a retreat for half a year in the stone cavern after taking the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soul and focused all his time and effort on absorbing the medicinal efficacy, making his physique have a qualitative change, but the medicinal efficacy of the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup was just too much for him, so he was not able to absorb it completely. The remaining medicinal efficacy was stored in his flesh and bones.
Only now did it emerge autonomously, becoming one of Yang Kai’s assets to help him in advancement.
After getting the gist of the matter, Yang Kai finally calmed down.
When the medicinal efficacy of the Ten Thousand Medicinal Treasures Soup continuously emerged from his flesh and bones, Yang Kai didn’t find the pressure that big anymore. His body was no longer hurting, his meridians were no longer aching, and his bones were no longer creaking. Now, filled with joy, he carefully circulated his own strength as he attacked the Dao Source Realm bottleneck.
Over time, under the World Energy baptism, whether it was his physical body or the energy in his body, it seemed to have gone through a peculiar sublimation, becoming stronger and purer.
Especially the Source Qi in his body, it had grown a lot purer. It would have taken him a fair number of years in bitter cultivation to achieve this.
This pleasant surprise made him ecstatic!
Half a day later, there was a cracking sound from the depths of his Soul, as if some barrier in his body had collapsed. Yang Kai suddenly opened his mouth and let out a long cry. The roar was loud and reverberating as thunder; immediately resounding throughout the sky.
And during this roar, the bottleneck that had been stopping Yang Kai from advancing seemed to have been broken through, allowing Yang Kai’s already strong aura to suddenly rise to another level!
He had smoothly broken through to the Dao Source Realm!
A cry suddenly spread across the wild from the top of the barren hill.
Everyone could make out the joy and excitement from this cry.
The middle-aged man of the Qin Family stood rooted on the spot for a long time, confused and shocked. Finally, he murmured with difficulty, “He actually succeeded!?”
He simply couldn’t believe his eyes.
After all, the turmoil caused by the person who was advancing was simply too much. It wasn’t something a Third-Order Origin King Realm cultivation could bear. But at this moment, that person really succeeded and broke through to the Dao Source Realm.
The shock the middle-aged man experienced was far greater than he would feel if he suddenly broke through to the Dao Source Realm.
The nearby Qin Yu was also shocked. Although she faintly felt that the person would not fail that easily, when the other party’s advancement really went smoothly, she found it a little hard to accept. Her pretty eyes narrowed slightly as if she wanted to pierce through the barriers of space and see the appearance of the person advancing.
In the distance, Yang Kai quickly suppressed the joy he was feeling after having successfully advanced and continued to receive the World Energy baptism.
The baptism a cultivator would go through when he or she broke through by a Great Realm was very rare. Besides cleansing a cultivator’s body and Soul, it could also help the cultivator’s body and Soul reach a higher level. What’s more, the energy had the charm of Heavenly Way Martial Dao in it. If the cultivator could glimpse one or two things from it, he or she would have gained a lifetime of benefits.
Furthermore, the realm Yang Kai broke through to was the Dao Source Realm. He might have the opportunity to catch a glimpse at the Principles from the baptism.
Naturally, Yang Kai wanted to glimpse at Space Principles.
He had already mastered it. What he needed was to comprehend these Principles even more thoroughly.
As Yang Kai stopped howling, the World Energy continued to madly pour into him. Yang Kai continued sitting cross-legged in his place. His face was as tranquil as a dried-up ancient well.
Unimaginable amounts of World Energy poured into his body, solidifying the foundation of his Dao Source Realm while also tempering his body and Source Qi. Taking advantage of the sliver of mystique Martial Dao attached to the energy, Yang Kai was soon immersed in comprehending the Space Principles.
Time slowly trickled down…
After half a day, the black funnel in the sky finally disappeared and the dark, hazy sky was clear again.
Even so, many cultivators spectating from the distance still couldn’t catch a glimpse of Yang Kai’s face as the Space within a range of a couple thousand metres of him was extremely distorted. It seemed to have been disturbed by some force.
Those cultivators believed it to be because of the huge movements caused by his breakthrough. All of them were tongue-tied.
However, after realizing that there was nothing more to watch, and nothing to gain, they left one after another.
But the Qin Family group remained as they continued to watch from a distance.
In a flash, more than ten days had passed. Yang Kai, who had been sitting cross-legged all the while, finally opened his eyes, which flickered with an electric glow from the huge harvest he gained.
Immediately after, he flicked his hand as his eyes regained their clarity.
Suddenly, the chaotic space within several thousand metres of him calmed down; nothing strange could be found.
Yang Kai pursed his lips into a smile at the sight of this.
At the same time, the face of Qin Yu, who had been paying rapt attention to this side all the while, suddenly grew solemn. She opened and closed her pretty eyes as her pupils instantly turned purple. Incomprehensible purple rhymes flowed in her eyes as if she was casting some Secret Technique.
Her purple pupils added a touch of coquettishness to her slender figure.
As she stared into the distance, faint purple beams suddenly shot out from her eyes, shuttling through the void.
Yang Kai, in the distance, seemed to have sensed something. He turned his head and looked in Qin Yu’s direction. Suddenly, the Demon Eye of Annihilation appeared in his left eye and a golden beam filled with endless majesty shot out.
The two gazes clashed with each other in the air and Yang Kai couldn’t help but let out a soft exclamation. He instantly retracted the Demon Eye of Annihilation as his eyes became peaceful again.
On the other side, Qin Yu screamed in shock. Her tender body uncontrollably retreated several steps back as her face suddenly grew pale.
“Young Lady!” The Qin Family’s middle-aged man was struck with panic. He immediately flashed to Qin Yu’s side and reached out to support her. He then asked, concerned, “Young Lady, are you okay?”
He hadn’t noticed Qin Yu’s movements just now, all he thought was that her old illness had relapsed.
Qin Yu’s forehead was drenched in a cold sweat. Meanwhile, her purple pupils slowly disappeared. She shook her head and replied, “I’m alright.”
She continued to gaze in Yang Kai’s direction, but she was surprised to find that no one was there.
Heaven knows when Yang Kai had disappeared.
“It’s him!?” Qin Yu murmured to herself. Apparently, when she had just used the Secret Technique, she had caught sight of Yang Kai’s appearance.
Suddenly, she recalled that she had met with this man on the first floor of the Five Colored Treasure Pagoda. Furthermore, she had also told him how to find the entrance to the second floor.
“Who!?” the middle-aged man asked, astounded.
Qin Yu, on the other hand, smiled before she shook her head and said, “It’s nothing.”
After a pause, she said again, “Let’s go back.”
The middle-aged man furrowed his brow. He vaguely found his Young Lady’s behaviour a little weird, but he couldn’t ask too many questions. All he could do was escort Qin Yu back to Maplewood City with the others.
A hundred kilometres away from the barren hill where Yang Kai had advanced, Yang Kai’s figure blurred into existence.
He stood there quietly, waiting for a while. Soon, the Queen Monster Insect and the Blue Flame Thunder Wolf caught up to him from behind. Yang Kai glanced at them before he put them away. Then, he determined his bearing and disappeared from this place.
Only a sliver of faint Space Force fluctuation remained where he stood.
After two days, Yang Kai returned to the Yuan Furnace Mountain.
The current Yuan Furnace Mountain was in ruins. The mountain had collapsed and its rubble was lying everywhere. Furthermore, there were signs of someone digging.
[This should be the handiwork of Raging Fire Temple disciples.] Yang Kai didn’t care about this. He hovered in the sky and silently sensed for a moment.
He could sense that Liu Yan was still lying in a peculiar slumber somewhere underground, Heaven knows how deep. She seemed to be absorbing the scorching power in the underground magma pool
Compared to before, Liu Yan’s current aura was a lot stronger. She was even showing faint signs of being on the verge of breaking through to the Dao Source Realm.
Yang Kai looked happy after sensing this and immediately withdrew his Divine Sense, lest he disturbed Liu Yan.
He then looked around for a while before he found a secluded location and sat down cross-legged.
He was waiting for Liu Yan. After all, Liu Yan had been in the magma pool for a long time. She might return anytime.
After pondering for a bit, he summoned the Sealed World Bead and entered it with a flash.
Just as he stepped into the Small Sealed World, Yang Kai felt a little out of place.
This out of place feeling wasn’t from a change in the Small Sealed World but in himself.
Before he wasn’t strong enough and was unable to touch the Principles, so he didn’t notice it. But now that he had advanced to the Dao Source Realm and could mobilize the World Principles for his own use, Yang Kai immediately noticed that the Small Sealed World’s Principles were short of something.
He sensed it for a long time but was unable to find any clue and could only give up in light of this.
With a flash, he arrived next to his Embodiment.
Since coming to Maplewood City and teaching his Embodiment the Heaven Devouring Battle Law, Yang Kai had not paid attention to it anymore.
When he checked it out now, Yang Kai couldn’t help but be taken aback.
Because the original behemoth had shrunk several dozen times. The place where the Embodiment sat was filled with broken pieces of rocks and dust. Obviously, its enormous body had been significantly tempered through cultivating the Heaven Devouring Battle Law.
Although it had grown smaller, it was more solid and firm.
The Heaven Devouring Battle Law could devour the World Energy from everything in Heaven and Earth and use it to strengthen one’s own body, which perfectly complemented the inherent Divine Ability of the Stone Puppet Family.
The current Embodiment was only a few stories tall. And even then, it was still pretty big.
The various ores that Yang Kai had given it before had been devoured clean by it, eliminating all the waste and transforming the rest into a part of its strength.
Because it wasn’t a body of flesh and blood, Yang Kai was unable to sense the vitality of the Embodiment. He had no idea how much strength it could bring out. However… Yang Kai could tell that it would not be too weak.
While he was thinking this, the Embodiment seemed to have sensed it. It opened his eyes as a smile appeared on its silly face. It then asked in a muffled voice, “Want to give it a try?”
“Alright!” Yang Kai tilted his head as he beckoned to Embodiment.
The Embodiment gave a strange smile before it slowly got up.
As it stood up, many pieces of rocks and dust accumulated over its body fell down.
Because the Embodiment was a product of Yang Kai integrating his Soul Clone into the Stone Puppet, Yang Kai could clearly understand its thoughts and control its actions.
The Embodiment wasn’t just an individual, but also Yang Kai’s Soul Clone.
With a flash of thought, Yang Kai let the Embodiment freely make its move.
The next moment, the Embodiment strode forward, creating deafening rumbles. It quickly arrived before Yang Kai, bent its waist and suddenly sent a left uppercut completely parallel to the ground.
The punch hadn’t even made contact, but the wind from it made Yang Kai’s robe flap continuously.
In addition, the Fist Energy shooting out from the fist actually left a deep arc-shaped gully on the ground.
Yang Kai’s pupils shrunk at the sight of this. At first, he was only planning to use about 60% of his strength. But he immediately raised his strength to 100% as he also threw a punch to greet the oncoming punch.
*BOOM…*
The enormous and the small fists clashed with each other with a Heaven-shaking explosion.
A burst of energy suddenly spread outward with the point of contact of the two fists as the centre, like a round sharp blade, cutting the space in half.
The Embodiment grinned as a strange smile appeared on its face.
Yang Kai’s face, on the other hand, sank. The next moment, he felt an unmatched power coming from his right side. He immediately let out a muffled groan as he was sent flying. His figure disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Yang Kai completely lost in a competition of pure strength.
The Embodiment finally stood up, put his hand on his forehead as if he was looking into the distance, and frivolously whistled.
Suddenly, Yang Kai’s figure appeared with a flash.
He grimaced in pain, shaking his right fist. His right fist was completely mangled, even his bones were showing.
“How was it?” The Embodiment asked, laughing.
“Why are you asking when you already know the answer!?” Yang Kai couldn’t help but roll his eyes at it.
The birth of the Embodiment was a coincidence, and its strength was also an extremely lucky encounter.
Had the second puppet been born with sentience, he would not have thought of putting his Soul Clone into it, turning it into his own Embodiment, and had it not been for opportunity on the floating continent, his Embodiment would not have grown so quickly.
Because it had refined the entire floating continent, it could grow to this terrifying level in such a short time.
That one punch from Embodiment was equal to the power of a world.
Even though Yang Kai had a strong and robust physical body, how could he withstand the bombardment of a continent with a body of flesh and blood?
It wasn’t surprising to be sent flying and even get injured.
“You should find me a stick like Xiao Xiao’s!” The Embodiment pursed its lips into a smile.
If it had a Heaven Shaking Pillar-like artifact in its hands, the Embodiment could take ten enemies alone without using much of its strength! Furthermore, he could do it better than Xiao Xiao.
“Sure, if there is a chance!” After nodding his agreement, Yang Kai’s figure suddenly blurred as he arrived above the Embodiment and whipped a kick down with a turn of his body.
His leg was wrapped in extremely berserk Source Qi. Obviously, Yang Kai wasn’t showing any mercy.
The Embodiment didn’t panic or anything at the sight of this. It just horizontally raised its hand, defending from the above, while it used the other enormous hand to grab toward Yang Kai, through under its armpit.
Yang Kai’s pupils immediately shrunk as he shouted aloud, “Solidify!”
Just as his voice fell, the surrounding space came under the effect of the Principles with a hum, solidifying immediately.
The Embodiement’s movement slowed down a little as its vast body was suffering quite a bit of hindrance. Its enormous hands reaching out to Yang Kai was no longer as fast as before.
Its body sank as it let out a cry, “Break!”
Its giant-like body erupted with an explosive Qi.
*Crack…*
With a crisp cracking sound, the solidified space suddenly became loose.
It forcefully broke through the Space Principles suppression using brute force before it continued to grab at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai didn’t dare to go forward anymore. He pushed his feet as a deafening clap rang from underneath his feet. His figure instantly shot toward the back like an arrow fired from a bow. Immediately after, he brought his hands together as an enormous Moon Blade suddenly appeared, which he then fired straight at the embodiment without any scruples.
A pitch-black, machete-like, enormous Moon Blade cut straight toward the Embodiment’s arm.
The Embodiment’s pupil immediately shrank. It promptly switched from grabbing to punching, with the ferocity of a tiger.
Immediately, explosive fist energy flew out of the punch, crashing into the Moon Blade in the air before it could even land on the Embodiment’s fist. The next moment, a deafening clap rang as the Moon Blade disappeared, and so did the fist energy.
Before Yang Kai could regain his wits, the Embodiment stamped his feet as a pillar of soil shot out from the ground. The Embodiment reached out and as it grabbed it, the pillar of loose soil turning into a stick as hard as iron with a glimmer.
The Embodiment, grabbing the tens of meters long stick, hurled it straight toward Yang Kai. The stick cut through the air with a sharp boom. It gave the impression that it would pierce through space.
Yang Kai’s expression drastically changed. He didn’t dare to remain in his position. Space Force fluctuations emerged around him as he teleported to one side, causing the stick to hit the air.
“Heh heh heh!” The Embodiment seemed to have expected this already. There was no panic on its face, rather it broke into a peal of strange laughter as it bent down and placed its enormous hand on the ground. The next moment, the ground started rumbling and quaking.
Suddenly, Earth Dragons wagging their tails emerged just below Yang Kai, one after another. Each and every Earth Dragon was extremely vivid and life-like. Baring their fangs and claws, they swarmed at Yang Kai. By rough count, there were at least a dozen or so Earth Dragons. They had sealed Yang Kai’s all routes of escape.
“Dragon Transformation!” Yang Kai shouted as he prompted the Golden Divine Dragon Source in his body. His right arm suddenly doubled in size, covered in Dragon scales made from energy. His right hand resembled a Dragon’s claw.
He then turned around and charged straight into the thunder of Earth Dragons.
Very soon, deafening roars and explosions rang as the Earth Dragons collapsed, one after another. Soon after, Yang Kai’s figure shot from the dust-filled sky like a god descending from Heaven.
His body was surrounded by a colourful halo as Five Elements Sword Qis shot towards the Embodiment.
The Embodiment just curled its lips and stomped its foot on the ground at the sight of this. Suddenly, a wall of soil popped up from before him. Just like the stick before, a glimmer spread across the wall of soil before it became extremely hard.
*Chi chi chi…*
The Sword Qis struck the wall of soil, but they were unable to break through its defence and were blocked.
When the Sword Qi was finally exhausted, the Embodiment waved its hand as the wall of soil before him collapsed.
But before he could make any more moves, a strange smile suddenly appeared on Yang Kai’s face as his left eye glimmered with a golden glow.
“Dammit!” the Embodiment blurted out. It hurriedly tried to look away but it was too late. When it saw that golden light, his attention was sucked in right away by it. It was unable to think and it’s eyes lost their lustre.
After a short while, the golden light dissipated as the Embodiment finally regained its wits.
Yang Kai was standing before it with a depressed look on his face. The moment the pair of small and big eyes looked at each other, they couldn’t help but break into laughter.
After a long time, their laughter slowly stopped.
“Not a word about this to anyone,” Yang Kai solemnly exhorted.
The Embodiment nodded earnestly with an identical look on its face.
If the word got out that he was ultimately forced to use the Demon Eye of Annihilation to gain the upper hand against himself after having tried every possible means and ability, everyone would laugh at him.
But this way, Yang Kai was able to judge the Embodiment’s strength a little.
With his current means, he had no good way to deal with the Embodiment apart from using the Divine Sense to suppress it. The Embodiment’s Divine Sense was inferior to his, which it was a matter of course. It was originally his Soul Clone, so how could it compare with the main Soul?
Using the Soul to suppress it was tantamount to cheating…
He might as well order it to lie on the ground and let him beat it.
Yang Kai felt ashamed as these thoughts crossed his mind.
“Do you have any extra artifacts?” the Embodiment suddenly asked.
“I do.” Yang Kai nodded as he doubtfully looked at it. However, a notion flashed his mind as he understood why the Embodiment wanted the artifact. He immediately asked in surprise, “Can Heaven Devouring Battle Law also devour artifacts?”
The Embodiment replied, “I’m just guessing. Whether it can or not, I will know it after giving it a try.”
Yang Kai nodded after hearing this. He then searched through the Space Ring, found a few artifacts before throwing them at it.
These artifacts belonged to Shen Tu and his team. All the previous loot had been exchanged for Source Crystals at the black market of Maplewood City.
After receiving the artifacts, the Embodiment immediately sat down on the ground with the artifacts in its palm. Right then, he reported in a muffled voice, “The seed you had planted seems to have sprouted.”
Yang Kai was stunned, but he soon understood what the Embodiment was talking about and a joyous look appeared on his face before his figure disappeared from his place.
And when he reappeared again, he was in the vicinity of the medicine garden.
There were only two things in the entire medicine garden. One was the Immortal Tree that Yang Kai had obtained in his home Star Field in the past, and the other was the gold and silver-coloured Wood Spirit Seed that Yang Kai planted in the corner that day.
Yang Kai had tried to refine the Immortal Tree but ultimately failed. Finally, all he could do was plant it in the Small Sealed World’s medicine garden.
However, the Small Sealed World had gained a lot of vitality because of the Immortal Tree.
In the past, Yang Kai had asked Yang Yan about how to refine the Immortal Tree and gain the immortal and indestructible body.
However, Yang Yan didn’t tell him clearly. This made him very helpless.
Later, he acquired the Wood Spirit Seed after killing the Wood Spirit. Because this seed was so peculiar that even Liu Yan couldn’t burn it, Yang Kai had decided to keep it.
It had only been about a year since he killed the Wood Spirit. And to his surprise, the Wood Spirit Seed had already taken the root in the medicine garden and had grown into a three-centimetre-tall seedling.
Just like the seed, the seedling had both silver and gold colour, each occupying half. It looked very strange. It was completely different from the Wood Spirit’s original body. Yang Kai had no idea why this was the case.
Yang Kai stared at the three-centimetre-tall seedling in a daze.
He didn’t recognize it, so he had never even heard or read about it. But he could feel a strange energy in the seedling that was still very weak, but if the seedling continued to grow, it would definitely become stronger.
This three-centimetre-tall seedling should not be underestimated.
Even after being planted in the medicine garden of the Small Sealed World for nearly a year, it had only grown by this much.
The medicine garden in the Small Sealed World had Heavy Earth, five Earth Vein Crystals and the vitality brought by the Immortal Tree. Being planted in here for a day was equivalent to a hundred days outside.
In other words, if it was planted elsewhere, even if the Wood Spirit Seed could survive, it would take at least a hundred years to grow three centimetres tall.
Having thought this, Yang Kai became even more interested in the gold and silver seedling.
The harder it was for it to grow, the higher its value would be. Just take the Immortal Tree, for instance. It had survived countless eras but was only three meters tall.
After confirming that the Wood Spirit Seed was still alive, Yang Kai didn’t pay much attention to it. Yang Kai would have to observe and investigate what its uses were later.
Next, he refined the long sword artifact used by Han Leng and the Flying Saint Palace’s ship in the Small Sealed World.
The long sword artifact was a Low-Rank Dao Source Grade artifact. It just so happened that it was perfect for him at the moment. It could increase his strength a bit. And if supplemented by the Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi, it could even turn into his ace in the hole. As for the ship, it was naturally a means of transportation.
In a flash, over a month had gone by.
Yang Kai left the Small Sealed World and checked Liu Yan’s situation again, but discovered that she was still in deep slumber. He had no idea what time she would wake up.
Yang Kai furrowed his brow. After thinking for a moment, he summoned the ship and flew toward Maplewood City.
He was unable to determine when Liu Yan would come out and it would be a waste of time if he continued to wait here.
In any case, Liu Yan knew that he was in Maplewood City. After exiting, she could join him in Maplewood City. Now, he needed to rush back to the cave mansion in Maplewood City to prepare to refine the Dragon Bone Sword into his body.
Yang Kai was finally back at Maplewood City after a few days.
Yang Kai didn’t have the time to go and inform Kang Si Ran about his safety after entering the city gate. Rather, he hurried back to the cave mansion he had rented before.
Yang Kai took out the token and poured his Source Qi into it, trying to deactivate the cave mansion’s barrier.
But what left him in a great shock was that the cave mansion’s barrier didn’t respond at all. It was as if his token was useless.
This made him furrow his brow, but very soon, he recalled a matter.
When he arrived at Maplewood City, he had rented the cave mansion for about a year, and counting the days, this one-year period seemed to have been over two months ago already.
Once the deadline passed, the right to use the cave mansion would naturally be withdrawn.
Yang Kai’s heart started pounding as he realized that something was wrong.
He didn’t care about the ending of the cave mansion’s lease. It wasn’t a big deal as he could go to the City Lord’s Mansion to register and rent another one, it was just a matter of Source Crystals.
He also hadn’t kept anything valuable in the cave mansion, so he wasn’t worried too much about it either.
However, before he left, the little girl of the Zhang Family was still in the cave mansion.
Back when he left with Kang Si Ran for the Yuan Furnace Mountain to explore Gong Sun Mu’s cave mansion, such a long delay had never crossed his mind. He believed that they would return relatively quickly. He didn’t even explain anything to Zhang Ruo Xi before leaving. He only told her that he was going out on a trip and left her here alone.
Now, the lease of the cave mansion had already expired. His right to use the cave mansion had been withdrawn. But what about Zhang Ruo Xi?
Yang Kai looked left and right, but he couldn’t find that delicate figure. He couldn’t help but be anxious.
When he left, Zhang Ruo Xi was only a First-Order Saint King. In Maplewood City, where snakes and vipers crept among the dragons, she had no power to protect herself. If she was targeted by someone with malicious intentions, the consequences would be disastrous.
“She could have gone back to the Zhang Family herself!?” Yang Kai murmured to himself.
If he was in Zhang Ruo Xi’s place, he would have returned to the Zhang Family first if the right to use the cave mansion was withdrawn and he was expelled from the cave mansion. In that case, he wouldn’t be worried about anything. The Zhang Family might not be strong, but they still had two Origin King Realm masters.
Just when Yang Kai was in a hopeless tangle, the barrier next to him suddenly fluctuated.
Yang Kai was stunned. He turned his head to look and discovered that the cave mansion’s door had actually opened as a pretty young woman came out. The young woman seemed to be in her thirties. She suspiciously asked, looking at Yang Kai with extreme vigilance, “Who are you?”
Yang Kai hastily cupped his fists and introduced himself, “This one’s Yang Kai. This cave mansion’s previous owner.”
The young woman furrowed her brow and stated, “I am renting this cave mansion now. There was nothing inside when I came in.”
“I know. I’m not here to find something.” Yang Kai smiled. He tried his best to be gentle.
“You are not here for anything?” The young woman, on the other hand, grew even more suspicious at the sight of this. “Then what are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for someone, a young girl to be exact,” Yang Kai hurriedly explained himself. “She should have been here but I can’t find her. Madam, have you seen her?”
Hearing that Yang Kai was looking for someone, the young woman furrowed her black brow. Her expression changed ever so slightly, but she hurriedly shook her head and replied, “I have not seen her.”
While speaking, she retracted her head and closed the door at the same time.
“Wait!” Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately understood that she must know something. Or else, why would she retreat like this? He immediately reached out and blocked the door.
The young woman’s expression worsened drastically. She screamed, “What do you want? Don’t forget, this is Maplewood City!”
Yang Kai let out a cold snort as he teleported into the cave mansion right away before closing the doors. He then stared at her coldly as a fearsome aura suddenly erupted from him, pressing down on the young woman right away.
“Dao Source Realm!” Sensing Yang Kai’s fearsome aura, the young woman’s face suddenly turned pale as she blurted out in despair. The look in her eyes when she was looking at Yang Kai finally changed.
The level of cultivators in Maplewood City wasn’t generally that high. There weren’t that many Dao Source Realm masters, but they all had a great background that ordinary cultivators could never provoke.
So, as soon as she noticed Yang Kai’s cultivation realm, the young woman was a little flustered.
She was only a First-Order Origin King, that’s all. How could she resist the pressure of a Dao Source Realm master? She might be somehow holding on but her body softened all of a sudden. She could only stop herself from falling after taking the support of the wall next to her.
She nibbled on her red lips and begged, looking at Yang Kai pleadingly, “Little Brother, you and I have no grievances. I have never offended you. Please don’t make it difficult for me…”
“I’m not making it difficult for you.” Yang Kai, maintaining a cold look, indifferently stated, “I only have a few questions. You have to answer them truthfully. If you dare to deceive me, I will make things so hard for you that you will beg me to kill you! You should know that I can indeed make it happen!”
The young woman nibbled her lips and gently nodded after hearing this.
“Very well. Then tell me, have you seen that little girl?” Yang Kai focused his pair of eyes on the opposite party, making sure that he wouldn’t miss the slightest change in her expression.
The young woman pondered for a moment before she nodded with difficulty. “I don’t know if that little girl I saw is the one you are looking for, but I have indeed seen a little girl at the cave mansion’s door…”
“Tell me, what was her age, cultivation, and characteristic features?” Yang Kai hurriedly asked.
“She was sixteen or seventeen years old. As for her cultivation, she was at the peak of the Second-Order Saint King Realm and was on the verge of breaking through to the Third-Order Saint King Realm. She looked a little weak. She was slender and spoke very softly. Her hair was black and straight…”
“Yes, that’s her.” Yang Kai’s eyes lit up immediately. He was sure that the girl this young woman had seen was Zhang Ruo Xi. What he didn’t expect was Zhang Ruo Xi’s cultivation to advance from the First-Order Saint King Realm to the peak of the Second-Order Saint King, just on the cusp of breaking through to the Third-Order, in just a year.
[I guess, her aptitude isn’t that bad. Of course, some part of the credit definitely belongs to the Marrow Washing Pill.]
“You said that you saw her at the gates of the cave mansion? What was she doing at the gates?” Yang Kai asked again, frowning.
The young woman replied, “She was standing at the entrance…”
“Standing!?” Yang Kai was confused.
“That’s right. She was just standing there. When I rented this cave mansion two months ago, I found her at the entrance of the cave mansion. I didn’t care much about it. Later, when I found her standing all the time there, I became curious. I asked her and she told me that she was waiting for Sir Yang… Little Brother, you wouldn’t happen to be that Sir Yang?”
While asking, the young woman timidly looked up at Yang Kai. And she was shocked to find Yang Kai dumbstruck.
At this moment, Yang Kai’s heart was crazily pounding.
He couldn’t help but imagine the scene where a sixteen, seventeen-year-old girl was standing quietly by the entrance of this cave mansion in Maplewood-like bustling city. She stood still there, withstanding the sun and winds, gazing left and right at the passing by figures but never found the familiar figure she was waiting for…
In a bustling city, she was like an abandoned kid, lonely, hesitant, and at a loss.
When the night fell and the cold wind blew, she would curl on the ground, shivering…
And when the sun rose again, she would open her eyes and continue to wait.
An inexplicable heaviness burdened Yang Kai’s heart.
“I found her pitiful. I even invited her to come in and sit down but she didn’t agree. She told me that she would stand there and wait… Sir Yang, Little Brother, I really didn’t do anything to her. Don’t make it harder for me.” The young woman looked at Yang Kai with trepidation. She was afraid that Yang Kai would vent his anger on her.
“Since you haven’t done anything to her, why didn’t you tell me the truth in the first place? You wanted to seal the cave mansion instead when you heard me asking about her whereabouts! Obviously, you have a guilty conscience!” Yang Kai coldly gazed at the young woman as his eyes flickered with intense murderous intent.
The young woman seemed to have sensed it. She was struck with panic. She hurriedly waved her hands and justified herself, “No, no, no, it’s not what you think… I really haven’t harmed her.”
“So tell me, where is she now? By the look on your face, you seem to know something,” Yang Kai’s voice grew colder.
The young woman shook her head.
Yang Kai let out a chuckle. “I guess you are afraid of something!”
“Little Brother, please don’t force me. Please let me go. As long as you don’t force me to do anything, I will do anything you want me to do,” the young woman begged for forgiveness. While speaking, her expression turned a little coquettish as her pair of pretty eyes suddenly turned shiny.
Yang Kai remained indifferent and unmoved. A strange power suddenly lingered around his fingertips as he asked with impatience in his voice, “Speak or die!”
While speaking, he slowly poked towards the young woman’s forehead.
Realizing Yang Kai to be iron-hearted, the young woman finally panicked and promptly answered, “Go to Jiang Family… perhaps you can find her there!”
“Jiang Family!?” Yang Kai’s fingers stopped just three centimetres away from the young woman’s forehead as the energy around the fingertips suddenly dissipated. He looked at the young woman and asked as if he was thinking something, “No wonder you were so afraid. So, it’s the Jiang Family! However… what does the Jiang Family want with her?”
“I don’t know!” The young woman shook her head. “One month ago, several men came and talked to her. Then, she left with those men. I was curious, so I secretly followed after them. I discovered them going into the Jiang Family, but I don’t know anything else. Even if you kill me, it will be useless!”
“She went with them on her own?” Yang Kai furrowed his brow.
“Yes!” The young woman nodded.
“Alright, madam, thank you for telling me everything. Goodbye.” Yang Kai cupped his fist and rushed out with a flash.
After Yang Kai left, the young woman finally slumped on the ground like a puddle of mud. Her clothes were completely drenched in sweat.
She wasn’t from any Sect or family and was only able to cultivate the First-Order Origin King Realm by her own efforts and various opportunities. She had never come in contact with a Dao Source Realm master, so after having been threatened at such close quarters by Yang Kai, she was frightened to death.
Fortunately, Yang Kai was reasonable. He really hadn’t done anything to her. If he had, she would be absolutely powerless to resist.
After a long time, the young woman finally regained her wits. She fiercely stood up and hurriedly rushed into the cave mansion and started packing up her things.
After a short while, the young woman left the cave mansion, made a beeline to the city gates, and very soon, left Maplewood City.
She didn’t dare to remain in Maplewood City anymore. If the Jiang Family men tracked her down, she would be in big trouble. [As far as I know, the Jiang Family men weren’t as reasonable as that Sir Yang.]